I felt like it was time to swing back over to the hip-hop side of things. If you are an Adele fan then you are probably just coming down off of the “21″ release. I have a lot of respect for the girl. I really liked her first album, and thought she was amazing on SNL. A couple of weeks ago, Gilbere Forte’s manager flowed me this track that GF did together with Adele.  I had the opportunity to shoot with Gilbere in the winter for and Edwin editorial. He is a super chill guy and I have a lot of respect for what he is doing. So, needless to say, I was pretty excited to see Adele and Gilbere collaborating on this track. It’s called “Set Fire to the Rain.” Give it a listen.

[photo:  artwork from the cover of the featured track]

“Reloaded” because this is the second time that The Pixies are gracing the pages of LMC. The previous occurrence can be seen here. For some reason, I have had the “Surfer Rosa” album on heavy rotation for about the past month. There are a couple of tracks on there that I will mostly likely never grow tired of. I am sharing one of such tracks today. The title is “Gigantic” I love Kim Deal’s voice on this one. She doesn’t do anything fancy with her vocals. But the way that she makes the song come together is infectious, to me. Anyway, here it is:  listen up.

Noooooo, not those walkmen (although, they are awesome). Today we are talking about these Walkmen–

The Walkmen, to me sound a lot like surf rock meets Bob Dylan. But they are from Philly, so I don’t really know how it’s possible. I guess it is the old tube amps with lots of reverb, and extended tom rolls. The Dylan aspect only comes into play with the lead vocalist. He tends to have a lot of Dylan-esque inflections when he sings (not so much in the track I’m sharing, btw). The combo works for me. I don’t love all of their songs. But I really like enough of them to keep me interested. I particularly like this track called “Woe is Me.” This track is super appropriate for waxing up surfboards and/or scoping bettys. Give it a listen.

Completely unrelated. Since I slacked on choosing/announcing the winner of giveaway #2 on Sunday. Here is the announcement. Susan, you win. Hit me up with you email, and I’ll forward the shirt. Congrats!

[Photo 1: Collage from G-images]

[Photo 2: also from G-images, but not a collage]

I’m having a tough time staying on top of things this week. Here we are a day late with LMC (and several other things). Better late than never? It’s debatable, but here goes anyway. Sam introduced me to this hip hop duo, while he was in town. We ended up listening to a lot of Chiddy Bang radio on Pandora, while we were hanging out. It is pretty good stuff. You might recognize the music behind this track as one of the most overplayed MGMT songs in existence. I have to say that I like this rendition better. Check out “The opposite of adults (KIDS).”

[photo:  garnered from G-images]

As everyone surely knows by know, Radiohead recently released a new album after taking a break for a few years. I giddily downloaded the album from the RH site as soon as it was available. I really like the whole thing. I have featured Radiohead on LMC before. But, whatever. Why not do it again? This is the second track from “King of Limbs,” called “Morning Mr Magpie.” Press play.

Despite what I like to tell myself, not everything French is total crap. Some French stuff is actually quite good. Phoenix, for example, is pretty decent. I have to admit that I’m not super familiar with their work outside of their most recent studio album release “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.” The album is pretty good. But what is even better, in my opinion, are the stacks of remixed tracks from that album.  I have previously used one of such tunes for one of Reagan’s little hair tutorials. The track that I’m sharing here is the 25 Hrs a Day remix of “Fences.” Give it a spin.

[Photo: lifted from G-Images. I would also like to point out that I have the same scarf that the dude with the glasses is wearing (B. Republic Circa 2003)]

Ok. This is LMC number one hundred. That is kind of a big deal (to me and no one else). I had a Phoenix song all planned out to post this week. Then… when I saw what number of LMC this was going to be, I had to call an audible. Just to give you an idea of how much work I put into this post, let me break it down– 25 mins spent tracking down original compact disc purchased when I was 17 years old (yes I was one of those dorks who bought tons of CDs and still hangs onto them for some reason); 5 mins Emailing former front man of the group for a photo to include with the post; 10 mins Ripping said CD to iTunes, which maddeningly made it into an m4a file; 10 mins converting said CD to mp3; 5 mins scanning the album cover (above), then editing image file; 5 mins uploading image and mp3 file; 5 mins whining via blog post about all of the aforementioned items.

So, as you may recall, mi hermano Pete guest posted about Stretch Arm Strong a couple of weeks ago. SAS is not to be confused with Stretch Armstrong, later changed to Stretsch Armstrong (because of some retarded litigation). I grew up going to SA shows, basically every other weekend during my high school career. Those shows were basically the most fun that I had growing up. The whole crowd would dance. Everyone knew all of the lyrics. It was all an amazing phenomenon. So, what I’m getting at, is that Stret(s)ch Armstrong put out some extraordinary freaking Ska music. In my opinion, it was on par with the Specials or English Beat. It was very hard to narrow down a “favorite” SA track for this post, but I ultimately decided on “Scratch the Ear”. Check it.

It has been a while since I have posted a throwback. Joy Division tapes were one of my staples, in my long haired skateboard riding days. Before I ever really heard much of their music, I was completely captivated by the whole Joy Division-New Order Kineckt. Stories about suicidal rock stars are easy for teenagers to become obsessed with. Ian Curtis is sort of like the Kurt Cobain of 1980. Anyway, I really like the music, quite a bit. It is like New Order, but with bite. Here is Digital.

[Photo: I don't know the source. But I would like to point out that Peter Hook (the guy on the right) is drinking a can of "Skol." Skol is Brazilian beer that can only be had in Brazil. Kinda cool.]

Maybe one day I should make a mix tape of power tunes. You know the ones? The ones that kind of help you get through those times when you wish you could write a song, but then you found somebody who expressed what was on your mind a little better than you thought anyone else could? Stretch Arm Strong kind of did that for me. These guys kind of carried me through some tough spots in high school. You may have already heard their version of “Get This Party Started” from Punk Goes Pop or perhaps “Express Yourself” from Too Legit for the Pit: Hardcore Takes the Rap. “For the Record” is one of their originals that may have made it around the airwaves as well. Anyway, I am not super into hardcore as a genre, however there are a few artists who have managed to pluck my little heartstrings with the way they scream poetry. This group is one of them, and they did it with this song.

Stretch Arm Strong: For Now.

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Not to beat a dead horse, but I have said it before about the Swedish and their rock/indie pop. I have been digging Miike Snow since the first time that I heard “Animal,” last spring. BTW, of all of the countless remixes of Animal, my favorite is still the one on the tarp surfing video (a mix that I still have not been able to figure out the name of). The track that I’m sharing today is called “Cult Logic.”  Enjoy.

[I'm not sure who shot the photo, but I love the styling.]