My Michelle

Michelle Williams (not the chick from Dawson's Creek) is the one from Destiny's Child who's always boring us with some gospel ballads on her solo records. So i'm surprised to notice that her new single's not that bad. Actually her best so far (well... actually the first one i ever even paid any attention to).

I guess Michelle noticed that even her ex-bandmate Kelly Rowland was making good money in Europe with her "european-style" Freemasons remix, so she hopped on board. This is the result (well, the original's really not as housey as this remix by the italo-american duo Lost Daze).

Michelle Williams: We Break The Dawn (Lost Daze Remix Radio Edit) (zshare) (mp3 320 kbps)

Jockin Jay-Z

Whoa, i didn't see this one coming. New Jay-Z only less than a year after American Gangster. This is the new single "Jockin' Jay-Z" from the upcoming Blueprint 3 (seriously, how many of these will Jigga make until he realizes the first Blueprint is unfuckwithable?). Anyway this joint is pretty hot, on some serious "99 Promblems" vibe, and produced by who else than Kanyeezy!

Jay-Z: Jockin Jay-Z (zshare) (mp3 320 kbs)

My Love Is "Your Love"

The guys from Outfield must be happy as hell. They are a pretty unknown one hit AOR/pseudo-new-wave wonders from London, who hit gold with their second single Your Love in 1985. And then pretty much everybody forgot about them.

But come the 2000's, the song was resurrected: by GTA Vice City's soundtrack, various cover versions (the best of them being B.O.B.'s "Use Your Love" but also even Katy Perry made a version) and of course dozens of Bmore remixes. You've heard them. And the saga just continues: The Inc's secret weapon, top notch r&b crooner Lloyd (remember: Get It Shawty, You, the hella good last single Girls Around The World) interpolates "Your Love" in "Lose Your Love", a track on his new album "Lessons In Love". And that's good, even if Lloyd doesn't capture the original's infectious high school party vibe. Instead he gives the chorus a good old bedroom r&b treatment... see for yourself.

Lloyd: Lose Your Love (zshare) (mp3, 320kbs)

oh and BTW, The Outfield is still together!

Shit is robotic

Simian Mobile Disco's massive dance hit "It's The Beat" still pops up and starts playing in my head ever so often. What a great tune.

Check out this nice remix by DFA's Shit Robot (who BTW played at the UMF festival in Turku in july - for about 10 enthusiastic listeners...). It's eight minutes long and it even has the signature DFA congas! From SMD's new remix album "Sample & Hold", this is disco dance madness.

Simian Mobile Disco: It's The Beat (Shit Robot Remix) (zshare) (mp3 320kbs)

Bears, beards and flannel shirts

I know that flannel shirts have made a comeback, which is ok I guess. They remind me of Snoop Dogg, Kurt Cobain and all the good things from early 90's. But is the whole lumberjack style coming back ever? I hope not, although it looks kinda cool on these two big bears. Kinda Brokeback Mountainish, but... What's up with these suspenders? - They make these dudes a bit skinheadish as well... And that's a scary combination.

Where We From?

Shiiieeeet! The Digable Planets were probably one of the most underrated hip hop acts of their time. So far ahead in the future. Kool like dat. 

Big Foot Digs MTB Girlies...

I dunno if you're aware of this but all of us Kriton boys are quite avid cyclists. Even if I personally tend to keep riding my fixie bike only in city, this image really struck a chord for me somehow.... scary! But what's up with the those shoes?

And notice also the resemblance between the Big Foot and legendary Leland Sklar. 

Touch it baby!

This seems kinda cool: The Intua Beat Maker.

I've been waiting to see some really cool apps for the iPhone / iPod touch and this looks like a pretty flashy thingy. If someone tries it, please let me know if it's any good.

Besides this I haven't really seen any really far out apps using the touch screen in innovative ways. I guess there might be soon coming out some porn apps that could have some features of that sort..

But back to music making: I've been trying the BeatEd with my Nokia phone and it pretty much fun as well. I've made some 808 beats with it that really help you getting through long flights. I guess I've joined the mile high club of beat making? However I haven't figured out how to get the beats out of the phone as files that I could convert into mp3's or AIFF's. I guess the analogue output on the phone is kinda crappy, so I might get some white noise as bonus.

Air Guitar Heroes Wanted

Now it's time to show your moves and win an autographed Mick Jones Les Paul Custom Gibson guitar. Just send a clip of yourself rocking out and playing air guitar to Foreigner here.

Rock out with your c**k out!

Not over 'til the bearded dude plays the bassline

Here's that Billy Cobham joint that Leland Sklar kills with his bassline. Also known as "Safe From Harm" by Massive Attack (see Jussi's recent post about the bearded genius)

Note that the track is long as Sklar's beard itself (actually 9:49), so the part that you really wanna hear starts at 3 minutes. And the Massive Attack sampled bit comes somewhere between that and eternity.

Billy Cobham: Stratus (mp3, zshare)

Do Beards Poop In The Woods?

Respect To Leland "Father Time" Sklar

The post about Toto breaking up (thank god!) caused some debate concerning the Santa Claus -looking person in the line-up picture, someone going as far as even calling him a "Farao". 

Anyhow, our always very knowledgeable Fiil Inc. educated about the dude, Leland Sklar, and as I checked out his Wiki-page, I realized that not only had he played bass with almost everyone including even Laura Branigan, and besides looking like the coolest uncle you never had, hey! he actually played bass on Billy Cobham's legendary Spectrum -album, meaning that consequently he played THAT BASSLINE on the track Stratus. I was like, whoah, dude!

Yes, the breakbeat/bassline Massive Attack sampled on the Blue Lines -album track 'Safe From Harm', before everyone else did too. Probably the best bass/drum groove ever recorded. 

Japanther Rules!

Every once in a while you just need to find a new exciting band, you know? 

And just today I did and they're called Japanther. Obviously they're by no means a new band but whatever. When I came across the video above that was it, it starts a bit slow but the when the band and the audience get going, you just want to be there. 'least I do. Seeing a band live needs to be just like that. 

'We're Japanther from New York, I hope yo'all like it!'

Damn! 

Japanese Hard Gay / レイザーラモン

Japanese people are strange, yet often very funny people. 

Consequently Japanese TV is even funnier. Check out the video above if you didn't already, it the "best of" of Razor Ramon Hard Gay (レイザーラモン). He's apparently pretty damn popular over there. 

Will it blend: Nike Air Max

You might have seen these "Will It Blend" -videos, where a guy uses a Blendtec-blender to break various stuff from Iphones to golf balls and glow sticks. Yeah, I know, it was originally a marketing stunt made by the company and they've actually got their sales up by these viral videos.

However this one must be done with the Nike marketing guys, but who cares. it's always cool to see things get broken, and I've never even thought of shredding a sneaker...

Tallinn Junkie Goes Wild! Raving w/ Ass-slapping Routine!

The capital city of our southern neighbor Estonia, Tallinn, is a very very beautiful town but it also still has some pretty rough Soviet-era pre-fabricated housing estates with some serious social problems. Lasnamäe and Mustamäe being two of these. 

Well, check out the videos above and see a Lasnamäe local getting it on. I'd say after enjoyinga pretty health dose some amphetamines. In fact it's a well known fact how back in the Soviet times many east European countries, especially Poland, produced lots of really strong amphetamines and other similar chemicals, sometimes know as 'Polish Soup'. 

And below here's the freestyle version of the same guy, this time with some music, ie. even better. The dude knows how to 'move his body'. 

Toto breaks up

And we're all sad. I haven't seen them live these past years, so I can't say if they still rocked, but their legacy still rocks.

Read more

Toto's website
Steve Lukather.net

Or just feel this

Africa vid

New York City Cops They Ain't Too Smart

This vid has been going around a lot, but I guess we outta show it too. It's a short clip that shows what happened on Times Square in NYC a on 25th of July during a Critical Mass. Jeez 'em cops weird.

Montauk Monster

It's been a hot summer (at least in some parts) and here's something that fits right in with the heat: the Montauk Monster.

As it seems, a guy has taken a pic of a true sea monster, whooah. Is it fake or not, who knows, but it's really x-files stuff, Mulderesque & Scullylike.

NY Magazine gets deeper into the story here, including a quote from an eyewitness, 22-year old Michael Meehan:

"I saw the monster. I just came walking down the beach and everyone was looking at it. No one knew what it was. It kind of looked like a dog, but it had this crazy-looking beak. I mean, I would freak out if something like that popped up next to me in the water."

Read the story from here or here The pic is actually pretty freaky...