26 Jun, 2007

I know, I’ve been slipping on the regular free music updates lately. The short of it is, I quit my job the other day. I guess, re-reading all the shit I blog here, you probably could’ve seen it coming. 7/10 posts start with something along the lines of, “Here’s the music I’m listening to on another shitty Monday at the day-job. EPIC FAIL.” But I guess that’s why they call them day jobs — if it was something you liked, it’d just be what you do. We invent these little terms like day-job to make ourselves feel better, I guess.

So, after tomorrow, I am out! No other steady work lined up yet, just getting my credentials and samples together for another fun run of freelancing, but if that ain’t part of living in New York, I don’t know what is. So here’s a bunch of songs. I’m not sure what one thing has to do with the other. I’d like to say the theme of these songs is quitting. Lyrically, they’re not. Just, you know, they might be the kind of songs you can listen to and say, “Shit, with music this good out there, why am I spending most of my day punching numbers into Microsoft Excel?” So let’s do this:

[audio:http://www.dublab.com/mp3/dublab_mp3_23.mp3]
(download Madvillain’s “Shadows of Tomorrow [Flying Lotus remix])

Yeah, this track is sick. This is the track I set on my somewhat-broken iPod on the train this morning that made me think, “Man, I’ve gotta put this shit up on PopCultureShock”. Found it on dublab’s Future Roots MP3 Blog. Flying Lotus just has a way about music. His production definitely goes in the right way to handle the Quas voice. Gotta love them chunky beats.

[audio:http://www.dublab.com/mp3/dublab_mp3_28.mp3]
(download Nobody presents: BLANK BLUE – “Peoplelectro”)

Gonna keep it up with another tune from dublab’s Future Roots blog for another minute. Here’s some good stuff from Nobody, definitely an eclectic son of a bitch. I love that when I put on a Nobody track I’ve never heard before, I’m never really sure what the hell it’s going to sound like. Just that it’s probably gonna be dope. Peeeeeeeeeeople!

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/03_-_twilight.mp3]
(download the Mobius Band’s “Twilight”)

Okay, one slower song, sort of about quitting and how toughing it out through a shitty job doesn’t doesn’t make you more of a man. Or at least that’s how it’s sounding today. This Mobius Band record (The Loving Sounds of Static) actually came out on Ghostly International, who are more known for their downtempo, sometimes glitchy electronica tracks, more than rock-based tunes like this. But you know if I’m about one thing, it’s that diversity, so let’s bring on the Mobius Band.

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/Jungle_Brothers-On_The_Road_Again_(My_Jimmy_Weighs_A_Ton)_(Q-Tip_Remix).mp3]
(download the Jungle Brothers’s “My Jimmy Weighs a Ton [Q-Tip remix]“)

Ahh, the Jungle Brothers. Q-Tip remixing “My Jimmy Weighs a Ton”. Nice summertime tune. The day I quit, when I was walking home and starting to feel a little conflicted about quitting, worrying if I’d made the right decision or not, I put on this track and started to strut my way across the Pulaski Bridge back to Brooklyn from Queens (maybe not unlike the Peter Parker Strut the Spider-man 3, if that helps). Kind of made it all seem right again. “I always cry when you tell me that you’ll be goin’ back on the road agaaaain.”

Alright, more tunes coming, and I swear I’m almost ready to put the finishing touches on a new mix (think Infinite Ways, but cut, blended, peeled, pickled, puréed, and a bunch of other shit you never thought could happen outside of the kitchen). But for now, my ass has got to start hitting the classifieds.

- Dylan Garret