Sorry, slow on updates lately. You know, doing the 3 job hustle. New York City ya’ll, and all that. Barely had time to check my email lately, let alone upload new MP3s.

But!

I did end up at APT this past Tuesday for the Daedelus show with my boy Sami, my former roommate from Finland and Scandinavian DJ/musician extraordinaire (you can see his name on that sidebar to the right), back in town on a two-week crate digging excursion through the city. I’m sure I could say more important things about the show, or other interesting musical discussion that popped up throughout the night, but really… what’s important is when we walked into the club, the DJ was rocking Nice & Smooth’s “Sometimes I Rhyme Slow”.

And again, we turn to YouTube.

Sami also put together a new set of dope cosmic disco and house joints, which I’ve uploaded but haven’t listed yet, though I will once I can string together some coherent words on it, and get him to put together a track listing for me. By the end of the day, hopefully. ‘Til then, rhyme slow.

Despite the fact that I still technically work for a comic book store, and write for a comic-heavy website, I don’t think I’ve ever actually said anything about comics here before. That’s because I’m actually in Guy’s camp; most comics these days just don’t appeal to me in any way whatsoever anymore, and I’ve kind of given up on them. I’ve long ago resolved that I’m not the target demographic in the comics world anymore, and learned to be okay with that. Records and video games take enough time anyway. I still like some good Vertigo stuff when I see it, and I was picking up Runaways monthly until it “ended” without knowing it, and reminded my why I generally seem to not like stuff that isn’t creator-owned (c’mon, the book was great, told some nice stories, and should have ended with dignity with BKV, but like Good Times without John Amos, some people just can’t stop pushing the brand forward even when the heart behind it is gone).

Anyway, I’m quiet about this stuff because I have a nice kind of resignation towards comics these days. I’ll pick up a trade of something good if enough people who’s opinion I like tell me to check it out, but the days of hanging around the comic shop getting into arguments over “Who Would Win In A Fight? Batman or Captain America?” are long gone.

Now I just do it in the music shop. So who would win in a fight, Miles Davis or Thelonious Monk? I await your answer below.

Well, all I really wanted to say was, I finally got excited about an upcoming comic. So excited, I had to scan the ad on the back of the book today, and blog that shit nice.

Yes. God yes. Finally. Gonna be one of the few times you’ll find me in the comic shop again on a Wednesday. Not that I’m looking forward to that. I still have Vietnam-style flashbacks of my buddies lying face-down in a stack of Nightwing (the stairs from the stock room were kind of tricky, you know). Or the guys who have to go through - every - single - comic - on the rack and in the overstock to find the perfect copy of each book, like that crazy son of a bitch looking for the perfect dozen of eggs in Clerks. Or the people who won’t let you touch the books when you’re ringing them up, regardless of the fact that you know you had your greasy hands all over them when unpacking the boxes earlier. Yeah, that’s right. I rub them sensually on my lunch break, tenderly touching them in all the right places before putting them on the wall just for you, Ken Wong.

Actually, maybe I just found the source of, you know, some of my animosity towards comics these days. You know.

I should break this up with a song. Here, it’s an ode from Pase Rock and Spank Rock to Lindsay Lohan, called “Lindsay Lohan’s Revenge”. Woke me up nice today.

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/Pase_Rock_Spank_Rock_-_Lindsay_Lohans_Revenge.mp3]
(download Pase Rock’s “Lindsay Lohan’s Revenge feat. Spank Rock”)

Look like a baby rat? Damn… that’s cold.

It’s 6am and I have to be up for work in a few hours. I should be sleeping, but instead I’m up working on music for this film project thing someone hired me to score. Day job in 3 hours. This is really what it’s about, living in NYC with something like three goddamned jobs when you only really need two, and never sleeping. And just the other day I was unemployed. Funny how things turn out.

By the way, there’s no real purpose to this post. That’s the nice thing about having a music blog here on PCS. As long as I toss up a few tracks, anything can seem relevant. I’ll figure out which ones to put up with this post after a couple more paragraphs. Let it come naturally, you know.

Anyway, it’s an interesting exercise, I suppose, composing music for film. Definitely have to approach it differently than you might when making music that isn’t supposed to serve any purpose beyond making you think, “Shit, this beat I just made is dope. Maybe I should rap too.” I’m working with a lot of Brazilian samples now, but I think I’m about to head out to dig through my crates for something a little more, uh… orchestral, I guess. It’s coming together.

(Note: No, I don’t rap.)

Ten till six. Drinking Kirin Afternoon Milk Tea. It’s some good stuff. Really, I hate being caught home working on tunes without a decent sized bottle of Kirin Afternoon Milk Tea on hand. If I were to write a review of it, it would go something like, “Slightly creamy, smooth on the intake, and with a hint sweetness to caress your tongue, drinking Kirin Afternoon Milk Tea is like being wrapped in the embrace of an old lover with whom you’ve realized your life could never be complete without. Highly recommended. Shock Value: A+”

The song I’m working on needs more cabasa. Seriously. It’s the new cowbell. You heard it here first.

Anyway, here’s some Daedelus, off Daedelus Denies The Day’s Demise, because here I am getting no sleep on account of composing music for a film, and his tunes always have a cinematic quality to them. And I saw him play a show at Luna Lounge in Brooklyn with Flying Lotus the other week, and it was the shit (been meaning to write more about that). And hell, while I’m here, some El-P, because this instrumental was used during a really nice scene in Bomb The System, a movie about graffiti and New York and good music which I also highly recommend, maybe as much as I do the milk tea (although the movie isn’t really about music, just that El-P scored the damned thing so you know it’s pretty dope).

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/sawtooth_ekg.mp3]
(download Daedelus’s “Sawtooth EKG”)

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/8_the_nang_inst.mp3]
(download El-P’s “The Front, The Bush, and The Nang (Instrumental)”)

And hey, for some reference off the You Tubes, the trailer to Bomb The System, in case it seems like the kind of movie that interests you, and an older Daedelus track with Busdriver and Pigeon John rapping better than I can.

Alright. Now I really need some sleep.

A few minutes ago, I was on AIM catching up with my friend minusbaby about his adventures in Brazil, and suddenly, out of nowhere, a dream I had last night came back to me in a rush.

It’s not really interesting to tell. I was in Dream New York (this version of New York from every dream I ever have where I’m in New York City, that’s all warped and dreamlike, but has remained the same from dream to dream for years now — I could draw you a map, no joke), walking down 7th Ave after saving the world from dragons in Central Park or something. Even my dreams are some weird mix of video game geekery and cool DJ shit.

Anyway, so I was walking down something 7th Ave in Dream New York, humming “Cold Steel” to myself for some reason. Some guy was walking down the sidewalk in the opposite direction, humming the same song. We bumped into each other. I looked up him.

“Oh shit, you’re Phat Kat!” I said.

And he was like, “Yeah, that’s me.”

We gave each other a quick, knowing sort of nod, and continued on our separate ways.

And that’s… kind of the end of it. Look, I never said it made for a good story. I actually just wanted to post up “Cold Steel” because it’s been stuck in my head all morning now.

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/coldsteel.mp3]
(download “Cold Steel feat. Elzhi” by Phat Kat (produced by J Dilla))

Dreams, huh?

I usually try to have a theme or anecdote or something to say with these music posts. At least some relevant information about the music. I don’t know, I mean, I guess that’s what PCS pays me the big bucks for, right? Today though, I dunno… it’s just no big thing, you know? It’s a nice day, I’ve got a Thai iced coffee at my desk, my big headphones, and a random selection of funk, soul, and old school R&B tracks I threw onto a USB stick to keep me company while my iPod’s in the shop (the stupid thing broke not 60 days after I bought it, would you believe that shit?). There’s just nothing like enjoying some perfect summer weather and a Thai iced coffee with Gwen McCrae’s “Rocking Chair” in your ears, you know? That tune is really hitting the spot today.

So I’m not really going to bother with any more writing. Here’s some songs. Some were pretty big in their day. I think all of them have been sampled by hip-hop artists at some point or another. Some by the same artist. I’m sure you’ll be able to catch at least one or two of them (Lyn Collins is a pretty obvious one — I was going to put in some Edwin Birdsong for the Daft Punk samples, but I’ll save the more disco-y stuff for another post). And that’s it. Soooooooo… you better think. Think.

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/Think_About_It.mp3]
(download Lyn Collins’s “Think About It”)

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/Soul_Power_74.mp3]
(download Maceo Parker’s “Soul Power ‘74″)

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/Stoned_Out_Of_My_Mind.mp3]
(download The Chi-Lites’ “Stoned Out Of My Mind”)

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/Rocking_Chair.mp3]
(download Gwen McCrae’s “Rocking Chair”)

Yep. Keeping it simple.

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/gaslamp_killer_for_protons.mp3]
(download The Gaslamp Killer’s “Love The Lab” mix)

The Gaslamp Killer. The Gaslamp Killer. The Gaslamp Killer. Three times I’ve got to say his name. That’s how essential it is for you to check this guy out. Thankfully, I just got a fiiiine mix in, again courtesy of the much-propped Dublab crew, that should give you a decent primer on what kind of crazy shit this guy is doing. It’s hip-hop. No, it’s rock. No, it’s dubby. No, it’s turntablism. No, it’s the work of one eclectic goddamned crate digger. We’re talking a “Nine Inch Nails mixed with Birdman” kind of set, with a lot of dope scratches and other fine vibes to fill the space. Bonobo, Madlib, Nirvana… all over the place, but still coherent while surprising enough to keep you on your toes wondering what’s next, and to keep me from wanting to ruin it by talking too much.

Though I will say, the beat at around 24:40 is sick.

So let’s not mince words. You’re going to want to click that play button up top. You’re going to want to download that mix. And you might just find yourself on the subway singing, “Brrrrrrrrrr… what happened to that boy?” again for the first time since 2002.

Oh, but what’s this? There’s more?

Yes, like a goddamned late-night informercial! To compliment your eyes as well as your ears, here are some dope Gaslamp Killer live videos collected from the vast internets. ‘Til next time.

What, you thought he’d take a little time off? Play some golf? Go on a vacation? Make sweet love to the missus? Read my blog post about songs to listen to while unemployed? No, it looks like Peter “Epic Guns” Moore is hurting to get back on the job, and will be taking a new gig as president of EA Sports.

Here’s a cut of the official press release:

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - July 17, 2007 - Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that Peter Moore has joined EA as President of the EA SPORTS™ Label. Moore joins EA from Microsoft Corporation where he served as corporate vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division, leading both the Xbox® and Games for Windows businesses. Moore begins at EA in September and will report to EA CEO John Riccitiello.

It’s an insane 90-something degrees out. I’m even told by my buddy minusbaby that the repainting of the Graffiti Hall of Fame in East Harlem this week has slowed down on account of the sun putting too many bubbles in the paint. New York summer, for real. It’s starting to feel like a Spike Lee movie up here. The heat is also really cutting down on my ability to write semi-witty music blurbs. Thankfully, we have Alan Iverson to provide the humor for this post, with fine beats from DJ Jazzy Jeff’s new album, The Return of the Magnificent, so I can slack off a bit.

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/07-dj_jazzy_jeff=practice.mp3]
(download DJ Jazzy Jeff’s “Practice”)

And, thanks to YouTube, the priceless sample, from Allen Iverson himself, with the real-time Practice Counter:

I mean, I think he’s talkin’ about practice.

Here’s another track off the DJ Jazzy Jeff album I’ve really been digging, “The Definition”, mostly on account of the Isley Brothers sample it uses.

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/04-dj_jazzy_jeff=the_definition.mp3]
(download DJ Jazzy Jeff’s “The Definition”)

A couple months back I was working on a new beat myself, and was digging through records looking for a nice sample to put with it. I know grabbed that Isley Brothers record, 3 + 3, because I remember getting distracted and listening to “Listen to the Music” a couple times instead of working on the tune I was supposed to be working on. That happens a lot. I ended up grabbing a different sample for the song (Les McCann, I think) and, really, probably never even thought of using any part of “The Highways of My Life”. Then, a little while later, after listening to The Return of the Magnificent in earnest a bit, I hit up minusbaby, asking him what the hell the sample in “The Definition” was, cause it sounded so goddamned familiar. Turns out it was “The Highways of My Life”. I guess that’s why I’m no DJ Jazzy Jeff.

Yet.

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/The_Isley_Brothers_-_Highways_of_My_Life.mp3]
(download The Isley Brothers’s “The Highways of My Life”)

Speaking of samples, the album cover to Magnificent is also a not-so-subtle nod to one of my favorite MPB records, Deodato 2. And because it’d be pretty lame to dig the record out for a picture, but not pull at least one song off to go with it, here’s “Soul Strut”.

[audio:http://www.popcultureshock.com/dylan/Deodato_-_Soul_Strut.mp3]
(download Deodato’s “Soul Strut”)

Anyway, that’s today’s PopCultureShock musical connections. From our turntables to your MP3 players. Now get out there and practice.

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.

Just saw this on Flickr. Does it really need a comment?

DJ Sweatshop: i think i’m gonna have to blog that picture on PCS, haha
minusbaby: hahaha
minusbaby: It’s the high point of his career
minusbaby: It’s the first thing that he and I agree on!
minusbaby: TITS