The Friday Five

I googled 'Friday 5' this morning and stole this photo from MuchMusic. These songs are awesome, just like that little kid breakin' it down.

I only got on the Of Montreal train after Hissing Fauna... leaked a couple years back and it was in my top 5 that year. They definitely own the operatic glam rock scene right now. Their new disc, Skeletal Lamping, is built upon pop sensibilities yet dense and engaging. Apparently these guys have a wild live show too.

Of Montreal - Plastis Wafers

Next up is Ed Banger Mr Oizo, who is dropping his Lambs Anger LP this fall. I don't think it's going to be the next Cross but it has potential to get a party started. I wasn't a fan of his summertime brain annihilator "Bruce Willis is Dead" track but the stuff floating around the past week or two is much more listenable.

Mr Oizo - Jo

This guy Koushik is out of Ontario. He sounds like Caribou, the 1960's and reverb thrown in a blender and chilled. Relaxing soulful stuff full of instruments, samples and singing.

Koushik - Bright and Shining

Radiohead sure does like a competition. While I don't really think that In Rainbows needed the remix treatment, some top notch tracks have come out of the Nude and Reckoner contests. This Reckoner take comes from a dude named Brendan Merrick who has aparently never done this sort of thing before. Yeah right, he kills it. All the emotion of the original is kept in tack but it gets jazzzed up with some snapping noise and funky bass.

Radiohead - Wreckin'Er (Brendan Merrick remix)

Finally, yeah I know, Kanye West. It's pretty common knowledge that one of the most polarizing players in the rap/r&b/whatever game has a new album, 808's and Heartbreak, coming out later in November. Yeezy has slowly been dropping bits of it on something called the internet and now there is a new radio rip of another track, "Coldest Winter". I've never been excited about an r&b album, but I think this one will kill it. Sorry for the quality but imagine what those banging drums will sound like at 320kbps.

Kanye West - Coldest Winter

Mixed Tapes: Best of 07

You can download the individual tracks or download the zip file provided below.

The Snob Machine Presents: The Best of '07
Hello! - Junior Senior
Hip Hop A Lula - Junior Senior
The Year Before the Year 2000 - Les Savy Fav
Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem
Labyrinthian Pomp - Of Montreal
Ddiamondd - Battles
$20 - M.I.A
Driving Me Wild - Common feat. Lily Allen
D.A.N.C.E (Mstrkrft Remix) - Justice
Kiss Kiss - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
McFearless - Kings of Leon
Mistaken For Strangers - The National
Don't Make Me A Target - Spoon
Wet and Rusting - Menomena
All I Need - Radiohead
Northern Whale - The Good, the Bad, and the Queen
We've Got Everything - Modest Mouse
Hunting for Witches - Bloc Party
Box - Tokyo Police Club
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa - Vampire Weekend
My Body is a Cage - The Arcade Fire

DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE COMPILATION HERE.

Cheers,
MF Blaz

Middle MGMT

The story of Brooklyn, NY's MGMT (pronounced "management") is that of two friends who consciously opted to cash in instead of packing it in. In 2002, while studying music at a nowhere university in nowhere, Connecticut, Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser formed a "band" - an electronic rock two-piece whose first gig consisted of a never-ending rendition of the theme to Ghostbusters in a dorm room.

In the half-decade that has passed, the duo have come from playing music for their own amusement, to almost playing none at all, to forming a full band and touring with the likes of Of Montreal and the Fiery Furnaces, to shamelessly signing to Columbia records. Their debut album, Oracular Spectacular, was released this winter in the US and hits Canada January 22nd of the new year.

Produced by Flaming Lips' go-to guy Dave Fridmann, Oracular blends elements of electro, prog rock, experimental/indie and disco. Each of the 10 tracks have an entirely unique flavour, and one can assume that their list of influences might read like a detailed history of a Syd Barrett-inspired generation.

The obvious stand-out track is the first one. Time to Pretend kicks off the album with a flashy combination of crunchy bass, an impossible-to-ignore keyboard hook, and lyrics which display their tongue-in-cheek viewpoint on life as a rock star. Time to Pretend has single-handedly landed the band on the "top artist to watch in 2008" radar for Rolling Stone and others, and recently found itself in Pitchfork's top 100 songs of 2007, released late last week.

Other highlights include Weekend Wars, whose vocals rip a page from Ziggy Stardust, the undeniable disco-funk of Electric Feel, and the synth-rock gem Kids.

MGMT kicks off their North-American tour with a.m.p.m's latest discovery, Yeasayer, January 16th and includes a stop at the El Mocambo in Toronto on February 9th.

MGMT - Time to Pretend
MGMT - Electric Feel
MGMT - Kids

- bbbykmbrly.