Mas Que Nada! Butchered by the Black Eyed Peas!

BRASIL --

Apparently, the Black Eyed Peas covered one of my favorite Brasilian songs. I found this out moments ago when searching for the original 'Mas Que Nada' to post to the blog. I have to give them credit, they had to dig deep to find this one to steal and they tried to keep it original. Looks like they got classic artist Brazilian Sergio Mendes to participate as well. They even kept a good bit of the original portugese lyrics intact.

I'll let you be the judge:

Sergio Mendes/Brasil '66


Jorge Ben Jor


Sergio Mendes feat. Black Eyed Peas

Explosions in the Sky

Edit: apparently this blog can't handle how epic this is and cuts the right half of the video.

So I've had many discussions with various people who all agree: listening to Explosions in the Sky while doing anything makes what you're doing infinitely better. So now I bring you this:

If this were the real trailer I would want to see this movie (I still haven't).

Furthermore, I don't think an entry has been done on these guys yet. Great post-rock group out of Austin, TX. May have heard their music in Friday Night Lights (both the movie and the tv show). I highly recommend them.

Miles Davis

TOKiMONSTA + other electronica

Sweet DJ from LA, who's been remixing like crazy. You're gonna want to watch what she does in the next coupla months.
Enjoy The World is Ours:


Also, I stumbled upon this sweet electronica mix, so if youve got an hour fifteen and feel like click-and-beeping out, give this a listen:

Mix For Look At Me by Jus Like Music on Mixcloud

Thanks to Gavin for the heads-up on Toki.

Gregory Alan Isakov

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa and raised in Philadelphia, Gregory Alan Isakov moved to Boulder, Colorado about ten years ago where he began concentrating on his music career. His excellent voice and unique style have captivated an ever growing fan base. His musical influences are Leonard Cohen, Iron & Wine, and Kelly Joe Phelps; hints of these artists can certainly be found in his music. Isakov has dropped four albums in the last seven years. I am familiar with two of them "That Sea, The Gambler" (2007) and "This Empty Northern Hemisphere" (2009), both of which are nothing short of stellar.

Isakov is no stranger to the road, touring both solo and with his band "the freight". He has shared the stage with a number of pretty well known artists: Ani DiFranco, Alexi Murdock, and Rodrigo y Gabriella to name a few and has played a number of different festivals including SXSW and Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Isakov is touring right now and will be in Madison on April 13th at the High Noon Saloon, which I guarantee will be an awesome show.

Love this video...


If you'd like to hear more of his work you can go here and stream everything he has released.

Enjoy, Ben

Cypress Hill is BACK!

This is by far my favorite Cypress Hill / Pitbull, half English / half Spanish track with an oldie background ever! I can't figure out who does that background oldie track .... extra TSAD points to whoever figures it out. Is it CSNY?



Apparently, the Cypress Hill album drops April 6.

Jonsi (of Sigur Ros) Covering MGMT

I don't post much, which means you guys should pay extra close attention when I do post:

Below is Jonsi (lead singer of Sigur Ros) covering MGMT's "Time to Pretend." I am blown away by it and might like it better than the original.

On a side note - if you're feeling deprived of some icelandic post-rock awesomeness go listen to Jonsi's solo record "Go" when it comes out April 5th (review to come shortly thereafter). Below the MGMT cover is an unofficial video for his song "Boy Lilikoi."

You can also listen to MGMT's new album here

Rad Omen - party vid

Rad Omen - Rad Anthem

Awesome video, check out the fast food superstars party down the town.
"We know how to get down in this city"

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MUSE - United Center 3/12/2010

Go big or go home

It's been a really long time since my last arena show. I saw Neil Young play half of the Allstate arena, but that place is a dump so it doesn't count. No, the last indoor arena show I saw was Disturbed way back in high school. Awesome show. That kind of music fills the stadium. Muse's sound is even more epic. I can't think of a better way to kick off a St. Patty's day weekend that saw me on a bus drinking green beer next to a green river the following afternoon.

We didn't have great seats, but we could see everything that was going on, and that was more than enough. Mathew Bellamy, the lead singer/guitarist/pianist, has an unfair amount of talent. I'm not a trained musician, and I was probably 500 feet away in the cavernous United Center, but I still KNEW that he hit every single note and played every riff perfectly. Attempting to sing along with him is an exercise in futility.

The setlist was money. These guys know what their audience wants. For those that care, here it is:

Uprising, The Resistance, New Born, Map of the Problematique, Supermassive Black Hole, Guiding Light, Hysteria, United States of Eurasia, Ruled by Secrecy, Drum n Bass jam, Undisclosed Desires, Starlight, Unnatural Selection, Time is Running Out, Plug in Baby, E: Exogensis Symphony Pt I: Overture, Stockholm Syndrome, Knights of Cydonia

When they opened up with the first two tracks off of their new album I got a little worried that they were gonna play the whole album straight through, which would have been disappointed if only because that would force the band to ignore so many other good songs. My fears were assuaged when they proceeded to blast through New Born and dominate the rest of the set.

I love Muse. One of my favorite bands. And while I was watching this show, I got to thinking about how drastically different they are from, say, a jam band. I love a good, long jam that shows off a band's instrumental prowess. But Muse is the furthest thing from that. Every note is played for maximum effect; there is no wasted motion. That style of play, when handled by people with as much talent as this band, can be just as rewarding as a blistering, 500 note solo from a guitarist in a jam band (maybe more so).

This was a 5 star show, and a top notch weekend! Here are some high quality live videos from their DVD "H.A.A.R.P. Live at Wembley Stadium" to give you an idea of what it was like:





The Closer


The band's youtube channel is pretty bangin too:
http://www.youtube.com/user/muse

Stew

Shinobi Ninja - LIVE

So I was in Austin this past week for the nerdy part of SXSW. However, the famous music fest overlapped with the interactive portion and gave me a chance to (finally) catch Shinobi Ninja live. These guys are like a rock rap circus, and by the end of the show there were at least 12 people on stage with them. Great show, great sound. Check out a few videos, their YouTube channel
here, and check out the App store for their iPhone app (i believe they could be the first band we've written about who's got their own one of these) - not to mention it's really fuckin cool.

Catch these guys when you get the chance.





Major props to Mike.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

A couple tunes to get you in the mood....







Now quit reading the blog and get to the bar!
- Ben

Gipsy Kings

Montpellier, France --

Gipsy Kings are technically French (why do you think they have this outraaaaaageous accent?!?), but their style is Catalan. Catalans are the proud people from Northwest Spain who think they are too good for the rest of Spain, similar to those arrogant misplaced French fools up in French Canada. They are credited with bring 'Rumba Catalana' to a global audience. And bringing me to reenact bull fighting scenes and chug sangria every few weeks.

St. Patricks Week

Allow me to kick off a week of drinking celebrations. Being a McLean, 6th generation from Scotland, and having taveled to my homeland makes me appreciate this holiday for what it truely is: a drinking day, similar to halloween only everybody is wearing green.

The celebration began yesterday in 5 points Columbia SC, where around 30,000 packed the streets for green beer, live music on 5 stages, and plenty of greasy food from street vendors. Sure I will have an obligatory pint of Guiness on Wednesday for the actual date, but I'm looking forward to finishing the week with a trip down to Savannah GA for their festival as well.

Here are some excellent Celtic / Irish jams filled with bagpipes, drums, flutes, and fiddles, to get you pumped up for some green beer.

Lunasa

An Irish group that drives hard, sure to get yer feet stompin!
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Seven Nations

Celtic Rock - these guys are fantastic, saw em live @ Bele Chere in Asheville a few years back. Their 2000 album Pictou Sessions is definately worth a listen



Scottish Cadence - Highland drums and bagpipes


Leprechaun Sighting




CHEERS !!

A Classic

Pearl Jam is my favorite band.  It's a pretty simple thing for me really.  No band has brought the same energy and intensity into their records, concerts, and fan base involvement than them, ever, in my opinion.  Or at least in my lifetime.  Today I found a super old video of PJ performing "Alive" on SNL.  This song is one of the greatest to be performed by any band, with one of the greatest guitar solos by any player, with the one of the most intense and amazing lead singers in rock and roll.  Plus seeing Eddie with a Sox hat on, and Stone Gossard with a ponytail is funny.

If at 3:15 in this video you don't get what I'm talking about, then we need to have a heart to heart.

Pearl Jam - Alive @ SNL
by Olpio

The Evpatoria Report

Post rock with a violin
This is The Evpatoria Report - a post-rock band from Switzerland named after a city in Ukraine known for its space program, and a great find on Last.fm. I realize you've got to be in the right mood for post-rock, especially post-rock with 14-minute songs, but these guys are worth your time.

Check out a few YouTube videos, and then spend the day with them on Lala. Good shit.





Here are their two albums to date:

Golevka - The Evpatoria Report

Maar - The Evpatoria Report

Happy Birthday TSAD.

Out of a Forest

On the eve of the one year anniversary of Top Shelf Audio Daily I find myself really going back and forth on how to close out year one. I've decided to keep it simple and share a music video I saw last week and was blown away by. The song for the video is a cool one called "Slow Show" by a very solid group called The National.

Out Of A Forest from Tobias Gundorff Boesen on Vimeo.

Directed by Tobias Gundorff Boesen, the film is a non-commercial short film, intended for film festivals. It is not the official music video for the song, but it certainly could be. The film was shot in the forests of Denmark and inspired by both Victorian Literature and the song itself. It is a stop-motion film. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term "stop-motion" think about Gumby.

Stop-motion, which is also known as frame-by-frame or stop-action, is an animation technique that makes a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is re-positioned in tiny increments between individually photographed frames. The illusion of movement is created when the series of these frames is played in sequence. Clay figures are most commonly used in stop-motion because they are easy to reposition and manipulate. The director noted that this particular video was "painful to finish, as shooting stop motion in the forest at night for longer periods turned out to offer a lot of problems". Well I for one am glad that he and his animation crew saw it through to the end.

If you liked the vid and want some additional insight into the creative process behind it, make sure to watch this too

Hope you all enjoyed Year One.
Ben

TSAD Year One Mixtape Drops Tomorrow

Featuring Animal Collective, Miike Snow, Passion Pit, Bill Monroe, Ferry Corsten, Maritime, and much more. Get Excited!

MGMT [Finally]!

Took long enough...  The MGMT gang is back with a ridiculous (or redonkulous, if you will) song.  It's got flavors of The Beatles, a sort of 50's-era harmony-wop sound at about the middle of the song, the White Stripes, and of course it sounds like MGMT - which is to say it sounds like a bunch of dudes on copious amounts of peyote and gin jamming out in a studio.  The end of the song is especially serendipitous, kinda makes me want to go drink a Jolt Cola.

Today we're also celebrating "Large Vocabulary Words Day" in America.

Enjoy!

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

Gorillaz have created a dope new record named Plastic Beach. I fucking love this album. I also love Gorillaz, tripped-out animation, and futuristic shit in general. I must say, I'm not usually down with the synthed-out pop feel that's on display in many of these tracks. Well, me boy, from now on it's all synth, all the time. What persuaded me to change my tune? Perhaps it's the good will that's been built up through previous awesomeness that motivated me to give it a chance. Perhaps it's the fact that I'm a hip-hop guy and the album kicks off with Snoop welcoming us "...To The World of the Plastic Beach". This welcome works perfectly to set the stage for both the style and substance of the rest of the album. Packed with funky grooves and some well-placed guest appearances. Smooth.

Be warned, even if these syles aren't your usual cup o' tea, they might just get under your skin, drive you crazy, and cause you bust out dance moves in public.

Leaders in the Clubhouse: Rhinestone Eyes, Stylo (Bruce Willis?!), Plastic Beach (included below because of an upload error in the lala playlist)

Do Yourself a Favor: Armin Van Buuren

I know that Monday is officially my day to post, but this is not Monday music.

Do yourself a favor: put this song on as you enter your first bar of the night tonight. Guaranteed results and satisfaction



Happy weekend all

Thelonious Monk

There really isn't much to say; the music speaks for itself. Thelonious Monk is the greatest jazz pianist of all time. His halting, idiosyncratic style will never be matched, nor will his ability to improvise while keeping the groove together. Here's a sampling of his classic songs; his work as an accompanying musician with other jazz legends is just as good.

Blue Monk


'Round About Midnight (Dave Chappelle's personal favorite)


Epistrophy


Good call Jake.

Ok Go...again

Quickly becoming the masters of viral music videos, Ok Go blows away every other rube goldberg contraption I've ever seen. Pretty incredible video for an Ok song...

Megafaun

Megafaun
Based in Durham, North Carolina Megafaun is brothers Brad and Phil Cook and Joe Westerlund. The trio of Wisconsin Boys has been playing music together since 1997 when they all attended the same jazz camp. The three of them, along with longtime friend Justin Vernon (who most of you know as Bon Iver) made the cross country trip to Durham as the band “DeYarmond Edison”, but disbanded the project in 2006. Megafaun was formed shortly afterwards and found themselves a new home; the road. They booked their first tour, a seven show series, before writing any songs and since then have played roughly 250 shows over the course of the last two years. Right now they are over in Europe but will be back in The States by April. I haven’t heard a lot of their stuff, but what I have heard is good. Their latest offering, “Gather, Form & Fly” has gotten excellent press. The couple songs I’ve linked below are a couple of my favorites I’ve heard. Be sure to go to their myspace page and listen to some of their studio stuff there.

Enjoy, Ben.

**If you like Neil Young I think you'll really like “Kaufman’s Ballad

IPOD Tragedy

Broken IPOD loses 10,000 songs

I have an unfortunate and devestating reply to the the previous post about the joys of IPOD music. This weekend I lost over 10K+ songs when my 60 gig IPOD was broken.

I can appreciate exactly what Steve was talking about, listening to old songs, and finding new stuff hidden in the masses of music onboard the ipod. On roadtrips, the random selection is always awesome to search until you find a show you want to listen to fully. I have been accumulating those 10k songs over the past 5 years from various friends computers, and have very few of the songs saved on my new laptop.

Over the weekend my parents came down to Charleston to visit. My Dad was helping me install some insulation in the attic of my house. While working, I figured we could use some tunes to keep us moving while doing such miserable itchy work. Well my mom was hanging around downstairs and decided she wanted to change the music, while not really knowing how to work the ipod. Then her phone rings while messin with it, she drops the IPOD and bam, 5 years of musical archives are gone. Tha hard drive was smashed, it sounds like there are bb's rolling around inside.

On the bright side, she has offered to replace the ipod, which is why I am posting this to TSAD. I am very grateful to have new music offered up daily as I start with a fresh palate, trying to refresh my music library.

Here are some examples of what I will miss the most

MIKI GONZALES - found in PERU 2007




JGB




Talking Heads