Holy shit. I just finished putting together this Roundup and it’s a beast! Fantastic remixes of Miike Snow, La Roux, Lykke Li, Phoenix, MSTRKRFT, Daniel Merriweather, and oh so many more. I won’t waste much time here cause you people have work to do after the jump. Oh, and regular readers will notice a few new features. I hope they make your Roundup experience just that much more buttery smooth.
Art by Odili Donald Odita
How freaking crazy is it that 2009 is already halfway over? What a crazy year so far, in so many ways, the least of which is all of the fantastic, surprising, and sometimes disappointing music that has come our way. TBE will be 5 months old in a week and we have been chronicling most of the year’s jams. Here are my top 20.9. I guarantee you wont agree with all of them but doesn’t that just make our friendship that much more deep and meaningful? Just so we are clear how I arrived at this particular order, I’ve selected my favorites from my top listens each month and then ordered them purely by total play count. I know that’s confusing but whatever, the list is after the jump.
It’s raining in Brooklyn. And when it rains, it pooouuurs… remixes! Ahhhhh! A dozen of the hottest, freshest, gooeyest (sp?), finger-lickinest good remixes to hit my inbox in the past week.
I love Miike Snow. I love them for their weird spelling and for their antlered-rabbit. I love them for their beautiful, epic, danceable music and it’s fantastic lyrics. I love them for the way their music has snuck so deftly and solidly into my life. There was a time when nobody knew much about Miike Snow. Over time we learned that the band was made up of Swedish production duo Bloodshy & Avant with the addition of American vocalist Andrew Wyatt. Bloodshy & Avant are the Grammy winners behind such pop mega-hits as Britney Spears’ “Toxic” and Wyatt most recently co-wrote and produced Daniel Merriweather‘s debut album (along with Mark Ronson). These dudes are no newbies when it comes to the music scene and it’s a treat to see them (kinda) stepping out from behind the scenes. They still remain elusive and are prone to obscuring their faces in photos but that only makes me like them more. Miike Snow is about the music and that makes me about Miike Snow.
If you grabbed DJ be’s Slow Burn Summer mix yesterday then you know Miike Snow’s remix of Vampire Weekend as well as Treasure Fingers’ remix of “Animal.” Their debut album comes out on June 9th but you can be smart like me and buy it on iTunes now (comes with a fresh digital booklet with lyrics!). I could attempt to describe the awesomeness of it all to you but luckily for both of us Miike Snow are streaming the whole jam on MySpace so if you don’t believe me then go believe the music. “Animal” (and it’s myriad brilliant remixes) was the first track to catch my attention, followed by “Burial” and now “Cult Logic,” an anthem of sorts for me these days. Did I mention they are touring? Yeah, I’ll be at Spaceland in L.A. on June 16th if anyone wants to join the party.
Bury your face in MySpace /// Buy on iTunes /// RCRD•LBL freebies
Big moves are being made over at TBE HQ and one of them is this, The Slow Burn Summer mix, our first DJ mix by local favorite “DJ be” who was kind enough to blend up a fresh-to-death 60 minutes of straight fire. Put in on your iPod, cell phone, CDR, or whatever and then slip on your shimmy-shoes.
The mix is a single file because this thing is too fresh to be skipping tracks. I have, however, embedded a timecoded track-list in the lyrics section of the ID3 tag so you can at least know where you are at (or jump to your favorite part, if necessary). Let me know what you think of this method.
Track list after the jump…
I know I said that these Remix Roundups wouldn’t be as big as last time. Oops.
Get your downloading finger ready…
Does our antlered furry friend here look familiar? Well that’s cause it’s the logo of Miike Snow, the Sweden/New York based trio of guys not named Mi(i)ke who remixed Vampire Weekend a few weeks back. I ran across “Animal” back then but was so focused on their remix magic that its infectious groove didn’t, well… infect. Fast forward to this past weekend where events out of my control thrust this song back to the forefront of my consciousness. “Damn,” I thought upon hearing it, “This is one of my favorite songs! Why can’t I remember who it is?” “Well dummy, that’s because it’s not one of your favorite songs! You totally ignored it and are only now grasping its awesomeness!” my subconscious yelled at me the next day when I finally tracked down its source. Now that my minds are on the same page they agree that you shouldn’t make the same mistake I did. They are also telling me to tell you that there are two great remixes available at Miike Snow’s RCRD•LBL page: a mind blower by Treasure Fingers and one by the Italo-awesome Crookers.
Bury your face in MySpace
The Fray – Heartless (Kanye cover)
I guess you could say I enjoy The Fray just as much as the next guy. Never fell in love with ’em but Ted and I definitely belted out a few drunken renditions of “Over My Head (Cable Car)” back in day. Well the good times continue with their cover of Kanye’s “Heartless.” At first it seems like an odd choice but listen to how Isaac Slade’s voice beautifully emotes Kanye’s heartbreak while still maintaining the swagger and the groove. And all that without that damned vocoder. I had no idea how much I hated that vocoder until I heard this song sung without it. Well done dude.
Vampire Weekend – The Kids Dont Stand A Chance (Miike Snow remix)
Miike Snow is 3 dudes who:
1) Are not named Miike or Snow. I dont think.
2) Appear to be from Stockholm and/or NYC.
3) Have been remixed by TBE super-crush Crookers.
4) Have an antlered-rabbit logo that I don’t think they realize looks more like a vibrator-head-rabbit.
5) Remixed Vampire Weekend’s album closer into a quite pleasing blend of beats and bleeps and bloops. (The bloops are my fave.)