Last Night A DJ Saved My Life

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

POP...LIFE!: Tauwan's Top 25 albums of 2006

6. The Rapture-Pieces of the People We Love

House of Jealous Lovers was [and still is] the shit. But let's not kid ourselves, it came bundled in package of tunes that screamed New York hipster dance scene cool. Not really accesible to the masses. That was three years ago. This is now. Flash forward to 2006 and you get this: ten tracks of pure funky disco lite dance punk outputs, ready, willing, and able to entertain the masses. More focused, concise, and funky than its predecessor, Pieces of the People We Love skates by on undeniable grooves and dancefloor ambitions that always succeed in making you sweat. Scream Whoo! Alright-Yeah... Uh-huh and get up on the good foot, cause you gotta get up to get down.
KEY TRACKS: Get Myself Into It/Whoo! Alright-Yeah...Uh-Huh!/The Sound

99 bottles of beer on the wall...

2006. The singles. Best of. Continued...A let's go!

Chris Brown-Yo(Excuse Me Miss)

Beck-Cellphone's Dead

REEEECAAAAP!:

Monday, December 25, 2006

I can't deny it...

New Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! makes me excited. Some Loud Thunder. January 30, 2007. Cop it.

Listen to new CYHSY! tracks here.

For Your Consideration

Pretty Ricky. Late Night Special. Bob ya head. Tilt ya head back. Join Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Black Parade.

And if you're feeling curious, here's Slick 'Em, Spectacular, Pleasure, and Baby Blue's video for the first single off their new album, On the Hotline.

Oh God.

Old school funk for the true funk soldiers!

One more, cause It's Christmas, and I'm feeling generous. Ooh, this my shit, this my shit...

Old school funk for the true funk soldiers!

I don't care what anyone says, this song is a bona fide classic. I will always love it. Shit, I remember going out and purchasing the cassingle for this jam. I wonder if I still have it somewhere...

Merry Christmas y'all.

POP...LIFE!: Tauwan's Top 25 albums of 2006

7. Beyonce-B'Day

Overexposure is a bitch, ain't it? And nine times out of ten we're constantly subjected to viewing the whims, antics, and feeble attempts at performing by some talentless hack. But every now and then there's an artist who's atop the charts, all over your newstands, and in constant rotation on both the radio and television, and it's completely deserved. 25 year old Beyonce Knowles is one such artist. And as long as she's churning out tightly wound, wonderfully sequenced albums such as this, she can be all up in my grill morning, noon, and night. We all know Beyonce can write a hit song, ride the beat, and sing her ass off, but never has she been this fearless. The risks hinted at in songs like Bootylicious and Lose My Breath with Destiny's Child is taken to the nines, as Beyonce rides the beats composed of claps, whistles, and catcalls [Get Me Bodied] or lets the raw emotion of her lyrics jump off the page in a way we've never heard from her before [Ring the Alarm]. There's so much going on and it's all expertly crafted, finely tuned, and full of passion. [Damn that girl can sang!]All of this is made even more impressive when you take into consideration that all of this was done in two weeks, with the final tracklist being whittled down from a choice of 25-50 songs to a neat and compact ten. Yeah, she's been in the game for forever and a day, but Beyonce Knowles is one to watch. Go on B, talk yo shit!
KEY TRACKS: Suga Mama/Kitty Kat/Irreplaceable

99 bottles of beer on the wall...

2006. The singles. Best of. Continued...A let's go!

Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins-Rise Up With Fists

Hot Chip-Over and Over

REEEECAAAAP!:

Irreplaceable

There will never be another you.

James Brown. 1933-2006.

Have a holly jolly Christmas!

Spotted over at

the Modern Age.

Question?!

What the hell happened to Arsenio Hall?

Los Angeles. Dreamgirls premiere. December 11th, 2006.

Woot! Woot! Woot?

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Ba da ba ba ba...

Spotted at

Rhymes with Snitch.

POP...LIFE!: Tauwan's Top 25 albums of 2006

8. Gwen Stefani-The Sweet Escape

Walk in the place/they know my face/encore, sophomore/only one solo/ I swore/big mouth/applause/oh please/one more/wanna hear it before I say naw/let me check my itenerary/ummmmm.../alright/presto/skintight...

And so begins track 7. Yummy. A milkshakin minimalist bounce courtesy of the Neptunes. Get the point? Good. Let's dance! Nobody rocks it like Gwen. Sure a few bite and/or share the style, but when it comes to sheer experimentalism and the courage to take risks, few in the pop arena have her beat. With the Sweet Escape, Stefani along with the Neptunes, Akon, and fellow No Doubt member Tony Kanal, stretch, enlarge, and italicize pop music, presenting it in the vibrant sheen of technicolor. Gwen raps, coos, meditates, and yodels as the beats slide, snack, crackle and pop all around here. Look, it's easy to write her off as silly and out of control, but remember, that's the point: mindless rumpshaking ditties that would make the 1980's [and fun loving criminals everywhere] proud.
KEY TRACKS: Now That You Got It/Fluorescent/U Started It

99 bottles of beer on the wall...

2006. The singles. Best of. Continued...A let's go!

Danity Kane-Showstopper

The Killers-When You Were Young

REEEECAAAAP!:

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Go dumb, dumb, dumb!

You ever listen to a CD and think to yourself, 'now this track right here? This track needs to be released as a single.' I get this thought all the time, but the last time it really hit me was when I gave Snoop's new album Tha Blue Carpet Treatment a spin. Track six. Candy (Drippin' Like Water). Snoop, E-40, MC Eiht, Goldie Loc, Daz, AND Kurupt. I say GODDAMN! And I ain't even talked about the fly ass beast. Vacant, heavy, 808. And the female monotone like coo provided in the chorus. MUAH! Fire baby.

Well guess what, we got a video. Now you too can share in this glorious meeting of California's Northern and Southern coasts. Get hyphy. Go stupid. Get DUMB. And yes I know, another song using candy metaphors. Get that shit out of here and just enjoy it. And big ups to Snoop, That's That Shit, I Wanna Fuck You, and now this. He's on a fucking roll.

Big ups to

Concrete Loop

for putting this on my radar.

Word Up! Hey!

Fo'real do!?

Meanwhile over at 106 & Park...

I'm feeling the one two punch of the Hanes draws riding up over the Louis Vuitton belt. Gangsta.

Concrete Loop: BOW WOW TAKES OVER 106 & PARK

Strike a pose!

Nothing to say here really. Just some pics of Omarion, Nas, and Jamie Foxx doing them for the cameras backstage at TRL. Hmm. I thought TRL had a photo booth or TRL print wall that celebrities posed in front of when they stopped by the joint, not some back alley in the Meat Packing district.

King Without A Crown

Yet another reason why Bono is better than you:

NME: U2 star to be knighted

POP...LIFE!: Tauwan's Top 25 albums of 2006

9. Scissor Sisters-Ta-Dah

With their self titled debut, it seemed as if the Scissor Sisters were too much of a good thing. Said disc was a 35 minute excercise in late 70's excess complete with sexual audacity and pulsating fearlessness uncommon to the airwaves in mid 2004. This was a little band that could, and seeing as how this was the case, whether or not such moves could be done again were called into question. Well Ta-Dah! Not only did Jake Shears and company do it again, but they managed to keep it fresh while expanding on that 70's AM sound. It's easy to get swept away by all the shiny, shimmering, splendidness of it all, but underneath the glitter lies a band stuck in the smoky haze of the moment with longevity on the brain. The confidence is still in tact, and so is the showmanship, as well as the influences: Elton John, the Bee Gees, Abba, Fleetwood Mac, Duran Duran, Chic; Yes, the influences are all there in the sound, but at the end of the day the magic reveberating from your speakers is unmistakably that of the Scissor Sisters.
KEY TRACKS: I Don't Feel Like Dancin/Land of a Thousand Words/Lights