If anyone happens to still have this in whatever RSS reader you have, I thought I'd let you know that The Cadillac of Winter has moved to Diamond Igloo to consolidate certain internet presences. In a few weeks, this site will no longer be active and fresh posting on a weekly basis will begin at Diamond Igloo. Hope you're all well and hope you keep in touch!
Twin Shadow 's George Lewis Jr. used to front the Boston-based Mad Mad Films. He's a marvelous performer with whom I've had the pleasure of sharing the stage on several occasions. Since his move to the Big Apple, he's getting a lot of attention for this newer project and will be releasing his album on Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear's Terrible Records . This new song, "Slow" is the best thing I've heard from him, fusing Joy Division style production (the She's Lost Control snare!) with Morissey croon. And the video (apparently based on a banned Calvin Klein ad) [...]
When I was still in college, I had one of the more terrifying dreams I've ever suffered. We were on some kind of break and school wouldn't let us stay in the dorms until a specified date so I was crashing with a friend, napping on a couch at his house. The door to his room was open and throughout the nap I remember passing in and out of sleep, conscious of the fact that he was having a phone conversation in the next room as he passed occasionally into sight across the doorway. In the dream I was sleeping [...]
It's been a busy week. I will once more pull the bizarre video card. Here's one that may trump the VW video I posted a few weeks ago. It's for the standout track on the new Yeasayer album and it's called "O.N.E.". I see this video as operating on two principles, one that is T2 meets Star Wars, another that is New York City meets Santa Fe. All of the instruments are made of crystals. And they're playing some kind of game on the sephirot. I don't get it.
Despite enjoying the twilight of my twenties, I am occasionally surprised to realize I manage to miss out on a whole class of music I would describe as "adult music". It is not anything like "adult movies" (sexually explicit music ultimately sounds juvenile more often than not). It is vaguely yuppie. I'd characterize it primarily as inoffensive and I would buy it in a Starbucks (which incidentally has become the chief indicator that an indie band has "made it"). I probably heard about it from NPR or a New York Times article and it might get a sleeper Grammy nomination. [...]
A few weeks ago, I wrote what might have been an overly academic piece about a musical dialogue between The-Dream and R. Kelly. Soon after, I went in search of tracks on which the two might have collaborated. The most pertinent of what I found is the first track on "The Demo", from R. Kelly's 2009 Gangsta Grillz mixtape, which may or may not be the first such mixtape by an R&B artist. The song? None other than "Kelly's 12 Play Remix". Perfect. R. Kelly & The-Dream - Kelly's 12 Play Remix [...]
Many apologies devoted readers. I've been distracted this week with a post I'll have to deliver next Wednesday. Instead, you're going to have to deal with this wackjob cameo-stuffed Vampire Weekend video for the super-glossy "Giving Up The Gun". A ringed-out RZA refs in Matrix-garb. A scruffy Jonas loses gracelessly. A drunk Jake Gyllenhaal threatens death. And Lil' Jon, who always tells the truth, delivers sage advice en francais. So meta.
I'm 6253. Sometimes that's neat. Other times it's obnoxious. At the amusement park, for example, I can't ride certain rides because I just can't keep my limbs and head safely out of harm's way and my spine isn't short enough to sit comfortably in those harnesses that clamp down over your shoulders. And all those times when it's convenient, like when I'm at a show or in a crowd looking for someone, there are always the folks behind me hating me and the short people looking up with strange scared faces. Now I have a theme song. [...]
"Ella-ella-ella-ay-ay-ay". Or so goes the biggest line of the biggest single of 2007. The deviously catchy delivery tactic of that echoing artifact sunk its hooks in so deeply that over the last few years, we've heard its success replicated far and wide by both the original songwriting team of The-Dream and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and their imitators. The pair have clearly become a goldmine for record labels, the go-to team for big hits all over the pop world. And fortunately, we've been blessed to enjoy the real McCoy in their success and ingenuity. Not satisfied to settle for [...]
I just can't get over losin' you And so if I seem, broken and blue Walk on by, walk on by Foolish pride, that's all that I have left Thanks to a wonderful teacher in high school, I was fortunate enough to be exposed to the entire Stax singles catalog almost immediately upon becoming interested in 60's R+B. I went from one cd, Otis Redding's Greatest Hits, Volume 2 to The Complete Stax Singles 1959-1968. I think a lot of folks can hand something this comprehensive to a [...]
I wasn't as enamoured with The Ecstatic as everyone else appeared to be. First off, the mix sounded really strange to me, the same kind of strange that the Q-Tip album sounded. It had sloppy production on the beats end with flat sonics and not much frequency range, so the vocals sat on top of the music in an alien way. And none of the songs seemed very thoroughly explored. On the other hand, the new track "24-Hour Karate School" renews my faith in the Mighty Mos for still retaining the capacity to make good music. [...]
I wasn't as enamoured with The Ecstatic as everyone else appeared to be. First off, the mix sounded really strange to me, the same kind of strange that the Q-Tip album sounded. It had sloppy production on the beats end with flat sonics and not much frequency range, so the vocals sat on top of the music in an alien way. And none of the songs seemed very thoroughly explored. On the other hand, the new track "24-Hour Karate School" renews my faith in the Mighty Mos for still retaining the capacity to make good music. [...]
I've been digging into the Stax again lately and am just floored by Steve Cropper's versatility and style as a guitarist. His stuff on ANY given Otis Redding song would be the high-water mark for any other session musician's career. Not that he was just a session musician, mind you. Hardly a journeyman, Cropper stuck around the old theater on East McLemore Ave. from his teens in the early 60's and just past it's major upheaval in the 1970's. He was a Mar-Key, an MG, and later a Blues Brother. But Steve Cropper would never allow [...]
Happy/fuck that Valentine's Day from your friends at The Cadillac Of Winter. Outkast - Happy Valentine's Day
I particularly like songs that, you know, do stuff. Sequentially, the thing about doing stuff is that one goes from doing nothing to doing something. Causally, the tension of not doing stuff often propels one into doing stuff. But if we were talking about absolute opposites, doing nothing would just be nothing and doing something would be everything. In musical composition, faced with the extremes of doing nothing and doing everything, either extreme is impossible and unlistenable. But it's nevertheless a compelling model to work with and one that contains all sorts of exciting possibilites. So the [...]
The first months of the year tend to be the most musically fruitful for me. The reason is fairly simple: I read all the bloggers' best-of lists, I search for those tracks and albums, and I enjoy them. A lot. I don't pretend to have any individual taste, or the ability to search out new music on my own. There are just too many people in the world who are much better at that than I am. One happy side-effect of this lemming-like browsing, is that I do come across new albums from favorite artists at the top of the [...]
Fore & Aft is a new series dedicated to exploring the ways hit songs influence other hit songs, for better or for worse. In my household, one of the more polarizing songs from last year was the Jamie Foxx/T-Pain collabo "Blame It On The Alcohol", a little ditty celebrating drunkenness as an excuse to do something you might not normally do in the club when you're hanging out with Jamie Foxx and T-Pain, namely, sex them. The first time I heard it was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno during a commercial break from Late [...]
I've recently reunited with my record collection after three years living without it. On the one hand, the mass of vinyl has caused some difficulties in living space organization with all the other things I'm reclaiming from storage. But it's pretty awesome having them back. I remember growing up with my Dad's large home-made modular shelving full of records. The first music I ever owned myself was a record: LL Cool J's Bigger And Deffer . In many ways I prefer the crisp sound quality of CDs these days. But I often love the tone of vinyl and nothing [...]
The Cadillac Of Winter
The Shins: “September” (b-side of “Simple Song” 7”)
St. Vincent - 'Cheerleader'
Jay-Z & Kanye West - Ni**as In Paris (Explicit)
OK Go - Needing/Getting - Official Video
M.I.A. - Bad Girls (Official Video)
Download: James Blake Live Album (Unofficial)
Lana Del Rey - Without You (Kill Paris Remix) [Dubstep]
My Funny Valentines
Miike Snow - “Paddling Out” Jacques Lu Cont Remix (MP3 Stream)
Iron & Wine and Patty Griffin
