Furry Potatoes...

Amadou et Mariam

2008-10-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

Ok people. Fear not. Florin has arrived from Zambia and it's time for Furry Potatoes to rock out with it's socks out! Let's start you off with a couple from the Republic of Mali, West Africa...

AFRRRRIIIKKKKKKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

New Faint "The Geeks We're Right"

2008-08-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

The Geeks We're Right
http://www.groundcontrolmag.com/music/The_Faint-The_Geeks_Were_Right-DIOYY_Remix.mp3

Langhorne Slim

2008-07-12T06:10:00.000-07:00

Two Langhorne Slim tracks by request, for my buddy Nicolas

Restless
http://www.burgoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/restless.mp3

Diamonds and Gold
http://www.burgoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/diamonds%20and%20gold.mp3

Radiohead - The Tourist

2008-07-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

In anticipation of August 20th and in celebration of being Heather-free for that event...

Radiohead - The Tourist
http://captainsdead.com/crackityjones/headbury/1997-06-28%20Live%20at%20Glastonbury%20-%20117%20-%20The%20Tourist.mp3

Who Feels Like Dancing?

2008-06-19T15:42:00.000-07:00

Santogold - LES Artistes
http://stopokaygo.typepad.com/web/files/santigold.mp3

Scout Niblett / "Good To Me" + "No Scrubs"

2008-06-16T11:14:00.001-07:00

Well, a video of Scout Niblett doing her blue-lipped red-wine cover of TLC's "No Scrubs" finally popped up on the Internet. Ask and Youtube shall giveth:

Cut Copy - Far Away

2008-06-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

Cut Copy - Far Away
http://music.allansworld.info/files/Cut%20Copy%20-%20Far%20Away.mp3

Best of Toronto

2008-06-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

I'm not surprised this is coming out of Toronto, of all places, but... this got posted on Toronto's Craigslist. Please enjoy responsibly:

I don't care what colour you are. I don't care where you're from. I don't care what you do for a living. I don't care what class you are, how you dress, what you smoke or drink or who you know or whom you've fucked.

I hate you all. I hate every last living, breathing, snot and feces producing, promiscuously copulating, celebrity obsessed, opinionated one of you. From right here in Toronto right around the planet and back, coast to coast, nationwide and internationally. Every. Single. Last. One. Of. You.

Fuck love. Fuck your insipid grasping at some abstract concept of chemical imbalances and reasonless actions, fumbling around in the crowd trying to find some cinematic supposition for real human interaction. Fuck lust, too. Fuck you all, from the lowlife dirtbags that think dropping trou and waving the little soldier in a sloppy arc is a pick-up line to the sniveling of the desperate 'nice guys' who never get the girl due to a total lack of testosterone grown stones. Fuck you all, from the crazy, under dressed sluts that judge a persons character by the price of their shirt, right down to the fat, flabby chicks that think personality is enough.

Fuck you drivers, for thinking that a yellow light is a sign that says 'step on the gas'. Fuck you wheelmen and women that think it's okay to sit in a left hand turn in the middle of morning traffic, even though there is a protected left in the intersections before and after where you need to make your turn. Fuck you too cyclists - you're not exempt from the traffic laws just because your peddling, you miserable spandex covered neon reflective fucks. Fuck you too, pedestrians. Use the fucking crosswalk if you don't want to get hit, and use it before the little countdown clock says '3'. You don't have enough goddamn time to lope across four lanes of traffic.

Fuck you chick on your cellphone. Fuck you attitude packed minimum-wager that makes my coffee. Fuck you cops that spend all their time handing out speeding tickets. Fuck you douche bag doing ten over the limit in the passing lane on the highway. Fuck you lady using exact change at the counter at the grocery store. Fuck you kids having a conversation in the doorway. And fuck you also for not getting the fuck out of your designated handicapped seat when a pregnant or elderly person gets on the fucking bus.

Fuck taxes. Fuck welfare. Fuck the whole selfish, over politicized and party driven government system. I'm sick and fucking tired of policies and new laws with seven hundred bylaws that nobody but you and your cabinet reads. Fuck you councilors and your stupid 'district improvement' plans. Fuck you unions, for asking for so much and giving nothing more that what you already give. Fuck the whole process that allows people who are supposed to be working for us work for interests that only benefit the next campaign. Fuck your short-sightedness, your rush to the bandwagons, and your incessant arguing over fuck all. Fuck the parties, fuck the conventions, and fuck your campaigns. Do some real fucking work for a change.

Fuck you bottles of water. You're water. You're not worth two fucking dollars.
Fuck you trendsetters, fuck you fashionistas. Fuck your little dogs and and your idiotic outfits. Fuck your high heels in the snow. Fuck your five dollar coffees and your fifteen dollar veggie burgers. Fuck your health kick, your diet or your fucking new interest in kickboxing or sushi.

Fuck your culture. Fuck your race. Fuck your sense of entitlement. Fuck your sense of uniqueness. Fuck you all for the belief that you have something unique and interesting to contribute. Fuck you for filling the internet with your useless garbage. Fuck your blogs, your wikis, your forums. Fuck your name calling. And most of all, fuck whatever you believe. It's all wrong. Fuck it.

Fuck your complaints. Fuck your addictions. Fuck your dependencies. Fuck your pain. Fuck your tears. Fuck selling whatever it is you sell. Fuck your manipulation of others. Fuck movies. Fuck fucking. Fuck everything you own. Fuck your allergies. Fuck your stupid commons sense. Fuck your spelling and fuck your lack of education, or your ignorance, whatever is applicable.

I don't give a fuck. Shut the fuck up and just get on with it.

It's a Compliment

2008-06-08T09:55:00.001-07:00

Hadn't heard of Joey Comeau before, but of course I just goggled him, and thoroughly enjoyed 'A Softer World'.

I think that might be impossible to read...
Frame 1: The carbon footprint of a single human being is enormous
Frame 2: If you think about it your honour.
Frame 3: I'm an environmentalist.

Also, just watched 'Into the Wild' last night - amazing book & movie. That doesn't happen too often. Liked the Eddie Vedder soundtrack, which kinda surprised me.

Eddie Vedder, 'Hard Sun'

http://www.lobfblog.com/music/Eddie%20Vedder%20-%20Hard%20Sun%20(Main).mp3

On Brand Disassociation

2008-06-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

Band of Horses - The Funeral

http://www.girlpants.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/09.%20Band%20of%20Horses%20-%20The%20Funeral.mp3

I just finished reading a fascinating article about a market that believes it's "brand proof". The hipsters, the underground kids who laugh in the face of traditional marketing, who drink PBR because it's ironic to do so and because they're the ones that picked it and defined it as "their" beer. Sound familiar? :)

Read on:

The brewer carefully cultivated its image among the indie crowd by taking great care not to cultivate its image: no ads on local radio, no celebrity endorsements (despite nibbles from Kid Rock) and certainly no TV. PBR's divisional marketing manager, cribbing tactics from Naomi Klein's anti-corporate manifesto, "No Logo" (full of "many good marketing ideas," he told Walker!), worked to make PBR "always look and act the underdog." He was so successful at retaining the brand's cachet (or anti-cachet) that one 28-year-old Oregonian whom Walker interviewed had a foot-square Pabst logo tattooed onto his back. "Pabst is part of my subculture," the kid told the writer, pointing to the absence of Pabst advertising as evidence that "they're not insulting you."

And ends in a very eloquent:

We go wrong, Walker believes, not when we express ourselves through our possessions, but when we allow our possessions to take precedence. It's all too easy for people, under the influence of the siren songs of marketing (or murketing), to drift into a situation in which they use commodities "not to reflect who they are, but to construct who they are. Not to reflect a self, but to build a self." No object, of course, is meaningful enough to fulfill that role, and an endless cycle of chasing after glittering but ultimately unsatisfying products is likely to ensue. Pretending that the stuff in our life is simply, mutely functional might seem like an antidote to this cycle, but in its own way, it's just as delusional.

Full article here:
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/06/03/buying_in/index.html

Thanks, Elizabeth!

2008-06-08T02:30:00.001-07:00

Hey, that's a compliment I think. I've read Tao Lin before and he struck me as a dour, self-indulgent Asian man. But I really enjoyed this. Maybe it simply hit me.

Now I'm going to go out and read more of his short stories.

Have you read Joey Comeau? This really reminded me of something Joey Comeau might have read if he was Asian and diminutive. Maybe Tao Lin is Joey Comeau's alter ego. I can imagine him reading this post, on one of his daily "Joey Comeau Tao Lin" Google searches, and falling out of his chair with delight.

This is for Chris...

2008-06-06T13:13:00.000-07:00

Chris, whenever I read your posts I am reminded of this excerpt:

SEATTLE IS IMMUNE TO "REAL" DESPAIR

I feel like most people in Seattle have "given up on life" due to a comprehensive knowledge about existentialism but in a "good" way that doesn't feel bad at all. They wake up, go to work copywriting shampoo advertisements, go home, lie in fetal positions facing the back of their sofas, and feel beautiful and existentially awesome. I can successfully transpose existential despair onto any city, but when I do it to Seattle something happens and it becomes "really good" somehow. I think Kafka would have "thrived" in Seattle and written something like seven 800-page novels about the happiness of crippling loneliness with titles like Helvetica Font and The Seattle Public Library Is Beautiful and The Joy of Existential Non Well-Being. The passage from Ronald Hayman's biography of Kafka that reads, "One Saturday evening [Kafka's sister] came home from the shop to find [Kafka] sitting on the sofa, staring blankly in front of him. Aware he had been eating very little, she asked whether he was going to have supper, but he did not answer, and they just stared at each other," would instead read "One Saturday afternoon [Kafka's sister] came home from Elliott Bay Book Company to find [Kafka] standing on the sofa, smiling widely with his arms out in a kind of ecstasy. Aware he had just published his fifth 800-page novel, Freedom in Capital Letters with 19 Exclamation Points After It, she asked whether or not he had seen review copies yet, but he did not answer, and they just grinned at each other a lot." The passage, from the same book, that reads, "[Kafka] decided to write a frank letter to [his fiancée's father], and show it to [his fiancée] before sending it. It would explain how, for about 10 years, he had been increasingly aware of lacking the sense of well-being most people had. Her father might like to recommend a doctor who would examine him and report on his findings," would read, "[Kafka] decided to write an 800-page novel about how happy he felt that something like 'bagels' existed, and show it to [his editor at Knopf]. The novel would explain how, for his entire life, he had been very happy. [His editor at Knopf] might give him a $2,000,000 advance and let him design the cover himself."
- 'What I Can Tell You About Seattle Based on the People I've Met Who are From There (I Live in Brooklyn)', Tao Lin

So please keep the beautiful existentialism coming.

And a song for kicks:

Lykke Li, 'Little Bit'

http://music.hitmanforum.com/Lykke%20Li/Youth%20Novel/06-lykke_li-little_bit.mp3

Thursday - Espers/Kenneth Libbrecht

2008-06-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

A Dirty Martini blended with lemon sorbet and served with a single anchovy.

Music - Widow's Weed by ESPers:

http://robosexual.typepad.com/glob/files/02_widows_weed.mp3

Interview - Building a Better Snowflake: An Interview with Kenneth Libbrecht:

Do you think physics has become too focused on grand cosmological questions?

Cosmology is about the universe, and there's no question that is good stuff! At the same time, I don't think everyone should do that. I've worked in fields where I've felt that if I didn't get up in the morning and come in and do whatever I had to do, somebody else would just do it. Whereas, with snowflakes, if I don't get up in the morning and do it, nobody else is going to. As I tell my wife, those snowflakes aren't going to grow themselves.

Wednesday's Literary/Aural Cocktail - Black Mountain, Jose Saramago

2008-06-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

I think from now on I will be selecting at least one song and one quotable literary passage to construct a daily cocktail. I am calling today's imbibe the Holy Mole, where bitterness and nourishment look upward and inward before commencing battle in a glass.

Listening, Angels by Black Mountain:

http://tim.thelonglonelyleap.com/Tim/Music/In%20The%20Future%20(V0)/02%20Angels.mp3

Reading, Blindness by Jose Saramago:

He dreamt at once that he was pretending to be blind, he dreamt that he was forever closing and opening his eyes, and that, on each occasion, as if he were returning from a journey, he found waiting for him, firm and unaltered, all the forms and colours of the world as he knew it. Beneath this reassuring certainty, he perceived nevertheless, the dull nagging of uncertainty, perhaps it was a deceptive dream, a dream from which he would have to emerge sooner or later, without knowing at this moment what reality awaited him. Then, if such a word has any meaning when applied to a weariness that lasted for only a few seconds, and already in that semi-vigilant state that prepares one for awakening, he seriously considered that it was unwise to remain in this state of indecision, shall I wake up, shall I not wake up, shall I wake up, shall I not wake up, there always comes a moment when one has no option but to take a risk...

Death From Above 1979 - Little Girl masdlasjkaskjl edition

2008-06-02T12:13:00.001-07:00

*places song in hand, outstretches arm*

http://tacticalknightmare.com/gaz/tunes/Death%20from%20Above%201979
/Romance%20Bloody%20Romance/05%20Little%20Girl%20(MSTRKRFT%20Edition).mp3

Update: I dig the 404 the above generates, so I'm going to leave it as is. Here's a better link:

Skreemr Search Results

Muscles - Ice Cream

2008-05-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

Heard this on my way to work today and it made me happy, so I had to post it.

http://216.69.172.62/sndz/oct07/4/03%20-%20Muscles%20-%20Ice%20Cream.mp3

Ferraby Lionheart

2008-05-20T07:04:00.000-07:00

Aside from having possibly the coolest name ever, this Ferraby Lionheart dude embodies "starving artist" in every sense of the phrase. I had to buy his new EP on the spot.. "get yourself a hamburger man, you're gonna faint".

He opened for Langhorne Slim last night - great show!

http://www.aolcdn.com/_media/ch_music/ferraby-lionheart_small-planet.mp3

Dizzee Rascal

2008-05-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be a bit lazy and just post a song by one of the guys who will be performing at the show I'm going to tonight. It's at Neumo's so if you are quick you still have a chance to catch a glimpse of me surrounded by people who I expect could talk about hip hop until Biggie came back to life and dropped a platinum album.

I didn't have to dig too deep to find this gem. It's the kind of song you play before you spend a night on the town after arguing with your girlfriend. You don't really want to be mad at her, and you really don't want to while away the night under a duvet. You want a surge of testosterone that arrives without malice and leaves without consequence.

http://www.r5productions.com/sound/dizzeerascal_fixup.mp3

The Knife - Heartbeats

2008-05-19T18:40:00.000-07:00

Man... I just realized that it's possible not everyone knows how fucking great this song is. It pretty much requires shutter shades to get the full effect, IMHO.

http://www.antinomian.com/trans/knife/knife-heartbeats.mp3

Langhorne Slim

2008-05-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

http://audio.sxsw.com/2008/mp3/Langhorne_Slim-Restless.mp3

At the Tractor on Monday, people!!

Tracy Chapman - Fast Car

2008-05-16T06:26:00.000-07:00

Dedicated to the long weekend. Happy F-Day!

http://www.box.net/index.php?rm=box_v2_download_file&uniq_name=europe&file_id=f_76317409/06.%20Fast%20Car.mp3

Saul Williams

2008-05-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

Saul Williams fucking kicks butt. Sometimes I play this in the morning so I can guarantee myself a kick butt day. I saw him in his "Niggy Tardust" incarnation at Neumo's and it felt like black people were taking back music, and I don't even believe in that. Listen to this track - if you don't tear up a little bit when he starts singing "I think I'm too black" then you are probably The Man.

"Black Stacey"

http://www.filefreak.com/pfiles/41163/Saul%20Williams%20-%20Black%20Stacey.mp3

Tokyo Police Club - Tessellate

2008-05-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

Tokyo Police Club - Tessellate

Tokyo Police Club - InACave
http://www.saddle-creek.com/sounds/TokyoPoliceClub_InACave.mp3

American Idiot

2008-05-08T06:21:00.000-07:00

A judge in California has awarded the MPAA $110M in a ruling against www.torrentspy.com.

To put that into perspective, the US gov't has aided Burma with only $3M.

To put that into perspective, that is about 24 minutes worth of war in Iraq.

The MPAA was awarded $30,000 per infringement. Which means that the US thinks the people of Burma are worth $30 per person?

Green Day!

http://www.suddenlyeverythingsucks.com/jukebox/green_day_american_idiot.mp3

(This has been a /. comment section readers digest)

Orkestar Zirkonium

2008-05-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

These guys are actually coming out to play for FREE on May 31st at the work party I'll be running for my job! They're a local 14 piece Balkan-inspired band. Check it out:

Ciocarlia
http://www.orkestarzirkonium.com/mp3/ciocarlia-lofi.mp3

Hot Coals
http://www.orkestarzirkonium.com/mp3/hot-coals-lofi.mp3