and now, a public service announcement.

(Deleted...Excellence is strictly for the filthy, filthy act of self-promotion.)

That being said, this dude is a little too prolific and all the same kinda one of my favorites. I stole the blog title from him anyway. Word to Sensational.

(And also Gnarlgnash.)

No Context#

#Cornyness avoided: If I ever have a family, our Holiday cards are going to feature our efforts to replicate this classic. I'll play Ice Cube.

Now even cats in Williamsburg/Greenpoint are yuppies. (Found via the always-worthwhile Gothamist)

"Little Lies" (Fleetwood Mac, Tango In The Night)

Next in what I think might becoming a new EP, at least in my head, consisting of tracks created almost entirely from Fleetwood Mac samples, is this indubitably cheesy but rather catchy Mac song from the 80s, possibly their last hit single. It's the production more than the tune that makes this into pure Gouda, but I used to live in a place where the local Pizza Hut offered a pizza topped with Gouda, and goddamn was it good. (Not as good: the local liqueur, a slightly more interesting thing than triple sec and nothing more. [Also, not as good in Margaritas.]) The sample I'm going to use if I ever throw this record together (working title: Return of the Mac) is just the first few seconds from the top of the record, by the way, maybe until 0:13.

I really do believe this song might have been a truly good one if it wasn't for the fact that it was released in the 80s. Christine McVie is the underrated Mackette of their best-known lineup, with Stevie Nicks as the overrated one, Buckingham the Brian Wilson of the group (something like a genius at times, but fans already know that), and the rhythm section...a reason for the band's name.

Rather than post the song, I'm giving you the video. It's pretty bad, in a standard 1980s video fashion. In other words, I kinda love it.

"Ho" (Ludacris, Back for the First Time)

Rarely do the free papers give you anything you can't get elsewhere, but NY Metro hit ESPN right on the head, deservedly. It's bad enough that espn.com kills me with the shock of ads blasting at me from ESPN Motion every time I try to check the front page--I'd probably have already quit looking at the damn site were it not for ESPN Insider--but lately "ESPN the Network" is absolute whoredom. I miss CNNSI, man. It was boring sometimes, but at least it was honest.

(This post brought to you by the NFL on ESPN! Sweet as Diane Keaton soaking in apple juice! Catch it!)

The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" (Grandmaster Flash)

Highly, highly recommended today for beat junkies: Fresh Air on NPR. Seriously. You get Melle Mel talking about "The Message" and, most cool of all, Grandmaster Flash actually dissecting the techniques on "Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel." F-R-E-S-H.

"Onomatopoeia" (Todd Rundgren, The Hermit Of Mink Hollow)

Quote of the day, source which I failed to write down:

"If there was ever a word that sounds like what it is, it's 'scrotum.'"

"Happy Birthday" (Stevie Wonder, Hotter Than July) [Except, you know, act like it's about me and my 26th birthday instead of MLK. I guess.]

Oh, and for that dude who seemed perturbed at missing the YouSendIt link yesterday for the Mac song (not to be confused with "Return Of The Mack"), go ahead and click right here. I'm not even getting gifts this year, yet I'm just the gift that keeps on giving.

"I Know I'm Not Wrong" (Fleetwood Mac, Tusk)

I've been thinking lately about recording another album...EP, maybe...but the biggest problem is that I've been thinking more about building tracks from samples, but have neither the powerful computer, microphone, proper software (unless an okay quality sound can be created on GarageBand) or technical know-how to do it my way, straight from the Monitor Street residence. Sure, I'm tempted to tap my man DJ Canoli again, but I'm not sure how much he enjoyed it when I forced him to sample an ill loop from The Walkmen's "Wake Up", since samplage isn't really his style.

It's interesting to go from listening to almost nothing but hip-hop (me through age 15) to more often listening to people I discovered from tracking down samples from the songs I love, to listening to music and discovering loops that could really be exploited. And being as most cats aren't really looking to loop Tom Waits no more, there's some creative opportunities to be exploited.

My discovery from yesterday, listening to the overstuffed Fleetwood Mac album Tusk, one of the most excessive things ever created (I doubt the one million dollar cost of this record's creation is at all accurate when you factor in the cost of cocaine), was "I Know I'm Not Wrong." I relate to the song in having relationships go awry that make years go bad, at least insomuch as almost every relationship I've ever had broken off, um, for me, snapped between September and December. But more importantly, it's a banger. Seriously. This was the period of the Mac's existence when in Lindsey Buckingham's tracks, they almost started to sound like a marching band; on the title track, they (unnecessarily) even brought a marching band in.

I'm thinking the harmonica break can be the chorus of something, and a really dense section of this song like around 0:48-0:52 could make an interestingly dense backing track on verses. Hear this thing on headphones if you really want to hear just how much time/cocaine was spent on getting the sound wandering from channel to channel.

Fleetwood Mac- "I Know I'm Not Wrong"