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Waking Up With: Ratatat
Aug 13th, 2010 by defselektor

Thankfully, I woke up this morning only hearing the music of this infectious electro duo, because the following video is effing creepy. It uses stock commercial footage (you can almost hear an ad for some pharmaceutical, or Tampax, or a car rental company just by watching) and very subtle “enhancements” that pretty much make these mopes into hellspawn.

Which is to say, it’s still a pretty good video.

Waking Up With: Dangermouse, The Beatles and Jay-Z
Jul 30th, 2010 by defselektor

Had this song stuck in my head when I woke up this morning. The Grey Album remains solid six years on – a testament to Dangermouse’s talents. I think it would be easy to mess up a Jay/Beatles mashup, and I’ve maintained that this version is better than the beats on The Black Album.

Anyway, here’s the tune (no official video).

Constituent parts after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Waking Up With: The Legendary K.O.
Feb 6th, 2010 by defselektor

This one’s not hard to trace. I went to karaoke last night (it was crazy expensive – $9 beers anyone?) and attempted to sing Kanye West’s “Gold Digger“. Although I thought I knew the lyrics, the delivery is actually really hard. Say what you will about Kanye, but his style is hard to emulate. Also, it was pouring rain, so it made me think of flooding, and then probably the disaster that was New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina. In the wake of that tragedy, during a benefit fundraiser, Kanye, in one of his first outbursts, said on live television: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” Hence, the inspiration for this amazing song.

(Editor’s note: I’m not sure if this is the original video, but it’s the only one I could find.)

Waking Up With: Mayer Hawthorne
Jan 30th, 2010 by defselektor

A local hero who has been blowing up the LAirwaves. Great stuff, buy the album.

Here’s a video for the lead single, Maybe So, Maybe No. It features a bunch of iconic LA spots, from Venice Beach to the Santa Monica skate park to Crane’s Tavern in Hollywood.

Waking Up With: Jay Electronica
Jan 27th, 2010 by defselektor

The newest frontier of wordplay. I can’t quite figure out which beat (got it – Exhibit C – thank you KCRW playlists!) was on repeat upstairs when the alarm went off, but that might have to do with the fact that I was having a dream about zombies (I totally hit snooze and jumped back into the fray). So I’ll post two videos. The first is a teaser for his first big single, titled Exhibit A:

Listen to the full song here.

The second track, called Dimethyltryptamine, is a heavy hitter, politically and visually. Be warned there is some disturbing imagery.

Waking Up With: Morcheeba
Jan 5th, 2010 by defselektor

Hmm, for some reason the song playing on repeat in my head this a.m., called “Slow Down” by the lounge-hop group Morcheeba, seems to be sending me the wrong message. 2010 is the year I want to kick ass, and that’s making me think it’ll go fast. But it’s a good message any other day I guess.

Videogum: The Best Viral Videos of 2009
Dec 31st, 2009 by defselektor


And pretty nicely edited, as well. See the original post here for links to all the original videos. Favorites?

Waking Up With – K’Naan
Dec 16th, 2009 by defselektor

Bizarre dreams last night. Unfinished business or something.

I keep coming back to K’Naan’s second album, Troubadour, as a place to remember why music is made in the first place – to tell stories. The song “Fatima” was playing on repeat in my head when the alarm/call from the photo lab/text from my sister all went off at the same time. There’s no video, but here is a decent version of the track.

Also, if you have 45 minutes to kill, watch this fascinating and moving in-studio performance/interview on KCRW:

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