The Signal Music Weblog

Whoah! From the hip hop world's premier videoblog comes footage of some international freestyle champions kicking verse off the top of their heads on a New York radio show in three languages. (Four, if you count Pig Latin.)

It's been so long since I've seen/heard hip hop that just made me smile like this. It's out there... I'm just not finding it.

UPDATE: If anyone wants 'em, here's the freestyles in mp3 format.

I just read about Vampire Weekend this morning in the New Yorker, on the way to work, a little bit late and with a BART seat all to myself.

Four kids using African musical elements in their music, but doing the usual indie-band topic list? Echoes of Paul Simon's Graceland album?

Okay, I thought, I should check them out. I asked, the internet provided, and now you can give a listen to them too. Go visit Analog Scene. Download. Music makes the world smaller.

A lottery winner uses her money to buy the services of a pub for her own strange reasons in this five minute radio skit from Chris Morris' "Blue Jam" radio program. Funny and dark.

Cable and Tweed has two things that are crying out for your visitation.

1. MP3s of indie darlings covering unlikely songs.

2. Everything else.

Maybe some of you have heard this new M.I.A. track that's kinda disco. It's called "Jimmy."

Well, the Internet has revealed that the song is a cover of an actual Indian disco track from a film from the early 80s. You can catch the story, the mp3 and a video clip over at Gorilla vs. Bear.

Warning: DISCO. Steel your hipster heart.

Dear God, why won't it stop, it's The Unnamed Audio Project 03! It tastes like flouride!

It called you at 3 a.m. needing bail money, amigo! Holy hopscotch! Holy swiss cheese!

I have learned that more expensive microphones are better than the cheap kind. For real. No doubt. Sometimes you think "eh, all that you pay for is status, so you can brag to your hooligan friends about microphones." This is not the case. My hooligan friends don't care about microphones.

THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING.

Anyway. I talk, you listen. There is a song. Hint's in the image. That image is punk rock, right there. That could help you write a book report about punk rock.

SUCKERS! BACK TO CLASS!

The Unnamed Project 02: The second in a series of unnamed somethings. Components: my voice, other people's music. Sounds kinda horrible because I rushed it and I don't know what I'm doing.

The one improvement over yesterday is the skull face is prettier.

Oh my yes.

The Unnamed Project 01: The kick-off of an unnamed something. Components: my voice, other people's music. A learning experience with regards to software I probably should have gone to college to learn how to use.

If you like, you can download something I haven't even given a name to yet. Maybe you'll like it. Who knows?

The Signal: EP031 - A collection of sounds from the U.S., Australia, France, Scotland, Mali, England, Japan and even Texas! We've got some sweet sounds, some punk rock, some strange pop, and the usual odd mix that manages to fit together despite all odds.

It's online for a limited time, so grab away. The tracklist is in the mp3's id3 tags.

As ever, comments are welcome, so let me know what you like, what you hate, etc. I sorta miss writing about all the tracks, since I decided I didn't want these Signal posts to be Google-bait.

So here's my plan: Notes are after the MORE cut, but you'll have to match numbers to tracks. Fair enough?

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