London We Go Hard

Listening to "Shove It" on Santogold's new album, I am taken back to 2005 when a lot of music fans had an investment in grime and British hip-hop, thinking it would breakthrough to American audiences in no time. I was definitely a believer, completely fascinated by everything I heard from Dizzee Rascal, Kano, Wiley, Lady Sovereign and all the young MC's on Run The Road.

Santogold is from New York, but Switch, a remixer and producer of the track, is British although I don't think he has any ties to the grime scene (M.I.A. is not considered a grime artist). "Shove It" has an East London dub sound that makes you smell the doner kebabs and see the track suits and trainers. I know she's really singing about the pride of poor creatives in NYC, but it drives my imagination. The song overall reminds me of Riko and Target's "Chosen One" from Run The Road.

Spank Rock makes an appearance on the track and for once, he keeps his rhymes relatively clean. He changes his flow on here as well, and I had to check the liner notes to make sure it was him.

Listening to Madonna's Hard Candy where she finally delivers on the promise of a completely disco, dance pop album that Confessions On a Dance Floor was supposed to be, I wonder what the queen of pop could have done by filtering the East London sound.

Hard Candy 's got the beep-beep's and whistles from Donna Summer's "Bad Girl", sweeping strings and lots of funky bass. I'm a fan of "Heartbeat," "Miles Away," and "Beat Goes On," especially when Kanye sings the pre-chorus after doing his rap. "Incredible" brings back her debut album singing voice.

After over a week of listening, I realize Hard Candy doesn't have the return listens of Confessions, the album with "Get Together," one of my favorite Madonna songs of all time. I understand her motives for making the album, but I'm not satisfied.

San Francisco Is Listening to Cut Copy

On my short (20 minute max) commute to work these past 2 weeks, I've been popping in Cut Copy's In Ghost Colours album and I am in complete heaven. It's an amazing album to start the day. That IS the power of music -- just one more thing to be excited about in the morning.

I've been listening to "Hearts on Fire" for what feels like a year now and "Lights and Music" has been saturated in my brain. The album mixes are longer and I'm falling in love with them again.

The real surprise is the incredible "Strangers In The Wind." It's a beautiful marriage of Fleetwood Mac's melancholia with mid-80's synthpop balladry. It was telling that they put Tusk-era Mac on their So Cosmic mix -- I just never thought it would take shape on their actual album. So haunted, indeed.

I've been hearing In Ghost Colours play at my local coffee shop. I've been hearing it through car windows (my apartment is on a deceptively loud street corner). And I've been seeing posters advertised everywhere for their show at Mezzanine this Saturday. This sold-out, dream team bill also features Simian Mobile Disco, and I will be fortunate enough to attend.

Check out their label Modular Recording's website, which has a curious display of "gay vague" Web 2.0 design.

Re-evaluate The Songs

Even though Morrissey's Greatest Hits album is fan exploitation of Bjorkian proportions, there are a few things I've enjoyed about its release.

The two new songs "That's How People Grow Up" and "All You Need is Me" are pretty good. The former is definitely a show stopper during his live sets. Something about the song sounds a bit forced, especially when you hear how natural "Everyday is Like Sunday" comes off. Still it's nice to hear how big, sweeping and dramatic the studio version becomes.

"All You Need is Me" sounds a lot like Bona Drag's "Disappointed," and there's a beautiful vocal melody bit around 2:34 when he sings "You don't like me, but you love me, either way you're wrong." It also sounds like he's double tracking his vocals on parts of this song. Is this the first time he's done that? I like it.

The packaging is very nice. I like the the little icons created to represent each song, which are then patterned throughout. It's printed on heavy card stock and I think it's one of the best Morrissey album packages.

Still, there's no doubt this collection is a complete act of pop star narcissism. The cover photo and photo of his bare ass on the album sleeve are at least 15 years old -- never mind that the majority of the songs are from his last two albums.

But you definitely get the feeling that he put this together, and that these are his personal greatest hits. These are the songs he's most proud of and that's probably what makes it interesting for any fan.

There's also an insert that says "Coming Soon. A very special Morrissey release" that will be made to order and not available in stores. What could this possible be? I hope it's not these new t-shirts.

Don't Get Any Big Ideas

I did a remix of Radiohead's "Nude" for their marketing experiment. It's my first ever remix, and I certainly had a blast putting it together. If you like it, please vote for it using the link above. I'd certainly dance to it.


MP3 -> Nude (Caspian Sea Remix) by Salvador Ali

Sweet Dream or Beautiful Nightmare

There's a fantastic new Beyonce song called "Beautiful Nightmare." It's definitely a world away from anything on B'Day, and could have fit comfortably on recent releases by Rihanna or Nelly Furtado. She makes it completely her own though -- giving this minimal dark pop production a very soulful makeover as only Beyonce could. I love it!

According to Beyonce:

"Yesterday, "Beautiful Nightmare," a demo I've been working on for possible inclusion on my next album, leaked on some websites. I want to thank all my fans for the positive response to the song, but I want to tell you that this is just a work in progress. It is not my time to put out new music."

And she goes on recommending new stuff from her old bandmates, which is quite admirable. What a great "demo"! I hope it stays minimal. I definitely dig the piano bits at around 1:23. It's got a great 80's vibe and offers a fairly new direction for Beyonce.

At first I thought it was a Timbaland production, but from the notes at Prefix, it's by Jim Jonsin and Rico Love. I loved B'Day and thought it was terribly underrated. I've always felt she's got plenty of tricks up her sleeves, and "Beautiful Nightmare" is definitely case in point.

Me as a Teamster Extra in MILK

Photo of Ali by Palmer Lamb.

Photo of Palmer by unknown extra.

Very Juergen Teller, no? Last Sunday I was fortunate enough to be a paid extra in MILK, the Gus Van Sant biopic on Harvey Milk.

I got cast as a 70's Teamster in a scene where Milk (played by Sean Penn) persuades the local union to support him. There was about a four or five hour wait before our scene started filming, and I kept asking myself, "What the hell am I doing here?"

I talked to a bunch of friendly extras, like Palmer Lamb (above), who took the photo of me. It was a pretty cool bunch of guys, and wardrobe was amazing. I had a 70's fashion phase in college, so the whole visual experience was hyperreal eye candy.

When filming started, and I was about 15 feet away from Sean Penn, one of today's greatest living actors, doing his thing, I realized it was all worth it. I'm not sure if I was in the camera angle, but whatever.

At least five people asked me if my beard was real or applique. Sorry, bitches, it's 100% pure Iranian facial hair. Thick and with no graying yet! I would imagine this a major reason why I got the callback to be an extra.

Misc. March Albums

I've been listening to a mish mash of things these past few weeks. Nothing I'm terribly excited about, but some good tracks.

1. Gotta love Kid Creole and The Coconuts. Both Doppleganger and Wise Guy for only $1.99 at Amoeba Records. Total score. New romantic mutant disco that's all smiles. My favorite track has to be "I'm Corrupt" from Side A of Wise Guy.

2. Beck's deluxe reissue of Odelay was kind of an impulse buy. Unfortunately, it hasn't aged very well. There's at least two awesome bonus tracks on here: the ghetto glam throwback "Gold Chains," and "Burro," a mariachi interpretation of "Jack-Ass." Unlike most people who've lost interest in the post-Sea Change Beck, I really enjoyed The Information and am excited about his upcoming album.

3. Polysics' Polysics or Die!!! Vista was a gift from my brother. Fast-paced Japanese electro nerd punk. Great driving music for about a week, but then I got tired of it.

4. Hot Chip's Ready For The Floor has some of my favorite tracks this year, but the album as a whole is sort of a letdown. Things slow down so much in the second half, you forget you're listening to the same album. Their R. Kelly-meets-Jermaine Dupri production on "Wrestlers" is fun at first, but gets kind of annoying. I love "Shake A Fist," "Ready For The Floor" and "Don't Dance."

5. Kylie Minogue's Ultimate Kylie was a bit of an impulse buy as well. I started with disc 2, since it had the tracks I was most familiar with from the last decade. I was living in England when "Spinning Round" and "Kids" came out. Overall, this disc should have been Fever and "I Believe In You." I've been skipping everything else. Loved the fun synth pop from disc 1, songs I was mostly unfamiliar with.

6. Chromatics Night Drive is super awesome horror soundtrack italo disco. I think Johnny Jewel is one of the most creative, minimal electro disco producers today. Amazing that this stuff is coming from Portland/Seattle.

7. What can I say about Vampire Weekend's debut album that hasn't been said? I liked it instantly, but it hasn't been getting played very much after the initial saturation in my CD/iPod player. For a real treat, read this post from Momus, one of my favorite people in the world.