Nuclear Beef

Poignant Audio Beef. Proof that a song can begin with the words "I'm a backstreet boy" and be great.

'Cinderella Backstreet' by Mary Lou Lord from 1997's Martian Saints EP on Kill Rock Stars Records

It turns out this is a cover of a song from the early 1970s by Peter Laughner with a band of the same name. (You can stream a clip of his version on mp3.com, but I'd sure like to hear more if someone's offering.) I don't really know anything about him, so I won't bore you with a summary of the above link.

I think it's a tribute to Mary Lou's talent that she can make this song her own, just like she did with the Elliot Smith Track that Music For Robots got me addicted to. Oddly, her performance also makes me want to know more about both Smith and Laughner.

I imagine the narrator in 'Cinderella Backstreet' lives one block over from Bob Dylan's Desolation Row. Nostalgia for a place I've never been; a feeling I've felt.

I tried to teach naivete /
To kids brought up on.. TV /
I tried hard to smile /
But it got hung up in style /
Yeah, it seems they see right through me
...
Well, there was one down /
For the leather boys /
And one for the never been kissed /
...
And one more that we can dream on /
And still another for the show /
Well, Denise, she did my eyes /
And I felt just like a prize /
Until those tears began to flow

UPDATE: Link to mp3 was broken. Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue. Fixed now. Thanks to MoI in comments.

Posted by darwin at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Audio Beef today.

I'm feeling a particular way. Without going into it, it's the opposite of happy. The above picture captures it pretty well.. as does this song, by the Police.

'Murder By Numbers' by The Police from their 1983 album Synchronicity

I don't have much else to say. Hello, REDACTED, if you're out there.

Once that you've decided on a killing /
First you make a stone of your heart /
And if you find that your hands are still willing /
Then you can turn a murder into art.

Posted by darwin at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Remeber last year when the source code to Halflife 2 leaked via a hacked account on Gabe Newell's computer? You know, the hacking that got Toshok of the Hungry Programmers raided by the FBI?

"After a close scrutiny of Gabe Newell's account history on the forums, we've come to the conclusion that the gold post is a fake... After one crazy night of theories, server mayhem and IP tracing, we've finally gotten to the bottom of this mess. In a twist of hilarity, it seems that Gabe Newell's account password was set to 'gaben'. Person x guessed this and made the "going gold on Monday" post which we've heard so much about. The user (who we believe is the same person x) then made this post just minutes ago using Gabe's account:

Posted by darwin at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some Hiphop Audio Beef for you. Also Cat Stevens Yusef Islam.

'Young Son' by Brand Nubian from their 2004 album Fire in the Hole on BabyGrande Records

There's a new Brand Nubian album out. It's on BabyGrande Records, as Brand Nubian has been dropped from Elektra Records.

(Note To Elektra Records: You see how this works, guys? You drop legendary acts and you don't get a hyperlink. Welcome to the Internet, assholes guys.)

So this album is still mostly Produced by Lord Jamar, who is one of the three MCs in Brand Nubian. In my opinion, he's the MC in Brand Nubian who needs to put down the mic. He's the (wack) middle verse here, and in the middle in the above picture. Fortunately, he's also a great producer who has done an awful lot of classic Brand Nubian beats.

(In fact, Lord Jamar produced most of the first Dead Prez album. Strange but true. 5% nation + Maoists? Are we playing INWO?)

In any case the hook on this beat is great and Grand Puba and Sadat X both catch wreck. The message is similar to Wear Clean Draws by The Coup which I posted a while back. The guys dish out the advice for the up and coming young bucks, dropping some.. err.. edutainment.

Never take no for an answer /
Unless it be a chick /
Cause you could end up in some shit /
Like some bullshit they hit Kobe with /
You don't want to be a baby daddy, better rubber it

But who is that singing on the chorus? A 10 second search on google and a 20 second search on my hard drive (...) produced the answer. It's our old buddy Cat StevensYusef Islam, last seen battling the Flaming Lips.

'The Hurt' by Cat Stevens from his 1970 album Tea For The Tillerman from his 1973 album Foreigner

Notice how completely different the track is from the tiny snippet used in the Brand Nubian track. Hooray for sampling. The Cat Stevens song is great too, in its inimitable Cat Stevens way.

You say you want to seek the truth, but it's hard to find /
No one to help you, your friends don't have the time /
So you ride around in your car, switch on the radio /
You want to relate to something you once read in a book /
What kind of a way to try to take a look /

UPDATE: LGF has some interesting information on Cat Stevens. Nice voice, anyway..

UPDATE: I mis-identified what album 'The Hurt' was on. As VeronicaGia noted in comments, the Cat Stevens song is actually on his album 'Foreigner' and not 'Tea For The Tillerman.' I was misled by a lyrics site, please forgive me!

Posted by darwin at 09:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Si Begg (Aka Noodles/SI Futures/Cabbage Boy) has been going absolutely bananas for a few years now. Glitchy techno, bleepy electro, quirky house, challenging downtempo and more remixes than you can shake a stick at. I became a fan through his hard techno work on Mosquito, No Future, Tresor and other legendary experimental techno labels.

Steady rocking Ready Rock Moe Rex posted a great Si Begg remix and I told him I'd post this one. It's the club mix of a track Si Begg wrote with some UK MCs. He cuts out most of the vocal but works the chorus in the mix. Of course there's the signature twerky bassline, the jittery edits, the strong rhythm section. Si Begg at his finest.

'"Move Up - Si Begg Club Mix":http://saturn5.com/darwin/beef/MP3/16-si_begg-moveup_si_begg_club_mix.mp3' by Si Begg from his 2003 album Director's Cut on Mute Records

(That's Singapore Noodles.. and shredded cabbage.)

Oh, also, this was ripped from the 12" vinyl single. It's available on CD but I don't have it. If the levels are just a little lower than you're used to, that's why.

Posted by darwin at 01:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hi. I'm a friend of darwin's, currently living outside the Green Zone in Baghdad. I am a business executive with an Iraqi communications company in Baghdad, one of two americans in an Iraqi-expat-owned company of 150. We do things largely in the "Iraqi way", giving me a unique view of life in the country -- we don't travel in huge armored convoys or fly around on helicopters above the city, but have to deal with checkpoints, delays, and other daily facts of life for Iraqis, most of whom are unlikley to post in English-language weblogs for you to read. I will try to post first-hand accounts of life over here, and direct observations of the situation, rather than the kind of speculation and big-picture analysis which is common among "real journalists". I plan to be over here (including neighboring countries) at least 3-5 years, and have been learning Arabic, Kurdish, and Farsi to better communicate with the people around me, so I should be able to get some pretty interesting opinions from people.

Posted by ryan at 01:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some Audio AND Video Beef for you today. I was watching the Tivo and saw one of those psychedelic new Hummer commercials. You know, the ones for the NEW StupidSport Utility Truck.

Anyway, this commercial had a smoking electro track for the music. I knew I had heard it before, and when the vocal kicked in I figured out that it was :

'"Freak":http://saturn5.com/darwin/beef/MP3/15-lfo-freak.mp3' by LFO from their 2003 Album Sheath on Warp Records

What's really confusing about this is.. how does this sell Hummers? Sure, it's a slammin' track, but is the Hummer target market really a Warp Records listener? Has the world gone topsy turvey? That said, I do want some of what the official video for this song is selling!

UPDATE: This post has been closed to comments because I'm tired of deleting comment spam on it.

Posted by darwin at 09:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Two quick hits of Olympic Video Beef. Can you tell I'm hooked on The Olympics?

First off is a clip of Afghani 100m Dash runner, Robina Muqim Yaar (VCD, .mpg, 19mb). She ran in the heats for the 100m, finishing just before the Somali competitor. I'm not sure what this says about US foreign policy, but good on her. Go Afghanistan!

Progress, like Afghanistan's Robina Muqim Yaar, needs a little more time.``I don't know how much I'll be respected in Kabul,'' Muqim Yaar said through an interpreter. ``But I'm really, really happy that I finished ahead of one person.''

Both Robina and the aformentioned flag-bearer get some coverage in this 'Olympic Moments' segment about women athletes (VCD .mpg, 53mb). It touches on the lack of women from Saudi Arabia and Qatar and is about as schmaltzy as you might expect from NBC. Grab it if you want just a little bit more info on the Afghani women.

• This is obviously a joke. Big up Somalia and all the sufferers of Africa.

Posted by darwin at 03:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey, some more Olympic Video Beef for you today. It'll be brief, because I've re-entered responsible adult land. Let me just say briefly, Team USA is kicking ass and taking names.

Olympic DJ Cole Rocks The Olympics by DJ Olympic, feat. James Brown.

I didn't know that there were DJs at the Olympics, but this guy gets crowd participation going on James Brown's "Sex Machine" at an OLYMPIC BEACH VOLLEYBALL GAME. Big up selector. Wheel and come again. Boh! Gold Medal Flavor, straight blingin.

This guy seems to be enjoying the men's volleyball game between the US and The Netherlands... (click for bigger)

Posted by darwin at 01:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CBFTW (whose blog continues to impress) has a great post up which contains this excellent nugget.

We were now in the same area where a couple months ago we had a mounted patrol through here, and we were driving around slowly, and we were the trail vehicle, and my AG and I were sticking out of the back air guard hatches. And we were being followed by literally 100's of little kids, they were hooting and hollering, clapping and saying stuff in Arabic. So my AG looks over at me and with a mischievous smile says, "Watch this!" and then he starts chanting: "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!" over and over again, next thing you know all these little kids, 100's of them, started chanting U-S-A!! Over and over again, each time a little loader. We were both laughing and thought this was all funny until I saw the reaction on the older people faces on the side of the road. They didn't look too thrilled about that, once I immediately noticed that, I said, "Dude, that's not cool! Make them stop yelling that shit!" But it was too late, these kids were having too much fun chanting U-S-A! Next thing you know I saw an older middle eastern lady wearing all black pick up a rock and throw it at us, which of course started a huge chain reaction of rock throwing at us. We got out of that neighborhood in a hurry after that. Lesson learned.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

Posted by darwin at 01:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey there. Some Video Beef for you today, VCD (.mpg) clips from the parade of nations segment of last nights Olympic opening ceremony.

Pay close attention to the amount of applause each country receives. Cuba recieves more applause than Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran or Palestine, though of course all of these nations get more applause than Israel.

COURIC: Big cheer for Afghanistan, big triumph for this country. Flagbearer Nema Serubgerr (sp?) is a former basketball player who now teaches English and Phys Ed, she was chosen because her efforts to promote women in sports in her country. Afghanistan's returning to the Olympics after being suspended by the IOC because of the Taliban's severe suppression of women. And for the first time ever, two women from Afghanistan will compete in these Olympic Games.

COSTAS: How ever you may feel about American involvement in Iraq, this is a great sports story. As battles rage in Najaf and elsewhere in Iraq's borders.. within Iraq's borders, an Australian defense force airlifted the Iraqi Olympic Team out of Baghdad on a secret flight this week, and a warm warm reception for them.
COURIC: The Iraqi atheletes have a tortured past.. literally. They were subject to torture and imprisonment when its Olympic committee was overseen by Uday Hussein, the son of Saddam. And the return to these games represents a tremendous triumph not only for the atheletes but also for the people of Iraq.
COSTAS: Just last night their soccer team beat Portugal 4-2. A small bit of good news for the citizens of Iraq.

COSTAS: And now, a dose of cold reality here. The Iranian Judo World Champion, Arash Miresmaeili, may have withdrawn from the games (we're getting conflicting reports) he may have withdrawn from the games because he has drawn an Israeli Opponent, Udi Vaks in his opening match. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran has refused to recognize the right of Israel to exist. We'll follow that story, but we are expecting that he will withdraw from the Olympics rather than wrestle an Israeli.

COURIC: Israel. The atheletes from Israel will have additional security measures in the Athletes Village. The same was true in Sydney and in other past games. Although the official position of the Greek government is that no foreign security personell can be armed. That decision made last week.
COSTAS: That's the official position, it may not be the reality, given all the other world realities. But there is an interior additional metal fence around the apartments of the Israeli team within the Olympic Village. The United States turned down the same consideration, but there are plenty of US security forces here.

COSTAS: In June, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat carried the Olympic Flame to an Israeli checkpoint leading to Jerusalem. He claimed he was committed to an Olympic Truce during the games and recently has again expressed good wishes towards the Greeks and urged Arab support of these Olympics.

(transcribed by Allah, hat tip Michele)

[Saudi team enters]

COURIC: I love when the athletes wear their traditional clothing. This is not traditional, this is worn still in Saudi Arabia.

COSTAS: Since the wakeup call of 9/11, Americans have become more aware of aspects of Saudi society beyond the oil and their nominal status as a U.S. ally. Those aspects include widespread religious extremism and an antipathy towards women's rights, and here in Athens, there are 21 members of the Saudi delegation. None are women.

COURIC: [Silence. For nine seconds.]

Cuba was notable for the amount of applause they recieved.

North and South Korea enter with everyone holding hands.. uh..

Emphasis and transcription mine, except where noted. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Crap! The Saudi Video link was broken. Is fixed now. Thanks to steve and tagryn in comments.

Posted by darwin at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Today is about fun uptempo dubby music. I actually really dislike hearing this sort of music at a club, but it's great for background music at work. So these are for all of those who are trying to get past the last real work-day of the week.

My Heart's Still Beating and The Last Dance by Boy Robot from 2003's Glamorizing Corporate Lifestyle

Boy Robot is in the tradition of Metamatics, Thomas Brinkmann and other dubby micro-house producers. Most of it is still basically house, but it's very dense and approaches old-school ambient.

Of the two tracks above, "My Heart's Still Beating" is the glitchier, with an echo of Autechre and Augustus Pablo. (Yes, I'm a sucker for the Melodica.) "The Last Dance" shows the ambient side more clearly, very slow and spacey. Bath-tub or bed-time music. Lovely.

Boy Robot are some German guys. Click the useful links above for more information on them.

Crackhaus - Akufens Mornin' Dump in the Bush of God by Akufen from 2004's Crackhaus - Blame Canada

Presumably many people have heard of Akufen by now. He injected some creativity into the micro-house scene a few years back. While I think he's hit or miss, his production is always high quality, and his samples unique. Here he flips a banjo sample and some old bluegrass singing. GWB shows up briefly to God Bless America. Fun stuff. It showcases how dubby the Harmonica can be, in fact with enough reverb it's difficult to differentiate it from a Melodica.

This track reminded me of a song I wrote in 2002, so I decided to post it up :

Moon Bass - Wood Remix by Darwin

Here I took a track of my own and remixed it, tweaking the hell out of a banjo sample from Woody Guthrie. A free nickle to anyone who can recognize what tune it is. This is from 2002, but I'm still quite pleased with the results. Lots of folk music is dance music too!

This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do.

Posted by darwin at 03:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Iraq beats Portugal 4-2 in the Olympic opening match. Portugal won silver medals at Euro 2004. Remarkable !

UPDATE [darwin] : Nabil is psyched. Olay Iraq!

Posted by Mishka at 02:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This Frontline / American Radio Works radio story on Rwanda contains some new-to-me accusations about UN sanctioned malfeasance (and attendant coverup) in Rwanda.

800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus perished in Rwanda's genocide. It's been more than 10 years since the slaughter and there's much unfinished business. One case involves Callixte Mbarushimana. The charges against him are shocking, even in the context of the horrors that engulfed Rwanda. Mbarushimana worked for the United Nations there. He's accused of lending UN resources to the mass killing and even murdering co-workers.
...
One final note on this story. Callixte Mbarushimana is suing the United Nations for back pay, reinstatement and damages. A UN advisory board has recommended that Mbarushimana receive back pay. But the matter is currently pending before the UN Administrative Tribunal.
...
In 2001, Callixte Mbarushimana was discovered still working for the UN... in Kosovo. Prompted by newspaper reports, the UN detained Mbarushimana and a complex legal battle followed. In the end, a Kosovo court rejected an extradition request from the Rwandan government. Mbarushimana was released and eventually moved to France. The story seemed to end there. But hidden from the public, the UN war crimes tribunal for Rwanda launched a secret investigation of Mbarushimana in May 2001.
...
This past spring the Rwandan government added Callixte Mbarushimana to its list of top genocide suspects living outside the country. Rwandan officials say they are discussing the case with authorities in France and will likely press for his extradition. But relations between Rwanda and France are poor. Meanwhile, a ruling from the United Nations Administrative Tribunal is expected in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: While you're at it, read this excellent Frontline interview with Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, head of the UN Military force in Rwanda.

Posted by darwin at 06:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So remix albums, mash-up and remixes are all the rage these days. Today's post is about two alternative mixes that differ wildly from the album version. Shouts out to the Musical Youth. Pass it on the left.

Powerball 5 by MF Doom and Madlib as (Madvillain) from the December 2002 leaked demo Are Madvillain.

Figaro by MF Doom and Madlib (as Madvillain) from 2004's Madvillainy

As mentioned in the above link "Powerball 5" is from a version of the Madvillain album which leaked when Madlb misplaced it in Brazil, presumably while smoking his daily dose of Crack. He must have had a double dose when he mixed down "Figaro" because his final mix sucks the life out of it. He changes the incredibly dope original intro, drops the castanets back in the mix, takes the grit out of the main loop and drums. He also uses another vocal take and compresses and EQs all the life out of it. The original "Powerball 5" was one of the only tracks that got me hyped on the Madvillain pre-release and Madlib straight up ruined it. When he's on, he's on but man when he's off he way off.

The rest is empty with no brains, but the clever nerd /
The best MC with no chain ya ever heard

Rush by Big Audio Dynamite II from their 1991 album The Globe

Until recently I was unaware of the original cut of "Rush" called "Change of Atmosphere," despite being a fair-to-middling fan of the former. "Change of Atmosphere" is certainly more creative, including a set of spaced out dub choruses and a second breakdown and build over a sample of The Who. One gets the impression that Mick Jones was at the edge of sanity, or at least blunted in the bomb shelter like Madlib. I guess we know what London's Burning, eh? The single mix of "Rush" is a much better pop tune, but it's hard for me to decide which mix I prefer. Both of them have a tearing bassline and real anthem quality, so I'm not sure you can go wrong either way.

Mmm.. I wish I could sing like that /
But not everything is singing, you know /
the only important thing these days is /
rhythm and melody, rhythm.. and melody

Posted by darwin at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, surviving several nuclear winters the dance still lives and breathes in the harsch climate of Scandinavia, and now it's time to show what we got.

Popping Zombies by the Mass Destruction Crew.

These are the best breakdancing zombies I've seen since the video for 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson. Or maybe since 'Evil Dead 2 : Boomstick Boogaloo.'

They have more videos here.

(You should really click that Thriller link..)

Posted by darwin at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was watching UFC 27, and John Peretti made this weird-ass color commentary that I just had to post.

Look At How Sexy He Is! by John Peretti

Here's what was being shown on the screen when Peretti said this :

That's UFC fighter Maurice Smith grappling with his opponent. Is this.. sexy?

Cmon, Maurice, gimme a kiss..

No, really. Give me a kiss!

Gosh. Look how sexy he is! What does this have to do with Mixed Martial Arts? I don't know, but John Paretti and Maurice Smith are CrazySexyCool for sure!

Posted by darwin at 06:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN (Reuters) reports:

A number of Finnish conscripts have been excused their full term of military service because they are addicted to the Internet, the Finnish Defence Forces said on Tuesday. Doctors have found the young men miss their computers too much to cope with their compulsory six months in the forces.

Posted by Mishka at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The File Sharing Experiment is a novel idea, a way to collect (self-reported, but reviewed) statistics and anecdotes about how many people buy things after hearing them online. You know, via that evil piracy that the *AA are always complaining about. Not a bad domain name, either!

Recently, thanks to MP3 blogs, I've purchased an album by Tilly and the Wall and will probably buy this EP by Mary Lou Lord linked from m,fr. It's probably not a coincidence that neither of the CDs are from the RIAA and neither costs $18 at the mall. Welcome to the internet, monopolist assholes!

(With apologies to Bill Hicks for the title of this entry)

Posted by darwin at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I was watching the World Poker Tour and Vegas legend Bob Stupak was playing. He was busted out of the tournament, and here's what he had to say about it :

Go Out Blasting, Never Go Out Calling by Bob Stupak (link is to the book "No Limit: The Rise and Fall of Bob Stupak and Las Vegas' Stratosphere Tower")

Well, that seems like good advice. As Charles Manson said, If you're going to do something, do it witchy. But what is it that gave Bob such confidence to go all in on pocket fives?

Maybe he just felt like he had his.. destiny.. in his own hands.

Posted by darwin at 04:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The mp3 blog world has already given me so much, including the inspiration for this :

Miuzi Weighs A Spoonful by Darwin

Yes, Darwin as in me. Who knew?? Those shoegazing uber-musik-nerds in the audience will already have figured out which two tracks are mashed, but the rest of you will have to click to find out! Lets just say this mix proves the transitive property also applies to weight.

I was unable to find an acapella for the track the vocals come from. It was apparently never issued. Maybe the man will eventually issue all of the bits and pieces. It's possible that he doesn't own the masters for this one, which pretty much means I had to use the full track with the instrumental attached. It's minimal (thank you 80s) and I think it blends in a shibby fashion. Awesomer.

Extra special thanks to whomevers blog linked me to Get Your Bootleg On and to the other blog which reminded me about the track I used for my instrumental. I would link to you, but your entries expired from the prolific MP3blogs.

(If you still don't know which tracks are used, check the extended entry, below.)

"Miuzi Weighs a Ton" by Public Enemy from Yo! Bum Rush The Show!
vs.
"A Spoonful Weighs a Ton" by The Flaming Lips from The Soft Bulletin

So if ya don't know.. well, now ya know.

Posted by darwin at 10:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)