For Your Listening Pleasure

Here are a few songs that I've regularly been jonesin' for during my stay here in Amsterdam.

"Black Mirror" by Arcade Fire – In the last two months, Arcade Fire has become one of my favorite bands. "Black Mirror" blew me away the first time I listened to Neon Bible, their most recent album (which itself is phenomenal).

"Mathematics" by Mos Def – This is one of those songs that you hear and love, only to realize you've had it in your collection (read: iTunes library) for years. Pandora actually reintroduced me to this song and I've been obsessed with it since. There's no official video, so this one will have to do. It's a quirky little montage clip.

"Lucky" by Radiohead – Another older one. I never really paid attention to this song, one of the last on OK Computer, before I heard it used in an episode of Six Feet Under. This video's kind of a downer (and Thom Yorke looks weirder than usual in it). So here's the clip from the show. Even though it's in Spanish, I'm sure you can figure it out.

I'm still wading through the giant selection of CDs that the Amsterdam public library has. I'm due for another trip soon. I'm thinking Clipse and maybe some Bob Dylan (after seeing Watchmen on opening night).

End of the Year Lists

I was in the process of coming up with a "Best Songs of 2008" list, like everyone else on the internets. But when I realized that I was struggling to come up with even ten songs that belong on the list, I figured I should stop. Instead of coming up with a list of best songs – because (a) that's stupid and (b) everyone makes the lists to show everyone else how "cool" their musical tastes are – I'm just going to share my favorite song of the year: "Get Busy" by the Roots, featuring Dice Raw and Peedi Peedi. Happy new years!



With its primitive drums (courtesy ?uestlove) and dirty synths, the song's menacing beat is the perfect example of the atmosphere that the Roots crew created in Rising Down: dark, compact, and heavy. Every verse is flawless, and it's near-impossible to pick a favorite line. But if I had to choose, I'd say this Dice Raw rhyme is hard to beat: "I'm kind of like W.E.B. Dubois [pronounced "Du-boys"], meets Heavy D and the Boyz." Along with Black Thought's "My squad's half-mandrill, half-Mandela" and "Part Melle-Mel, part Van Halen," the lyrical content in "Get Busy" pretty much sums up what The Roots is all about. To top it off, DJ Jazzy Jeff (of ...and the Fresh Prince fame) makes a guest appearance to scratch on the song's bridge. Basically, "Get Busy" is the perfect hip-hop song.

I would have picked "Rising Down," simply because it has the one of Mos Def's best verses ever, and the beat is as good as – if not better than – "Get Busy," but I just couldn't because of how awful Styles P is in the song. So, here's a live version without him!