twelve here, like the number of people on a jury or the current year (or a number with some significance to the mayans) of the wait what wednesday practice. cam and juelz left the club in the middle of an urban dystopia to reconvene with the weeknd at an after hours gathering with the weeknd surrounded by illicit substances to create hey glass table girls.
people forget about cam and juelz, but if you lived in new york and listened to hip hop in the early 2000s, dipset was everywhere. if you guys saw my top albums of 2011, you already know how highly I hold the weeknd — if you haven’t heard house of balloons yet, stop reading this, download it, and play that front to back right now.
the match came about awhile ago, with both songs sharing a sense of hedonism and the feeling of freedom offered by giving oneself to the pursuit of pleasure in the moment. the cover art comes from a fashion show I played in toronto last year where the designer created this surreal environment of dark lighting, candles, and vacant faces.
this last week featured me not sleeping enough, cooking more food for big groups, djing a house party, recording a radio special, and watching the 49ers collapse at several inopportune moments. all in all, things turned out okay — see you guys back here next week.
“got a high tolerance when your age don’t exist,”
charlie
as we’re into the first few weeks of 2012, it’s only right to wrap up the year just past. here are my favorite albums of 2011 — the original list of albums I felt I’d listened to enough this year to consider was over 100 albums, and this here represents my ten favorite, but I surely missed some.if your favorite record isn’t listed below, it may just be at the the honorable mentions at the bottom — and if it’s not, let me know and I’d love to check it out. without further ado, my top ten favorite albums of 2011 — click more; each album can be opened in spotify or soundcloud by clicking the album cover. (more…)
eleven, like my best friend’s favorite number or the number of players on a soccer field, of this wait what wednesday tradition. here we have wiz khalifa hopping on stage at a local theatre in the midst of two door cinema club’s opening track to create black cigarettes in the yellow theatre.
wiz has gotten a lot of prominent placement in mashups, but two door cinema club, surprisingly less so. I really dig both their albums, and the energy match and back and forth of “tell me about your favorite things…black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow” pushed me to make this track. listen to this one in headphones or your car to hear some nice left and right panning.
the cover art is a photo a friend took at a hotel in long beach over the summer — he took a series of awesome shots, and this one of the fallen lamp, rose on the ground, and girl on the move was a cool piece that felt like it fit with this track.
good week: got sponsored by a cool clothing company and rocking new gear. 49ers are playing for the super bowl on sunday; it’s like I’m in middle school again. have a great week, everyone, and see you next week — same spot, same time.
“you don’t got the pasta, you don’t get the pesto,”
charlie
finally hitting double digits here at number 10 — look how fast this little wait what wednesday ritual has grown up. gorillaz started playing a ditty on a casio keyboard when little dragon walked in, shared some melodic heartfelt sentiments, and next thing you know, jay-z was up in the spot dropping that american gangster knowledge to details their dreams of an american ant empire.
I’m a big fan of jay-z’s american gangster album — I think it ranks up there with his best albums (should probably have it higher than it is there, but he’s got a pretty spectacular catalogue), and little dragon has been on the playlist for a bit. no ritual union here, but instead someone I follow on twitter linked to this gorillaz/little dragon song awhile back, and so decided to try it out.
the cover art is of a run to the pier I go to in san francisco with alcatraz in the background. if there were any people on alcatraz (like nic cage or sean connery), they’d probably look like ants in the distance.
returned to stanford this week, am in the midst of figuring out classes, and cooked a meal for a bunch of people. did yoga in a massive cathedral, spent a bunch of time with my parents, and worked on some music and meditation practices, and received a couple intriguing music offers. feeling good about 2012.
“hundred dollars a sock, two ankles — you do the math,”
charlie
here’s nine, like the number of stories salinger combined or the number of the district where they made all the aliens live in that movie a few years ago, in the wait what wednesday saga. phantogram started playing mood music about diamonds and kanye heard it in the distance, ran up, and started rapping to craft mouthful of diamonds in sierra leone.
people often ask how I decide to put two songs together, and it’s usually because two songs share some feeling or one brings out a more subtle element in the other. in this case, the thematic match is pretty obvious, but had been wanting to mash up something with phantogram, and liked how kanye’s voice sounded after the drop.
this week featured a good new year’s eve in sf followed by a 13 hour roadtrip to arizona with three friends and a crushing fiesta bowl (american college football for those unfamiliar). the photo in the art comes from masai mara, in kenya, last year — not exactly sierra leone, but it’s the closest I’ve gotten. I also didn’t have any good shots of all the diamonds I rock on the reg, so went for the african plains shot instead.
here’s number eight, like the number of planets (after pluto got kicked out of the cool kids’ club), in this batch of wait what wednesdays. this here came to be after drake hopped on stage during a gil scott-heron show at the blue note that jamie xx snuck into to make take care of u.
the first music I made so that I could hear a different take on the music I liked, and that sort of explains this week’s track: it’s not a traditional mashup, but more of ‘version vs. version.’ drake originally sampled this gil scott-heron & jamie xx track but got rihanna to sing the hook, but who doesn’t dig gil scott-heron’s voice? I wanted to hear a version with him on the hook — hence this track, here.
the cover art here is from a little beach jaunt I took a couple weeks ago in santa cruz — sneaking around, taking pictures; that sort of thing. have a great new year’s eve, everyone – next wednesday, we’ll be a (calendar) year further into the future.
blowing tiger stripe bubbles with “go to hell” bubblegum,
charlie
biggie once said “you’re nobody til somebody kills you.” for me, the bar for noteworthiness is a little lower, and as a big fan of Wikipedia, I’ve always thought it’d be awesome to have my own page. well, today friends, Christmas came late for me, because there is now a wait what Wikipedia page
there’s some cool tidbits in there about things pre-notorious xx and it goes up until wait what wednesdays, plus there’s another page for the notorious xx. as a nerd, I think this is pretty cool. now if anyone wants to make a page for this is real life or nasd out, that’d be a great new year’s gift…
happy holidays to you and yours; looking forward to dropping this next wait what wednesday track.
-charlie
number seven (wonders of the world/minutes in heaven) of the series to give you one for each day of the week of these wait what wednesdays. this one came about from mos def, kanye, and freeway watching drive and then starting a cipher in the alley behind the movie theater to make two words: night call.
been a pretty good week — saw jay-z and kanye do watch the throne with my best friend, saw oh land play in sf, drove to LA and flew to hawaii with my girlfriend. about to jump off some cliffs into the ocean today, fly home tonight, and work on more music over the next week.
the cover art is of a beach drive around santa cruz a couple weeks ago, and I’d been listening to the drive soundtrack and thinking the synths that open this song could be cool to throw some hip hop over. mos def’s flow at the beginning of this track has that perfect percussive rhythm I was looking for, and thus the full track came to be out of the ether. until next week, happy festivus and all that
dreamchasing is an occupation — those with the job understand the process of manifestation,
six — like flags or sigma — weeks in to this nice little tradition of wait what wednesdays. this one comes to you from jay-z and nas on an introspective tip, shouting from a pulpit in a cavernous cathedral while emancipator directs the orchestra to create father king’s success.
it’s been a fun week — finished up fall quarter at stanford with a total of 75 pages of group and individual papers, on the plane back from New York now after playing the delancey last night (thanks to everyone who made it out, awesome times), seeing a bunch of friends, and splitting time between my old columbia stomping grounds and the LES for a couple days. lots of good catching up.
the cover art is of my dad rocking a dope wait what shirt that he created, and found it only fitting I feature him given this week’s track title. let him know you think he looks fresh on twitter.
been fan of jay-z and nas since I was in seventh grade, and this particular track is often slept on, but I dig it. just found out about emancipator this summer with his awesome mashup of sigur ros and mobb deep — one of my favorite mashups of all time, he did a phenomenal job. this track, father’s king, has been on the study rotation, and I thought it’d provide an awesome backdrop for jay and nas.
I got five on it…here we go with the fifth installment of wait what wednesday, from busta rhymes meeting up with the capital cities crew on a beautiful southern california summer day, breaking out the instruments at a beach house in venice, and putting together dangerous and sound.
the cover art is of me and my best friend david outside a burrito shop after the north beach street fair this summer, looking to buy some $5 burritos. it was david’s birthday three days ago, but that shouldn’t deter you from wishing him a happy birthday on twitter.
I was a fan of the capital cities EP and asked them to open my album release show for me, and they graciously agreed and put on an awesome show. I played this track during soundcheck and they thought it was cool, and so played it during my set and people affirmed their approval by continuing to dance, jump around, and smile when we made eye contact.
I do it for the city ’cause you know the city love it,
charlie
