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.
