Okay, I've accepted that I'm a day behind now, but I'll catch up ASAP.



MP3 Stars - "Ageless Beauty"
After the uplifting ending of track six, we keep the vibe going with another dose of extreme pop bliss with this ethereal Amy Millan-helmed track from Broken Social Scene associates Stars. The abfab follow-up to 2003's Heart LP, their latest record was a 2004 release in their native Canada, but didn't find its way into most American hipsters' hands until spring 2005. "Ageless Beauty" was the natural lead single off Set Yourself on Fire, standing out much like the incredible "Elevator Love Letter" did on Heart. It's an all-out blast of energy, but Millan's gorgeous vocals adds a precious quality that comes together as pure bliss. The layered production really sells it, as the song (unfortunately) is hard-pressed to live up to it's studio version when played live, which I found out in the spring. Perhaps the vocals weren't mixed properly at the 400 Bar (extremely possible), but Millan's voice had to fight through the wall of sound coming from the rest of the band alone, so it's understandible of course (and Stars are fantastic live, fwiw).



M4V Stars - "Ageless Beauty" (19.3mb, iPod ready)
Here is the song's music video, directed by BSS & Feist collaborator George Vale. His personal site is now hidden behind a password (bandwidth issues?), but you can find links to some of his other work at videos.antville.org, including an entire video based on a shot from Eternal Sunshine.



MP3 Danger Doom (f/Cee-Lo) - "Benzie Box"
After the pop climax of "Ageless Beauty", I felt it was time to switch things up. Enter prolific undie hip-hopper MF Doom & the acclaimed DJ Dangermouse, who teamed up with [adult swim] of all things to drop the most fun rap album of the year, The Mouse & The Mask. Fresh off producing the outstandind Demon Days, the second album for Blur frontman Damon Albarn's cartoon-related Gorillaz project, Dangermouse linked his much anticipated collaboration with mask-donning MC Daniel Dumile to Cartoon Network's late nite, adult-oriented programming block, using characters from shows like ATHF, Sealab, Harvey Birdman & more to make the usual skits on hip-hop albums a whole lot more amusing & entertaining. And thus, Danger Doom was born. While I could have picked a track that featured more [adult swim] content, I chose the Cee-Lo Green-guested "Benzie Box" simply because it's the song that got stuck in my head more often than the others. Danger Doom is reportedly going to tour & record another album in 2006, which is most certainly encouraging news IMO.

ETA: Just stumbled across this animated video for the Aqua Teen track:

MOV Danger Doom - "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" (8.2mb)



DISC ONE
Track 01: The Constantines - "Draw Us Lines"
Track 02: Spoon - "The Beast & Dragon, Adored"
Track 03: The Russian Futurists - "Our Pen's Out of Ink"
Track 04: Broken Social Scene - "7/4 (Shoreline)"
Track 05: Bunky - "Chuy"
Track 06: The New Pornographers - "The Bleeding Heart Show"



bonus MP3 Eddie Horst - "Love Theme from Perfect Hair Forever"
I did consider posting Danger Doom's "Perfect Hair", which references what is possibly [adult swim]'s most bizarre (yet somehow hilariously genius) show, Perfect Hair Forever. Until it became a full series in the last couple of weeks, PHF was a strange one-off show poking fun at "young man's journey" anime tales that aired in November 2004 in place of another show (Squidbillies) that missed its deadline. This was followed by an equally odd segment of Space Ghost featuring ATHF's Meatwad, Sealab's annoying Sharkboy & one of the Squidbillies on a panel not discussing the previous segment (which was supposedly the topic) and ending in a shotgun-fueled bloodbath. Weird, no? But it was friggin' hard to forget. Anyway, this bizarre song (with these bizarre lyrics) played over PHF's closing credits & I snagged off the [adult swim] website. Hopefully it provides a chuckle or two.

ETA: MF Doom voices a talking giraffe, animal sidekick to Young Man.

This entry was posted by mr gilbert at 12/07/2005 03:00:00 AM.