RIP Club Queen K-Swift

I have very few words. I grew up listening to K-Swift, taping her shows and blasting The Wakeup Workout on the ride to school. This is a tragic loss for everyone in Baltimore, and for those elsewhere who have come to know the music she devoted her life to promoting.

new adam gonzo mix "comfy in remington"

We know this. Download that noise here.

Mr. Gonzo at right, also pictured with one Ms. Emily Rabbit and what appears to be the REAL Johnny Siera in the background (not Impostor Johnny)

HOLD ON TO YOUR ASS

It's time to get down.

the accessory of the season

Is apparently a multi-hundred dollar piece of fabric with logos on it.

T.I. feat. Swizz Beatz - Swing Your Rag (Louis Rag) courtesy Free Rap Hop NEW link
Soulja Boy, Gucci Mane & Shawty Lo - Gucci Bandana courtesy These Rocks Pop

contemplating massive format overhaul

Stay tuned as I contemplate a more mp3-intensive format.

Sorry for the lack of posts.

snap it, pop it

Rockin' image by Saskia Coulson.

So I finally made a muxtape for the Loonsphere! All songs referencing gum. A lot of delicious weirdness going on for you:

http://songsaboutgum.muxtape.com/

sixteen at war

As you are abundantly aware, I am an absolute sucker for all the teenage hiphop pop out right now. Li'l Mama and Soulja Boy sent us on an irreversible trajectory that has led to a flood of hot hooks and crazy lyrics, referencing everything from umbrellas & suicide to Google.

The latest jewel in my playlist is from Karina Pasian, whose single "16 at War" has some of the absolute heaviest lines I've heard delivered in a pop song in the past decade:

"Ain’t no daddies where I’m from, it’s just mad mothers
And eyes that still seem they can’t look past color
Why am I disrespected by someone I should call brother?
And why girls feel unpretty and constantly hate each other?
Bad air in my lungs, man I can’t breathe
My eyes burnin’ from all the dirt and the debris
And it’s third degree, I’m motionless on the scene
It’s like a disease the way ya’ll killin’ me"

Extrapolated to the fullest, the song addresses the effect of the prison system on black men, single motherhood, racism internal and otherwise, sexism, misogyny, pollution and the general despair of city life all within the first 45 seconds. And the beat ain't bad either.

I seriously almost had to pull over when I heard this on the radio. Is more messagepop to come our way? Will it be this catchy? I certainly hope so. It's as close as this plastic age will get to Marvin Gaye.

Get the message:
Karina Pasian - 16 at War

muxtape.com

Loving it and its interface. So clean and minimal, and all the mixes are just so... sincere. Except the ones that include Vampire Weekend, that is.

Here are the muxes from a few friends, I'll make a Loon one soon:

thegreensweater.muxtape.com
noahsense.muxtape.com
maxw.muxtape.com
amenbmen.muxtape.com

Someone also made a sweet Baltimore sampler you should check out: baltimore.muxtape.com

thursday march 27th at lo-fi social club is the REAL spring equinox, people

Soon it'll be all man-capris and peeps in sleeveless! Baltimore is alive again.

I don't know who did the flyer but I would love to credit them!

http://www.myspace.com/lofisocialclub
http://www.myspace.com/thedeathset
http://www.myspace.com/mattandkim

BONUS: Here's the rad Death Set video for "Negative Thinking" - this shit is a total yearbook, made all the more meaningful by the recent demise of Polaroid film.

it's the freakin' weekend

Friday:

Saturday:

Sunday:

Survey says: hell yes!

i'm on the internet, bitch!

The 92Q DJs keep dropping Teyana Taylor's "Google Me" and I am not mad at that one bit. This plus the new Mariah joint where she namechecks Youtube? Priceless zeitgeist pop, people.



Download: Teyana Taylor - Google Me

honoring re-up requests

Just re-upped all the songs from the Fruit Sampler post from last July:

Le Pamplemousse - You Can Get Off On The Music
*Kicks Leg In Air* - Cherries One Mile
Mandrill - Mango Meat
The Quick - Bert's Apple Crumble

once upon a time...

Name removed but it was for me - believe.
A very lovely friend of mine hung out with my new favorite, El Guincho, at SXSW. Mr. Guinch is the new mega-hot shit.

Seriously: act like you know. Everyone with half a brain cell will be bumping his album Alegranza at their spring BBQs.

Hop like a rabbit around the house:
El Guincho - Cuando Maravilla Fui

weekend migration: the loon flies north

Tonight in Baltimore:

Saturday in Philly:

Sunday in NYC:
Giddy up!

Especially excited as it may be Glass Candy's only shows this year! Also - DJ Sega is effing BANANAS - you must peep his stuff. He's on some kind of wunderkind hiphop Bad Boy Bill shit.

forgiveness for david cross

We need to leave the whole Alvin and the Chipmunks flap behind us.

How could anyone remain mad at Mr. Cross after his most recent turns on Tim and Eric Awesome Show and his tour de force performance as ScabCat???


Skip along with your fuzzy self:
Mr. Scruff - Chipmunk

this is not a post about resolving to quit smoking

The Loon never really makes New Years resolutions, not as such. Instead of resolving to quit smoking this year, I have simply vowed to cash in on my years of generosity to drunkards and pay for them less.

Given that Maryland is implementing a smoking ban at some point this year (I had thought Jan. 1 but apparently not!), this will prove more difficult and eventually lead to a functional shortage on my part, as I have already reduced my smoking habit to a drinking/bar/pool table accessory.

We shall see though. I've been lucky enough to be such a casual smoker, so I may never give it up wholesale.

Hell, I may just end up like Father Loon with his cigars, only indulging in the fairest of months, stoically surveying a bit of grilled meat and puffing my lone torch.

That wouldn't be so bad, would it?

The Webs - It's So Hard To Break A Habit, from Lovefingers.

vying for the title of "stupidest thing ever said about music"

Quoth John Mayer:

"Pete Wentz has a truckload of ideas. Big, bold, colorful ideas. They’re ideas that have never once had their edges sanded down, and for that reason some people might find him or his band too much to swallow. You know who else had that going for them in their day? Frank Zappa."

He's trying to steal the crown from Chris Martin, who brought us this gem:

"I love the idea that they're Kraftwerk but nobody really knows who they are. They're like the original Gorillaz. Or the electronic Beatles."

Even funnier though is that Mr. Mayer wrote this nugget on his personal blog in a post about the word DOUCHEBAG.

Thanks for clearing it up.

do NOT sleep on the new snoop dogg video

For the past month I was really skeptical about Snoop's new song "Sensual Seduction" - why the modulated vocals? Why emulate Akon when his star has so clearly gone white dwarf? Was this a tie-in with his questionable new TV show?

In fact, I had written it off completely upon hearing that a favorite local radio DJ panned it in private company. But much like "Duffle Bag Boy" the more I heard it on the airwaves the more I loved it.

"Okay, I really like the music," I said to myself, bobbing along late to work, looking for parking.

"I really like the lyrics," I later confessed over drinks. Who doesn't blush a little in remembering that special someone you couldn't stop being horizontal for?

But then I saw THE VIDEO.



Holy fucking crap. This is easily top ten of 2007. Will we be getting more like this?

Here's the making-of video:

christmas songs that don't suck, part 4

Part 4: A Very Hip Hop Christmas

It is rather amazing how many hip hop artists have dropped Christmas songs, but more amazing than that is which ones...

2 Live Crew - 2 Live Christmas (omg!)
Run DMC - Christmas in Hollis (the gold standard)
Juice Crew - Cold Chillin' Christmas
Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin'
Snoop Dogg - How We Kick It On Christmas (this is just plain silly)

Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here.

i heart nj

New Jersey Governor John Corzine just effectively halted the death penalty in the state, taking the country one miniscule step closer to the post-Medieval era.

Remember when Arnold Schwarzenegger's hometown pretty much disowned him over this? Time to get with the program, other states. Even if you don't give a fuck about state-sponsored vengeance killing, the numbers are there - it often costs taxpayers more to put prisoners on death row than to jail them for life.

There are still myriad heinous problems with our prison system however, and I hope this is not a landmark event, but a mere spark igniting a larger reform.

Rattle the bars:
Honey Bane - Guilty (look around for more of her, you will like)

UPDATE 12/19
Fuck it, why not, have the dub version too, from the same 7 inch.
Honey Bane - Guilty (Dub)