Daichi - Some of the best beatboxing I've ever seen

I've noticed that people (well.. youths?) seem to universally appreciate breaking and beatboxing. Breaking, well, people do seem to like dance in general (cue the huge popularity of Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance), but the average person seems to be way more interested in watching someone, break, then attending some dance rehearsal at a theatre. (Crystal, remember the ballet of the penises? haha) Beatboxing, everybody loves -- you'll find more people willing to listen to beatboxing more than people willing to listen to someone toot the clarinet, for example.

Anyways, that was kind of a digression. My bad. Below is some of the best beatboxing I've ever seen. This guy is way better than the guy on that French talent show, for example. His scratching is just unbelievable, and he even throws in a little Eye of the Tiger. A kid from Japan, not exactly an English major, and he knows Eye of the Tiger and beatboxes it in there. Sweet.

And this is all with no mic, too.

Enrique Iglesias - Hero

During the video, you'll notice that Enrique is, hrm, splayed across one damnably hot Jennifer Love Hewitt. (PS, it'd be sweet if you could chime in on this, if you're reading this. Apparently she's one of those girls, where guys think she's way hotter than girls do. Crystal and I have this debate about Megan Fox.) Anyways, so he's splayed across, just on her, on a big ol' bed.

Like, what do you do/say if you get, a, little happy during that?



My brother suggested to me to post this. Coincidentally, it's also known as my (sigh) karaoke song. Probably because Enrique is kind of a...ah... limited singer. He doesn't have the most range in the world, yeah. An interesting thing about this video is that it's really timeless. It was filmed in 2001, and unlike a lot of other videos from back then, it doesn't look dated at all. Think about it - if this was a new song, a new video -- it wouldn't look out of place at all.

Hell, the evil boss guy in the video, he's even played by Mickey Rourke. That Enrique kid, maybe he was onto something. ....hahahaha right.

But yeah, I do dig the song.

Auto-Tune the News #2: pirates. drugs. gay marriage.

So, Auto-Tune. Auto-Tune is where T-Pain comes from. Where Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreaks comes from. A big part to why Britney Spears or Avril Lavigne, don't sound the same way live, as they do on the radio.

You might hate Auto-Tune. Many do. Many say it promotes untalented hacks, that it enables labels to just push the pitchless young boys and girls that they wanna push.

Too bad you'd be wrong.

Well actually, you'd be right, but my ahem point was that Auto-Tune is sweet. Watch the below video and you will see why.

If you have a short attention span, skip to 1:21.
"Very-thin-ice" "Very-thin-ice" "Very-thin-ice"

Stars - Going, Going, Gone (Live) - Sad Robots EP

Remember to click HQ.

Hey There Iginla - Arun Lakra & Shubh Sindhu

"Hey There Iginla" is a parody of "Hey There Delilah" that, flatly, kicks ass.



As written about in the Calgary Herald (http://www.calgaryherald.com/Entertainment/Flames+song+scores+online+fame/1491245/story.html), Hey There Iginla has GOT to be this year's Flames playoff song. Released just a few days ago on April 8th, it's since exploded in popularity, with about 45,000 views as of right now, and featured on canada.com, CTV, the Calgary Herald, the Calgary Sun, played on CJAY92, and so on. Way better than that piece of turd that is "Flames Face". I read somewhere that "Hey There Iginla" was the 52nd most popular video in Canada last week.

It's also demonstratively Canadian, in that it's sung by Shubh Sindhu, brother of the guy who wrote it, Arun Lakra. Go mulitcultural Canada! My brother's observation that brown people love hockey is, uhm, "anecdotally proven", yet again. Also fitting everyone's stereotypes, Arun is a medical doctor and Shubh, an engineer.

Arun Lakra, opthamologist turned songwriting sensation:

Mad World - Gary Jules

Famous for it's use in Donnie Darko and Gear of War, Gary Jules' Mad World is a song that's haunting, melodic and unsettling. In a weird way, I also find it pretty catchy...



Bonus: A song that I admit to really liking. HOWEVER, Colin and Steph, I still deny your assertion that she is amazing because she writes her own songs and plays the guitar. A million billion songwriters do...

...Of course, actually playing the guitar is more than I've managed to do. cry

The Beatles - I Saw Her Standing There

A classic. Not that there isn't plenty of fantastic music these days, but I definitely think that music like this, isn't made anymore.

Coheed and Cambria - Welcome Home

Coheed and Cambria redefine "epic". The band's music is full of vicious guitar solos, wailing vocals, and hymnic choral chants. Pretty much perfect for getting pumped before a big game, an intense workout, or as epic backing music -- see below.

I'd say Led Zeppelin is a good comparison. A little more "post-hardcore"ish. (Yes, I agree, saying post-anything is kind of a pretentious music critic douchebaggery move.)

Last.fm suggests you might like Coheed and Cambria if you like:
3, The Dear Hunter, The Mars Volta, Circa Survive





And here's an example of using Welcome Home as backing music. The trailer for Tim Burton's upcoming 9:



Looks sick.

Kid Cudi - Day N Nite

Moh showed me this Day N Nite one random day. I always give that overachieving bastard a hard time, but he was damned right about this track. I challenge you to give it a listen and not have that beat + chorus in your head all day. Kid Cudi is an organic success story-- he put out a mixtape, Kanye West got ahold of it, and the rest is history.

You might like Day N Nite - Kid Cudi if you like:
N.E.R.D., Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, Daft Punk, Ratatatat



Bonus! Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen trailer with Kid Cudi's "Sky Might Fall" backing it. I could listen and watch nerd-hiphop + robots all day.

Metric - Gimme Sympathy

It was summer 2004 and Metric (and Emily Haines) was my first real music crush.

After watching this video... she still is.

You might like Metric if you like:
Stars, Broken Social Scene, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Postal Service, The Killers