Lemaitre - Blue Shift (by LemaitreMusic)

•  24 January 2012

JoeyStarr - Métèque (by joeystarrVEVO)

•  24 January 2012

•  24 January 2012

Death In Vegas - Girls (Lost In Translation vinyl version) (by fatcatbuzz)

•  24 January 2012

Analogged-out video for one of my favorite songs ever.

Sun Kil Moon - ‘Carry Me Ohio’ (by accidentsinspace)

•  24 January 2012

Lifelike-So electric (olivia video re-edit) (by sugus06)

•  23 January 2012

UGLY MAC BEER DEMO SCRATCH IN PARIS 2010 (by modougly)

•  23 January 2012

Bibio - Lovers Carvings (by MySawToothMusic)

•  19 January 2012

GLASS CANDY “WARM IN THE WINTER” (by AlbertoRossini)

•  13 January 2012

I could read this dude wax poetic about Gucci Mane all day.

Check it. Especially this take on 2009 Gucci Mane.

•  8 January 2012

•  3 January 2012

Song of the Year
Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass”
Try not to fall in love with her after watching this video. Kane Beats produces an earworm-laced backdrop for Nicki’s personality to shine.

Album of the Year
A.A. Bondy 
Believers 

 
This record is stark, haunting, gorgeous southern gothic. Like Flannery O’Conner set to music. Aching, smoky vocals and guitar lines more emotive than other band’s vocals.    

Rap Producer of the Year
Clams Casino
Super dope mixtape and heat on the solid RockyASAP release, this guy is for real. 

Clams Casino - Realist Alive (Lil B Instrumental) by simplexanonymous

Other strong releases
M83
Hurry Up, I’m Dreaming 

Surfer Blood
Tarot Classics 
Hooks galore and great vocal melodies. Helping redeem Florida in the wake of Flo-rida and Khaled. Every song on this EP is good.

Handsome Furs
Sound Kapital

Jay Z and Kanye
Watch the Throne 
Other than Ninjas in Paris, this album didn’t kill me. But that song is truly amazing, and this ridiculousness of playing multiple times at the same show is totally justified. What was interesting to me was how much Jay and ‘Ye drew from this Nero essential mix that was one of my 2010 faves. There are 3 or 4 blatant references to this mix on Watch the Throne. Dubstep’s influence still echoes.

The Antlers
Burst Apart
This slow burning white boy soul is the best Annie Lennox song not actually sung or written by Annie Lennox. 

Honorable Mention Song
DJ Khaled
I’m on One 
Khaled (what does this guy actually do? He doesn’t rhyme. He doesn’t produce.) somehow gets his name attached to one the best set of hooks and pieces of production of 2011. Best song about getting faded in 2011.

MMG rapper Gunplay never blew this year but I still have high hopes for the first half of 2012.

Books that shifted my thinking:
Jacob Lund Fisker
Early Retirement Extreme: Physicist writes a philosophy book and shakes the foundations of our notions of consumption and income. 

William B. Irvine
Guide to the Good Life
An argument for why you should have a life philosophy and that stoicism just might be the right one. 

Neal Stephenson
Reamde 
Stephenson returns to his Cryptonomicon style. This book is nails.

•  2 January 2012

Cal Newport is a no-nonsense badass. His work focuses on student research but there is much overlap with student entrepreneurship as well.

…when you come up with a project from scratch, in a field where you have little standing, you’re essentially filling in an aspirational Mad Libs — a worthless combination of vague directions and outcomes.

For example…

• Declaring out of the blue, “I want to help [group X] gain more [thing they have limited access to],” is meaningless, equivalent to saying “I want to make the world better!” or “rainbows are nice!”

• On the other hand, going to work for an organization that actually helps that group gain that resource, and learning the intricacies of their world, paying your dues, then eventually introducing some innovations from within: that’s the foundation for then going on to launch a fantastic project on your own.

In my experience, students have been taught to place way too much importance on having the courage to follow their passions and change the world, and not nearly enough importance on having the persistence to first build the needed ability to both find concrete projects that matter and accomplish them.

“Think different,” they’re told, without also being told about the decades it took Steve Jobs to build the experience — often through failure — needed to  transform Apple into the innovative company it became in the last two decades.

Truth.

•  19 December 2011

•  19 December 2011

Glance in the cut and i see my homie nate 

•  18 December 2011