Toronto's Young Empires send us straight to the dancefloor with this mixtape for The Block. www.myspace.com/youngempires
01. Sabali (Vitalic Remix) - Amadou & Miriam
02. Lies (Herve Remix) - Fenech-Soler
03. Hour of the Wolf (Lifelike Remix) - Adam Kesher
04. Dance the Way I Feel (Armand Van Helden Remix) - Ou Est Le Swimming Pool
05. Snake Charmer - Bag Raiders
06. Wait & See - Holy Ghost!
07. All Night (Azari & III Remix) - Voltage
08. You Know I Know It - Tensnake
09. La Mezcla - Michel Cleis
10. Rain of Gold (French Horn Rebellion Remix) - Young Empires
On her single “MCs Can Kiss,” Uffie gets defensive straight from the get-go. “I’m an entertainer, not a lyricist” she rap-sings, atop Mr. Oizo’s hard-hitting, bouncy beats. The 22-year-old resident vixen of Ed Banger Records has received much flack for her bratty party girl antics since her career began in 2004 after she organized a fashion event and booked producer Feadz to spin. The pair started dating (they were linked until 2008), and Uffie wound up supplying vocals to some of Feadz’s tracks, including “Pop the Glock” and “Uffie & Me,” as well as Justice’s “Tthhee Ppaarrttyy,” all of which became dancefloor staples as the Parisian electro scene picked up steam. Ultimately, it matters not that Uffie’s persona overshadows her actual music. Her unique voice is like a futuristic, mutant version of Debbie Harry’s rap on “Rapture” – and it has launched her into full-on muse status.
Canadian alt-rock collective Broken Social Scene, currently promoting new album Forgiveness Rock Record, are finally set to debut their film project with Hard Core Logo director Bruce McDonald. Screening exclusively at 92YTribeca in New York (today and June 17) and at NXNE in Toronto (June 17), This Movie Is Broken chronicles the band’s July 11, 2009 Harbourfront performance. Though the film is set against the love story of fictional characters Bruno and Caroline, it’s really McDonald’s homage to Toronto.
This Movie Is Broken opens in limited release on June 25 in Vancouver and Toronto.
Buffalo Stance by Buraka Som Sistema
Directed by Anthony Burrill
In Issue 21 of The Block, we told you all about how as part of Dr. Martens’ 50-year anniversary celebrations, the footwear brand commissioned a bevy of musicians to produce videos of classic tracks. Here’s one of those vids: Buraka Som Sistema’s cover of Neneh Cherry’s “Buffalo Stance,” directed by Anthony Burrill. We think it’s smokin’ (not cokin’).
In the traditional sense of the word, Tanlines – the musical duo that is Jesse Cohen and Eric Emm – is not exactly a band. They certainly do make music: Emm is a veteran guitarist, formerly for the bands Storm & Stress and Don Caballero; Cohen was raised on the drums and keyboard (most recently playing for the band Professor Murder); and Tanlines’ debut EP, Settings (True Panther), thumps with electrifyingly diverse instrumentation – bongos and steel drums convene with airy guitars, hooky synth riffs, and thumping bass lines to create a sort of tropical disco dance party. But Cohen and Emm barely play any actual instruments on the album. Like a growing number of young experimental DIY pop musicians, they translate their musical ideas from their brains straight to their super high-tech computers. “For us, the writing and the recording process are the same,” says Emm. “I think the evolution of our band is kind of the opposite of the historical evolution of a band. With a band, you start out writing music in a practice space and then go to a studio. We go to the studio first.
LCD Soundsystem – Drunk Girls
Directed by Spike Jonze and James Murphy
Forget those mopey Wild Things and their existential crises: Spike Jonze’s new music video for LCD Soundsystem’s “Drunk Girls” (co-directed by frontman James Murphy) features a goon squad of pandas really getting wild. They’re hilariously creepy, but since we don’t like being egged and tied up with duct tape, we won’t be inviting these party animals over anytime soon.
Over at Block HQ, we’ve got Issue 21’s mix tape stuck on repeat. No surprise: it was created by super-talented Aussie trio Midnight Juggernauts. The three, Andrew Szekeres, Vincent Vendetta, and Daniel Stricker, have done a pile of notable remixes (The Presets’ “Down Down Down” and Cut Copy’s “Hearts On Fire,” among others), while the music they’ve put together as a three-piece electropop act has been burning up dancefloors since 2004. In the leadup to the May 28th release of their new album, The Crystal Axis, we asked Stricker, the band’s drummer, a few questions.
There’s something about the joyful psychedelia of Animal Collective that gets us all wide-eyed and giddy (and maybe a little dry-mouthed, but that’s a minor side effect). So you can only imagine how excited we are to let the band guide us through a totally immersive sensory experience at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Issue 20 of The Block features a photo shoot by ioulex of costumes designed by Christian Joy, or CJ (as she’d rather be called). The interview accompanying the shoot covers a lot of ground, from CJ’s past in fashion retail to her ascent to indie fashion It Girl while costuming the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O. We talked so much, in fact, that we couldn’t include everything in the magazine.
Meet CFCF, AKA Mike Silver. By now you may have heard his lush disco-textured debut album Continent; if not, you’re missing out on a lot of time you could be spending lying on your duvet thinking about twinkling stars, raindrops sliding down panes of glass, and people running slow-mo through sun-dappled meadows. (It’s dreamy stuff.) But before CFCF was making his spacey, atmospheric electronic music, the 21-year-old Montrealer was remixing other people (including Sally Shapiro, The Presets, HEALTH, The Teenagers, and Hearts Revolution). That’s why, for our Fame Issue, The Block asked CFCF to create a custom mix tape. Check it out, and just try to keep a grip on reality.
FOLLOW US
ON TWITTER
LIKE US
ON FACEBOOK
THE BLOCK MIXTAPE
by Young Empires
Mixtape: Young Empires
Toronto's Young Empires send us straight to the dancefloor with this mixtape for The Block.
www.myspace.com/youngempires
01. Sabali (Vitalic Remix) - Amadou & Miriam
02. Lies (Herve Remix) - Fenech-Soler
03. Hour of the Wolf (Lifelike Remix) - Adam Kesher
04. Dance the Way I Feel (Armand Van Helden Remix) - Ou Est Le Swimming Pool
05. Snake Charmer - Bag Raiders
06. Wait & See - Holy Ghost!
07. All Night (Azari & III Remix) - Voltage
08. You Know I Know It - Tensnake
09. La Mezcla - Michel Cleis
10. Rain of Gold (French Horn Rebellion Remix) - Young Empires
Download