I Want You Back (Z-Trip Remix) Download Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (Original Demo) Download I Can’t Help It (Tangoterje Remix) Download Rock With You (House Remix) Download They Don’t Care About Us (DJ Lt. Dan Remix) Download
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Don’t get me wrong. I had only a grain-of-sand sized belief that Michael Jackson would ever be relevant to my life again, at least from a musical perspective. Certainly, the tabloid drama that was his life continues to enthrall, but it never overshadowed the breathtaking catalog of recordings that he drove into creation.

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		Playa Playa Download Devil’s Pie Download One Mo’Gin Download Untitled (How Does It Feel) Download Album: Voodoo (2000)
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Where did you go, D’Angelo? The gossip says you had/have a drug problem, your MySpace blog chalks it up to you being “a deliberate guy,” and the pictures are disheartening, check the before and after:

With Beck, about a decade ago

2005 mugshot

After the monumental achievement that was 2000’s Voodoo, we’ve heard next to nothing from you. I hazily remember you getting arrested a few years ago with some weed and powder, but musically it’s been pretty sparse: choruses on unmemorable hip hop throwaways, one stellar track ("Water Get No Enemy" from a 2002 Fela tribute album), and a handful of other crap that was a waste of your blessings.

I’ll stop ranting atcha, D, but I gotta admit — it feels good to vent.

Despite my bitterness, I still haven’t soured on Voodoo. It stands out as one of the best albums of the hip hop era — others may have dropped more hits, but there are only a handful who put out a long-player that was coherent and listenable from start to finish.

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Amateur – Lasse Gjertsen
An absolutely incredible achievement in video editing.

Phil Spector Mug Shot
How could a face like that be guilty?

Obama Depressed, Distant Since ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Series Finale
I feel your pain, Mr. President

South Park creators given signed photo of Saddam Hussein
I wonder if Saddam found “Uncle Fucka” as catchy as I did.

Wikipedia Entry on CAPTCHA
At my job, we had to integrate a CAPTCHA with one of our web applications. Curious about its etymology, I LOL’d when I discovered it was an acronym.

“Let It Whip” on Soul Train
I know I included a link to this in my recent Musical Cousins blog post, but I just can’t stop watching it.

		Nostalgia 77 (w/Alice Russell) Seven Nation Army Download
		Tender Forever My Love Download
		B.Cause (w/The Whitefield Brothers & The Dazz Band) Let It Whip Download
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I’m gonna switch things up on Musical Cousins. Usually, I do a modernish song that contains a sample from a slightly less modern song. Not this time. The tracks offered up in this post are all cover versions that sound as if they were released before the original. Allow me to demonstrate.

The first selection is a cover of The White Stripes’s “Seven Nation Army.” When I heard the original way back in 2003, I remember thinking that it could have been released decades earlier; an instant 5-star classic. A few years later, I heard this cover version by UK producer Benedic Lamdin (who records under the moniker Nostalgia 77) and I actually believed that The White Stripes covered an obscure 70s soul song. With fiery vocals by fellow Brit Alice Russell (who sounds like Irma Thomas but looks kinda like a young Courtney Love) and a slowed-down bluesy groove, this is one remake that is on par with the original.

Exhibit B is a novelty interpretation of the Justin Timberlake track “My Love,” recorded by the lo-fi French (by way of Portland, OR) act Tender Forever. Singer/ukulele player Melanie Valera changes my perception of this song with her childlike sweetness. Timbaland’s bold production on the original feels like it comes from the future, but this cover version hearkens back to 60s folk.

The final selection is not exactly a cover, but a radical remix of The Dazz Band’s 80s classic “Let It Whip” by San Francisco producer B.Cause. Clearly, B.Cause is a skilled technician, slowing down a track form German funkmeisters The Whitefield Brothers and blending it with what I believe to be the a cappella version of the original single; it’s an absolutely perfect fit. (By the way, check out this retro clip from Soul Train featuring the original version by The Dazz Band.)

		You Make Me Feel So Young Download All Of Me (Instrumental) Download Angel Eyes Download Album: Sinatra At The Sands (1966)
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It’s been awhile since I’ve spotlighted my collection of recorded live albums, so I’ve dug up a killer LP from the legendary Frank Sinatra. As if that wasn’t enough of a draw, he’s accompanied by Count Basie and his orchestra, with songs arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones. Wow, that’s a lot of talent in one room.

Recorded in early 1966 at Las Vegas’s Sands Hotel (Sinatra had an ownership stake in the Sands until Howard Hughes bought it a year later), this was Sinatra’s first live album. Sinatra, Basie, and Jones had previously collaborated on the studio album, It Might As Well Be Swing, which produced the huge hit, “Fly Me To The Moon.

As you can imagine, Sinatra in Vegas was a huge event, and the packed crowd is ecstatic. As expressed by Stan Cornyn in the liner notes for Sinatra At The Sands, “Two thousand knees with nowhere to go.”

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