vain, selfish & lazy.

Wednesday, November 22, 2000

DAFT PUNK ft. ROMANTHONY, "ONE MORE TIME"
in 1999, thomas bangalter, one half of daft punk, under the guise of stardust, released the single "music sounds better with you," which ended up being one of the year's biggest dance hits. bangalter was reportedly offered 3 million dollars to produce a stardust album, but declined. now, bangalter along with guy fabulous*, dormant since the release of 1997's homework, have released "one more time" featuring new jersey garage singer/producer romanthony. what one would call the "daft punk" sound -- chunky, mechanic, heavy bottom -- was sampled liberally by mirwais on madonna's chart-topping "music," so, for this single at least, the guys steer clear of it: in many ways, "one more time" is what one would imagine the never-recorded stardust album would sound like.

like "music sounds better...," "one more time" has a very old-school disco feel with its four-on-the-floor beat and horn samples, but whereas the stardust hit struck me as very rigid and repetitive -- more experiment than song -- "one more time" is looser and more fun. paradoxically, it's also the better crafted song: the build-up at the end is great, even though it takes its sweet time.

i don't quite yet know what the upcoming daft punk album will sound like: if it'll be closer to stardust or if it'll be more akin to homework. regardless, in these heady times, daft punk -- a less crass fatboy slim and a more soulful moby -- are putting the fun in funk. what more could you ask for in your dance music?

*fabulous isn't his real last name. it's quite long and has a hyphen in it, but "fabulous" works just as well, i think.
-fred solinger | steal this link!

new mixtape: here's what i put together last night. you'll notice that the first half is quite piano-intensive, and i assure you that that wasn't intentional.

side a:
barry white, "you're the first, the last, my everything"
ricky martin, "she bangs"
little richard, "long tall sally"
terence trent d'arby, "if you let me stay"
oasis, "don't look back in anger"
bruce springsteen, "backstreets"
public enemy, "black steel in the hour of chaos"
wu-tang clan, "protect ya neck (the jump off)"
elvis costello, "no action"
outkast, "humble mumble"
david bowie, "always crashing with the same car"

side b:
backstreet boys, "shape of my heart"
u2, "walk on"
blur, "tender"
buffalo springfield, "expecting to fly"
dusty springfield, "i just don't know what to do with myself"
blur, "the universal"
elvis costello w/burt bacharach, "God give me strength"
joe tex, "love you save (may be your own)"
otis redding, "dreams to remember"
lou reed, "september song"
neil young, "winterlong"
-fred solinger | steal this link!

Tuesday, November 21, 2000

i've got tivo: well, i won a tivo from the essay contest thing they're doing. i'm probably not supposed to post what i wrote because it's no longer my property or something, but not knowing for sure, here's the entry. the question: how could tivo help you revel in your favorite television rivalries? (n.b.: the below is somewhat fictional: while i am a fiscal conservative, i did not vote for george bush and, frankly, i don't care who wins the election now.)

In our apartment, the battle lines are clearly drawn. No, we're not talking sports here, or even religion, though some might call it just that. No, we're talking about our nation’s oldest pastime: politics. I am a staunch Republican and my girlfriend is a bleeding-heart, let’s-set-all-of-the-prisoners-free-and-cripple-our-military Democrat. Given our nation's current state of affairs, I really don't need to say much more than that, but in the interests of demonstrating how great having a TiVo would've been on Election Night and, hey, let's face it, winning one, I'll continue.

With the ability to pause and instant replay live TV, TiVo would've been a godsend for me at about, oh, 2:30 Wednesday morning. That was, you may recall, when the networks gave the election to George W. Bush. So you could imagine the fun I would've had with that...until I took it too far, as I’m sure I would’ve, and the TiVo would've ended up flying out of the window. Or she could’ve had fun herself replaying the networks recanting on Florida again – whatever that’s about, damn pinko media. Beyond that, while we watched one network, TiVo could've taped another network's coverage and we could've had that to watch the next night! Just because Election Night’s passed doesn’t mean the fun is over; TiVo is great the whole year ‘round. And besides, it doesn’t look like we’re going to have a President anytime soon.
-fred solinger | steal this link!