Sunday Recording

Princeton - Calypso Gold

Since when did being prep become so incredibly hip? With the emergence of bands like Vampire Weekend promoting their brand of Ivy League high fashion and music, the trend is slowly assimilating into the overall domineering indie mindset. It can only be a matter of time before "The Harvard Rowing Club" releases their debut album, but until that happens, we can find ourselves thoroughly satisfied with Princeton's "Calypso Gold."

The eclectic mix of Afro-Caribbean percussion, vibrant classical strings, playful lyricism and subtle baritone vocals fuse to provide an intricately soothing piece of music. The songs open with percussion and within a few seconds, bursts into a cheery, exotic melody accentuated with fragile lyrical serenades. Every tap of the keyboard complements the vocals, only to dissolve as quickly as they've begun and flourish into gentle string arrangements. Imagine every Oxford-and-collared-shirt-wearing-band you think can of, but a little more polished and a little less self-aware and you've got Princeton. The Los Angeles band has come a long way from their debut album and there could be no better proof of that than "Calypso Gold." Cheers to them.

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Vampire Weekend - Horchata

So I finally got around to listening to "Horchata," the most prominently featured and blogged about track off of Vampire Weekend's new album "Contra." It woefully pains the indie-hipster part of me to say I was pretty damn disappointed. I'm not the biggest Vampire Weekend fan by any means; in fact, I ostensibly opposed the hype surrounding the release of their debut album, "Vampire Weekend." But... because I couldn't beat 'em, I joined 'em, and they earned their rightful chance to grow on me.

And here we are, only...

"Horchata" seems to be a bit of a stretch for Vampire Weekend. It takes their laidback, summery afro-pop influences and touches them up with a heavier emphasis on synthesizers and symphonic / ambient sounds, but in the most tiresome, difficult way. The style IS mind-blowingly Vampire Weekend, and if you know them, you'll know what I mean once you listen to this track. As my situation concerning Vampire Weekend was prior to this, it just might have to grow on me, but with it's abrupt ending, painstakingly pretentious lyrics and over-relaxed / pseudo-cultural vibe, the days to come aren't looking the brightest for "Contra."

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If a frog can do it, so can I / The Shins - Australia

The more I play "Australia" by The Shins, the more I want to learn how to play banjo. The twangy, jingly-jangly back-country sound it emanates makes the song entirely what it is, bar none. I'm a little sad that they only use it during the chorus but the scarcity might be what keeps me coming back. In fact, I've been noticing the more prominent use of banjo in the music I've been listening to lately; Sufjan Stevens comes to mind as a huge example of that... re-listening to Michigan and Illinois has developed my new found love for the 5-stringed beast of an instrument.

The Shins - Australia

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Trashcan

Classy? You betcha.

Chiddy Bang - The Opposite of Adults (Kids) (ft. MGMT)

Philadelphia electronic/hip-hop crew Chiddy Bang have released one hell of a mixtape to the delight of internet bloggers spanning the world wide web, and the track that stands out in particular to me is "The Opposite of Adults." Chiddy Bang samples MGMT's dreamy, synth-laden summer hit "Kids," and fantastically reworks the beat around their snazzy flow and hypebeast lyricism, with the ever-welcome addition of catchy oscillation and percussion, of course. The vocal content isn't what shines on the track but compliments, to me, entirely their genius idea of sampling and re-editing MGMT. They transformed the nouveau-disco homage to the 80s into an arrangement of addictive and crunchy staccati. Start-stops never sounded so damn good. Check out the rest of the mixtape if you'd like... but for me, this gem shines the brightest.

We've encountered a difficulty.

It's worse than crack.

Classixx - Cold Act Ill

A fine consortium of melody, harmony and rhythm, Cold Act Ill takes us back to the illustrious decades of the 70s and the 80s, the periods in which disco, funk and soul flourished loudly and proudly. The song combines vintage, raw synths with a little taste of modern electro, a funked up vocal sample, and steady kicks and hats to create an energetic track worthy of any dancefloor. Classixx has a fine hand for time-traveling and I know very few that do it better than they do. The song aims to get you excited, and the message sounds with pristine clarity. "We came here tonight to get started, cold act ill and get retarded."

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Halloween

This Halloween weekend turned out to be the most insane and interesting Halloween I've ever had. I'm going to put every one of my thoughts into a bullet point, so I can keep track of everything in one gigantic list.

Things That Occurred That Made This Halloween Ridiculous/Awesome/Horrible/Entertaining/Fantastic:

- My friend's mom lost his $100 two-day pass.
- We got my friend a ticket for the second day, to see Justice, which is why we were taking this entire trip to begin with.
- We bought two handles of Smirnoff, the first of which exploded completely as the handle of the bag which it was being carried in broke, and the second of which created a completely round hole the moment I set it on the ground... gently, I might add. Luckily, we saved most of the second handle.
- The left side of my friend's car stereo system stopped working for a little while.
- Got a whole bunch of awesome glasses to add to my collection. The biggest in the world? Someday. Not yet, but someday.
- I saw Justice, absolute front and center, the weekend-defining moment.
- Saw deadmau5 twice, saw 2ManyDJs, A-Trak, Steve Aoki, Basement Jaxx, and the Bloody fucking Beetroots, who put on one of the best shows I've ever seen. Got to hear Modeselektor play... was way too tired to stay until 4:00 AM.
- Got pulled over for speeding.
- Got a ticket for a parking violation at UCLA.
- Reconvened with a lot of old friends and got to see a bunch of people.
- Got a bridge toll violation, although got it rescinded and had to drive around the middle of nowhere looking for an ATM. Found one, paid the toll and bounced.
- Got from LA to Sonoma on a single tank of gas, BARELY.
- Laughed, learned, loved. And all of that other bs.

Best Halloween ever? I think so.