R.I.P. Desmod Dekker, Gnarls Barkley Live on Conan (video), Bloc Party remix mp3, Busta Rhymes mp3, TMBG NSA ringtone mp3, more

• Reggae Legend Desmond Dekker Dies Of Heart Attack
  
  
• Gnarls Barkley Live on Conan O'Brien
  Mellowed-out version of Crazy. Diggin' it!
  
  
• Bloc Party - Banquet (junior sanchez remix)
  Not sure if this is new or not. Might be better on the dancefloor. Doesn't really do anything for me.
  
  
• Busta Rhymes - Been Through the Storm
  Speaking of mellow, it's rare to hear Busta this tame. [via]
  
  
• They Might Be Giants ringtone: "Call connected through the NSA"
  "Call connected through the NSA/Complete transmission through the NSA/Suspending your rights for the duration of the permanent war"
  
  
• Darth calls the Emperor
  From Adult Swim's Robot Chicken.
  
  
• Online scams create "Yahoo! millionaires"
  Akin is, like many things in cyberspace, an alias. In real life he's 14. He wears Adidas sneakers, a Rolex Submariner watch, and a kilo of gold around his neck.
  
  
• So I nearly got killed today...
  The net is filled with crazy stories. You can't make this stuff up. Playing WoW can be hazardous to you health.
  
  
• Boing Boing: Nike sneakers communicate wirelessly with iPod Nanos

Jose Gonzalez (videos), Another funny remixed trailer, Roscoe live video, more

• Jose Gonzalez - Suggestions
  Jose Gonzalez - Heartbeats
  Thanks for the links, Marc. I have got to see him live.
  
  
• Mashed-up trailer: The 10 Commandments remixed as a teen comedy
  This is pretty funny!
  
  
• Roscoe - Midlake (live in Tivoli)
  Wish this were better quality. Still, they sound pretty good live.
  
  
• Joshua Brookoff - Video Game Junkie
  A must for the video game nerd in your life, or possibly you. Joshua hails from Portland, Oregon and recently finished his LP, "ESP for dummies". I hope the myspace direct linky works, because it usually sucks.
  His Myspace
  
  
  
• Fish die in a river of Sunny D
  What a way to go. News you can use, or at least e-mail to your buddies.

Tom Verlaine MP3, Sonic Youth MP3, Gnarls Barkley vs. The Shirelles mash-up, Fast Food Nation trailer

• Happy Graduation! Congratulations to 2006 graduates (those of you who will be graduating from your respective institutions of learning). It will take some time to get used to hearing Dr. before my surname.
  
  
• Had to close a few feeds getting comment spam from the same spammer. Earth to spammers, links in comments have rel="nofollow" built in so that search engines won't spider them. You can't improve your page rank by spamming Blogger comments. Get a life.
  
  
• Tom Verlaine - From Her Fingers
  Well, Tom Verlaine is still alive and well. Makes me want to fire up some old Television albums.
  
  
• Sonic Youth - Incinerate
  From the few tracks I've heard thus far from their forthcoming LP "Rather Ripped", it appears that Sonic Youth have discovered a magical balance between aural experimentation and musical accessibility.
  
  
• DJ Schmolli - Gnarls Barkley vs. The Shirelles - Crazy Baby It's You
  This is a lovely soulful mash. If that link fails, find it on this page
  
  
• The trailer for Richard Linklater's film adaptation of Fast Food Nation.
  From what I've heard, this will be scarier than Super Size Me.

The Roots MP3, Method Man MP3, Clerks 2 Trailer

• The Roots - Don't Feel Right
  From the new Roots album "Game Theory", which is finally coming out this August (postponed from February). I need tunes like these earlier to rock my summer. [via]
  
  
• Method Man - Take the Heat
  Produced by Dr. Dre. Not much going on here to get excited about though. [via]
  
  
• Clerks 2 Internet Exclusive Trailer
  I smell the influence of Harold and Kumar, but I suspect the vulgarity will be vintage Kevin Smith. Not sure how it will play with audiences though. It better be twice as good as Jay and Silent Bob (and no, I haven't seen Jersey Girl yet).

MP3s and Videos Galore

• Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of this Country
  A delicious slice of Scottish indie pop; this is the title track from their new album.
  
  
• Sufjan Stevens - The Henney Buggy Band
  From the eargerly awaited Illinois outtakes album, "The Avalanche". Not sure how this great song missed the cut.
  
  
• Outkast - The Mighty O
  Not their best, but still relatively catchy with the Cab Calloway-inspired chorus. I hope they are just whetting our appetite for the Idlewild soundtrack.
  
  
• Lily Allen - LDN
  Such a charming little song, until the lyrics make you wonder why you'd actually want to be in London Town.
  
  
• Lily Allen - My First Mixtape
  Thanks to stereogum for this link. This mix is a little rough but it does cover quite a bit of ground, from her own stuff to Dizzee to Beats International to Ludacris to ODB to Chaka Demus to Creedence Clearwater Revival, and that's just the first half.
  
  
• The Pipettes - Your Kisses are Wasted On Me
  I've listened to a handful of Pipettes songs, and this is the only one I really like (and I'm crazy about this song). Ok, scratch that; I also like "Pull Shapes".
  
  
• Method Man feat. Lauryn Hill - Things They Say
  Vintage Method Man evokes shades of his hit with Blige, "I'll Be There For You".
  
  
• Wolf Parade - Modern World
  Are those paper mache heads? Pretty creepy animation, but it captures the mood of the song well.
  
  
• Regina Spektor - Better
  Catchy as hell. At this point, I think I like her better than Tori Amos (yeah, even though Tori is an alumnus from my high school, much older of course).
  
  
• The Charlatans UK - Blackened Blue Eyes
  Honestly, I didn't know the Charlatans UK were still making music. The subject matter is dark but the tone is insouciant rather than brooding or morose, if that makes any sense.
  
  
• Portatastic - Lively Chase
  
• Portatastic - Real Book
  
• Portatastic - Last Kiss Music
  This is the soundtrack to a lazy road trip into the country. These were composed for use in the film "Who Loves the Sun", presumably named after the silly Velvet Underground song. These songs convey a similar whimsical feeling.
  
  
• Gomez - How We Operate
  Love the intro to this song and the tension-building guitar.
  
  
• At Dusk - We Saw Them Leave You There
  
• At Dusk - Forever Ago
  At Dusk is a band from Portland: "We're an indie rock three-piece, a bit progressive, a bit spazzy, a bit loud. Much world music influence, much rhythmic weirdness, group vocals, minimal bass."

I'm Back

• Hello faithful readers. I must apologize for the longer than intended hiatus. Thank you for your e-mails and comments; I feel like a search and rescue party was about to be organized. I've had a lot of stuff going on including preparation for the boards, finding an apartment in Chicago, vacationing in Hawaii, and pre-graduation inebriation. Without further ado...
  
  
• I got myself banned from YouTube. Must have been the little mini-archive of Chappelle's Show I was uploading.
  
  
• RIP Grant McLennan
  The Go-Betweens were one of Australia's best bands, although they remained relatively under the radar outside of Australia and the UK. I hope the band receives more recognition for their contribution to music over the last 25 years.
  
  
• Feist - Live at Park West in Chicago - 1/27/06
  Wow. How have I missed this site? A lot of live goodies here.
  
  
  
• WolfenGitmo: Guantanamo Bay mod for Castle Wolfenstein
  
  
• A Michel Gondry short: One Day
  This stars David Cross. It might have been a bit more profound if the metaphor weren't so over the top. In the end, it's kinda amusing but really rather gross.
  
  
• Why does it take Wes Anderson so long to make a movie?
  
  
• Speaking of Wes Anderson: his American Express Ad
  
  
• And some more: Bottle Rocket
  This is the original 13-minute short.
  
  
• Is Daft Punk making a movie?
  
  
• Oozinator - Questionable Super Soaker
  Whatever you do, young parents, do not buy this for your kids.
  
  
• The Onion: Not very excited about this summer's movies
  
  
• Would you kill 5 people to save one person?