8BitKid: Living Bit by Bit

I have been on a bit of a music-buying binge recently. Here are my favorite tracks from the past week’s purchases:

The Mountain Goats: Dance Music (”The Sunset Tree”)
The Mountain Goats: Autoclave (”Heretic Pride”)
Stereolab: Vonal Declosion (”Margerine Eclipse”)
Jose Gonzalez: Killing for Love (”In Our Nature”)
Spoon: The Underdog (”Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”)
Dengue Fever: Mr. Orange (”Venus on Earth”)

Plus, I bought a Vinyl Killer! (see below…)

So as I have professed to previously, I am a big fan of the “Phoenix Wright” series for the Nintendo DS. Currently I am playing through the third installment, “Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations”. While working on a case the other night, I came across this particular scene:

So there is a reason that this is funny besides the reference to hemorrhoids: friends of mine are in a band called “Harlem Shakes” (check them out!). So when this bit of dialogue popped up on the screen, I had a nice chortle at the coincidence. So, “Shakes” fans, here is yet another reason to play this fantastic Capcom title.

Listen to: Harlem Shakes - “Sickos”

One of the first CD’s I ever bought was “Green” by R.E.M. One of my favorite lame party tricks is being able to sing all of “It’s The End of the World As We Know It”. When I was in 6th grade I ran into the principal of my school at around midnight at an R.E.M. concert. I skipped football practice in High School so I could go with my family to one of their shows. I quoted them on my Senior page in the Potomac School yearbook. I spent way too much money at Minus Zero Records in London buying crazy old bootlegs from live shows. I could go on, but if it isn’t obvious, I really love R.E.M.

While I was in the car listening to the Bay Area’s KFOG, I came across this new track from R.E.M.’s upcoming album, “Accelerate”. It’s great to hear a return to their high-energy sound; it reminds me of some tracks off of “Life’s Rich Pageant”. So give it a listen and remember why you first fell in love with them way back when, and how much they still rock now.

Listen to: R.E.M. - “Supernatural Superserious”

If you haven’t seen this fantastic editing job, please give it a watch.

Also, I do know all of the words to this song. If only I taken the time I spent learning those lyrics way back when and put them towards a more productive project who knows how things would have turned out differently…

While I was in NYC over the holidays, one night was spent at the bar “Rififi” in the East Village. When Common People by Pulp came on I had to hit the dance floor with my friends, since it holds a special place in my heart as one of my favorite rock anthems. Apparently this guy felt the same way:

Later, during the brief interlude during which I actually was motivated to break out that rare “Engel shake”, this song came on. I had forgotton about this ditty until last night, when it popped back in my head, and I dug it up online by doing a lyrics search. I have decided to take this rambling post as an opportunity to test out the new, most excellent Yahoo! Media Player (DISCLOSURE: I work for Yahoo!, but I think this is rad independent of my paycheck). It is a great piece of webware, and my apologies to Lucas and Ian for sullying their player with this cheesy song (it seemed a lot better at 3am…).