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“Heaven or Las Vegas” by Cocteau Twins

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I happened across this song while browsing through the celebrity playlists in the iTunes store. Tom Rowland of The Chemical Brothers selected this track that I had all but forgotten about.

“Heaven or Las Vegas” by Cocteau Twins

Back in high school Sunday nights meant one thing. 120 Minutes on MTV. The Cocteau Twins released “Heaven or Las Vegas” during the peak years of that show. Unfortunately, iTunes doesn’t have the “MTV: Best Of 120 Minutes, Vol 1″ Album available; but as a special bonus treat, here are the links to most of the songs from other albums.

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“Shot You Down” by Audio Bullys

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I DJ’d Skwid’s birthday party Saturday and this was my secret weapon. You “Kill Bill” fans will recognize the Nancy Sinatra version of “Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down).” This remix flips back and forth between the original song filtered with a flanger effect and a thumpin’ beat loop. Nancy’s voice was made for techno. It’s only dance music, so I won’t waste a lot of time pondering whether or not this remix would exist if the song weren’t made popular by Quentin Tarantino. It should prove to be a crowd-pleaser, either way.

You can see the video on their web site: http://www.audiobullys.co.uk/

Audio Bullys


Nancy Sinatra

“Get Ur Freak On (Superchumbo’s Superfreakon Remix)” by Missy Elliott

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I’ve lost track of how many times this song has been remixed. I bought this iTunes exclusive mix to play at a party last weekend. Unfortunately, I never got around to spinning it.

Four minutes is a little short for a dance remix, but here it’s just long enough to give listeners a little taste of a song that most have heard too many times. Most of the hooks have been edited out and the new beat is aggressive and faster than the original. Overall it’s a good dance track with a solid drum loop and just enough of the original song to keep it interesting.

“Get Ur Freak On (Superchumbo’s Superfreakon Remix)” by Missy Elliott

“Get Ur Freak On” by Missy Elliott

“The Lovecats” by Ok Go

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Cover songs can be so much fun. Here we’ve got Chicago natives Ok Go taking a shot at a Cure classic. I almost didn’t review this song so I could save it as a secret to unveil on my friends via an upcoming “covers” mix CD.

Robert Smith has a very distinctive voice and it’s often hard to see the beauty of his songs without associating them with his vocal styling. Strip that away and it becomes clear that these songs happen to be really well written.

Ok Go doesn’t disappoint. It’s easy to imagine how terrible this song would be if it were mangled by the likes of Good Charlotte, for example. They stick very close to the original and outside of a slightly too aggressive lead guitar, it’s a refreshing update.

“The Lovecats” Ok Go

“A Perfect Day Elise (iTunes Original Version)” by PJ Harvey

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Is this desire? I think it is. Polly Jean has written some of the grittiest songs I’ve heard. Period. This is no exception. The thing I love most about PJ Harvey is that she can release an album of 4-track demos of her music and they’re better than the polished final cuts. “50 ft Queenie” is a prime example.

This recording of “A Perfect Day Elise” is taken from the “iTunes Originals” collection. They invite artists to come in and perform a few tracks live in the studio. They couple these with some choice hits and a few interview segments. All together it’s about 30 tracks worth of songs and chatter that they sell by the track or ten bucks for the whole thing. Not a bad deal at all.

“A Perfect Day Elise (iTunes Original Version)”

“Is This Desire”

I want to take a second and give a shout out to MystiQuintet. iTunes tricked me into giving them false credit for a Jette-Ives track on the Beatles Regrooved album and both bands were cool enough to take a few seconds let me know the straight dope.

It would be a shame to have two reviews for Jette-Ives and none for Boston’s MystiQuintet. In a word I’ll offer that they’re scratchtastic. I have a soft spot for turntablists and these guys are pretty cool.

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“Belleville Rendez-Vous” Mathieu Chedid

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The Tour de France starts today. Go Lance! “The Triplets of Belleville” is an awesome movie set against The Tour in the 30’s. This song is quite simply delightful. I’ll leave it at that.

“Belleville Rendez-Vous” — Mathieu Chedid

“Hear My Name (Original Club Version)” Armand Van Helden

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The other day my wife and I were discussing music on the way to work. “Armand Van Helden, he’s the guy with the spanking video, right?” As a matter of fact, he is. If you’d like to see the video and you still have IE installed you can check it out here: http://music.yahoo.com/ar-267373-videos–Armand-Van-Helden Yes, it’s safe for work but you do have to watch a 30-second advert.

It’s a good dance track. Armand’s usually are. Electroclash, for the most part, though some might say otherwise. If you played this along with Felix Da Housecat and Benny Benassi, nobody’s going to complain. I grabbed the “Original Club Version” because it’s twice as long as the radio edit. More bang for the 99/100ths of a buck. There are slightly longer versions, but they’re remixes that, while good dance tracks, lose a lot of the charm of the original.

“Hear My Name (Original Club Version)” Armand Van Helden

“Eleanor Rigby (iTunes Exclusive)” by Jette-Ives (And not MystiQuintet)