send you my love on the wire

well that's it, cats and kittens. against all odds, you ragtag, underdog, bad news bears group of readers banded together and got us past 999 into the four-digit hit range. that's right. one thousand. un mille. a milli.

i am famous now.

i wonder what it will be like to own a pet tiger.

while it severely threatened to push michael cera over the edge of his waning public appeal, last year's moving picture adaptation of the scott pilgrim series was... actually kinda fun. there were a few casting errors (jason schwartzman? what?), but the movie was true to the original, showed off the toronto i know and love, and - best of all - had some great music. songs for each of the bands in the movie were provided by real-life talent, including beck as sex bob-omb, broken social scene as crash & the boys, and metric as clash at demonhead. i particularly enjoyed the last selection, as (a) i will jump at any opportunity to hear more metric, and (b) i couldn't think of a better voice for artsy femme fatale envy adams than emily haines. the soundtrack features metric's recording of Black Sheep, which they tested on the road but didn't find its way onto 2009's Fantasies, and it's a keeper.

metric - black sheep


sex bob-omb - we are sex bob-omb

once and for all

note: as i write this, the hit counter on this site sits stalwartly at 999. will it cross over to 1000? will it stick, mockingly, at 999? stay tuned to find out!


in celebration of my almost thousandth hit, here's a small present. it comes in steps.

1) get a pair of decent headphones. spend at least $60

2) load this clock opera remix up to your iphone/ipod/zune/mp3 player/listen to it enough times that you can convincingly hum it out loud

3) find a place with lots of tall buildings. less people around is preferable, but not necessary

4) turn the volume up as far as you comfortable can

5) just walk, and let it play

clock opera - once and for all (little loud remix)

do you remember me?

theophilus london has got to be the coolest son of a bitch i've ever come across.

the brooklyn native has been massively underhyped; spend a little time looking him up and you'll find he has a couple full-length mixtapes to his name, and a library of interesting remixes and features, including a tryst (musically, of course) with living tree favourite ellie goulding. he's the closest thing i think i've come across to a true hip-hop journeyman, with a flow that could conceivably fit into any scenario or collab, and a killer sense of style that landed him a q&a with gq a few months back. with a network that includes mark ronson & a-trak, be sure to keep this kid on your radar. his latest, A Lover's Holiday, drops on february 8th.

maximum balloon - groove me ft. theophilus london


theophilus london - flying overseas ft. devonte hynes, solange knowles

islands and cities i have looked

the xx were one of my favourite iTunes additions from 2010; their muted, low-key sound filled a gap in my auditory library, and i found myself letting the album play on loop for inordinate amounts of time, just to enjoy having it around. for the longest time i couldn't quite put a finger on what made their sound what it is, but over time i think the answer's pretty clear - jamie xx. while a lot of the hype around the band has focused on drummer baria qureshi's departure, and the intoxicating lead vocals of romy madley croft (for the record, deservedly so), it's pretty clear that jamie's the source of the band's unique mix. since the release of xx, he's been somewhat all over the place - working on a collaboration album with gil scott-heron and contributing to drake's upcoming sophomore release, to name a few projects - but has found the time to lend his genius to a few remixed tracks, and they're all gold. deceptively simple, these songs contain multitudes; sometime i catch an influence only to get lost when the next verse hits (that off-step snare sounds very hip-hop... but the bassline sounds almost dubstep-y?). they're coyly addictive, giving you just enough to keep listening, and leaving you wanting for more when it's over.

eliza doolittle - money box (jamie xx remix)


there's something very meta about remixing a song on which you were responsible for the original mix, but i'm just not up to the task of diving that far into it.

the xx - islands (jamie xx remix)

gotta put that overtime in

oh me oh my, 'tis been a while! my apologies for the absence and all that. i would make an excuse, but, well, i'm just not going to.

kid sister's much-anticipated mixtape Kiss Kiss Kiss hit the webernets recently, and it's a winner. mixed by nick catchdubs (on whose pedigree i have literally no information for you), this is a saucy collection of dance-y hip-hop tracks that's sure to do for k.s. what Friday Night Lights did for j. cole recently (i.e. put him on the map). kid sister is something like the girl next door, but kind of a raunchy version - instead of sunbathing on the back deck and climbing out the window late at night to meet the varsity qb boyfriend, she's smoking weed in her bedroom, and passing our on your doorstep at 3 in the morning, covered in glitter. i haven't heard anything this god damn fun since thunderheist. add Kiss Kiss Kiss to your party mix; it'll take care of the rest

the mixtape's available for free download on soundcloud, or pick it up here. or hell, just google it or something.

kid sister - everybody wants (green velvet)


kid sister - right hand hi (caspa remix)