Thursday, June 30, 2011

And After That...

Terribly sorry for the hiatus (to anyone who noticed), but I gotta think the content in this one is worth it..it certainly was responsible for it, so here goes (it's a long winded one (with goodies at the end) so get ready)...


Song of the weekend? Easy. Even though I didn't exactly expect it to be on the playlist, After Party by the Lonely Island ft Santigold surprisingly ended up in rotation. Something about the combination of Andy Samberg rapping as a badass drug addict and Santigold deliciously delivering a hook about "Jerkin' off" kept me reaching for the play button a little more than I should have...but in the midst of a weekend filled with everything from #painting walls, to drinking games in front of #Hot Rod, to dubstep production, it only seemed appropriate.


Say what you will about the Lonely Island's legitimacy as a mainstream musical group, but Andy Samberg is incredibly clever (See: most of this song)...until he talks about his dick too much (See: the second verse of this song). Still, all things considered, this is a great song and it'll make an amazing digital short one day -- you heard it here first.


But no matter how light-hearted the track's intentions are, the song's comical tone soon seeped into my subconscious until I started getting into that mentality - and then? ..and then? ..and then? ..I didn't quite tear off my clothes and scream at the sky, but in my painting-fume induced haze I definitely got to thinking...what the hell am I doing with my life? The obvious answer: Working 9-5 ... and then? Well, working 9-5 again.. and then? Uhhh, probably doing that again? and then?...well, you get the point.


However, after a lengthy chat with my old man about desk-job life (in which we #made chicken bacon caesar wraps and I preached Office Space to him) he bestowed this advice upon me:


"No matter how [bad] things are now, in 2 years none of this is gonna matter"

Not saying that #my life is horrible right now by any means.. I'm just dedicating this post to anyone who's on their transition grind; anyone who's on their I-don't-wanna-be-here-but-I-could-really-see-myself-over-there grind, but mostly it goes out to anyone who's hoping that in 2 years from now, they'll be in a better place then they are now. Sorry for the existential/melancholic post, but there's a mixtape to go with the theme.. Enjoy.

PS have you liked my facebook page? You should like my facebook page.



1. After Party - The Lonely Island feat Santigold

2. Is This It? - The Strokes

3. Missed The Boat - Modest Mouse

4. Piece of Mind (demo) - The Dutch (exclusive)

5. A Good Day at the Races - Hollerado

6. Jackie Wants a Black Eye - Dr. Dog

7. Space Oddity - David Bowie

8. The Party & The After Party - The Weeknd


Download the "2 Years" minimixtape here

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Weekend Playlist

If you're anything like me, you think a couple aspects of our society are sorely outdated.

As I write this, I know there must be some people who reading this thinking, "Oh god, I've heard this one before" but before you hastily pass me off as a stereotypically lazy teenager like that, hear me out: What if weekends were 3 days long? I'm not saying I'm any historical expert here, I'm just saying that somewhere along the line, maybe it got lost in translation as to how many days God really took to rest after he finished the whole thing...

Like, 1 out of 6? Anyone smart enough to know that they shouldn't choke on dice could pick a better ratio than that. My thought is that the big guy upstairs made it all in a few days and then clocked himself in through Sunday. Think about it, he doesn't have a supervisor...next thing you know he gets to thinking he needs a little "me" time after CREATING THE ENTIRE F$#%ING UNIVERSE. Besides, what better way to get a legion of loyal followers than embellishing the details of the crazy stuff you did (taking a dude's rib? Just not necessary imho..) and then saying that you're only gonna take ONE day off before you go back at it. They'd think you were, well...God.

But I digress. This all stems from the fact that I'm taking this Friday off (suckaaaaazz) to head to Montreal in what's shaping up to be a monthly tradition. With my move in late May, some concert going on at the end of July, and of course, the return of school in late August, I'm keeping up my end of the bargain in this whole long distance deal. Let's just hope my dear Montréal is #staying faithful to me.

In the meantime, here are the songs I'm gonna be playing over the weekend. If you wanna do as much crazy shit as I'm gonna be doing this weekend, here are the tunes to do it to.

1) New track from Adventure Club. Already talked about this one, so no need to go into detail.

 Flight Facilities - Crave You (Adventure Club Dubstep Remix) by Adventure Club Dubstep

2&3) DJ Legit & Bondo Music's Deep Feel Dubstep remixes of Rolling in the Deep. Even though I'm quite a fan of MTL's DJ Legit's remix, I can't stand but get addicted to the dubbier versions. Voilá

 Rolling In the Deep (DJ c.LEgiT Remix) - Adele by djclegit

 Adele - Rolling In The Deep (Deep Feel Dubstep Remix) by Bondo Music

4) Captain Cuts - Colours remix. Last year around this time, I was obsessed with the original version of this song. A year later, @my buddy introduced this remix to me that blends the best elements of party-house and dubstep remixes. Bazinga.

 Grouplove - Colours (Captain Cuts Remix) by Captain Cuts

5) ..aaand of course for when the times get a little more mellow and introspective as they tend to do, there's always Cults. These guys just released their second self-titled album in as many years. While some may see this as a testament to the similarity between all of their music, I see it as more of a tribute to their authenticity. These guys are just a little too nerdy to be cute, which I guess in today's world only makes you cuter. Oh well.


Cults - 'The Curse' from Bowlegs on Vimeo.

If all else fails, Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk) Recently threw together a 154-track "Barbeque Playlist" optimized for summer jammin'. It's as diverse as it is comprehensive. Give it a listen.

PS have you liked my Facebook page? You should like my Facebook page.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Adventure Clubstep

Word on the street this morning was saying Adventure Club was set to release a new track sometime today. I don't know if I like these guys because they're really good, or just because they're from Montreal, but either way, everyone else seems to dig them too so I'm down. This track admittedly isn't the greatest song in the world, but the masterful sampling and duttty basss suggest that these guys might be well content to have their music worshipped at sweaty, drug-fueled parties instead.

Whatever the case, I'm in. Peace out.

 Flight Facilities - Crave You (Adventure Club Dubstep Remix) by Adventure Club Dubstep

Monday, June 20, 2011

A Bad Case of the Mondays

While working 9-5 might be livin' the dream for a lot of people, this doesn't mean that the lifestyle isn't without its drawbacks. Sure, you can live it up every Friday & Saturday night like you're Charlie Sheen on your 21st birthday (see also: #like you're Sam Donald on your 19th birthday), but in the end, you're always gonna have to wake up early on that Monday morning.

It looms. It's unavoidable. #You try as hard as you can to forget about it, but at the end of the day it's how you make that paper. So when I came home to find that the Weeknd had released a new song, I was psyched. If you read this blog more than just occasionally (lol), you know how much I like what the Weeknd has been and is doing. It was a song I had been waiting on too ('The Birds Part 1' was released 4 days ago). But to my surprise, when I clicked onto the link for Part 2 (after a message popped up saying that it was the legit link no less), it just played Part 1 again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md_dg8B8tmk.

Anyway, all that that means is that the only new music you'll be hearing from this blog today comes from the San Fran area Pomplamoose. The songwriting caliber isn't too far off from classics from back in the day, but a sampled tape deck, horn section, and some nice video direction suggest a sort of sophistication that has recently developed in the group's work. I still think they should get rid of the annoying little vlogs that they plug on the end, but that might just be the Mondays talking.

PS if you like these blog posts, would you mind liking MTLivin on Facebook? The #stats are kinda pathetic right now and #anything helps. Thank you. Here is the music.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

2Legit2Quit

Although Adele remixes are hardly uncharted territory, this isn't exactly for no good reason. Soaring hooks, infectious chords and soulful vocals make her samples prime territory for DJs everywhere to see what's happening in the local/global community, as well as give them a chance to stack their signature sounds up against their peers'.

So when a buddy of mine released his own take of the Über-popular 'Rollin in the Deep' I was skeptical, yet optimistic. Was it gonna live up to some of the better remixes I've heard? Or was it just gonna fade into obscurity and become unrecognizable amongst a sea of well-intentioned tributes? Since I haven't got sick of the original song yet, I decided to give it a go...

Zippy bass lines immediately fade in with airy synths echoing around them, conjuring up images of what a Justice / Avicii collab might sound like. Verses build to perfectly orchestrated club drops that are gonna sound bausss bumpin in the car this summer, so I must say that this remix undoubtedly seems to be among the former category. iTunes says I've already played it 3 times but we all know that just means I've played it 3 times to the end.

Check it:

 Rolling In the Deep (DJ c.LEgiT Remix) - Adele by djclegit

Also, diggin around his SoundCloud page i stumbled across these beauties. You can download all of his songs for free.

Click through to DJ Legit's website here

 Fuck You - Cee Lo (DJ c.LEgiT Remix) by djclegit

 Touch The Sky - Kanye West (DJ c.LEgiT Remix) by djclegit

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Self-Indulgence at its finest.

As if Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Blogspot, MySpace, HypeMachine, Vimeo and StumbleUpon weren't enough, I went ahead and made myself a SoundCloud page too. It's basically like all those other sites in the way that it's slowly pulling me into a #Brave-New-World-esque state of disillusionment regarding my actual social life...but it's totally different from those other sites in the way that it has these legit lookin' orange play buttons that none of the other sites have, so naturally I just had to get it.

Once I got one though, I realized that a page with no songs looked rather #sad. So I went diggin' through my GarageBand files to see what I could scrounge up, and (including one I just finished yesterday) ended up with 3 tracks to show the world. So if you'll excuse me, I have my FacebookTwitterTumblrYouTubeBlogspotMySpaceHypeMachineVimeo and StumbleUpon to post this on. Enjoy.

Click through to my SoundCloud page here

 In Spite of all the Danger (The Quarrymen cover) by Mr Daniels

 You've Got A Friend In Me (Randy Newman cover) by Mr Daniels

 When You Said Goodbye by Mr Daniels

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Kanye: The Original MotherLover?

New Track from Kanye West today.

Over a beat that sounds like 'Big Brother' would've sounded if it had been on College Dropout, Yeezy spits about the guys that used to try and get with his mom. His playful delivery narrates his life as he grows up, only to see himself become the very thing he despised in his childhood.

Verdict: Even though last year's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was enough to keep him in the spotlight until his next dumb, drunk pulicity stunt, he's making damn sure no one forgets about him. Although he's not putting out tracks at the rate of Curren$y or anything, this track already has classic written all over it - only time will tell, really.

The song was supposedly supposed to be included on Fantasy, but instead was slated for a later release. My guess is that it didn't fit in with the concept-heavy framework of the album.



PS here's a lil' niblet of Kanye 'debut'ing the song at Facebook headquarters last year:

Monday, June 13, 2011

..and just a few more words

Of course after I posted links to 5 of my friends' flickrs, there's one that I neglected to mention. This is not, however, due to the fact that I forgot, but rather because this one does not fit the category of "twitter holdout" quite as nicely as the rest. In fact, quite the opposite. Emilie "LaFrenchie" has a twitter account (in which she follows 50 people that aren't me) as well as a tumblr, flickr, blogspot and probably some other random, obscure form of social networking that not many people have.

A fashion student in Toronto (though she's been back and forth between Toronto and Ottawa this summer), her blog posts contain an unhealthy-amount-of-selfies...but it's all in the name of fashion, and she's pretty good looking, so it's beyond excused.

View Emilie's Flickr here

Sunday, June 12, 2011

5,000 Words

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...so what's 5 times better than that? 5,000 words.

In an ever increasingly digital world, it is often difficult for one to take a moment to disconnect..get away from it all. I find the best way to do this is to sit inside (preferably a dimly lit room) and look at pictures of good times that my friends have taken from their lives. These five flickrs come from 5 of my close friends.

The first one comes from across the world from my longtime friend and twitter-holdout Bradley Eng. This guy is a certified ballin B-boy with the appropriate swag to match.











The next two come from two of my friends who are coming around to the thought of twitter. The first from my friend Alexandra (aka #atighe)



















...and the second from my good friend Dana. She likes to take pictures of people smoking. Some great party shots in this collection.














The 4th is a flickr that I have featured before. Haven't been able to get this guy on twitter yet, but at least I preached flickr well enough to get this guy to post his photos for all to see. Many of this website's backgrounds have come from this flickr.



















...aaaaaand the last (but certainly not least) of my friends' flickrs is also the one that's most at risk of being labeled 'hipster'. No bad vibes though...polaroid tinged (as well as lotsa disposable) still-life shots bring a nostalgic feel to the table. #Good times.














Word count: An uninspiring 275. Fuck photo-journalism, I should stick to trying to convert people to twitter.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Let me come Höm

Yesterday, a couple friends and I got together in a make-shift, post-downtown-chill to hang out and record some music. Among these people is my bandmate and #futureroommate David Pierre (on the violin), the eternally talented and melodic Kate Goheen singing opposite me, and the lovely and talented @SarahDevlin on trumpet. We got a session musician (aka Sarah's sister Claire) to overdub the whistling and next thing you know we had a full track out before my dad got back from poker. Fun little collab that I'd be down to try out again. Who knows what we could accomplish if we didn't all have to go home for dinner...



Home by Katgoheen



"Home is when I'm alone with you"

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Men vs WoMen

Let me set the record straight: I do not take this subject lightly. If you had to label my political stance on the issue, I'd put myself somewhere on the spectrum between 'feminist' and 'sexist'. Ideally I could be both, but we'd all like to have our cake and eat it too, wouldn't we?

I say feminist because, as my philosophy classes (as well as one of my politically aware and active friends) have taught me, feminism means believing that both genders are equal. I say sexist because I know they're not. Try and watch world class male and female athletes compete against each other, or watch a man try and multi-task like a stay-at-home Mom. With a few notable exceptions, it doesn't happen.

I say this because, up until recently, I was disgusted by the thought of working for "The Man"...nothing made me more sick to my stomach than the idea of aiding an unstoppable machine to push consumption upon well-meaning citizens just for a little bit of spending money; yet come summertime, wouldn't you know it, I ended up working a 'dreaded' 9-5 desk job. The reason I'm not pulling out my hair and puking out my guts in simultaneous fits of frustration and disgust? Turns out I ended up working for "The Wo-Man". The difference? While The Man seems to be focused on what furthers the company (at whatever cost) The WoMan focuses on making sure the employee is happy and productive, and will provide #tea and cookies to ensure this productivity.

Now, as dictated by my sexist-feminism beliefs (mark today in your calendars as the day that philosophical school was formed) I don't believe that working for either the "Man" or "WoMan" is better or worse...rather, different. Rather than get into a whole bunch of reasons for this (which I'm sure would offend many different people) I'm just gonna post content that mirrors my thoughts.

Working for "The Man": An ever-competitive battle that usually ends in at least 1 casualty of war




Working for the "WoMan": In all honesty this track (fittingly enough) is a little bland. Beyoncé says it best though when she says "We like to party" A cameo from someone interesting spices it up.

Beyoncé ft. André 3000 - Party

Beyonce ft. Andre 3000 Party MP3 Download

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Thumbs up for Rock&Roll!!

"I remember when this
used to be sandbox as far
as the eye could see..."
Earlier this weekend, a video surfaced on YouTube of a kid who had just learned how to ride a bike. He is almost incredulous of himself and proceeds on an inspirational tirade about how anyone can ride a bike if they believe in themselves and if they practice they will get the hang of it - he knows it. It's an inspirational (as well as stupidly cute and hilarious) video that seems to have struck a chord with a wide range of people.  Why? Because everyone remembers when they learned to ride a bike, and this kid captured the moment so sincerely and genuinely that you couldn't help but laugh (or at least smile) at his closing remarks.

So while I was fixing up my old, rusty, seemingly-irrelevant red bike yesterday I got to thinking about an article I had read earlier this week in the @Huffington Post, describing the ideal candidate for the Liberal Party leadership race. The article describes how the Liberals need someone who is young, energetic and can breathe some sort of revolutionary life into the party.

Start priming this kid to be the next leader if the Liberal party? I only say this half jokingly... partly because he's a great speaker, and partly because he's pretty much the best candidate they have so far.

Think about it...assuming he's 8 or 9 years old already (how old are kids learning to ride bikes these days anyway?) he'd be of age within two elections, and if the Liberals are serious about a full-scale rebuild, that's not a ridiculously long time to wait to get a young, inspiring speaker in your party.

If things keep going they have been though, he'll probably end up going to a prestigious school and getting recruited by the youth-infused NDP. Either way works, as long as the Republicans don't get him.

Sorry for boring you with my politic-talk. Here's the video:

Top Comment: "Obama, pack your bags, we got a new president."

Friday, June 3, 2011

Hockey Post


2 of the 4 goalies that played for the
2010 Olympic final teams

Okay, so I normally post posts about music, but today I supposed I'd post a post about the supposedly proposed poise juxtaposition between the people in the positions of opposing post protectors. What I am purportedly attempting to put forth in this post, is that the story of these Stanley Cup Finals is going to be (and has been so far) about the battle between the posts. Game 1 concluded with Canadian boy Roberto Luongo coming out ahead of the Boston Bruin Tim Thomas, stopping 36 shots en route to a shutout. Tim Thomas held his own however, only letting a swift pass right across the slot to Raffi Torres get by him with 19 seconds left. It was a big win for #every one of us Canadians.

Yes folks, as Game 2 approaches tomorrow night, it will be interesting to see if both goalies can follow up their performances in Wednesday's matchup. It'll actually probably be more interesting if one of them doesn't. Either way, it's bound to be a matchup for the ages (featuring two #Vezina nominees and Olympic Gold finalists as the goaltenders) that may even get Americans scratching their heads and saying, "Geez, is hockey still happening? It's June for Christ's sake!"

In Other Hockey News:

Winnipeg got their team back! Not because Phoenix finally realized that having a hockey team was a bigger money pit han having a baseball franchise in Ottawa, but Atlanta was starting to realize that this was the case. 31 years after the Flames moved northward to Calgary, the only current expansion franchise to have never won a playoff game has suffered the same fate. Winnipeg inherits a treasure trove of young talent including Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglin and Evander Kane (that clip of Kane gives me goosebumps everytime) as well as quite possibly the leagues most horrendus jerseys.

Teemu "the Finnish Flash" Selanne
The only remaining question is: What will this team be named? Early favourites are the "Jets", "Moose" and even "Falcons". Early reports have stated that the team will not be called the Jets, and that it will be the "Manitoba something". This puts Moose as the clear front-runner, as True North owns both the Thrashers and the Moose at this point. Personally, I think "the Moose" is a little on the unabashed Canadian-pride side, and wouldn't mind seeing the #Jets back in Canada... but these are just the opinions of one man who will likely never attend any their games or add to any of their revenues whatsoever. Just don't come crying to me when your franchise turns into the Sens instead of the Canucks (so much potential...)

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Mister Heavenly is coming to get you.

Up until now, I only knew Mister Heavenly as "that band that Michael Cera played bass for." Hell, I didn't even really know the name of the band at that point. While he played bass during their live performances, he's not actually part of the group when they're in-studio. It definitely speaks to the legitimacy of their super-group that their most famous member can leave and the band stays just as good.

This is most likely due to the fact that this band is part Modest Mouse, part Islands, and part some band called Man Man. (On a side note, after doing my research for this article, I have decided that Man Man's video for "Rabbit Habits" is now one of my favourite ever...featuring SNL's Fred Armisen and Charlyne Yi,.. but I digress)

In conclusion (and before I go off on another tangent and post another useless video) here's a preview for their album "Out of Love" (featuring footage from their performance at SXSW). You can also download their single "Pineapple Girl" by clicking on the name of the song. or clicking here. Hell, I have so much free time on my hands, I'll put another link to it here.

..but I feel You

Sam Roberts (or rather @Sam Roberts Band) just released a new album, "#Collider". This writer's opinion (in addition to many other blog writers' whose content is similar to mine) is that it's a little groovier than the band's previous efforts, if not a little less classic.

It suits the group though, I don't think they could come out with another Brother Down at this point. They've changed too much. Gone are the days where Sam would sit down with a guitar and write the entire album. The band's new songs seem more based on heavy grooves and winding riffs than ever, and if you've ever seen this band live, you've realized that a studio can't capture what they put out.

So while I present this average lookin'/soundin' video (who knows, it might grow on me) that the group just released to promote the new album, just imagine you're at Osheaga, with the bass pounding through your spine and the riffs penetrating your soul. Seriously, this band can build more energy and tension than an ex that can't stop #tearing off her beer labels. Bon Appetit!



Oh, and did I mention his voice? It has all the badass-ness of smoking, without the dead-sounding-ness so often encountered with cigarettes. Nice to hear another good ol' Canadian boy sounding raspy.
Here's another one that highlights his voice, and the fact that they know how to kick it live. Just for shits&giggles.