31st&Chi playlist

Please note that some mp3 links may be expired. Sorry, but if you want the song that badly, buy it.

El Guincho : Bombay

Panda Bear : You Can Count On Me (live at Governor's Island)

Viernes : Entire Empire

Teen Daze : Shine On, You Crazy White Cap

Glasser : Home

Blackbird Blackbird : Pure

Beach House : White Moon

Zola Jesus: I Can't Stand

Ducktails : Art Vandelay

Sufjan Stevens : Heirloom

Teengirl Fantasy : Cheaters

Twin Shadow : Slow

No Age : Glitter

Do The Astral Plane - Flying Lotus

Heaven's On Fire - The Radio Dept.

Where I'm Going - Cut Copy

Slow Motion - Panda Bear

Boyfriend - Best Coast

Windstorm - School Of Seven Bells

Difficult - Uffie

Steppin Up - M.I.A.

Come With Me - ceo

Don't Turn The Lights On - Chromeo

Here Sometimes - Blonde Redhead

King of the Beach - Wavves

Coquet Coquette - of Montreal

All Summer - Kid Cudi, Best Coast and Rostam Batmanglij

Tightrope (feat. Big Boi) - Janelle Monáe

Hot-n-Fun (feat. Nelly Furtado) - N.E.R.D.

Tangerine (feat. T.I. & Khujo) - Big Boi

Go Outside - Cults

Round and Round - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

Let's Get Lost (feat. Beck) - Bat For Lashes

You and I (feat. Caroline Polachek) - Washed Out

Aminals - Baths

Silver Dagger - Fleet Foxes

Month of May - Arcade Fire

The Suburbs - Arcade Fire

Our Deal - Best Coast

When I'm With You - Best Coast

Take It Easy - Surfer Blood

Promises - The Morning Benders

Angel Echoes - Four Tet

I Feel Better - Hot Chip


Wide Eyes - Local Natives

Soft As Chalk - Joanna Newsom

The High Road - Broken Bells

Jamelia - Caribou

World Sick - Broken Social Scene

5 minuter med jj - jj

Wait Up (Boots of Danger) - Tokyo Police Club

In The Sun - She & Him

Tell 'Em - Sleigh Bells

Bhang Bhang, I'm A Burnout - Dum Dum Girls

Bang Pop - Free Energy

Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons

Shadow People - Dr. Dog

Burden of Tomorrow - The Tallest Man On Earth

Dance Yrself Clean - LCD Soundsystem

Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix) - Small Black

Vietnam - Crystal Castles

Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National

Lady Daydream - Twin Sister

Subliminal Message - Happy Birthday

Tin Man - Future Islands

Next Girl - The Black Keys

Factory - Band of Horses

Born Free - M.I.A.

Let Go - jj

Intimate - Crystal Castles

Celestica - Crystal Castles

All I Want - LCD Soundsystem

Talamak - Toro Y Moi

Norway - Beach House

Bye Bye Bayou - LCD Soundsystem

Swim Until You Can't See Land - Frightened Rabbit

Two Fair Weeks [Grizzly Bear (Fred Falke Remix) Vs. Lily Allen] - Marc Johnce

Baby - Devendra Banhart

Mrs Cold - Kings Of Convenience

Chillin (Top UK Billin Remix) - Wale (ft. Lady GaGa)

Lust For Life - Girls

Ambling Alp - Yeasayer

Ghosts - CANT

Forever - Drake (ft. Kanye West, Lil Wayne & Eminem)

You're A Target - No Age

Lisztomania - Phoenix

Daniel - Bat For Lashes

Percussion Gun - White Rabbits

Stillness Is The Move - Dirty Projectors

Wet Hair - Japandroids

I Am Goodbye - Bonnie "Prince" Billy

Pretty Girls - Wale

Grizzly Bear x Lil Wayne - 2 Weeks til' Prom

Fables - The Dodos

Ready, Able - Grizzly Bear

I Should've Taken Acid With You - Neon Indian

6669 (I Don't Know If You Know) - Neon Indian

Sour Milk / Salt Water - Port O'Brien

Unfinished Business - White Lies

Blood Bank - Bon Iver

Mykonos - Fleet Foxes

You Don't Know Me - Ben Folds

Rake's Song - The Decemberists

Gronlandic Edit - of Montreal

Day 'N' Nite (Crookers Remix) - Kid Cudi

Walkabout (ft. Panda Bear) - Atlas Sound

Wavves - Cool Jumper

Island, IS - Volcano Choir

Feel It All Around - Washed Out

Auditorium (ft. The Ruler) - Mos Def

Off The Map (ft. Jamie Lidell) - Simian Mobile Disco

Hold The Line (ft. Santigold) - Major Lazer

What Would I Want Sky (Live on BBC Sessions) - Animal Collective

"I love you so in my dreams at night

             Your visions are sharp shining and bright

                  I tried to tell my friends, but they think I'm insane 

                         When you're around, there's no need to explain."

                                                                                -elin kastlander

22 and dying.

Nebraska Media

Call Nebraska new money. Much in the same way Roger Klotz (of TV program 'Doug' fame) started putting on airs and tossing his cash around when he found himself newly wealthy, the Nebraska media is letting everyone know that, "Hey, did you hear? We're in the Big Ten now." OWH sportswriters/sworn enemies Tom Shatel and Lee Barfknecht are--surprise, surprise--leading the way. In his June 15th article, Shatel sees that his days of hacking out column after column bashing Texas--and, thusly, whipping the cross-eyed Nebraska faithful in a mouth-frothing frenzy--are numbered, so he took the opportunity to give the Longhorns a kick one more time. Give it a read, then we'll regroup for discussion.

Done? Ok. My thoughts: I sure hope that Texas A.D. DeLoss Dodds has a mustache, preferably a long, greasy black one akin to Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook. Why? Because if the powers-that-be down in Texas are the sinister, back-biting, two-faced, good-for-nothing, dirty, low-down scoundrels that Shatel portrays them as, Dodds better be twisiting that 'stache and twisting it often. Texas salvaged a league that was on the verge of collapse and throwing Division I football into disarray. They kept five teams, four from the cherished days of the Big 8, from being totally left out in the cold and banished to irrelevance. They helped preserve a conference that is arguably one of the best football powerhouses in the nation, giving it a chance to fight another day. According to Shatel, though, all this conference expansion was a ruse to scare Nebraska away, thus eliminating all of Texas' competition (well, except for Oklahoma, OkState, Tech, Mizzou and A&M). This is the short-sighted arrogance of Nebraska media. If Texas had bolted for the Big Ten rather than Nebraska (and I can't help but think that's what Jim Delany really wanted), Shatel would have had his own section of the paper dedicated to tarring and feathering every Texas administrator, coach, player, student and alum as greedy, back-stabbing, tradition-spitting, baby drowners before he went on a two paragraph lament over ever leaving the Big 8. Nebraska would have to step up as savior of the league, the champion of truth and justice, and the concessions (like TV money, championship games, etc) would be their rightful spoils as the upholder of virtue. As is, Texas requesting those concessions is being likened to extortion. Nebraska desperately wants to be the good guy here, but it's hard when you're the school responsible for almost destryoing the league. Sure, they could point some blame at Colorado for leaving for the Pac-10 but there's the possibility that someone might scratch their head and say, "Wait a minute..." This worry has even kept infamous Buff-basher Lee Barfknecht--whose less than kind words for the late Sal Aunese will never be forgotten--quiet, lest the Big Red illusion dissipate. Nebraska did what was, admittedly, a very un-Nebraska thing: they cut and ran, leaving a lot of good friends high and dry. They're struggling to come to terms with this. They're trying to justify a decision that nearly fucked over a lot of people, and it was the villain they've been creating that saved the day. What to do, now, than to completely turn your back on the league? It becomes the 'Texas League,' nothing more than a bunch of patsies kow-towwing to Texas, a handful of sadsacks grateful to have a roof over their head. No, way, they say. No way would Nebraska do this. Which leads me to our next article, Barfknecht's. Read on.

This article is nothing more than fluffy, Big Ten move justification. Might as well have titled it, "Big Ten Pays More" or "How Dare Mizzou Cash a Bigger Check Than Us!" Well, if you read the article, it explains why Nebraska made less money than other schools. It's all about how much you're on TV. Texas, Oklahoma and the rest of the South gang slug it out in bigtime match-ups in a tightly contested division. Kansas had a #1 ranked basketball team that was on ESPN almost every weekend. Missouri plays a marquee TV game with Illinois every year. Nebraska? Nebraska has pay-per-view tea parties with three SunBelt schools. Even Colorado signed up to get pasted by WestVa on a Thursday. Also, the NCAA ski championships run for like three days in early March. Trust me, they're actually on TV. This doesn't matter, say the Nebraska fans, because the Big Ten has the BigTen Network. And to that I say that I feel sorry to suscribers of that Network. Hope you're getting boned up to see Troy play every couple years!

Yummy.

Chiddy Bang Freestyle

If I were cooler and knew how to embed videos I totally would have, but alas you are stuck with clicking on a link like always. This is a pretty cool video though, and as many of you know I have a pretty big musical boner for these guys. Also, I'm headed out to Copenhagen at noon tomorrow so wish me luck. To all my fellow writers here: I'll bring you back something if I can afford it. I'll miss you dudes.

Chiddy Bang Freestyle (Props to PMA)

Sports.

Before we begin, I’d like to point out that it is a matter of well known fact that I am no fan of Husker football, the University of Nebraska, the majority of it’s students, and the city of Lincoln itself. It also goes without saying that I am a diehard, blindly faithful, "2-10 isn’t that bad of a season," Thunder Hawkins worshipping Buffs fan. If you want objectivity, you should probably look elsewhere.

Ok, so all things seem to point towards Nebraska going to the Big Ten. Good for them. They saw a chance to pick up a little more green, step up a rung or two in the world and they jumped on it. What really chaps me about this whole process is the way the Nebraska media (read: Tom Shatel and Lee Barfknecht) handled this whole situation. The last time I saw this much spin, I was playing Ring-Around-the-Rosie on a merry-go-round. It was mind-boggling how the same issue could be painted with two brushes, especially in the department of remarks employed to villainizing Texas. I’m not going to break out the (somewhat stale) "Nebraska is running scared if Texas" jab because the same could be said of the newly-departed, Pac-10 bound Buffs (Christ, you could say the Buffs were running from Kansas State or Oklahoma State). But I will not shy away from the following contentious points, all of which just downright pissed me off:

1) Texas has a "Texas-first" attitude
I’ve heard a lot about the "Texas-first" stance that is being presumed by Texas AD DeLoss Dodds, and how his program only thinks itself and acts exclusively in its own interest. Well, that doesn't seem very nice of them, and many in the Nebraska media (read: Tom Shatel and Lee Barfknecht) were quick to accuse Texas of not being a team player and condemn them for their arrogance. Then, with the same pen, they write that Nebraska must do what's right for Nebraska, that Nebraska must pursue the course most beneficial to them. Seems to me that such a mindset could be called "Nebraska-first."

2) The championship game argument
I hear a whole lot of pissing and moaning about the Big 12 championship game being played in Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. It moved there this year and was renewed for the next couple years a few weeks ago. moving the game from Arrowhead in Kansas City. Holy smokes, how Husker Nation bitched. They're shifting the league south, they said, they're putting the game in Texas' backyard! Was the league shifted north when the game was in KC? Don't you think fans from the South Division got tired of coming north, just the same as you're bed-wetting about going south? As for the "Texas' backyard" contingent, buy an atlas, dummies. Austin is 195 miles from Dallas, whereas Lincoln is a paltry 163 miles from Kansas City. If we're gonna talk backyards, the Big 12 really moved the game out of Nebraska's backyard to, say, down the street from Texas. If none of this has taken hold, chew on this, dummies: a brand-new, state-of-the-art, billion dollar stadium is offering to let you play on their field. Who turns that down?

3) The Big 8
The Nebraska media (read: Tom Shatel and Lee Barknecht) have been making a big fuss about how they never really trusted the Big 12 and wish they could go back to the simpler times of the Big 8. What they really mean is they wish Tommie Frazier was 19-years old again and that the spread offense had never been invented. The Big 8 was more like a family, but the corrupting influence of the now-defunct Southwest Conference has made it a dysfunctional corporation. If only we could go back to the good old days, before the Texas schools ruined everything. I have a hard time swallowing this sentimentality. When Nebraska follows Colorado out the door and jumps to the Big 10--which will more than likely cause the Big 12 to collapse--what schools are going to be left standing there with their pants around their ankles and their dicks in their hands? Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, and Iowa State, maybe Missouri. Besides Baylor, all former Big 8 schools. The Big 8 is a family? I knew a family like this once. The dad hit a mid-life crisis, bought a convertible, fucked the hot neighbor lady and split town. Deadbeat Nebraska.

4) "When the Big 10 calls, you answer."
That phrase kind of became the buzzline for the Nebraska-Big 10 affair. Shatel and Barfknecht--they know I'm talking about them here--repeated it so many times that they could have copyrighted it and made a nickel everytime some other doofus said it. This logic--that if something better than what you're with offers to take you up, you should leap at the chance--strikes very close to home for me. When I was in the 10th grade, I asked a nice-looking gal if she wanted to go to the Homecoming dance with me. She said yes, and I was stoked. However, the Thursday before the dance she told me that a senior had asked her, so she was going with him instead. I was a dejected downtrodden shade of a pre-mustache me. I hope the Big Ten and Nebraska have fun at the dance while Kansas and Iowa State get shitfaced off a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 under the railroad bridge (which is, coincidentally, what me and my best friend did at Homecoming '04.)

Fleet Foxes LP #2?

*Photo via Fleet Foxes Facebook group*

Silver Dagger - Fleet Foxes

Talking To Myself

So, recently I was privy to (read: subjected to) witnessing an argument between two friends over the current political landscape in this little corner of the world we call the USA. These two friends (eh, let’s go with "associates) represent not only conflicting ends of the political spectrum, but also give embody the worst things about their respective ideologies. The "Democrat" is a ‘Yes We Can’ t-shirt wearing type whose political bend seems to tip towards the trendier issues, like health care (which he doesn’t understand), stopping wars (because he read an article that said they were bad) and the promotion of peace, love, and happiness (because he is a moron). As laughable as this cookie-cutter embarassment to the organized DNC seems, his right-wing counterpart is a dumbass of comparable size and severity. For starters, this "Republican" is a self-proclaimed, self-styled "Tea Party member." This is a distinction I don’t really get. Are you a Republican or are you in the Tea Party? Is this like where Harry and Ron were in Dumbledore’s Army but there were still in Gryffindor at the same time? I don’t know, I don’t care, but applying this label to yourself seems worthy of the same contempt and censure reserved for self-labeling "hipsters." To round out this girl’s worldview, she is virulently anti-Barack Obama, terrifyingly pro-Sarah Palin, and, I swear to God, I have heard the words "revolution" leave her mouth. What these two sadsacks have in common is that neither of them really embnraces the issues at hand. They pride themselves on their spirited political "debates" but the couple of times I’ve had to witness them (clarifcation: I’ve only actually had this displeasure in person once. Usually I catch glimpses of wall-to-wall news feed clutter on FB) they stick to party line chest thumping, sound bites and rhetoric. Left-wing numbnuts quotes articles from Rolling Stone, right-wing dipshit paraphrases Glenn Beck. Both of them are so close-minded and short-sighted that there is no way either will be swayed by argument, and I’ve concluded they only get into these "discussions" to impress themselves with how much Kool-Aid they’ve been drinking.

I feel like our generation is totally fucked.