Leonard Cohen

"Jesus was a sailor when he walked along the water
and he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower
and when he knew for certain, only drowning men could see him
he said 'all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them'
but he himself was broken, long before the sky would open
forsaken,
almost human,
he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone"
- from "Suzanne"

Leonard Cohen is one of the few folky singer songwriters who stops me in my tracks and hang on every word he says. His distinctive monodrone voice and Spanish style finger-picking guitar perfectly suit his songs of love and hate. As far as songwriters go, Cohen is pretty much the penultimate truth (especially, his early stuff). His fixations are crazed women, sex, the Bible, the impoverished, the crazy, the lonely, the rich, the idle, the suicidal etc, and he spins a yarn unlike anyone else (he began as a poet and novelist before writing songs).

His early albums, 1968's The Songs Of Leonard Cohen and 69's Songs From A Room, are classics that have jewels like "Suzanne," "The Partisan" and "Stories From The Street" and are essential listening. HOWEVER, 1971's Songs Of Love and Hate, is the real business. Possibly the best A-side to an album ever with "Avalanche," "Last Year's Man," "Dress Rehearsal Rag," and "Diamonds In The Mine"- all visions of harrowing genius.
(To Download or Play, Left Click and Follow Instructions)

MP3- Suzanne

MP3- Avalanche

MP3- Dress Rehearsal Rag

MP3- Stories Of The Street

MP3- Diamonds In The Mine

MP3- The Partisan

MP3- Master Song

MP3- Stranger Song

MP3- Story Of Issac

Mr. Oizo

Mr. Oizo is a French electrodude who came onto the scene in 1999 with his song "Flat Beat" and it's video's classic headbanging puppet protagonist, Flat Eric. He expounded the song and character into a series of awesome French Levi's ads, but remained fairly underground on the music scene after, but he quietly amassed a quality body of work. Then came Justice. One of the group's first hits was their remix of Oizo's "Nazi's" and they took his distorted electro sound and made it their own. As Justice, Simian Mobile Disco, Soulwax all gained notoriety, so did Oizo, as they frequently included him in mixes and remixes.

Oizo's whole albums are a tad hard to get through from start to finish, so I'll give you the highlights. He's definitely one of those fleeting inspiration guys, and his glitchier stuff is too chopped-up for me. However, what I like, I LIKE. Love, even. Here's a selected discography to getcha goin. All these are winnars.

(To Download, Left Click and Follow Instructions)
MP3- Positif (2008)

MP3- $tunt (Flying Lotus Remix) (2008)

MP3- Flat Beat (1999)

MP3- Nazis (Justice Remix) (2006)

MP3- Trina 700 (2007)

MP3- Patrick 122 (2007)

MP3- Hun (2008)

MP3- Transexual (2007)

MP3- Analog Wormz Sequel (1999)

...and here's the CLASSIC vid for "Flat Beat"

Iggy & The Stooges

One of my sacred cows. The Stooges were BY FAR the rawest band of the late 60's "classic rock" era, projecting the dirt and squalor of late 60's Detroit where a burning building took the place of an organized "love in." The hellish din of the Stooges music, along with the MC5, juxtaposed the go-go-free-lovery of the trust fund hippies, with dirge and howl, with a handful of drugs and nowhere to go home to. Not that they didn't project love- Iggy's love was more ravenous, out of his mind and horny, he had to find that special one. If that meant some mud soaked flower child or a pill popper with a nice ass and a rotten tooth, it was all the same.

If you've never had your brain warped to The Stooges, here's to breaking yr. cherry. As essential as Dylan. The next logical step from the Stones. The precursor to shit and piss punk rock and metal, blah blah blah, just look and listen. 1969's self titled debut, 1970's Fun House and 1973's Raw Power are three of the most essential records in all of rock and roll.


(Click to listen, right click to download)

MP3- I Wanna Be Your Dog

MP3- Search And Destroy

MP3- Down On The Street

MP3- 1969

MP3- Real Cool Time

MP3- Not Right

Iggy's Solo Shit

MP3- The Passenger

MP3- Lust For Life

MP3- Repo Man Theme (sooo bomb)

MP3- Fun Time (Live With David Bowie 1977)

HERE's a link to the whole Iggy/Bowie live album, Mantra 1977

Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski is the fucking MAN. A writer, a poet, a genius, you know it, Bukowski is the slum god of the human soul. I've recently come across some of his spoken word set to classical music which works oh-so-well, because that's what he listened to as he drank and wrote. "The Genius Of the Crowd" and "Dinosauria, We" are absolutely bruising poems, the latter popping up in a recent MF Doom song ("Cellz"). All of these are seminal however, full of the haggard wisdom inherent in his novels. Speaking of which, I can't recommend you read Post Office, Women, and Hollywood, enough because all three of those are life changing, you'll reference them (at least cognitively) for the rest of your life.

(Left Click To Download VIA Box.com)
MP3- The Genius Of The Crowd

MP3- Dinosauria, We

MP3- A Radio With Guts

MP3- The Strongest Of The Strange

MP3- The Soldier, His Wife and The Bum

MP3- MF Doom- "Cellz"