The Cold Cut

Update 2: The fileden links went down due to popularity! You guys sucked up 5 Gb of bandwith in about 5 hours. I've re-uploaded all the individual tracks on zshare for your listening pleasure. Enjoy.

Update: The Lemur is turning 17 tomorrow- Blogstars have put together another completely original mixtape to celebrate the event. Make sure you take a visit, comment, and most of all say Happy Bday to the furry dude. The Lemur Blog

Yay! I'm 18 today (26th July)! How exciting! The plan for the day was wake up (after a late BBQ last night with some frivolity), take a run, have brunch, open a few pressies/cards and then go to see The Dark Knight. The evening was be topped off with a meal down at the beach. Perfecto. I'm not going to cover the day's celebrations yet, although I will say that The Dark Knight was fucking amazing. A full review will be posted once I have got over the emotionally draining experience that was the best film of 2008.

To tie in with my celebrations, a secret team of uber-bloggers (and a few DJs/musicians) have been working behind the scenes with myself to create a super-blogtastic 18th Birthday mixtape for you. And it rocks.

The Blogstars (remember that name- coming to an internet near you soon) have each chosen a song to be featured on the mixtape, bringing together a host of musical tastes and some of the best music blogs on the internet. Think of this as the Justice League of music. On the right of each song, you will find the blog which selected it- click through to see some more from each contributor. Oh, and enjoy, as I will be doing!

You can download each track individually, but to save time you can obtain the whole tape in singular files as a zip. Mixtape artwork is above/below- click through for mega-sized versions. The tracklisting is as follows:

Blogstars Presents Happy 18th Birthday Mixtape (Full).zip (Link 2)

1. Cut Copy- Lights And Music (Boyz Noize Happy Birthday Remix)... The Lemur Blog
2. Treasure Fingers- Come True Tonight (Dub Mix)... Immuzikation
3. Rihanna- Disturbia... Pretty Much Amazing
4. Grum- Go Back... Check The Availability
5. K-OS- Neutroniks... Party cmyk
6. VETO- Built To Fall... Where Did I Leave My Keys?
7. The Uglysuit- Chicago... Hypeful
8. The Game Ft. Lil' Wayne- My Life... Gordon DJ Stealth McGinnis
9. Cut Copy- Going Nowhere (Whitey Remix)... Ohh! Crapp
10. The Silent Years- The World's Worst Birthday Gift... Hypeful
11. Felix Da Housecat- Silver Screen Shower Scene... Neon Cool Kids, Yo!

Bonus Tracks:

1. Patton Oswalt- You Are Allowed 20 Birthday Parties

Hello hello. I've really missed this over the last few days (free will, that is)- over the course of 48 hours, I've had 4 A2 Modules, and a complete lack of time and choice.

Now, with the weekend ahead of me, I'm taking a few hours off to compose myself and generally have a bit of fun. Loads of cool stuff has happened over the last few days, and whilst the focus of this blog is music, I'm sure that you are all interested in other stuff as well.

First things first, music. It's been an exciting week, with many album releases and anticipated releases. Before I start reeling off the tracks, I wanted to point out my latest addition to The Cold Cut: zips. My main aim is to provide you with as much fresh music as possible, and to keep the user experience simple and enjoyable. So to reduce time, at the beginning of every post, I'm going to zip all the music (yep, ALL of it) and upload it, instead of uploading multiple copies of each file. So if you're the kind of person who wants to have your cake and eat it, download the zip file, and get a small taster of this weeks music! I hope this makes things easier! Individual files will still be available for download, but in limited quantity.

The Return- All The Tracks In This Post.zip (Link 2)

Pharrell, Julian Casablancas and Santogold- My Drive Thru

Converse have continued their onslaught on the music world, except this time around, they're having an impact. Coupled with their uber-cool advertising campaign- Connectivity (see a few sheets below)- they recently commissioned a new song involving Santogold, Julian Casablancas and Pharrell. In doing so, they've assembled three of the coolest people in the public eye (look at the photo above and tell me you don't wish you were Julian?).

This is exactly the kind of image they want to present, and the song is great too. 'My Drive Thru' is a nice change for all three musicians- Pharrell mostly stays behind the mixing board, but the vocal combo of Julian and Santi is ree-diculous, with a nice chiming bell/guitar riff. In short, I love it, for its unabashed energy and bravery. And for all those grumbling about how 'I've lost all respect for Santogold', I ask, 'why'? These guys have to pay the bills, and I for one wouldn't turn down the chance of working with such talented musicians.
Lightspeed Champion is steadily moving into the limelight: please take the time to watch this incredible SXSW performance, and keep your eyes open for some new tracks no doubt arriving over the next few weeks. Watch the full concert at baeblemusic.comncert at baeblemusic.com

Lightspeed Champion- Xanadu

Coldplay's new album was brought forward and released yesterday. It frustrates me that there has already been a great deal of Coldplay bashing, mostly by the newspapers. The whole situation is confusing, as it appears the critics can't make up their mind: in the run up to the album, I read numerous articles stating that the only way Coldplay could win would be to change their sound. And they have- their reward is a generally unimpressed reaction.

Coldplay- Viva La Vida (Telemitry Mix)

Nas buckled. Big style... he changed the name of his forthcoming album (which you will know, and I will not write) to 'Untitled', but then released a mixtape with the original name. How confusing, and pointless. The statement isn't quite so large if the name is confined to a teaser, Nas! His first single, 'Hero', was released, and its a nice introduction to the new album. However, it doesn't stand a chance of dethroning Lil' Wayne from rap album of the year.

Nas- Hero (ft. Keri Hilson)
Lil Wayne- Let The Beat Build

Apple's 3G iPhone has also had a lukewarm welcome. I for one will be getting my hands on one: the main issues being brought up are no front facing video camera, no 'true GPS functionality' and the same 2MP camera. These are fair points, but technology is subjective. I hardly ever use my phone's camera, as it's crap, and if I had an iPhone, I wouldn't take it anywhere where I wouldn't take my dedicated digital camera- concerts, for example. Using an iPhone to take pictures would make you a huge target to the thieves who go to gigs solely to steal wallets, phones and anything else they can get. However, I would agree that I feel slightly cheated by the 'new' iPhone. Sure, it's got 3G, and a few tweaks, but to be honest, the main draw is the new application store. That's the main reason I will be purchasing one asap.

Mystery Jets- Two Doors Down (Duke Dumont Reconstruction)

The summer film season is finally kicking off- Iron Man was heaps of fun, and my top five remaining releases are The Dark Knight, Wanted, Wall-E, The Incredible Hulk and Hellboy 2. All action orientated, and almost all (The Dark Knight is a bit... well... dark?) heaps of fun. If your inner child isn't brought out by these little Wall-E vignettes, then the feature film won't be for you.

Fleet Foxes- He Doesn't Know Why

Oh, and a little thing called sport. Over the last few days, the sport has been sublime. From Holland (come on boys) caning in Euro to Nadal edging past 6 foot 10" Ivo Karlovic, I'm finding it hard to draw my eyes away from the screen. And with Wimbledon, F1 and more coming up, this is looking to be an enjoyable summer! Any die-hard supporters here? Whose your money on for Euro 2008? My top four: Germany, Holland, Spain and Portugal. Croatia might edge their way in there!

N.E.R.D.- Yeah You

And that's it- I've run out of energy, and things to talk about. More updates tomorrow! Nice to be back.

PS Leave a note if the links go down!