The City Is Blinking

"I just passed that "nigga fell off" stage Just sold out the O2 at my own pace I can say that I’m attached to nobody I've been getting paper while these niggas tryna stop me Shout my nigga Doc, that’s a mentor Had some bad business, nothing personal But now the word out that we back On some young Quincy Jones, dark skin Michael Jackson And these the motherfuckers that they packaged Their new shit all be sounding like my past shit Bring your girl to my show, give her floor seats Then she go downtown like she owe me XO, XO, XO Mix it up, pour it up, take it down slow This is my sound, nigga, fuck your sound Did it from the ground, ask around, bitch When I touch down, I'ma shake shit up Fuck a new man, I'ma break it up He can come back when I go on the road But that pussy mine for the next three months ’Cause the kid back, kid back, kid back Cop ten whips for my niggas when we land Queen Street nigga making money overseas Had a few more debts, I'ma pay it...

"I was raised up believing I was somehow unique Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see And now after some thinking, I'd say I'd rather be A functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me But I don't, I don't know what that will be I'll get back to you someday soon you will see."   Fleet Foxes are remarkable live, their otherworldly harmonies and multi instrumental canny carrying over incredibly well to a live setting. The Iveagh Gardens is a venue that suits them down to the ground, big enough to get a great atmosphere going, but intimate enough to feel like you are really connecting with the band. The set-list, included below in no particular order, was a mixture of old and new, showing the depth of the band's catalogue, even with just three albums and one EP under their belt.  The crowd was friendly and happy, knowing the words of a surprising number of songs, singing along with ...

"I think I started something, I got what I wanted Did-didn't I can't feel nothing, superhuman Even when I'm fucking, Viagra popping Every single record, autotuning Zero emotion, muted emotion Pitch corrected, computed emotion, uh-huh I blame it on the model broad with the Hollywood smile, ow Stripper booty and a rack like wow, Brain like Berkeley Met her at Coachella I went to see Jigga, she went to see Z Trip, perfect I took a seat on the ice cold lawn She handed me a ice blue bong, whatever She said she wanna be a dentist really badly She's in school paying For tuition, doing porn in the Valley, at least you working But, girl, I can't feel my face What are we smoking anyway? She said don't let the high go to waste But can you taste a little taste Novacane, baby, baby Novacane, baby, I want you Fuck me good, fuck me long, fuck me numb Love me now, when I'm gone, love me none Love me none, love me none Numb, numb, numb, numb." If there is one ...

"If I ventured in the slipstream Between the viaducts of your dream Where immobile steel rims crack And the ditch in the back roads stop Could you find me? Would you kiss-a my eyes? To lay me down In silence easy To be born again To be born again." Astral Weeks is the best album of the 1960s. A bold claim I know, but please let me continue. Astral Weeks is technically the second album by Irish fellow Van Morrison, but all right thinking people consider it his proper debut. In it he lays out a musical manifesto for a new kind of music. Gloriously rambling, transcendental travelogues with a Jazzy verve. Astral Weeks was released in 1968, and has a lot of top competition for the top spot of that year, let alone the decade. Other notable albums that year include White Light/White Heat by the Velvet Underground, The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding, Song To a Seagull by Joni Mitchell, Bookends by Simon & Garfunkel, Odessey and Oracle by The Zombies, and the classi...

"This one is for the boys with the boomin' system, Top down, AC, with the coolin' system When he come up in the club, he be blazin' up Stacks on deck like he savin' up And he ill, he real, he might got a deal He pop bottles, and he got the right kind of build He cold, he dope, he might sell coke He always in the air, but he never fly coach He a muthafuckin' trip, trip, sailor of the ship, ship When he make it drip, drip kiss him on the lip, lip That's the kind of dude I was lookin' fo' And yes, you'll get slapped if you're lookin', ho I said, "Excuse me, you're a hell of a guy I mean my, my, my, my, you're like pelican fly I mean, you're so shy, and I'm loving your tie You're like slicker than the guy with the thing on his eye, oh!" Yes, I did, yes, I did Somebody please tell him who the eff I is I am Nicki Minaj, I mack them dudes up Back coupes up, and chuck the deuce up Boy, you got my heart beat r...

"The city on the verge of greatness. A new type of city, based not on the man, but on the automobile. The car, symbol of freedom and vitality. Where every man can own his own home and have room to breathe and not be overlooked by his neighbors. A city where a man's home is his castle. A quarter acre of the dream made possible by the victory. A city of opportunists. A city of dreams where Hollywood will shape the thoughts and desires of the entire planet. A city of pioneers. A city of dreamers. A city of undercurrents, where not everything is as it seems. A twentieth century city that will become a model for the world. A city that has no boundaries, that will stretch as far as the eye can see." L.A. Noire was released in 2011. It was my favourite game of that year, and one of my all time favourites today. I love Noir, as you know, so this was always going to be a game which held much joy for me. More than liking the genre and subject matter however, the game ...

"Brainwaves living in stills Nightmares just floating on film You found it in the white lies in the back of your mind And you know it’s not the same reel that you dusted off before So slide it in a tape deck Put it in a VCR Show me how you got in this predicament Did the devil let you down? I could tell you it’s the apex I could tell you it’s the Al hamra Take another shot of your adrenaline And pray you get that far." Gallant is the hottest new thing in R&B and music. He follows other greats like The Weeknd and Frank Ocean in transforming a previously stale genre into the best thing going today. I have written before about why R&B does it for me. It is music that makes you human. It takes all of your insecurities and replaces them with musical steel that makes you stand up straight. It gives you the courage to be yourself, truly and absolutely. Gallant is especially adept at making music that goes straight to your heart. His gorgeous, heavenly voice m...