As delicious as a french roast, Nina Sky’s sugar-sweet elixer of background vocals deliver a track one worth at least four games of beach volleyball. I usually don’t really jam on ska music, but this is a excellent exception – the balance of a half beat melody gives an otherwise identity crisis sounding song some serious Pacifico credibility. Keep your ears open around the 2:50 mark when Ricky Blaze delivers an Akon-esque “Girl, I wanna party with you.” Sigh. That sentence makes me so happy. Pretty original album artwork, must have taken it off of the Situation’s wall photos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PFzhUfAsnk

Major Lazer feat. Nina Sky and Ricky Blaze – Keep it Goin’ (1961 Ska Remix)

This song gave me something I often forget about as I listened to it for the first, second, and third time this week. It reminded me of the unique and magical quality music can have from time to time, when you have those days where life flows in and out of you as freely as the wind blows. I feel this song differently than most. It feels like it just pours into me in a way that exits just as easily. I forget about how sometimes it’s not all about holding onto those feelings of climbing mountains and windsurfing across 20 foot waves, rather it is all about the flow, the ability to let it all in and let it all out. I get that from this song, and I am really amped about that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-P8sP2RN1c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axcb7DjaPz4

My Morning Jacket – All the Best

ES&TMZ add a +2 to their polarity with this commercial testimonial about where home really is. Maybe it’s where you live, maybe it’s a state of mind. At the very least, I could not have scripted a better song to try to convey that than this. A fleet of people all playing their own weird instrument, coming together to sing about how nothing really matters except who you are with, not where you are. Dave Matthews was right! The best part is that this song, with probably the most organic theme and personnel, is that it is now featured in a Ford Fiesta commercial. Maybe they’re all jumping in the sun because they all got Fords and free tix to American Idol. Maybe they are just excited about being dead on about home being wherever you are. Or else they’re totally wrong and home is a sick beach house in Malibu.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRA5S59KjwY

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Home

I remember the first time I heard this song in high school and it blew my mind. Such incredible musicianship to put together an amorphous verse/chorus combination like this, apexing with a power chord “strap me in, tie me down, i’m learnin’ to fly” refrain that absolutely rocks live. My last few moe concerts have rendered me sore for two days after getting caught up in the incessant dancing that tends to happen when a band is known for rocking hard, long jams, and raw power. It’s not for everyone, but for those of you who have seen moe, you know what I mean. A must have for your next “i’m pissed and driving west” mix.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE5AWXT0Y5c

m.o.e. – Plane Crash

1987 cops fighting drugs glory scene with the head kingpin taking a bath in 100 dollar bills while, unknowingly, the head bad boy cop is on his way, hot off a new lead, showered in nothing more than saturated dramatic irony.

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