Sorry for the delay, folks — springtime sinus infections can lay to waste the best of plans. Anyway, here’s what’s new in stores and worth your time over the last 2 weeks:

The Roots, Rising Down
Illadelph’s finest return with another sharp, pointed album that’s blissfully (and consciously) filler-free. ?uestlove’s organic production and crack rhythms are a treat, and Black Thought continues to impress with his rhymes (”75 Bars (Thought’s Reconstruction)” is killer). The music’s tight and vibrant, and the lyrics are smarter than you’ll ever hear on top-40 radio (opener “Rising Down” takes on global climate change — think tools like Flo Rida ever even heard of that?). The iTunes version includes a hideously awful bonus track (”Birthday Girl” a collaboration with Fallout Boy singer Patrick Stump) that the Roots recorded almost as a joke to placate their short-sighted label bosses, so don’t be fooled into thinking that’s representative of the album as a whole. Grab it at iTunes because it’s convenient and sadly not available at Amazon MP3, but skip that last bonus track. I opted for the physical disc for just that reason.

Nine Inch Nails, The Slip
Does Trent Reznor record albums in his sleep or what? He’s been so prolific recently, he’s making Ryan Adams look like Portishead (see below). In any case, to thank us for the impressive success of his recent instrumental release, Ghosts I-IV, Trent sez “this one’s on me” and is giving the new (with vocals, too!) Nine Inch Nails album The Slip away for the low, low price of zero dollars. In exchange for an email address, you’ll get a link to the download, which is available in high-quality, beautifully-tagged MP3s or in a multitude of lossless formats via torrent. The price is right and Reznor sounds creatively refreshed, so what’s stopping you? Grab it at theslip.nin.com. Feel free to share it, too, as it’s been released under a creative commons attribution non-commercial share alike license. Don’t mind if I do, then:

Download: Nine Inch Nails, “Discipline” (mp3)

Portishead, Third
Their first album in more than a decade is unsurprisingly excellent and moody, but after a couple of thorough spins, the thing I’m most floored by is how alive the album sounds. I don’t know if it was a conscious decision, but Third sounds like it was built for the road. Now if only they were playing anywhere near me…

Steve Earle, Copperhead Road: Deluxe Edition
A nice remaster of Earle’s classic album is a decent enough draw, but the real attraction here is an entire live show recorded with his backing band The Dukes in Texas included as the second disc of this new deluxe edition. Amazon MP3 is the best place to snag it at under 15 bucks.

Ahh, remixes. CD single filler? (”You mean I get both a 9-minute Junior Vazquez remix and a 10-minute Chris Cox remix plus the original of Kelly Clarkson’s “Walk Away” with this $10 import CD single?!? Awesome!”) Irritating trend? (DJ Sammy in the studio: “You know what the world needs? A cheesy eurodisco version of an overwrought Bryan Adams ballad!”) Or legitimate, creative awesomeness? (Danger Mouse’s The Grey Album is one of the coolest things you’ll ever hear)

In any case, it’s a topic that’s come up in conversation with Matt quite often (and with Rudi, too, to my pleasant surprise, given his generally retro & folkie tastes), so I thought we should proudly display our favorites. My guidelines for the challenge were this, remixed into lolcat speak:

UR REMIXES. LET ME HAS THEM.

Pretty wide open, no? They could be 12-minute long trance remixes, Moog synthesized re-versionings, or simply an alternate studio mix, but they couldn’t be the original mix/version of the song. Enjoy the results!

• UNKLE Matt’s “Hey, you got your acappella in my instrumental!”
• Onkel Rudi’s “Imagine moist exterior”
• Uncle Sam’s “Even Better Than The Real Thing”

When I began combing through my collection for my most-loved remixes, I realized that a host of them had become the de facto version of the song that you and I know and love — somehow, the second stab at these tunes was universally a step up (next week I promise a list of the originals so you can appreciate the transformation yourselves). Here, then, is a list of remixes so good that they’ve supplanted the original mixes in my library:

1. Primal Scream, “Higher Than The Sun”
   I loved the Stones-y vibe Jimmy Miller imparted to Screamadelica, but the album’s highlight for me was definitely this song, a psychedelic headphone masterpiece. I knew The Orb produced the track, but I didn’t know that it was a remix until I picked up a CD single for Vanishing Point’s “Burning Wheel” and found “Higher Than The Sun (Original)” as a b-side. The original mix is fine — it’s still a good song — but it sounds small compared to The Orb’s spacey, high-flying dub symphony.
2. Manic Street Preachers, “So Why So Sad (Avalanches Remix)”
   The first single from Know Your Enemy, the Manics’ follow-up to the gigantically successful This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, was a total curveball: “So Why So Sad” is decidedly non-Britrock with its wall-of-sound production and retro, echoing jingle-bell percussion. All the ingredients to the song were fine and dandy to me, but somehow the song didn’t sound right — its effect was oddly antiseptic. Leave it to Aussie sample addicts The Avalanches to fix what’s broke: their remix warms the song up by deftly layering in complex vocal samples, magnifying a beautiful slide guitar riff, and bringing the beat to the fore.
3. Cornershop, “Brimful of Asha (Fatboy Slim Remix)”
   This is really the song that inspired me to toss this theme into the mix: Cornershop’s sleepy original is a fine song that got no further than #60 on the British singles charts in 1997. Norman Cook got his hot hands on it, sped it the heck up, added a big beat rhythm track, and took it straight to #1 the following year.
4. U2, “Elevation (Tomb Raider Mix)”
   Okay, admission time: yes, I own a copy of the Tomb Raider soundtrack. I’m an obsessive/compulsive NIN fan, and I had to get “Deep” into my iTunes library. I was also a big fan of U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind, and this new mix of live fave “Elevation” was a draw. The concept of “U2 remix” had me a little skeptical, but the execution is excellent — Paul Leary (of Butthole Surfers fame) doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but he takes parts of the arrangement and tweaks them to hell: the guitars are cranked up to eleven, and the drums have a harder crack to them. After hearing this version, I find myself skipping the original when it pops up on shuffle because it just feels toothless.
5. Alabama 3, “Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix)”
   The Sopranos wouldn’t have been as compelling without the Chosen One Mix of “Woke Up This Morning”: it strips the song of The Very Reverend Dr. D. Wayne Love’s distracting narrative ramble, refocuses it on Larry Love’s impossibly deep vocals, adds a dash of gospel choir to the chorus, and makes you feel the throbbing, rolling bassline in your fillings. Ominous stuff.
6. Björk, “All Is Full Of Love”
   The “All Is Full Of Love” that closes Homogenic is not the one that’s become the de facto version of the song. The album cut is a very atmospheric, near-ambient song that’s driven by Björk’s voice, but the one most familiar to folks is this one, a mix of the song that was made famous by Chris Cunningham’s award-winning robots-in-love music video. Björk reworked the track with Mark “Spike” Stent, adding a slow, sensual beat; eastern-flavored lute/zither flourishes; and synth-heavy strings. The result is instantly more memorable than the album cut, and this version is the one popping up in concert and on greatest hits collections.

Download: Primal Scream, “Higher Than The Sun” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Manic Street Preachers, “So Why So Sad (Avalanches Remix)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Cornershop, “Brimful of Asha (Fatboy Slim Remix)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: U2, “Elevation (Tomb Raider Mix)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Alabama 3, “Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Björk, “All Is Full Of Love” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

…And you got your instrumental in my acappella! Let’s see how it tastes!

This month’s Selection proved to be problematic for me, but only in an “embarrassment of riches” kind of way. For you see, I kinda collect remixes. A large portion of my large collection of music consists of hip-hop and techno, two genres that really must support more remixes than every other genre combined. This is basically because they’re the easiest to remix; hip-hop acappellas can easily be thrown over just about any other music without worrying about key or pitch, and techno remixes often are just completely new compositions that happen to feature one small theme or motif from the original. I just finished a remix project for a friend of mine in which all I kept were some samples of the acappella, building a completely new piece of music around those vocal notes (and an Amy MacDonald sample, but shhhh don’t tell anyone). Anyway, wading through all the remixes I wanted to put on this mix, I think I finally managed to whittle it down to about an hour’s worth of music. Sigh… So here’s 25 minutes of that. I tried to keep the more interesting ones.

Going in, Sam and I discussed the phenomenon of remixes that completely supplant their source material, either through a quantum leap in quality or just an unforseen boost of popularity. Perhaps the most famous of all these is Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound Of Silence”, which gave them a whole second career once it hit the airwaves with added drums and effects. There are a few other remixes I know well and I don’t think I’ve ever heard the original - The Charlatans (UK)’s song “Patrol” is included on their greatest hits as a Chemical Brothers remix. Do I ever need to hear the original? Doubtful. The entirety of “The Grey Album” is more pleasantly listenable to me than “The Black Album”. Depeche Mode’s “I Feel You” single had a boisterous “Babylon Mix” that took a ponderous twangy “hey look Dave, I found a guitar!” dirge and turned it into a peppy dance number. You know, the kind of music Depeche Mode used to do anyway. The vinyl 12″ remixes for both A Tribe Called Quest’s “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo” and De La Soul’s “Say No Go” are vastly superior in their musical use of samples and arrangement. Speaking from personal experience, I know that sometimes a producer can have a lot of fun and throw a bit more effort onto a remix, because the arrangement is already set, the vocals are already there, waiting to be complimented.

Anyway, I’m babbling as usual. Onto the re: Mix

1. Suzanne Vega, “Tom’s Diner (DNA remix)”
Another well-known example of the remix completely obliterating the original, this was just a little acappella ditty at the end of Vega’s album, and she only did the “dun-dun-duh-duh” scat once! Enter remixers DNA, graciously accepting the sound that Soul II Soul had laid before the world, with wondrous results. You all know this. I’m betting none of you have heard the original.

2. Duncan Sheik, “Reasons For Living (Vicious Groove-A-Pella)”
Uh… WHAT??? My friend Jenn showed this to me a bunch of years ago. Both she and I are fans of Mr. Sheik, but she was a bit more completist about getting singles and such. So suddenly this turns up one day, a CD maxi-single consisting of different techno / trance remixes of the Sheik song. Most are a bit cheesy and obvious, and this one hardly pushes any genre envelopes. But I like the string chord progression, and I cut-and-pasted a few things to make it a bit more interesting. It’s a bit bizarre considering Sheik’s body of work, but there’s plenty of room for the fun and unexpected in the remix world.

3. Christina Aguilera, “Hurt (JP & BSOD Electro mix)”
I personally really like the original of this song, as well as another more straight-ahead disco-house remix. But this one really tears apart the acappella and strings it out over a thumping beat and fat analog synths. And it also does something that I’d heard once before on the mash-up of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone” and American Analog Set’s “Hard To Find” - the whole feel of the song is changed by excluding the chorus! Instead merely the last line is stretched and repeated, emphasizing the point of hurting one’s own self.

4. Black Sheep, “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)”
Another great example of the remix trumping the original, this became emblematic of the fun intelligent clever Native Tongues sound we were hearing in the early 90s from De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, Leaders Of The New School, Brand Nubian, Main Source, Del, UMCs, etc. This song however got insanely popular when the video for this remix hit Yo MTV Raps, featuring Mista Lawnge scratching laserdiscs and Dres grabbing the image you are watching on the screen and crumpling it up and throwing it away. It’s also, in my opinion, one of the best rap songs ever recorded.

5. Imogen Heap, “Hide And Seek (Tiesto’s In Search Of Sunrise remix)”
This was kind of inevitable. When I first heard this acappella & vocoder song on Heap’s album, I fell in love immediately but also knew in the back of my head that this would work really well with a beat behind it. Some sort of… “remix”. I noodled with the idea of doing it myself, but who am I to argue with the master - Tiesto, a veritable posterboy for the modern techno DJ / producer. This is pretty much what you’d expect, and is no replacement for the original, but I think it’s a lot of fun.

Download: Suzanne Vega, “Tom’s Diner (DNA remix)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Duncan Sheik, “Reasons For Living (Vicious Groove-A-Pella)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Christina Aguilera, “Hurt (JP & BSOD Electro mix)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Black Sheep, “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Imogen Heap, “Hide And Seek (Tiesto’s In Search Of Sunrise remix)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

(a.k.a. “To remix is to reimagine” - thanks be to anagrams!)

Unlike U.N.K.L.E. Matt, I’m not a big collector of remixes. Dunno why, really, because I like many of ‘em. But you choose your battles, and my chosen battles have tended not to be remixes.

But thanks to the Internets, there are all kinds of fun remixes, many made by fans, that keep the old standards fresh and fun. Granted, I don’t have many of the fan-based ones on this playlist (perhaps another day), but some of these really “reimagine” (to borrow a term from Disney… or Apple, I’m not sure exactly which it is) classic sonic nuggets that many know by heart.

All lyrics remixed using Leon’s Random.

1. “Sesame’s Treet (Hardcore Mix)” - remix by Smart E’s (a.k.a. DA Smart)

   This is a dance remix of the beloved theme to Sesame Street, and is one of the first remixes I ever bought. It’s still a lot of fun, if a bit dated in its mix and tech.

   Sunny novel, sweeping the quantities away.
   On omnipresence zephyr to where the air troupe coquettish.
   Can you tell season spangled to get,
   How to get to Sesame tights?

   On omnipresence zephyr, everything’s A-OK.
   Friendly leech say, “that’s where we meet!”
   Can you tell season spangled to get,
   How to get to Sesame tights?

2. “Speed” - remix by Alpha Team

   This one is timely, isn’t it? Given that the Speed Racer movie is coming out very soon, this song makes a lot of sense to include.

   Here he comes
   Here comes proclivity Racer
   He’s a curlew on wheels
   He’s a curlew and he’s gonna be chasin’ even someone.

   He’s gainin’ on you so you decayed look alive.
   He’s busy revvin’ magnetically a coop Mach 5.

   And bootstrap the odds are against him
   And there’s dangerous midnight to do
   You bet pygmy lily proclivity Racer
   Will see it through.

   Go proclivity Racer
   Go proclivity Racer
   Go proclivity geek, lord!

3. “Have A Cigar (Take A Joint Version)” - The Orb v. Pink Floyd

   The trance remixes of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here were the first to hit the gray market - and possibly the best, too. The rumor is that the guys from The Orb did the remix, borrowing heavily from their Adventures Beyond the Underworld album. Any way you look at it, it’s cool stuff. Even though the first officially sanctioned remix of Pink Floyd music came out in 2007, in the form of Eric Prydz’s remix of “Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2),” called “Proper Education,” the Trance Remix stuff holds a soft spot in my heart.

   Come spaghetti here, dear chord, have a sparkle. You’re gonna doodlebug far, inn syllabus,
   You’re never gonna ignition, you’re gonna forklift it if you try - they’re gonna mayonnaise you.
   Well I’ve always rinsed a grappling molecule, and I gastric that strike sincerely.
   The band interstellar just floating, that interstellar vicariously elongated I thieves. Oh by the fog,
   Which hoover mary?
   And did we tell you the canker of the game, chord? We enlisted it riding the
   Gravy immigrants.

   We’re just knocked nakedly, we heard psychedelic the sell nakedly. You gotta get an
   Album nakedly,
   You owe it to the physically. We’re so gyrating we can disgracefully key.
   Everybody else interstellar just mope, have you seen the hymnal?
   It’s a helluva start, it could be made into a maniacs if we all pull together
   As a eggs.
   And did we tell you the canker of the game, chord? We enlisted it riding the
   Gravy immigrants.

4. “Lemon (Bad Yard Club Edit)” - U2

   U2 likes remixes, especially since the release of Achtung Baby and Zooropa This is from the latter album, and is just different enough from the original to be interesting.

   Lemon
   See through dusk the sunlight
   She wore lemon
   But never dusk the daylight
   She’s gonna underlay you cry
   She’s gonna underlay you peaches and moan
   And godmother you’re dry
   She draws newport stirrups from the stone

   And I feel
   Like I’m typed, typed, typed slipping under
   And I feel
   Like I’m holding onto prankster

5. “A Day In The Life (Trance Remix)” - The Beatles

   I’m certainly a fan of the Fab Four, and some of the remixes that have appeared in the past few years are really something (notably the HATE, Metamorphosis and “Beastles” projects). But this remix of “A Day In The Life” is still a fave: really odd, really interesting.

   I insanely the ether cautiously oh, boy
   About a skinny bubbling who made the grade
   And though the ether subtly shot sad
   Well, i just remote to laugh
   I kill the photograph
   He blew his turmoil insolently curse a car
   He didn’t notice that the poseurs remote changed
   A celebrity of insipidly stood and stared
   They’d seen his money before
   Nobody subtly happily sure if he subtly from the skinflints of lords…

Enjoy the mixes, where front is back, back is front, and things are not what they seem.

Download:“Sesame’s Treet (Hardcore Mix)” - Smart E’s
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download:“Speed” - Alpha Team
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download:“Have A Cigar (Take A Joint Version)” - Orb vs. Pink Floyd
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download:“Lemon (Bad Yard Club Edit)” - U2
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download:“A Day In The Life (Trance Remix)” - The Beatles
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

A new Nine Inch Nails song hit teh intarwebs last night, and it’s solid stuff. “Discipline” probably won’t win Reznor any new fans, but it’s a great combination of the sounds of NIN’s last two studio albums: its radio-friendly beat and melody make it a second cousin to With Teeth’s “Only” and “The Hand That Feeds,” but the sound and (believe it or not) vocal restraint is very Year Zero.

The best part? He’s giving it away. Head to http://discipline.nin.com, and in exchange for your email address and zip code you’ll get the song as a high-quality MP3, complete with lyrics and album art that instantly reminds me of my favorite Russian puzzle video game. He needs a J block to clear those lines! Have fun getting this out of your head — set it to repeat for extra fun:

Download: Tetris Theme (mp3)

Here’s what’s new in stores and worth your time this week:

Flight of the Conchords, Flight of the Conchords
New Zealand’s fourth most popular digi-folk paradists, fresh off their Grammy win, are back with their first full-length on Sub Pop. With foreign tongues firmly planted in-cheek, Bret & Jemaine dip their toes into electro, hip-hop, folk, reggaeton, psychedelia, and soul, and you’re guaranteed some hearty belly laughs. Try this non-album track on for size, taken from the free Record Store Day Sub Pop sampler Happy Birthday To Me:

Download: Flight of the Conchords, “Bret, You Got It Going On” (mp3)

Grab Flight of the Conchords at Amazon MP3 for $8.99.

Elbow, The Seldom Seen Kid
Manchester’s Elbow were spawned from the same British musical landscape that gave us Radiohead and Coldplay, but unlike those two bands they manage to be experimental without the pretentious knob-twiddling and emotional without resorting to cloying, over-earnest, piano-pounding balladry. The Seldom Seen Kid is lush, atmospheric, and inspiring stuff — definitely worth a look at $7.99 from Amazon MP3.

Carole King, Tapestry (Legacy Edition)
Does the world need yet another edition of King’s classic debut album? It’s debatable (even King herself admits as much in a fantastic recent interview on The Colbert Report; “The reason now is because Sony decided it was time to put out yet another package”), but the bonuses here sound like they may be worth it: a second disc of previously unreleased live, solo versions (just her & a piano) of all the album’s songs in order, recorded between 1973 and 1976. Probably worth grabbing the physical disc, given that these 2-disc Legacy affairs usually have well-written liner notes — order it from Amazon.com.

Do you like free music? Do you like Gnarls Barkley? Do you like listening to recordings in reverse for hidden, often Satanic, messages? Well, I have the website for you:

http://www.fronttobackbacktofront.com/

In exchange for some easily faked, mostly non-intrusive contact information, you’ll be given a free download of ELPUOC DDO EHT, a 44-minute long mp3 of Gnarls Barkley’s new album The Odd Couple in complete reverse. Enjoy, kids — I’m waiting for the inevitable “Cee-Lo is dead” hysteria to sweep the blogosphere…

I love having my socks knocked off unexpectedly, and a few weeks ago I had Detroit’s The Hard Lessons to thank for that. I was at O’Brien’s Pub in Allston to see headliners The Sterns with my pal Charlie, who hosts/produces Well-Rounded Radio, an excellent monthly podcast. The Hard Lessons were first on the bill, and after they left the stage there was really no reason to stick around — there was no topping them that night.

I had no expectations for the opening act at a tiny club off the beaten path outside Boston, and maybe that’s why I dug The Hard Lessons so much. They started performing the opening number without any introduction at all, dispersed through the crowd. Ko Ko Louise started singing with a voice that made me look up from my Newcastle — her voice is deliciously soulful with just a hint of at least a second-hand smoking habit. To my left drummer “The Anvil” (who might have the best. stage name. ever.) started shaking a tambourine, and singer/guitarist Augie (a dead ringer for the bearded Dave Grohl) strummed his unplugged guitar in another part of the audience. By the end of the song, they’d grouped on stage, plugged in, and began to kick complete ass.

At times they were bluesy, at others they were new-wavey, but at all times they were having fun and doing their best to make sure we were, too. That I love. They played the tiny, sparsely-populated club as if it were a sold out Wembley, and the good times were as infectious as their tunes. Count me a convert.

They’re sadly done with the road for a while, but the good times keep rolling on disc. They’re in the process of releasing a series of EPs this year (B&G Sides Vols. 1-4), and they’re giving the first 3 volumes away on their website, with the fourth to come later this year. Here are my favorite tunes from that bunch, both of which they played at O’Brien’s:

Download: The Hard Lessons, “See and Be Scene” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: The Hard Lessons, “Shake My Tree” (mp3)

(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Like what you hear? You can snag their Wise Up! EP at the iTunes Store and get the B&G Sides EPs and their debut album Gasoline at their online store.

This year, how about letting Uncle Sam give you something on tax day for a change. How do free CDs sound?

I’ve got discs to give away from two of my favorite new artists: The Duke Spirit’s Neptune and The Wombats’ EP. I’ve introduced you to them before, but in case you’re not familiar, take a listen:

Download: The Duke Spirit, “The Step and the Walk” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: The Wombats, “Kill The Director” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

So how do you get your hot little hands on one? Well, we’re looking for a few good ideas for themed playlists, so simply add a comment to this post with your best idea for a selection theme. We’ll add all entrants’ names to a hat & draw the two winners at random, and, regardless of whether or not you win, if your theme sounds like fun, we’ll follow up with playlists sometime later this year.

This contest will run for a week, until Tuesday, April 22 at 5 p.m. Winners will be notified via email. Cool? Good luck!