Give It To Me Right, Or Don't Give It To Me At All

I unplugged myself for a little bit, and it's taking longer than expected to get back into blogging. Without further delay, here's some heat...

Melanie Fiona is a new artist signed to Universal Motown,

and I'm really feeling her song "Give It To Me Right"...

The sample is pretty smart, although I've been hearing mixed opinions.

These three videos won't let me embed them, but they're worth a click:

Raphael Saadiq

"100 Yard Dash"

James Morrison

f. Nelly Furtado

"Broken Strings"

The Ting Tings

"That's Not My Name"

Also, my dudes Chester French finally dropped a video for "She Loves Everybody":

STD analogy portrayed through violence? Hmmm. Discuss.

So yeah. Thanks for sticking with me during this pseudo-hiatus of mine. The truth is that between the holidays, the new year, and then a mid-January vacation, it was almost impossible to blog. Blah, blah, excuses, excuses. Bottom line is that you'll be seeing a lot of interesting music and cultural commentary from Lacezilla this year, and since the site is currently undergoing structural changes as well, it's certainly in your best interest to stay in touch :)

There's A Lady Who's Sure All That Glitters Is Gold

I wanted to do a Best of 2008 list, but the truth is, I hate ranking things. If you know me or you read the blog regularly, you already know what the favorites are. Hopefully you've related to a post, been put on to an artist, or gotten something out of The Labyrinth from time to time. That's the goal anyway. So, rankings aside, here's a little summary of what Lacezilla repped, closed her eyes for, nodded with, and danced wildly to in '08...

SERIOUS IPOD BURN:

N*E*R*D, Seeing Sounds

Freindly Fires, Friendly Fires

Raheem Devaughn, Love Behind The Melody

MGMT, Oracular Spectacular

Kings of Leon, Only By The Night

Duffy, Rockferry

Wale, The Mixtape About Nothing

Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple

Kate Nash, Made of Bricks

Kid Cudi, A Kid Named Cudi: The Mixtape

Jasmine Sullivan, Fearless

Cold War Kids, Loyalty To Loyalty

Lykke Li, Youth Novels

Kanye West, 808s and Heartbreak

(These albums can get played all the way through and have multiple songs that should also be included in the list below.)

PLAYED LOUDLY, ON REPEAT:

(Songs decoded below... click to listen!)

Sam Sparro "Black and Gold"

Chris Brown "Fallen Angel"

Hercules and Love Affair "Blind"

Thriving Ivory "Angels On The Moon"

Lil' Wayne "Playin' With Fire"

Justin Nozuka "After Tonight"

Keane "Spiralling"

Cut Copy "Hearts on Fire"

Leona Lewis "Bleeding Love"

Flobots "Handlebars"

Ashanti "The Way That I Love You"

Black Kids "Love Me Already"

Max B. "Live Comfortable"

MGMT "Electric Feel"

MOST FUN TO PHOTOGRAPH:

Wale and Blu @ SOBs

(LINK to post)

Santogold @ Highline 

(LINK to post)

Lykke Li and Friendly Fires @ Bowery
(LINK to Lykke Li post)

(LINK to Friendly Fires post)

And don't forget Lykke's enchanting cover of Wendy Rene's "After Laughter":

N*E*R*D @ Madison Square Garden

(LINK to post)

Matisyahu (with Brett Dennen) @ The Music Hall of Williamsburg

(Post coming soon!)

VIDEOS THAT LINGERED IN MY MIND:

InnerPartySystem "Dont Stop" WATCH

Kanye West "Flashing Lights" WATCH

MGMT "Time To Pretend" WATCH

Gnarls Barkley "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" WATCH

Hot Chip "Ready For The Floor" WATCH BELOW:

LIVE SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:

Kanye West @ MSG and @ Essence Music Festival

The Ting Tings @ Bowery Ballroom

Janelle Monae @ Spotlight Live (pre-murder)

Gnarls Barkley @ Highline Ballroom

Lykke Li @ Le Poisson Rouge

Radiohead @ Lollapalooza

Adele @ Highline Ballroom

N*E*R*D @ Roseland Ballroom

Maxwell @ Radio City Music Hall

Madonna @ Roseland Ballroom

Bloc Party @ Lollapalooza

Janet Jackson @ MSG

State Property @ SOBs

and Thriving Ivory @ Mercury Lounge:

(Beatboxing Rahzel's "If Your Mother Only Knew," and then transitioning into Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven." Oww.)

Although the scope of The Labyrinth has substantially widened over the past year, I'm sure to have missed a few albums/songs/artists/shows/videos along the way. I can't listen to everything. If you think I missed something, please please please enlighten me :) And as for 2009, I'm interested to see what transpires with the careers of Lady Gaga, Kid Cudi, Janelle Monae, The Script, and Eminem.

I Want To Help You... If You'll Let Me

You know you love Podzilla.

You may have heard The Asteroids Galaxy Tour in the new iPod touch commercial:

Beyond that, the rest of the songs should speak for themselves...

Cold War Kids rule. Freekey uses One Republic's "Apologize" melody. Lily Allen covers Britney Spears- "I got your crazy." Wale and Brother Ali unite. Snow Patrol get intense. And Lykke joins Kanye on a track. 

Looks like Lacezilla, the civilized monster, has struck again.

It's The Law: Diminishing Returns

In 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono released a song called 

"Woman Is The N*gger of the World."

Australia's innocent-looking Ben Lee recently covered the record (as a B-Side for a single off his upcoming album) and made a video for it:

He discussed the implications of the song on his blog:

"Of course, back when it was released, and still now, many people are unable to get past the use of the 'N' word in the title to look at what the song is really saying. In the late 1970's, the Chairman of the Black Caucas, Congressman Ron Dellums, did much to shed light on this subject by saying:

'If you define 'nigger' as someone whose lifestyle is defined by others, whose opportunities are defined by others, whose role in society is defined by others, then good news, you don't have to be black to be a nigger in this society. Most of the people in America are niggers.'

The song is not just about women, or black people, or any other oppressed group. It's about all of us, trying to find a way of living our lives in an authentic manner in a world that seems intent on compromising our basic integrity."

I have to admit, this is all pretty wild to me since I had never heard the song before today. The argument is that women are forced into gender roles that keep them imprisoned... they give and give, but ultimately, they get nothing in return, SMH. Watch John and Yoko talk about the song and perform it on the Dick Cavett show...

"Would you two menaces to society do your number?" LOL

What do we think about this?

 Women's issues? Social hierarchy? The definition of slavery?

The evolution of the N-word? Using it for artistic/cultural expression?

Ben Lee's album is called The Rebirth of Venus, 

and he also posted the letter that Yoko wrote to him.

Sounds like he's sticking up for the ladies, huh? That kind of reminds me of a song I'm currently OBSESSED with... Cold War Kids "Every Man I Fall For," sung from a female's perspective. 

I cannot wait for a bitter female vocalist to cover this. 

The Way We Connected, It Was Something Electric

Thursday night, I had the privilege of attending

Hip Hop Monologues:

The Life and Mind of Jim Jones.

I say privilege both seriously and sarcastically: Jim performed only two nights by invitation only, but... it's also Jimmy. Naturally, I was expecting a train wreck. But there was no such thing! In fact, the whole production was executed in a somewhat decent manner. That said, it's important to note that Jim's story is admittedly not too compelling. Okay, you were a hustler. Okay, you have haters in the hood. Okay, all the ladies want to hump you- we get it. If the musical showed me something I hadn't seen before, then I could let all the self-aggrandizing that came with it go. But it didn't. So I can't.

However, my love for Capo lives on despite this average theatrical experience. He did something amazing last week, and threw two verses on MGMT's "Electric Feel" - the song I constantly co-sign as my favorite this year.

I have to give Jimmy credit for this move... out for almost a year, the song is so hot, I'm actually upset he's the one who got to it first. Wale's manager posted the remix on Elitaste, admitting that it's a shame Mr. Folarin missed the boat. I wholeheartedly agree- Wale would have murdered that track. But then again, there is so much sex appeal and swagger on Jim's version, and it's actually not bad. MGMT + Capo Status = oww. Listen to the track HERE.

Other stuff I'm loving?

Friendly Fires "On Board"

Groovy percussion; definitely one of my faves on their album. Also, FYI, the lead singer's dance moves are out of this world! Peep their "Paris" performance on Later with Jools Holland:

He deserves a cookie for the hip action, and his voice isn't too shabby either.

And lastly, if you haven't checked it out yet, watch

Gnarls Barkley "Mystery Man"

Never disappointing, Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo continue to create magic. Learn more about it at Stereogum.

Oh yeah, and "Pop Champagne" is officially my guilty pleasure...
...making me a sucker for catchy club records, and a hypocrite :)

"I wanna see you dance- see you dance"... SMH.

Wipe Your Feet Really Good On The Rhythm Rug

After seeing Lykke Li perform A Tribe Called Quest classic "Can I Kick It" at two of her shows, I had been wondering if Q-Tip even knew who she was. And if he did, would he feel her sound? Both questions were answered on Tuesday when Tip surprised the audience at MTVU's Woodie Awards, and joined Lykke on stage to perform his group's song, duet style. The look on his face was priceless; it was obvious that he was extremely taken with her stage presence. And apparently, Q-Tip is one of her favorite artists, so she, too, was blown away to be performing with him. I didn't bring my good camera, but Zimbio posted photos - this one is my favorite:

For so many reasons, I want to know whose idea this was. The label, or MTVU?

Overall, I thought the show was really well done: From Q-Tip, to Emmanuel Jal, to Asher Roth, to Spank Rock- all the performers and presenters seemed relevant to me. Until the show goes live on the 19th, you can peek at these photos:

SPIN did a bang-up job summarizing the show- read about it HERE.

I'll upload my footage after it airs.

I Hope It's Gonna Make You Notice...

Just some artists/videos/songs that you might want to check out:

The Knux "Bang Bang"

Feeling these N'awlins boys. Not what I expected, which is always refreshing.

Kings of Leon "Use Somebody"

By far, one of the best songs on "Only By The Night." I love that it starts out seeming broad and impersonal, but you eventually realize he's singing about one person in particular. I love him.

Jim Jones f. Ron Browz and Juelz Santana "Pop Champaign"

A friend sent me this record a few months ago when it still belonged to Ron Brownz, asking what I thought about it. I wrote back "Superstars, no Lupe" - it was clearly catchy, but I need more than that these days. I'd call Jimmy "Deebo" for making the track his own, but we already knew that's how he rolls.

All American Rejects "Gives You Hell"

Not a fan of the band's generic sound, but the lead singer is cute as a button, and the song is so hilariously bitter and anthemic, that I had to post it.

Keyshia Cole f. Tupac "Playa Cardz Right"

Keyshia and Pac sound perfect together. Too bad they had to go and ruin the song by spelling the title stupidly!

Matt & Kim "Daylight"

A dude at work directed this video. The treatment is beyond creative...

Q-Tip "Move"

Q-Tip proves that at almost 40-years old, he can still look flyer than most of these industry guys. Even if he is biting Michael. Pause.

And just as a bonus, my new fave band Friendly Fires covered

Lykke Li's "I'm Good, I'm Gone."

After touring together for months, I'm glad they got some kind of gem from her!

Listen to the song HERE.

We Watch The Stars... They'll Be Out For Us

After the showcase at SOBs, I headed to Bowery to catch 

Friendly Fires

I've put you on not ONCE, but TWICE already. Seeing them perform LIVE with a fly lead singer, TWO drummers, a possessed guitarist, and lots of cow bell somehow made leaving Wale worth it; the D.C. emcee will be back soon to promote his album, but these guys are Brits. Read more info about the show over at TastesLikeCaramel.

Here they are, performing a piece of "Ex Lover":

In the last 3 seconds, you can hear security tell me "NO VIDEO." 

Oopsies! Listen to the full song HERE.

The vocal mic sounds very faint, but HERE'S footage of them performing "White Diamonds," their song that was used on an episode of Gossip Girl. Quirky and energetic, these guys used a DUST BUSTER on their guitars toward the end of the show, presumably to tinker with the sound...

It was way cool.

Unfortunately, I couldn't record them performing "Paris," 

so here's the video instead:

"I'll find you that french boy, you'll find you that french girl- I promise. I'm on it."

Just like Lykke Li, (the headlining act they opened for,) 

these guys were really fun to shoot. 

Let Your Atmosphere Surround Me

Last Thursday was unbelievable. Tickets to Maxwell's first New York show in years (at Radio City) arrived at the eleventh hour, and since I wasn't planning on going, it was extra delightful. PS: He KILLED it... every person in that theater was vibing.

Favorite Maxwell song? Might be "Submerge: 'Til We Become The Sun"...

Even though his sexuality is ambiguous, I still love him! A big THANK YOU to AF for hooking up the ticket :) Unfortunately, I had to scoot early (at the encore) to head downtown to SOBs to see Styles P. perform. High five to Milly for accompanying me! At least there were some girls there this time...

He was a little shy at first...

But was able to warm up with some beverages...

And (see right hand), some herbal relief.

Once acclimated, he jumped into the audience to get up close and personal.

If you're a fan of him, this show was pure joy- Pause.

And I think our favorite rapper's favorite rapper got really into it.

Just look at how he was embraced!?!?

Those middle fingers symbolize unification and love ;)