For starters, have some Robyn videos… a few of my fav live videos of her, and a music video of her song Be Mine (a hot mix of it is played at the end of Resuscitation. 

My new favorite force in pop music - Robyn - is coming to North America, on a bit of a tour.  I only say “a bit”, because she’s much bigger overseas that she is here.  I’m a HUGE fan… Christ, I put FOUR mixes of her songs in my last house mix.  But I’m confident, that if you’ve heard her album, you’ll see how she’s showing up the freshness that the Madonna/Britneys/Janets just don’t seem to be givin’ up as easy as they used to.

And while her concert in Montreal late at night on Sunday, May 4th - isn’t so ideal, I’m gonna find me a way to make it work - even if I wake up early and drive back before work on Monday.  So if you see me there, say howdy.

If you’re a fan, check out her myspace page at www.myspace.com/robynmyspace and see is she’s hitting up your city.

Her style is the bomb diddy bomb di dangy dang diggy diggy.

Mark and I are taking a much needed vacation… and after considering getaways ranging from Florida to Sydney, we’ve landed on a week in Paris.  We’re renting a trendy little apartment for a week, and plan on seeing the city, relaxing, and raising a roof or two.

Mark’s been to Paris a handful of times, but this will be my first trip there.  I’ve only been to Europe once before, when we went to London and Dublin with some buddies.

Thanks to Rosetta Stone, I can say “the girl jumps” in French.  Not exactly useful - but I look forward to actually finding a jumping girl, so I can proudly point it out to others.  Good thing Mark is fully bilingual, so I’ve got a more useful French language resource at my hip. 

Just a quick video to show my buddies back West what they’re missing.

Every time I see this guy at my gym, I can’t help but smile and think of this song :)

You know the type.

Katy Perry is a fun new pop singer - she has one track I love so much, I’d be shocked if I don’t work a version into the next mix.  Which I should be starting soon.

Reunited and it feels so good! 

After a long break from WoW - and never really getting to the end-game content I’ve heard is where the game *begins*… I’m back at it.  That’s Bravehound (geez, what a surprise) above… my blood elf warlock on the Proudmoore server.  And of course, I’ve hooked up with the big gay guild on there… at my level (26 at the time of this post), that’s the Tainted Love guild.

So what happened to Tabula Rasa?  Well… I stopped playing once work got so demanding that I swore off all “fun” on a computer for a good while.  My elbows were aching and I needed as much time away as possible.  But now that things have normalized - as much as they ever will, anyway - I’m back, and ready to play WoW.  TR was fun, but WoW just has a heart that makes the time spent in the game, so damn fun. 

Maybe it’s the community, the art in the game, and the fact that it’s *still* growing like crazy.

Or maybe it’s the fun music videos (like the ones below) that people make using World of Warcraft.  :) 

There’s too much fun to be had in and around this game still!

I rarely posts singles songs that I wanna share with others - maybe I’ll do it more often - but here’s one worth mentioning.

Yes, I like the pop music acts like Britney Spears for the same reasons I like diet coke.  But I’m certainly up for more substantial tunes on the radio - Robyn is a perfect example of a creative talent that deserves every ounce of recognition she gets.

I stumbled across Santogold a couple weeks ago on Arjan’s blog (a required read for music fans).  She’s great.  She sounds a bit like Tegan and Sarah - a duo worth knowing if you don’t already… their album So Jealous is awesome.

If you dig her, you find this track and other on iTunes.

After some late night Friday night (aren’t I cool?) CSS editing to get things looking right, the new template is live. 

In some ways, I miss the old one… after all, I’d been using that shade of blue on my blog since 2004.  But just like when I felt a little sad inside when I got rid of my first car (an International Scout), even desired upgrades take a little getting used to.

So this sucker should load much faster.  And it’s a bit more flexible - it was designed with this layout in mind… whereas my old site was another template that I had heavily mutilated to look the way it did.  It was a mess under the hood.

It’s all converted, pretty much… save a few sidebar bits-and-pieces that I’ll get back up soon.  I don’t want anyone to cry over my missing tip jar! ;)

Watch your head!

There really isn’t a great way to avoid it, so there’s gonna be a period on the site tonight, as I move the site and configure it in my fancy new template.  More on it when the move is complete…

For now, here are links to access things that might not be as easy to find, until the move is complete…

My Photo Journal (available just on Flickr for now)
My House Mixes

Wish me luck!

- Andy

Last month, I got shipped to Vancouver for a weekend work session.  Despite the long hours, I got to see some of my buddies, and catch Jay Brannan when he was passing through town.

I recorded a bit on my Nokia N82, to post and share.  He sang a lot of the song we know and love from his youtube page or myspace page, but also some great covers, too.  The second and third song in in the video are covers - but amazing songs that I came to really love, thanks to his version.

Jay’s also started a blog… check it out.  If you like his songs, support him by buying his tracks on iTunes

bravehound - resuscitation.mp3
(to download, right-click and choose save.  Apple users control-click and choose download.)

Shameless, I know.  Self-indulgence, anyone? :)

This baby took a lot of work.  But I’m really proud of it.

I got an overwhelming amount of track suggestions once I posted that I wanted to do a fan-based mix set.  And I got quite a variety of ideas thrown my way - and a few of you really surprised me with what you came up with… so here you go.

I love that many of you found some HOT remixes of artists I love.  There’s one artist in this set that appears throughout - Robyn, no surprise there.  But there’s a couple other themes going on… some SWEET modern, electro versions of 90’s tunes you’ve long since forgotten, some new stuff, and a few surprises.  Surprises like Missy Elliott with backing fiddles.

Most of my sets, I start with my favorite track combo… and I thought I was doing the same here.  I love every second of the sucker.  When I test a mix, I export it, take it to the gym…. and if I ever wanna fast-forward, it still needs work.  Now I feel minute 16 is where it starts just going crazy.  In a good way.

Most of the songs in the mix came from you guys - and I put a few in - but I certainly didn’t put anything in this set that I didn’t love 110%.

Each time I try to do a mix, I wanna trump what I’ve done previously.  I’m still pretty damn happy with my last efforts, so this took a long while to perfect.  I love it… but it wouldn’t be what it is, without your input.

Oh yeah.  There’s one track I knew I was gonna get shit for including… but I can’t help but love it more every time I hear it.

Hope you guys like it - thanks for everyone’s support!

- Andrew

PS: If you’re a new visitor, you can view all my house mixes here.