mp3: Germany to Germany

Dear Ratatat,

So the story of my life right now is that there is a battle for my time. It is between three contenders: One of them is sweet, one is my thesis, and the other is Guitar Hero. So as you may know, Guitar Hero is this game that makes you feel cooler than you actually are — which I am all about, because frankly, I need all of the help that I can get. But as I jam my way through a Kansas solo, all I can think about how I wish I was playing the guitar parts on “Germany to Germany”. Cause the best part about that guitar part is that it takes two people playing the guitar, criss crossing lines, to make it totally sweet. And maybe that way I wouldn’t have to feel bad for totally destroying Mike in a song (unless its sweet child o’ mine because he practices that a lot), and instead we could play together, sharing in a totally sweet jam. Or maybe I could play it with this girl I like, because she is getting better and better each time we play — and then your song would be kind of romantic.

Oh yeah, so you guys are coming into town this weekend. Maybe I will try to get the playstation up there, cause you know the only thing better than playing Ratatat on Guitar Hero? Playing Guitar Hero with Ratatat.

Word

Rob

pump your brakes on that

mp3:figaro

dear madvillain,

here’s a story for you. a couple of months ago i found a cassette copy of guns n’ roses use your illusion I so naturally i stuck it in the old tape deck in my pickup and enjoyed it for the entire 45 minutes. then it got stuck. for 3 months wherever i drove i listened to it. by about december it got to a point where if i had to listen to november rain one more time i was going to do something drastic like give myself some shitty whitey braids and wear a giant football jersey in front of millions of people. it came to a point when i fanally took a screwdriver to the tape deck and pried it out. i never want to hear that album again.

in contrast, shortly after the use your illusion incident i fixed my ipod adapter and one of the first albums i listened to was madvillainy. i listened to it exclusively in my car for about a month before moving on to something else- but that wasn’t the end. every once in a while it finds itself playing repeatedly for days as i drive around. it never gets old. in fact, i put in on again this morning and i have a feeling it will be until next monday before i change it again.

you are truly the illest.

nathaniel

sing soprano like uno dos y’ano

mp3: christmas in hollis

mp3: Christmas Is

Dear Run DMC-

I remember a really long time ago like when i was 6 or 7 years old or something, there was a tv christmas special featuring a lot of the era’s hot artists and such… i know i never saw the special, but it was advertised an awful lot. You were in that special, and you sang this song. I know, because for about 4 seconds of the advertisement, you were singing “merry christmas and happy new year!!” from “christmas in hollis”. and i saw that commercial so much (i think it’s on my family’s taped-from-tv copy of the christmas story) that even today when ever someone says the phrase “merry christmas and happy new year” i immediately think of that commercial and that line from “christmas in hollis”, but i’m including “christmas is” because it is also so great. so nostalgic. so classic. thank you.

respek.

nathaniel tyrant

do your homework

mp3: Christmas Smorgasbord

Dear Swedish Chef-

I dont ever know what you are saying, but it sure sounds delicious! i’ve been eating a lot of christmas stuff lately anyway, so even though you’re song says you will make me eat until it hurts (which sounds kind of creepy) i don’t think it will take much. i’m already so full! anyway, i would love to sample some of your christmas smorgasbord. I sure hope there are plenty of croonchy stars.

morp!

nathaniel tyrant

 mp3: The Ave

Dear Blue Scholars-

I’d like to congratulate you on your tremendous success thus far in your career as an exceptional deejay/emcee duo.  While Utah still seems to be a little outside your sphere of influence I’m sure it is only a matter of time before you’re your presence in this dry state reaches the level it is in many others.

Let me express my relief that people will soon have a big name to link Seattle and Hip-Hop together by that is NOT Sir Mix-A-Lot.  Don’t get me wrong. Anthony Ray was a giant of his time, but over the years has gone the same way the rest of the hip-hop genre seems to be moving that is- out of the revolutionary and insurgent and into the purely novel (remember when Sir Mix-A-Lot did a short stint with the Presidents of the United States of America?). 

There is a lot of sharp, edgy, intelligent hip-hop out there (rhyming about education and pertinent issues- What!?) that doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves.  I think you Geologic and Sabzi could do a lot of good to the genre with the attention you merit and work you are putting out there.

Thanks for giving me hope for the recovery of hip-hop.  Let me give a shout out to Geo for writing some of the most provocative and entertaining material I’ve heard from you since you told me my first dead baby jokes in the sixth grade.  To Sabzi, your beats are solid, original, and awesome.  I don’t know you, but had I’d known you before I’m sure we would have been good friends.

Keep up the good work,

Nathaniel

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