"The next thing I remember, I'm walking down a street
I'm feeling alright I'm with my boys, I'm with my troops, yeah
And down along the avenue some guys are shootin' pool
And I heard the sound of acapella groups, yeah

Singin' late in the evening, and all the girls out on the stoops, yeah

Then I learned to play some lead guitar, I was underage in this funky bar
And I stepped outside to smoke myself a J-eeeee
When I come back to the room, everybody just seemed to move
And I turned my amp up loud and I began to play

It was late in the evening, and I blew that room away"

- 'Late in the Evening'

The next time you have an opportunity to celebrate, I recommend this song. It was my post-bar exam victory jam, and frankly, it slayed. The rumba beat, the joyful horns, the triumphant lyrics - you really couldn't put together a better vibe.

Paul Simon is such a character, huh?

By the way, everybody loves the sound of the train in the distance. Everybody thinks it's true...

Sick.

Sir Lucious Left Foot.

This song is stalking me. I wake up in the morning, there it is. I go for a run, and somehow it's the only song on my iPod. I try to study, and I can hear it thumping loudly over my thoughts. It gets lodged in my head when I need to be using those brain cells for other things, thank you very little. And it's always trying to talk me into "just one quick dance" when I need to be firmly planted in my seat. I literally can't deal with it. If I don't pass the bar, I'm blaming it on YOU, Big Boi, ya sweet, sweet music-making bastard.

Listen. I am diving deeper and deeper down into the abyss that is bar review, and I don't really have much time to stop and chat these days. So allow me a little straight talk before I disappear for a while.

This is the sh!% I’m on right now:

Major Lazer & La Roux - Lazerproof. One of my favorite voices in pop, but instead of the gaudy, overly slick club tracks, you get Major Lazer's crazy combination of dancehall, dub, and hip-hop backing her up. Loving this right now. And you can get it here for free!

The Jam:


Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti – Before Today. Not for everyone, but if you like a little weirdness in your musical diet, you might love it. Lo-fi project from a dude fixated on that crazy musical transition from the 70s to the 80s, except it's all scuzzy and sloppy and sleezy and, well, haunted grafitti is an oddly appropriate name. LA hears the Bee Gees, DB referenced MJ, and I'm picking up little bits of early punk/no wave. Only in 2010.

The Jam (better off closing your eyes for this atrocity of a video):


Caetano Veloso – Zii E Zie. Tropicalia icon still going strong, released a breezy album of perfect little oddball gems with customary eeeease. The Jam: ‘Base de Guantanamo’

Christian Scott – Yesterday You Said Tomorrow. Super cool jazz trumpet prodigy steeped in hip-hop and rock. The Jam: swell cover of Thom Yorke’s ‘The Eraser’

Foxes in Fiction – Swung from the Branches. Side A super dreamy ambient, Side B poor man’s Atlas Sound. A smattering of A Sunny Day in Glasgow, maybe a small dose of Post-era Bjork. Like drifting in and out of sleep.

The Jam: