Cougar Microbes

I liked The White Panda mash-ups I posted last week so much that I decided to  feature a couple more for you today.

Pandas don’t take drugs!

TRACKS:

The White Panda – Golden Encore (Jay-Z Vs. One Republic Vs. The Whitest Boy Alive)

The White Panda – We Made Ghosts N Stuff (Eminem Vs. Deadmau5)

Get the mixes from www.thewhitepanda.com

The Jay-Z remix by Wallpaper. I posted yesterday got me fishing for all the ‘99 Problems‘ mashups in my collection. I thought his photo of my friend’s dad gloriously rocking the 80′s look at Dinseyworld was a perfect companion for this post:

“I got 99 problems…. but a bitch ain’t one“

TRACKS:

DJ Danger Mouse – 99 Problems from The Grey Album by Danger Mouse

Get your hands on Jaydiohead here

Jay-Z Vs. Oasis was created by Cooking Soul

Listen to JZ/DC here

Besides being an artist in his own right Wallpaper. has been steadily unleashing original remixes and high quality mash ups over the past couple of years.

Having tinkered with artists as diverse as Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Passion Pit and Mariah Carrey there is a lot of material to soak up. With that in mind Wallpaper. just unleashed a mixtape covering all these tracks going back to 2007.

Check it out here!

The clocks moved back one hour this weekend and pretty soon it will be pitch black all the bloody time. What better than some Wake Up! remixes to cheer me up.

Peter High, AKA Wake Up!, relocated from Brooklyn to California and brings a dreamy quality to the tracks he reinterprets.

TRACKS available on myspace

Mash-up artists would be forgiven for steering well clear of Jay-Z samples after the bar was set so high by Danger Mouse‘s seminal ‘Grey Album’. Still, this didn’t deter Max Tannone for unleashing his superb Jaydiohead remix album a few months ago.

Now he is back with his personal re-working of the Beastie Boys‘ classic ‘Check Your Head‘. This ambitious project takes the instrumental parts from the album and reworks the lyrics over them breathing new life into the classic album.

Don’t be shy, download the entire album here

TRACKS:

Beastie Boys – Doublecheck Your Head

Last week’s ‘All Points West’ festival was an opportunity for a bunch of artists to wish MCA a quick recovery and celebrate the music of the Beastie Boys.

Jay-Z’s, who replaced the Beasties headline slot on Friday,  covered ‘No Sleep To Brooklyn’. Not one to be outdone, Chris Martin offered a reworked piano led version of ‘Fight For Your Right‘.

Once again, get well soon MCA!

TRACK:

Coldplay – Fight For Your Right To Party (live @ All Points West)

Coldplay can’t seem to put a foot wrong at the moment, both in musical terms and ( crucially) in their promotional strategies. Just when you were beginning to think their trademark sound was destined to age on the hollow notes of ‘X&Y‘ they recruited Brian Eno to regain a little spark. His liberal borrowing of world music instrumentations and quasi-oriental time signatures undoubtedly rejuvenated the bands creativity and augmented their sound at a crucial time.

2 months ago the band gave away their live cd ‘LeftRightLeftRight ‘ which was recorded during their last mastodontic tour. To date some 4 million people are said have downloaded it. Having already provided the fans with exclusive content during the promotion for ‘Viva La Vida‘ as well as free live shows hosted in Europe and The United States, here was more proof that these unlikely heroes have learnt to exploit the possibilities the web offers better than most.

‘LeftRightLeftRight‘ is a snapshot of where Coldplay are as a band right now. A place where stadium choruses as seen on ‘Viva La Vida‘ and huge instrumentals like ‘Death And All His Friends‘ sit comfortably next to old hits such as ‘Clocks‘ and ‘Fix You‘. The band are even able to squeeze in ‘Death Will Never Conquer‘, a country ballad sung by drummer Will Champion.

Its of little matter that Chris Martin‘s voice has never been note perfect or even that some preferred the timid and awkward frontman seen on early tours, Coldplay now sit comfortably with other legendary imperfect yet unifying bands that are worth seeing at least once in your life.

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This article written by Mario, long time Cougar Microbes advisor whose patience is always appreciated. Mitico!

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TRACKS:

Coldplay – Lost (Jay-Z Remix) 

Despite not releasing a proper album throughout 2008 Jay-Z kept himself in the limelight through some carefully selected appearances.  Be it the leak of the Kanye produced ‘Jocking Jay-Z‘, his appearance on Coldplay‘s Prospekt’s March EP or the legendary Noel Gallagher baiting Glasto performance the man proved he was all about quality over quantity. His Blueprint III release is eagerly awaited in 2009:

‘”That bloke from Oasis said I couldn’t play guitar,  Somebody shoulda told him I’m a fucking rockstar”

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Back in July I reviewed Death Cab For Cutie’s live show at Camden’s Koko remarking that tracks from their new album Narrow Stairs “blended in effortlessly with their back catalogue and sound like classics in the making”. I have since listened to the entire album on repeat and still stand by that statement. After all the band could have been forgiven for rehashing Transatlanticism in an effort to repeat their known success. Instead they experimented with their sound juxtaposing sunny arrangements with dark lyrics and vast atmospherics in what has been nothing but an organic evolution. In the midst of all that Ben Gibbard’s unique wordings provide a familiar buoy to latch onto when everything around turns stormy