The Official Chris Duncan Web Site

I don’t claim to be cool… but I do have incredible taste. I don’t really read music blogs or anything like that. I really just download music randomly or based on suggestions. I think I’m pretty much a cross-section of American music consumption with an affinity for sappy or serious sounding music. Much to my surprise, I got into electronic music in 2008. After seeing Justice at SXSW, I got Cross which brought me to Hot Chip and Cut Copy. So there’s definitely a heavy electronic influence on this list. However, I still like rock and rap… I just haven’t found as much diverse music in those genres lately.

In terms of albums, there are obvious ones like Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III, Hot Chip - Made In The Dark, Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours, MGMT - Oracular Spectacular, etc. Looking at this list, you also can tell how much I love The Black Ghosts. They are fucking awesome. In addition to their eponymous album (that means it’s ALSO called The Black Ghosts), they also released an amazing mix tape (aptly named The Black Ghosts - Mixtape). The Black Ghosts are two guys: Simon Lord and Theo Keating. Simon Lord also released an album as Lord Skywave (two songs on my list). Theo Keating, on the other hand, has been extremely busy. In 2008, he started anonymously remixing tracks under the pseudonym Fake Blood. Speculation was that it was a super producer such as Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), Daft Punk,  Dave 8-Bit, or even a group of guys. In fact, it was Theo Keating.  Mr. Keating ended up releasing two of the better tracks of 2008 in Little Boots - Stuck On Repeat (Fake Blood Remix) and Fake Blood - Mars. He also released Vampire EP as DJ Touche toward the end of the year.  The song “Vampires” from that EP is quite sweet.
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If you’re interested in reading much more reasonable and informed “Best of 2008″ lists, check out Not Many Experts or Hate Something Beautiful.  Here’s are my lists:

THE BEST

Bon Iver - Skinny Love
The video from Letterman is pretty amazing.

Cut Copy - Out There On The Ice
I probably listened to this song multiple times per day for 2-3 weeks.

Does It Offend You Yeah - Being Bad Feels Really Good
I know, they all sound the same. But I like this album (You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into) a lot.

FrankMusik - 3 Little Words (The Black Ghosts Remix)
I like FrankMusik and I love The Black Ghosts. Shocking, isn’t it?

Hot Chip - We’re Looking For A Lot Of Love
This is the song that got me hooked on “Made in the Dark”. I have Wrestlers below… but there are a handful of songs I wanted to include on this list.

Little Boots - Stuck On Repeat (Fake Blood Remix)
I can’t stop listening to this song. Probably my favorite song of right now.

MGMT - Kids
I went to Chicago in May and I pretty much listened to this song on repeat for two days.

T.I. - Dead and Gone ft. Justin Timberlake
People hate on JT… but they shouldn’t.

The Black Ghosts - Some Way Through This
Have you ever been really pissed off at your girlfriend? Simon Lord has.

Young Jeezy - Hustlaz Ambition
This track is produced by Drumma Boy who also takes credit for Ready for Whatever, What Up, What’s Happenin’, and Put On.

THE REST

Albert Hammond Jr. - GfC
Albert Hammond Jr. - You Won’t Be Fooled By This
Beasts of Eden - Skin
Black Kids - I’m Making Eyes At You
Cut Copy - Lights and Music
Cut Copy - Nobody Lost, Nobody Found
Does It Offend You Yeah - Epic Last Song (Lifelike Remix)
DJ Touche - Vampires
Fake Blood - Mars
Fil Ok - Wink Wink (Touche Remix)
FrankMusik - Made Her Smile
Hot Chip - Wrestlers
Illinois - Hang On
Kanye West - Welcome to Heartbreak
Kings of Leon - Closer
Lil Wayne - Tie My Hands
Lord Skywave - Maybe I Need To
Lord Skywave - Something
Mark Knight and the Funkagenda - Man with the Red Face
MGMT - Electric Feel
MGMT - Electric Feel (Justice Remix)
MGMT - Kids (Soulwax Nite Version)
MGMT - Kids (The Kooks cover)
N.E.R.D. - Laugh About It
O’Neal McKnight - Check Your Coat
T.I. - Whatever You Like
The Black Ghosts - Any Way You Choose To Give It (Boy 8-Bit Mix)
The Black Ghosts - Any Way You Choose To Give It (The Whip Remix)
The Black Ghosts - Let’s Get Physical
The Heavy - Set Me Free
The Killers - Spaceman
The Steps - Pull the Cord
The Tallest Man on Earth - Honey Won’t You Let Me In
The Whip - Dubsex
The Whip - Muzzle No. 1
The Whip - Sirens
Trabant - The One (The Black Ghosts Remix)
TV on the Radio - Crying
TV on the Radio - Love Dog
Young Jeezy - Vacation

MOST OVERRATED SONGS

Kanye West - Love Lockdown … I have no idea why this is the primary single. It’s probably an above average song. I skip it on my iPod.
Lil Wayne - A Milli … possibly one of the most annoying songs of all time.
Young Jeezy ft. Kanye West - Put On … I’ve tried to like this song but I really can’t.
Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love … this is a Wilson Phillips rip off! Please!

DISAPPOINTING NEW ALBUMS

The Mars Volta… I like The Mars Volta and listened to their most recent CD. After like 4-5 times around, I stopped listening to it.
The Kooks… it was actually a good CD… but was it different in any way? It sounded like Inside In/Inside Out on shuffle. I like “Gap” but probably because it’s a “Naive” remix.
Kanye West … if you read this blog, you’ve read my Kanye rants. If you think 808s is great, listen to The College Dropout again. That should cure you.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN 2009

FrankMusik
I really really like FrankMusik and think that his debut album could catch on in a big way. It’s being produced by Stuart Price who most recently worked on The Killers Day & Age. You may say, “Chris, I thought Day & Age sucked.” And I would say you’re wrong. All of the people that didn’t like Day & Age decided that Brandon Flowers need to make upbeat, poppy jams to reach the same level as Hot Fuss. While that may not be in the cards for The Killers anymore, that’s the exact sound that FrankMusik produces. He even uses the echo effect on his vocals in “Gotta Boyfriend” that Brandon Flowers used to love. I think he’ll either blow up in a big way… or nobody in the US will ever hear of him unless they read a snarky music blog (or this shitty one).

Theo Keating AKA DJ Touche AKA Fake Blood AND Simon Lord AKA Lord Skywave
As you can already tell, I’m OBSESSED with The Black Ghosts members Theo Keating and Simon Lord.  I’m guessing that Theo Keating will be busy next year as well. Hopefully, there’s more Fake Blood production on the way. Simon Lord is collaborating with Flowers of Doom for their upcoming album and he’s planning his second Lord Skywave album. It also sounds like there will be another The Black Ghosts album in 2009. Keep in mind that Lindsay Lohan also listens to The Black Ghosts. God, I am so fucking cool… and no, that’s not how I heard about them.  LISTEN TO THE BLACK GHOSTS!

Pop Is Back
My one sweeping prediction (that doesn’t sound like much of a prediction) is that pop is back. What does that mean? I’m not sure. But I’m pretty positive that by the end of 2009, people will be reviewing the resurgence of pop music. Pop music is interesting because there really is no defining set of characteristics. But you can look at the recent past to see new attempts at “pop”. Kanye West said 808’s was a pop album. A lot of the electro-pop music is sounding quite poppy these days.  Even Britney has made a comeback.  BBC picked Little Boots and her pop sound as the #1 artist to watch in 2009.  We’ll see…

We got to Le Royale at about 11:15. We hung out by the bar for about 10 minutes trying to figure out exactly what was going on. It seemed every empty and didn’t seem like anybody around us was interested in music. Then we realized that there was an upstairs area. On the upper floor, there was another bar and then a dance floor area with bottle service tables surrounding it. Some guy that was definitely not Xavier was manning the decks when we arrived. It was great because Alex thought that it was going to be 100% hipsters and their weird fashion, so he was rocking a 1980’s olympics hat and a sweatband. I tried to explain that the core demographic was “white kids”, which is much wider demographic that isn’t necessarily “down” with hipsters. He looked a little bit out of place.

Alex and I felt like something was off as scanned the crowd from a good spot along the rail. The small pockets of people didn’t reallly seem to be meshing. It was still early, but it didn’t seem like we were dealing with a cohesive group. My theory was that the key skill required for attending this event was internet savvy. You had to buy tickets on Going.com. We stood in a line when we first arrived because kids WITHOUT tickets were lining up. So I think it was just a lot of random people that would never hang out otherwise. Alex still had hope that a dance party would break out (and I didn’t think he was wrong), so we decided to perform an experiment. He bet that the dance party would take over the dance floor within 30 minutes, so I set the timer on my iPhone. The 30 minute time period passed quickly and there was still no dance party.

At this point, Alex started to feel sick, so we stepped outside for some fresh air. That was good and bad… we saw the next DJ show up with (with his apprentice/bitch carrying his mixer). Five minutes later, we saw Xavier trying to cross the street. He was with his girl (pretty blonde girl that looked similar to Rachel Hunter) and they stood outside for a good 20 minutes. I guess now is a good time to reveal that both of us forgot to bring our cameras… so fucking stupid. I did find one video from the performance … it went up an hour ago — I love the internet. You can tell that the dance/scream party got bumping much later on. This video is of Xavier rocking the Phantom II Soulwax Remix.

Justice Live @ Playboy Party SXSW 2008

Moby - Porcelain Live @ Playboy Party SXSW 2008

Moby - Paradise City Live @ Playboy Party SXSW 2008

Moby - Finale Live @ Playboy Party SXSW 2008

The Playboy and C3 Late Night Party at SXSW is now in the books. I didn’t get to come last year, so this was my first time to experience the madness. It was a truly amazing party and I think we left our mark on this year’s festival. It’s hard to impress jaded hipsters, but I think most of them came away with a little more respect for the house that Hef built.

The day of the party was similar to any other event day. I had to pick up Lauren Michelle Hill, Qiana Chase, Janine Habeck, and Michelle McLaughlin at the airport — which was a wonderful way to start my work day. I scared the shit out of them once when an 18-wheeler decided to pull a U-turn across the entire four lane street, but we were fine. But that wasn’t the last of my stunt driving on the night.

Shortly after I grabbed some lunch, we had our walkthrough to go over the venue set up and duties for the rest of the night. That day, I only had enough free time to get lunch with my brother and dinner with a buddy. At 9:30, I was back at the venue worrying about all of the little things that go into these types of big events. I put up the rest of the Jack Daniels posters in the last 30 minutes before the official start time for the party. I also managed to think that I lost my rental car keys about five times in that span — see my Boston post to figure out why that’s a sore subject.

I glanced outside once from the empty venue and saw that the line for our party went around the block with a good 20 minutes until it was supposed to start. We probably had over 1000 people on all of the lists combined, but I figured we’d have a mix of “early” and “late” people. It was doubtful that any of the people waiting in line at 10:30 were going to be able to last until 4AM.

The first 15 minutes of the party were great. The room started to fill up, the Jack Daniels clients seemed happy, the food was a hit, and the Playmates were about to make their entrance. Then, one of the clients dropped a bombshell: all of our recipe cards for the “Jack Rabbit” drink called for Jack, ginger ale, and lemon juice… and we had no ginger ale or lemon juice. My job immediately shifted from “make sure nothing is fucked up” to “fix massive fuck up”. Ashley from plusonemusic was my partner in crime as we scrambled to get more drink ingredients.

Our first potential stop was the Whole Foods on Lamar and 5th. I went too far south, so I had to flip a bitch on Lamar where the median broke. It was pretty intense and I’m quite sure Ashley was stunned/horrified by my actions. I get that reaction from women pretty regularly. So back to Whole Foods… our party started at 11PM and Whole Foods closed at 10PM. Fuck. On to Plan B, drive around to find another grocery store … and there are really none downtown. So I stopped at a 7-11 and found out that they don’t even sell ginger ale. Fuck. We were directed to the Randalls on Exposition and I hauled ass over there. It was probably 11:45 at this point and I wasn’t going to be able to have the girls that I invited hand out the 3D glasses for the MGMT music video. FUCK. At this point, it was a matter of priorities and damage control… so the ginger ale was much more important (hopefully that’s the last time I will ever say/type that in my life). At Randalls, we bought every single ginger ale product that was available on the shelves — something like 6 12-packs and 20 2-liter bottles along with 15 bottles of lime juice. We just told the guy at the register that we were really thirsty and my Randalls card (so random that I actually had it) saved Playboy $30. I’m such a good employee. You can see our loot below…

The cart full of ginger ale that Ashley and I loaded

I had to get the security guards to move the bike barricades so I could back down the alley behind our venue. Nothing was happening and I was frazzled, so I got out of the car to see if I could make something happen. Unfortunately, I forgot to put the car in park and it started rolling towards a parked Audi. I jumped back into the driver’s seat just in time to put the car in park before it did any damage. They moved the bike barricades and I started backing down the narrow alley. After about 100 yarsd, some dreadlocked hipster smoking a cigarette informed me that I was backing over cones and I had to stop the rental Ford Explorer. At that point, I just started grabbing stuff from the trunk and carrying it in by hand. As I brought in the last bottles of ginger ale from the trunk of the car, the woman behind the bar said, “This is great. You know, we’re also about to run out of Coke, so if you guys could make another run that would be great.” I gave her the dirtiest look of all time and then just broke out. Not having ginger ale is understandable… but HOW CAN YOU RUN OUT OF COKE AT A PARTY AFTER 90 MINUTES? Not my problem.

After that ridiculous ordeal, I spotted my parents and let them calm me down with a few gulps of much-needed beer. My uncle Eliot was in town for the event (because I’m a miracle-worker) and it was obvious that he was loving life. He told me that his opening line to all of Playmates was “Hey, do you know Chris Duncan?” That’s probably not a bad one except he kept approaching the few girls that hadn’t worked with me before. I actually started to enjoy the party around 1:30AM. I didn’t get to see The Heavy or MGMT, so that was pretty shitty. Some of the girls that I had invited flagged me down while I was making the rounds and I downed a couple more Playboy Energy drinks … questionable decision-making but I needed some nervous energy. I spotted Carson Daly as we were standing around. The greatest part is that the few people that noticed him didn’t even care. Probably because we had an amazing celebrity presence… too many for me to remember, but I know that Carson, Lance Armstrong, Elijah Wood, Pete Townshend, Ben Harper, etc. made appearances.

MOBY was on stage (around 2AM) for his DJ set and I decided to check it out. Within a few minutes, it was obvious that he was killing it. Everybody was dancing (with much intensity) and you could tell that Moby was into it as well. The LED backdrop behind him went crazy as he spun some of his songs from Play and ended with Paradise City. I have some pretty good videos of Porcelain, Paradise City, and the big finale. Justice was the headliner for the night, but I felt like Moby put on the best show. He was truly crawsome (crazy-awesome)… and that wasn’t the last I saw of Moby enjoying himself.

Moby acknowledges the crowd after his set


JUSTICE went on about an hour later than planned, but all of the cool kids were still wide awake and ready for their performance. I felt a little left out since it seemed like everybody around me was on a lot of (good) drugs, but I got REALLY close to the stage and got some good pictures/videos of the French duo.

Justice performing at Playboy’s Rock the Rabbit Party 2008 @ SXSW… the two best ways to describe Justice: “impossibly cool” and “French”

Xavier and Gaspard couldn’t have been more French with their fitted leather jackets, facial hair (chops on one, goatee/beard on the other), and cigarette-smoking but they owned the crowd anyway. I think there were some production issues with sound levels because after the first song, Xavier flipped the bird to somebody off stage. But the show went on after that and I couldn’t have been more pleased. It would have been impossible to match Moby (in my opinion) but Justice killed it anyway. By the time they wrapped up at 4AM, everybody left in the venue had a smile plastered on their face thanks to the music, alcohol, and probably a good amount of illicit drugs.

Justice opens up and try to get the sound situation sorted out

The party was over at that point, but that doesn’t mean that people stopped partying. I was slumped over in a lawn chair in the room that was formerly the Playmate dressing room waiting to DD some people home. Every ounce of energy was drained from my body at that point. Two minutes after I plopped myself down, I saw Moby walk into the room with three absolutely gorgeous women I had spotted in the party. They were probably all at least six inches taller than him in their heels and I think they were scanning the room for snacks. They bailed after a few seconds and I went back to spacing out. Only a few minutes later, Moby returned alone and seemed like he was inebriated. I don’t think he was hammered, but I am pretty positive he was at least legally intoxicated. He walked over to two high chairs and started dragging them out of the room. We were all out of it, but it was still a strange sight. Then somebody said, “Hey man, are you taking those chairs somewhere?” Moby’s reply: “…. they’re going to a better place now.” He’s even witty when he’s fucked up. The last item of note for the night was some extremely wasted girl in what was formerly the VIP room. She called out to Traci, my co-worker, “Hey, you should come in here… THERE ARE POUNDS OF COCAINE.” Not really sure who/what she was talking about, but thanks for being courteous and telling the entire world. I was so out of it at this point (4:30AM) that I couldn’t even get myself to care that Justice was standing in the hall with me and Ben Harper had just gone into the back room. I’m a sad old man now. Even though I lost my powers to party, the Playboy & C3 Late Night Party @ SXSW 2008 was one of the more notable experiences of my life. We did Rock the Rabbit.

NOTE: You can check out all of the pictures on the OfficialChrisDuncan Flickr and videos on the OfficialChrisDuncan YouTube Channel. The Playboy Spring Break Week 1 Recap will be up later in the week… stay tuned.