I NEED SUGAR

Straight off the train from Montreal I jumped over to Tequila Bookworm to enjoy some Patio Friday sunny time before setting up for some early evening island jams. Once we lost the sun it was time to switch gears. My intention now is to explore the best of 2010 throughout the summer at our Tequila jams. Here's a selection of new vibes recorded live off the floor this past Friday May 28. Hope you enjoy!

Tracklist:
01 Håkan Lidbo - Atombomb 2010
02 Julio Portillo - All I Want 2010
03 Daniele Tignino - Woodanza (Doomwork & Neuroxyde Remix) 2010
04 Pablo Bolivar - My Favourite Colour 2010
05 Telefon Tel Aviv - Immolate Yourself (Miss Fitz Remix) 2010
06 Clara Moto - Glove Affair 2010
07 Timos - Smile (m.in & Alex Piccini Remix) 2010
08 Cortney Tidwell - Palace (Michel Cleis It's Too Late Remix) 2010
09 Shades of Gray - Simplicity (Alex Kenji Minimal Remix) 2010
10 Paul Synth - Fragiles 2010
11 Jesse Rose - (Where Were You) Last Night 2010
12 Julien Mier - A Pebble For Your Thoughts 2010
13 Alain Ho - Je Pense A Toi featuring Marlene (Kruse & Nuernberg Remix) 2010
14 M.A.N.D.Y. vs Booka Shade - Donut
15 Luca Bear - Beware 2010
16 Wehbba - Sweet Spot 2010
17 The Dolphins - Metrick 2010
18 Chris Carrier - La Faubourienne (Dub Mix) 2010
19 Santos - San Francisco 2010
20 Jayson Brothers - The Game 2010

Download and listen to this Friday's Sundown Mix here.

In honour of the terrifically mediocre Junos, belatedly continuing the decade review, tracks 21 through 25. And look, no less than two Canadian artists in the mix here, one of which had an album that surely could have been nominated for the 2010 Junos but, no, no mention of Tiga anywhere. (Though Tiga did win in '07 for Sexor so I suppose I shouldn't complain. Still Deadmau5? Is this about music or popularity? And a "Recording Package Of The Year" nomination for Patrick Watson, but no love for the actual music? Come on!) But, hey, at least I now know who Justin Bieber is. But I digress. So here's number 25 of the 2000s and, as always, just select the track name to listen on blip.fm:

Naughties.25 Tiga - Beep Beep Beep (Extended Mix) Fantastic groove building up to some terrifically unsubtle LCD Soundsystem flavoured drums (and yet not one of the two James Murphy produced tracks off the album) followed by some subtle space disco and back. A huge '09 vibe.

Naughties.24 The Whitest Boy Alive - Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix) The man with the smoothest voice in the game meets the man producing the smoothest basslines. A massively uplifting '08 progressive house track.

Naughties.23 Hercules & Love Affair - Blind featuring Antony (Frankie Knuckles Remix) I'm actually not a huge fan of this album, but there's no denying that Blind is a great disco track. But Frankie Knuckles takes Blind and turns it into an exceptional house track. Bringing up the bass, warms up the track with some added synth and piano, and tightening up the percussion. So, so good. From 2008.

Naughties.22 Cat Power - Metal Heart My brother doesn't dig the Cat Power. Especially the covers. But on this reprise of her own '98 track from her '08 covers album, that smokey voice, those power chords, and that lyrical earnestness kick my ass hard.

Naughties.21 K-OS - Crucial K-OS has said and done some incredibly stupid things throughout the years, but he's also put out the odd gem on his albums. Crucial is a great summer reggae Can-rock vibe, showcasing a surprisingly fantastic confluence of genres.

Dance Baby Dance recorded Feb 1, 2010. Booty shaking good vibes.

Download: Dance Baby Dance by Nathan Lee

Tracklist:
01 Abonné - Voodoo Child (Art Bleeks Sunny Redub) 2008
02 Sade - By Your Side (Ben Watt Lazy Dog Remix) 2001
03 Manuel De La Mare - Born Slippy (MDLM Mix) 2008
04 Deep Dish - Dreams featuring Stevie Nicks (Extended Club Mix) 2006
05 Oxia - Whole Life (Part 1) 2009
06 Kaiserdisco - Chordalia 2010
07 Oxia - Whole Life (Part 2) 2009
08 Jay Bliss - Diffuse 2009
09 Ray Okpara - Brainows featuring Nikki 2010
10 Trentemøller - Charge 2005
11 Kasper Bjørke - Alcatraz (Kenton Slash Demon Remix) 2010
12 The Clover - Love In Da Wood 2009
13 And.Id - First Talk 2009
14 Hatiras - Your Love 2009
15 Massimo Di Lena - Delirious 2009
16 Rusty James - Stop Lying 2010
17 David West & Inkfish - Ghetto Feel 2010
18 Rondenion - Sun Glare 2009

Continuing the decade review, tracks 36 through 40.

Naughties.40 The Postal Service - Such Great Heights (John Tejada Remix) John Tejada was prolific throughout the decade, but nothing compares to his remix of Such Great Heights. So subtle, it draws you right in. The original sounds like happy hardcore after hearing this version. From 2003.

Naughties.39 The Kooks - Sofa Song The punchiest, danciest, singalongiest acoustic song of the decade. Just plain fun. From 2005.

Naughties.38 Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye (Curtis Vodka Edit) Curtis Vodka tossed out a whole whack of bootleg mixes on his MySpace page back in the day, this was the best of the lot. The added kick and percussion ups the intensity of the original and makes for great dance floor fodder. From 2007.

Naughties.37 Deep Dish - Dreams featuring Stevie Nicks Kindly reviving one of the great tracks of the 70's and having Stevie Nicks sing on it, no less. (There's a great story behind that, too.) This song was great even before 2006's Montreal club excursion, but hearing this on a big room system at 4:00a. Epic!

Naughties.36 Underworld - Dinosaur Adventure 3D (Funk D'Void Vocal Remix) Funk D'Void's remix warms up Underworld's banging techno track, opting to focus on synths over the heavy bass line of the original. A top progressive vibe. From 2002.

Continuing the decade review, tracks 41 through 45.

Naughties.45 Pearl Jam - Sad Every once in a while Pearl Jam remember what it is to rock with conviction. From 2000, their best song about lost love since Black.

Naughties.44 Miike Snow - Animal Can't say enough about Miike Snow's Animal. Rhythm, melody and melancholy. Simple but precious pop song. From 2009.

Naughties.43 Bent - Waiting For You featuring Simon Lord (Danny Howells Remix) Simon Lord followed 2006's massive Simian success by collaborating with Groove Armada and Bent in '07. Danny Howell's epic remix of Bent's Waiting for You was a nice precursor to the Black Ghosts and, along with Groove Armada's The Things That We Could Share, really cemented Simon Lord as the king of earnest dance rock vocals.

Naughties.42 Ida Maria - Going to Hell Singing along to damnation never felt so right. Inexplicably not included on her album release, Ida Maria's chant friendly Going to Hell. From 2007.

Naughties.41 Babak Shayan - Flowers Warm and soulful with a light vocal mid-track pause. Good late night vibe and great loud. Deep house at it's finest. From 2004.

Here's a run down of two other top 2009 music lists. Pitchfork, who seem to be keenly interested in reviving the Beach Boys, and Resident Advisor, who love it when people mumble "house music" over a muffled beat. I took a listen to both sets to see what was what in the world of internet music lovers and have gathered my rankings below in fancy image format. Of course, the last image in the set is the trusty I Need Sugar list, which I hope is a much more varied collection of stellar tracks.

Pitchfork's Top 50 Tracks of 2009

Resident Advisor's Top 50 Tracks of 2009

I Need Sugar's Top 50 Tracks of 2009

Hear the top 10 I Need Sugar tracks at blip.fm.

A set I was playing with in the summer. Looking for a nice relaxing vibe. Love the Efdemin/Pantha mashup at the beginning. Should have kept on going, but I slowly beat the set to death with the last three tracks.

Tracklist:
01 Pantha du Prince - Saturn Strobe
02 Efdemin - Bergwein
03 Sian - Apple Tree
04 Lukas Greenberg - Fahrenheit ? Idiophonic
06 Justin Martin - Nightowl (Manoo & François A Remix)
07 Evan Marc - Ekoshok
07 Roberto Bardini - Stay Quiet
08 The Timewriter - Night Train
09 MySpaceRocket - Amok
10 Lopazz - Wasted Days

Download here.

So, yeah, we had our launch party on Saturday night. It was a mixed bag of chaos. The good part was it was an eclectic venue that could probably handle more loud and about double the people; there were tasty popsicles; great people; and the shirts kicked my ass.

The rough part was not having a chance to chat to too many of the awesome friends who came out (I didn't even say hi to Nicole or Anita, and that's pretty much all anyone else got out of me) and massive insane technical difficulties which derailed my spinning intentions: while I wanted to get much filthier with the tunes, I couldn't access my main hard drive for the last 3/4 of the night. No playlists meant mad scrambling. It wasn't too bad, but it meant I was completely occupied trying not to have dead air or trainwrecking all over the place. Anyway, I'll make sure that doesn't happen again.

In the meantime Abdul Smooth and I have been working on getting some pics up, with mixes to follow. Here's the Jeremy Wright popsicle porn. And here's a set of pics from the evening.

So, what did you think? How was the patio friendly venue? Do we need more people? I think we need less cover charge and crazier music. Agreed? Let us know your thoughts. We'll be doing it again, and it's going to be even better!

We'll be throwing down some beats in a couple weeks on Saturday June 13th when we launch what will hopefully become a monthly residency in Toronto.

You'll hear a wild selection of beats being mixed up by Abdul Smooth and I Need Sugar blogger Lee Dale (also known via Say Yeah).

Got a track you'd like to hear? Upload your selections here and rate other people's tracks. We'll include the top vibes on People Downtown radio and of course we'll spin the best vibes live.

We'll post more info as it comes, suffice it now to say that this gig is gonna be superfresh!  Free popsicles all night long to welcome the summer vibes, plus a free drink if you pre-purchase a ticket online for just $10.

Click here to buy tickets online: http://peopledowntown.eventbrite.com

Here's the full low-down:

People Downtown presents the launch party for I Need Sugar

Saturday June 13th, 2009 from 9PM - 2AM

@ the Central - 603 Markham St in Toronto, Canada (just south of Bloor st, steps away from the Bathurst subway station)

$10 entrance; (*pre-sale/online tickets include a free drink)

with DJs:

Abdul Smooth (http://www.abdulsmooth.com) + Lee Dale (http://www.ineedsugar.com)

And you can show your love on Facebook on the event page.

Update Jun 4:

We got tees!