We Approve: Your Friday Freebies

Each Friday, our contributors send in a bunch of (legally) free stuff that’s come out this week, to help you make the most of your weekend. You’re welcome.

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Mixtapes: The Lifted Brow Music Issue

Recommended by: Luke Ryan (‘7.30 Drinking Game: Tony Abbott vs Leigh Sales‘)

In honour of their soon-to-be-released Music issue (from which Junkee published an essay), indie-lit journal extraordinaire The Lifted Brow have started posting up a series of mixtapes put together by some of the world’s better writers. There’s due to be thirty (30!) in total from writers like Anna Krien, Catherine Lacey, Tao Lin, A.H. Cayley, Sam Twyford-Moore, Shaun Prescott and Lawrence Leung — but pop over to the index now to check out early offerings from American author Blake Butler, Penguin Plays Rough founder/all-round wonder-girl Pip Smith (published with ‘Dancing Notes’), and this one from cross-genre master, David Shields.

David Shields – A Mix for the Lifted Brow by The Lifted Brow on Mixcloud

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Article: ‘I Packed My Knives & Went: Aboard The Top Chef Cruise‘, by Max Silvestri

Recommended by: Matt Roden (‘Is Mad Men Turning Into Watered-Down, Flavourless Sauce?‘)

Max Silvestri is a great New York stand up comic, and over the past few years his writing about Top Chef has set the tone on how to comedically recap a television show (“set the tone”, LOL. Blogging 101 seminar, #livinginthishashtagparadise, hew boy, sorry can I just borrow this gun, no reason). Well the foodie site Eater sent him off on a Top Chef-themed cruise, because most of us were saying that cruises were already a horrible conglomerate of self-congratulatory decadence, but cruises called their good friend reality TV and said, “How can we up this ante?”

Here’s his rundown, it is great, and it name checks and apologises to David Foster Wallace in reference to his incredible cruise ship essay, ‘A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again‘. Thank god DFW never went on this cooking reality cruise disaster. The world would have lost him so much earlier…

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Mixtape: Andrew Weatherill – Sci-Fi Lo-Fi Vol. 1

Recommended by: Caitlin Welsh (‘Grimes Is Small And Has A Vagina And Is Really Sick Of This Shit‘)

UK producer and DJ Andrew Weatherall has impeccable taste, so of course when he put together the first volume in the small, eclectic Sci-Fi Lo-Fi series of compilations by Glasgow label Soma, it was going to be seriously killer. Swampy jukebox sounds ranging from Link Wray and Gene Vincent to The Cramps and Killing Joke are a better late-night soundtrack (or cleaning music) than any Ministry of Sound compilation. The 2007 release is not easy to get hold of in Australia, but you can stream it on Mixcloud at your leisure. (As always, if you love, we encourage you to buy.)

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Application: Popcorn Maker by Mozilla

Recommended by: Eliza Cussen (‘So It Turns Out Political Candidates Are Legally Allowed To Lie To You‘)

Here’s a nifty little browser-based media editor that lets you layer other media over a YouTube, Vimeo or SoundCloud clip. Using drag and drop, you can easily add pop-up text, images, Tweets or a Google Map, and legitimately call yourself a VJ at parties. Watch the intro video to see what it’s all about, or head to the site itself.

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Song: Jessie Ware’s ‘Love Thy Will Be Done’

Recommended by: Nicholas Fonseca (‘Days Of Our Lives Ends Today. Please, Stop Crying.‘)

She hasn’t had a chart hit in more than 20 years (and last year’s Australian comeback tour, sadly, fell flat), but no matter: Martika still holds an important, if short-lived, place in pop-music history. Earlier this week, the phenomenally talented Jessie Ware — whose soulful sound, come to think of it, harkens back to the late ’80s/early ’90s epoch when Martika did rule the airwaves — unexpectedly shared her cover of the singer’s most underappreciated hit, the Prince-penned ‘Love Thy Will Be Done.’

Take a listen. Then head here to hear the original. Now pick a side. Who sang it better? Love you so much, Jessie, but I’m with Team Martika on this one.

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Article: ‘Still Crazy: Ten Years Of The Exploding Hearts’, by Matt LeMay (Pitchfork)

Recommended by: Rob Moran (‘Four Other Songs That Sound A Lot Like The New Daft Punk Song’)

I can’t believe it’s been ten years since The Exploding Hearts died. In 2003, the up-and-coming Portland punk-rockers were riding high with their well-received debut Guitar Romantic, when their tour van flipped while returning home from a record label showcase, killing three-quarters of their members. I hadn’t felt that bummed about a strangers’ death since ‘Pac got shot when I was in the 8^th grade. And understandably: 28 minutes isn’t enough music!

To his credit, LeMay’s article eschews the weepy philosophical possibilities (you know, “Woe, the tragically unfulfilled potential!”, that kinda shit) and instead offers a detailed celebration of the band’s romantic like-us-or-not attitude, ridiculously raw and catchy tunes, and lingering influence. You’ll quickly find yourself falling into a great lil’ rabbit-hole of Stiff Records’ New Wave classics (although, for some reason, the only YouTube clip I can find of Nick Lowe’s ‘Queen Of Sheba’ is this weird Japanese girls’ fashion one), and quietly thinking, “Wow, pink and yellow is an insanely under-appreciated colour combination.” But mainly, it’ll just make you wanna blast this song again.