Man, nothing says “hustler” like spending the entire day hanging out at the train station wearing a white suit and talking to hot chicks.

And that’s all these guys in the photo above ever did. I used to see them all the time at my local train station in Japan, and the funny thing is that they weren’t the only ones like that. Pretty much everywhere you went, there were guys like them. Apparently, they are called “Nampa men,” with nampa being the Japanese word for hustler.

I don’t know if they drove a van like in that other picture, but it would be awesome if they did.

Anyways, here’s my salute to hustlers:

Rick Ross - Hustlin’ (DiscoVillains Remix)

MC Plus+ - Still Hustlin’

Jay-z - Can’t Knock The Hustle (Borracho! Remix)

Clipse - I’m a Hustla

Pharrell - Show You To Hustle

Did you watch that video of “Neon” Dion Agius? The whole thing is super slick, but when he lands that big 360 at around 3:18 that’s when you know he’s serious.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll (Digiraatii Dance Til You’re Dead Remix)

Dion Agius isn’t a musician but he’s on MySpace (and hey, it says he’s from Currumbin! I learned to surf at the alley).

So are the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Digiraatii. (Yeah, I checked: they actually spell it with two As and four Is).

Vid via Superstoker.

I’ve had a few Tigersapien tracks kicking around in my iTunes, but I didn’t really give them much thought until I heard ‘Luxury’ on the EatThisCity blog a few weeks ago. If their tour is anywhere near as luxurious as their promo image, they’re living a lifestyle I’m envious of. Their track ‘God Knows’ also deserves posting as well for some truly insightful lyrics (and a decent remix by Kolt13).

Tigersapien - Luxury

Tigersapien - God Knows (Kolt13 Remix)

“Decadent electro” indeed, as one of Tigersapien’s fans put it.

I know that I normally include a photo with each one of my posts here, but in this case I’m making an exception. The reason I’m making an exception is because (as Claudio who first showed me this video pointed out), every frame looks like a photo.

Watch the whole thing - right through to the credits.

Hecq vs Exillion - Spheres of Fury

I wish I knew more about the track, but the most I can find is Hecq’s MySpace.

I think that Aliens: Salvation has one of the best comic book covers of all time. At first glimpse, it looks like it might be a traditional piece of Japanese art: a samurai kneels with his sword in front of him while behind him a dragon dances. Take a closer look and you’ll see that the sword is actual a huge cannon, the dragon behind him an Alien. Yeah, I capitlized Alien there because its probably one of the most famous aliens: the chest-bursting, acid-blood aliens from the the movies with Sigourney Weaver (Alien: Ressurection was my favorite).

Since pretty much every encounter with these perfect monsters results in death, I thought I’d accompany this image with some tracks that Trash Yourself threw at me a couple of weeks ago:

Trash Yourself and Toxic Avenger - Die (GTRONIC DubDub Remix)

Trash Yourself and Toxic Avenger - Die (LazyAnts Remix)

Trash Yourself and Toxic Avenger - Die (The Bulgarian Death By Remix)

They’re Trash Yourself on Myspace.

A few years ago, no one even knew about Deadmau5. Now, he’s everywhere and its like people can’t get enough of him, and a friend of mine even claims they went to highschool together.

Ghosts’n'Stuff is almost a classic these days, but his remixes are also definitely worth a listen.

Nathan Fake - The Sky Was Pink (Deadmau5 Remix)

Also check out this video of him playing a club in Ibiza. Like DJ Cal, I also lost my shit around the 2:17 mark. The ‘mau5 also gets a ton of cred from me for calling his tour “For Lack Of A Better Name” and his album “Random Album Title” like he just don’t give a fuck.

Anna Karina was Jean-Luc Godard’s muse, his starlett and his wife. She was the main actress in most of the films he directed and this includes a couple of my favorites: Pierrot Le Fou and Alphaville.

I always thought she was hot, but I also always thought that it must have been weird for Godard to watch Jean-Paul Belmondo (possibly the coolest guy in the world) always play the romantic lead across from her.

Anyways, here are some tracks for the francophile in you:

Deejay Raph - Fuck Me I’m French (Pance Party Remix)

Les Petite Pilous - Dodo Electro

M.I.T.C.H ft Feadz & Uffie - Fais Rentres Les Euros (Larytta Remix)

And courtesy of my new favorite blog, fellow Torontonians Salacious Sound:

Friendly Fires - Paris (Computer Club’s Aeroplane vs. Au Revoir Simone Edit)

For the past few months, Adam Gorley has been copy-editing my other blog. Multi-talented man that he is, he also DJs at parties and bars around town.

Here’s a quick play list of his favorite tracks that he put together for us:

Junior Boys, Bits & Pieces

This song is from the Junior Boys’ newest release, Begone Dull Care, which is in my opinion the best thing they’ve done so far (which is saying a lot, because it’s all been great). It’s a very smooth and low-key electro track with a powerful groove. It’s obvious that these guys are terrific producers.

Jay-Z with Ratatat, Sunshine (remix)

DJs have gotta play Jay-Z, right? Well, this one combines a great Ratatat backing track with Jay-Z’s signature flow. The line between rap and rock is nowhere to be found here.

Dragonette, Competition (Ocelot Remix)

I came across Dragonette in a UK magazine “Watch Out For…” section, and I was super-happy when I listened to them. It makes me think that there’s hope for pop R&B. Their allmusic page calls them “new wave revivalists” and “bouncy electro-pop”, but that doesn’t give them nearly enough credit. Oh, and I just discovered (after about a year) that they’re Canadian.

MIA, Sunshowers

This song is a few years old, but I can’t help playing it regularly. It’s got a great rhythm, it’s upbeat, and it fits with a lot of musical styles—it’s a great bridge track. Bonus: I just discovered that the chorus melody is stolen from here.

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Tears of a Clown

Well, soul music hardly gets better than this 1967 track, especially from Motown. Can you believe that it wasn’t released as a single for two years after it appeared on an album? That album must have been pretty darn good to have the label not consider “Tears of a Clown” as a single. No surprise it’s so great: the music was written by Stevie Wonder (with Hank Cosby).

Stevie Wonder, Higher Ground

Speaking of Stevie Wonder, this is an obvious choice. My friend Derek once told me a story about DJing a party where a lady came up to him when he was playing Stevie and asked, “Can you play something we can dance to?” That person was wrong.

Electric Light Orchestra, Last Train to London

ELO never really tried to hide their pop, did they? And we should be happy about that, because they created some terrific disco-pop songs like this one. Of course, these songs mostly sounded pretty similar to one another, but I think they’re still well above the “throw-away” threshold.

Eventually, I’ll put together a proper DJ mix for 199x, but until I’ve got the time and the gear, this will have to do.

Read Gorley’s post about laptop DJing on BlogCampaigning, then hit him up on Twitter. He’s AGorley there.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the connections the Jigga might have to secret societies like the Masons.

It makes me wonder what these theorists would make to Jay-Z’s connections to German electro-pioneers and avid cyclists Kraftwerk. In the track “Sunshine,” it definitely sounds like he samples the Kraftwerk track “Man Machine” from their album of the same name.

Jay-Z - Sunshine

Kraftwerk - The Man Machine

I remember first realizing where Jay-Z got that sample from and being blown away. Probably more blown away than was warranted. Someone needs to do a mashup of these two songs.

And remember: its not a crazy conspiracy theory if it actually turns out to be true.

Or at least that’s the way it comes across in this re-work of Britney’s 3 by Toronto’s own Scotty Dynamo. Give it a listen, then catch him where ever you go. He’s ScottyDynamo on  Twitter, MySpace and YouTube and he is going to be what you’re telling your friends about when they ask if you’ve listened to any good music lately.

3 Remix - Britney Spears feat. Scotty Dynamo

Work It - Scotty Dynamo

You can also grab a couple more of his tracks on a post I wrote a few months ago here or hit up Audio Porn Central for a good write up about him. They’ve even got a few more tracks from him.