I saw Moon the other day. From the near-silent shots of the big-wheeled rovers rolling across desolate plains to the austere, functional interior of the base the entire thing is a beautiful love song dedicated to classic sci-fi. Without trying to give too much away, it felt like the film was channeling the spirit of every movie from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Bladerunner. There where wisps of Event Horizon, Solaris and even Aliens throughout. Director Duncan Jones knows his stuff, and Sam Rockwell played the lead role perectly.

Moon Safari is probably one of my favorite albums of all time, and I fell in love with it the first time I heard it. In fact, it could have probably been the soundtrack to Moon. It almost feels like Sam Rockwell’s costumes were even inspired by Air’s clothes from the cover of their Moon Safari album.

Air - Remember

Air on Myspace (ha! I love that their MySpace ID is “intairnet”) or buy their album Moon Safair on iTunes.

And as a bonus, this Au Revoir Simone remix by The Discopushers:

Au Revoir Simone - Stars (Disco Pusher Remix)

And don’t forget to check out this other post about the message Nixon would have had to read if the men on the moon had been unable to return.

A few weeks ago CJ Milli made my day by dropping a couple of tracks in my inbox. It was like she was reading my mind when she combined Empire of The Sun’s  “We Are the People” and Kanye West’s “Homecoming” into awesome. She’s also put together a few of her own tracks.

CJ Milli - The People’s Homecoming (Kanye West + Empire of The Sun Mix)

CJ Milli - We Are Those Kids

She’s pretty cute and puts together some good beats, so check this chiquita out on MySpace. Like Clipse and John Carter, she’s from Virginia and it makes me think there must be something in the water down there.

And by way of a few bonus tracks that reminded me of her track…Chiddy Bang samples MGMT’s classic track Kids and gives it a bit of hip-hop flavor while The Mentalists simply cover it using nothing more than iPhones and their voices for instrumentation (watch the video of this if you don’t believe me).

Chiddy Bang - Kids

The Mentalists - Kids (MGMT iPhone Cover)

MGMT - Kids (808Kidz Remix)

Edgar Rice Burroughs had one hell of an imagination - he didn’t just write the Tarzan books (including Tarzan at the Earth’s Core), but he also wrote a series of books about Mars featuring an immortal named John Carter. Rumor has it they’re making a movie about his adventures, and I anticipate it being awesome.

In the books, John Carter is supposed to be from Virginia. You know who else is from Virginia? Pusha T and Malice from Clipse, that’s who.

Clipse feat. Pharrell - Mr. Me Too (Neon Coyote Remix)*

To top that off, here are some banging Mars-themed tracks to get you going.

Fake Blood - Mars (Original Edit)

Fake Blood - Mars (Herve Re-fix)

Kid Cudi feat. Crookers - Embrace The Martians (Tevar Edit)

* If you really want to stretch the connections here, it makes perfect sense to include a Neon Coyote remix in this Mars-themed post because The Coyote was a major character in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. Throw your hands in the sky if you’ve read it!

One of the reasons I started this blog in the first place was because I thought that Nineteen Ninety Never would be a kick-ass name for a line of t-shirts. I designed and actually made some of them, including the one above. It was a huge stencil, and I regret the fact that I had to abandon it in Australia.

To go with the theme and because they’re coming to Toronto this weekend, here are some absolutely deadly Fake Blood tracks:

Little Boots - Stuck On Repeat (Fake Blood Remix) (props to this guy for the track)

(I’m just absolutely loving Little Boots these days, and my favorite part of the song is when she says “Fake Blood” at 1:44)

Count and Sinden - Beeper (Fake Blood mix)

The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful (Fake Blood mix)

Buy Little Boots  stuff on iTunes then hit her up on Twitter.

Fake Blood on Myspace (no, not THAT Fake Blood), more Fake Blood on 199X

The Kills on MySpace, iTunes and here.

Woolcovered recently pointed out that Cadence Weapon has released a mix tape under the “pay-what-you-can” model.

I threw Cadence five bucks for the album, and you should too.  I saw him perform in ‘08, and he was pretty entertaining. Here are a couple of tracks to get you started:

Herve & A-Track feat. Cadence Weapon - Roll With the Winners

Cadence Weapon - House Music Medley

I picked up that shirt in the above picture at Capsule (69 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto).  I don’t think that a single gun is repeated on the entire shirt, but I bet that the part of you that is stoked for the G.I. Joe movie is trying to name every single one of those guns.

Cadence Weapon’s mix tape website

Cadence Weapon on MySpace

Cadence Weapon on iTunes

I saw Tiga the other day…then watched the interview he did for his new album. If you haven’t seen it, go to  Tiga’s website,  and watch it. With lines like “My lyrics basically reveal essentially how interesting how I am” and it gives you a whole new appreciation for the man as an entertainer. Seriously - just watch the interview and prepare to be hilariously blown away.  I also really appreciate it when he says “As a child I always believed and dreamed of a glorious, golden, mysterious future. And i feel like I’ve arrived. ”

Tiga - Mind Dimension (Disco Villains Remix)

Fever Ray - Triangle Walks (Tiga Remix)

There is more Disco Villains here on 199X or check out the their Myspace. There is also more Tiga (I love that guy) on 199X here and here.

And for you lazy ones that won’t go to his website to watch the interview video, here it is in two parts:

Hit up Tiga on Facebook

I’ve been obsessed with this picture of Allison Harvard (aka Creepy Chan) after I first read about her in a Wired.com blog post (just look at that blank look in her eyes). Once the darling of 4chan, she rose to fame by becoming the runner-up on my roommates favorite TV show: America’s Next Top Model. I don’t know if that’s a rags-to-riches story so much as a…you know what? I don’t know what kind of story it is. All I know is that she posted some pretty artsy pictures of herself on 4chan then got sort of normal, disappointing her original fan base.

Read more about Creepy Chan on Encyclopedia Dramatica, then check out these tracks below. They don’t really have anything to do with her, but I’ve been listening to them lately.

Thieves Like Us - Your Heart Feels

Veronica Maggio - Måndagsbarn (Le Prix Remix)

(Thanks to Discobelle for this one - they’re always dropping good Swedish stuff) (Apparentally Veronica is a big deal in Sweden)

Catch more Thieves Like Us on Myspace. I’m sure they’d love to have you as a friend.

Even though its June and slightly rainy here in the T-dot, it still feels like the start of summer, and it feels like a good time to post some warm-weather, good-times music.

The video above is for the track “Hey You” by Pony Pony Run Run, and its got a funny, summery feeling. The band has even dropped their own, dance remix of the track:

Pony Pony Run Run - Hey You (Pony Pony Run Run Remix)

The June Soundmen dropped a track in my email the other day (you can too: ultimatecowboy (at) 199x (dot) org), telling me to pay attention because it was going to be “the summer banger.”

June ft. Remo - Watch My Moves

I don’t know if it has the staying power to be the banger we’ll be listening to all summer long, but its fun for now.

For a couple of good summer mixes, check out the wonky Sound Pellegrino Team Thermal mix on Curb Crawlers, the MADJAZZ’s Summer Brainstorm on Mad Decent or The Summer Never Ends mix by Jens Lekman. All three should be good for bumpin’ on the patio with a case of beer on a warm evening.

I just finished reading House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. In the book, two shatterlings named Campion and Purslane (the galaxy-wandering, six-million year old clones of a woman named Abigail Gentian) fall in love with each other, befriend a golden robot (Hesperus, of the Machine People) and arrive decades late for the gathering of shatterlings that happens approximately once every 32,000 years.

I absolutely loved the book, and the fact that parts of it span tens of thousands of years. Reynolds writes sci-fi on an enormous time scale. As Charlie Jane Anders writes:

“House Of Suns is one of those novels that assumes a shape after you’re done reading it. All of the elements that seemed purely random fall into place, and you realize quite what an intricate design you’ve been looking at all this time….This novel has everything: artificial intelligences that become sentient, post-humans, questions of faster-than-light travel and causality, cloning, virtual worlds, a murder mystery and a group of nigh-immortal people dealing with the burden of history in a more personal way than most of us ever do.”

Anyways, that’s not a picture of Hesperus, but of my Halo 3 armor. I was inspired by the book to make him golden and to give him the House of Suns insignia.

Anyways, here are some tracks that I’ve also been coincidentally listening to these days. I really feel like they flow with the book. The Empire of the Sun track makes me think of the love between Campion and Purslane, and the name of the original band and remixers just works with the book as well.

We Are The People (Golden Filter Remix) - Empire of the Sun

Why this Girl and the Robot? Because at one point in the book, the female shatterling (Purslane) spends a great deal of time with Hesperus (don’t worry, nothing weird happens).

Girl and the Robot - Royksopp

Girl and the Robot (Joakim Remix) Royksopp

Girl and the Robot (Ocelot Remix) Royksopp

You should buy House of Suns on Amazon, then check out Alastair Reynold’s blog.

You can also buy Royksopp tracks on Itunes.

Tiga is going to be playing Toronto’s CiRCA nightclub on June 5th, and I’m definitely going to go. Ever since I heard his first album, Sexor, I’ve loved all of the guy’s music.

Wait..that’s not totally true. Half of Sexor actually sucks, and feels a bit like filler. But the tracks on the album that are good are amazing. 3 Weeks, (Far From) Home and You Gonna Want me are definitely some of my favorite songs from any artist. The Ballad of Sexor is also a hilarious track, and it kinda makes me think Sexor was probably a Fitte Prins.

I haven’t heard much of his new album, Ciao!, but like everyone else I’m totally hooked on the first single, Shoes.

Tiga - Hot In Here

Tiga - Ballad of Sexor

Tiga - (Far From) Home (Speed of Sexor Reprise)

Tiga - Shoes (Spencer and Hill Remix)

Tiga - Shoes

There’s more Tiga on 199X here for you, and a bunch of Shoes remixes at Ilictronix.

Catch Tiga on iTunes, MySpace and Twitter. Oh, and he also reps Canada with a .ca website.