Last year, Stones Throw’s Peanut Butter Wolf got a little sacrilegious with his maleficent mix entitled 666, and now the time for penance has come. 777 is a collection assembled by PBW that’s centered around all things spiritual. It was compiled after a seven-day L.A. tour (seven clubs, seven genres), and completed in one take. If you value your salvation, or whatever, download this podcast and repent.

Tracklisting
1. Electric Prunes/David Axelrod “Holy Are You”
2. Bruce Devenish “The Lords Prayer”
3. Springs of Joy “Springs of Joy”
4. Street Christians “Think A Jesus Thought”
5. Brother Brian O.H.C. “Touch Me Not”
6. YZ “Thinking Of A Master Plan”
7. Jeru The Damaja “You Can’t Stop The Prophet”
8. Freestyle Fellowship “7th Seal”
9. Slick Rick “Moses”
10. Franklin Thompson “Dinosaur”
11. Singer of Songs “The New Direction Singers”
12. 20th C. Steel Band “Heaven And Hell Is On Earth”
13. Lightmen Plus One “All Praises to Allah”
14. Good Thanxs “Good Thang”
15. Rev. Peter Scholtes “Shout & Clap Your Hands”
16. P.S. 186 “Thou Shall Not Kill”
17. Abdul Rahim Ibrahim “Suratal Ihklas”
18. John Innes & Bill Fasig “His Peace”
19. Gideon “Swing Low Sweet Charriot”
20. The Gospel Soul Revivals “If Jesus Came Today”
21. Deliverance “Only Jesus”
22. Bruce Devenish “Lamb Of God til”
23. Barrington Levy “I Can’t Wait Too Long”
24. Prince Far I “The Vision”
26. Abyssinians “Satta-A-Masagana”
27. Culture “See Them A Come”
28. Tenor Saw “Lots of Sign”
29. Johnny Osborne “Truth And Rights”
30. Harold Melvin “Prayin”
31. The Followers of Christ “You Can Be a Winner”
32. Fertile Ground “Peace & Love”
33. Ellis and Cephis “Heaven”
34. Bro. Isaac Jenkins “Moment Away”
35. Billy Parker’s Fourth World “Get With It”
36. Carter Freeman “Walk With Me”
37. Norman Weeks & Revelations “Hold On”
38. Face to Face “Prince of the Dark”
39. New Testament Youth Troop “Gospel Rappin”
40. Brand Nubian “Allah And Justice”
41. Spirit of Love “Fill Me Up, Fill Me Up”
42. Otis G Johnson “Receive The Power/This Is the Day”
43. The Musical Harts Of Detroit “In Times Like These”
44. Ceme Svelto “Svetlu Vstric (Towards The Light)”
45. Pharoah Sanders “Japan”

The past few years have been busy for Japanese noise-rockers the Boredoms (pictured above), filled with remixes, recordings, and the acclaimed Super Roots series. After a series of rumors concerning whether or not the show would happen, Boredoms have officially confirmed that on July 7, 2007 they will be performing with 77 drummers in Brooklyn Bridge Park. 77 Drums will feature members of Gang Gang Dance, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Excepter, and others.

While most people cruise through summer with ease, some of us are shivering with fear. Why? Well, the Spice Girls have reunited for a world tour. Unsatisfied with all of the money David Beckham makes, Victoria Beckham (a.k.a. Posh Spice), and Eddie Murphy’s baby momma (a.k.a. Mel Brown, a.k.a. Scary Spice), are leading the girls on an 11-date world tour. The apocalypse is upon us. Cyanide is the easy way out.

Snoop Dogg (above, as if you couldn’t tell) is trying his damnedest to move to Australia. Tired of L.A. and the same ol’ same ol’, the Doggfather has chosen the Down Under as his new locale. He was apparently denied entrance to the country in April, when the government did a background check on him. Now he’s ready to prove that his love for Australia is for the long haul. You can sign his petition at the MTV Australia website. 

Psych-pop group Animal Collective will be touring the States…again. Scott Colburn–who produces AC, as well as the Arcade Fire–will be bringing along his Wizard Prison project for a series of select dates. Wizard Prison is a creepy, mystical epic that details the tribulations of a future primitive Peruvian people. Neo-indie-psych-folk hipsters beware. This is like Sol Invictus meets The Microphones meets William Burroughs.

Cameron Octigan

The Week In Music, June 22

The Week In Music, June 15

Prime party season is in effect as mid-summer is a key time for new singles and 12” releases. The racks at online outlets like Forced Exposure, Bookmat, Juno, Dancetracks, and Groove are bursting with new releases. Stores like Stompy and Beatport specialize in certain genres and labels, but offer new titles in many categories almost daily. So it’s time to dig what DJs will be playing at the more tasteful warehouse gigs, beach jams, and afterhours events through the warmer months. Here’s The Week In Singles.

Nu-Jazz/Broken

The Politik “Moonlight featuring Blu” Antipodean
Produced by Mark de Clive-Lowe, this single track is not included on the Politik’s forthcoming US debut for Milan Recordings, but absolutely essential! This sassy hip-hop track features emcee Blu alongside The Politik’s Bembe Segue. P-Funk-style synths rumble as Blu spits a Dee-troit flow and Bembe whips hips into shape with her spirited singing. Out July 13.

Lady Alma “The Pressure EP” Antipodean
Philly’s first lady of soul–heard recently on “Sink Or Swim” from 4hero’s Play With The Changes album–is back with her best material yet. Alma’s voice is as elastic as ever, and she’s matured lyrically on broken tracks like “Running for Nothing,” an emotional ode that oozes with passion. “Pressure” comes as an original and Universal Sun remix version–the latter is sure to be heard in Spinna, Marques Wyatt, and other top house DJs’ sets. Out July 13.

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 “Think Africa” Still Music
Afrobeat fans rejoice as one of the music’s most famous sons finally gets a domestic release–and it’s stunning! Seun Kuti is the last son of Afrobeat ambassador Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Nigeria’s most beloved popular musician, and most acerbic social critic until his death in 1997. Seun carries on his father’s tradition expertly, and “Na Oil” is a mid-tempo shaker that sounds hauntingly like his father. “Think Africa” is a brilliant, 121 bpm afro-dance track with punchy horns and Seun’s insistent vocals. Don’t miss it! Out now.

West-Rock-Woods “Love Cats” Mukatsuku
You might not think a cover of The Cure’s “Love Cats” could translate to a modern jazz context–but guess what? It does! The West-Rock-Woods trio, consisting of upright bass, drums, and piano, brings a lively bossa-style (think Gerardo Frisina or Nicola Conte) to the pop-goth classic, and the results will definitely turn heads. A super-fun track that’s not to be overlooked as a gimmick! Out July 6.

Microstar “The Nightlife EP” Playloop
Philadelphia’s Playloop Records has discovered its first major International talent, Germany’s Microstar. Already making waves with DJs King Britt and Timewriter, Microstar now plans on bringing the next wave of deep house hits to a dance floor near you. The four-song EP is at times proggy, at times dreamy, but always dope. If your house tastes lean towards deep, spacey, Rhodesy music, check this. Out now.

Rocco “Stormy EP” Freerange
Rocco is a Lyon, France-based DJ/producer, and better known as one quarter of Rodamaal, of Insomnia fame; responsible for inspiring Ame’s best remix to date. But he’s also notched up releases on Buzzin’ Fly, Shack, and Citydeep labels. His latest for Freerange features three hypnotic and soulful numbers that are all proper house tracks to drop in the afterhours, when things get warm and intimate. “The Revolution” is a lush house track that unfolds over seven minutes. Understated but heavy as f**k! Out July 6.

Danuel Tate “Pushcard EP” Wagon Repair
Extraordinary jazz pianist Danuel Tate is commonly known as the keyboardist in Canada’s Cobblestone Jazz, a project that exemplifies a free and improvised approach to the creative process. This EP is a dizzy, melodic mix of jazz solos and crunchy samples over techhouse rhythms. “Pushcard” features wild flutes and keys that soar over a racing house beat and stumbling trumpet loop. ”Give it Back” features a tight cymbal roll resonating like rain above scatted vocoder and keys. Unbelievably original. Out August 15.

Breaks/Dubstep

Darqwan “Maximum Reespek” Planet Mu
Oris Jay’s latest is a murky dub and rave inspired number with half-step tempos. “Maximum” features creepy synths and sly Lee “Scratch” Perry “moaning cow” samples, while “Ghost Not Memory” has sick, reggae-style delay and reverb elements. This single definitely puts the dub in dubstep. Out now.

RSD “Kingfisher” Earwax
Skream, Youngsta, and others have caned this one on RinseFM for months. “Kingfisher” features all manner of high and low subs, with a excellent skanking synths and old-school deejay toasting samples. “Love of Jah Light” is less dubstep and more UK electronic dub, but still dope! Out now.

Tes La Rok “Roll Out” Contagious
Although the hard and synthy “Roll Out” is technically the lead cut on the single, DJs seem to prefer the flip “Lickshot,” which, despite the ragga-referencing name, is a steppy, squelchy cut with great energy and a dynamic sound field. This one’s rough–not for the faint of heart! Out now.

DJ Mutiny “Soul Runner” Botchit
For the breaks heads who love their rare groove funk, or maybe a little of the jazzy, broken-beat sound, this one’s for you. Mutiny is an extremely successful producer, and this release bolsters his rep as one who delivers solid productions. Laced with hip-hop vocal snippets, funky stabs, and a hefty bass line, “Soul Runner” is a refreshingly cliché-free. Check both the original and Superstyle Deluxe remix. Out July 7.

World of Warcraft: You never know what dangers lurk around the corner.

To Catch A Paladin
Authorities in Pitt County, North Carolina have arrested Tamara Broome, a 31-year old Australian woman who came to the US attempting to collect her online boyfriend, 17, and bring him back with her to Australia. 18 is the legal age of consent in North Carolina.

The two had met last year on World of Warcraft and had planned to marry.

After stopping him from boarding a plane to Australia earlier in the year, the boy’s parents supposedly “invited” Broome, a university student, to North Carolina so they could “sort it all out.” Instead of meeting the boy and his parents, Broome was instead greeted by three local detectives becoming, er, bound on pick-up (Warcraft humor!).

Broome is being held on $2.4 million bail.

Full Story

Zelda for the DS Dated
If you are like most red-blooded Americans…or Japanese…or French…or one of those amorous Italians, you love the Nintendo DS (the thing has sold more units than the Bible, so we’ll assume you have one). And come October 1, you will certainly need it, as Nintendo prepares to release The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, the first DS version of the beloved, two-decade old series.

“Since 1987 TheLegend of Zelda franchise has sold more than 52 million units worldwide,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. “The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass stays true to the richness of the console Zelda franchise while introducing new controls that allow veterans and first-time gamers to become fully immersed in the adventure.”

The game will feature WiFi play, and you will be able to control the entire game using the touch-screen and stylus. Want to stab at a gnarly goblin? Just make a slashing motion on the screen. Want to throw your boomerang in a particular pattern? Just draw its path on the screen and let it fly!

Having just given myself the sorest arm in recent memory during a marathon Wii Tennis session, the news of Zelda DS coming in a few short months has Nintendo continuing to bring a smile to my face.
GTA 4: Look out, Xbox. Here it comes.

Lack of Big Exclusives Hurting Sony?
Back in the early 2000s, The PlayStation 2 ruled the market, but perhaps for one simple reason–license exclusivity. Many of the games that were key to the system’s sustained success were ones that could only be found on Sony’s system.

Grand Theft Auto. Devil May Cry. Metal Gear. Had these games first shown up on the GameCube or Xbox, things may have turned out very differently for all these companies, but Sony had the shrewd business sense to continue holding onto these exclusive deals for several years…until recently.

Pull the Wayback Machine back into 2007 and we see that the game, as they say, done changed.

Over the last year it’s been revealed that titles once considered shoo-ins for PlayStation 3 exclusivity–either because they were initially announced as exclusives or their prior history would have indicated as such–are ALSO appearing on the Xbox 360 or ONLY appearing on the Xbox 360.

Wired’s Chris Kohler has listed a few of the big guns Sony dropped the ball on, like Grand Theft Auto IV, for which former Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi’s “radio silence” left Sony’s American execs without the authority to make exclusive deals, and Assassin’s Creed, which was supposed to be a PS3 exclusive. It became known, shortly after E3 2006, that the latter would ship on both Playstation and Xbox.

Kohler goes on to mention other titles, like Devil May Cry 4, Virtua Fighter 5and Fatal Inertia, and pondering the future of the still-PS3 exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII.

Oddly, not only is Sony losing these exclusives left and right, but the company doesn’t seem to care, as illustrated in a recent PlayStation Magazine interview with Sony Computer Entertainment America president, Jack Tretton:

“We have a very different approach to exclusives than some of our competitors. We don’t buy exclusivity. We don’t fund development. We don’t, for lack of a better term, bribe somebody to only do a game on our platform. We earn it…”

OK, so your new system isn’t selling THAT well (The Wii is outselling the PS3 6 to 1 in Japan alone!), you are losing support from everyone you ever made gobs of money from, and then you’re going to put your nose up in the air and act like you don’t need ‘em? Come on, bro! Who are you trying to fool here? Me? Or you?

Wired‘s Full Story

DS Brain Game Pulled In UK
While most “brain training” games seem innocuous (or ignorable) enough, a woman in the UK was recently so offended by Ubisoft’s Mind Quiz, for the Nintendo DS, that she managed to get it pulled from shelves in Britain after it called her a name during a play session in which she performed poorly.

What was the name? While there is no official word, many bloggers and message boarders who claim to have played the troublesome title say that the word in question is “spaz.”

While meaningless to most, the Belfast woman says that she was deeply troubled by the game’s name calling as both her father and deceased son suffered from cerebral palsy.

“Retard”, “gay,” or “bearded-lady” would have also been accepted as poor word choices.

Full Story

PlayStation 3 Price Drop Imminent?
Earlier this week, an anonymous tipster began spreading word (and the scan of an apparent upcoming advertisement) about a $100 price-cut coming to the PlayStation 3, making it $499 on July 15 at Circuit City locations around the country–the week after E3.

Then yesterday, gaming news site, GameDaily, reportedly confirmed with a “retail manager at one of the world’s largest chains” that not only was this price drop the case for ALL retailers, not just Circuit City, but also that it would happen on July 12, the day after E3 begins. Moles from Best Buy and Target further substantiated the rumor with Kotaku.com as recently as this afternoon.

However, Sony President Ryoji Chubachi, in an interview late yesterday, said that the company had no such plans whatsoever! Eh?

From Bloomberg: “We have no immediate plans as of now” for price cuts, Chubachi said in an interview in Tokyo. Any change in the console’s price “is a matter” for Sony’s game unit, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., he said.

So either he is trying to be funny, trying to throw his rivals off, or has no idea what the hell is going on within his own company. All of which are entirely possible. But our money is on a cheaper PS3 next week!

Forget impending Armageddon, rising rent prices, and the latest batch of shitty noise regulation laws. Sometimes it’s more fun to talk about positive things happening in the Big Apple.

Enter the New York Bike-Share Program. In an act that’s both socially and environmentally conscious, the program is conducting a test run of its bike rental program from July 7 – 11, at the Storefront For Art and Architecture in Manhattan.

The aim of the program is to arm commuters with the ability to grab a bike from any station in the city and return it to any station later on for a mere 50 cents. It’s a similar concept to ones already practiced in Europe (Paris keeps 10,000 bikes at 750 rent stations across the city, for instance). Reviews of some of these other successful bike-share programs will be on display at the Storefront, which will also host a series of lectures from transportation experts. If all goes well, the hipsters will have to find a new, cooler way to get around. Unicycle, perhaps?

Free Bike Rental
July 7-11, 2007, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Storefront for Art and Architecture
97 Kenmare Street
New York, NY 10012

Al Haca gets all sci-fi with “Banana Split,” a track that sees the production team tackling synth parameters like analog brain surgeons. If aliens threw a bbq that M.I.A. was attending, this track would most certainly accompany dessert.

Download this song as an MP3, or preview a week’s worth of tracks at the XLR8R Podcast. Subscribe using iTunes, or with an RSS reader of your choice.