Danny B's Blog

Daft Punk - Get Lucky ft. Pharrell & Nile Rodgers (Radio Edit)

The Robots are back! After months of attempting to stalk their whereabouts online and spending a whole week during SXSW, running up and down Austin to see if any of their rumors were true, Daft Punk finally gives me some news I really want to hear. The tracklist for their new album, Random Access Memories, has been released and I Don’t really know what else to say other than, “Oh my F***** god!” This must be how 15 year olds feel with whatever boy band is popular at the time.

Daft Punk is one of those bands that If I could see one last band/musician live before I stepped off this earth , it would be them. I was 12 years old when I heard Da Funk, I’m 24 now. These guys are my Beatles.

Random Access Memories Tracklist:

01. Give Life Back to Music feat. Nile Rodgers
02. The Game of Love
03. Giorgio by Moroder feat. Giorgio Moroder
04. Within feat. Chilly Gonzales
05. Instant Crush feat. Julian Casablancas
06. Lose Yourself to Dance feat. Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers
07. Touch feat. Paul Williams
08. Get Lucky feat. Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers
09. Beyond
10. Motherhood
11. Fragments of Time feat. Todd Edwards
12. Doin’ It Right feat. Panda Bear
13. Contact feat. DJ Falcon

This album features The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, Animal Collective’s Panda Bear, Nile Rodgers, Todd Edwards, Paul Williams, Chilly Conzales, and Giorgio Moroder and is set to come out on May 21st. You bet your sweet ass I preordered it… TWICE. The Collaborators have been releasing weekly videos of musicians discussing their collaboration with the Robots. The latest video is one of the greatest producers himself, Pharrell: If you are a fan of either DP or Pharrell, watch this video. Its genius.

Sadly, I have just recently learned that the best way to work is when everything is turned off but my music. I used to think that I could do my work with the TV on in the background and be just as effective if it were off, especially in college. What a bunch of crap. I have no idea how I got anything done. I’m sitting in the dark now, listening to music and my mind is much clearer. Great way to unwind after a long day.

This Saturday I managed to take a quick 4 mile bike ride downtown, without killing myself and within 45 minutes too. I plan on making a habit of this on Saturdays. My goal is to gradually raise the distance I travel until I can do 13 miles with ease. I will take time for sure but I think it’s a reasonable and reachable goal.

I’m pretty sure the people that just moved in above me have hooves enjoy galloping around their apartment at ridiculous hours at night. Meanwhile, the people below me blast spanish music like there is no tomorrow. It is as if my neighborhood is always throwing quinceañeras with zoo animals.

Tomorrow night, a buddy of mine is doing a DJing at Plush. If you are in the Austin area, you should swing by. It is actually kind of funny how he got his DJ name. It was one night after a few drinks, for some reason I felt it was necessary to tell him he looked like Tin Tin and since then it just stuck. Soon, you’ll see me doing a few sets too, but I’ll keep you updated on that.

Brian Lee O’Malley, who wrote one of my favorite series, will be doing a signing over at Austin Books and Comics this Friday at 5pm… and I work. I need to find a way to be there! 

I read somewhere that Mumford and Sons beat the Beatles for most songs on Billboard records concurrently. Thats impressive. At least it’s isn’t like that one time when Katy Perry beat Michael Jacksons record for most number 1’s from the same album, because thats a shame. Although, I can’t deny she looked ridiculously hot last night at the Grammys.

Speaking of last night… Walking Dead. Wow, I can’t wait to see the direction they go with this. I am just glad neither of the Dixon brothers died… yet. Yes, even Merle. They can do so much with that story of those two. And why the hell is Andrea still alive? 

Tonights blog is brought to you by:

I always want to listen to music while I am in the car, even if I have others in the car, I would much rather jam out then converse. Not that I’m not social, once we step out of that vehicle it is not a problem. But when in a car, my ears belong to my music. I’d much rather blare music and sing my ass off behind my tinted windows during that time. Sometimes people will be in my backseat trying to talk to me and I’ll have to turn the music down a little to hear them but the second there is a pause or I think the conversation is done I won’t hesitate to turn the music back up. I’m sure that annoys anyone who rides with me. I mean no disrespect when I do it either, If you want to tell me how your day was then I would love to hear it… once we get out of the car. I guess since I spend so much time in traffic daily, I’ve just gotten used to it.

The other day, my boss and I had to go somewhere a few miles from my job and I was chosen to drive. I wasn’t sure if I just sit in complete silence and try to start a conversation or if I turn on the music, will that look like I don’t want to talk. Thankfully, he started playing with my radio once we sat down and started going through my music on my iPod. The part that really blew my mind was when he came across this song by Geto Boys, “My Mind Playing Tricks On Me”.  He turned my radio up loud, and sang every word to every verse and chorus of that song. I don’t mean to stereotype but just looking at him, I wouldn’t take him as someone to know a song like that but I was wrong, and he did. In fact he turned up my radio to the max and even when we got to our destination, he waited until the last 30 seconds of the song to finish before getting out of the car. #Respect

One of my buddies can be overly dramatic sometimes. Especially on Facebook. He could get the wrong order at Taco Bell and write 2 paragraphs about much it changed his life and how distraught he is from it. Anyway… Today I was walking into Target, while looking down at my phone,  & reading one of his updates. I didn’t look up once. As I’m reading this, I’m thinking “Ok someone needs to calm the f…..” and Bam! I walked past a truck with a ladder hanging out. It was just tall enough to hit the top of my head. I hit it so hard that it literally took my beanie off. This means two things: Karma and walking and texting is just as dangerous as driving and texting. I turned around to see if anyone saw and there was a dad and his son walking behind me. It was pretty obvious that the man was trying to hold in his laughter, but the kid had no filter. He was tearing from laughing. You’re welcome, kid.

This isn’t the first time this has happened to me, one time I went to Walmart to buy beer. Again, I was on my phone instead of looking where I was going and I thought I was walking straight to the automatic glass doors, but I wasn’t. Instead I walked right into the window right next to it.

PSA: Don’t text and walk. You’ll look like a jackass.

I don’t understand the hell I’m seeing being given about J.J. Abrams directing the new Star Wars movie. I would assume much more excitement from news like this. I remember a time when they said there would never be an Episode 7,8,9. He did such a great job with Star Trek and now the second film is going to be released soon and it looks just as impressive, if not better. I hope Chewy makes a cameo. This news is much better than hearing someone like Michael Bay do a film like this. Jon Favreau and Steven Spielberg were in talks to direct at one point as well. I could see Jon Favreau doing a great job with a film like this as well. That’s the thing, I feel like if you really want to make a great sci-fi or comic book movie, let a nerd do it. Let someone who grew up reading and watching these things direct these kind of films. Just ask Joss Whedon, that man is a god. 

With that said they should let me direct a Dragon Ball movie… I’ll show them how it’s really done. 

It’s been so difficult finding the time to blog lately since the new job and I’m around computers all day at work that even when I do have time, I don’t even want to look at a computer.

I’m actually on a plane right now, I’m on my way to Atlanta for two days on a business trip. It looks like I’ll be traveling quite a bit this year. Pretty excited about that. I’ve never even been to Atlanta before, I should probably look up some cool places to check out while I’m here.

I’ve had this intense migraine that I haven’t been able to shake off for days. It’s like hangover headache where it’s too painful to look at any lights or hear any sounds and I haven’t had a drink in weeks.

The holidays were good to me, unfortunately I wasn’t able to go anywhere this time, but I had a good time hanging out with my brothers. Just not all at once though, it’s kinda hard to believe how different we all are as they grow up.

Is it weird to say I love to travel but I hate flying? Because I do. Above the clouds I’m okay but it’s the taking off and landing that I have a problem with. I blame it on my imagination.

I don’t want to waste my $5 Wifi all on blogging about nonsense, I’d much rather catch up on Portlandia so I’ll write again later.

This thanksgiving break, my boss, David, invited me to go mountain biking with him and a group that gets together every Sunday morning. I immediately said yes, not only is this a great opportunity to bond but I’m probably would have just slept in until noon anyway. They start every Sunday morning at 9:30am, at Walnut Creek Park off of North Lamar. I’m probably the youngest one of the group, but that meant nothing, the guys there looked like they had been doing this for some time now. Everyone was was so prepared with water packs, knee pads, bike shorts, etc. I arrived with a hoody one, bball shorts and a helmet. I got there around 9am and there were about 40 bikers. David had an extra bike for me. I’ve never been mountain biking before, but all I can imagine was that it would be worse than my trip to Waterloo last month. There are two groups, the intermediate group and the beginner group. I clearly went in the beginner group. The guy who led the beginner group, who I can’t remember his name right now, was an older gentleman, probably the oldest guys there. He had an epic beard. He looked like Willie Nelson. He was very wise too. That beard is probably where he stashes all that knowledge. It was nine miles of twisting and making sharp turns, going up and down hills, going over branches, rocks, all while trying to keep up with this group that clearly have been doing this for some time now and all I can think about his how sore my butt is going to be the next day… Which it was.

After this intense trail, everyone kept asking me If I ate it or not, like it was expected. Like not busting ass on your first ride was such an accomplishment. If that was the case, I’m glad they told me that afterwards then.

It was tough, but it was a great work out. Fun too. I will probably do it again.

Also, like I predicted my legs and butt are super sore. I feel very accomplished though. Too bad my Fuelband didn’t pick any of that mileage up since my arms were pretty steady for the most part. I would have easily hit my goal for the day in just an hour’s time.

This is the first time I have heard about Austin Ridge Riders before, but if you are interested in checking them out, here is a link to them.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I thought I’d share this video of the love of my life, aka Rashida Jones and Jimmy Fallon parodying a few popular songs with their own holiday touch on last nights Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.