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Shuffled! is a weekly column appearing every Thursday here on BPRLive. Each week, we welcome a person from the APA community to share some thoughts about the music they listen to. Check out the Shuffled! archive for past articles.

Adriel Luis is a Bay Area native and a lover of all things weird. In 2002 he founded iLL-Literacy, a four-person spoken word collective that has since toured worldwide and received high acclaim in the spoken word, music, and theater scenes alike. In 2005 the video for his poem “Slip of the Tongue” received an EMMY Award and was featured in over 75 film festivals throughout the world. His new music project, Pretty Buoyant Society, is set to debut in the summer.

More info at www.ill-literacy.com & www.adrizzle.com.

And we move to the shuffle…<This is the first time a shuffler has provided their own playlist so we woudn’t have to make it ourselves. Cheers! - Ed.>

Being that I’m completely and utterly schizophrenic when it comes to the music I’m in the mood to listen to and share, I think I created and deleted like four playlists before settling on this one. Take it! Take it from my hands before I erase it and replace it with all Russian polka!

“After the Rain”
Little Dragon
One of my favorite things about being home is the fact that my roommate is a DJ, and when she practices her sets it booms throughout the apartment and I feel like I’m at the club (minus wack bouncers and glittery halter tops). When my roommate’s not on the tables, we’re IMing each other songs from across our office. A couple of months ago she hipped me to Little Dragon. Maybe it’s because she knows how much I love bands with female lead vocalists, or bands with Asian lead vocalists, or most of all, bands with Asian female lead vocalists. The lead singer Yukimi Nagano’s voice is so sultry and raspy, like Esthero meets Nelly Furtado (pre-promiscuous girl, thanks very much). “After the Rain” is complete and utter sickness. Who knew Swedish indie jazz could be so hottttttt.

“Your Voice”
Santogold
For the past month my spring soundtrack album has been Santogold. I pretty much can’t listen to anything else…except this joint “Your Voice,” a track that didn’t make it on the album but was leaked anyway. Hella chill and dubby, and being from Cali, you know I’m a sucker for that. Right when the drum roll jumped off in the beginning, I was sold.

“Get With the Times”
Cool Calm Pete
I generally steer clear from the brand of hip-hop that Def Jux offers–a lot of it is emo rap that I reserve for my backpacker days when I pined after the girls in chemistry while applying Clearasil on my pimples. But Cool Calm Pete’s style is deliciously sarcastic in the face of the dark motif that his label is known for (and some would say it’s what Koreans such as Pete are known for too, but that would be a stereotype so I won’t say that). “Get With the Times” is Pete at his best, letting you know that the end is near and there’s nothing you can do but nod your head with a smirk on your face. Wait for the beat change when the hook drops.

“20 Dollar”
MIA
I couldn’t not put MIA in this. There’s nothing like going to a concert that starts off with a video of a Chinese dude rallying people to tear down the government. I slept on MIA big-time because when I first heard about her people described her as “kind of a rapper but her lyrics are random and don’t make a lot of sense.” How wrong they were. In “20 Dollar” MIA declares that she “puts people on the map that never seen a map,” demonstrating that while you might think everyone in the “third world” is sitting in their huts wishing they were American, they’re actually making music that bangs much harder than your average Fall Out Boy.

“All I Want”
Hiroshima
If you’ve ever dug for records at the thrift store you know that it’s not really a gold mine for multi-platinum hits. For the most part, it’s old banjo music (and there’s nothing wrong with that). So usually, I pick out the one or two overlooked soul hits, and anything with Asian people on it. Because of that, I have like three different versions of Flower Drum Song. But once I was pleasantly surprised when I came home with a record from this jazz band, Hiroshima. They toured with Miles Davis back in the dizzay, and are still doing their thaaang. “All I Want” is a beautiful Minnie Riperton-esque tune, and you can definitely hear the Japanese musical influences in it. Doooooope!

“The Electric Spanking of War Babies”
Funkadelic
Okay, so here’s the deal: If there wasn’t a song limit I’d just keep on going with this…I really really really want to put OutKast and Erykah Badu on this playlist because they are my absolute favorites. Oh, if only they were Asian, ho hum. Instead, I give you this: Funkadelic’s “The Electric Spanking of War Babies.” Might as well go to the inspirational roots, George Clinton! shuCheck out the intro to the track and how parallel it is to E.Badu’s 4th World War intro. And then after that? It’s like this song was on repeat at the studio when OutKast was recording Idlewild. And to be real, Parliament and Funkadelic are the only bands I’ve been listening to when trying to work up some juice to write for sets with my group iLL-Literacy. There you go.

Last 5 posts by shuffled

• Shuffled! Delia - August 14th, 2008
• Shuffled! Giles Li - August 7th, 2008
• Shuffled! Alexander Chee - July 31st, 2008
• Shuffled! Terry Park - July 24th, 2008
• Shuffled! Theresa Vu of Magnetic North - July 17th, 2008

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