Friday, December 16, 2011

R.I.P. Martin Smith


Earlier this week I learned that the world was missing a really great character. Martin Smith was not just a close friend but also a major influence in my life. His ability and goal to be completely different than everybody else will always stick in my mind as one of the greatest features he (and anyone) could ever have. There will never be another guy like Martin and it is a shame everyone did not know him. He was something of mythes.

In honor of my lost friend, I would like to post some music that he either showed me, liked, or that we both had in common. I'll also post some extra stuffz and some stuff that reminds me of Martin as time goes by. 

Ratatat - 9 Beats

I remember one summer riding around with Martin in his beat up silver Volvo be got from is grandmother. He was one of my first friends I ever knew who could drive and that alone blew me away. At this point he loved to drive around to Ratatat's 9 beats; an unofficial release that included 9 instrumental tracks that were used on their remix albums of famous hip hop and rap stars' songs. The tracks are really bumping and totally get you going! Martin's Volvo's speakers never really worked so for a little bit he would use a dinky portable speaker to project his favorite beats. But none of that bothered me. 





It made sense that Martin got me in to tons of fun electronic, dancey and beaty music. Martin loved to dance (not like dance but like dance dance) and have a good time with his friends. My friends and I sometimes throw flash "dance parties"in each other's dirty little basements. It's just what we do. A lot of these dance parties have either been put on or featured a whole lotta really cool tracks found by Martin Smith himself. Martin introduced me to many electronic type bands back in the day, like Ratatat, Kraftwerk, Justice, Caribou, and even Pogo. 

Pogo is pretty famous for his special crafting of "Alice" a song using only chords, sound effects and vocal samples from the cartoon version of Alice in Wonderland. Pogo has also played around with more Alice in Wonderland in Wonderland, Disney's Up, Dexter, Harry Potter and many other films and bits of pop culture. Under all the glitch and bloops & woops, it actually sounds really chill and almost trip-hop like. I still remember the first time martin played this to me... Afterwards, I think I may have listened to it a hundred times that week.




Martin ripped this album for me a little after its release and I really enjoyed it.  I drifted away from this album and Jamie T for a bit but came back to listening to him after hearing his first album, Panic Prevention again. Jamie T definitely appeals to many people and could absolutely have a larger success here in the states some day. Nowadays I just like listening to the sadder songs on this one. 

Martin was always a giving person. Cliché, I know but he was! He would gave me a lot of weird things sometimes from a container of teeth to a little pink Jesus ring to a bunch of condoms after pretending to be a college and winning a big box of 500 prophylactics. But most of all, he would try to give himself to everyone of his friends including me! He would always try to entertain me every time we were together. Even when I was having a wonderful time just hanging around in his company, he still felt I was not having enough fun and would try his hardest to change that and thus, make my day. 


Titus Andronicus - The Monitor (2010)


One of Martin's favorites.




Matin and Friends (Dx2, Will Horseman and Thee Jesse Gertz) singing the hits with meows. It's music for the kitties in all of us. The hits include: Ring of Meow, Pokemeow Theme, Pur the Magic Dragon, Just a Feline and The National Anthem among many others!

Martin will always be remembered for his cat art, pink CATS hat and all the other cat type creations and placements.

Some of Martin's finest works:


Empty Suit by Martin Smith


Martin Smith's House of Spaghetti House

RIP

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