I know I'm a whole season behind on finding out about this video, but gawd damn its rad. Why can't every video be this cool?! Bewbs, cosmos talk, light bulb sword fighting, randomness, & bewbs. Had to spread it:
Unless you live under a rock, you are aware of the new Beastie Boys album that is about to drop. They've got a new video for the lead single, with cameos galore. They streamed the whole album at MSG after it leaked the other day. Found this remix of Make Some Noise by Passion Pit on both Stereogum & Pretty Much Amazing. And now you can haz:
Just saw Cut Copy & Holy Ghost! at the Troc the other week, so this remix seems appropriate. (Quick footnote, if you are not already listening to the Holy Ghost! album and enjoy 80's dance music, I urge you to drop whatever it is you are doing and get said music in your life stat. They are for serious.) Here is Detroit DJ Carl Craig's take on Cut Copy's Need You Now (via A Heart is A Spade), one of the better tracks on a very good album put out by Cut Copy earlier this year.
Last one is another cover of a band I got to witness in person last night at the First Unitarian Church, Tame Impala. Here is sample master Mark Ronson take on their song. You can download it for free over at Some Kind of Awesome.
http://twitter.com/#!/yvynylI fortunately missed the week of rain we just had by escaping to Scottsdale, AZ for the week. Went out there for work and thought that would be the perfect opportunity to catch up on music posts after work. But Tecate and Old Town Scottsdale thought otherwise. Such is life. So now I've got about a months worth of links that I'm whittling through and sorting into topics to talk about. This first post is just cause I finally feel like the season has changed and nice weather is here to stay.
I BRING YOU FUN SONGS:
And we'll start this post off with some beach sounds and 80's nostalgia.
I mentioned a couple of posts ago how much I've been enjoying the findings of Mark over at yvynyl. I'm telling you, he finds some pop awesomeness from all over the map and here is some examples of what I've loved from there over the past month.
(Can't give him full credit for this one, RCRD LBL sent me the track beforehand but he does dig up the choice video to his credit. Kudos.)
What's that you say folk music and electronica have no business being in the same room as each other??? Cram it with walnuts cause here are two awesome examples of how it they make sweet sweet music babies:
First one I found on "I Guess I'm Floating", which is a relatively new site to me at least. But from what I've read so far, he will be staying in the RSS feed. Great way to mix samples with slide guitar. The band is called Bantum and if you like it check out their bandcamp page:
This other folk electronica artist is much more well known and has been praised by the blogosphere. Bibio does a good job of blending genres and here is a video for a track of his latest album Mind Bokeh:
Taking a quick break from new acts to run through some news on people you have, or should, know about:
New J Dilla. I've said here before that this guy has been putting out more music after he passed then 2Pac and that trend continues. FACT and Nah Right have video of Dilla's mom talking about a new album called the Rebirth of Detroit". Here it is:
Staying on hip hop somewhat, DOOM and Thom Yorke are apparently doing an entire album together. Mr. Yorke has now put out an album with Radiohead, is doing stuff with Burial & Four Tet that I am a giant fan of, was working with Flying Lotus, and now is working with MF DOOM. I barely have the time, energy, patience to write on this thing once a week and he's got 4 projects going. Way to set the bar jerk. Here is some of the new music:
Another collaboration that promises to be interesting if nothing else is the Flaming Lips & Neon Indian. Go over to Disco Naivete to hear the first leak of a track they've done together. It's called "Is David Bowie Dying?", so I'm thinking an upbeat track....
Last thing I've got for you is some Tropicalia collaboration called Red Hot & Rio 2 from the Red Hot Organization. The first time they did this they got some amazing admirers of Bossa Nova and did a tribute album. This time around we've got Beck, Neon Indian, Javelin, and many more paying homage to the late 60's genre that is stupendous. It is without a doubt on my radar and if you'd like to hear/learn more about the genre here is a link to a Yours Tru.ly article (complete with examples) of some of the people that will be covered on this album.
In my past few posts on here as well as my FB page (run tell e'rebody!) I've been linking up and talking about this page that is new to me bandcamp. It's like the crazy love child of soundcloud, myspace, & iTunes.
It's not as feature rich as soundcloud's player is, as members of soundcloud can enter comments anywhere along the waveform timeline, but can still be shared to any number of social media outlets (FB, Twitter, Blogs, etc). You can create a band page that is comparable to myspace without all the spam/pedofiles that still lurch on myspace (does ANYONE other than bands use myspace still?) And lastly, you can set your price for music or allow the end user to pick how much they want to pay (ala In Rainbows model) which is much better for up and coming artist then having to shell out most of their money directly to Steve Jobs. While I believe it is still in its infancy, I really think that this has the potential to be a game changer. It has good parts of three, at one time, solid outlets all rolled into one. Some numbers directly from their homepage:
Heartening factoids:
On Bandcamp, albums outsell tracks 5 to 1 (in the rest of the music buying world, tracks outsell albums 16 to 1).
On name-your-price albums, fans pay an average of 50% more than whatever you set as your minimum.
We've driven 871,737 paid transactions and served 12,858,249 downloads to happy fans.
Below are some examples I have in my ever growing laundry list of shit to talk about:
yvynyl has been my go-to lately for happy music. He has been on point, not that he wasn't before, but as of recent I've really been enjoying the stuff he's sharing (see: Denver - Los Adolescents). Here he has a pop gem call After Cards by My Parasol. Enjoyz:
Next up is Niva. I've recently been doing a lot of music chatting with a buddy who's just getting back into it but has always had a great ear for good acts. Was on the Hot Chip and La Roux train well before anyone else I know just as two examples. He sent me a link for this awesome video and then the next day, awesome-sauce website Disco Naivete had a post about it. Below are both the bandcamp and video:
Last one for today is from Visitation Rites, one of the Altered Zones gang, and the bands name is Sun Glitters. It's some new "chillwave" that I love oh-so-much. I agree with VR that "Too Much to Lose" is the best track of the bunch, but i'll let you decide. And with that i bid you adieu....
Been slacking again, but would you expect any less? I enjoying drinking too damn much and I started watching the Wire. What? It's still relevent. So I've been stockpiling links upon links of things I eventually will talk about and this first batch is bands I had never heard of until just recently. Here you go:
Pretty Much Amazing posted about this band Airlines that I'm starting to put into heavy rotation. Totally more of that lo-fi chillwave music I beat against your ears, but screw you if you don't like it. I want summer damnit! Below is their EP from their Bandcamp (btw the greatest thing ever!) page for listen and pay what you like (read: free) download. Huzzah!
Next on board is some Norwegian pop, because who can't get enough of that? This act is the best thing to come out of Norway since Sondre Lerche & Erland Oye. (Editor's Note: totally had to wikipedia norwegian acts to find two I knew of, but I came away with the knowledge that Erland is the brains behind Whitest Boy Alive. FTW)
Anywho, the bands name is Team Me and they are catchy as hell. Here is the track "Dear Sister" (thanks to Audio Muffin). If this gem isn't enough for you to just listen to you can click here and play an 8-bit video game adventure to the track.
Gorilla vs Bear/Altered Zones have got this haze dub thing on lockdown. They've completely gotten everyone to dig retro sounds again. This stuff from Peaking Lights is silly good. Here is an unofficial video for "Tiger Eyes" and "All That the Sun Shines".
You are going to have to trust me on this one, you need patience to enjoy what I've embeded below. Apparently I should have heard of these guys before, but it's never too late! The build up is killer and it is just instrument on top of instrument, I may be a weird nerd but this is damned good.
Gang Gang Dance - Glass Jar (again via Altered Zones):
Taking famous names and making them your own are all the rage these days (Com Truise, Dro Carey, etc). But Hype Williams, an awesome lo-fi duo, just straight up gripped the much ballyhooed music video producers name for their act. My friend Lucas turned me on to this and I can't stop listening, figured I'd share with the group. Ya know like show 'n tell.
Hard Mix is hazy hip hop beat maker by way of South Carolina that Altered Zones has taken a liking to. Below is a video for a song called "Eye Contact" and also a track I found on GvsB & PMA called "Now Her" that you should check out. There is an upcoming 7" split coming out with Hard Mix and the artist I talk about next, Star Slinger.
I've talked about Star Slinger on here before, a sample DJ reminicent of Dilla himself. Found a new video by him called "Mornin" on both Gorilla vs Bear & A Heart is A Spade:
I was admittedly late to the scene with Gold Panda, but I was blown away once I was. Another act from the beat department, this video is off the Lucky Shiner album (via SKOA and P4K). Enjoy:
Another act I just literally found out about this past week via I Hope Your Ears Bleed, Walk the Moon, and it is damn catchy. Tell me you don't feel the same way. And how about those workout outfits, eh?
Flying Lotus has been throwing his hat into the director ring and his latest is a piece by Erykah Badu (via SKOA). Me likey:
Not a music video, but I have to post on anything Diplo related by law. And according to Mad Decent, he checked in at Carson Daly's show. See I told you this was going to be like old school MTV!!
And lastly, my latest hip hop addiction is Odd Future in all its glory. I found that Tyler the Creator "Yonkers" video to be quite entertaining. You must watch their performance on Fallon last week that I found on Stereogum:
This changing weather has got the live music bug coarsing through my brains and I figured I'd give you a post about shows coming to town in the next few months that you should defintely check out, in my opinion that is, which you can take for what its worth. I know some of these are sold out, but they are good enough to warrant stub hub, scalping, or selling your body for said tickets.
4.22.11 - Nu-Jazz greats Soulive take care of business @ the TLA (TIX)
4.26.11 - Summertime dance fun with Yacht @ the Church (TIX) 4.27.11 - Flaming Lips-esque psych rock from Aussies Tame Impala & opener Yuck over @ the Church (TIX) (thx to a heart is a spade for the heads up)
5.16.11 - Love this girl. Lykke Li will be brining her talents to South Bea....err the TLA (TIX) 5.19.11 - Pop Punk pioneer Elvis Costello is playing @ the Tower Theater (not on sale yet) (thx P4K)