Archive for September, 2011
Malkovich – “Palms” [MP3 + Video]
If you’ve been ‘watching the throne’ lately, you’ll know that hip-hop’s best have been putting out some grandiose tracks. Jay-Z and Kanye West‘s video for “Otis (feat. Otis Redding)” certainly cemented that in our heads, with the two veterans trashing a $350,000 Maybach and having some good-natured fun.
Malkovich flips this all in his new video for “Palms”, a track dedicated to the L.A. neighborhood of the same name and his home for eight years. The very same place where Snoop Dogg caught his murder case many years back. That Palms.
MP3: Malkovich Music – “Palms”
Featuring the local residents, the homeless, and even a US flag mural (in reference to “Otis”), “Palms” is a deep, reflective ode for the working class with an old-school vibe. You can check out the music video below.
A Great Big Pile of EPs
Brooklyn indie rock trio, A Great Big Pile of Leaves, will be releasing two new EP’s on November 1st. One EP is titled Live from the Living Room- Volume One, which was recorded in the living room of Motion City Soundtrack keyboardist Jesse Johnson. This is a joint release by Topshelf Records and Pressing Matters, which is run by Johnson. The other is a studio-recorded EP titled Boom, which will be released by Topshelf Records. Both EP’s will have new and re-recorded songs and will be available digitally and on vinyl only.
Recommended: wavepool abortion
From damn near out of nowhere (well, Russia actually) comes wavepool abortion (non-capitalization required), an exhilarating wreck of a band that has neither the interest or patience in, say, “building sound sculptures” or “rewarding repeated listening.”
The Russian duo keep the antagonistic spirit of rock alive, in all its celebratory give-a-fuck-ness. This is addition by subtraction, a reductionist equation that hands your ass to you and tosses you out of the sweaty corner dive, covered in alcohol fumes and (mostly) your own blood. The kind of music that used to be whipped up by teenagers with permanently sunken eyes and garages full of amplifiers. The kind of rock that crawls into bed after dawn and can’t get up before 2 pm, staggering back into existence slightly before dusk, looking like a million bucks, if a million bucks dressed in second-hand leather and was badly in need of a hepatitis shot.
Listen: J. Cole – “Mr. Nice Watch (feat. Jay-Z)”
Well, would you look at that. J. Cole followed through on yesterday’s Twitter promise and just dropped the most anticipated track from his new album Cole World: A Sideline Story. “Mr. Nice Watch” features none other than Cole’s mentor and hip hop legend Jay-Z.
MP3: J. Cole – “Mr. Nice Watch (feat. Jay-Z)”
For a song that includes Cole’s first obligatory Hova feature, this isn’t entirely what I expected and is nowhere near what I had hoped for. Instead of a introspective mentor-protege track between the two, we get straight-up braggadocio over a grimy, electronic beat (produced by J. Cole himself). At least we get to hear Hov go in.
Cole World: The Sideline Story, Cole’s debut album, will drop on September 27, 2011 via Roc Nation/Columbia. Check out the tracklisting after the break.
Cole World: The Sideline Story Tracklisting:
01. Intro
02. Dollar And A Dream III
03. Can’t Get Enough (feat. Trey Songz)
04. Lights Please
05. Interlude
06. Sideline Story
07. Mr. Nice Watch (feat. Jay-Z)
08. Cole World
09. In the Morning (feat. Drake)
10. Lost Ones
11. Nobody’s Perfect (feat. Missy Elliott)
12. Never Told (prod. No I.D.)
13. Rise & Shine
14. God’s Gift
15. Breakdown
16. Cheer Up
17. Nothing Lasts Forever [Bonus]
18. Work Out [Bonus]
19. Daddy’s Little Girl [Bonus]
Video: Y Luv – “All Night”
Not too long ago, I posted Y Luv‘s “All Night”, a straight-up jam from the Los Angeles based band. The short, infectious track was the single from Y Luv’s newest EP, How Chill Can You Let Go?, and now has a set of visuals that come straight out of Venice Beach. Don’t expect to understand what’s going on in this one, but hey, at least the song’s good, right?
MP3: Y Luv – “All Night”
Girls Play ‘Fallon’
Girls made their first ever TV appearance last night with a late night performance on Fallon, rocking out with a live rendition of Father, Son, Holy Ghost opening track “Honey Bunny”. They also stuck around for a web-exclusive encore performance of power-ballad “My Ma”, also a cut from the band’s new album. Check out both below.
“Honey Bunny”:
“My Ma”:
Father, Son, Holy Ghost was just released on September 12th via True Panther and has already garnered praise from a wide range of sources.
Listen: Drake – “Club Paradise”
“Dropping this for our boy Avery…this was his favorite shit during the recording process. 2 more songs coming tonight as well. ovoxo”
Only one month to go until October! After hopping on The Weeknd‘s “The Zone”, we now have another track from Drake. The new cut, titled “Club Paradise”, just dropped on Drake’s October’s Very Own blog and is from the Take Care recording sessions. No word on whether or not it will appear on the album though, which is set for release on Drizzy’s 25th birthday, October 24th.
“Club Paradise” is produced by Noah “40” Shebib and the download file provided by Drake himself has the song listed as “01 Club Paradise”, a possible hint that the song may be the opening track on Take Care.
Listen: Foster The People – “Pumped Up Kicks (DJ Reflex Remix) (feat. Kendrick Lamar)”
It’s always fun when an indie jam is sampled and flipped into a beat for someone to rap over, something made popular recently by Chiddy Bang‘s talented producer Xaphoon Jones. This time, Power 106’s DJ Reflex gives Foster The People‘s summer anthem “Pumped Up Kicks” the remix treatment and enlists the help of none other than the extremely skilled Kendrick Lamar. Even though the Compton emcee sounds slightly out-of-place, his two bars are a quick and enjoyable listen over Reflex’s laid-back beat. Expect the blog world to jump all over this track, especially with Kendrick fresh off the release of his album Section.80 earlier this year.
MP3: Foster The People – “Pumped Up Kicks (DJ Reflex Remix) (feat. Kendrick Lamar)”
Video: Das Racist – “Michael Jackson”
“Michael Jackson, one million dollars. You feel me? Holla.”
How’s that for a hook? Those lyrics are from Brooklyn rap trio Das Racist‘s “Michael Jackson”, the first single from their soon-to-be-released debut album Relax. The music video has now been released by MTV, featuring a Michael Jackson impersonator, some old white people, and a tribute to MJ’s 1991 video for “Black or White”. For a song that is so incredibly random, it makes sense that the video is equally as (or perhaps even more!) random. Bizarre as always, but that’s what we’ve come to expect from Das Racist.
Relax is out now on iTunes via Greedhead. You can purchase it here.
The Second Coming of College Rock: Nu-Gaze Edition
Presented for your consideration today: two fine New Bands whose aural tendencies echo the past, specifically that magical decade or so stretching from 1985-1995, when College Rock was actually a Thing. Good times, those what with talented and possibly drugged up students spinning everything under the sun that would never see the light of day on Top 40 radio.
Jangly arch-country from Camper Van Beethoven rubbing musical elbows with imported British takeover applicants The Charlatans UK (the appended UK gives it away). But first and foremost, atmospheric shoegazer epics drifted across the lower ends of the FM dial, carried by sparse megawattage that nearly allowed the signal to escape the surrounding parking lot.
This was before College Rock morphed into Alternative Rock (aided by MTV), which soon transformed (via the arrival of Nirvana and about a million bandwagon-jumping A&R men) into various shades of grunge, which a half-decade later got drunk and passed out in tattoo shop, awaking only to find itself the inadvertent caretaker of Helmet and Dr. Dre. Once it was discovered that talent skips a generation, this malformed child was christened “Nu-Rock” and abandoned in the care of a million frat boys, each of whom assumed growly yelling was a viable form of artistic expression.
BUT! These two tracks have nothing to do with a decade-long run of strangely earnest guitar wrangling in which louder always = better and melodies were something for the girls to enjoy along with their roofie-laced drinks. These two tracks bring back the “alt” in “altrock,” summoning up the swirling, hazy guitar anti-heroics of a short generation of pedal-pushing geniuses who operated under such unlikely names as My Bloody Valentine, Yo La Tengo, Catherine Wheel and Sonic Youth.
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