On June 26th, Animal Collective will officially release their new single “Honeycomb” / “Gotham” through Domino Records. Just today, the psychedelic four-piece announced their intentions to release the new two-song 7-inch and with it, a free stream of both songs, which you can check out below. If things go according to plan, we should expect to see a new full-length release later this year.
The latest from Maybach Music’s Meek Mill (how’s that for alliteration?) features the dream chaser on a beat that sounds quite different from his usual gritty bangers. To change things up a bit, Meek teamed up with Young Angel and the smooth crooner Jeremih over some church-inspired piano notes to show his versatility as an artist. Amen. Dreamchasers 2 is out May 7th.
On July 24th, New Jersey rockers the Gaslight Anthem will be unveiling their fourth album and first since joining Mercury Records, Handwritten. And with it, the band plans on reverting back to their punkier roots, despite all the acclaim that followed the more mature, more mellow American Slang that saw its release back in 2010.
Our first taste arrives with the stunning “45”, which was recorded early in the Handwritten sessions. Frontman Brian Fallon revealed to RollingStone, “This song felt to us like we still had something to say in this long line of rock & roll tradition. It made the path clear as to what we should do next. Sometimes you just have to leave things behind . . . turn the record over.” I, for one, am certainly not complaining.
Smims&Belle is the name of the new DJ side project of Mark Foster and Isom Innis (of Foster the People). Their first project comes in the form of a Lana Del Rey remix, with the two remixing “Blue Jeans” and enlisting the help of Azealia Banks for a new guest verse. Below, you can listen to the full extended remix. Foster and Innis have also uploaded the “original” version of their remix as well, which you can peep here.
Jack White‘s debut solo album is set to be released on April 24th, 2012, however, despite White’s attempts to stop it being leaked (including sending promotional copies in the form of vinyl records only), it was leaked on April 15th.
The album portrays the jigsaw pieces of White’s career coming together to create thirteen exemplary tracks. A wide variety of genres are covered in the album from blues to garage rock, including White’s signature catchy riffs, and distorted vocals. Styles from all of his projects including The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather as well as from his musical influences like Son House are all definitely present in the album. It represents White’s chance to produce a record which is truly representative of him. In his own words, “I’ve put off making records under my own name for a long time but these songs feel like they could only be presented under my name. These songs were written from scratch, had nothing to do with anyone or anything else but my own expression, my own colors on my own canvas.”
Blunderbuss is now streaming on iTunes for free listening and will available for purchase on the 24th, including vinyl copies of the album from Third Man Records.
Blunderbuss Tracklisting:
01. Missing Pieces
02. Sixteen Saltines
03. Freedom At 21
04. Love Interruption
05. Blunderbuss
06. Hypocritical Kiss
07. Weep Themselves To Sleep
08. I’m Shakin’
09. Trash Tongue Talker
10. Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy
11. I Guess I Should Go To Sleep
12. On And On And On
13. Take Me With You When You Go
This past week, folk rock band Maps and Atlases released their brand new LP, Beware and Be Grateful, along with the dates of their April European tour. I’ve been listening to Maps and Atlases for a while now, as well as lead singer Dave Davison’s side project Cast Spells, and I can safely say that their music continues to develop both in general sound and in complexity. They create a very low key presence on their albums, yet the quartet from Chicago can really put on a rad show.
Check out my favorite from the album “Be Three Years Old” below:
Possibly influenced by his recent interview with Kendrick Lamar for Noisey, Heems teamed up with his Das Racist counterpart Kool A.D. to give us their unique take on Kendrick’s huge Dre-tinged single, “The Recipe”. Below, you can grab the MP3, which features the two Greedhead rappers lending their mellow rhymes to the equally mellow Scoop DeVille instrumental. Weed references everywhere, but I guess that’s a given.
The first official single from Hot Chip‘s forthcoming In Our Heads is the dance-floor bumper “Night And Day”. Driven by a funky, disco-sounding bassline and Alexis Taylor’s digitalized vocals, the new song sounds like it could fit snuggly somewhere on One Night Stand or more likely, in your local DJ’s next dance playlist. “Night And Day” will be officially released by Domino Records on June 4th alongside a remix by 2 Bears and a B-side, “Jelly Babies”.
Spring break came and went, and now I suppose I’m a little bit behind on a bunch of the new music that came out over the past week. A few days ago, former Googler-turned-rapper Hoodie Allen made his official debut with All American, an 8 song retail EP composed entirely of original production – a first for the young artist. With each release, Hoodie has been improving by leaps and bounds, and All American is clearly no exception. Give it a listen below, and if you like what you hear, support Hoodie with a purchase on iTunes.
As promised after the release of Yeezy‘s new song “Theraflu” yesterday, the very first track off of the forthcoming G.O.O.D. Music collaboration album has been released to the masses. At around 8 pm Thursday night, New York radio legends DJ Clue and Funkmaster Flex both announced their intentions to play the new track, leading to a bit of a radio scuffle between the two extremely influential radio hosts. Nevertheless, we now have our first look at “Mercy”, a collaboration between the boss Kanye himself, Clipse‘s Pusha T, D-Town’s Big Sean, and 2 Chainz.
Interestingly enough, the song is being billed on iTunes as a Kanye song with features from the rest of G.O.O.D. Music. Upon listening though, “Mercy” sounds nothing like a pure Kanye song and is definitely a collaborative work. Lyrically, there isn’t much content here aside from the hearty dose of braggadocio from each rapper, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing when its delivered from rappers as technically talented as these guys are. You can grab it below and be sure to purchase the single on iTunes now.
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