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Listen: Face of Man – “A Sharper Image”
Columbia University based Face of Man will be printing their 2011 self-titled album on a limited edition CD starting October 1st. Meticulously weaving a wide range of styles into their sound, the indie pop band’s new record is minimalistic but altogether an extremely catchy listen. Over layers of guitar and electronic beats, frontman Alex Silva’s autotuned falsetto is unique and rings quite brightly, reminding me of a subtle mix between fun.‘s Nate Ruess and pop artist LIGHTS. You can listen to or download one of the tracks from the album below.
Only 200 copies of the physical album will be sold, so make sure to hop on over to their Bandcamp and order.
Mixtape: Phonte – DJ Flash Presents The Best Of Phonte
Former Little Brother MC Phonte will be releasing his debut solo album, Charity Starts At Home, tomorrow (the 27th), which was produced by long-time friend and collaborator 9th Wonder (who is also releasing his new album, The Wonder Years, tomorrow). To make the wait a little easier to bear, Phonte has teamed up with DJ Flash to release a brand new mixtape, DJ Flash Presents The Best Of Phonte.
Here’s what Phonte had to say about the project:
“The Phonte mixtape to end all Phonte mixtapes. 70 tracks, 78 minutes, covering the past 10 years of my career all mixed and selected by DJ Flash.
For those who need a Phonte crash course, start here.
Thank you for listening. And if you’re a long time fan, thank you for re-listening,
Phonte”
DOWNLOAD: Direct from The Foreign Exchange Music (83.8 MB)
Mixtape: Domo Genesis – Under The Influence
It’s not the full-fledged follow up to Rolling Papers, but yesterday we got a brand new free mixtape from Odd Future‘s stoner-rap specialist Domo Genesis. His latest project, Under The Influence, is a fourteen track mixtape featuring Domo rapping over some of his favorite industry beats, including Kanye West‘s “We Major”. The whole affair sounds quite out of place in the rest of the OF catalog, firmly cementing Domo’s place as the explosive collective’s most laid back member.
Odd Future’s de-facto leader Tyler, the Creator makes an appearance as Ace on “Whole City Behind Us”. While Under The Influence, isn’t quite as polished as Tyler’s Bastard mixtape or Earl Sweatshirt‘s EARL, it’s still a great piece of work. You can download the entire mixtape below. A few choice cuts are also included below as previews.
DOWNLOAD: Limelinx
MP3: Domo Genesis – “Guess Who’s Back”
Listen: Daft Punk – “Drive”
To celebrate their 20th anniversary, Scottish label Soma Records will be putting out a compilation CD, which includes an unreleased gem from Daft Punk, dating all the way back to 1994. The label put out a preview of the thumping, electro banger on their Soundcloud page a few hours ago, which you can listen to below.
Soma Records: 20 Years will be released on September 19, 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.
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]
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)”
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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