sufjan stevens
Listen: Freelance Whales – “Diluvia”
10/04 -Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
10/05 – Minneapolis, MI @ 7th St Entry
10/06 – Madison, WI @ Redamte
10/07 – Iowa City @ Maintenance Shop
10/10 – Dallas, TX @ Trees
10/11- Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
10/13 – Mexico City, MX @ Capital Corona Festival
10/14 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
10/16 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey
10/18 – San Francisco, CA @ Mezzanine
10/20 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
10/21 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
10/23 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
10/24 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird
10/26 – St. Louis, MO @ Firebird
10/27 – Nashville, TN @ The End
10/28 – Atlanta, GA @ The Loft
10/30 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
10/31 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
11/01 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
11/02 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
11/03 – Boston, MA @ Paradise
Listen: s / s / s – “Museum Day”
Stream: The Roots – ‘undun’
With help from Sufjan Stevens (his song “Redford” inspired the character’s name), Just Blaze, Big K.R.I.T., and more, The Roots’ first attempt at a concept album is an inspiring and beautiful piece of work. You can listen to the whole thing at NPR right now, with the album available in stores everywhere on December 6th via Def Jam.
undun Tracklist:
01. The Un
02. Sleep
03. Make My (feat. Big K.R.I.T.)
04. One Time (feat. Phonte & Dice Raw)
05. Kool On (feat. P.O.R.N.)
06. The Other Side
07. Stomp (feat. P.O.R.N.)
08. Lighthouse
09. I Remember
10. Tip The Scale
11. Redford (For Yia Yia & Pappou)
12. Possibility
13. Will To Power
14. Finality
MiaoMix Monday #5 [Halloween]
Today is Halloween and today’s the perfect day to celebrate. I put together a mix of songs that in my opinion would be great to listen to during Halloween. None of them are actually directly related to Halloween in any way, but I think they have a very suitable vibe. The playlist this week isn’t really focused on any specific genre, but the first half of the playlist is rap and the 2nd half is a mix of dubstep, folk, and R&B music. The last song is “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” by Sufjan Stevens and if you’re at all familiar with the song, you’d think it wouldn’t fit in this playlist, but I think that it’s a perfect ending to this week’s mix.
Kid CuDi – “Maniac (feat. Cage & St. Vincent)”
Das Racist – “Sit Down, Man (feat. El-P) (Produced by Scoop Deville)”
Tyler, The Creator – “Tron Cat”
GZA/Genius – “Shadowboxin'”
The Weeknd – “Wicked Games”
Massive Attack – “Paradise Circus (Zeds Dead Remix)”
Burial – “Archangel”
Sufjan Stevens – “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”
The National and Friends
In a recent show, The National were joined on stage by Sufjan Stevens and Nico Muhly. The National and friends performed “Afraid Of Everyone” and “Terrible Love” from their newest record High Violet. Watch a video here.
New Sufjan Music Video
Sufjan Stevens has released a music video for his song “Too Much”. Check out the stop motion dancing right here.
New Releases Today: Chiddy Bang, Sufjan, YMAEWK
Out today (October 12, 2010) in the United States are the new Chiddy Bang, Sufjan Stevens, and You, Me, and Everyone We Know albums. All three are solid releases and should definitely be checked out.
Chiddy Bang‘s The Preview can be purchased on iTunes for $6.99. Read my review for The Preview here.
Sufjan Stevens‘s The Age of Adz is on iTunes for $9.99. Sufjan’s latest features a new change in sound, taking a step away from his traditional folk music towards a more electronic style.
You, Me, and Everyone We Know‘s Some Things Don’t Wash Out is currently on sale for $7.99 on iTunes. The band’s debut release is a fun, catchy pop-punk record that captures the essence of the band’s two free EPs while still demonstrating their emerging maturity.
Review: Chiddy Bang – The Preview
Chiddy Bang – The Preview
Released: October 12, 2010
Label: EMI
Purchase: iTunes | Insound | Amazon
The Preview is exactly what it is packaged as: a preview. Standing as a placeholder for the duo’s upcoming debut album The Swelly Life, The Preview is an eight-track album: a perfect sampler of the group’s wide musical palette. For someone who may be new to the group’s music, this record is a perfect starting point, documenting their meteoric rise to fame.
“The main purpose of this release is to give our fans some new music while we finish recording our debut album, The Swelly Life. It’s called The Preview because it gives listeners a glimpse of what’s to come onSwelly,” says Xaphoon Jones.
The Preview features three tracks from the duo’s first mixtape, The Swelly Express, which was highly received and led to the group’s record deal with EMI. “Truth” features a sample from Passion Pit’s “Better Things”, “Opposite Of Adults” features MGMT’s “Kids”, and “All Things Go” samples Sufjan Stevens’s “Chicago”.
“Nothing On We” combines Chiddy’s clever, yet contemplative rhymes with the signature electronic beat from Xaphoon. Chiddy’s singing in the hook, oddly, slightly resembles Akon’s “Sorry, Blame It On Me” and features a shout out to Kanye West and his G.O.O.D Music record label with the line “And it isn’t what it seems / So just like Yeezy, we steady getting out our dreams / That’s G.O.O.D.”
Seventh track “Bad Day” samples the heartfelt Darwin Deez and while Chiddy’s verses are new, the remix itself is not. Xaphoon previously remixed the track on The Xaphoon Jones Mixtape Vol. 1, his first mixtape release. Serving as a perfect example of Xaphoon’s production talents, the synthesizer buzzing in the background is a great addition and keeps the track bouncing along at a fast pace. Chiddy’s rapping talents are also highlighted when clever lines such as “Happiness is a warm gun / Living fully loaded” are juxtaposed with somber reflections on how success has changed some of his relationships.
The record, much like the rest of the group’s work, is a fun, carefree listening experience. It should be taken into account that The Preview should be listened to and judged not as an album, but as a sampler of the band’s upcoming debut release. For this very reason, this review is not as thorough and has no actual score.The Preview serves as a perfect preview (how ironic, huh?) to the duo’s 2011 release and should be enough to tide old fans over, as well as win over new ones.
Positive
Standout Tracks: “Opposite of Adults”, “Bad Day (feat. Darwin Deez)”
Too Much Sufjan
Check out a new Sufjan Stevens track titled “Too Much” on his Bandcamp. “Too Much” will be on The Age of Adz, released October 12th.
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