Pump Depeche Mode in my box and roll thick…

D-R-E & Snoop D-O double G, Mos Def & Kweli (Blackstar), Eric B & Rakim, and the list goes on for hot hip-hop duos who participated in the tag team arena of MCin’. By no means am I to suggest this group and their two songs I’m going to highly recommend can begin to step to the previously mentioned duos, but this I do know, these songs build on what those pioneers penned many years ago. The Reseda, CA act known as Styles of Beyond are comprised of MC Ryu and MC Tak who incorporate old school beats that are laced with bass heavy drum machine hits, screeching synths, sporadic scratches, and Casio melodies throughout. If you decide to go beyond these tracks, the beats are heavily on the rock kick.

On ‘Eurobiks’, the cadence of the deliveries are fierce, the bass is plenty deep and the chorus is perfected by a female vocalist mouthing something in perhaps French, I think. Regardless, this track screams to be turned up on your new speakers, Dr. T.

With ‘Mr. Brown’, the tempos of the rhymes are set a few BPMs below the previous track, which gives this cut more of a down-tempo feel. Again though, Ryu and Tak step in and out of the spotlight to drop their own unique verses about this mysterious Mr. Brown character. Listen for the eerie wind howl throughout the chorus and put it on BLAST!

Your new favorite video

L.A. rapper Murs has just put out what just could be the best video ever made.  Let me know if you recognize what he modeled it after…

Feed the Beat…

Unfortunately, this random, yet amazing offer expires today, but I found this funny enough to post.  Taco Bell is giving away food to bands on tour.  Just like you, they want to support the local music scene.  Chalupa that shit….

Taco Bell-Feed the Beat 

What Came First, the Music or the Misery?

A rather upbeat song filled with a depressing story.  I love songs like this.  And since I’m having one of those weeks, it only seems fitting to mention it. 

The song is appropriately called “Rain” and is performed by the band Bishop Allen.  Co-founder and lead singer, Justin Rice, nearly provokes a bad moment onto himself as a way for it to run its course so he can get on with his life.  He succumbs to the storm, and in a glorious moment of pop imagery, he paddles away in the flood on his guitar. 

You can catch Bishop Allen on tour with John Vanderslice in the fall.

I also recommend watching this video for a live street performance of “Click Click Click Click.”

“‘Cuz if it’s ever gonna get any better, it’s gotta get worse for a day.”

Bishop Allen :: Rain

Bishop Allen :: Official Site
Bishop Allen :: Myspace

Wait, these were the rough demos?

Bloc Party (Just a band) most likely caught me a few years ago for their booming sound and their excellent guitar work that was hook heavy from start to finish. And the drum play on both records is just insane. Both of their full lengths are modern day classics to me for their own reasons, with ‘A Weekend in the City’ rocking in a whole other way that their s/t record just doesn’t. (Price of Gas still slays) Anyways, via the net, 11 tracks surfaced that I found labeled as “A Weekend in the City Sessions”. These supposed session tracks are beyond album worthy. Hit me up if you need these throwaway tracks. Two of the 11 are below….

Bloc Party–‘The Once and Future King’

Bloc Party-–‘Rhododendron’

Cash Rules Everything Around Me

Here’s a fun little song fit for a Friday.  The song is called “Rich Girls” by NYC outfit, The Virgins.  The band does a fine job of mixing in a little R&B and ’70’s funk into their indie-rock landscape.  The walking bass line and scratchy guitar riff makes it nearly impossible to sit still while the lead singer bounces back and forth from spoken word to a half-assed falsetto. 

Check it before you buy that chick a drink tonight…

The Virgins :: Rich Girls

The Virgins :: Official Site
The Virgins :: Myspace

Wanna get away?

As the wind is fierce as ever outside and the sky is blacker than Angry’s coffee in the late afternoon, an endless mix of whisk you away to the beach playlist is looking even more ideal as I type this.

Did Internet radio ever become what it was supposed to be when it first broke many years back? I tried it and then quickly gave up when other sources of discovering new music surfaced, like none other than this infamous, yet slightly overlooked blog. So Sergent Garcia, who I’ve toted in the past is from France and rocks everything from salsa and reggae to hip-hop. According to him, he concocts “salsa muffin”. He’s affiliated with a station (not real) online that’s entitled Radio Timbo, that plays music that can whisk you away to a beach in the middle of the Caribbean or maybe just make you want to take Latin dance classes and for real diversity, they even have Missy Elliot tracks thrown in to confuse you.

The real beauty is if you’re not feeling the current song, simply click on the song below it to try something else. (Or do all online stations have this option?) It’s almost like an endless playlist of music you probably would never search out on your own, but may feel guilty that you never did when you discover how infectious some of it can be. Step out of your element today…

The endless Latin influenced playlist.

Shadow Boxin’ When I Heard You On the Radio. Ugh! I Just Don’t Know. . .

 

I’m not quite sure where I came across this song earlier this summer, but it has been frequently played on my iPod over the last few weeks.  It’s a song that stuck in my head upon first hearing it – so much so that I’ve repeated it on more than one occasion (something I rarely do). 

The song is called “If That’s the Case, Then I Don’t Know” by a four-piece indie band from Brighton, England called Electric Soft Parade.  The main forces behind the band are brothers Alex and Tom White.  They earned a nomination for the coveted Mercury Prize after releasing their debut in 2002.  The band quickly signed with a major to release the follow-up.  As many sophomore releases go, The American Adventure proved to be a disappointment in the eyes of their fans and the band was consequently dropped from BMG.  Their latest, No Need To Be Downhearted, dropped in July by English indie, Truck Records. 

Though they’ve received comparisons to Teenage Fanclub and Ash, this song in particular has elements in it that call to mind MiS favorites Soulwax and Muse.  The whirling guitar lick mixed with a driving synth hooked me from the start.  White’s melancholy vocal delivery creates a dark undertone which only seems fitting given the title of the song. 

Pass the ‘ol gold:

Electric Soft Parade :: Official Site
Electric Soft Parade :: Myspace

Electric Soft Parade :: If That’s the Case, Then I Don’t Know

Dude, she’s got her own ideas, even as a non-blonde and non-blue-eyed female

Just like everyone else on the net today, I’m going to throw a small mention of M.I.A.’s new record, Kala out there. I did indeed buy into her hype two years ago and fell back into it today with the purchase of her new album. (I know what I said, kid.) For $7.99, can you really pass it up? And oh yea, enjoy this clip…

Beyond “1234”: No remainder on Feist’s The Reminder

Broken Social Scenster Leslie Feist’s The Reminder is my favorite album ever highlighting female vocals and one of my favorite albums of 2007. My days beholden to vintage Natalie Merchant and Liz Phair are over. Only Aimee Mann can stay for the discussion. By moniker alone, she’s the equivalent of a Brazilian sport star in the indie music universe. She’s our Madonna or, dare say, Britney. She’s Feist, damn it. Weird, wonderful and indie. She lives in Paris, or is Toronto again? She’s mainstream saucy, indie hip, Top 40 sweet, evocatively jazzy, and, yes, that zestfully fun video to “1234” is one shot. Pelé never did that.

I would love to listen more to female vocalists, but never has an album truly captured my attention for weeks or months on end featuring primarily a female singer, until Feist. Jason right now is thinking of the single-u-lar exceptions, such as Garbage’s “When I Grow Up.” He was my neighbor when I killed that song. But Feist has put together an album worth of simply irresistible material. Hand claps, keyboards, horns, crazy backing vocals, pedal steel, all performed within an expansive sound that makes you feel like you’re in a concert hall with She-Who-Must-Be-Named, Feist. And the scariest proposition: her preceding album is supposedly better. Wow. In Feist I Trust.

Again, hand claps and a huge soundstage….

“Sealion”