Gah! New Tegan and Sara!

And a big thank you goes to wojo4hitz for posting these on Youtube!

It's almost October, and you know what that means? Sainthood! Yes, we are soon almost at the point when I can say we are days away from Tegan and Sara's newest album, and that makes me very, very happy indeed!

And if you were at Victoria, B.C.'s Rifflandia festival, you already know why I'm so excited then (you lucky people, you). Tegan and Sara peformed six songs from the new album while there.

The videos are in the order the songs appear on the duo's sixth collection.

"Hell"


"Red Belt"


"The Cure"


"On Directing"


"Alligator"


"The Ocean"


That beats me just putting the album art and tracklist any day!

Score indeed!

Thank you Merge Records!

November 17th will bring us Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Remixes. It'll be fantastic group of artists remixing various tunes from Merge vaults. Even though it's not out until November 17, you can still head over to Merge's website where they are streaming the whole thing right now.

Enjoy!

Score! 20 Years of Merge: The Remixes tracklisting:
01 Polvo: “Kalgon (Caribou Remix)”
02 Pram: “Mother of Pearl (Barbara Morgenstern Remix)”
03 Guv’ner: “Baby’s Way Cruel (Four Tet Remix)”
04 Portastatic: “Drill Me (The Blow’s I Was So There Remix)”
05 Spoon: “The Ghost of You Lingers (John McEntire Remix)”
06 Arcade Fire: “No Cars Go (Jason Forrest Remix)”
07 The 6ths: “Volcana! (Xiu Xiu’s I Hope Your Train Crashes Remix)”
08 The Rosebuds: “Bow to the Middle (+/- Remix)”
09 Caribou: “Irene (Hands Off Cuba Remix)”
10 The Magnetic Fields: “Washington DC (Mark Robinson Remix)”
11 Lambchop: “The Nashville Parent (Junior Boys Remix)”

Last.fm

As you all know I fully support last.fm. I think its a great way to find new artists and music. Well, pretty soon it won't just be available to users online. Last.fm will soon be a radio station.

Billboard reports that Last.fm is getting set to launch actual terrestrial broadcast radio stations in four of the biggest markets in the U.S. through CBS radio: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco -as well as streamed on CBS Radio's website-as a programmed channel.

The stations' playlists will be "informed" by Last.fm's user-generated weekly charts. So if you play that new Neon Indian track enough times, maybe you can help it end up on a radio station! This week alone top artists have included Muse, The Beatles, Radiohead, Coldplay, and Kings of Leon, among others.

Not a bad playlist if you ask me...

The Road Trip!

We're through with the mid-atlantic states! Stay tuned for some Southern flair (right after Ohio, that is...)

The Road Trip: Pennsylvania

So usually I don't feature may rap or hip-hop artists save for the occasional post, but I thought some different genres were in order.

And with that I present to you...Chiddy Bang.

Chiddy Bang is certainly nothing new to the blogging world. These guys are fantastic, and to top it all off, the four piece hip-hop/electronica outlet from Philadelphia is still in college. They (therefore) make me feel slightly useless. Yet even for what many would consider such a young age, they posses a musical maturity that is far superior to the teen-pop cliché.

Chiddy Bang blends hard hitting lyricism from front man Chidera "Proto" Anamege, original electronica afro-beat and jazz influenced production from keyboardist Noah Beresin or "Xaphoon Jones," and drummer Zach Sewall. Additional production and vocals are from guitarist Pat Braz.

Chiddy Bang is a hipster's dream. Sampling/remixing massively popular tracks like Passion Pit's "Better Things" and Kid Cudi’s "Day and Night," Chiddy Bang manage to maintain the core of the original songs, but still add their own distinctive feel.

Kids (feat. MGMT) by Chiddy Bang

Whether it is humorous, topical rhymes or just some great electronic reworking, Chiddy Bang delivers a slew of hipster rap anthems. Either way it’s hard to deny – they’re catchy!



Honorable Mentions:
Slow Burning Crimes by East Hundred
Taking the Farm by The War On Drugs


Thinking of a band from Pennsylvania that I should know? Leave it in the comments section!

We Got You Covered: "I Do Not Hook Up"

I mean, who doesn't love a trashy pop cover?

I Do Not Hook Up (Kelly Clarkson Cover) by The Gaslight Anthem

I know I certainly do!

Yeah, I'll Say It!

I can't believe it, but I'll say it: I'm excited about the New Moon Soundtrack.

Yep - I'll admit it. So if you didn't know (and potentially live under a rock) the track list for the New Moon Soundtrack has been released, and while I’m not personally a fan of the Twilight Saga or really even the whole Vampire craze that's devouring America right now (i.e. True Blood, the Vampire Diaries, etc.) – I am a fan of the artists on the soundtrack.

Take Death Cab for Cutie for example. They wrote the track "Meet Me on the Equinox" specifically for the movie. I really like it. I know that since it’s on the New Moon Soundtrack a lot of people are automatically going to hate it. Some people are going to call Death for Cutie (and the other artists featured) sellouts, maybe even me a sellout for liking it. I think a lot of people are going to think I wouldn't like it (what is Ruined By MTV about after all?) But you know what, it’s helping indie become the new mainstream, and I’m ok with that.

"Think of it as a good chance for other people to discover what you've already found."

New Moon Soundtrack Tracklist:
Death Cab for Cutie - Meet Me on the Equinox
Band of Skulls - Friends
Thom Yorke - Hearing Damage
Lykke Li - Possibility
The Killers - A White Demon Love Song
Anya Marina - Satellite Heart
Muse - I Belong to You (New Moon)
Bon Iver & St. Vincent - Rosyln
Black Rebel Motorcycle Cub - Done All Wrong
Hurricane Bells - Monsters
Sea Wolf - The Violet Hour
Ok Go - Shooting the Moon
Grizzly Bear - Slow Life
Editors - No SOund But the Wind
Alexandre Desplat - New Moon (The Meadow)

New Miike Snow Music Video

Great song, great video!

Miike Snow - Black and Blue

Oh Kanye...

So I promised myself that I wouldn't post about Kanye and the VMA/Taylor Swift drama, but this site made it hard to resist...

New Silversun Pickups Music Video

Here's a nice little video to start us all of for the weekend!

Silversun Pickups - Substitution
You all laugh, but musical chair can be pretty intense. You should have seen how things went down at my Bat Mitzvah - yowzers!

Get Your Music Here!

Yeah, that's my happy face...

Hotlinkfiles pulled through, and miraculously all of my uploads have come back! So yeah, you can now listen to all of the music on the site once more. Enjoy.

Blak Roc

Damon Dash is officially back in the music business. The Roc-A-Fella co-founder has formed his own, new independent label to release a rap/rock album between The Black Keys and a slew of hip-hop artists, including Mos Def, Jim Jones, Q-Tip, Ludacris and more.

The album, titled Blak Roc, also features appearances by Raekwon, RZA, Billy Danze of M.O.P., Pharoahe Monch and Ol’ Dirty Bastard, among others. Set for a release on the day after Thanksgiving (November 27th aka Black Friday in the world of retail) the disc will be on a new label started by Dash and the Keys.

When asked what made him return to the music business after all these years, Dash said it was all about the love. “The Black Keys are about real music and all these other people that came through are really good at what they do,”

Here’s the first single:

The Black Keys feat. Mos Def & Jim Jones - Coochie

I'm really looking forward to this, I love the Black Keys, and I can be a huge sucker for hip-hop. Putting the two together sounds like a great idea, especially with The Black Key's blues riffs. This album is going to be a force to be reckoned with.

Feel free to check out their website here.

Blak Roc Tracklist:
01 Coochie
02 On The Vista
03 Hard Times
04 Dollaz & Sense
05 Why Can’t I Forget Him
06 Stay Off The F*%$#n’ Flowers
07 Ain’t Nothing Like You
08 Hope You’re Happy
09 Tellin’ Me Things
10 What You Do To Me
11 Done Did It

Technical Difficulties

I hate HotlinkFiles.com. It's official. That being said, for some reason I'm still going to use their site.

Apparently, I hadn't used my account in 30 days. This is clearly a lie (as you can see because I uploaded music for all of you this month), but either way, they deleted all of the files I had put up. Keep that in mind, and I'm sorry if you go to play something and it doesn't play.

If you know of another Hotlinking site that I could use, feel free to share it in the comments section.

Julian Casablancas: Phrazes for the Young

And that's the album cover!

So if you hadn't heard, the official release date for Julian's debut album is October 20th in the US. No word on the trakclist yet, but I'm sure there will be more news soon.

GET READY!

We Got You Covered: "Let My Love Open the Door"

So it's Saturday, and yes (better late than never) here is the cover for the week!

Let My Love Open the Door (Pete Townshend cover) by M. Ward

Enjoy :)

Matt & Kim, De La Soul, and DJ Troublemaker

If you know me, then you know that I love Matt & Kim. If you didn't know that I love Matt & Kim, you're about to find out why.

Independent music fans tend to have very insular love for the music, but that doesn't stop us from getting all giddy when an indie act like Matt & Kim collides with the mainstream (or, mainstream-er in this case).

DJ Troublemaker has done a remix of the unceasingly enthuastic duo's track, "Daylight," slated to appear on EA Sports' "NBA Live 2010," out October 6th. Hip-hop moldbusters De La Soul give Troublemaker a hand, and hold down the remix verses, bookended with a truncated version of the song's original chorus. It still has most of the original music, but the drums are revamped for sure (sorry Kim, but it was necessary).

Daylight (DJ Troublemaker Remix feat De La Soul) by Matt & Kim

I’m a big fan of the original, and I love this version too!

Pretty & Nice: Massive U

The Boston Phoenix released the first installment of “Homework,” a monthly series of free mp3 downloads in which bands are assigned to write original songs under somewhat unreasonable guidelines & deadlines.

For the inaugural edition, the Phoenix tapped hometown prog-pop heroes Pretty & Nice, who are currently recording the follow-up to their Hardly Art/Sub Pop debut Get Young.

Massive U by Pretty & Nice

Not bad huh? As you saw in the video, to coincide with the fall return of Boston’s voluminous student population, the band had to record one song given the following instructions by Phoenix music editor Michael Brodeur:

* contains the phrase ‘welcome back’
* includes, somewhere/somehow, a reference to the guitar accents at the beginning of the Welcome Back Kotter theme—but nothing else Kotter-related
* insults the Green Line at some point
* includes the names of 10 local colleges (used however you wish: “Tufts” can refer to clumps of hair, “Emerson” can refer to Ralph Waldo, “B.U.” can be the first syllables of the word “be-yoo-tiful,” etc.)
* is rad

The lyrics are a bit hard to understand, but I'm digging it! (Actually, if anyone can get their hands on the lyrics I'd love to see them!) Next month the band will be Hallelujah the Hills.

Rain Machine: "Smiling Black Faces"

Rain Machine is the sideproject of Kyp Malone, guitarist and backup vocalist of TV on the Radio. Malone will be releasing his self-titled album on September 22nd. Back in July, our first taste of Rain Machine was the chaotically upbeat "Give Blood." Malone wisely follows it with "Smiling Black Faces."

“Smiling Black Faces” is a long, folky ballad of sorts that plays with emotional pauses and a slow rhythm, featuring Malone’s emotional, crying voice through mutters and complaints singing mostly inaudible lyrics. The song takes Malone in a more reflective, political direction as he condemns the infamous 2006 shooting of Sean Bell by a team of NYPD officers. The song is quite powerful, gaining momentum with each bell-like toll of his guitar (and jingle-bell shake in the background). We hear about genocide, burnt corks, slave names, an unsmiling face in a mirror.

Smiling Black Faces by Rain Machine

You might be reminded of TV on the Radio's "Dry Drunk Emperor," - I know I am. I can't seem to separate his solo work from TV on the Radio, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. "Smiling Black Faces" has a stripped down TV on the Radio feel to it and a slow, steady build up - it just seems that it could easily be one of their songs that it can't escape that comparison for me.

At the end of the day I like it, and I`m excited to hear how this fits into the rest of the album.

Rain Machine Tracklisting:
01 Intro
02 Give Blood
03 New Last Name
04 Smiling Black Faces
05 Driftwood Heart
06 Hold You Holy
07 Desperate Bitch
08 Love Won’t Save You
09 Free Ride
10 Leave the Lights On
11 Winter Song

We Got You Covered: "No Diggity"

Clearly the Klaxons are gangsta as all hell. I mean check out those outfits, their umbrellas, and of course the posing.

No Diggity (Blackstreet feat. Dr. Dre cover) by Klaxons

Yes, Dr. Dre would be proud.

New Ingrid Michaelson Music Video

Here's the music video for "Maybe" off of her new album Everybody. It's very catchy :)


Enjoy!

Hello September!

Here's to another great month of music! Hopefully all of these new releases will help the start of the new school year go quickly!

Note: the release dates are all (or should be) for the U.S.

September 1st
A.A. Bondy – When the Devil's Loose
The Apples in Stereo – #1 Hits Explosion!
Cougar – Patriot
Datarock – Red
David Bazan – Curse Your Branches
Drive-By Truckers –The Fine Print
Juliette Lewis – Terra Incognita
Kleerup – Hello Holla
Squarepusher – Solo Electric Bass 1
These United States – Everything Touches Everything

September 8th
Alberta Cross – Broken Side of Time
Amy Millan – Honey From the Tombs
BL JKS – After Robots
Carl Craig – 69: The Legendary Adventures of a Filter King
The Clean – Mister Pop
Circulatory System – Signal Morning
Damon & Naomi – The Sub Pop Years
HEALTH – Get Color
Holopaw – Oh Glory, Oh Wilderness
Marie Digby – Breathing Underwater
Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson – Break Up
Polvo – In Prism
Shannon Stephens – The Breadwinner
Sondre Lerche – Heartbeat Radio
Taken by Trees – East of Eden
Vivian Girls – Everything Goes Wrong
Wheedle's Groove – Kearney Barton
Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs
Zero 7 – Yeah Ghost

September 11th
Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3

September 15th
A Sunny Day in Glasgow – Ashes Grammar
Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part 1
DD/MM/YY – Black Square
Dappled Cities – Zounds
The Dodos – Time to Die
The Dynamites Featuring Charles Walker – Burn It Down
The Fresh & Onlys – Grey-Eyed Girls
Grand Archives – Keep in Mind Frankenstein
Muse – The Resistance
Scotland Yard Gospel Choir – ...And the Horse You Rode in On
Slaraffenland – We're on Your Side
Tyondai Braxton – Central Market
Windmill – Epcot Starfields

September 22nd
A Mountain of One – Institute of Joy
The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love
Castanets – Texas Rose, The Thaw & The Beasts
The Hidden Cameras – Origin: Orphan
Islands – Vapours
J. Tillman – Year in the Kingdom
Le Loup – Family
Mika – The Boy Who Knew Too Much
Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk
Music Go Music – Music Go Music
Pearl Jam – Backspacer
Richard Hawley – Truelove's Gutter
Spiral Beach – The Only Really Thing
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Higher Than the Stars (EP)
To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie – Marlone
Twilight Sad – Forget the Night Ahead
Vic Chestnut – At the Cut
Wale – Attention: Deficit
Why? – Eskimo Snow

September 29th
Alice In Chains – Black Gives Way To Blue
Chromeo – DJ Kicks
Gary Higgins – Seconds
La Roux – La Roux
Memory Tapes – Seek Magic
Om – God is Good
Port O'Brien – Threadbare
The Shaky Hands – Let it Die
Various Artists – Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy
You Say Party! We Say Die! - XXXX