Moving On Up

Hi there! Wondering where all the fresh muzak posting is? We have moved to oceansofnoise.com

Thanks for putting up with this ridiculously unpronounceable work in progress blog name, and as an OG reader, if you want a special party favor in the form of a super sweet mix, leave a comment below and then head on over to Oceans of Noise.

Cheers!

Top Rated

Oh the Swedish. My love of all music from the land of Ikea is well documented and my pop sensibilities have been much obsessed with Icona Pop as of late. Their first track 'Manners' has an intensely catchy chorus built for singalongs in the car, but its their second release 'Top Rated' that has gained heavy rotation for me recently. It's very similar to Adele's 'Rolling in the Deep' in theme, and while Icona Pop also seems to be telling a former significant other to go to hell, they are doing it with a much more dancey beat. Part of Neon Gold's Popshop mixtape, I really hope they put out a full length version soon because if there was a contest for who should open for Robyn, Icona Pop would be the front runner.

Manners (Extended) by IconaPop

Top Rated by Icona Pop by Carkneps

Appropriately Named Song

This song is certifiably badass, and it takes me back to about a year ago, when I up and quit my job - honestly for no real reason other than I was sick of the internal politics.  I used to make pretty decent flow until I said, "F*ck the Money."

"Well I'm a quit this crazy scene 

Cause being (rich) ain't all what they make it to be  

But back then y'all this was my favorite dream  

But now, I wouldn't hesitate I would leave"

Now while I don't believe that either of them would, in fact, bail on their fame or fortune, the message is Perfect.  Don't hesitate.  If it sucks, bail out.  Don't rely on what you thought or what they say or what your parents want, but instead, believe in what you know about yourself...


BoB-Fuck The Money f Wiz Khalifa by atomicbeach

Wet Hair

Do you ever hear a new song and discover you are singing along halfway through? I recently did this with 'Wet Hair', a track I loved many years ago that Teen Daze has covered from Japandoids. How they managed to take pop-punk track and turn it into a pretty fantastic chillwavey sounding song proves why they get so much hype in hipster circles. Even if you aren't riding a fixie in your skinny jeans, this song is catchy and should have you dreaming of cruising down Highway One watching the ocean sparkle in the sun.

Wet Hair (Japandroids) - Teen Daze by pandapop

Cold Dust Girl

Ski season this year has been a random but fun time which has let me perfect my Tahoe playlist and strike up some intense conversations with strangers on lifts. One recommendation, from a decidedly dirty snowboarder type was Hey Champ!, a group that I had initially distrusted due to punctuation in its name. (Yet another reason I can't get on board with the band, !!!) This track won me over for its tempo, and the variety of solid remixes you can find out there. Check out the original and a rather lengthy but very solid remix by Gemini below.

Hey Champ - Cold Dust Girl (Only Children Remix) by Only Children

Hey Champ - Cold Dust Girl (Gemini Club Remix) by Gemini Club

Throwback Thursday

The rampant (and much deserved) popularity of Adele has been the highlight of a time that has an increasingly retro feel. Between her catchy threats of being scorned, and Mayer Hawthorne's uptempo commentary about a girl and her easy loving ways, there are some fantastic old-school sounding artists out there who don't need to rely on a raging drug problem to get noticed. (You heard me Amy Winehouse. Mark Ronson and I don't love you anymore.) In that vein, the Knocks covered the Temptations with their signature twist, and turns it into a hand-clapping, foot-stomping version that makes for excellent bus music. (At least, thats what the nice old gentleman on my morning commute told me when he gave a listen to my playlist) Check out the Mayer Hawthorne track below and go here to listen and download the Knocks track.

New Theory

A go-to favorite song for me is Washed Out's 'New Theory'. A go-to remixer for me is RAC. Put them together and get the awesomeness below that is causing visions of back roads and camping in the spring.

Washed Out - New Theory (RAC Mix) by RAC

We Have Everything

While I haven't gotten anywhere near Dowks pursuit of lucid dreaming, from time to time I have intense dreams that I believe are actual memories. Recently I was convinced that Dowks and I had been backstage at a Radiohead concert listening to Codex, which is impressive since the album only dropped a short while ago. Similarly, I thought I had written about my love of the new Young Galaxy album, but clearly have yet to do so. So while I cannot make the former come true with the push of a button, here is 'We Have Everything', a somewhat uptempo yet dreamy track. Bonus points for a cartoon video that is both goofy and a little sad all at the same time.

Outside is Nearer

Smelling slightly of sulfur and whiskey, my day is currently being held together by caffeine and the quest for a new playlist. Why? Agreeing to any adventure Sach proposes always involves a high risk for hangover; but this month's musical coded, task-oriented road-trip with a 1Am final destination, might top my list of the most ridiculous moments in my life. Watching the moon rise from a natural hot spring built on an ocean cliff was never on my bucket list, but it has certainly been added.

In that vein, here are two songs that I would add to the enigma's playlist for the road trip component. I cannot wait for Jamie XX's solo work, I have been loving every single thing he touches and this might be my favorite version of his new leak 'Far Nearer'. In contrast, Cult's song 'Go Outside' has been getting a ton of press thanks to the cute New Wave French music video featuring Emma Roberts and Dave Franco. Its definitely the opener on my Esashenanigans: The Aftermath Playlist.

Cults - Go Outside by wereofftherails

Jamie XX - Far Nearer (Ollie Macfarlane Bootleg) by Ollie Macfarlane

Café est très importante

Getting locked out of my apartment last night - due in large part to my own forgetfulness and partially an apartment manager lacking in the awesome category - caused me to spend the the night at Grant's place.  The irony of the situation is that this morning, the doorknob to his spare room ended up malfunctioning, trapping me in the apartment.  20 minutes, MacGuyvering a zip tie as a screwdriver,  and a window escape later, I was finally out, and enjoying his snazzy Tassimo Suprema espresso maker, a welcome boon to my morning.

Another welcome coffee-esque addition to my day has been the realization that I'll be seeing Macklemore, Ryan Lewis, Fresh Espresso and Helladope this weekend with Ace!  For those of you not able to go to the show (sorry Sash, Les, Curty), you should enjoy this vid of new musiks by Fresh Espresso instead

Secondish Chance

Yet another slow grow track for me was Peter Bjorn and John's 'Second Chance. For whatever reason I felt like I was thrown into a quick scene change in Gossip Girl with epic shots of New York City rapidly edited together before a cut to the dialog and it just annoyed me. (Probably due to the fact that it completely challenges my attempts to be cool when songs remind me of a show directed at teenage girls about life of the rich and vacuous.) But after an epic walk in which I attempted to not fast forward any track on the random shuffle, this tune finally won me back into the fandom of PB&J that they earned with Writer's Block in 2006. CW references be damned.

Peter Bjorn & John - Second Chance by SwipeLife.com - @MrNesso

All of Them

So someone even more crazy then yours truly put together a mix of every number 1 song from 1956 until 1992. While this might sound too skitzo to actually enjoy listening to, I would encourage you to reconsider; its amazing to hear music trends changes over time, or in this case over 40 minutes. You can actually pinpoint moments when we were at war or doing copious amounts of drugs. Bonus Fun Fact: the number one song the week I was born was Toto's 'Africa' and the start of Part 2 of this fabulous mix.

Five Seconds Of Every #1 Pop Single Part 1 by mjs538

Five Seconds Of Every #1 Pop Single Part 2 by mjs538

Son of a Gun

For no particular reason I was rather obstinate about getting into Oh Land. While it had all the trademark hooks of being spawned in the great Baltic country of electro-pop, a lead singer who is a former ballerina, and a catchy chorus set against retro tempo; it wasn't until recently I caved to internal pressure and added 'Son of a Gun' into heavy rotation. I'm going to chalk it up to good things happen to those who wait, because now I have a catchy little song to see me through these gloomy days.

All of the Names in the Lights

Not sure how many of you know this, but 11 people do the vocals for the original version of Kanye's 'All of the Lights'. While this includes the usual suspects like Rihanna and John Legend, it also involves the more unexpected La Roux among others. Plus the video is pretty fun to watch when you are into typography like I am. (or...Rihanna's ability not to wear clothes....)

Someone Like Yous

She is absolutely the most perfect thing about 2011 no?

No Silver

Winter has returned to California and its cold and rainy weather has put me in the mood for the contemplative music that Bon Iver has made so uniquely his own. As much as I adore For Emma Forever Ago however, there is a new artist I'm excited to add to my rainy day playlist who has a similarly folksy and blue-tinged sound. Actually- to be fair Chris Bathgate has apparently put out four albums prior to his upcoming Salt Year album, but he is new to me and my penchant for rain day music. You can download No Silver here for free, and can't wait to hear the rest in April.

02 No Silver by Carkneps

Lucidity in Dreaming

Lucid dreaming, for those of you that haven't seen Inception yet (highly recommended) is a dream where you are aware you are dreaming.  Most often, a person has no mental ability to recognize a dream state while they are in one.  Things that would be quite unbelievable or even impossible in the real world, seem to happen so naturally in dreams:  running in super slow mo whilst being chased, or experiencing first and third person simultaneously, or maybe you can even fly. In the dream, all of this is hunky dory, it's just the way things are....not so!  Wouldn't it be awesome to realize the consequences of a dream aren't real and have fun with it?  Zombies will not eat my braaaaainz, I will not die after falling off this cliff, no one is after me.  The answer appears to be a resounding YES.

My good friend Aditya is an accomplished lucid dreamer, and has been talking it up big time.  I must say, I'm quite intrigued and have been working on recognizing my own dream states.  I've had minor success, and recognized my dream, only to be woken by the shock of the realization :'(  Amongst all of this, (and I'm trying my best), I still trick myself and fail to recognize dreams.  Asking questions of yourself in a dream state can be quite the conundrum and your brain will almost certainly try to 'lie' to you and tell you this is all real (my mind to me: "Yes, John, your peak running speed is actually a 25 minute mile - you're SCREWED...and they're going to get you!").  Give it a shot next time.

I think the following audio clip from Inception, and Ariadne's resulting "Aha!" moment, is a great introductory description of lucid dreaming, and how easy it is to fool yourself.  The accompanying We Plants Are Happy Plants remix of Hans Zimmer's fantastic score is also impressive.

Hans Zimmer - Time (We Plants Are Happy Plants Remix) by WPAHP

(This track is downloadable, don't miss it!)

There are lots of resources out there that will help you learn more about lucid dreaming, or if you know Aditya, you can ask him yourself and watch the smile spread across his face...

Surprise at the Hotel

Another perennial favorite on my mixes is LA band Fool's Gold. I love their charming and somewhat African inspired sound, and their ability to make even the most sullen person start tapping their feet. And now another reason to love them: the Clift hotel is hosting a free Fool's Gold show to celebrate the presence of Weis and Dowks being in town. Or to promote their newly redone Velvet Room. Either way, we will be dancing.

'Item that Explodes' Remix

The last time I was in SF was over Thanksgiving 2010, Bruno Mars' Grenade was literally blowing up the radio everywheres (srsly, James' radio was in shambles and Weezy almost took some shrapnel to the eye).   Well, now that the original version has died down (a bit) and the explosions have subsided, it's given my ears and nerves a chance to recover enough to really enjoy this Passion Pit remix.  I'm glad Passion Pit doesn't feel like they have to stick to their own music and their DJing is really just fantastic.  Big ups to Bruno on collabbing with the boys on this as well.  Keep it up good sirs!

So Up

Last time I saw the Knux live, it was a bizarre showcase where they played three songs and were so, 'Up' that I'm pretty sure they weren't even remembering lyrics. Questionable live show aside, they have apparently been working on a sophomore album, and if its sounds like this new track, I think I can forgive their questionable showing. Courtesy of Consequence of Sound here is their new track.

The Knux - She's So Up (Explicit!) by Consequence of Sound

Then I Guess You Can Hang With Me

'Hang With Me' is one of those songs that constantly changes meaning and import depending what is going on in my life. Joywave has done a fantastic cover of one of my top played songs by Robyn, turning it into a chill and dreamy tune, in direct contrast with the dancetastic original track. I do believe the mark of a good song, like a great friendship, is the ability to evolve into something so different from its origin and still enthrall you.

Hang With Me (Robyn Cover) by Carkneps

Secrets

This is one of those songs that I've had in my library for a while now and yet had never managed to play. I'm regretting this delay but since my fit of focus this weekend, I have been playing it nonstop in concert with Pretty Lights and anything We Plants are Happy Plants cares to touch. Silver Swans has perfected that dreamy pop sensibility I find so appealing during the mid-week lulls and are San Francisco locals to boot. So enjoy the mellowness before what I know will be an insanely fun and intensely musical next few days.

Silver Swans - Secrets by silverswans

Pretty Lights are Pretty

Carls and I were up in Tahoe this past weekend, celebrating her birthday, skiing and meeting her crazy (but generally cool) winter cabinmates.  The two of us were enjoying some pisco sours and discussing all things music when we came across the Kanye song All of the Lights, remixed by Pretty Lights.  I'm a big fan of the work that Pretty Lights does, so it's no surprise that several of their songs are up on my iTunes most played list, or that I included them on Carls Thanksgiving mix.

We didn't have these lights or balloons, but much like the peeps in this vid, we had a kick ass time, complete with plenty of booze, celebrity and even some smashed cupcakes.  Things can only get more glorious with Weezy's arrival on Thurs and a Fool's Gold concert on Saturday!

Strange Talk

I have been lucky enough to have amazing friends (see: Dowks post about it here) and for the last two years I have been able to go to the Sundance Film Festival and generally live the glamourous life with my far more grown up friends. As the resident hipster, my annual contribution to the 'dance crew is an mixtape to pull them kicking and screaming into a new year of awesome music. It's always an interesting challenge finding music they can find accessible and expand some musical horizons. Since they all dug Passion Pit last year, I thought that Strange Talk would also appeal to the gang, but got worried it might be a little too much dancetasticness. While I'm still debating whether it makes the cut, this video provides a ridiculous and apropos contrast to the muzak.

Strange Talk - Climbing Walls from Strange Talk on Vimeo.

Choice Notes

Everyone's favorite Sister Wife, Alex Winston shot these super cool live movies while in London for a show. She sounds like she would be such an amazing live performance no? In other news- yes Weis, someone else saw your text and without any context now thinks you are a little odd and into polygamy. I'm rolling with it.

Girl Walk

It's all over the internets and it's awesome.

Girl Walk // All Day from jacob krupnick on Vimeo.

Aston Shuffle

The Aston Shuffle have an awesome video that not only appeals to my taste in music but my mild obsession with typography. Enjoy!

The Aston Shuffle - YOUR LOVE - from maxime bruneel on Vimeo.

Givers and (Show) Takers

Oddly enough, last night was my first show of 2011, but it certainly did not disappoint!  I went with two of my bestest concert buds, Tron and the Felarcanator.  Was also supposed to meet up with the roomie, but we continued our trend of Not Seeing Each Other, Ever.  Anyway, tickets were originally purchased due to the fact that Ra Ra Riot was headlining, and well...duh, but it had the added benefit of showcasing Pepper Rabbit (who I saw with Freelance Whales late last year) and some random other band, Givers.

Pepper Rabbit kicked the night off, and I enjoyed them from the balcony, whiskey ginger in hand.  They had quite the crowd watching, as you can see...normally opening acts at Neumos have 2 or 3 rows at the front and an empty backfield as people try and consume as many libations as possible before the headliners come on.  The Los Angeles based band is certainly worth checking out if you get a chance.

Next came the Givers, which imho were clearly the stars of the night.  From Lafayette, Louisiana, they had a great indie pop dance sound.  Super high energy, the drummer was a beast, and Tiffany, the girl of the group was a real show stopper.  She played the xylophone, drums and a ukulele and was very good at all of them (particularly the drums). You can tell they're still in the process of refining their music and have made vast strides since the release of their EP, to what today's version of Up Up Up sounds like.  Full album coming out soon...should be some really good stuff!

After the Givers left the stage, Ra Ra Riot came on.  Don't let me give you the impression that they were a bad show, au contraire, they certainly put on quite the performance.  They played some older stuff and some songs off The Rhumb Line, which I was more familiar with.  The cellist and violinist, both women, were not only quite formidable string players, they were also rather attractive (bonus!), each in their own way, a sultry cellist with a great voice, and the super upbeat cute girl next door violist who must have snapped 30+ horsehairs on her bow, given the fervor with which she played.   Their encore, fantastique aussi!

                     

I'll be in Cali for 10 days at the beginning of Feb, spending time with the ToA, but when I get back, it's Smith Westerns, Macklemore, Fresh Espresso, Girl Talk, The Naked & Famous and the Foals (tell me you're not jealous and I won't believe you).  I'm going to try and get my D90 in and get some real shots, rather than this iPhone garbage...

Be My Animal

I'm thinking I might need to make an 'Animals and Nature' themed mix soon. Between Yelle's awesome new track (without which, I would have no idea that animals dance at the Safari Disco Club) and Lykke Li's 'I Follow Rivers', I have solid material for quite a raucous dance party of a playlist. Busting moves right along with this theme, The Good Natured's second track 'Be My Animal' is a super catchy little tune that will have you shimmying along with Sara Macintosh's great vocals.

In Search Of Elusive Little Comets

When I studied abroad I became obsessed with the music scene in Ireland and the United Kingdom, and seriously considered dropping out of school to move to somewhere like Manchester or Liverpool to become immersed in the music scene there. Shockingly, the parentals would not agree to my ridiculous lack of plan and consequently I've had to rely on Tres as my emissary of all music Anglophile. I've been aware of the British group Little Comets but it wasn't until I heard this track from their upcoming CD which has a sound reminiscent of Vampire Weekend and Franz Ferdinand (without the awkward slowed down chorus thing going on) that I got really excited about their music.

Their new CD 'In Search Of Elusive Little Comets' comes out at the end of the month and can be added to my growing list of musics to purchase. Enjoy!

Little Comets - Joanna by Mud Hut Digital

Jump Right In

It's that time of year when I'm so happy to live in San Francisco. While everyone is still in the dead of winter the weather here is gorgeous and making me take long walks on city beach instead of working. With that in mind, I'm so happy to stumble upon this video and song by Benjamin Francis Leftwich, which makes me feel like running away and playing dress-up with my friends.

Benjamin Francis Leftwich "Atlas Hands" MUSIC VIDEO from gotofig2 on Vimeo.

Bowl Cuts

One of my favorite tracks of last year was 'Living in America', and even though DOM really needs to work on their live performance, they know how to put out some killer muzaks. The lead singer of Cults joins in on the vocals on this track and helps make this a panoply of hipster electropop. Thanks to being part of Passion Pit's Black Bell label, this collaboration is actually a free download on their official site as well.

Dom - Bowl Cut (Aislyn Remix) by EssysWorld

Byooooom!

I am in a prettttty awesome mood right now.  It's only 1030am and I've had quite a productive morning.  Drafting operating agreements, setting up LLCs, and jamming out to some solid tracks.  One of these tracks has been Treatment of the Sun by The Pass.  These guys are vaguely reminiscent of Passion Pit or a less melancholy MGMT.  They're from Louisville, KY, and have been around since '08, but I'm just jumping on the bandwagon now.  They put out a 5 song EP in early 2010, and have since released Burst, an uber cool full album where you'll find Treatment.

Treatment of the Sun is accompanied by a really simple, but great music video.  The old-school dancing is PERFECT for the song, and I can just imagine some indie chicks dancing their faces off in the exact same way to this track at a concert.  If you missed this song or video last summer on PMA, you won't want to repeat that same mistake.


The Pass - "Treatment of the Sun" PMA Premiere from Pretty Much Amazing on Vimeo.

Small Flowers

Okay so no idea what is happening in the world we call Twitter, I can barely manage to log in from time to time, but in the last few days all these music people have started following me which is curious but has led me to a band called 'Small Flowers'. While the stuff I have heard so far isn't super captivating, they do have one song that has a great breakbeat that I dig. I can't seem to find any information about these guys, but they remind me of Quantic and all the old Ministry of Sound muzaks I dug so heavily back in the day. Here's hoping they can get some heavy hitting production happening and step it up to something akin to Baths and Gold Panda.

Cosmonaut Solstace by Small Flowers

Foster This

And in honor of an amazeballs Coachella line-up and a decadent weekend ahead, here is the track that has been in heavy rotation with the new Yelle and Lykke Li in my giant headphones. I hope this Foster The People can make an entire album as catchy as this tune because its a little ray of sunshine ushering in the end of work and the beginning of some seriously fun couple days.

2011 Coachella Lineup Released!

Joshua Tree Park Sunset the night before 2010 Coachella 

Coachella has released their lineup for this year's festival.  It looks pretty sick, with a shit ton of bands that weren't at either ACL or Squatch last year.  While Saturday has some good shows, Friday and Sunday look to be amazeballs.  I wonder how Kanye feels about co-headlining with the Strokes?  Haters always tryin to take away from the black man...

Carls and I were in Joshua Tree with L2B2 the week before Coachella and met a few people headed to the festival.  We were tres jealous, so accordingly, Carls is already putting on the pressure to attend this year.  Here's to hoping!

Some of my highlights:

Friday

Kings of Leon

The Black Keys

The Chemical Brothers

Crystal Castles

Cee Lo Green

Cut Copy

A-Trak

Klaxons

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears

Saturday

Firecracker Kids

Animal Collective

Broken Social Scene

Scissor Sisters

New Pornographers

Gogol Bordello

Two Door Cinema Club

The Radio Dept

(scratch what I said above, Saturday sounds amazeballs too)

Sunday

Kanyeezy

Strokes

Wiz Khalifa

Ratatat

Nas (!!)

Chromeo

Angus and Julia Stone

Yelle

Delorean

Tinie Tempah

Driving Like It's Stolen

Once upon a time Dowks had to listen to a lot of boys with guitars and British music that populated my ipod. He was too nice to cause a fuss about it. However, when I moved to SF, Weis was less then amused by my indie roots, and in order to keep his attention and expand his musical horizons past Jay-Z, I was forced to learn about hip-hop. Due to my minor Anglophile tendencies (really more of a hybrid of Anglo-Audiophileness), I gravitate towards music that utilizes dubstep more and more. Which is why Glitch Mob perfectly encapsulates the type of music I can listen to with the 'pack and enjoy all on my own. Sorry Howie Day. You have been replaced with music we can roll with.

The Glitch Mob - Drive It Like You Stole It (King Fantastic Remix) by kingfantastic

Drive It Like You Stole It (Mixtape Version) - Free DL by The Glitch Mob

If you dig the King Fantastic version- go check out more of his stuff here

Game Night Musiks

Last night I hosted a game night for the boys, where we played a rousing game of Settlers, in which I managed to narrowly edge out Willdo for the victory (what can I say, I'm a Renaissance Man).  As a precursor to the evening, I threw together an impromptu playlist comprised mostly of my new new, but with a hint of classic.

Brother's ears instantly perked up when the White Pandas - Shooting Superstars came on - and with good reason - it combines some great Aussie electropop (Bag Raiders) with some of rap's finest, Eminem.  While it came out in early 2010, I've just recently come across it on the always groovy Hypem and their Zeitgeistageness, and it's probably been played about 20x since then...

Enjoy...

Shooting Superstars by whitepandamusic

Not In Love

I've been meaning to write about this track for a while, but forgot all about it until the release of the video got the 'sphere blowing up my rss feed. Anyways, I was completely in love with Crystal Castles debut album and a little underwhelmed by the sophomore effort. However- this song featuring Robert Smith is by far one of my favorite songs of 2010. Its amazing how it can sound like the Cure and Crystal Castles all at the same time. Enjoy!

Crystal Castles - Not In Love (Feat Robert Smith) by _Ricard

BBC Live

As anyone who has received a mix from me in the past four months knows, I've been obsessing over James Blake and counting down the days until I can buy his album here in the US. Then I plan to attend his concert posthaste because I have the feeling it will be amazeballs. Until then, here is a rather lovely live session from the BBC he did. The guy really knows how to make the dubstep turn into sexy time.

New Burgher on the Scene

Well, well, well, if it isn't another hometown homeslice of mine, blowin up!  Mac Miller, the latest young star from Pittsburgh has just landed on my laptop.   He's a pretty chill hip hop artist, although I must admit I was not expecting this kind of sound from a 19 yo white boy.  Bro'skie put out some pretty cool stuff, including this rap, set to an uptempo version of Owl City's Firefly.  When I was watching some of his vids, I came across "Get a Clue" and immediately recognized the beat from "They Say" by a trio of some of my favs:  Common, Kanye and Mr. Legend (incidentally, they picked up the beat from a song by Ahmad Jamal).  The keyboarding, coupled with a soft snare in the background really works well for this track.

Aight, Stillers, make us Three River Fans proud and stomp dem Ravens ('n at)!!

The Animals Dance in the Safari Disco Club

Yelle just released a brrrrrrrilliant track, Safari Disco Club, pulled from their upcoming album of the same name.  The electropop beat is super catchy, and even if you don't understand a lick of french, you can't help but get down with this track.  Free download on Soundcloud, get at it, NEOW!

Safari Disco Club by YELLE

Get the hell out

I first heard about Alex Winston, thanks to an awesome cover of 'Pull My Heart Away' she totally rocked. Now the Knocks have helped produce a killer track for her new album, and I'm championing it as the new theme song to Big Love. Just don't do what I did, and sing the hook out-loud in an open plan office. People will wonder about your personal life.

Alex Winston - Sister Wife by The Knocks

Via: Neon Gold

Lykke Li rocks my world

Lykke Li's new album is one of the things I'm most excited about in 2011. Her first single 'Get Some' was a holiday anthem in my house, and the fabulous Magician has done an awesome remix of her new track 'I Follow Rivers'. So courtesy of the awesomeness that is GottaDanceDirty; enjoy!

Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers (The Magician Remix) by aRod@GottaDanceDirty™

Lets have a toast

This is a little old but I'm using the excuse that I unplugged pretty hard in Maui last week as my reason for not sharing this before. I might not dig his actual music but Josh Groban is hilarious as evidenced in Glee and now here:

The Smith Westerns are neither Western, nor Smiths....Discuss

So yeah, the Smith Westerns are an excellent sounding indie band that I just recently discovered through one of leslietron's epic share seshes on reader.  I have to say I really dig their sound and style, but the constant static/buzzing accompanying the lyrics in their debut album has really been throwing me off.....which is why I'm looking forward to the upcoming release of Dye It Blonde on Jan 18!  It sounds like they should have "fixed" some of that and the song below sounds very polished and clean - I dig it.  This will definitely be an album I pick up immediately...only one week to go!


Old Self-titled Album: - Tonight
The Smith Westerns- Tonight by ornamentation

New album: Dye It Blonde - All Die Young
Smith Westerns - "All Die Young" by forcefieldpr

Niyaz Rocks the Rāga

Whew.  Finally made it back to Seattle after a great trip back to the 'burgh.  I got to hit up my friend Nathan's, who basically has a recording studio in his basement, where I listened to him, Isaaaac, Cook, and Woj jam out.  They are putting together some really great stuff and I can't wait until they finish the recordings and get the legal stuff finished so I can push it out here.

Anyway, Woj and I were messing around on some of Nathan's congos and he got to beating out Tunak Tunak Tun, which I had never heard, so he politely shared.  Quite ridiculous.......ly fantastic!  After we'd indulged in Delar Mendhi for a bit, Nathan (really just a super musician himself) pointed us to Niyaz.  Perhaps they have the subcontinent connection, but that's about it.  This song, sung in Urdu, is gorgeous and I can't get enough of the intro.  The mystical sound produced by that guitar/cello-ish instrument is mesmerizing.  Hope you enjoy too