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