Osama Throws An Eighties Party Mixtape

As an 80's baby who never really experienced the decade, I put this mix together as a 21st century perspective on the second-to-last decade of the 20th. It is a musical answer to the question "What do the 80's look like in a post-Michael Jackson, post-Osama bin Laden world?" And besides, girls love 80's parties.

Joy Ike's Summer Tour

Pittsburgh singer-songwriter Joy Ike, who did an excellent show at B-sides this past year, is hitting the road and stopping by some of my favorite venues. If you get a chance, go.

• 7/30 - One World Coffeehouse (Columbia, MD) w/ Nelly's Echo
• 7/31 - Ocean City Beach Project (Ocean City, NJ)
• 8/3 - WJTL "New Tunes at 9" [listen here]
• 8/4 - Stage on Herr (Harrisburg, PA) w/ Maura Jensen & Brooke Annibale
• 8/5 - Fuel House Coffee Co (Vineland, NJ) w/ Lindsay Katt
• 8/6 - Burlap & Bean (Newtown Square, PA) w/ Jeffrey Gaines
• 8/7 - Elephant Talk Indie Music Festival (Atlantic City, NJ)
• 8/9 - Van Gogh's Ear Cafe (Union, NJ) w/ Amanda Duncan
• 8/10 - Public Assembly (Brooklyn) w/ Paul Luc, Kevin Garrett, Charlene Kaye, Ohene Cornelius
• 8/11 - Pianos (Manhattan) w/ Dead Flutes & Fleetweek (DJs)
• 8/12 - World Cafe Live @ The Queen (Wilmington, DE) w/ Caleb Hawley & Jessi Teich
• 8/13 - Purple Door Arts & Music Festival (Lebanon, PA)

Download her album Songs That Sound Like Spring for free [here] for a preview of the goodness you are about to enjoy.

The New Division - Opium

The New Division just released "Opium", from the forthcoming Shadows LP, out September 27th. Give it a listen and then buy it [here].

Watch the Throne Drops in August

Kanye and Jay-Z's long-awaited collaboration Watch the Throne is scheduled to drop August 8th. Despite early worries of trend-chasing with disappointments like the Lex Luger showcase "H.A.M.", the latest leak "Otis" shows Kanye back at the peak of his production game, flawlessly sampling Otis Redding and going toe-to-toe with the greatest retired rapper alive thereon. Production on other tracks will come from 88 Keys, Q-Tip, The Neptunes, RZA, Hit-Boy, Swizz Beatz, Southside, No I.D., Mike Dean, Sak Pase, and S1, with guest spots limited to Beyonce, Mr. Hudson, and Odd Future crooner Frank Ocean.

Stream "Otis" at Jay-Z's Life + Times [here].

VMA Nominations & Voting

Nominated for 'Best New Artist' and 'Video of the Year', I finally have an excuse to post Tyler the Creator's self-directed "Yonkers". In other categories, I am also opinionated:

• Best Pop Video: Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"
• Best Rock Video: The Black Keys' "Howlin' For You"
• Best Hip-hop Video: Chris Brown/Busta Rhymes/Lil' Wayne's "Look At Me Now"
• Best Female Video: Nicki Minaj - "Super Bass"
• Best Male Video: Cee-Lo Green - "F*** You"
• Best Collaboration: Kanye/Rihanna - "All of the Lights" (sort of a runner-up hip-hop)
• Best Art Direction: Death Cab For Cutie - "You Are A Tourist"
• Best Choreography: LMFAO/GoonRock/Lauren Bennett - "Party Rock Anthem"
• Best Cinematography: Eminem/Rihanna - "Love the Way You Lie"
• Best Direction: Beastie Boys - "Make Some Noise"
• Best Editing: Adele - "Rolling in the Deep"
• Best Special Effects: Kanye/Katy Perry - "E.T." (winning this was the point of this song)

You can vote for these (or your favorites) [here].

Christina Grimmie - Advice

She's come a long way from covering System of a Down at my birthday show. Currently on tour with Selena Gomez & the Scene, Grimmie just released this music video for single "Advice", from her debut EP Find Me. This one certainly fits into Radio Disney's dance-pop-lite format, readying young listeners for the club-centric sounds of 21st century American pop music.

New Mixtape Weezy

I'm about a week late on this, but Lil' Wayne just dropped a new mixtape called Sorry 4 the Wait. On it, he takes on Kreayshawn's "Gucci Gucci", properly demonstrates how awful of a rapper Lil' B has become since his days in The Pack by demolishing him on my favorite Waka Flocka track, and shouts out everybody and their mom over Beyonce's Major Lazer-sampling "Run the World". (via The Fader)

Old People Listen to Music Online, Record Industry Survives

The AARP has now launched their own internet radio service to cater to the listening tastes of the 55+ crowd, but despite this drastic expansion of internet listeners to an entirely new demographic, the first half of 2011 has seen a 1% increase in record sales, the first such increase since 2004. The increase comes with the strength of Eminem and Adele's record-breaking digital numbers (over a million each). Maybe the AARP will get the old folks into Adele? (via Paste)

Kalibur - Arch Dat Back

DC rapper Kalibur rides this track to club banger heaven. Simple, infectious, and danceable. What happened to this kind of rap music?

Show Review: The Dimepiece Party Summer Kickoff

The members of VCR Monster (the headlining band I missed at The Crescent Jewell) throw a monthly party at Rancho Verde Golf Club in Rialto. Evidently they have been trying to get The New Division to perform for quite some time, and this month they finally did.
As the youthful crowd gradually filled the room to the electro sounds of The 1200s (Snatch, Inglish the DJ, Androids Don't Stop), I was thoroughly impressed by the lighting. The atmosphere was much more dance club than golf club, despite the heavy concentration of smokers out on the patio with a clear view of the course. TND went on around 11, sans guitarist Brock Woolsey due to work commitments. Their set noticeably altered the enthusiasm of different crowd segments, for the most part switching the casts of smoking patio and dancefloor. Focusing on their more club-ready tracks, their set was significantly more 'thumping' than usual, though that was perhaps due to a bass-heavy soundsystem that buried John's vocals in the mix in favor of basslines and synth leads to keep the kids moving. "No Health" was definitely a crowd favorite, with a circle briefly opening for ravers and b-boys to do some odd cross-genre battling.


The 1200s kept the party going following The New Division with tracks like Armand Van Helden and Dizzee Rascal's "Bonkers" and a dubstep remix of Kreayshawn's "Gucci Gucci". In all, quite the evening; significantly better than one would expect when hearing "club night at a golf club".

The Warrior Art Rebel

I wish more music sounded like this. As Dev79 put it "this is what it would sound like if Andre 3000's cousin recorded a rap dubstep crossover project in a spaceship hovering over Jamaica". (via PalmsOut)

Farewell Flight - Out For Blood

The single from Farewell Flight's split with Deas Vail (as well as their upcoming Mono vs. Stereo debut) now has an official video, but Alternative Press has it exclusively for the time being, so listen to the lyric video above and then go check it out [here].

Pusha T & Tyler the Creator - Trouble On My Mind

Tyler the Creator (of Odd Future) finally holds his own on a mainstream track. Pusha T (of Re-Up Gang), who recently signed to Kanye's G.O.O.D. Music as a solo artist, grabs a feature from the divisive OFWGKTA mastermind on this boom-bap Neptunes number. (via First Up!)

New Vaab Mix

If you are in need of some dance music to fill your summer nights, or at least your drives to and from whatever you're filling them with, Vaab's latest mix of progressive house, electro, and trance might be just what you're looking for.

Tracklisting:

1. Bjork - Venus As A Boy
2. DJ Zilos - Always Changing [feat. Sophia Cruz][Rev-Players Remix]
3. Melleefresh vs. Deadmau5 - Cocktail Queen
4. Cevin Fisher - You Got Me Burning Up [feat. Loleatta Holloway][Tim Davison Remix]
5. Moguai - ZYVOX [Steve Duda Remix]
6. Arno Cost - Lise
7. Chrizz Luvly - Amen
8. Rihanna - Rude Boy [Tommie Sunshine's 5 AM Edit]
9. Josh Gabriel presents Winter Kills - My Friend [Francis Preve Remix]
10. Rihanna - S & M [Sidney Samson Club Mix]
11. Mord Fustang - Lick the Rainbow
12. Arty - Hope [Club Mix]
13. ATB with Dash Berlin - Apollo Road [Club Version]

Chanes - The Bird Cage

For those who can't get enough of Wiz Khalifa's rhymes over Lex Luger's beats, this just might be the next best thing: frequent OnCue collaborator Chanes flips Arcade Fire's "My Body Is A Cage" into a churning organ loop for Wiz to spit "Youngin On His Grind". Taken from Chanes "The Subherbs" Arcade Fire vs. Wiz mashup project, which you can download [here]. (via OnCue)

Dr. Freecloud's Record Shoppe

I was searching for a spot to grab The Decemberists' The King Is Dead LP for my girlfriend for our anniversary when I stumbled across Dr. Freecloud's phenomenal reputation on Yelp. Despite the unlikelihood that they would have what I sought specifically, I just had to stop in. Proprietor Ron D Core, who has a great reputation as an all-vinyl hardcore DJ going back 25 years, was behind the decks demonstrating something to a customer, and I took some time to browse the huge collection of dance records available.

Since rent was due recently, I only purchased Young MC's "Bust A Move" single, but I will hopefully be back, if not for the $75/hour DJing lessons, then for one of the free Sunday barbeques with guest DJs like this.

Paste Magazine mPlayer

As the music director of WVMM my sophomore year at Messiah, I was encouraged to read Paste as a way of determining what music we should be putting on the playlist and purchasing for the library. I was hooked. A magazine covering pop culture in all its aspects, focusing on independent manifestations thereof rather than the ordinary industrialized bits. Unfortunately, I caught the tail end of this wonderful trove of culture, as Paste ceased its print publication in September 2010. While I have still followed their blog(s) and e-mail blasts, I've missed the long-form pieces (like this) especially.

It turns out I'm in luck, as Paste is returning as a weekly multimedia subscription service called the mPlayer. It will be in beta for free all summer and start up in earnest in the fall. (via Paste)

The Return of Marc Seeley

For those of you who don't know, I once managed Marc Seeley, who recorded and performed under the moniker Letters from the Prom. Last summer he essentially dropped off the face of the earth, depriving us all of his musical genius in the ensuing months. He is now writing a new album as Tokyo Quest, the first song of which is the above "Eloise".I had a rare opportunity to discuss music with Marc recently, and the forthcoming album is tentatively entitled Play My Tiny Tune, Big Orchestra, and will be made up of folk tunes like the one you just enjoyed above.

Erika Ricchini Does A Pop Song

The first music we've heard from Erika Ricchini since Troubador is a pop song with lots more sheen than we're accustomed to hearing her vocals with, courtesy of producer Jay Criss. I could get used to this. Especially with that '80s snare.

New OnCue/CJ Luzi

My boy CJ Luzi has been back in the lab with OnCue, and the first result we get to hear is "Feel Tall", a pop gem on which Cuey brings his singing chops back out to play: And in case you missed it, here's the official video for their Eisley-sampling jam "It Usually Goes":

The New Division Crew & Its Ever-Expanding Repertoire

Though we've covered founding members John Kunkel and Michael Janz' production efforts, it seems that guitarist Brock Woolsey's work as Juan the Tiger has been missed. He has done his own remix of The New Division's "Saturday Night":

as well as some original productions, my favorite of which is his latest, "Orange":