Shadows Released Yesterday

The New Division just released their first full-length, Shadows, on Division 87. Pick it up on Bandcamp [here].

OnCue - All The Way

My boy CJ Luzi collabs with Manicanparty on the track, Visual High Life again on the visual, and Cuey sticking to his guns with introspective thoughts and a catchy sung chorus.

Caveman - Great Life

This song is proof that polyrhythms make any genre more exciting. Unfortunately, Fader informs me that Caveman does not have this many drummers live, so for that fix perhaps I'll have to see Grandchildren play again. In the meantime, Caveman's debut album was released exactly a week ago. Check it out!

Odd Future > Tyler the Creator

In all the flurry of attention surrounding Best New Artist Tyler the Creator and his horrorcore-for-the-swag-generation, other members of Odd Future have been getting shortchanged. For example, pop/r&b mastermind Frank Ocean has been consistently flooding Vimeo with gems like "Thinking About You" and the heartbreaking "Swim Good". Watch those two videos and download the latest from OF's Domo Genesis [here] to get a sense of all that this crew has going for them before their upcoming Adult Swim show spills the beans:
(via The Fader)

Belated Block Party Review: Mad Decent LA

My first (and somewhat lasting) impression of the LA edition of this year's block party is that the boys from Philly have finally 'made it' now that they've moved out to the west coast. It's gone somewhat corporate. I remember the first block party in Philly; everything was free-food, drinks, merch-all free. This time around there were serious food trucks, and giveaways were sporadic and temporary.

My second impression was that the 'block' they selected was too long and narrow, meaning a substantial amount of space went unused and another substantial amount of space around the booths and such was out of reasonable hearing distance from the music. This worked nicely when you wanted to relax, but made the experience somewhat more disjointed than the Philly editions have generally been.

My musical impressions (to the extent that I remember them) are as follows:

• A live set from Major Lazer is everything it's cracked up to be. Diplo spun literally everything, mixed into that very specific electro-reggae vibe, and Skerrit Bwoy is insane.
• Death Grips is an instance of some white producers getting a mediocre at best rapper to work with them because having a black front man provides street cred. They do manage to focus on sounding like the apocalypse enough to almost distract from the fact that Spank Rock, King Fantastic, and Atari Teenage Riot all do this sort of thing much, much better.
• Dawn Golden & Rosy Cross is just one guy, and he is the American James Blake like Owl City is the Christian Postal Service. Not that that's a bad thing.
• Mad Decent is a great electronic/hip-hop label. They are a terrible rock label.
• Dillon Francis is a great LA hometown hero. Kids went nuts.
• Lunice is fun to watch and fascinating to listen to. He makes Soulja Boy and Lil' B listenable.

Meek Mill - I'ma Boss [Video]

Meek Mill finally put out a video for summer anthem "I'm a Boss", dragging Rick Ross up to Philly to do a ridiculously fun street video like he used to independently with Maybach Music label money. Ross tries to pretend he can have fun in a video without a boat by hiding in a Bentley, while Millz spits triumphantly in front of Geno's Steaks (RIP Joey Vento) like a northern Young Jeezy.

Countdown to Shadows

The New Division just released "Shallow Play", the second single from upcoming debut LP Shadows, which is already getting attention from Prefixmag. Catch them performing this and other jams at Soda Bar in San Diego tomorrow or at the Shadows release party in Claremont at the Hip Kitty on the 29th [RSVP].

If you're not in SoCal to catch a show (my current situation), console yourself with frontman John's latest solo effort, "The One Thing I Can't Have":