With a name like Rapdragons, it was pretty much a lock that we would be into this rap duo from Baltimore.
This is the perfect rap music for the our times as it sounds like a mixture of The Beastie Boys/Young MC and any chillwave act out there right now (Beach House, Washed Out, etc.).
“Ready for War” is their introduction/battlecry and its damn catchy. If you like their sound be sure to download their entire EP for free.
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BONUS: “Moon Rocks” samples the theme song from Reading Rainbow which is extremely legit. Ahhh memories.
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Yesterday, two of our favourite things came together – Neon Gold Records and Interview Magazine. The established magazine interviewed Derek Davies and Lizzy Plapinger, founders of Neon Gold Records. Check it out for some insight on two young students’ start up record label, setting up the dream and then living it.
“Given their ages and pedigree (Davies, 22, is a film major at NYU; Plapinger, 21, majors in media studies “with a focus on music” at Vassar), skeptics might assume Neon Gold is a hip undergraduate vanity project that caters to the current whims of the Brooklyn-based art and music scene. They’d be mistaken: if anything, Neon Gold reverses the art/noise pop paradigm and is ushering literal, unironic “Pop” back into indie (and mainstream) acceptance.”
The first album by the Broken Bells (collaboration between The Shins’ singer/guitarist and producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse) came out a couple days ago and it is a great album. It’s particularly exciting as I’ve always liked The Shins’ and admired Danger Mouse’s work from the moment he came out with The Grey Album.
On their self-titled debut they are able to blend their respective sounds without having to reach very far to make it happen. This all makes it sound very natural rather then just sticking two famous people together and forcing them to make music.
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In the last year of my brothers tenure at University, he would often talk to me about his friend who was a DJ/Producer/Engineer (I was an aspiring DJ at the time) who was writing his thesis that argued for the turntable as a legitimate musical instrument (for those interested… Turntablalist Transaction Method is a site that has made a lot of leaps in creating legitimate musical notation for scratching techniques).
Recently, I finally got to talk to this famous roomate and it turns out he’s still producing some great music. Working under the alias theLin, Josh Thelin creates heady hip-hop beats that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Eyedea & Abilities or DJ Shadow record. The kind of stuff that you want to listen to with your head phones because you don’t want to miss a single piece of the audio. Being the nice guy he is, Josh gave me the whole EP for his latest project “Metal On Metal” to share with all you Handsome readers.
It’s hard to pick my favorite songs off this thing because each song accomplishes such a different task, however, if forced I’d go with “New Junkfood” and “The 3rd Larry”.
“New Junkfood” starts off like it could be a long lost moody Prince song from “Purple Rain” but quickly turns into a nonstop headnodder with some nice thought-rap (best exemplified by the line “If only in the future people could fly / probably crash into a tower and die”).
Alternatively, “The 3rd Larry” starts of with a sample reminiscent of Beck’s “The New Pollution” that first morphs into a beautifully simple beat with that forgotten art of turntablism before finally adding some warm guitars as the cherry on top. The best metaphor for this song is a warm cup of coffee/tea in the morning.
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First really good song involving a nice warm place I wish I was in is Jamaica’s “I Think I Like U 2″.
Why should you like this song? 2 Reasons:
1. Jamaica was formerly known as PONEY PONEY. Now a duo, Antoine Hilaire and Flo Lyonnet are fresher than ever.
2. Their album is being produced by Xavier De Rosnay (1/2 of Justice)
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Second really good song involving a nice warm place I wish I was is Kisses‘ “Bermuda”.
Why should you like this song?
It’s lighthearted disco-bedroom-pop with a singer that sounds like he was raised by Lens Lekman. I bet this song gets exponentially better if your listening to it while actually in Bermuda (kind of like how the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sublime, Social Distortion, and The Beach Boys all sound better when in California). C’est la vie.
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Three months after the original video, Kid Cudi releases some new visuals for Pursuit of Happiness. The first video was of Cudi and friends partying for a few minutes to the track, while the new release sits on the opposite end of the creative spectrum. The new video takes you on the confusing loops and the crazy costumes we face while in pursuit. We’re loving it.
You can check the original video ahead and let us know which one you’re feeling more.
I recently went to the opening of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tucson, AZ and was able to catch a surprise set by every blogs favorite Harlem. It’s not fair to judge them on a short set (they played about 5-6 songs) in a venue that wasn’t built for musical acts, with an odd mismash of people; but Harlem performed surprisingly well for such conditions.
Perhaps their classic garage rock sound lent itself nicely to the monitors turned up way too loud and the reverberations of the large open space. Or maybe it was the giant gold chain and fake fur coat that the lead singer was wearing that gave him special powers to overcome adversity? Whatever it was, they were able to get the art crowd to form a nice little hipster-ey moshpit. Be sure, Harlem are an up and coming band that people who like good music should be paying attention to (especially since their LP ‘Hippies’ will be dropping April 6th).
Below is “Friendly Ghost” which is on the aforementioned upcoming LP. I can’t wait for summer.
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What’s the hardest song we have heard in awhile? Easy. Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg’s “The Next Episode (Jay Robinson Clubstep Mix)”. This is the sound I guess kids are calling “clubstep” (or at least Jay Robinson), a musical derivation of dubstep.
It may sound relatively tame and familiar for awhile but wait until the 1:46 mark hits… boom goes the dynamite.
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The venue filled quickly for an early concert – the doors opened at 5:30pm. The Alkaline Trio’s fans were not phased by the matinee status and showed up to the sold out show ready to go hard; 6 inch Mohawks, backwards white hats, tattoos and blazers converging in their Alkaline Trio fanship.
Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano traded vocals throughout the set as they ripped through tracks from their seven LPs. Skiba was an exceptional frontman in non-genre-subscribing attire. He came out with his tattoo sleeves contrasted by a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, cool kid glasses, and a poorboy hat. He shed his hat and glasses within the first two tracks as his inner rock-star seemed conflicted with his accessible looks. Older fans looking for Skiba’s signature shirt and tie live performance dress-code could find solace in his classic eyeliner.
The band played a great high energy set showing ample love to their older tracks as well as a few newer tracks from This Addiction. The crowd gave the band much love in different forms – mosh pits, index fingers in the air, and singalongs. The Trio reciprocated with sweat, wine consumption, banter and great renditions of This Addiction, Crawl, Sadie, Mr. Chainsaw and Radio.
The band Javelin from Brooklyn have been on our radar for awhile now, but with their first LP “No Más” dropping soon (April 6th) so we feel compelled to tell other people about them.
Javelin are eccentric to say the least but don’t let their strangeness throw you off; this is good music. There is a reason these guys are opening for Yeasayer for a lot of their concerts. People seem to have a tendency to write off any band that actually shows they have a sense of humor as somehow less worthy of their time than equally weird but “serious” groups like Godspeed You! Black Emperor (Don’t get us wrong, we love Godspeed, but c’mon, there are only so many times in life you can sit down and listen to one of their 18 minute long songs).
Don’t make the same mistake. Even “STD Fury” which has them rapping about sexually transmitted diseases over an unusually cheery chiptune/hip-hop beat is actually an effective educational tool for promoting safe sex with a positive message of “Your anaconda won’t get none unless you got a condom”. If that’s not you’re style be sure to check out their song “Lindsey Brohan” which is an easy-breezy electronic instrumental adventure perfect for drinks on a beach.
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