No Title

We don't have enough bandwidth for this.

Lil' Wayne feat. Jay Sean: "That Ain't Me" [alt]

New Weezy

What's Wrong With Them (ft. Nicki Minaj) [alt]
YM Salute (ft. Lil Twist, Lil Chuckee, Gudda Gudda, Jae Millz, & Nicki Minaj) [alt]

I am Human, Nico.

The last two weeks of writing/posting on this blog has been hectic to say the least. Its been full of covers, mash-ups, and remixes--none of which I am honestly proud to put my name behind. So to right the ship, I thought we would go back to where indie, arguably, began--the movement of the Velvet Underground, Nico, and Andy Warhol.

After Andy Warhol took the reigns of PR for the Velvet Underground, he suggested a musical/cultural partnership with Christa Päffgen (AKA Nico). The band was hesitant, but the partnership ultimatley led to the band's reformation and subsequent debut The Velvet Underground and Nico-- need I say more? Following her work with Lou Reed, Nico moved on to a solo career and a partnership with some of the most important American songwriters in our musical history. That's what leads me to today's post.

Nico: "I'll Keep it With Mine" [Buy]

Bob Dylan penned this song for the beautiful, talented Christa Päffgen and she grabbs it by the balls. The string arrangements and the vocal cadences make the song--oh and the writing isn't bad either.

It feels good to be human again.

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[Untiitilated]

"Where Burial finds romance in the darkest night, Salem’s dubstep-drenched electro exists in a world of prostitution, violence and abuse, employing bizarre half-tempo rap sections that growl like burst exhausts."

So we're pretty into dubstep around here, but what Salem brings is almost sacrificial, sacrilegious dubstep--you immediatley know whose violenlty distorted bass is blaring through the speakers and you shiver. Let's see what happens when they get a hold of one of the Boss' greatest darkly tinged pop tunes. Both are provided for reference and clarity's sake.

edit: my bad, this is "Witch-House"--just for iTunes library. Everyone can breathe now.

Salem: "Streets of Philadelphia"

Bruce Springsteen: "Streets of Philadelphia"

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The Miracle Wrip

This had to be a ton of hard work. Norwegian Recycling sent Muzjiks a message in hopes we would post his latest DJ Earworm style mashup-- this shit is too cool not to post. Keep on truckin' Pete. Hopefully, we will another full feature concerning the validity of this type stuff in the near future (maybe an interview, Pete??). The Miracle Rip...

Norwegian Recycling: "Miracles"

Help! I've fallen, and I can't get up!

I might not even be of legal drinking age, but I already find myself nostalgic about my youth, wary about growing old. I miss Freeze Pops and Capri Suns after riding around on my neighbor's Razor scooter (my parents never let me get one). I miss being scared shitless by Are You Afraid of the Dark? and loving every minute of it. I miss SuperSoakers and Creepy Crawlers and SNICK. Music, however, is a medium that allows one to momentary return to a certain place and time—Third Eye Blind, Semisonic, No Doubt, Blind Melon, and Chumbawamba just a handful of the artists with that evocative capacity.

Essentially taking the lead from DJ DoYou of "Stuntin' Like Mufasa" fame, rapper A-1 has capitalized on my generation's collective nostalgia and made a somewhat gimmicky, somewhat kickass mixtape that combines A-1's Wale-esque raps with popular 90s TV themes. Reading Rainbow, All That, Pokemon—hell, even Doug makes an appearance. Perhaps my favorite moment, however, comes as A-1 fakes being sick in order to stay home from school in classic Ferris Bueller fashion. One of his first orders of business? Watch The Price is Right, the mainstay of every sick child's programming schedule. I think everyone remembers watching Bob Barker and those 80-year-old-and-up targeted ads (see: Hoveround, Colonial Penn, and Wilford Brimley) with a glass of orange juice and some Campbell's Chicken Noodle (or, if you're as lucky as me, mom's homemade matzo ball soup and matzo brei).

So, without further ado, I invite you to sit back, turn on these tunes, and relive your youth for a few minutes. And for the full experience, consider downloading the full mixtape, After School Special, over at DatPiff. Enjoy.

The Price is Right [alt]
Doug (Funnie Bitch) [alt]
Reading Rainbow [alt]
All That! [alt]

Somebody Get Me Usher Tickets--Now.

Usher (Feat. Pitbull): "DJ Got Us Falling in Love" (Brass Knuckles Remix)

Brass Knuckles--y'all gotta put us on the payroll. Keep up the good work.

MuzjiksRx (9.20): Blogospherical Prostitution

Katy Perry vs. Bloc Party: I Kissed a Girl at a Banquet [alt]

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Lady Gaga vs. Eurythmics: Just Dance in My Sweet Dreams [alt]

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The Killers vs. Alphaville: Are We Human? Or Are We Forever Young? [alt]

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Cover Up Your Sundays

So there are probably some days that artists are too damn lazy to write their own songs. Besides aren't there enough songs written already? Well, there are also days where bloggers are too lazy to find new music--so we post covers. After a long weekend, bask in the laziness and the creativity of some sweet covers (two separate Britney Spears covers!).

The Flaming Lips: "Money" (feat. Henry Rollins)

Franz Ferdinand: "Womanizer" (Britney Spears Cover)

Nickel Creek: "Toxic" (Live at ACL 2006)

Mark Ronson: "Amy" (Ryan Adams Cover)

Cold War Kids: "A Change is Gonna Come" (Sam Cooke Cover)

MuzjiksRx (9.18)

Hip hop ain't dead. It just went underground...

Jedi Mind Tricks (ft. Kool G. Rap): Animal Rap [alt]

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Illogic: Perfect Storm [alt]

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iCON the Mic King: From Dusk 'Til Dawn [alt]

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Get to the Choppa!!

A bit of background: Above is my first project from the Music Technology and Production class at Davidson College. Each student's task was to score this trailer, which was given to us with the original audio removed. It was then up to our imaginations, creativity, and the vast selection of studio equipment at our disposal to create our own score for the clip. This is my attempt...

Although I’m obviously not as musically talented as Clint Mansell, his scoring work—namely in π and Requiem for a Dream—was a big influence on the approach I took to this project. The dark atmosphere of the T3 trailer and the metallic substance that demands the viewer’s attention throughout really gives me the sense that a crunchy, industrial sound is the best fit musically. I considered this visual subject matter along with the short running time of the clip and the obvious suggestions of mickey mousing (sawing of the numeral “3” from the metallic block, the droplets, etc.) and thereby concluded that this should not be a hum-worthy, melodic piece—that is, no theme music here. Thus, I set out to create a largely dissonant score that is respectful of the long-standing film music convention of synchronizing visual events with musical events, an idea that dates back perhaps most famously to Max Steiner's score for 1933 King Kong.

I think that one of the main questions an artist—or someone attempting to be artistic—asks himself after reaching a stopping point on a piece (art, as it is said, is never “finished,” per se) is whether or not the image on the canvas or the sound coming out of the speakers is what he had envisioned in his head. To this query, I must say: No. Not only am I limited in terms of my past music-making experience, but there were also several instances in which I had a certain timbre in my head and couldn’t figure out how to make the technology produce that sound. For instance: ideally, I would’ve liked a sort of aural chase between booming metallic footsteps and pitter-pattering sneaker footfalls that created a rhythmic percussion over which I could lay the industrial synths. However, both my music-making chops and technological aptitude will improve with time and practice, and honestly, I must say that I’m fairly satisfied with my first stab at electronic music production, all things considered. Enjoy.

Imma Remix the Ish Outta You

So Cee-Lo's "Fuck You" has become a transcendent party/club/r&b/pop hit. It was bound to be--the song is just too amazing. This is the first remix of the song, its a true club thumper with shades of the original dusted in. The remix is courtesy of Brass Knuckles.

Cee-Lo Green: "Fuck You" (Brass Knuckles Remix)

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MuzjiksRx (9.15): Kiss Your Bandwidth Goodbye, TB

Will Smith vs. Ke$ha: Ke$ha in Black [alt]

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Led Zeppelin vs. Black Sabbath: Whole Lotta Sabbath [alt]

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Nirvana vs. Jackson 5: Smells Like Rockin' Robin [alt]

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Friendly Reminder

Video unrelated.

If you enjoy what we do here at Muzjiks, please consider showing your support by...

• following me on Twitter
• liking the Facebook page
• listening to the radio show(s?) on WALT in the upcoming weeks
• attending Muzjiks DJ shows at Davidson College, the first of which is occurring tomorrow night at KA
• picking up a copy of The Davidsonian, which will soon be running a regular column written by yours truly
• tattooing our logo on your back... or the forehead of your first born (see below)
  

MuzjiksRx (9.14): Hot Fire

Immortal Technique: No Me Importa [alt]

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Big K.R.I.T.: Children of the World [alt]

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Cunninlynguists: 616 Rewind (ft. Tonedeff, Sankofa, Kashal-Tee, and Celph Titled) [alt]

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The Emancipation of Music in the Internet Age: A Half-Assed Review

Perhaps more than any other industry, music has been revolutionized by the Internet. Sure, online shopping has changed the way we think about acquiring goods, but it's not like you see your local supermarket or hardware store going out of business. And yes, the accessibility of visual media—feature films, TV shows, documentaries—on the world wide web is just a Google search away, but the cinema down the street and the 1000+ channels available on satellite TV are still very much alive and kicking. But the music industry, on the other hand, is nothing like it was in 1992 when Al Gore invented the Interwebs (or was that Ted Stevens?). Remember that Virgin Records where you got your first CD as a child? It's gone. Remember what it was like to struggle to tear off the cellophane around that CD? Or what it was like to read the liner notes on that glossy insert? Hell, do you even remember CDs?

And it's not just CDs; it's even buying music at all. Even if you decide against purchasing the physical copy of an album and instead opt to download it digitally off iTunes, you're still in the minority. I'm going to share a little trick with you: Think of the first song that pops into your head. Now, type the name of that song and its artist into Google, tacking on 'mp3', 'mediafire', or 'rapidshare' to the end of the query. I'd venture to say that 90% of you are able to find a downloadable copy of that song on the first page of results. Right?

Now, it's not all bad. For every horror story of the RIAA punting babies whose parents downloaded the latest Justin Bieber single (just joshin'), there's a story of a bedroom producer or local upstart band or some other musically-inclined starving artist who's been able to get their stuff out there with MySpace Music or bandcamp or Soundcloud. Doug Appling falls into the latter category, but not only did Appling—or, as he's better known, Emancipator—got his stuff out there, he became Internet famous. Exposed to the masses primarily via pirating communities and the blogosphere, Emancipator's instrumental hip hop has found quite the following by way of Internet word-of-type. So much so, in fact, that the one-man act Emancipator finds himself opening for BoomBox in venues across the country. Lucky for me, one of those venues happened to be Charlotte's Neighborhood Theater.

So, last Friday night, I headed up to NoDa and paid my hard-earned cash to see these two acts perform. When Emancipator finally took the stage, I actually mistook him for a roadie—his unassuming dress and demeanor caught me off guard. Perhaps this should have been a sign, a sign that a performer—no less good music—was not on the docket that night. What ensued for the following sixty minutes was some of the most uninspired music I've heard in quite some time. From the mundane, tired rhythms undergirding the pieces to their irritatingly predictable turns and melodies, I quickly found myself wondering what the hype was all about. Aside from "Greenland," the opening track from Emacipator's sophomore release, Safe in the Steep Cliffs, the rest of the overlong set was utterly snore-inducing.

Allow me to elaborate: In my estimation, the appeal of "Greenland" lies in its unabashed indebtedness to video game music. The nearly 8-bit line that begins the piece to ethereal synths to the driving boom-boom-clap to the heartrending violin sample—it all screams Halo to me. It's geeky cool like an acne-faced pothead hipster version of DragonForce. And that's fine. It's fine because it's Emancipator forging himself a new niche in the genre, rather than retracing steps on the same well-trod ground that Dilla, Shadow, and RJD2 conquered years ago. Except this is the only evidence of hypeworthiness that he showed all night.

The rest of the sound Emancipator produced with his laptop, sequencer, and Squier guitar (I shit you not) ranged from half-baked renditions of Pretty Lights to the music you'd hear on the Weather Channel in the room of an upscale island resort. And all of it sounded like it was produced on GarageBand with the default loops and samples that came with the pre-installed iLife package. For fuck's sake, pirate some upgrade packs. And as for the samples, I swear they were all 128 kbps Dirpy rips. To add insult to injury, not only were the samples low quality, but they all succeeded in butchering what made the originals great. Pink Floyd, The Fugees, Sigur Ros—they all were criminally defiled. To top it off, the man missed several blatant opportunities to kick up the tempo, drop the beat, and create danceable pieces of music like the crowd wanted. I mean, I understand you're supposed to be a "trip-hop" act, but that doesn't mean who can't give the average concertgoer what he/she wants, just for shits and giggles...

And the funniest thing is that, despite all my criticisms, I respect the guy. Emancipator is living the dream: a 19-year-old making a living off of music. Maybe he's just getting a handle on the rudiments of live performance. Maybe I was charmed by his meek request that concertgoers buy some of his merch. Or maybe I'm just a softie and should continue ripping on an unsuspecting musician. I won't, though. Instead, I applaud Doug Appling for seizing the opportunities presented by the Internet and wish him the best luck moving forward as he hones his craft.

...oh, and as for BoomBox: don't waste your money. Unless you've dosed yourself with enough MDMA to tranquilize a horse or are tripping on so much acid you swear that light fixture just honked its clown nose at you, you're going to be bored shitless. Save singer Zion Godchaux's god-awful vocal interludes, you'll be hearing the same arpeggiated chords and fatiguing electronic basslines for an hour and a half. Instead, save up your money and go see Phish. Period.

Emancipator
Greenland [alt]
Shook (Mobb Deep vs. Sigur Ros) [alt] | Listen for "Vaka" sample
All Through the Night [alt] | Listen for "Hey You" sample

BoomBox
Midnight on the Run [alt]

Gaylor Tang or Yill Tourself

Wiz Khalifa: Get Big (Remix) [alt]

The Mend

As a way to remedy our mini-feud with senor Torpeedoh, I wanted to throw out there one track of off Square Pegs that I really enjoy. Its a bit of a trance mix of one of our favorite Sigur Ros songs. This is the intro to the aforementioned Square Pegs mixtape--oh and a sweet party track for good measure.

Torpeedoh: "Intro"

Supersize: "Just the Two of Us"


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Taylor Gang or Start Another Oil Spill

Wiz Khalifa: Damn It Feels Good to Be a Taylor [alt]

I'd go to the grave before I acted as a cowardly African American

Muzjiks Nation, I'm sorry to inform you that I will be taking a leave of absence... until Friday (see what I did there?). As much as enjoy doing this, it is secondary to school, so I must tend to that first. I hope that you will understand and survive the next few days without me. Until then, consider the following...

– Sugar Glyder Sugar Glyder Sugar Glyder Sugar Glyder Sugar Glyder
– Tiesto (ft. Jónsi): Kaleidoscope (ADD Edit) [alt] | Although the full song is superior, for my upcoming DJ gigs, I figure that I should cut the song down, extracting much of the atmospheric Jónsi falsetto, and get to the meat of it—that is, the absurd drop. After some quick Audacity tweaks, we have what I've called the (musical) ADD edit of the title track to Tiesto's 2009 LP.
– Follow me on the Twitters.
– Acquaint yourself with WALT.
– And take notes on this...

Influential Talk

Talk Talk's album Laughing Stock has been influential in the making of both the indie and post-rock genres we know today. The slippery, bending guitars envelop the mix and Mark Hollis' lyrics are what we call "universally cryptic." If you haven't gave Laughing Stock a chance, please do so. Begin your exposure to the album with its centerpiece, "New Grass." Enjoy.

Talk Talk: "New Grass" [alt]

MuzjiksRx (9.6 v2): Overdose

Coming down from this morning's prescription? Stay up with some more musical narcotics to cure that case of the Mondays...

Rick Ross (ft. Jay-Z and John Legend): Free Mason [alt]

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Notorious BIG: Live Freestyle '95 (DJ Vlad RMX) [alt]

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Wiz Khalifa: Boarding Pass [alt]

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MuzjiksRx (9.6): Vegetable man, where are you?

King Crimson: Red [alt] (compare to this!)

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Nektar: Astronaut's Nightmare [alt]

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Pink Floyd: Embryo (BBC Peel Sessions) [alt]

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Bring Us Together

Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You (Eat More Cake Remix) by MikeRog10

Big props to Why FuKK When You Can Dance. Great find.

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How Strange It Is to Be Anything at All: A Discussion of Musical Morality and the Mashup Genre as a Societal Barometer

In general, I try my best to stay off my high horse when it comes to my musical opinions and tastes. Listeners have their own concepts of what music should be, and I respect that, despite any disagreements I may have in terms of subjective preference. However, there come instances in which the music lover in me cannot sleep soundly without expressing my qualms. This is one of those instances.

The mashup genre as we know it today can be traced back to Greg Gillis—or, as he's more popularly known, Girl Talk. Sure, there were records like Since I Left You and The Grey Album and Endtroducing... that are all several years Feed the Animals' senior. Hell, the genre is even indebted to musique concrete of the mid-twentieth century. But when somebody describes something as being a "mashup," the archetype that's been constructed in our heads is one of popular songs meshed together with a hip hop bass line and I-buy-my-shirts-at-Target ironic song titles. It's DJ Earworm's annual "United State of Pop." It's The White Panda's "Throw Some Tik on that Tok." It's Super Mash Bros' "Boom Boom Pau." It's any acne-faced computer geek with GarageBand, a YouTube account, and a dream. Now, this is not to say that just because the mashup genre happens to be DIY-friendly that it is inherently illegitimate. After all, never before has music technology and knowledge in general been as readily accessible as it is right now—what with Internet in our computers and phones, mp3s an informed Google search away, and tutorials on how to do everything from tying a tie to boiling an alligator head all at our fingertips. In a way, it's the modern-day equivalent of recreating a popular Tin Pan Alley song after dinner on the nineteenth century middle-class family's piano.

Allow me to reiterate: I have no beef with the mashup genre, nor do I have a problem with its gentle learning curve. Where my blood pressure starts getting raised, though, is when unwritten rules of popular music are broken. I'm not talking about music theory or the marriage of unlikely songs or even the aesthetics of the often-shoddy production jobs; I'm talking about the unacceptable pairings of bona fide masterpieces of pop with half-assed, got-drunk-in-the-studio-and-threw-on-AutoTune drivel. In other words, pairings that defy the will of the musical deities that be and disregard the spiritual capacity of music (and there is one, mind you)...

Torpeedoh has committed one of these mortal sins with "Get Loose," from his Girl Talk-aspiring Buckwild (that ultimately just lands him in the land of Gillis wannabes along with E-603 and Easter Egg). The track begins unassumingly and expectedly enough with an adrenaline-rousing Blur, Tag Team, and UNK musical stew, ebbing and flowing in intensity along with Albarn's 'woo hoo' and Coxon's massive guitar riff. At 1:28, however, the song falters and satisfies our society's perpetual musical ADD by leaving the trio of samples behind and instead opting for the duo of Drake's "Best I Ever Had" and... Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane over the Sea"?!?!

Some background: I first heard this track on Friday night at a college party. It was replete with the mainstays you might expect at such a gathering, including plenty of alcohol. The experience I'm about to describe to you I wouldn't wish on anyone. Hearing two dozen drunk girls chanting "you da fuckin' best" over Jeff Mangum's magnum opus of magnum opuses with their arms in the air in that way only drunk girls do was legitimately saddening. That enchantingly simple four-chord progression that serves as a backdrop to quite possibly the most perfect three minutes and twenty-two seconds of pop music in the past two decades. That musical canvas Mangum paints with his unrefined, yet heart-achingly beautiful voice. Those lyrics Mangum penned in a Romantic outpouring of emotion after the diary of Anne Frank haunted his dreams... All of it defiled by a corporate puppet who used to play this guy on Degrassi.

Perhaps worst of all is that less than a minute later (2:24), the agony is over, and Journey's ubiquitous "Don't Stop Believin'" keyboard riff exchanges duties for instrumental backup to Drake's annoying croon. Just like that. I'm not sure if you've ever listened to In the Aeroplane over the Sea, but it's fucking emotionally draining. I have to clear out time in my day if I want to listen to that record because every single song touches me at my core. Even listening to just one song requires at least five minutes of quiet reflection afterward. This shit is heavy. Torpeedoh blots out Neutral Milk Hotel's candid emotionalism and substitutes Drake's hedonism and self-indulgence in its place.

So what?

Call me a cynic. Call me a snob. Tell me I'm overreacting. Tell me that there are much more important things to worry about, that there are bigger fish to fry. You're more than welcome to do so. But when I hear music of this caliber—a form of art, I'd say—that has been treated in this manner, I can't help but feel a little upset, as it reflects not only a decline in general music appreciation, but more importantly and alarmingly, it is a sign of society's appraisal of sensation over substance, of "feelin' for a fix" rather than "lay[ing] in the sun and count[ing] every beautiful thing we can see."

Neutral Milk Hotel: In the Aeroplane over the Sea [alt]
Torpeedoh: Get Loose [alt]

Microcosmic Adventures in La-La Land

How big of a deal is Beyonce Knowles? A really fucking big deal. Sure, you could cite her success with Destiny's Child or her stellar solo debut in 2003 (remember 'Crazy in Love,' 'Me, Myself and I,' and even 'Daddy'?), but for the sake of this post, I'm going to stay fairly recent and focus exclusively on Sasha Fierce—namely, 'Sweet Dreams.'

Dedicated readers of Muzjiks know my stance on mashups. In general, I consider them the lowest form of music, except in cases where the artist takes two or more original pieces of pop music and fuses them to create an entirely new song that challenges our ear to decide whether the original is the predominant version in our mind any longer. Such is the case for The White Panda's 'Stuntin' Like My Energy' and the majority of Girl Talk's output (case in point: 'Here's the Thing'). However, 'Sweet Dreams' has gone above and beyond the mashup treatment, something that just about every top 40 hit of the past four decades has gotten at this point. That is, 'Sweet Dreams' has been sampled, covered, and altogether transformed several times over.

Allow me a brief digression: dubstep godfather Burial has taken such universally recognizable songs as Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful,' Destiny's Child's 'Emotion,' and Massive Attack's (of House fame) 'Teardop' and completely reworked them into brooding, experiencing-the-inception-of-the-apocalypse-in-the-dark-alley-next-to-a-British-club soundscapes. It is this relative of the mashup culture which I'd argue is the primary progressive force in popular music today—not only is it cognizant and respectful of the past, but it simultaneously pushes pop forward.

Jigga's got the hottest chick in the game wearing his chain, and her 'Sweet Dreams' received the aforementioned Burial-esque treatment. From psych-rockers (and Jaguar promoters) The Big Pink to dubstep behemoth Kingdom to the Great Weezy F, 'Sweet Dreams' has transcended the scope and reach that one could ever imagine a single three-and-a-half-minute song achieving. The Big Pink covered it and made it an atmospheric, drugged-out, introspective anthem of angst and waking-up-the-next-morning-with-the-taste-of-vomit-in-your-mouth-and-a-wholly-unfulfilling-cluelessness-of-who's-asleep-next-to-you. Kingdom offers a glimpse of what happened the night before in the club when that sweet dream hadn't yet morphed into the beautiful nightmare it would become. And Weezy—well, he and heiress to the throne/rapper equivalent of Beyonce Nicki Minaj just command 'Sweet Dreams' and have their way with it on No Ceilings.

Beyonce Knowles' 'Sweet Dreams': a microcosm of where pop is and where it's headed...

The Big Pink: Sweet Dreams (cover) [alt]
Kingdom: Fogs [alt]
Lil Wayne (ft. Nicki Minaj): Sweet Dreams [alt]

EDIT 9/4: It's Beyonce's birthday today. She turns 29. Totally didn't plan that! Weird.

Kanye Does It Again

The man is a genius. A genius, I tell you.

Kanye West: Devil in a New Dress [alt]

MuzjiksRx (9.3)

Note to patient: Though MDMA is not required to listen to this music, it certainly helps.

Monster! Monster!: Died In Your Arms (Dubstep Remix) [alt]

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Vitalic: Flashmob [alt]

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Guido: Mad Sax [alt]

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[Posh British accent] Extraordinary Record [/Posh British accent]

"Sometimes I feel like they [Radiohead] cleared a path with a machete, and we came afterward and put up a strip mall."
–Chris Martin

Air Traffic is your girlfriend's next favorite band. They're infectiously poppy and fall into the Radiohead-lite category along with Keane, Coldplay, Muse, and the like. Honestly, they're probably just one Twilight soundtrack or Stephenie Meyer cosign away from American teenybopper hysteria. And if you know anything about me, you know of my unabashed Radiohead elitism and general music snobbery. Hell, I own a shirt that reads "I listen to bands that don't even exist yet." So, why the hell am I posting this?

I'll admit it: Air Traffic is my guilty pleasure. I've been spinning their 2007 debut, Fractured Life, on the regular for the past three years now. In fact, the Bournemouth four-piece occupies two spots in my top 20 most played songs in iTunes. I guess you could say that Air Traffic fills that soft spot I have for Brits who sing with their native accent and proudly wear their indebtedness to The Great Thom Yorke on their sleeves.

Don't expect anything terribly groundbreaking or progressive here, but do prepare yourself from some catchy britpop, memorable melodies, and a band whose material you'll probably find yourself coming back to for the foreseeable future...

No More Running Away [alt]
Shooting Star [alt]
Charlotte [alt]

Derp

Sure, the Princeton Review might've awarded the University of Georgia top honors when it came to party schools, but Davidson College students know that those rankings are all politics anyway. Apparently, this is the DC fight song, but with Tom Ross leaving and rumors abound of the campus going dry under the new police regime, I propose the following as the new fight song of Davidson College... [/tongue-in-cheek]

Tim Berg: Alcoholic (Dada Life Remix) [alt]

Can you dig it?

You've heard of the Budos Band. You just don't know it. Perhaps you're familiar with Black Eyed Peas' "Imma Be," which sampled the band's "Ride or Ride." Or maybe you've heard Wale's Mixtape About Nothing, which lifted the beat for "The Chicago Falcon (Remix)" from the opening track of The Budos Band II. Blending jazz, funk, afrobeat, and the sound of the 1970s blaxploitation film into a nostalgic retro style, the Staten Island-based collective evokes Super Fly and Shaft so authentically that I thought I was listening to an obscure '70s band, rather than an alive-and-well group that's only been together since 2005.

Now, don't misconstrue my words. Just because the Budos Band is making music characteristic of four decades ago doesn't mean that they're retracing steps on well-trod ground; rather, these musicians are fusing the aforementioned genres into something new, something fresh. And as you can see in the picture above, there's a lot of people in Budos. They combine their efforts to yield groovy syncopation, subtle melodies, sultry horn lines, and countless other musical ingredients that ultimately create a dense sound that rewards repeat listens, as there's simply too many elements demanding interest for the ear to process it all at once.

Golden Dunes [alt]
Chicago Falcon [alt]
Ride or Die [alt]

Oh Yea!!

These are way better.

Beyonce and Andy Griffith: "Single Ladies" (Mashup)

The White Panda: "Signs to Blow" (Drake v Bloc Party)

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Wake up, bake up!

Wiz Khalifa reps his hometown in this brand new track, entitled "Black and Yellow." Taylor Gang or start another oil spill, motherfuckers. Enjoy.

Black and Yellow [alt]