Very glad to see these cats getting the recognition they deserve. I actually wrote about them, back in October, as one of my first Learn Ya posts. This new year seems to be going GREAT for them. This time you get a leak off of their upcoming album The Payback (which might I add is a free download and will be available on their site), featuring K. Sparks, which I have also written about on a Learn Ya Wednesday post. Hope nothing but good for ArtOfficial. Damn sure know they don’t stop working for it.
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Posted by Damian C. On March - 11 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
I’m not a big fan of bands that scream throughout 80-100% of their songs, but I make a huge exception for metal/hardcore bands that have a advant grade feel to them. Call it mathcore, avant-garde metal, experimental metal, art metal, whatever. I love the fact that The Dillinger Escape Plan is just one of those amazing bands that feeds into this genre of music. For those of you that don’t know what avant-garde metal is, it’s a sub genre of metal that has large scale experimentations and the use of other instruments not common in the genre of metal and uncommon sounds and song structures.
The Dillinger Escape Plan is releasing their upcoming album, “Option Paralysis” on March 23rd. Below I’m posting a video to their single entitled “Farewell, Mona Lisa”
In the future expect more information on this band and their latest album. (This is the perfect workout music for me)
Here’s a teaser for the “Option Paralysis” album (Sorry this quality isn’t all that great):
Posted by Damian C. On March - 11 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
Morcheeba is an amazing trip hop group that combines trip with a more R&B and hip-hop approach. Listening to Morcheeba gives you a great atmospheric listening and mood between the great arrangement in production, sensual feel, and Skye’s hypnotic vocals. Founders DJ Godfrey and Ross Godfrey met sometime in the 1990s and recruited Skye Edwards as their vocalist, during a chance meeting at a party in which both brothers were introduced to Skye. Together they made a good discography and history in the world of trip-hop. Till this day I still consider Morcheeba in the top of this category of music.
The information below describes Morcheeba’s biography and history which was taken by Wikipedia.org:
The band’s debut album, Who Can You Trust? was released on China Records in 1996 and fitted smoothly into the then-modish trip hop genre, with instrumentation around Rhodes piano, electric guitar and DJ scratching, with the songs carried by Edwards relaxed soul-styled vocals.
The follow-up, 1998’s Big Calm, moved slightly away from trip-hop towards a more pop-orientated, song-based sound. This was exemplified by the band’s remaking of “Moog Island” (a song from the previous album) in a more summery, upbeat style, with the new title of “The Music That We Hear”. One of the album’s singles, “The Sea”, became a hit and a radio favourite. The album proved to be a big seller and ensured Morcheeba’s success as a breakthrough act. The degree and nature of Big Calms popularity sometimes appeared to subsequently irritate the Godfrey brothers, who would protest at what they saw as being classified as “coffee-table music”.
In 2000, Morcheeba released their third album Fragments of Freedom. This repeated the sales success of Big Calm but received a less positive critical response. The band’s sound continued to move away from their trip-hop roots and to get closer to pop.
The band’s fourth album, Charango was released in 2002 and spawned several singles including “Otherwise”, “Way Beyond” and “Undress Me Now” (the release of the latter was cancelled, despite the creation and release of an expensive, erotic Balinese-inspired CGI video)[citation needed]. In an indication of what would follow, several tracks on the album did not feature Skye Edwards and were instead written with and sung by Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner or by rappers Pace Won and Slick Rick.
In 2003, the Godfrey brothers dismissed Skye Edwards from Morcheeba, citing musical (and some personal) differences. A greatest hits compilation, Parts of the Process, helped to sustain momentum and featured two new tracks – “What’s Your Name” (featuring a rapping cameo from Big Daddy Kane) and “I Can’t Stand It”. At around the same time, Morcheeba released the live DVD Morcheeba: From Brixton To Beijing
In 2005 Morcheeba released their fifth studio (and first post-Skye Edwards) album, The Antidote. Daisy Martey (formerly of the band Noonday Underground) was recruited to replace Edwards as the album vocalist. The Antidote featured a new change in direction, drawing from 1960s folk-pop. However, Martey’s period with the band was brief and she was sacked in the middle of the promotional tour, to be replaced by Jody Sternberg. Sternberg’s own tenure with the band was similarly brief, and she only appears to have been part of the band to fulfil tour dates. Martey would later complain that she had been treated callously, and would also announce that she was taking legal action against Paul Godfrey on grounds of sexual harrassment.
After a break of several years, Morcheeba released their sixth studio album, Dive Deep in February 2008. On this album, the Godfrey brothers emphasised their role as producers creating a set of instrumental tracks entirely sung by a roster of guest performers – cult folk-rock singer Judie Tzuke, Norwegian singer-songwriter and former Jaga Jazzist collaborator Thomas Dybdahl, blues singer/guitarist Bradley Burgess, Korean-American rapperCool Calm Pete, and French singer Manda.) Both Manda and Burgess toured with Morcheeba as lead singers on their 2008 tour.
On February 12 2010, New Musical Express revealed that Skye Edwards was once again working with the band. Edwards was due to make her live return with the band at the Caprices Festival, Switzerland on April 9 2010.[1] Paul Godfrey confirmed the news of Edwards’ return in the blog section of Morcheeba’s MySpace page on February 13 2010.”
I cool interview with Jay Electronica by The Higher Plane. Focusing on how touring around the world effects Jay positive thoughts, how men and women are different and life and you just get an all around look at the amount of knowledge this cat has to offer.
While in Greensboro, NC, for the BP3 Tour, Jay brought out one of his new gunners up to bat. J. Cole came out to help him perform “Star is Born”, which was also the first time J. Cole ever hits up an actual selling album. You can tell just by looking at this video, how much fun he is having on ROC Nation.
As most of you know, Little Brother is working on their last studio album together. Phonte has The Foreign Exchange and Pooh has his solo career he’s trying to attend to. Also, 9th Wonder has NOTHING to do with this album, which makes me a bit sad.
Well, if the whole album is anything like this one song, then they are SURE to have a great album to say ‘goodbye’ with.
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“This project is my personal way of putting a distinctive bookmark in this chapter in my life, and a way to pass a sincere thank you to Jay-Z, Mr. Sean Carter, for all of the memories, the opportunity to rock on stage as an artist with him around the world, and for the kindness to me as a person. You know I had to do it in my language; a thank you in music.
A sincere thank you and respect to Jay-Z and the Roc Boys.
Take a listen, spread the word, and enjoy the music!
Peace, DJ Neil Armstrong aka the All Out King”
Tracklisting:
The MC and the DJ
1 DOA
2 No ID Speaks
3 Props to BIG Brother Jay-z – Kanye West
4 Hola Hovito
5 BluePrint 1 Return to the soul samples
6 The Rulers Back
7 Izzo
8 Heart of the City
9 Never Change
10 Young Forever
11 Empire State of Mind
12 What Where I’m From
13 Already Home
14 Reminder
15 People talking
16 Hate
17 Takeover/Run This Town
18 Renegade
19 Real As it Gets
20 All I Need
21 03 Bonnie And Clyde
22 Excuse Me Miss
23 So Ambitious
24 The Bounce
25 Excuse Me Miss Remix
26 Jigga that N*
27 Stop
28 What They Gonna Do Part 2
29 Ain’t No N*
30 Venus Vs Mars
31 Girls girls girls remix
32 On to the Next One
33 What We Talkin about
34 Every Day A Star is Born
35 Thank You
Usually Lou posts about music on Wednesdays, but since I stomp around the antisteez universe to the beat of my own iPod, I am gonna post about this happy, little Brit band that I stumbled upon not once, but twice today.
And I’m not gonna try and learn ya something. But I do want you to act like ya heard, dig?
First and foremost, this has nothing to do with hip hop. Seriously. So, if you are a hip-hop head that is gonna suffer a case of clenched asshole if you don’t hear beats and rhymes in this post, stop reading now.
I’ll wait for all of you to shuffle your dunks right on out of here.
Okay, for those of you that like all kinds of music, then peep this musical find out.
The band is an indie, sorta of funkish/rockish band called The NOISEttes. They are made up of singer Shinhai Shoniwa guitarist Dan Smith, and drummer Jamie Morrison. I heard them first today when I was surfing my friend’s playlist on youtube. I caught one of their tracks called Don’t Upset The Rhythm. It was chipper and fun. I dug on it. So I made a mental bookmark to peep more on this band eventually (which means probably never.) and that was that. However, tonight, coincidentally! I caught their joint Never Forget You in a random post on the book of faces and I had this The Ronettes vs Amy Winehouse moment and I liked it. Ah, I though, thank you God’s of music for not letting me sleep on this band! I also love that this track includes violins. You can peep the video down yonder along with some other tunes I dug from the band.
Singer Shingai Shoniwa is pretty ferocious.
I think that lead singer Shingai Shoniwa (She’s from Zimbabwe.) has an amazing voice. (She also plays bass, which to me, is righteously sexy. I mean, like smoking-hot sexy.) She has that gritty, Billie-Holiday-esque edge to her voice that makes her singing interesting and captivating. (No autotone face here, ladies and gentlemen.) This is the type of voice that can make any piece of music unique. Case and point, peep The NOISEttes’ cover of The Killers’ When You Were Young. Recorded at the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, it’s an excellent piece of music and Shingai will kind of make you forget it’s a Killers’ track.
And, to add insult to injury that I had never heard of this band, they actually toured with Muse in 2006 and with Lady Gaga in 2009. Go figure, eh? Well, better late than never, I always say. Check out the Noisettes below. Act like ya heard, act like ya know.
-goobs
ps. their live version of Wild Young Hearts (below) is my new obsession!!! It makes my ears happy and the lyrics are wonderfully magical, like Lucky Charms, but with no soggy marshmallow hearts and green clovers.
i’m not what i was last summer, not who i was in the spring.
tell me, tell me ,tell me, when will we learn
we love it and we leave it and we watch it burn?
damn these wild young hearts, damn these wild young hearts.
Here’s the mixtape to announce this amazingness I’ve been talking about for a few months now. Spun by DJ Mathematics, presented by Def Jams and hitting you with exclusive, classics, un-released and new shit, you’re gonna piss your pants when you hear.
Tracklisting:
01 -Intro Short Version [00:31]
02 -Mef Vs. Chef (Exclusive) [02:52]
03 -Miranda (Exclusive) [01:39]
04 -House of Flying Daggers [02:27]
05 -The Turn [02:17]
06 -Paisley Darts [02:34]
07 -Silent [00:51]
08 -Cuban Chronicles (Exclusive [01:55]
09 -Where Your Heat at [01:10]
10 -Four Minutes to Lock Down [02:33]
11 -Flowers (Mathematics Mix) [02:33]
12 -Rush (Mathematics Mix) [02:04]
13 -Method Man Plo Freestyle (Exclusive) [01:56]
14 -Rush 2 [00:37]
15 -One (Mathematics Mix) [03:01]
16 -Its Yours (Mathematics Mix) [01:45]
17 -Goldmine [01:15]
18 -For this.Ae [00:50]
19 -Deadly Venoms [01:59]
20 -Tony Montana [01:15]
21 -Afterparty [02:11]
22 -The General (Exclusive) [01:18]
23 -Murda Goons [02:07]
24 -The M.E.T.H. [01:02]
25 -Wu-Gambino’s [01:57]
26 -260 [02:26]
27 -Wu-Tangs 1st Radio Appearance [02:43]
(Wbia Super Exclusive)
28 -St. Ides Commercial (Exclusive) [00:44]
29 -Eye for A Eye [01:08]
30 -Right Bach at You [01:04]
31 -Extortion [01:19]
32 -10 Bricks [02:25]
33 -Raekwon and Ghostface Live Radio [01:48]
Freestyle Ae (Exclusi
34 -Iron God Chamber [01:03]
35 -Its What it is [01:34]
36 -Diz Iz 4 All My Smokers [01:42]
37 -Black Cream (My Guitar) [01:41]
38 -Where it Started at [01:07]
39 -Fast Shadow Feat. Odb (Exclusive).Ae [01:21]
40 -Block Rock [01:19]
41 -About Me [00:59]
42 -Drummer [01:57]
43 -Watch Your Mouth [02:04]
44 -Cash Still Rules-Scary Hours [03:05]
45 -Box in Hand.Ae [02:56]
46 -7th Chamber Part 2 [02:34]
47 – (Bonus) Ghostface Freestyle Live on Radio [02:29]
48 -(Bonus) Newcomer Feat. Eyes-Low [01:02]
Here’s a quick write up on the project by the trio taken from Def Jam’s website.
Cosmic forces of destiny unite three mortals in world-shaking times, as Def Jam recording artists – and Wu-Tang Clan brothers-for-life – Method Man, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon join forces on WU MASSACRE, an historic collaboration that takes Wu science and theology to the next step on hip-hop’s evolutionary grid. (Tentative tracklist, song titles and guest artists appear below, subject to change.)
WU MASSACRE, which arrives March 30th in the physical and digital marketplace, will be preceded by the soulful street single “Our Dreams,” starring the legendary Wu-Tang Clan’s three most dynamic MCs, Meth, Ghost, and Rae and produced by RZA for Wu-Tang Productions. For an added tug on the heart-strings, “Our Dreams” samples Michael Jackson’s mid-’70s hit as a 17-year old, “We’re Almost There.”
In addition to “Our Dreams,” Meth, Ghost and Rae take the trio spotlight on two more tracks: the thunderous opener “Criminology 2.5” and “Miranda.” Ghost and Meth take the lead on “It’s That Wu Sh*t.” On the “Smooth Sailing” Remix, Ghost and Meth are joined by Solomon Childs and Streetlife. On “Gunshowers,” Meth and Ghost are joined by fellow WTC rapper Inspectah Deck and Sun God. “Youngstown Heist” features Trife, Sheek and Bully.
In addition to RZA, WU MASSACRE features a number of guest producers, starting with Mathematics on “Mef vs. Chef,” “Dangerous,” “Miranda,” and “Made Men.” Scram Jones produced “Youngstown Heist” and “It’s That Wu Sh*t.” E Meal produced “Pimpin’ Chipp.” And Ty Fyffe produced the “Smooth Sailing” Remix.
The springtime arrival of WU MASSACRE follows a busy year of album releases and performance schedules by all three artists:
Ghostface Killah returned as The Wizard Of Poetry (released September 2009), his 6th Def Jam album (and 10th major label album). The Wiz focused on duets with an A-list of guests including Raheem DeVaughn (on the first single, “Baby”), Mary J. Blige, John Legend, Fabolous, Lloyd, Vaughn Anthony & Estelle, and others. Ghost spent July and August with Method Man and Redman, keeping the Wu-Tang Clan spirit alive and well on the month-long, 21-city Foot Print in Hip-Hop Tour.
Raekwon aka The Chef gave WU fans something to believe with the long-awaited Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II (also released September 2009), which spun off a pair of all-star singles: “New Wu” featuring Meth and Ghost, produced by RZA; and “House of Flying Daggers” featuring Meth, Ghost, GZA, and Inspectah Deck, produced by J. Dilla. CLII is the sequel to Rae’s groundbreaking solo debut of 1995, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, one of the very first solo albums released by a W-TC member after the group’s 36 Chambers entry back in ’93. Rae spent the summer 2009 on the massively successful Rock The Bells Tour alongside GZA, RZA, Nas, Damian Marley, the Roots, Ice Cube, Common, and others.
Always larger than life, Method Man is still basking in the glow of Blackout! 2 (released May 2009), his critic ally acclaimed collaboration with Redman. It was the long-awaited sequel (ten years!) to Meth and Red’s RIAA platinum Blackout, a defining hip-hop event of 1999 (with “Tear It Off,” “Y.O.U.,” and “Da Rockwilder”). Blackout! 2 blasted off with a trifecta of new single releases showing off Meth and Red at their very best: “A-Yo” featuring Saukrates, produced by Pete Rock; “Mrs. International” featuring Erick Sermon, produced by Buckwild; and “City Lights” featuring Bun B, produced by Nasty Kutt.
Posted by Damian C. On February - 9 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
Well this is for all you Massive Attack fans out there. It’s been quite sometime since we’ve heard any news about the release of a new album. Today the long await album “Heligoland” is being released today. So be sure to pick up the album because when it comes to trip-hop, the dark atmospheric sensual sounds of Massive Attack never fails.
If you’ve been under a rock and don’t know who Massive Attack is when click here to know what’s at hand.
Posted by Damian C. On February - 8 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
In case you guys missed it this weekend when Ashton Kutcher was hosting Saturday Night Live, Them Crooked Vultures were musical guest and they performed two songs. I was surprised at this because I haven’t seen Saturday Night Live in ages and now I had a reason to watch it. I did however miss the first performance of “New Fang”, but got to see “Mind Eraser, No Chaser”. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Damian C. On February - 7 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
Air’s latest single “So Light Is Her Footfall” from their current album “Love 2″ has been put on The Official Air Channel on YouTube on January 18, 2010. So I’m here to bring it to you in case none of you folks have heard it yet. By the way, for more information on Air, please check out this post I wrote a few days ago. Read the rest of this entry »
