Category Archives: Whoa!

December 1, 2011 · 4:27 pm

Grammy Nomination – Diplo

2011 is the year of the electronic musician, with the numerous accolades, features, sold out festivals and now Grammy nominations for the genre and its artists.  One of the music industry’s most recognized names and undeniably charismatic personalities, Diplo, has been nominated for his second Grammy (previously nominated for M.I.A.’s ‘Paper Planes’) as producer for Chris Brown’s three times nominated “Look At Me Now.” The Rap Song of the Year nominee infiltrated clubs and radio waves and garnered over 132 million views on YouTube, arguably one of the biggest hits of the year.
Diplo wears many hats and there will be no shortage of projects to follow in 2012.  In addition to working with everyone from pop stars, rappers and indie rockers, Diplo is gearing up for the sophomore release from Major Lazer and more world touring.  His record label, Mad Decent, and new label imprint, Jeffrees, will continue to put out some of the most exciting new artist releases, while Diplo continues to pen his online column for Vanity Fair, as well as the release of his first book with photographer Shane McCauley through Rizzoli.
Congratulations to Diplo and all his fellow Grammy nominees!

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November 30, 2011 · 4:49 pm

Finally! Official Video for Avicii’s “Levels”

One year, and over 20 millions YouTube hits after it was first unleashed upon the partying public, Avicii’s ‘Levels’ has become a globally recognized score and undoubtedly the most unifying dancefloor record of 2011…but the bug is spreading further! As this mammoth single continues to soar up charts across the planet, we are finally blessed with one truly hilarious music video to match. Living up to all expectations and more, this three-minute cut of comic genius will have you splitting at the sides.
The mundane, daily grind of office-block life provides the initial setting…until that is, one melancholy employee becomes infected with the ‘Levels bug’. No prizes for guessing how the mood U-turns; as Avicii’s smash hit gets into full swing, resonating and rip-roaring over the computers and photocopiers of the humdrum workplace, the man is simply uncontrollable in his hip-thrusting, booty-shaking, table-top dancing excitement – so much so that only the Taser-gun of a security man can bring him down!
As he hits the deck and passes out, that’s when things start to get very weird…and equally funny. Awaking from a truly bizarre dream to find himself strapped to a hospital bed, the madness of the office starts all over again – the only difference being that the ‘Levels bug’ is ten times more infectious than before. Doctors, nurses and janitors beware, because nobody is safe from the contagious sounds of 22 year-old superstar Avicii!

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November 29, 2011 · 3:24 pm

Free Download: Boots Electric – “I Love You All The Thyme”

After bestowing the videos for “Boots Electric Theme” and “Complexity” upon us, Eagles of Death Metal’s Jesse Hughes is sharing a third track from his solo project, Boots Electric. The track finds Hughes showing a different side from his notorious winking, seductive persona that gets all the girls.  Instead, “I Love You All The Thyme” is a moment of genuine pining for someone he loves that seems to have their eye on someone else.  The song is on Honkey Kong (Dangerbird Records), Hughes’ debut album under the Boots Electric moniker.  The album was produced by Tony Hoffer (Beck, Depeche Mode, The Kooks) and co-written with legendary keyboardist Money Mark, best known for his many collaborations with the Beastie Boys.

After creating three albums of dirty and danceable garage rock anthems as the frontman of Eagles of Death Metal,  Hughes expands his sonic palette as Boots Electric while continuing to deliver the hooks that he’s known for.  The electronic drums that kick off opening track “Complexity” immediately signal the new direction.  The track is a mix of glam-pop, keyboard-heavy dance grooves, and Hughes’ signature brand of rock ‘n roll grit that drips with swagger.   Elsewhere, he tries on space-funk synths on the track “Boots Electric” and “Trippy Blob” has some of his most absurdist lyrics yet. Hughes continues to show his earnest side on tracks like “No Ffun” is an honest-to-goodness ballad and “Swallowed by the Night” is a soulful slice of honky tonk gold.  Honkey Kong reveals what many already knew – beneath the tongue-in-cheek lyrics and his charismatic strut, Hughes has always been a gifted pop songwriter at heart.  Boots Electric is coming out of the closet.

Listen/download: Boots Electric – “I Love You All The Thyme”

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November 16, 2011 · 3:49 pm

Free Download: Escort – “Makeover”

“The Best Disco Album Of 2011”
– SPIN

“The best New York disco tracks since West End Records’ early-‘80s heyday.”
– Pitchfork

“Escort is New York City’s greatest perpetual buzz band…”
– The Village Voice

Escort has been setting dance floors ablaze with their disco-infused beats, irresistibly catchy hooks and seductive live shows since releasing a series of 12” singles in 2006. The seventeen-member “disco orchestra,” founded by producers Eugene Cho and Dan Balis, and fronted by lead singer Adeline Michèle, features an incredible cast of musicians who have played with everyone from indie-rock titans Arcade Fire to avant-classical luminaries Alarm Will Sound. Escort’s long-awaited debut LP will be released on vinyl and CD on January 31st but is out on iTunes now!

Escort’s self-titled new album pays homage to mutant-pop luminaries such as Kid Creole and the Coconuts & Ian Dury. While embracing the legacy of these forward-thinking but classic acts, Escort has managed to create something strikingly new. Check out the new song “Makeover” below.

Listen/download: Escort – “Makeover”

Opener “CaméleonChameleon” is a theatrical masterpiece about the French serial impostor Frédéric Bourdin, set to a beat that’s equal parts Thriller and the Tom Tom Club. With piercing horns and silky smooth vocals “A Bright New Life” commands you to the dance floor. “Love in Indigo” blends the enormous R&B vocals of Adeline Michèle with lush strings creating a disco extravaganza that is all their own. The tracks, “Makeover” and “Why oh Why” seem to explore the lost possibilities of another era. The 1937 standard “A Sailboat in the Moonlight” is twisted into a lost classic. The album also includes versions of their 12” DJ releases remixed, re-mastered, rearranged, and re-recorded specially for the LP, completing the album as a sonic experience from beginning to end. New Yorkers who haven’t had a chance to catch them live have 2 more chances with a release party DJ event this week and a live disco extravaganza w/Midnight Magic coming up in December.

Escort NYC Shows
11/18: Brooklyn, NY @ Cameo, DJ Release Show
ft. Escort, Prince Languare & DarshanJesrani
12/17: Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg w/Midnight Magic

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November 15, 2011 · 5:02 pm

Brand New: Skream – “Anticipate”

Skream dropped the appropriately titled single, “Anticipate” feat. Sam Frank on Sunday. This is arguably the catchiest single OWSLA has put out, it was stuck in my head all weekend. Skream is credited for helping to invent Dubstep, pretty cool that he’s putting this out with Skrillex.

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November 10, 2011 · 12:42 pm

New Video: Outasight – “Tonight is the Night” (+ free mixtape download)

The video for Outasight‘s track “Tonight is the Night” has been released! Check it out! I don’t know about you, but it makes me wanna parrrrrrr-ty…and ride bikes through the city at night.

Things are really taking off for Outasight. He’s just taped a performance for an episode of 90210 that will air in December and appeared on VH1’s Big Morning Buzz Live yesterday. “Tonight Is The Night” is one of the hottest songs in the country right now as the song has starting burning up the radio charts. In its first week at radio, “Tonight Is The Night” was the #1 most added song on Top 40 radio.

Billboard recently ran a story where Outasight reflects on the sudden exposure. “There are so many ways to distinguish yourself, doing shows, doing mixtapes, or doing videos, and the label has been extremely supportive in all that process,” Outasight says. “Things are really starting to whirl now. It’s been a lot of hard work to get to this point, but it’s fun. It’s real. I’ve enjoyed it and I’m taking it all in.”

Free Download: Outasight and DJ Benzi’s “Get It Together” mixtape

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November 4, 2011 · 1:50 pm

Dosvec MEGAMIX Whaaaaat?!

Check out this hot megaREmix from Dosvec — it’s got a little bitta old and a little bitta new and it is suh-weeeeeet!

Click to listen/download: Dosvec “Feeling Good (Flo Rida // The Black Eyed Peas // Taio Cruz // Lady Gaga // Justin Timberlake // The Ting Tings // Ellie Goulding // The Cardigans // Edward Maya // Vika Jigulina)”

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November 2, 2011 · 10:41 am

Check Yo Ponytail!

Check Yo Ponytail has had a tremendous run so far on their first ever tour with Spank Rock, Big Freedia, Pictureplane, The Death Set and Franki Chan.  At their first show in Los Angeles, Wavves was a stellar addition to the line up, and Santigold made a special appearance during Spank Rock’s set. With the amazing news of Fun Fun Fun Festival and Pitchfork teaming up to make the festival available for live streaming, everybody will be able to tune into the world of Check Yo Ponytail on Friday November 4th from 5pm CET (which equals, 3pm PST and 6pm EST) on with sets of Pictureplane, Franki Chan, Big Freedia and Spank Rock.

“Though it tends to favor electro, rock, and hip-hop most, the characteristics of a Check Yo Ponytail show go beyond genre limitations. Chan doesn’t care what kind of music an artist or band makes as long as it’s fun and adds to the whole tight-knit, projector screen visual-fueled, dance-minded feel of the evening.”– San Francisco Bay Guardian

Fun Fun Fun Fest and Pitchfork announced that the 6th annual festival in Austin, Texas will be streaming live on pitchfork.com November 4 – 6, 2011. This will be the first time ever that the music of Fun Fun Fun Fest, one of the most progressive independent music festivals in the country, will be available live AND to those outside of Austin.

Unlike other music festivals with similar live streams, Fun Fun Fun Fest will present 4 separate streams with each tailored to different musical tastes, streamed live on one of the most widely read music websites in the world that reaches 3.3 million unique visitors each month. Like the Fun Fun Fun Fest stage setups, each stream will provide a different musical experience, from punk and metal to indie rock and electronica, from bounce and hip hop to competitions and comedy. Fans will be able to toggle the streams to cater to their favorite styles of music.

To purchase tickets to the Fest, view the full lineup, and for further updates, go to www.funfunfunfest.com. You can follow the fest on Twitter @funfunfunfest for up-to-the-minute news or you can become a Fun Fun Fun Homie on Facebook @facebook.com/funfunfunfest

Go here to listen/download: Big Freedia – “Excuse” (Flinch Remix)

Go here to listen/download: Spank Rock – #1 Hit (The Death Set Remix)

Live Stream Schedule for Pitchfork.com

Friday November 4th starting at 5pm CET:
Spank Rock @ 6:45pm CET
Big Freedia @ 6:05pm CET
Franki Chan @ 5:30pm CET
Pictureplane @ 5:00pm CET

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October 27, 2011 · 2:00 pm

New Track + Video: R.E.M. – “We All Go Back to Where We Belong”

R.E.M. POST TWO VIDEOS FOR BRAND-NEW SONG “WE ALL GO BACK TO WHERE WE BELONG”

R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe and co-director Dominic DeJoseph (who has directed previous films for R.E.M.) recruited actress Kirsten Dunst to star in one of the videos for “We All Go Back To Where We Belong.” Dunst is a Golden Globe-nominated performer who has starred in such movies as Sophia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Marie Antoinette, and the Spider-Man trilogy. She recently received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her role in the current film Melancholia, directed by Lars von Trier.
The other film stars iconic and legendary Dial-A-Poem artist/poet/activist John Giorno. Over the course of his notable career, Giorno has collaborated on several acclaimed projects with such luminaries as William S. Burroughs, Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and Glenn Branca. His work includes several books and multimedia poetry experiments and events. A career-spanning collection of his poems, entitled Subduing Demons in America: Selected Poems 1962-2007 was published in 2008. His first one-person gallery show, entitled Black Paintings and Drawings, was mounted at the Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery in New York in 2010.

Both black and white films for “We All Go Back To Where We Belong” capture their subjects in stark relief using a strong key light and shot with a stationary camera, an effect that Stipe describes as lending “gravity and beauty” to the proceedings.

These videos arrive on the heels of last years’ successful Collapse Into Now Film Project, which featured films by artists for every song on the album. Stipe said of the new project, “To be able to work with John and Kirsten was a dream I carried since we recorded the song, and their participation completes the song for me.”

“We All Go Back To Where We Belong,” which Rolling Stone recently premiered, is one of three new tracks to be included on R.E.M.’s upcoming final album R.E.M., Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage, 1982 – 2011 – a 40-song career-spanning retrospective that collects, for the first time ever, songs from pioneering American band’s entire 31-year career, including their years on both the IRS label (1982 to 1987) and Warner Bros. Records (1988 to 2011). The collection will be released on Warner Bros. Records on November 15th, 2011 and is currently available for pre-order on iTunes here and Amazon here.

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October 26, 2011 · 11:06 am

Shunda K & Snax Get Funky

Shunda K of Yo! Majesty, a lesbian, African American rapper, and Snax, a gay, Caucasian producer and rapper, didn’t know that the quickie music video they shot in a Berlin grocery store over the course of a day for their fun party jam “It’s Time To Get Paid” would rack up 600,000-plus YouTube views in a week.  They also didn’t know they would be dealt a dose of reality about the state of tolerance in our country.

 The clip, for the latest single from Shunda K’s album The Most Wanted generated hundreds of homophobic, racist and anti-Semitic (though neither artist is Jewish!) comments over the course of the time that the video was featured on YouTube’s front page as part of a playlist celebrating “National Coming Out Day.”

 Neither artist set about to justify the hatred with direct commentary on the site itself, but Snax issued an insightful and bitingly humorous commentary via his website “World of Snax” at snaxonline.org.  That post has now been re-published by The Huffington Post. In the post, Snax states, “I can’t stop you from doing anything. Know this, though; your tossed off, poorly written and childishly expressed ranting is nothing more than hurtful and destructive…”

 The clip for “It’s Time To Get Paid”  was shot on location in Berlin at Netto Grocery Store and Monster Ronson’s Ichiban Karaoke Nightclub. The clip also features an appearance by everyone’s favorite “F**k The Pain Away” performer, Peaches. Filmed, directed and edited by Robin Thomson, the video is accompanied by the release of a remix of the tune by DJ Dickey Doo, who also recently remixed the R.E.M. single “Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter.”

Listen: Shunda K ft. Snax – “It’s Time to Get Paid”

Listen: Shunda K ft. Snax – “It’s Time to Get Paid” (Dickey Doo Remix)

Read: Snax’s response

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