Check out the latest mixtape from my favorite mash-up duo, The Hood Internet. For Trillwave, ABX and STV SLV (who make up The Hood Internet) teamed up with clothier Mishka and made one hell of a summer mixtape. Trillwave is a laid-back, mellow experience perfect for your late-night afterparty/kickback. Listen to Birdman & Lil’ Wayne [...]

Yesterday, M.I.A. performed the track “Born Free” from her latest album /\/\/\Y/\ on The Late Show with David Letterman. The performance was characterized by the singer having an entourage of look-a-likes singing and dancing along with her. Pretty strange if you ask me, but it’s something that I’m not surprised to see her do– it’s [...]

After another dreadfully monotonous day of assembling glasses for 8 hours, I routinely flipped on XMU channel 26 on Sirius Satellite Radio to hear the groggy and pleasingly apathetic voices of Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner of The National.
For this week only, these guys will be hosting an hour-long show at 5 p.m. with replays [...]

Listen to the new track “Workin’” from DC-based rapper Wale. Definitely sounds like him at his best— the track is on the same level as “Chillin’” and “Nike Boots.” Wale’s been keeping a pretty low profile these last few months, and a new video he’s released explains why.
“Workin’” is off of his upcoming mixtape, More [...]

M.I.A.’s third album /\/\/\Y/\ (MAYA), is now available for stream on her MySpace. After giving it a couple of quick listens, I’m surprised to say that I’m a little disappointed. I really wanted to fall in love with it, since I still listen to Arular and Kala on a weekly basis, but it didn’t happen.
I [...]

Experimental electronica duo Crystal Castles’ self-titled second album was released just last month to critical acclaim, and with good reason. It’s easily one of my favorite albums of the year, on par with Broken Bells’ self-titled debut, Broken Social Scene’s Forgiveness Rock Record, and The National’s High Violet. Tracks like “Doe Deer,” “Empathy,” “Vietnam,” “Intimate,” [...]

American folk-rock singer Lissie recently performed a cover of Kid Cudi’s hit single “Pursuit of Happiness” while at England’s Great Escape festival. The woman’s got an amazing voice and really puts an interesting spin on the song. The only singer that I would liken her to would be Karen O. of Yeah Yeah Yeahs fame, [...]

Check out the new music video for the opening track off of MGMT’s sophomore album, entitled “It’s Working.” Directed by French graphic designer So Me, the video is both less disturbing than the “Kids” video and less trippy than the “Time to Pretend” video. Fear not though, because that’s actually not a bad thing. So [...]

Stumbled across this gem today from Pitchfork. It’s Big Boi (of Outkast fame) freestyling over one of Crystal Castles’ new tracks, “Empathy.” It’s cool to hear that famous voice freestyle over such a different type of beat. Watch the video.

Thomas Wesley Pentz, better known by his stage name Diplo, is one of the hottest DJs/producers in the hip-hop/dance-funk genre today. To most people, he’s known for producing the 2007 smash hit single “Paper Planes” by M.I.A. But to others, he is one half of the collaborative side-project Major Lazer with fellow DJ Switch. Diplo [...]