Kanye West’s highly-anticipated music video for his hit song Monster, featuring Rick Ross, Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj, was leaked hours ago. Earlier this month, Kanye released a 35 second teaser for it, which drummed up a ton of controversy– namely because there appeared to be dead models all over the place. With the leak of the full video, we can see that those dead models are actually zombies. Awesome.
Take a look at the 1:55 mark to see a Justin Bieber lookalike getting attacked by zombies.
The audio quality is a little iffy, but that’s what we get for watching a leaked version of the video. [read more…]
I’m back with my absolute favorite songs of this year!
I was not in America for half the year, so I’ll admit that I wasn’t on my A game with respects to the latest and greatest on the airwaves… feel free to argue with me (although praise would be nice, too).
Charts, reviews, and Pitchfork aside, this is what I was listening to on repeat in 2010… [read more…]
I know that the splintered voice of Conor Oberst isn’t for everyone, but for those who’ve felt the warmth from the moans of Fevers & Mirrors, the happy-sad feeling of Lifted, the somewhat conditioned disappointment of Cassadaga, this is big news.
It seems, to my heart’s content (and to that of many others), Oberst still hasn’t gotten his fill from the Mystic Valley Band, nor from his ferociously folk counterparts. So with this, the heard-about-but-never-seen Yeti of a Bright Eyes album now has a concrete release date!
Oberst rounds up a few old faces, longtime band mate Nathaniel Walcott and producer (as well as a fellow MOF member) Mike Mogis to bring us (drum roll…) The People’s Key. It’s Bright Eyes’ seventh studio album and will be available February 15, 2011.
Here’s the track list… I never really understood why this is important to include so prematurely, but when you got the goods, show ‘em.
Mash-up artist Gregg Gillis, affectionately known by millions as Girl Talk, released his latest album All Day earlier today. I couldn’t be more excited. On All Day, Gillis mashes up tracks like Cali Swag District’s “Teach Me How to Dougie” to the 1987 hit “Jane Says,” Portishead with Big Boi, and Lady Gaga with Aphex Twin. His ability to make an un-danceable song danceable is pretty amazing. I’m sure a couple of these songs will find themselves on your weekend playlist.
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My life sort of changed in late December of 1992, when someone gave me Dr. Dre’s now-classic album The Chronic. Listening to that juicy, bouncy, drawly hybrid of P-Funk and the usual gangsta rap themes (hating police, shooting enemies, acquiring/dumping hoes) pre-dated my first experience with weed, as it should have. It made the whole concept—yes, The Chronic was a concept album, a rolling tour through late-afternoon Compton with a gat strapped to your waist and your homies riding in the back—even better, since I had no idea what “the chronic” was (a mixed drink of some sort, I believed) nor why it was so popular among West Coast gangstas. And of course this pre-dated the internet as we know it, assuring my ignorance remained until months later, when a certain roommate produced a bag of sticky herb and pronounced “This is the chronic.”
No, it was not “the chronic.” It was schwag, at best. But I didn’t care. I listened to “Nuthin’ but a G Thang” and felt far cooler than my actual incarnation (a freshman at Buffalo State College who owned several Sting solo albums).
It wasn’t just the terrific videos, or the terrific songs, or my first exposure to a female rapper who actually sounded hard (Lady of Rage on “Lyrical Gangbang” owned Queen Latifah, Money Love, and any other female MC I could think of). It was the relaxed vibe, the posturing, the nearly every track being the perfect party/driving/working out music, and all of Dre’s The Chronicaccomplished what most early rap attempted: to elevate the embarrassing to the coveted. By “embarrassing” I mean the realities of Compton are the result of failed economic policies, institutionalized racism, and just plain old villainy; the hood was a place one wanted to escape, yet The Chronic made it oddly appealing. Suddenly, the idea of a bench on my front lawn, a pitbull snapping at the end of a chain, a dorm fridge full of 40’s, a barbecue, and custom hydraulics on my grandfather’s car seemed cool. More than that, it seemed authentic.[i] Certainly more authentic than anything I was experiencing, with my Dream of the Blue Turtles album and my J. Crew khakis and my 1977 Pontiac Parisienne. [ii][read more…]
Check out some of the latest jams from British producer Gold Panda. His lo-fi, beat-driven electronic sound can most appropriately be described as hypnotizing. If you’re a fan of Washed Out or Toro y Moi, you should definitely give Gold Panda a listen. His stuff has received critical acclaim from such publications as Pitchfork, Dazed and Confused, The Guardian & NME, among others. Be sure to grab his debut album, Lucky Shiner, which is set to be released in on CD and vinyl mid-October. [read more…]
Attention all you budding mash-up artists and DJs: Phoenix has just released the multitrack recordings of every one of their songs on Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. This means that it’s now easier than ever to remix and mash-up Phoenix’s latest album. It’s a pretty awesome move on their part, if you ask me.
Over the next week or two, I’m sure some amazing stuff will surface from all corners of the web (although we’ll have to brace ourselves for the initial influx of crappy remixes). Feeling creative? Grab your copy of Albeton Live and get remixing! [read more…]
Every Friday for the past month or so, Kanye West has been releasing tracks off of his upcoming album, Dark Twisted Fantasy. I’m particularly stoked because up until all of this, he seemed to be laying low and keeping out of the spotlight nearly a year. Maybe it’s due to the fact that he’s now obsessed with Twitter.
In case you haven’t been keeping up, below is a rundown of the stuff he’s released. I’m really loving “Monster,” a track that Courtney first gave me a heads up on, and “Runaway,” which was performed at last night’s VMAs. [read more…]
Mash-up artist Gregg Gillis, affectionately known by millions as 
