Pass The What? Pass the Popcorn!

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—B. DOLAN - "STILL HERE" from the upcoming HOUSE OF BEES VOL. 2

buddypeace:

PHYSICAL PRE-ORDERS AND PACKAGE DEALS AVAILABLE AT:
http://tinyurl.com/HouseOfBeesVol2

DIGITAL PRE-ORDER NOW ON SALE AT:
http://tinyurl.com/HOB2Digital

“KING BEE”, the swag-heavy song featured on the HOUSE OF BEES Vol. 2 video trailer, was the intended first single for the album. However, the recent passing of rap legend Adam Yauch (MCA of the Beastie Boys) stopped us all in our tracks and set a different tone among the hip-hop community. As a result, we’ve decided to put bravado aside for a minute and leak a song that’s fit to honor his passing and the moment.

“STILL HERE” is HOBV2’s album opener and acts as a mission statement of sorts. Here is what B. Dolan has to say about it :

“In 2010 my father was diagnosed with an extremely aggressive form of lung cancer and died within the span of 8 months. All of this happened at the same time SFR released ‘FALLEN HOUSE, SUNKEN CITY’, and I embarked on the most ambitious touring schedule of my career.

Needless to say, that year was devastating in every way. For the first time since age 12, I found myself questioning what I do and considered walking away from it. I’ve always taken pride in the ‘dues paid’ for my art, but in the face of a loss that great, everything can suddenly seem too awful, too futile, and too difficult to continue doing.

The beat used for “Still Here” was literally one of the most important parts of finally pulling myself out of that tailspin… Something about those bagpipes or whatever that sound is that Buddy sampled. I remember listening to it for the first time and feeling the hair on the back of my neck stand up. ‘They haven’t killed me yet.’ is the thought I immediately had when the beat dropped, and everything followed from there.”

Rest in Peace to MCA and all of our dearly departed. Through the impact they’ve had on our lives and the legacy they’ve given to the world, they’re Still Here.

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http://www.StrangeFamousRecords.com

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Astronautalis - Brighton Damn Park (Ft. Rob Viktum)

(Source: hypem.com)

Double Awesome - Adele and Smithy 

Double Awesome - Adele and Smithy 

sxsweveryband:

Eligh & Amp Live– “Tattoo Song”

  

A hip hop super duo better know for their work with other groups comes together for some of their strongest material to date. Eligh is a California rapper known for his work with the Living Legends collective and the Grouch and Eligh duo, while Amp Live is best known for his work with Zion I.  Their collaborative album titled “Therapy at 3” is filled with Eligh rapping primarily about self improvement and sobriety over Amp Live’s occasionally industrial sounding beats. Eligh’s past is filled with struggles with drugs and alcohol and his lyrics deal with life after addiction. Amp Live’s production is always solid but the sound on Therapy is as raw and emotive as Eligh’s raps.  “Tattoo Song” is Eligh’s case for why tattoos cover his skin and he makes a compelling case for running out and getting some ink, while the backing beat initially pulls the listener in, at around the 2:45 mark the beat turns into a raw producers solo that provides a dark soundtrack to the inner pain Eligh raps about for the first three quarters of the track. When Eligh & Amp Live hit sxsw you can expect two accomplished artists as focused as they’ve been in their combined 30 plus years in hip hop.

sxsweveryband:

Cities Aviv - ‘Coastin’

 

Cities Aviv is a young rapper from Memphis whose tracks are notable for their exceptional sampling choices and rich lyrical content.  “Coastin’” samples “Easy to be hard” by Shirley Bassey, which was famously covered by Three Dog Night. Other sampled artist include artist ranging from Gil Scott Heron to Depeche Mode. He’s from Memphis but his high energy and aggressive lyrical songs are more influenced by east coast lyricists and producers than popular southern artists. Last year’s full length Digital Lows  is filled with standout tracks and the singles he has released since show Cities Aviv could get a lot of attention after people hear his spacey laid back hip hop.  I look forward to Cities Aviv’s next release. 

My Top Eleven Albums of 2011 

The Roots – Undun

TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light

Blueprint – Adventures in Counter Culture

Alexander – Alexander

tUnE-yArDs – WHOKILL

My Morning Jacket – Circuital

Danger Mouse – Rome

Astronautalis – This is Our Science

Adele – 21

The Black Keys – El Camino

St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

Honorable mentions:

Charles Bradley – No Time for Dreaming

We Are Augustines – Rise Ye Sunken Ships

My Morning Jacket with Brian Jackson! Covering Gil Scott Heron’s “The Bottle”

(Source: youtube.com)

sxsweveryband:

Electric Wire Hustle - “Again”

Electric Wire Hustle is Mara TK, Taay Ninh, Myele Manzanza, and Benny Tones, from Wellington, NZ. Their music is a soulful mix of genres. Mara TK’s vocals are very much rooted in soul, think of the smoothness of Marvin Gaye, but the sound that surrounds him is best described as improvisational hip hop. They don’t follow a rigid song structure but instead slowly layer sounds to form their tracks. 

Seein’ fam fallin’ through the cracks in the variance Famished on a barren land of AIDS and malaria One percent could fix it with a tenth of their inheritance Freedom buried in the treasure chest of the nefarious Terrorists with pipe bombs, who’s sittin’ on the megaton? FEMA slow to respond, blame it on the weather, wrong Billion-dollar telethon, tell em where the cheddar gone And wonder why my people keep their weapons drawn. -Ra Scion “Nina Sing” (Image Source:Brett Newman) 

Seein’ fam fallin’ through the cracks in the variance
Famished on a barren land of AIDS and malaria
One percent could fix it with a tenth of their inheritance
Freedom buried in the treasure chest of the nefarious
Terrorists with pipe bombs, who’s sittin’ on the megaton?
FEMA slow to respond, blame it on the weather, wrong
Billion-dollar telethon, tell em where the cheddar gone
And wonder why my people keep their weapons drawn.
-Ra Scion “Nina Sing” (Image Source:Brett Newman) 

myshittytasteinmusic:

Kimbra - Settle Down (Music video)

Good song and video, if you’re into indie, female vocalists.

From Last.FM:

Kimbra, born and bred in Hamilton, New Zealand has been writing a fusion of jazz and soul for over 5 years, known for her erratic but graceful voice inspired by the likes of Amy Winehouse, Bjork and Jeff Buckley. 

Kimbra’s first success was in 2004, receiving Second place in the Smokefree Rockquest along with Best Vocals and Womens Musicianship (gaining $7000 in total from the competition raising artists like Brooke Fraser, Bic Runga and Anika Moa). 

Having already released two singles in New Zealand - one with Welsh producer Greg Haver (who has worked with artists/ bands all over the world, including Manic Street Preachers, Lost Prophets, Carly Binding, 48 May, Falter and The Checks) and recent single, ‘Simply On My Lips’ hitting radio and music TV. 2005 saw Kimbra record and release her first single “Deep For You” in New Zealand.


“Kissin’ the sky like my man Jimi Hendrix did | Fuck what you’re interest is, and what got you into this | The rhyme is the only thing that matter to a lyricist | There’s no way that I can keep going in like this | Because the good die young like Dilla did.” “GO HARD OR GO HOME (PRINTNIFICENCE”) -Blueprint

“Kissin’ the sky like my man Jimi Hendrix did | Fuck what you’re interest is, and what got you into this | The rhyme is the only thing that matter to a lyricist | There’s no way that I can keep going in like this | Because the good die young like Dilla did.”

“GO HARD OR GO HOME (PRINTNIFICENCE”) -Blueprint

In Fuck Yeah! News: The Roots new Single “Make My” feat. Big K.R.I.T

The Roots “Make My” featuring Big K.R.I.T. by okayplayer

“At this point in our career we’d like for our work to have a unifying theme, and an experiential quality. We’ve been intentionally making our albums shorter in length so that they can be experienced as a continuous work. The music is band-oriented with an eye on the moody cinematic. As a DJ, I am the King of playlists, but I don’t want our albums to feel like a playlist or a mixtape for that matter. We want to tell stories that work within the album format and we want the stories to be nuanced and useful to people. Undun is the story of this kid who becomes criminal, but he wasn’t born criminal. He’s not the nouveau exotic primitive bug-eyed gunrunner likeTupac’s character Bishop in Juice… he’s actually thoughtful and is neither victim nor hero. Just some kid who begins to order his world in a way that makes the most sense to him at a given moment… At the end of the day… isn’t that what we all do?”

-?uestlove 

(Source: okayplayer.com)

“See, I can look at a painting and admire the colors
Or appreciate any type of art that I discover
But what I dig’s invisible
It’s my teacher and I’m its student
I tell ya
Ain’t nothing quite as beautiful as Music.”