2014 MTV Woodie Award Nominees Announced
The MTV Woodies, the cable channel's reaction to indie music, announced the nominees for this year's award show, chosen by voters online yesterday. The nominees included a who's who of artists and acts that dominated the up and coming charts in 2013. In the hunt for the coveted "Woodie of the Year" are familiar names in Kanye West, Drake and Pharrell, as well as some more eclectic choices in Disclosure, Imagine Dragons, Lorde and Zedd. Chance The Rapper and director Austin Vesely are nominated for the "Best Video Woodie" for the "Everybody's Something" video. They will be up against some stiff competition from Disclosure ("Grab Her"), Passion Pit ("Carried Away"), Iggy Azalea ("Bounce") and Arcade Fire ("Afterlife"). Chance pops up again for his collaboration on "Life Round Here" with James Blake and Jhene Aiko and Mack Wilds round out a fairly solid list for "Breaking Woodie". Honestly, it's odd to find names like Beyonce and Jay Z on this list of nominees, which seem more tailored to Macklemore than the Grammys did a few weeks ago. Bob Dylan is nominated for a "Did It My Way Woodie". What's more 'My Way' than releasing an album (The Heist, Acid Rap) independently only to see it beat out the big guys? The line between independent and mainstream is being increasingly scrubbed away, and the 2014 edition of the Woodie Awards may be the best implication of that.
The MTV Woodies take place March 13 in Austin, TX, and will air March 16 on MTVU. Check out the full list of nominees below.
2014 mtvU Woodie Awards Nominees
Woodie of the Year:
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
Pharrell
Drake
Zedd
Disclosure
Breaking Woodie:
Bastille
Martin Garrix
The 1975
Jhene Aiko
Sam Smith
Mack Wilds
Best Video Woodie:
Disclosure, "Grab Her"
Passion Pit, "Carried Away"
Chance the Rapper, "Everybody's Something"
Iggy Azalea, "Bounce"
Arcade Fire, "Afterlife"
Did It My Way Woodie:
Beyoncé — Released her new, self-titled album without any prior promotion.
Kanye West — Created an interactive music video experience for Yeezus
Arcade Fire — Creatively utilized social media, street art and pop-up performances to launch the Reflektor album.
Childish Gambino — Hosted impromptu album listening sessions in public parks for Because the Internet.
Bob Dylan — Created a 16 channel interactive music video for "Like a Rolling Stone."
Performing Woodie:
Tyler the Creator
Ed Sheeran
Jay Z
Arcade Fire
The National
The XX
Best Collaboration Woodie:
A$AP Rocky and Skrillex — "Wild For the Night"
Avicii and Aloe Blacc — "Wake Me Up"
Just Blaze and Baauer featuring Jay Z — "Higher"
Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons — "Radioactive (remix)"
Daft Punk and Pharrell — "Get Lucky"
James Blake and Chance the Rapper — "Life Round Here"
College Radio Woodie (Best College Radio Station):
Ball State University (WCRD)
Boston University (WTBU)
East Stroudsburg University (WESS)
Eastern Illinois University (WEIU)
Indiana University (WIUX)
Texas State University - San Marcos (KTSW)
University of California - Berkeley (KALX)
University of Illinois - Champaign Urbana (WPGU)
University of South Carolina (WUSC)
William Paterson University (WPSC)
[Songs of the Day] 2/12/14 (Feat. Common, HeadHunterz & #100Trill)
Hump Day was a slower day for a lot of big artists releasing content, allowing us to branch out a bit and see what was out there. RAC keeps things upbeat midweek with their delightfully bouncy, harmonic "Repeating Motion" featuring Karl Kling and HeadHunterz offered up a stadium-sized new track to get you out of bed in and into the polar vortex with their latest in "Breakout" with Audiofreq ("Weapons ready? Let's dance"). Maya Vik gives us some 80s soul with her new song, "Totally Right", MISUN keeps things tropical in the middle of the winter with "Travel With Me". Wild Beasts tease their new album, Present Tense with a grooving, deep-bellied "Sweet Spot" while Mariah Carey adds Trey Songz to the remix of her latest hit "You're Mine (Eternal)".
Once again, this Midwest had a steady string of hip-hop hit the web today as well with Fred Santana strapping on an auto-tune jetpack on "It's Only Right", Lil Herb giving listeners some new with "Koolin" and Lyric teaming up with Caleb James for "Weekend". The duo of #100Trill dropped the first single off their upcoming Muzik 2 Check Yo Bitch 2 EP, due out in time for Valentine's Day with "Contemplating" and we get a new song from Frank Leone in "Night Brigade".
Track of the Day: Common: "Made In Black America" (Feat. Ab-Soul): Common and Ab-Soul did a song together, there's really not much more to say. Listen below.
Common: "Made In Black America" (Feat. Ab-Soul)
RAC: “Repeating Motion” (Feat. Karl Kling)
Fredo Santana: “It’s Only Right”
Lil Herb aka G Herbo: “Koolin”
Frank Leone: “Night Brigade”
Lyric: “Weekend” (Feat. Caleb James)
#100Trill: “Contemplating” (Feat. King BL)
Headhunterz & Audiofreq: “Breakout”
Maya Vik: “Totally Right”
Joyner Lucas: “Eyes on the Ceiling”
MISUN: “Travel With Me”
Wild Beasts: “Sweet Spot”
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Mariah Carey: "You're Mine (Eternal) Remix" (Feat. Trey Songz)
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[Video] Thundercat: “Evangelion”/”We’ll Die”
Thundercat, aside from having one of the best names in music today, has established himself over the past few years as one of the pre-eminent bass players in the game today. Today, the artist legally known as Stephen Bruner dropped a visual that straddles a pair of singles off his critically-acclaimed 2013 release, Apocalypse. Teaming up with Myspace, Thundercat spends the "Evangelion" portion of the video wandering across a debris-laden field before settling down to perform "We'll Die" on a pier. Thundercat is the go-to for creative basslines, having worked with the likes of Vic Mensa, Flying Lotus and Mac Miller, among others. Expect to see plenty more from him both individually and featured on your favorite artist's projects. Watch "Evangelion/We'll Die," streaming here below.
[Video] Wu Tang Clan: "Y'all Been Warned"
On the way to becoming one of the highest-grossing and influential hip-hop groups in history, Wu Tang Clan produced copious amounts of media to help push the music forward and today, some footage that never managed to see the light of day is finally making its debut on the Internet. Recorded while AOL was still clinging to being the gateway to the 'net and before Complex Magazine was a thing, the video for Wu Tang Clan's track "Y'all Been Warned" off their 2001 album, Iron Flag has finally found its way to public domain thanks to another service not around when it was made, Youtube. After hearing about legions of Milennials not familiar with Outkast, maybe this will serve as a lesson in hip-hop history for the legions of rap fans who grew up in the blog era. Check out the full video below and read my interview with U God at last year's North Coast Festival here.
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[Album] Big Gigantic: "The Night Is Young"
Dominic Lalli and Jeremy Salken make up the eclectic electronic dance music duo Big Gigantic. The pair have made name for themselves over the better part of the last five years since entering the national scene on the back of their talented, yet still developing aesthetic of mixing Jazz and Electronic sensibilities coherently into a single production. Where the pair's debut project, Fire It Up comes with glitchy electronic hits and seemingly forced horn runs, their latest project is anything but. Polished over incessant touring schedules and packed festival lineups every year, Big Gigantic has evolved into one of the most entertaining live electronic acts in the world. Forget the smoke, light stick cannons and 3D renderings of acts like Excision, Datsik and the like; what sets Big Gigantic apart and allows them to live up to their name is the innate ability to be different through instrumentation.
The first time seeing Lalli induce a drop with his saxophone, accented by Salken on drums live is an almost truly out of body experience. The Night Is Young very well may be the duo's best offering to date. Building on production lines established on the last project, Nocturnal, it is a full step up from where they were a year ago at this time. On "Blue Dream" you can hear pieces of "Rise and Shine", but with a distinctly different play on notes that takes it to a different place sonically. Sounds are tighter, the horns and electronic hits feel in tune with one another. If their debut project was electronic with a sprinkle of Jazz, this latest offering is a more equal split of tendencies. Adding Cherub on the first single off the project, aptly titled "The Night is Young" is the perfect collaboration for the pair and one that I am personally glad is out in the world. The project was released both as a free download via their website and on iTunes and Lalli and Salken announced a nationwide tour (Tickets) in tune with the project's release. Check it all out below.
(Check the Kanye sample on "Clvdbvrst")
[Video] Nick Astro: "Put Me On" (Feat. Legit)
Last summer, amidst a steady flow of exceptional projects from the Chicago hip-hop scene that gave us Acid Rap, Innanetape, Yeezus, Alternative Trap and The Recipe Vol. 2, among many others, newcomer Nick Astro snuck in an aesthetically interesting working in his debut project, Super16 which dropped in July. The project demonstrated Astro's careful, almost conversational rhyming tone and lyrical content that easily transitions between the powerful and mundane. After a wait, the Columbia Film student and LOD member dropped his visual treatment for "Put Me On" featuring fellow Chicagoan Legit.
The video certainly plays on Astro's background in film, with a theatrical opening sequence that gives way to a graphically-accented still shot, capturing the pair in a freight elevator. Shot by CAKEatersTV, it's a an appropriate prelude to Astro's "Scarlett Johansson" video. Check out the video below and keep an eye out for his latest project, ListenToNewMusic, due out this Summer.
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Death Announce Album Details with New Song
The story of Death, a band of three African-American brothers from Detroit, Michigan that transformed from an R&B trio to a full-fledged rock band in the '70s, is one of many peaks and valleys, and one that was best told in the 2013 documentary, A Band Called Death. The band was largely credited with being precursors to the punk movement in North America, predating the Sex Pistols or the Ramones. With a deal in place in 1974 with Columbia Records, the band balked history, deciding that they couldn't bear part with their name for a shot at the big time and one of the brothers, David Hackney, died of alcoholism in 2000.
Revived by a re-release of their music in 2009 by Drag City Records, as well as the documentary, the remaining brothers rang in 2014 with a performance at Reggie's Rock Club in Chicago and today dropped a frenetic 'new' song, "North St.", which was recorded in 1980 ("When ya live on North St., you know just where you stand"). Along with the song's release, which you can stream below, the band announced plans for a new album, Death III, expected April 22. The album is the final collection of tracks, recorded over a series of sessions in 1975, '76, '80 & '92. Check out the latest from Death, below, and scroll down for full tracklisting and tour dates.
III:
01 Introduction by David
02 North Street
03 Open Road
04 We Are Only People
05 Restlessness
06 Free
07 Yes He's Coming
08 First Snowfall in Detroit
09 We're Gonna Make It
Death:
03-08 Monterrey, Mexico - NRMALfestival
03-21 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre
03-22 Fullerton, CA - Bugerama III
03-23 San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
04-05 Phoenix, AZ - The Pressroom
07-04 George, WA - Sasquatch!
[Album Stream] Phantogram: "Voices"
It's been a long wait for Phantogram's latest studio album since 2011's Nightlife EP and apparently the UK synth-pop duo got sick of it too, releasing a stream of the album today on Soundcloud, which you can find here below. Voices isn't a huge departure for Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter, as it stays true to the aesthetics that thrust the duo into the spotlight when the sound was fresh and new. Three years later, they seemed to have settled into a niche, not an entirely bad thing (Justin Bieber has pretty profitable 'niche') but I have a hard time believing this is all there is. There's plenty of feedback and airy vocals, but it doesn't really progress the way I had expected it to. Perhaps it's the fact that the album has been teased since last September, when "Black Out Days" first hit the Internet and that's where the feeling of repetition is coming from. I'm sure this project will make a huge wave across the greater music landscape, I was just hoping for something a little bit more. Stream and full tour dates through 2014 below.
April Tour Dates:
02.20.14 Oakland, CA Fox Theatre – SOLD OUT
02.21.14 Sacramento, CA Ace of Spades
02.22.14 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Palladium – SOLD OUT
02.23.14 Ventura, CA Ventura Theatre
After featured performances at the Maverick Music Festival in San Antonio Texas on March 21st and the Buku Music & Art Project in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 22nd Phantogram will embark on a full U.S. tour:
04.04 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AE
04.05 Columbus, OH LC Pavilion
04.06 Cincinnati, OH 20th Century Theatre
04.08 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
04.10 Chicago, IL Riviera Theatre
04.12 Madison, WI Majestic Theatre
04.13 Minneapolis, MI First Avenue
04.15 Denver, CO Ogden Theatre
04.16 Salt Lake City, UT In The Venue
04.18 Tempe, AZ Marquee Theatre
04.19 Albuquerque, NM Sunshine Theater
04.21 Tulsa, OK
04.23 Dallas, TX
04.25 Houston, TX
04.27 Atlanta, GA
05.23-25 George, WA
06.20-22 Dover, DE