[Songs of the Day] 2/27/14 (Feat. Chance The Rapper, King Krule, LIZ & More)
It got colder in the Midwest today. And new music came out. As I sit shivering at my computer, I can only be glad that the Internet brought us some heat today. Ace B8gie gave fans a new version of the instant classic "Fuck A Plan B" enlisting the likes of Creative Control, Young Giftz & Saba for the remix while Chance The Rapper hopped on the soundtrack to the new movie "Divergent" by hopping on "Fight For You" with Pia Mia. Zella Day gave listeners a light new song in "Sweet Ophelia" and RAC released "Tear You Down" featuring Alex Ebert. Evian Christ dropped the first single off his upcoming album in the glitch-filled ride that is his latest track, "Waterfall" and LIZ celebrated the drop of her project in style, tapping Tyga for "Don't Say". We also got a remix of King Krule's "Neptune Escape" from Travi$ Scott and another solid new track from newcomer Joyner Lucas in "Jurisdiction".
Track of the Day: LIZ: "Don't Say" (Feat. Tyga)
Ace B8gie: "Fuck A Plan B" (Feat. Creative Control, Young Giftz & Saba)
Pia Mia: "Fight For You" (Feat. Chance The Rapper)
Zella Day: "Sweet Ophelia"
RAC: "Tear You Down" (Feat. Alex Ebert)
Evian Christ: "Waterfall"
LIZ: "Don't Say" (Feat. Tyga)
Joyner Lucas: "Jurisdiction"
King Krule: "Neptune Estate" (Travi$ Scott Remix)
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[Video] Mic Terror: "15 Minutes"
March 4, Chicago independent hip-hop label Closed Sessions will be releasing the latest project for Treated Crew's Mic Terror, titled The Fresh Prince of Darkness. The video, a cinematic piece directed and shot by Andrew Zeiter and Bryan Lamb, follows Mic and Hollywood Holt as they figure out how to ties up the loose ends of a night gone wrong. "15 Minutes" is off the project and the second single to drop since "Anti-Swag" his track with fellow Chicagoan Taylor Bennett. Those two, as well as St. Millie and Treated Crew will be in the house March 7 at The Hard Rock to celebrate the release. Tickets are still available, but why not win yourself a free pair on us? We still have our ticket giveaway for the March 7 date, details here.
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[Video] King L: "Tony"
King L's latest banger, "Tony", off his recently-released mixtape Drilluminati 2 is a mafioso dream cut with shot os L's harrowing live shows donning a three piece suit. The song and the video create an interesting aesthetic for the 27-year-old artist from Chicago and calls to mind a young Jay-Z going the same route when his career had hit a breaking point, a decision which ultimately vaulted him to the top of hip-hop for years to come and allowed him to re-write the narrative that had followed him to that point. The points in career are much different, King L largely holds his destiny in his own hands, but perhaps the sentiment makes sense. "My name is Louie, but they call me Tony" is simple, yet packed with meaning and braggadocio and the suits and overall motif may well be a direction King L wants to keep traveling down. Chance also makes a cameo, keep an eye out for that. Full video, from WorldStarHipHop below.
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[Songs of the Day] 2/26/14 (Feat. Vic Mensa, DâM-FunK, Njomza)
Wednesday offered up a bountiful harvest of new releases from across the music spectrum and I have all of it here for you to sift through yourself. Starting things off is Vic Mensa who teamed up with rising local producer Smoko Ono for the club banger in "Feel That", which shows off Smoko's electro-infused hip-hop production. Tensnake & Jacques Lu Cont linked up with Jamie Lidell for the 80s-esque, synth heavy "Feel of Love" while DâM-FunK continued a productive start to 2014 with his newest single, "Love Is Above" and 19-year-old French producer, Madeon capitalized on his credits from Lady Gaga's ARTpop album by dropping his latest mix, "Cut The Kid". Rico Love followed up his major release "They Don't Know" by pondering what women want on "Bitches be Like", Hurt Everybody gives fans a new one in "Anibus" and another talented Chicago product, Njomza showed off her powerful vocals on "Sowing Season". Check them all out, streaming below.
Track of the Day: Vic Mensa: "Feel That" (Prod. Smoko Ono)
Vic Mensa: "Feel That" (Prod. Smoko Ono)
Tensnake & Jacques Lu Cont: "Feel of Love"(Feat. Jamie Lidell)
DâM-FunK: "Love Is Above"
Madeon: "Cut The Kid"
Rico Love: "Bitches Be Like"
Hurt Everybody: "Anibus" (Prod. by Supa BWE)
Njomza: "Sowing Season"
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[Video] Moody Good: "MusicBx" (Feat. Eryn Allen Kane)
Moody Good is the English producer, formerly a part of production team 16Bit that helped craft Bjork's 2011 album, Biophilia responsible for the latest track to come out of the always popping UK dance music scene with his track, "Musicbx" that came complete with a visual rendering today with a premier on NME.com. The video traces what seems like one man's stumbling post-trip experience as he wanders, looking for something and finding a lot of what he doesn't need. Vocals for the track are supplied by one of our artists to watch out of Chicago, Eryn Allen Kane, who shows her full flexibility with this latest offering by taking a step outside the soul/r&b vibes that she has been linked to thus far. She continues to impress as she heads toward her own album release soon. Moody Good keeps the song going and lays out a solid canvas from which Kane can work with his expert production and playfulness throughout. Check out the full video for the song, streaming now below.
[Album] Yasiin Gaye: "The Departure" (Side One)
If you've been keeping up with our 'Songs of the Day' posts over the past few weeks you probably noticed the clever mash-ups of Mos Def aka Yasiin Bey and the late Marvin Gaye produced by Amerigo Gazaway. The tracks have been a tasteful, foot-moving experience throughout, without a slip-up in the series thus far. Well, Amerigo doesn't want you to have to wait on the weekly single releases, instead dropping the entire project earlier today. Gazaway has constructed the pair of artists under the guise of 'Yasiin Gaye', playing on both artist's names and creating a subtly powerful project in the process. Pharrell and Robin Thicke were chastised recently by Gaye's family for their use of certain sound on Thicke's song "Blurred Lines". In lawsuit filings, the family was most upset at the use og Gaye's work for personal gain. With this project, available for free download, Gazaway matches two generations careful poets extremely well. Do your hump day a favor and download this album asap!
[Video] Kanye West Appears on 'Late Night with Seth Myers'
Kanye West, with his Yeezus tour finally over and some time on his hands, decided to stop by Seth Myers' new show and help him continue to break into the late night circuit by stopping by to chat about the extravagant tour, get some baby news out of the way and clear the stage for the real show, which came after the brief back and forth between the husband of Kim Kardashian and the former 'Saturday Night Live' cast member who took over for Jimmy Fallon in the late night spot after the Jay Leno domino finally fell, opening the lines of succession. Kanye performed what became a career-spanning set that touched on his hits from the entirety of his catalogue, begininning with "Jesus Walks", "Touch The Sky" and "Stronger" before making his way through the dark 808s & Heartbreaks days, even live auto-tuning "Heartless" and continuing on to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and beyond, wrapping things up with a rousing rendition of "Black Skinhead" to wrap things up. Check out the full video, streaming below.
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[RH First Look] Sidewalk Chalk
Sidewalk Chalk embodies Chicago. As much as the recent Vice "Chiraq" documentaries have done the opposite as of late, the eclectic eight piece band from the Second City pulls from both their hometown's past and present while focusing on writing it's future. The immediately soulful feelings of their latest project, Leaves, released February 24, is the result of an penchant for a sound that came off less polished and more gritty, capturing the sensibilities of both vocals and instrumentation that can be lost in post-production. The result is a fully-formed album that can keep you listening from the first to the last note. Long established in their hometown, Sidewalk Chalk has been making a large push around their latest album, and after playing a pair of album release shows over the weekend at Double Door in Chicago and Drom in New York City they will head off on a national tour in support of the new material. I had a chance to catch up with keys player Charlie Coffeen around the time of the release, check out or Q+A below.
Jake: So, the album is out in the world now. What has the process been like just readying this project to get out there?
Charlie: We're really excited to put it out. The process was a bit different from our first album, we kind of played a lot lot harder on this record we let the music be what it is a little more. We did a few takes of the tunes of the tunes with keys, bass and drums and once we were happy with it we just kind of let it be instead of tweaking things and making everything perfect. We kind of embraced the imperfections of it and I think that was the right move for what we wanted this record to be: raw and gritty and kind of just sound like us. The first album, we wanted everything to be perfect and for everything to be polished and I think we achieved that but on this one we wanted to push the boundaries a little bit and see how far we can stretch ourselves and our sound to the point where we had a finished project.
Jake: Was that something that was a conscious decision from the get-go, to let everything kind of ride on this project?
Charlie: Yeah, that was certainly our goal from the moment we stepped in the studio or even began thinking about how these songs were going to fit on an album. We knew we wanted them to be raw and we wanted them to sound real, like us. That was really our primary goal.