Valee & Jeremih Drop "Womp Womp" Music Video
Chicago artists Valee and Jeremih team up on their new visual "Womp Womp". A crime movie framed with remote control settings changing the language from english to "Womp Womp". The Hebru Brantley directed film makes this their second collaboration.
Valee has been on the steady clime over the past year. Signing to G.O.O.D. Music, Def Jam earlier in 2018. His innovative flow and ability to flip words separates Valee from other new rappers.
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Phonte Shows Off His Crib in New Video
Phonte takes us on a tour of his enormous home in the video for his song, "So Help Me God". The one-take, "MTV Cribs" style visual captures Phonte walking around his home in a bathrobe.
The Marco Polo produced track hits hard with bars such as, "That will shit to happen like he Tio Salamanca. Bogart ya whole shit like we in Casablanca." Phonte name drops on the Mexican drug kingpin from the show Breaking Bad.
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A$AP Rocky & Skepta Release New Visuals
A$AP Rocky & Skepta team up on the split screen visual representing New York City & London for their song "Praise The Lord (Da Shine)." Following a similar vintage hazy feel of the previous video, "A$AP Forever." The combination of the quick transitions, A$AP's outfits, Tyler the Creator cameo, and the cool color tone creates another epic music video.
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Watch Caleborate's Excellent New Video for "Bank Robber"
"To make it big in this world, you can't be in your sorrow, fuck what happened yesterday, you could blow up tomorrow."
Before coming back to rubyhornet, I was kind of in a music bubble - only really listening to and aware of new sounds coming out of Closed Sessions. In the time since coming back to RH, I've gotten out of my tunnel-vision, and discovered a slew of new music from artists new and old that is quite fucking good.
In the "quite fucking good" category is the Bay Area's Caleborate. He released a project called Real Person last October, and as soon as I'm done here, that's what I'm about to go listen to. Yesterday, he released a video for the album cut, "Bank Robber". The video and the record showcase multiple perspectives, and the speak on the way we may want to live vs the way we are living. There is a lot of cleverness in the lyrics, but it's all super simple and super honest. I hate to use the cliche, "it's a real record", but that's the best way to describe. A perfect one to check out if you've never heard of Caleborate, which was me before this video, and look where I am now.
Peep the video below, and if you wan to learn more check out this interview he did with Pigeons and Planes, where he also premiered this clip.
Extra side-note, he is going to be at SPACE in Evanston on 3/28. I will be there.
Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" Video is All Kinds of Good
There are very few subjects I can say I'm well versed in, but when I get the opportunity to gush about them you can be sure I'm going to tell you all about it. The venn diagrams of my interests rarely cross over, but now that we've got a Taylor Swift music video featuing all sorts of science fiction nods, I'm not sure what to do with myself. Although the country community felt the sting of when Taylor Swift decided her latest album, 1989, was going to be an all-pop production, and many more felt the loss when she removed her music from Spotify, it's hard to fault her when she's having so much fun in all of her music videos.
This one for her latest single "Bad Blood" (featuring a remix from Kendrick Lamar) tops all of her other craziness so far. Directed by Joseph Kahn (from Detention and that Power/Rangers fan video from a few weeks back) We've got numerous shout outs to sci-fi films like The Fifth Element, Sucker Punch, Mad Max, and awesome cameos from Selena Gomez, Lena Dunham, Hailee Steinfeld, Ellie Goulding, Zendaya, Karlie Kloss, Cara Delevingne, Ellen Pompeo, Mariska Hargitay, and f**king Cindy Crawford.
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I've been a big advocate for wacky music videos all my life. In fact, I think wackier music videos actually saved music artists in the digital age thanks to how much sharing through social media accounts for notoriety now. Taylor Swift just gets that.
Take the video for "Blank Space" (which was one of my Top 10 Pop Songs of 2014) for instance. Such a goofy video for an admittedly generic song helped launch her into several blogs like this one. Although she really doesn't need more attention, she gets it by taking risks. Swift plays around with the visual landscape in order to get your attention (and thus, your all important clicks) because she's got enough pull to do so. She's at the point in her career where she can't really make a bad decision, and can experiment with her brand. It's sort of like how Nicki Minaj gets crazy sexual in each of her videos, yet never quite goes over the line of decency in order to further get her name out there. Nothing the two artists do actually hurt their brand, and if an experiment fails (like Minaj's unfortunate "Nazi" video or Swift's slightly racist "Shake It Off" video) they bounce back.
Where Swift ultimately succeeds is her "pop princess" persona. It sort of brings down the fun in the "Bad Blood" video (it'd be much better if she didn't perform it and just let it all play out), but her "happy go lucky" style really works wonders for how weird she's taking 1989. I can't wait to see what she does next.
[Video] Piece of Cake: "Somebody"
Chicago-based duo Piece of Cake is planning to drop their EP this fall, and have recently debuted their video single “Somebody”. Piece of Cake consists of Brynn Bixby on vocals and piano and Mark Alletag on keys, collaborating to produce a soulful track that juxtaposes the doubt and reclusion sequestered in the coldest of seasons with human strength and resilience.
The combination of Brynn’s striking red hair and her soothing vocals, along with visuals of crisp white snow, provide for a serene depiction of a season that to many is anything but. The video is “Piece of Cake” sweet, but sprinkled with toppings ranging from loneliness and insecurity. Eat your heart out down below, and keep a look out for the duo’s EP later this year.
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[EP] Glass Animals: "Gooey" and More
Oxfordshire quartet Glass Animals have been hitting my inbox since February, but it wasn't until last Tuesday's release of Gooey did I really begin to take notice. It was early in the morning when I checked the EP out, and I'm not sure if it was because it was still dark out or my mood that morning, but the song "Gooey" couldn't have been any more perfect. With frontman Dave Bayley's catchy lyrics and infectious production, "Gooey" hits all the right notes (pun intended). The EP consists of the original "Gooey" track, "Holiest" feat. Tei Shi, and three remixes of "Gooey" from Gilligan Moss, Kingdom and Chester Watson.
Glass Animals is the first signee to mega Brit producer Paul Epworth's Wolf Tone label in the UK. Epworth moved the band from their woodlands creative hub called The Shed to his studio in London to help the band refine and develop their sound. Combining their love of analog with digital Glass Animals have bee able to create a trippy-RnB-elecornic sound that's hard not to fall into a groove with.
"Gooey" was just the beginning of the Glass Animal's take over of 2014. With the EP out, the band has dropped a new song, "Pools," off of their full-length album, ZABA, due out on June 10th via Harvest Records. The press release for ZABA gives a taste of what's to come from the band's next project:
"Inspired by Kanye West and Charles Darwin, Nina Simone and the Velvet Underground, ZABA is a rich and textured work, a very special record indeed. With Dave producing and Epworth as A&R and mentor, the studio became their home and the band were free to record, improvise and write at their own speed, making their sound a bigger, brighter, heavier and more intense experience than ever before."
If "Gooey" and "Pools" are a sample of what to expect, I'm really looking forward to this project. I've yet to see them live, but hear their stage set up is pretty interesting with a show to match. With festival season well on its way, don't be surprised to see Glass Animals show up on more bills. Until then, check out the Gooey EP, the "Gooey" music video, and their new single "Pools" below.
Gooey is available on iTunes or on vinyl signed by the band here.
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Music Video Round Up
Alright, so we have a collection of videos to come out over the past couple of days, all collected in one, bandwith-busting post. One of our "Acts to Look Out For", Saba, dropped his long-awaited video for "Secondhand Smoke", which offered glimpses of wintertime Chi alongside Vesely-esque digital effect to create a powerful aesthetic in the lead up to his project, ComfortZone. Iggy Azalea gave fans a Clueless-inspired visual for her track "Fancy" with Charlie XCX. There's lots of fake fur, bubble gums and platform sneakers. Jamal Science hit "Splitsville" with Jasmine Luvano in his latest video while Aloe Blacc gave his track "The Man" a dope visual rendering; he really does look like the man. Which may make it awkward to put it next to current "Man of the Year", Schoolboy Q who traded his bucket for a Pharrell number in this piece for ALife. Auggie The 9th continued a strong campaign behind his December release GAWS with a new video for the somewhat title track "GWS". Run The Jewels debuted a video for their track..."Run The Jewels" and Hundred Waters did their thing in the new one for "Cavity". You can watch them streaming all below, or for you real thrill seekers, play them all at once and gobble up that media a la A Clockwork Orange. Enjoy!
Iggy Azalea: "Fancy" (Feat. Charli XCX)
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Jamal Science: "Splitsville" (Feat. Jasmine Luevano)
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Saba: "Secondhand Smoke"
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Auggie The 9th: "GWS"
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Aloe Blacc: "The Man"
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ALife Presents: Schoolboy Q
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Run The Jewels: "Run The Jewels"
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Hundred Waters: "Cavity"
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