[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.
[youtube id="jP0TL-fXdcM"]
[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.
[youtube id="WCVQtYRr7wQ"]
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
[Songs of the Day] 2/11/14 (Feat. Wiz Khalifa, Klaxons, The Black Lips and more)
Tuesday got a healthy dose of new music, and we have all of it gathered here for you once again for our 'songs of the day'. Starting things off is the honky-tonk sounds of Denny & The Jets with "Mexican Coke" and Klaxons with their heavy-handed dream pop arrangement in "Children of the Sun". Vic Mensa capitalized on a successful tour with Disclosure by releasing a freestyle over the UK duo's track "When A Fire Starts to Burn" off their album, Settle, and fellow Chicagoans Roman Flowrs and Donnie Trumpet teamed up over a Cam Osteen-produced beat in the soulful "Lake Shore Drive" and theWHOevers round out the middle of the map, offering up a J Dilla tribute in "Sooner or Later". Lil Boosie teases his post-prison plans, getting together with Boston George and Future on "Rich Off Lean" while Mr. Carmack gives listeners a new groove in his instrumental, "Free Baby" and Kelis returns with a new song in "Rumble". Yumi Zouma's “A Long Walk Home For Parted Lovers” gets a remix from Wild Nothings, Harry Fraud remixes JOYWAVE's "Tongues" and we get new tracks from The Black Lips, Beverly, Wiz Khalifa and a talented newcomer in Barney Bones. Check it all out, streaming below.
Track of the Day: Bevery: "Honey Do"
Denny & The Jets: “Mexican Coke”
Roman Flowrs: “Lake Shore Drive” (Feat. Donnie Trumpet) (Prod. by Cam Osteen)
Vic Mensa: "When A Fire Starts To Burn Freestyle"
Klaxons: “Children of the Sun”
theWHOevers: “Sooner or Later” (J Dilla Tribute)
Mr. Carmack: “Free Baby”
Boston George: “Rich Off Lean” (Feat. Lil Boosie & Future)
Kelis: “Rumble”
JOYWAVE: “Tongues” (Harry Fraud Remix):
Yumi Zouma: “A Long Walk Home For Parted Lovers” (Wild Nothing remix)
Beverly: “Honey Do”
Barney Bones: “Crash N’ Burn”
The Black Lips: “Justice After All”
Wiz Khalifa: “We Dem Boys”
[youtube id="vKzwbsI7ISQ"]
[Mixtape] Sulaiman: "Hook Line & Thinker"
Sulaiman is back with a fresh new tape to help his friends and family back in the midwest brave through (hopefully) the last few terrible months of winter. A few months back I found myself sitting and talking to Suli, discussing the new rise of the scene in Chicago, the jump-off of artists like Vic Mensa and Chance The Rapper and what it all means. Sulaiman stressed the thought process of artists coming from Chicago, the need to keep the talent flowing to make it a scene that rivals the coasts at the end of the say. The Treated Crew member has been in and out of the foreground of hip-hop, always a thinker and a lyricist. With that in mind, Hook Line and Thinker may just be one of the most appropriate album title in recent memory, certainly making more sense than Rick Ross's Mastermind.
Produced by Doc Da MindBenda and featuring Dally Auston, Gzus Piece and Keenan Coke, the seven-song Hook Line and Thinker is a boom-bap-ish lyrical playground, with Sulaiman going off for bars. It's a refreshing project that will certainly make people once again take notice of Sulaiman. Check out the latest from Chicago, available for stream/download below.