Saul Williams

Saul Williams has a great new album produced by Trent Reznor called Niggy Tardust. Here is a great video of him performing "Black Stacey" off of his last album.

The National - Slow Show

The National has the best album of 2007 so far if you ask me! It is called Boxer, go pick it up!

Coheed and Cambria - The Running Free

Here is the new single from Coheed and Cambria's new album. The album rocks, this is probably the weakness song on the album, which isnt a bad thing!

Jacques Brel

I dont know much about Jacques Brel except that he was a actor and director as well as a popular Belgian, French singer. But man with this guy sings he owns the song! He puts is all into it. This performance is really cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Brel

Dj Lobsterdust - Saysayism AllStar Jam

Lobsterdust has been making these awesome mashups for a couple years now and I anxiously await every new one. This one is so cool. Who else would mash Rhianna, Mary J, Michael Jackson, Nine Inch Nails, Diana Ross, Nelly Furtado, Rick James,Teh Temptations and Paul McCartney!

Example (of good rap)

Great new rapper Example out of London shows us some of his excellent word play with backing vocals by the Carpenters!

Tomahawk Rocks

God Hates a Coward from Tomahawk!

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins

This is a great video! And it has Sarah Silverman so why wouldnt it be!? This is off the new album.

Rilo Kiley Begs You To Shake That Moneymaker!

Great lead single from Rilo Kiley off of their new album, Under the Blacklight.

Atreyu Becomes a Bull

Atreyu has a great new album out called Paper Sails and Lead Anchors. This is the lead single Becoming the Bull. Not the best song on the album but the only video so far.

Chromeo needs some bonified lovin'!

This is a great song from Chromeo off their new album!

Atmosphere Loves His Sunshine

First single off of Atmospheres new album. It is about time! No official video yet but we have a great live take.

Wyclef and His Mission to Save a Refugee!

Go Wyclef! This is a new single off his new album Carnival 2 that comes out in December.

The Blood Brothers (RIP 1997-2007)

They broke up this week. They will be missed.

Tunng

This is a great electronica band called Tunng.

Bat For Lashes

Just discovered this great little all female English band. They have a great sound. Accidently listened to Horses and I off of their album entitled "Fur and Gold". Soon as I heard I went and got the entire album. And I am not disapointed. Here is what WIKI has to say...

Bat for Lashes are an English female band led by Natasha Khan (born 25 October 1979), a Brighton-based songwriter.

Born to an English mother, and a Pakistani father, part of the eminent family of squash-playing Khans, her early childhood was spent travelling the world following her father who trained the Pakistani squash team, summers in Pakistan, and the rest of the time in Hertfordshire[1][2]. She had a strict religious upbringing until her parents separated, when she was eleven years old.

Khan graduated in film and music; while at university her experimental work was influenced by artists such as Steve Reich and Susan Hiller, and she produced multi-media work centred on sound installations, animations and performance. She went on to work as a nursery-school teacher, and it was during this period that she began writing the material for her first album.

Her debut single, "The Wizard", was released digitally through DiS records and on seven inch through Khan's own imprint, She Bear Records. She then signed to the record label Echo, alongside Feeder and Róisín Murphy, and released her debut album, Fur and Gold, on 11 September 2006.

Bat for Lashes' music has been likened to the work of Björk, Thom Yorke, Cat Power, Tori Amos, and Kate Bush.

Twilight Singers Cover TV On the Radio

This so cool! The Twilight Singers doing a encore of Wolf Like Me by Radio TV On the Radio! This comes from the infamous show where they ended the show and everyone left, well almost everyone. Then those who had stuck around, about 50 people, got a one of a kind encore. Frontman Greg Dulli took the mike to tell the crowd, "You'd better fu**ing work for an encore!"

ONCE August 2007 Mixtape

It seems like I should start calling these ONCE Late August 2007 Mixtape because I am putting them out later and later in the month! But it is ok because I have made it up to you by putting together a pretty sweet mix for this month. I put this together and listened to it for a week before deciding on the final track arrangement, ect. And I am just digging it.

Track #1
Stars- The Night Starts Here

Great new track from Canadian masterminds the Stars. This track has it all from the dreamy male\female vocals to the intricate lyrics of doubt and remorse. This comes off their brand new album entitled "In the Bedroom After the War".

Track #2
Against Me! - Thrash Unreal

This band has surprised me lately. Never been a fan but everyone kept raving about the new album "New Wave". So I finally gave it a chance and have found it a pleasurable experience. This track attempts to explain the pain and loneliness that leads to trying to dull it with the weekly parties. Leaving us with the great line, "No mother ever dreams that their daughter is going to grow up to a junkie".

Track #3
Junior Boys - In the Morning

A great track that mixes dance with Indie rock to great some really cool ambience rock. Canada is really cranking out some great bands lately. And Junior Boys are no exception. The songs leads explains how at night we can seem old and mature but in the morning we realize that we are just too young for these things.

Track #4
120 Days - Sleepwalking

120 Days is a Norwegian band with some great influences to pull from. Formed in 2001 this song comes from their first full length self-titled EP that saw the light of day last year. This song sounds like they have a bit of Radiohead in them along with a little Depeche Mode. The bass line carries this song.

Track #5
Charlotte Gainsbourg - The Songs That We Sing

This singer hails from France where she holds not one but two Cesar Awards, the equivalent of the Academy Awards, for acting. This is from her album 5:55. For those of you who saw The Science of Sleep you might remember her as the character Stephanie. The song asks the question, why do we sing? And does the song mean the same for the people that we are singing them to.

Track #6
CL Smooth - Smoke In the Air

In the 90's the famous hip-hop duo of Pete Rock and CL Smooth were the inspiration for lots of rappers. But after a falling out with his partner, CL has laid low until last year when he put out his album "American Me". The album is full of great beats and even better lyrics. This track is no exception and shows why CL Smooth is such a prolific artist.

Track #7
Clutch - Electric Worry

My friend Nathan turned me on to these guys about a year ago. Picture this. it is hot, humid and the mosquitoes are biting. And the five piece from Maryland is singing about the worries of relationships. Having been around since 1991, the band recently released their 17th album and continues it's steady progression into the world of blues rock. The song plays like a preacher telling the congregation of their sins. With this song they show why they are still a force to be reckoned with even after almost 17 years.

Track #8
Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)

This band almost made my mix a couple of months ago when their stellar album "Neon Bible" was released. For one reason or another they never quite made it. But this song off of their debut album "Funeral" really embodies what is so cool about this band. The slow bass line build up leads into the the resounding chorus that proclaims "every time you close your eyes... lies, lies". You can sleep but your problems don't go away.

Track #9
Wolf Parade - It's A Curse

Boy I could do a mixtape just on great Canadian bands that have come out in the last couple of years. Here we have Wolf Parade who was formed one day when the singer Spencer Krug was asked to open for Arcade Fire on their Us Kids Know tour. With only three weeks lead time they put together a band and recorded enough songs to get a EP out. Last year saw the release of their first full length EP entitled Apologies to the Queen Mary. This track takes us on a night trip driving with no particular place in mind.

Track #10
We Are Scientist - What's the Word

A great band out of California. They are close friends with Art Brut the band that made the ONCE July 2007 Mixtape. The song laments on the possibilities of being someone who tries to stand for something but fails in the end.

Track #11
Counting Crows - Holiday In Spain

I just heard someone out there reading this, "hey I know this band!". I am a sucker for good piano rock and no one does it better than perennial favorites Counting Crows. This song comes from the closing track off of "Hard Candy". A cool ditty about getting fed up with life and jumping on a plane for a quiet vacation with some bananas and booze.

Track #12
Samuel L. Jackson - Stackolee

Sam Jackson sings?! Yep, but it isn't a big departure from his usual self. Expect plenty of cussing, ranting and a great story. The song has it's roots in a John Lomax track from 1910. It tells the story of a man who finds his women messing around with another man and the revenge that he extracts. In this version of the song, which you can see in the great movie "Black Snake Moan", Jackson sings his own version of the torrid tale.

Track #13
Ani Difranco - 32 Flavors

Everyone's favorite folk singer out of Buffalo, New York gives a new listen to a classic of hers. She reinvents the song in this performance taken from her "So Much Laughing, So Much Shouting" live album. What is always a great song is giving a new skin.

Track #14
Two Hours Traffic - Heroes of the Sidewalk

Straight out of Canada, they recently released their first full length album entitled "Little Jabs". The songs on the album are full of poppy goodness and some decent vocals. This song is about eloping and feeling sorry for everyone else because they don't have the love that they have.

ONCE June 2007 Mixtape

Welcome back to this months ONCE mixtape. Got a lot of cool tracks on this one that span from Swedish pop to 50's Soul to Indie rock. 15 tracks are the best of the new and old.

Track #1
Robyn
With Every Heartbeat (ft. Kleenup)

This track is too cool! She is the Swedish dance queen who gave up the hits Show Me Love and Do You Know (What It Takes) back in 1997. Well she has never quit putting out the dance candy she is known for. But she has matured the material to give it a very deep and introspective feel that is refreshing. This track follows her through the heart break of a lost love and the attempts she makes to leave the drama behind and move forward with her life.

Track #2
The National
Slipping Husband

A sweet track from Brooklyn's indie darlings. The song is a wake up call to a husband who is lacking in his duty as a husband to take care of his children and wife. It ends with the awesome condescending line "Dear we had better get a drink in you before you bore us."

Track #3
Nina Simone
I Shall Be Released

No one sings like Nina does. Her sadness drips from this 1974 track that was off the album "Here Comes the Sun". A women scorned and is beaten down by her past relationships. But with a new sense of pride in herself she realizes that one day she will be released from all that pain.

Track #4
Smashing Pumpkins
That's the Way (My Love Is)

We haven't heard from Smashing Pumpkins since their breakup in 2000. Now a period of quiet has produced another Corgan masterpiece that by far is better that the last two Pumpkin albums. This soaring song invokes the spirit of Corgan's Zwan while adding the great sound that made the Pumpkins who they are.

Track #5
Steven Lindsay
Monkey's Gone To Heaven

This haunting song defies explanation. A classic Pixie's song is redone by Steven Lindsay's second album Kite. A beautiful rendition of a song most critics called one of the essential alternative songs of the 80's.

Track #6
Coconut Records
West Coast

Everyone's favorite "man on the bottom of the heap" actor Jason Schwartmann puts out a album, Nighttiming, crafted solely in his bedroom playing all the instruments. Known for his roles in Rushmore, I Heart Huckabees and as King Louie XVI in Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, he creates a fun summer album full of Indie rock and Beatle like vocals.

Track #7
Deerhunter
Heatherwood

The band hails from Atlanta with a singer suffering from Marfan Syndrome. This makes him around 6 foot and 100 lbs making him easily the skinniest man in indie rock. This track comes from Cryptogram their debut album. The album is like a bitter pill. It tastes awful at first but makes you feel alot better after you have swallowed it. They were the most talked about band at SWSX this year in Austin.

Track #8
The Delfonics
Ready Or Not, Here I Come (You Can't Hide My Love)

Philadelphia soul brothers gave us this classic which has been used in the massive Fugees hit of the same name. The soaring vocals and harmonies leave no doubt why these guys ruled in their field of work during the 60's. For another great hit of theirs check out Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time (Didn't I?).

Track #9
Rufus Wainwright
Release the Stars

The son of folk legend Loundon Wainwright III is back with his 5 octave vocal chords with a blistering album of piano tunes aimed at sobriety and maturity. The albums namesake "Release the Stars" is a sarcastic look at Hollywood and it's excesses.

Track #10
Hawthorne Heights
Saying Sorry

Ohio emo rockers pull all stops on their latest album tearing out there hearts and placing the pieces in the lyrics. This non-stop rocker includes this track about biting the bullet, swallowing the pride and eventually saying sorry for the things you have done to other despite the consequences. The killer hook in the song will have you coming back for more and more.

Track #11
Battles
Atlas

This great band features the ex-drummer from helmet on the skins. The album features a heavy drum feel with weird live vocals voice overs. At first you wonder what you are listening to then all of the sudden a song emerges from the noise and you are hooked.

Track #12
Art Brut
Direct Hit

This band has a unique approach to their music. The singer tends to lean toward spoken word more than actually singing. But with a killer band backing him the sound works well for them. Here we have Direct Hit. The song follows two individuals who are hanging out a club and cant seem to get over their reluctance to get on the dance floor and dance even when there is a direct hit playing!

Track #13
Elsiane
Vaporous

The little known group has put out a classic album that rivals the 90's Portishead run. Plays like a slow motion jog through fog. The vocals are delivered in a lisp style that you might hear from a fairy in the forest. And the violin solo will bring a tear to your eye. Check out the great album Hybrid which plays across all genres from classical, jazz, rock and electronic.

Track #14
Afghan Whigs
I'm A Soldier

The 90's saw the rise of grunge. But hidden in it's shadow was the Motown sleaze of The Afghan Whigs. They were the opposite of grunge and were hailed by the critics for releases such as Black Love and Gentlemen. But they never got to see their star shine the way that it should have given what they brought to the table. When they broke up after the awesome output of the 1965 sessions the fans were stunned. Luckily front man Greg Dulli (a solo track of his made the ONCE March 2007 Mixtape) went on to release solo albums as well as forming The Twilight Singers and the Gutter Twins. The Whigs are my favorite band of all times. When their label from the 90's, Sub Pop, announced a best of package from them, they came back together to record two new songs. I'm a Soldier was a result of that rare collaboration. A gritty song which begs to be analyzed as something deeper, but in the end it is just what the Whigs did best, a sleazy dirty song with Motown backups. Another classic from a classic band. Pick up their greatest hit package, "Unbreakable" if you want to see what they were all about.

Track #15
The White Stripes
Icky Thump

Detroit's Jack and Meg White are back with this English influenced album full of simple drum taps and awesome guitar work. This band never fails to disappoint. And on this new album they show why they are still the best at what they do. The new album Icky Thump was just released last month.

Battles

Battles is a great new American Math band with a really cool sound. This is their lead single entitled "Atlas". The drummer is the old drummer for 90's alt-rock outfit Helmet. The sound is very percussion based and there are no traditional vocals. But whats is so cool about this band is that at first it seems like a bunch of noise. But then out of the blue you hear a real song, and a good one at that!

The group's line-up is composed of well-known musicians, including ex-Helmet drummer John Stanier, ex-Don Caballero guitarist Ian Williams, ex-Lynx guitarist Dave Konopka, and Tyondai Braxton (son of avant-garde jazz musician Anthony Braxton), who also plays guitar and keyboard and creates live voice samples.

Their first full-length album Mirrored, recorded by Keith Souza at Machines with Magnets, was released on May 14, 2007. The first single from the album, "Atlas", was released on February 21, 2007 as streaming audio, and the accompanying streaming video was released on February 28, 2007.