Part of Pop Star Sunday

Labels: Alexz Johnson, Epic Records, Heatseekers, Hurricane Girl, Instant Star, Jude Harrison, Pop Star Sunday, The N, Voodoo

They look like the masked wrestlers of trip-hop. And the archnemesis' to everything cute and/or bubblegum. But they sound like every club hoppers dream date. Never thought I'd be leaving the future of underground dance music in the hands of two identity-phobe Italian DJs - whose legal names are Bobby and Tommy. Then again that just goes to show how much I think I know.

As the saying goes, if it doesn't move you - you must be dead. To avoid hearing anything abrasive or just anything you might not be prepared for - first listen to this song titled 'Awesome.' It's by The Bloody Beetroots (of course) and they did it with everybody's favorite monotone voiced BMX bike-riding rappers, The Cool Kids. If you don't like it stop here.

If you do like it, hit up Playlist.com and search 'Butter (Draft),' 'Mac Mac' and 'Live Good.' From there you can find a massive body of remixes TBB has produced, from Timbaland and Alphabeat to The All-American Rejects and The Kills. They probably won't sound a thing like the original though - disclaimer. But it's so sick anyway.

Labels: Awesome, Butter, Heatseekers, Live Good, Mac Mac, The Bloody Beetroots, The Cool Kids

Part of Pop Star Sunday

Labels: Amie Miriello, Brand New Eyes, David Archuleta, Heatseekers, I Came Around, Pop Star Sunday, Who You Really Are

My latest obsession is the Radio 1's Live Lounge. Where a wide range of exceptional, well-known musicians perform a cover of a song from a polarizing genre. IE - The boys of McFly lay down a crazy bass line on their jazzy version of 'I Kissed A Girl'; Bats for Lashes' slow version of Use Somebody by Kings of Leon is almost gospel-like; Dizzee Rascal goes improv on his cover of 'That's Not My Name' and The Last Shadow Puppets makes Rihanna's 'SOS' mysterious, dark and sexy.

Almost all of the covers give the original's a run for their money (with the exception of Girls Aloud and Lady Gaga). The most impressive of all the covers was Sam Sparro's version of Estelle and Kanye West's 'American Boy.'

Holy CRAP. What an incredible voice. And Sam Sparro's rap owns Kanye's 16-bars. I had to hear more. On his other songs he sounds vaguely reminiscent of John Legend - if all his songs were set to a Calvin Harris beat. 'Cottonmouth' is gangsta-geek-chic and samples some 80's funk tune that makes you wanna sway. 'Black and Gold,' the song that turned Sparro into a Grammy-nominee, is full of old school grooves and lives up to the title of 'Best Dance Recording.' Then there's '21st Century Life' that I think sounds just like a Basement Jaxx/Earth, Wind & Fire mashup. No lie. It's R&B dance-pop electrofunk. It'll make more sense once you hear it and some additional songs on his MySpace.

Basically, white boys with soul needs to become its own sub-genre. Sam can be the poster child. New album drops at the end of August.

Labels: 21st Century Life, American Boy, Black and Gold, Cottonmouth, Estelle, Heatseekers, Kanye, Live Lounge, Sam Sparro, video

Labels: Alicia Keys, Heatseekers, Jack's Mannequin, Let Your Spirit Soar, Making the Band 3, No One, piano rock, Reverie, Shine, The Morning Of, Violins and Trees

Considering all the free albums Prince gave away last year, he would approve of SPIN.com allowing free downloads of their tribute album on June 23. Save the date - cause I am!

I can't wait to hear if they mess up the songs or not. But I have reason to believe it'll be okay after hearing their sample track, a cover of "When Doves Cry". There's even going to be a nice cover story about it in SPIN's July issue.

Labels: Heatseekers, Prince, Purple Rain, Purplish Rain, SPIN Magazine, When Doves Cry

French girls singing about Spain while trying to make it in America? Ambitious!



Signed by NYLON Records (the same people who make pop-counter-culture rag, NYLON Magazine), this is The Plastiscines first single with the label. And not only does the video look like it was pulled straight from the pages of NYLON Magazine - it looks like they styled the whole thing, too (Look at those outfits! That makeup! The shoes!).

A reviewer on iTunes likened the song to same feeling you got when you first heard The Ting Tings. Another called the girls a super pop version of The Donnas (which I think is a tremendous miscalculation), but I do understand the comparison. It's about having fun - not making sense. They all sing along. The band members play their own instruments and don't overact it when they play. Although I do get the feeling that their instruments could double for accessories just as easily. But that's probably because NYLON had a lot to do with it.

Despite that! Let's get down in Barcelona, okay? Forget that they love fashion, forget that a magazine probably staged the whole thing. Focus on the happy in the music and the cuteness of the video, instead.

Labels: Barcelona, Heatseekers, NYLON, The Donnas, The Plastiscines, The Ting Tings

With album art that looks like a screenshot from a Daft Punk music video, it looks just as mystical and synthetic as it sounds (or as Daft Punk sounds - which is a down right wonderful group to be compared to).

Family Force 5 - the world's best crunk rock Christian rap band ever - is getting ready to drop their funkified remix album on May 19. Slowly, it's been leaking onto the internet. Some songs - like the hi-tech revamped version of 'How in the World' by Alex Suarez from Cobra Starship and the twinkling DJ mix of 'The First Time' by Relient K's Matt Thiessen - have been voluntarily leaked via MySpace.

Samples of other songs like the original, whoofer and tweeter approved, 'Ghostride The Whip' (by the way, E-40 would be very proud), has been not so voluntarily leaked to places like YouTube and LimeWire.

In addition to Cobra Starship and Relient K - the album will also feature remixes from The Secret Handshake, 3OH!3, The Toxic Avenger, Danger Radio and David Crowder Band. It's destined to blow up in a good way.

Labels: Dance or Die With a Vengeance, Family Force 5, Ghostride The Whip, Heatseekers, How in the World, The First Time

Everybody loved Vampire Weekend when they first dropped last year, right? Pop-sweethearts and former college kids. The criteria for success in a post-Late Registration music landscape. Their second album is supposed to drop sometime this year.

But until then here's something from Vampire Weekend's guitarist/keyboardist/sometimes backup singer and a friend of his from Ra Ra Riot (a band with a violinist that is absolutely delightful, by the way). The group is called Discovery.

It's a side project and there really is no way to describe it, but I'm going to try! The first song 'Osaka Loop Line,' which initially is like electronica, changes its mind and decides to get chopped and screwed on top of really soft-sounding vocals worthy of being aligned with a R&B love song. 'Orange Shirt' has a lot of the same characteristics. It gets stuck in your head a lot easier though and is shamelessly radio-friendly.

Hard to dance to overall, but capable of making a mainstream crossover if it really wants to. You either like it or you don't. So go listen and find out.

Labels: Discovery, Heatseekers, Orange Shirt, Osaka Loop Line, Ra Ra Riot, Vampire Weekend

The video really could have done without everybody running up and dancing in the camera at the end. But whatever. The song itself is EPIC. Done in one take by college students. Things like this give me hope that rap isn't completely dead.

This is a loose cover of Waynes 'Let The Beat Build'. Listen and compare. But be forewarned - Nyle's version is much, much, MUCH better.

Labels: Heatseekers, Let The Beat Build, Lil' Wayne, Nyle