Audio Absinthe

My friend told me to check out Heartless Bastards‘ new album The Mountain (Feb 2009) over the weekend and I listened to a bunch of the tracks online.  Some of them I didn’t really get into but there were a couple that I liked a lot.  Their style of bluesy, guitar heavy rock (Jack White style blues-rock, as my friend put it) is much more contemporary than other blues rock bands I’m used to hearing.  The songs I linked below are pretty great actually.  We’re kind of overwhelmed with all the 80’s style, new wave, dance pop rock music that’s coming out these days.  Some of that is good too but it’s really refreshing when I hear new, real rock tracks like these…
Heartless Bastards – The Mountain

Hold Your Head High

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Speaking of real rock, my friend Jilly HendriX suggested I check out the Buffalo Killers.  Awesome.  They’re last album, Let It Ride (July 2008), was produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys.  The album is pretty good but certain tracks really stand out. As soon as I heard “Get Together Now Today” I knew I was hooked.  These guys are legit.  I’m curious to know what older classic rock and rock enthusiasts think about them…
Buffalo Killers – Get Together Now Today / Take Me Back Home

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I never really got into the Lady Gaga.  ”Poker Face” has all of the qualities of a pop song that I usually stay away from…  But this weekend I found 2 interesting takes on the world wide phenomenon of a song.  One is a remix by legendary hip hop producer Pete Rock and the other is a remix by Kid Cudi, Kanye West, and Common.  Check these tracks out whether your a Lady Gaga fan or not.  Or if you just like cracking aces with seven deuce…
Lady Gaga – Poker Face (Pete Rock remix)
Kid Cudi feat. Kanye West, Common, and Lady Gaga – Poke Her Face

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And here’s some more pop…  Hip Pop.  Busta Rhymes is “back on his bullshit” on his new track “G-Stro” with Pharrell.  Sounds like a Pharrell production but I’m not really sure.  I think this track is on the new Fast and Furious soundtrack so I’m not even sure how new it really is.  It’s not a great track but ever since I heard Busta Rhymes on Asher Roth and New Kingdom’s track “Lion’s Roar” I’ve been back on Busta’s bullshit too.
Busta Rhymes and Pharrell – G-Stro

I’ve probably posted too many cover songs, remixes, and mash ups already…

Pharcyde VS Led Zeppelin – Dyer Passin Me By (Fidelski) 
Pharcyde – Passin Me By (Hot Chip remix)

Here are a two different artists’ remixes of Radiohead’s “Nude” and ” two remixes of “Reckoner”.  Which do you like the most? 
Radiohead – Nude (SayCet remix) 
Radiohead – Nude (Three Leaves and a Head remix)

Radiohead – Reckoner (You You’re Awesome remix) 
Radiohead – Reckoner (Three Leaves and a Head remix)

Notorious BIG VS Peter Bjorn & John – Party & Bullshit with Nothing To Worry About (Dave Wrangler) 
 
Common VS Flying Lotus – Universal Mind Control with Parisian Goldfish (The Hood Internet) 

MGMT VS Kanye West – Testify with Electric Feel (Justice remix) (The Kickdrums) 

Beastie Boys VS M.O.P. – Intergalatic Planetary Ante Up (DJ BK)

The last song on The Black Keys’ Attack & Release is a mash up of all the songs on the album-
The Black Keys – Fight for Air (Mr. Dibbs)

Elliot Smith – Blackbird (The Beatles) 
Elliot Smith – My Sweet Lord (George Harrison)
Gareth Pearson - Time To Pretend (MGMT) 
James Eric – Time To Pretend (MGMT) 
Bryn Christopher – Sour Times (Portishead) 
William Barnes – Bombs Over Baghdad (Outkast) 

This one is great…
Ben Folds – Bitches Ain’t Shit (Dr Dre / Snoop Dogg) 
Nina Gordon – Straight Out Of Compton (NWA) 
The Gourds- Gin & Juice (Dr Dre / Snoop Dogg) 
Dynamite Hack – Boyz in the Hood (Eazy E / NWA)

Kutiman Mixes YouTube <—–Click that.  It’s amazing.  It’s the brand new project from Kutiman and, to date, it’s one of the greatest things that exists on the internet.  I know it’s a bold statement, and I stand by it… one of the greatest things.  He takes random YouTube clibs of people playing different instruments, or people doing things that create different sounds, and he cuts them up, and restructures them for a new, single song- and there are 7 songs.  He samples YouTube to create his own brand of funky, soulful beats.  It must have taken a very long time since he samples between 10-20 youtube videos for each song.  A little personal history on Kutiman (this kind of ties it all together for me)- I bought his debut, self titled album back in 2007 and I loved it.  It’s extremely funky and soulful and draws on hip hop, rock, and world music which creates a very mature, passionate overall sound.  That’s why I was surprised to learn that Ophir “Kutiman” Kutiel was born in Jerusalem in 1982.  He was 25 and his music sounded like it was made by someone who’s been making music for decades collaborating with people from all over the world.  After this new project, all i can say is- what a talent.  What a modern, musical genius.

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Don’t know much about this track.  Haven’t really researched it at all.  Found it, loved it, wanted to share it.  It’s Nickel Eye featuring Wale- the Mark Ronson remix of “Brandy of the Damned”.  And it’s pretty “damned” good if you ask me.
Nickel Eye – Brandy of the Damned Feat. Wale (Mark Ronson Remix)

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Redman and Method Man are coming out with a new album.  Awesome.  I still play 1999’s Blackout and I think it would have to be in my top 20 best albums in hip hop.  So when I heard these two tracks I haven’t heard before, I got a little excited about it all.  They’ve always managed to combine hardcore style with goofy lyrics and the music is cool, fun, and has some serious mainstream appeal.  At least it did.  I’m not so sure Redman and Method Man’s new album will do that well but not because of the songs alone.  It’s more because of the fact that they are old news in a world that’s overwhelmed with new acts everyday.  Check out the new tracks.
Redman and Method Man – A Yo / Broken Language

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I feel pretty bad that the last song is a Kid Cudi song and I’m not really going to talk about Kid Cudi.  I picked this song to talk about Kanye West because Kanye bugs me.  But he is a great producer and there’s no doubt about that.  I just wish he would always let great emcees rap over his beats instead of saving the best beats for himself.  I don’t think he’s a good emcee and he tries way too hard to be a rockstar for me to really like him.  Kanye produced this new Kid Cudi track, “Sky Might Fall”.  Kanye’s beat is only ok, but what’s great about it is that it’s sound really captures the style of the music of this decade- the 00’s.  The sixties, seventies, eighties- when you think of the sound of music from each decade, certain songs stand out more than others.  It’s similar to what happens with art and artists who become popular- and I hope I don’t get too into this for you- certain artists really capture something unique about a culture and time and they’re work becomes relevant and, in time, valuable.  Seriously though, Kanye is a b.
Kid Cudi – Sky Might Fall

 - Posted by Eric B - 

Looks like Kanye West is following in the footsteps of Jay-Z and the Roots in doing a Vh1 Storytellers concert this weekend.  The entire concert airs on Saturday at 9 PM EST.  Here’s a video of him performing “Stronger”, fully equipped with his 1980s’ mullet style hair cut screaming “Is this what you’ve been waiting for?!?!”, Kanye can still move a crowd and from what I’ve heard, his Glow in the Dark tour was definitely a crowd pleaser.