Audio Absinthe

First song is the new Franz Ferdinand track, “Ulysses”.  I’m not a big Franz Ferdinand fan but I do like this song and a couple of other tracks of theirs.  This song was produced by one of the guys from Hot Chip, Dan Carey.  The new album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is set to be released early next year.  The band is also going to do what a lot of groups have been doing with singles off of upcoming or recently released albums- a remix contest.  So if you remix the track and win, then your remix will appear along side the single when it’s released next year.  Details at beatport.com…

Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses

Second song was sent to me by Ryan Upton.  It’s “28 Butts” by Little Jackie.  It’s clear that the success of Amy Winehouse’s Black To Black has had a serious influence on a lot of the music being released these days.  Haven’t you noticed that a ton of powerful female vocalists have been coming out with songs and albums that have that vintage yet updated motown-soul style sound with lots of horns and heavy drums.  Is it a fad or is it going to stick around for a while?  Either way, nice find Upton!

Little Jackie – 28 Butts

Third song is Tenacious D’s “Dude, I Totally Miss You” performed live on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno – Thursday night’s show.  They’re hilarious.  And obviously they rock.

Tenacious D – Dude, I Totally Miss You

Fourth song is another track from The Knux.  It’s the “Cappuccino (Remix)” and, as you probably could have guessed- based on the fact that I’ve probably sent about 5 of their songs out on these emails-I love it and I love them…

The Knux – Cappuccino (Remix)

First song is an old Neptunes remix of the classic Rolling Stones track, “Sympathy for the Devil” which can be heard in the trailer for Righteous Kill, the new Pacino/De Niro movie.  I don’t think the Neptunes did anything more than adding a little percussion to the song but it’s just enough to give the song an updated, more contemporary feel… Kind of…

Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil (Neptunes Remix)

Second song was shown to me by Justin Drexler.  It’s been requested that I include some worthy, more mainstream songs in these emails.  And, in my opinion, when it comes to mainstream, Timbaland is the best.  “Talk” or “Talk That Shit” is one of his tracks with T-Pain on his sure-to-kill-the-radio upcoming album (will it be called Shock Value II?).  Timbaland’s solo album Shock Value was a huge commercial success.  Personally, I like the instrumental version.  I really wish Timbaland would do a Petestrumentals type album.  That would be incredible…

Timbaland featuring T-Pain – Talk

Third song is the single from the new The Knux album, Remind Me In 3 Days… which was officially released Wednesday on Interscope.  I’ve written about them once or twice in previous emails because I was expecting pretty big things from these guys.  But after hearing the album a couple of times, I’m not entirely sure anymore.  Don’t get me wrong, I think they are great.  But the album itself is just good, not great.  The group is comprised of 2 brothers, Brothers Kripsy and Al Millio, who play almost all of the instrumentation on the album and do all of the rapping.   It’s obvious to me that Al Millio is the real talent- as far as being an emcee is concerned.  But the first 5 tracks are the best and the rest don’t really do it for me.

The Knux – Bang Bang

First song is “Hard Days Night” by a new hip hop crew called The Knuxwhose debut album, Remind Me In Three Days, comes out at the end of this month.  The Knux are 2 brothers, Al Millio and Krispy, and they produce the music themselves and play all of the instrumentation.  I first heard their most popular track, “Cappuccino” and the remix (both of which you can listen to on their myspace:http://www.myspace.com/theknux) almost a year ago so they have been around for a minute.  They rap a lot like Outkast and the beats are reminiscent of great 90’s hip hop acts like The Pharcyde.  These guys are legit, we’ll all be hearing a lot more about them in the future.

The Knux – Hard Days Night

Second song was released back in May of this year.  It’s “Gold And A Pager” from the reigning blogosphere champions of hip hop, The Cool Kids.  If you haven’t heard about The Cool Kids then you need to wake up!  Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish (both living in Chicago) met through myspace and formed the group around 2005.  They didn’t start posting their tracks on myspace and blogs until around 2007 and they didn’t put an album out until the beginning of this year.  It’s called The Bake Saleso check it out if you’re into this track…

The Cool Kids – Gold And A Pager

Third song is a mash up- Mobb Deep VS Ray Parker Jr.  It was put together by DJ Ayres and it’s pretty hilarious.  IT’s called “Ghostbusters Got It Twisted” 

DJ Ayers – Ghostbusters Got It Twisted