Wilco | Audio Absinthe

Zero 7 recently announced a new full length titled “Yeah Ghost” due on September 8th. The track below is the first I’ve been able to check out. It’s a great track with a warm, fuzzy electronic pop sound- classic Zero 7 material. It’s what you might expect from Zero 7 after their last, grammy nominated album The Garden which came out in 2006. These guys are great.

MP3: Zero 7 – Everything Up (Zizou)

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This next track has become an indie rock hit of sorts over the last month or so. It’s “Percussion Gun” by White Rabbits out of New York. The song opens their May 2009 release It’s Frightening and features heavy percussion behind a big pop hook. It’s their most popular track, by far, with over 100,000 more plays than any other track on their myspace page. I’ve only heard a couple of tracks so far but I’m curious to hear a full album of their material, although, I am a little suspicious that an album by another indie dance rock band with one big hit might not do that well in terms of sales. Great track though…

MP3: White Rabbits – Percussion Gun

Remember right after the explosion of gangster rap, when some artists made hip hop fun again? In the 80’s hip hop was party music, and then it happened again in 2000 with DJ Quik’s “Pitch In On A Party”. DJ Quik’s talent for blending gangsta rap with quality party beats established the emcee/producer as one of the best party hip hop producers of the last 2 decades. Dj Quik’s June 2009 album and collaboration with Kurupt is another example of the blending of gangsta rap and party beats that Quik mastered over a decade ago.

MP3: DJ Quik and Kurupt - Hey Playa

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I had to change what wrote in one of the old weekly doses about Wilco’s latest album, Wilco (The Album), because of how much and how fast it’s grown on me. I think it’s such a great album and I’m really upset that my first impression of the album wasn’t as great as I feel about it now. It’s happened in the past with a couple of albums but for the most part it’s not that common. Anyway, I think I like the new album more than Sky Blue Sky now and “Solitaire” might be my favorite Wilco track of all time.

Wilco – Solitaire

Erik Mongrain- amazing guitarist, plain and simple. Just wanted to share this video. It was posted back in 2006 and it’s not that crazy but “Thin Mint” by Keller Williams came up on my iPod the other day and I got into this kind of percussive guitar playing again.

Weekly Dose (5/28/09)

It’s not really May 28th right now but that’s when I wanted to post these songs. I went on vacation before I wrote anything for them but now I’m back…

Wilco’s new album, Wilco (The Album), is due on June 30th. A blog my friend showed me a couple of weeks ago showed me a link (here) back on May 13th so I was able to listen to a copy. I wasn’t immediately impressed as I was expecting, but the more I listened, the more I liked it. Now I think it’s great. These guys have something special and it really shines on this latest album. I might like Sky Blue Sky a little more but we’ll see what I’m saying in another few weeks. It really does seem like it gets better the more I listen though because I didn’t think it was that great when I first listened. I did say that I might come around with Wilco and this album, and I definitely have.

MP3: Wilco (The Song)

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Doves released their new album Kingdom of Rust in April 2009. I would describe their music as new wave, electronic rock but I’m sure the fans who have been listening to them since the early 90’s would want to describe them a little differently. Their song “Jetstream” is one of my favorite tracks of this year and the album is great. Thanks go to Scott S who, aside from introducing them to me in the post he wrote a while back, also recommended the new album to me.

MP3: Doves – Jetstream

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Zion I’s debut album Mind Over Matter was released back in 2000 and I’ve been paying attention ever since. On May 26th, Zion I released Don’t Lose Your Head – EP and The Takeover (Bonus Edition). The EP is 5 tracks, 4 of those 5 are versions of “Don’t Lose Your Head” which was originally released in 2007 on a Too Short and Friends album. The Takeover was released 5 months ago and now they’re rereleasing it with a music video of one of the songs added at the end. Whatever the story behind these re-releases is, I still like Mind Over Matter, a lot.

MP3: Zion I featuring Brother Ali – Caged Bird

MP3: Zion I featuring Too Short – Don’t Lose Your Head