Metal Lungies

Kid Sister (another Chicago favorite) has proven her talents again with her remix of Kelly Rowland’s “Motivation”. The beginning of the track is built to build up to Kid Sister’s verse that drops at about 1:20 and it is totally worth the small wait. It’s so catchy and has that trademark Kid Sister sass that this is definitely going to be a summer jam all over the internet.

Hercules and Love Affair have taken the xx’s minimalist hit “Shelter” and turned it into it’s robotic counterpart. Whereas the xx turn empty space into an understated symphony of vocals and bass Hercules and Love Affair are able to produce a fantastic cover  by filling that space with synth and cold beats. Listen here:

Swedish indie singer Lykke Li (one more reason for us to wish that we were Swedish, the list grows) released her first album in 2008 titled Youth Novels. You may recognize her song “Little Bit” which was sampled and remixed a ton over the last year or so. Her sophomore album, Wounded Rhymes, was released a few months ago and it’s a great step for her as an artist. On Youth Novels Lykke Li’s vocals are fragile, even innocent, but with Wounded Rhymes she really shows what she can do as a vocalist. Track two, “I Follow Rivers”, has more depth and substance than a lot of her other work and while listening it gives you chills.  There are a few tracks we don’t care for on the album that just can’t stand up next to the fan favorites like “Get Some” and “I Know Places” but it’s the favorites that make the album worth the time. To us, Wounded Rhymes seems like it’s an intermediate step between Youth Novels and whatever album is to come which is pretty exciting.

Check out “Little Bit” and “I Follow Rivers” here:

Los Angeles bred Foster the People has been gaining notoriety thanks to their energetic live performances and snowballing fame on Hype Machine. The band’s lead singer, Mark Foster, has a great voice that hits all ranges of notes without falling into the realm of Passion Pit’s high pitched off-key vocals. Their single Pumped Up Kicks reached #2 on Bilboard’s Alternative Songs chart but our real favorite is the first track on the album Helena Beat.

Listen! We know we’ll be blasting it on our morning commutes for a good long while:

Flying Lotus has posted some previously unreleased tracks on his soundcloud page and it is some seriously good stuff. Our new favorite track is his remix of Massive Attack which is ambient and sort of eerie. Check it here:

via Pitchfork

NPR has offered the public a first listen to YACHT’s new album Shangri-La that’s due out later this month. If you’ve listened to YACHT before you’re probably more familiar with tracks like Psychic City or The Afterlife but their new album offers a good handful of songs that are filled with lyrics that leave you thinking in metaphysical terms. The album as a whole is less trance inducing and is filled with upbeat hooks that are irresistible to move along to. That, paired with more delicate vocals, makes the listening experience a little more whimsical, much like the nature of the album which revolves around utopia and dystopia.

You can listen to the title track here:

OR, if you’re feeling musically brave, you can dive in and listen to the whole album here:

NPR’s First Listen: YACHT- Shangri-La

via NPR

Metal Lungies saw The Hood Internet this past year at SXSW. If you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing them, The Hood Internet is a Chicago-based production duo made up of ABX and STV SLV and they are best known for providing free downloads of their mash-ups on their site: thehoodinternet.com. So, how do you stand apart in an industry filled with remixes and mash-ups? The Hood Internet take a different approach than artists like Girl Talk and Pretty Lights by composing mash-ups that bridge the gap between indie, hip hop, rap, and r&b all the while staying fluid. Essentially they make music that serves to everyone, which is awesome, right? Not only are they great to listen to in your headphones but they also put on a great live show that gets everyone in the crowd dancing.

Listen to just a slight glimpse of what the Hood Internet is doing here:

Another June, another Bonnaroo Metal Lungies is going to. Starting today we will be roaming the farm in Murfreesboro basking in the glory of the 10th anniversary of the completely sold out festival.

Be sure to catch me on twitter, where we will be ranting, recapping, and instagraming… and other verbs.

If you aren’t fortunate enough to be in Ten-a-key, VEVO will be live streaming a lot of the performances, and Comedy Central will have an event on Sunday from the Comedy Tent.

In case you need to some suggestions on who/what to check out, here are our picks (in chronological order):

Thursday:  5Pm- DJ Neil Armstrong (Jay-Z’s former tour DJ, who earned that spot with his well honed skills) 6:00pm-Lewis Black, Wavves 7:15pm-Best Coast 7:30pm-The Knux 8pm-Lewis Black 9pm- J.Cole 10:15pm-Sleigh Bells (Most likely to melt your face off) 10:30pm-Twin Shadow 11:30pm-Deerhunter, Childish Gambino (see what all the hype is) 12AM- Dam-Funk

Thur night ends early performance wise, so rest up!

Friday: 12:30pm-420 Comedy Blaze (420 at 12:30pm, what?)  2:30pm-Lewis Black (the man is clearly the workhorse of ‘roo this year), 3:15pm-Matt & Kim 4pm-DJ Neil Armstrong 4:30pm-Lewis Black 5pm-Atmosphere 6:45pm-Florence + The Machine 11:00pm-Arcade Fire (*The* act of the festival?) 12:45am-Big Boi 1:30am-Lil Wayne (but after Big Boi ends!) 2:30am-Ratatat (can’t miss. have wanted to see these guys for years on years.)

Saturday: 2:30pm-Donald Glover 3:30pm-Chiddy Bang 3:45pm-!!! 4:30pm-Donald Glover 5pm-Portugal.The Man 5:50pm-Wiz Khalifa 6:15pm-Mumford & Sons 7pm-!!! 8pm-The Black Keys 9:30pm-Buffalo Springfield 11pm-Eminem 12:20am-Screening of 8 mile (I’m just curious to see who watches this after seeing Em live, ‘roo Stans?) 12:45am-Scissor Sisters 2:15am-Gogol Bordello 2:30am-Girl Talk

Sunday: 1:15pm-Mavis Staples (Just learned she was Sam Cooke’s boo.. thanks CBS Sunday Morning.)  3pm-Tig Notaro 4:10pm-Children’s Hospital [Adult Swim] (Cool down and watch this hilarious TV show) 4:30pm-Robyn 5pm-Cold War Kids 5:45pm-30 for 30: Reggie Miller (essential watching for basketball fans, if you are all music-ed out) 6pm-Robert Plant 6:15pm-Beirut 6:45pm-The Strokes

If you are like myself, and pack last minute, I’ve listed some non-camping, basic survival essentials after the jump that you want to make sure to have.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pretty Lights has done it again. This track is a seamless integration of three bands that we wouldn’t normally lump together. Our favorite element is the use of Radiohead’s Everything in its Right Place but then you have to give some credit to Nirvana’s vocals from All Apologies and just as we’re making our minds we begin to get spine tingles from Nine Inch Nails’ Closer. This mash up is definitely not a dance number (although that makes sense considering the bands used to make this song) but it kind of hits you on another level.

Mathieu Santos is best known as being the energetic bassist of Ra Ra Riot but who knew that his vocals could rival those of Wes Miles? I Can hear the Trains Coming is Mathieu’s solo debut and it bodes well for his future as a solo artist. It catches you right off the bat with the bouncing bass line paired with the extremely catchy lyrics that are anything but grating. The song hits at right about 44 seconds and we found ourselves rewinding multiple times just so we could bop along with it again and again. It’s safe to say we can look forward to a great first full length album from Mathieu which drops later this year on Barsuk Records.

Listen here:

Mathieu Santos- I Can Hear the Trains Coming