Fiend Comes Back Hard and Smooth

Fiend (International Jones) hasn’t popped up on my radar since way back in the No Limit days. But he’s back with a new mixtape and this cut is nice. Pitchfork BNM’d this one and the write up pointed out how well Fiend’s flow and cadence sat in with this beat and I couldn’t agree more. Roll one up and check it out.

Frank Ocean's (sampling MGMT) "Nature Feels" is Not Safe For Work Ladies

Odd Future is becoming less of a crew and more of an extended platoon. Frank Ocean definitely smoothes out his delivery in a way that is unfamiliar in the context of the larger group. But check out this awesome use of MGMT‘s “Electric Feel” whipped into a new track that’s  outright sexual where the original was a bit more subtle.

This track is filthy, do not play it for your kids.

New Music from Purity Ring

This track came out a few weeks ago, but for the last couple of days it’s been creeping its way back in to my head. Cool use of the Burial-style ghost voices and a nice breezy pop. “Ears ringing/teeth clicking”. I don’t know much about the artist, but I’ll be looking in to it.

Radiohead puts Happiest Song at End of Saddest Album

7 of a possible 10

I haven’t put up a  post since my last on Friday announcing the release of Radiohead‘s new album The King of Limbs. This is mostly because over the long weekend I haven’t been listening to much music other than The King of Limbs. I managed to keep the album in my car, the soundsystem in which, despite it’s slightly ruptured cones, can still thump. I also managed to sneak in a listen on my dad’s nice headphones when visiting my folks.

I think it’s an album of greats, goods, and OKs. The first half of the album is OK. It’s much more intricate and probably more compositionally interesting than the second. But it’s murky and ghostly and and hard to like; there’s not a lot of pretty.

The second half of the album is good, the songs are much more bare-boned and simple, which is to say they’re less intriguing to certain ears. But the sound is coming through more directly, there’s less bloops and more swells, it’s grand yet immediate.

Track 8, “Seperator”, is great. It floats along a bobbing baseline and embodies a kind of misplaced blithe nostalgia that could mean anything to anyone. The picture below is where I am when I hear this song. It’s a place I’ve been before, but it’s more expansive in the memory somehow and  it’s because of this song and how immediately I’m taken there.

“Just exactly as I remember.”

This is the song…

Radiohead Returns

I’ve just downloaded and started listening to Radiohead‘s new album The King of Limbs. So far it reminds me of In Rainbows, which is by no means a bad thing. I’ll post a bit more about the album I’m sure, but for now here’s the first track released as a single “Lotus Flower”.

You can download the album for $9 by clicking here.

Or stream it for free over at Pretty Much Amazing.

Classic: Simon and Garfunkel "The Only Living Boy in New York"

What can I say about this song? It’s what plays in my head when I look skyward in Manhattan. It’s a classic that transcends generations and unifies in a way few songs can.

Simon and Garfunkel – “The Only Living Boy in New York” from Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)

Hilarious new Sports-Themed Cut Copy Video "Need You Now"

If Cut Copy took themselves completely seriously that would be fine with me; they could pull that off. But it makes me really happy they chose a comedic direction for this video for Zonoscope opener “Need You Now”.

An array of athletes running, jumping, dancing and sword playing populate this clip. Great song, very funny video. Check it out below.

New and Super Funky, James Blake Keeps it Rolling

Here’s a cool track James Blake premiered recently on BBC 1 Radio. The DJ gushes about it for a while and Blake takes over and rocks it out. Dig it.

Fleet Foxes are Hatin' on the Haters

Yesterday Fleet Foxes, who are set to release their second LP Helplessness Blues on May 3rd, took to their twitter page with a clear message for musical artists who defame other musical artists. It’s an interesting quote; try to decide if this qualifies as hypocrisy, I think not:

“No matter how good a musician you are, if you diss other bands in print / on twitter / are snarky, I care about your band less. It NEVER comes across as funny / smart / cutting. It’s just negativity. You look mean. There’s enough negativity on the internet already.”

-via @FleetFoxes

Check out “White Winter Hymnal” from Fleet Foxes self-titled debut below.

James Blake Utilizes "Case of You" Sample for Another New Track

Last week I posted a recording of James Blake performing a cover of Joni Mitchell‘s classic “A Case of You”. James Blake has taken his voice from that recording and sampled, tinkered, and manipulated it into the vocal for this brief piece that will henceforth appear as a bonus track on the digital download of his self-titled debut album.

This track harkens back to the clip-hoppy sample-happy work we heard from Blake on last year’s very impressive EPs. The piece uses the phrase “before our love got lost”, from the aforementioned Joni cover, looped in and out of itself to very nice effect along with a repetition of another word that sounds like it’s probably supposed to be “time”. This is a another pretty piece of new music from a guy who’s on a hell of a hot streak right now.

Musician bonus challenge: Try to find the “1”

James Blake – “You Know Your Youth”