Photos: Rager for Charlotte at Europa

Our sort of little sister Charlotte from Luxe just had a birthday last week (we can't tell you how old she is because we don't want to be the ones to blow up anyone's spot or anything) and to celebrate, she couldn't think of anything better than to invite everyone she knows or doesn't know to a rager at Greenpoint's most hilarious venue, Europa.  With DJ sets from VDRK, Neon Coyote, Bad Decision and DJ Full Time Fun and a live performance by the craziest kid from Milwaukee, WI ever, Juiceboxxx, we had a ton of fun, including beer stains, cake in the face (and camera...grrrr) and dancing until our feet were sore.  Special thanks to Victor from Wet Paint for lending us a battery when our shit ran out.  Dude, you can roll with us any day you want.

(mp3)    Juiceboxxx and Dre Skull - Center Stage (Curses remix)

(mp3)    Juiceboxxx and Dre Skull - Sweat

Godspeed!

News: The Tough Alliance release The New School; are amazing

The Tough Alliance, the Swedish duo of Henning Fürst and Eric Berglund, are totally not tough-looking dudes.  The name came from a childhood idea between the two electro-rockish hooligans about a cool band name, not because of some high-reaching idea.  They said it's just a good name, and that's all.  Aside from what the hell the name is or what kind of shit goes on when they're on stage (read the Wikipedia entry here), the boys create this unbelievably catchy, super summery mix of textures that instantly bring smiles to our faces.  With the North American release of their debut record, The New School, you'll all be able to understand what we mean.  Killer beats for killer anthems, all from a duo that you'll keep on hearing all about throughout the end of the year and more.  The New School is out September 9.

Tracklist:

01 Tough II               
02 The New School   
03 In the Kitchen       
04 Make it Happen
05 My Hood            
06 Koka-Kola Veins   
07 Babylon          
08 Keep it Pure      
09 Holiday
10 Forever Utd.
11 Take No Heroes
12 I'll Be Right There

(mp3)    The Tough Alliance - Koka-Kola Veins

(mp3)    The Tough Alliance - Holiday

Godspeed!

mp-FREE: Old Money - "Get Your Big Adidas Off My Mom's Table Man"

Kids, we're going to say it: any mixtape that has all sorts of oldies (not to mention any track by The Dazz Band) and is also so good you forget that you're listening to a mixtape instantly gives us a musical boner.  Scheme from Old Money should be your new BFF if you know what we mean because this dude is so right on with everything he and his group touch it's just fascinating.  Listen and listen good.  You'll understand why.

Tracklist:

01 Chaka Khan - Ain't Nobody
02 Meli'sa Morgan - Fool's Paradise
03 Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait
04 Loose Ends - Hangin' On A String
05 Cheryl Lynn - Encore
06 Bernard Wright - Who Do You Love
07 Janet Jackson - When I Think Of You
08 Vanity 6 - Nasty Girl
09 Rick James - Cold Blooded
10 Cameo - Single Life
11 Prince - Erotic City
12 The Whispers - Rock Steady
13 Stevie Wonder - She's A Bad Mamma Jamma
14 Queen - Another One Bites The Dust
15 The Dazz Band - Roll, Bounce and Skate
16 Zapp & Roger - More Bounce to the Ounce
17 Parliament/Funkadelic - Atomic Dog
18 Indeep - Last Night a DJ Saved My Life
19 Alicia Myers - I Want To Thank You
20 Stevie Wonder - All I Do
21 Chaka Khan - I Know You, I Live You
22 First Choice - Love Thang
23 Kurtis Blow - The Breaks
24 Gwen Guthrie - Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But the Rent
25 Cameo - Candy

(mp3)    Old Money - Get Your Big Adidas Off My Mom's Table Man

Godspeed!

Video: JAPATTACK! say goodbye to Be Your Own PET

We've been speaking the gospel of Philly's JAPATTACK! for some time now, and the praises are only going to keep coming after this clip, which Peter from the group sent us, is seen by all of you.  We can only imagine how distraught they became when news broke of Nashville punk band Be Your Own PET had decided to call it quits (we think they felt a little like us, that's for sure), but the track they just completed (and video, duh) for "Bicycle In C Minor" are just magic.  Taking out the meat of "Bicycle Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle", JAPATTACK! surprise us by how simple the beat is, and how deadly.

(mp3)    JAPATTACK! - My Bike In C Minor

Godspeed!

Photos: Minou gets Wallpaper and a fave party is a year older

Seriously?  Unstoppable Perfect, the biweekly party that's pretty much owned Thursday nights had its anniversary?  It's already been a year?  Shit on me.  We stopped by 205 for Minou for a while then ran over to Happy Ending.  We.  Are.  Exhausted.  It was good to see the Bad Decision DJs and Antwan doing photos, so that was cool.  And all the kids from Minou seemed stoked for us to be back.  We were too.

(mp3)    Mystery Jets - Diamonds In The Dark (Dusty Cabinets remix)

Godspeed!

mp-FREE: new Madlib feat. Poke - "The Ox (805)"

King Of The Wigflip is sure to be top 10 of '08, ya heard.  We have it, we've listened to it, we love love love it.  Last week we gave you a teaser and one of the tracks from the record.  Well here's another, and this track is evidence that you cannot stop the Beat Konducta.  No sir.  Watch out when it drops September 30.  Madlib is on the blow up, again.

(mp3)    Madlib feat. Poke - The Ox (805)

Godspeed!

mp-FREE: EPMD remixes for "Run It" from Sinden, others

NYC hip hop pioneers meet three of London's most up-and-coming/already-here producers, each creating their own masterwork of EPMD's "Run It", a track that's not exactly old and not exactly new, but these remixes certainly breath all sorts of life into the otherwise old-school NY hip hop flow.  Sinden, Duke Dumont and Hervé all take swings.

(mp3)    EPMD - Run It (Sinden remix)

(mp3)    EPMD - Run It (Hervé's Got His Hands Up remix)

(mp3)    EPMD - Run It (Duke Dumont remix)

Godspeed1

Video: Common feat. Pharrell - "Announcement"

In short, all you need to know about this song and video is summed up in the following line, delivered by everyone's second favorite hipster rapper, Common (which is totally funny saying because Pharrell is the first favorite and he's on this track too): "Brah’s say are you a philosopher?/ Yeah yeah I’ll philosopha on top of ya".  The Lil X-directed clip is straight up the best artist-meets-cartoon thing since Bugs Bunny made all kinds of crazy shit happen to Daffy.  There are also more wardrobe changes in "Announcement" than that of the Looney Tunes cartoon, save for the flower suit.

(mp3)    Common - I Used To Love H.E.R.

Godspeed!

News: Karin Dreijer Andersson (The Knife) doing solo record

Okay, so maybe all we have is a name and a label and both of those things are pretty "known" right now.  The project, dubbed Fever Ray, is going to be out sometime this fall via Rabid Records, the same Swedish imprint that released all the previous epic Knife works because, well, The Knife owns the label.  How simple.  We don't know if Andersson will use her own name for the release (and therefore Fever Ray would be the album name) or if she'll adopt Fever Ray as her name.  Keep it here for more information as it comes in.  We'll keep you posted as soon as we know more

(mp3)    First Floor Power - The Jacket (Karin Dreijer Andersson remix)

Godspeed!

Photos: Girls & Boys are back in town

First of all, yes, our dear friend Beth (Famous Friends) wore the same American Dream Team shirt that we wore to Girls & Boys.  Ridiculous.  And hilarious.  AC Slater and Krames lit up the tables for the night and while a scheduled appearance by the dudes from Does It Offend You, Yeah? didn't actually materialize, we don't actually think anyone figured it out.  VDRK, Gavin from Bad Decision and Jyan of Kids With Snakes saved the day.  We'll see you next week.  Oh yeah, before we go for the night, we wanted to premiere this banging new remix from Krames.  He played his own edit of "Swagger Like Us", the track that's blowing up all over the airwaves and the blogs and the lips and hearts of the in-crowds around.  It's righteous.

(mp3)    T.I. featuring Lil' Wayne, Jay-Z and Kanye West - Swagger Like Us (Krames V to the IzA edit)

Godspeed!