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Rock/Alternative

New Music: Colin Munroe Will I Stay Remix feat. Wale & Dallas Austin

Colin Munroe - Will I Stay Remix feat Wale

I’ve been a fan of Toronto artist Colin Munroe for a hot minute, since he co-opted Kanye’s Flashing lights earlier this year. However, the dude is getting more brownie points from the hip-hop blogoshere by not only being associated with Dallas Austin and Black Milk behind the boards, but with DC native Wale as well.

The remix of WIll I Stay features Wale’s verse is featured on the upcoming mixtape Colin Munroe is the Unsung Hero which also features Mickey Factz, Joell Ortiz, Blaqstarr and Skyzo and drops on December 1st. Colin is on tour with Proton featuring Izza Kizza, DJ Blaqstar, and Kid Cudi on select dates.

What do y’all think?

Tour Dates
11/22 M for Montreal Festival, Montreal
12/02 The Boat, Toronto w/ Proton
12/03 Viper Room, Los Angeles w/ Proton
12/04 Studio @ Webster Hall, New York w/ Proton, Izza Kizza & DJ Blaqstarr
12/06 Lenny’s, Atlanta w/ Proton & Spree Wilson
12/09 Highline Ballroom, New York w/ Wale, Kid Cudi & Mark Ronson (dj set)
12/12 Hanafins Pub, New London w/ Flowers & Kain

Tags: Colin Munroe

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Hip-Hop, Rock/Alternative

Travis Barker, DJ AM Still In Critical Condition

Travis Barker and DJ AM, who perform as TRV$DJ-AM were the lone survivors of a jet incident which killed 4 people over the weekend in South Carolina. Right now, they’re both suffering from second and third degree burns, but are lucky to be alive. A full recovery is expected for both artists.

Looking at the image of the crashed plane, all I gotta say is…DAMN. Its surprising that anyone  got out of that alive.

Thoughts and prayers go out to the families…

TRV$DJ-AM at the Roxy, LA

Tags: DJ AM, Travis Barker

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Hip-Hop, Negroclash!, Rock/Alternative

N.E.R.D. Complete SXSW Set, Tour Dates

 

 N.E.R.D. Complete SXSW Set (ZShare, Zip)

From what I hear, N.E.R.D. killed it at South By Southwest this year. But for all of us who weren’t able to make their Texas set, here is a decent (not great) quality rip of their entire set (via OKP).

N.E.R.D is currently on a promotional tour across the Midwest and South right now before they join Kanye for his Glow In The Dark Tour. So far, the concert reviews have been positive. Here are the remaining dates.

TourDates

March 22 - Richmond, VA, The National
March 24 - Louisville, KY, Coyotes
March 25 - Ashville, NC, The Orange Peel
March 25 - Knoxville, TN, The Vallarium
March 28 - Jacksonville, FL, Free Bird Cafe

Tags: N.E.R.D., SXSW, tour dates

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Negroclash!, R&B, Rock/Alternative

Gnarls Barkley’s The Odd Couple Out Now

Gnarls Barkley decided that rather than releasing their album April 8th, let’s release it…..um. Today! Well, more like yesterday, when the duo rushed their albums to digital and retail markets. I’ve listened to the leak, and this is a fairly solid album. And yes, this is about to be the next trend: The band The Raconteurs, fronted by Jack Black, announced yesterday that their album would drop in less than a week. Its a two fold move–first, to combat piracy, and second to not peg an album’s success on first weeks numbers and slowly build album sales over the course of a few weeks. The old way of waiting months between an albums completion date and its release looks like its out the door.

Tags: Gnarls Barkley, Jack Black, The Odd Couple

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Couch Sessions Appoved Artist, Negroclash!, Rock/Alternative

Video: Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes

Wow. This video is definately out there, but a good look at the moment for me. Why? I don’t know. Mabye cause Santi looks so damn good in it. Looks like she’s definitely gonna blow up in ‘08.

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House/Electronic, New Music, Rock/Alternative

Colin Munroe - Flashing Lights

MySpace:

MP3: Colin Munroe - Flashing Lights

First, off, who is Colin Munroe? Google is failing me this time. (Lady Glock, can you inform a brotha?) Having that said, a pretty nice remix of Kanye’s “Flashing Lights” video. Like I said before, non-commissioned videos are taking over! (from Kanye West blog)

Update: More info from Colin’s people (and Lady Glock)–The dude is from Toronto and is collaborating with Dallas Austin for his debut CD, Don’t Think Less of Me, which should drop this year. Check out more tracks on his MySpace.

Tags: Colin Munroe

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Hip-Hop, Negroclash!, New Music, Rock/Alternative

Review: Kenna - Make Sure They See My Face

Kenna
Make Sure They See My Face

“Why did they call it Make Sure They See My Face if they don’t have the damn face on the album cover?” my friend said as he thumbed through the liner notes of Kenna’s new album.

Unfortunately, Kenna has been getting reactions like that for a hot minute now. It almost seems like he’s been fighting off the haters since day one of his career. On first glance, most people won’t ”get” him. Even with this new seemingly multicultural music scene–with groups like the Black Eyed Peas looking like a Benneton commercial, acts like Justin Timberlake and Amy Winehouse taking over R&B, and rappers spitting over Daft Punk and Radiohead beats–a black guy singing like Bono of U2 STILL turns heads.

Not that it matters though. Kenna has gone above and beyond with his latest album. Production was headed by Chad Hugo of the Neptunes (a childhood friend), and the album sounds much more fresh and consistent than New Sacred Cow, his previous effort. Upbeat tunes like “Face the Gun” and “Say Goodbye to Love” manage to sound pop accessible ans still maintain that Kennaedge. songs like “Sun Red, Sky Blue,” and “Daylight” are powerful and soulful–almost sounding like Kenna has something to prove. The train does derail slightly, with “Loose Wires” sounding too eclectic for its own good and “Better Wise Up,” sounding more like Thom Yorke for comfort.

All in all though, Make Sure They See My Face is a powerful album. Off the bat you see Kenna’s vision for music in the 21st century. Haters be dammed.

Extra Credit
Kenna Interview with Malcom Gladwell, author of Blink.
Lady Glock’s Kenna Interview

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Album Preview, Hip-Hop, Negroclash!, Rock/Alternative

Video: Kenna - Say Goodbye to Love

It’s almost fitting that the week that Kenna’s new album comes out is the week that I get to chapter five in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink, which is appropriately titled “Kenna’s Dilemma.” It seems during the release of Kenna’s first album, New Sacred Cow, the dude was selling out shows in spots like LA’s Roxy, but was getting shunned by the general public, which was reflected in market research, which gave his first album low scores. The result: no radio airplay and no promotion money, making Kenna a blip on the radar for most music people.

Of course, this is sad as hell. Considering the dude’s connections–the Neptunes, Fred Durst, U2’s manager, etc–Kenna’s name should be on the lips of every person who considers themselves a music fan. But of course, that’s not the case. Kenna has an album coming out tomorrow, entitled Make Sure They See My Face, and most likely, you haven’t heard about it. Fortunately, for him, he’s been touring constantly (opening up for Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado) as well as being featured in a commercial for Sony’s PSP and the iTunes track of the week.

Check out this new video for his second single, “Say Goodbye to Love” and let me know what you think? Is this something y’all can get down with? Also, I gotta say I went to school with Kenna’s sister back in the day so I might be a little biased.

(tip: Ian; also check out Lady Glock’s Kenna interview)

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Rock/Alternative

Video of the Day: Mute Math - Typical (Backwards)

myspace.com/mutemath

I’ve talked about the New Orleans based rock outfit Mute Math a couple times on this blog, even including one of their songs on my Top 85 Songs of 2006. Like I’ve said before, I haven’t been on my rock thing for a while, but this band continues to impress me. Their style is hard to describe. Take the best of Coldplay, U2, etc and drop some Maroon 5 in there and you can’t even come close to describing these dudes. Unfortunately, they are signed with Warner Brothers so like J*Davey they’ve had some label drama, but they’ve been steady on their grind for the past few years without major label support and it shows.

Check this video from Jimmy Kimmel. It’s supposed to be a live performance done backwards but it was actually filmed during the course of three weeks. All I gotta say is….damn.

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Hip-Hop, Pop, Remix, Rock/Alternative

30 Seconds to Mars - Stronger

30 Seconds to Mars - Stronger (Kanye West cover)

I’m really not up on my rock game, because I honestly don’t know who 30 Seconds to Mars is. Apparently they’re pretty big among the MTV crowd so and I’ll take Wikipedia’s word for it. Anyway, their remix of Kanye’s Stronger is a damn good look. It was recorded this past month on BBC1’s Live Lounge in London. Unlike Travis Barkers reworking of “Soulja Boy,” this cover is on a straight downtempo emo tip, but they take the concept and ran with it.

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