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Reader Best of 2008: Stephen

Black Milk

This year, instead of just having me yap on about my Best of lists, I reached out to several of our readers to give their Top 5 of the best releases of the year. I’ll be profiling a new reader each day until the end of the 2008. Today’s reader is Stephen, who works for an indie label in Brooklyn, NY, and a top reader of the site.

Name: Stephen
Location: Brooklyn

Albums
Portishead- Third
Black Milk- Tronic
Bon Iver- For Emma
No Age- Nouns
Dodos- Visiter

Songs
MGMT- “Time To Pretend”
Kid Cudi- “Day N Night” (honorable mentions to “The Prayer” too)
Big Boi- “Royal Flush”
Busta Rhymes- “Don’t Touch Me”
Lil Wayne- “A Mili” (and its myriad remixes)
Estelle f/ Kanye West- “American Boy”
Terminology f/ Bun B.- “This Is How We Rock”
Jay-Z- “Jocking Jay-Z”
Mr. Oizo- Stunt (Flying Lotus Mix)

Mixtapes
Gaslamp Killer- I Spit On Your Grave
Santogold- Uptown Top Ranking
Zion I- The Search and the Seizure
Beyond The Wizards Sleeve- Ark 1
Kid Cudi- A Kid Name Cudi
Eli Escobar- We Make It Good (Homeless Mix)
Stats & Black- 48 Hours in Transit
J.Rocc- Cooking Ingredients
Cosmo Baker- Live At The Do-Over
88 Keys- Adam’s Case Files

Tags: Black Milk, Bon Iver, Dodos, Kid Cudi, MGMT, No Age, Portishead

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Video: Tricky - Council Estate

Council Estate is the lead single off of Tricky’s 9th full length album titled Knowle West Boy on July 7th (UK) and in September 9th (US). If you don’t know, Tricky was at the forefront of the early 90s trip-hop movement along with Portishead and Massive Attack and dropped the amazing album Maxinquaye back in 1995.

I don’t know about this one. I’m sure this song will grow on me at some point. I’m loving this video though. If you enjoy Saul Williams then you should definitely check him out.

www.myspace.com/trickola

Tags: Knowle West Boy, Portishead, Tricky

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Coachella: Prince, Portishead and Sharon Jones Rocked It

Prince rocked Coachella Festival this past weekend in California with a 2 hour set that included appearances from Sheela E. (dayum!) and Morris Day and the Time (wha?). The dude ripped through all of his hits as well as covering “Creep” from Radiohead in what most people are calling the greatest Coachella performance ever. (I’ll post audio from the performance when I get it.

Prince - “Creep”

Prince just needs to go ahead and make a true rock album and show those kids how its done. Fall Out Boy wouldn’t last a second with this dude on stage.

Portishead - Full Coachella Performance

Along with Prince, Portishead was also on the bill and probably as egarly anticipated as the Purple One since this is their only US tour date this year. I’m still out on their new album Third (it can’t compare to their previous two) but they still sound like they put on a dope concert. Still mad at them for skipping the East Coast though.

And let’s not forget Sharon Jones, the hardest working woman in show business, and Couch Sessions Approved Artist Alum, who brought down the show on Friday night.

Tags: Portishead, Prince, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

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UK Sounds

Portishead on Current TV

I got the Press Release from Current’s people about this last week, but figured it was too good to be true. Maybe its just cause I’m in the States, but it seems this group never gives any live performances. So I took the press release with a grain of salt. But yes, Portishead actually did play a “live” convert from their hometown of (er…Portishead), which is also syndicated on the Current Network.

Since the band seems to be as reclusive as ever, it’s always good to actually seem them in a live performance setting. Now, if they can only play the 9:30 Club…

Here is the full Concert from Current TV below. The network will be re-aring the concert up until the release of their new album Third, which drops on April 28th.

Portishead Current TV Schedule

* April 11, 2008 at 10pm EST / 7pm PST and 1am EST / 10pm PST
* April 12, 2008 at 11am EST / 8am PST and 3am EST / 12am PST
* April 13, 2008 at 3pm EST / 12pm PST and 11pm EST / 8pm PST
* April 14, 2008 at 8pm EST / 5pm PST
* April 15, 2008 at 3am EST / 12am PST
* April 16, 2008 at 6pm EST / 3pm PST
* April 17, 2008 at 12pm EST / 9am PST
* April 18, 2008 at 12am EST / 9pm PST

Tags: Current TV, Portishead, Third

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UK Sounds

Album Preview: Portishead - Third

Is Portishead hip-hop?

That was a topic of a spirited online discussion I had with my friend a few months back. My friend argued no. I said yes.

It it hip-hop in a literal sense. Probably not. The don’t sound like anything close to hip-hop, and they definitely don’t look it. But they take the basis hip-hop (sampling) redefined the concept.

From Pete Rock to the Native Tongues, hip-hop’s golden age provided the basis of what trip-hop was going to become. Growing up in Southwest England, the guys who would eventually form Portishead, Tricky, and Massive Attack took their love of such acts as Public Enemy and formed it in their own way. Trip-hop was born off the back of late 80s and early 90s hip-hop.

But what happens now, when hip-hop sounds nothing like it once did back in the day?

Well, for their third album, aptly titled…Third, the group pretty much largely abandons the beats for guitars. What results is an album which sounds more like Radiohead rather than its trip-hop brethren. This might upset some fans, since Portishead’s Geoff Barrow is considered one of the best samplers out there (he created his own orchestral score for the sole purpose of sampling it later), but surprisingly the group continues to maintain their dynamic and sound. The essence of Portishead is lead singer Beth Gibbons’ haunting (and some say depressing) voice, which has remained unchanged.

I’m not going to give a definitive rating of Third until I have a physical copy sitting in front of me, but the unmastered leak will reassure any fan that the group has still “got it,” after a 10 year hiatus between albums.

Third drops on April 28th. The first single, “Machine Gun” is out now. (New fans–don’t judge. This is probably going to the weakest song on the album.)

Tags: Portishead, Tricky, trip-hop

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