Blog: Side Street of Life

While accompanying Drake during his Club Paradise Tour, Meek Mill and Drizzy Drake created "Amen," one of holy standouts from Meek Mill's Dreamchasers 2 Mixtape. Almost like a day in the life of rap star, the video includes some bad b*****s, some real n****s, and a whole lot of Benjy spending. Look for Meek Mill's debut album Dreams and Nightmares [...]

After 10 years of anticipation, No Doubt have released their long-awaited single "Settle Down," which will be the first release from the band's upcoming album, Push And Shove. Staying true to their Reggae influence, "Settle Down" is a energetic and fresh comeback track that welcomes fans with open arms. Rumor has it a corresponding music video for "Settle Down" will [...]

It's been a second since we've heard the unconventional music making of the Odd Future duo Hodgy Beats and Left Brain. Realeasing “Fakuoy” via his twitter last night, Hodgy also tweeted that the duo's upcoming album, entitled Numbers, will have release date soon. For now, though, download "Fakuoy" below!

I can't think of a better way to start off the week than with a new Kendrick Lamar track. After getting the smokers to rise up with “HiiiPoweR,” Lamar gives us the booze influenced track of “Swimming Pool (Drank.)” With the smooth style of production from T-Minus, “Swimming Pool (Drank)” is great song to kickback and drink a cold one [...]

Band of Horses is back with a new album called Mirage Rock. The title is fitting of Band of Horses recurring influence of natural existences and well, rock music. After touring with Kings of Leon and My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses has been poised to grab a larger mainstream following. This week they released their first single from Mirage Rock"Knock Knock" which [...]

Mariachi el Bronx stopped by the AV Club to participate in the AV Undercover sessions where various artists have to choose from a specific list of songs to cover. This has resulted in such pairings as Reggie Watts covering Van Halen and Sharon Van Etten and Shearwater covering Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks.  Here the former punk outfit, The Bronx, [...]

Laura Marling graced the library walls at NPR for their series, Tiny Desk Concert. Laura Marling is adept at commanding a small space with her vocal charm. For her years, Marling's lyrics are surprisingly full of wisdom and they flourish and wind in an acoustic setting like this one. She played 3 songs, two from A Creature I Don't Know and one new [...]

One thing great for any music lover is the abundance of shows and tours that happen during the Summer time. Mad Decent, who has been known for its annual Block Party series, has just announced this years tour dates along with the artist lineup. We can expect appearances by Major Lazer, Theophilus London, Muthafuckin' eXquire, Action Bronson, Spaceghostpurrp, Casey Veggies, [...]

Photo via The Fader. At Vitamin Water and FADER's recent Uncapped concert, Bethany Consentino of Best Coast and Kendrick Lamar shared the stage to perform "No Make-Up (Her Vice)." While you can say the two are from opposite sides of the genre scale, I'm glad the "odd couple" took a chance and created an awesome, and very different sounding take [...]

In 2009 Pittsburgh emcee Mac Miller released "Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza" that would eventually start his journey through internet stardom. With "Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza" accompanied by others in his breakout mixtape K.I.D.S., Mac went from an inspiring emcee to billboard charting rapper that was touring the world; and this was all before turning 20 years old. While [...]

You can say I'm a sucker for Neil Diamond covers. At Triple J's studio, The British indie rockers of The Maccabees decided to put their own spin on the Neil Diamond classic "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon." Neil Diamond created a smoother style of music back in the late 602s. The Maccabees make this song their own giving their [...]

Animal Collective stopped by The Cutting Room in NYC to record a session for the famous Seattle radio station KEXP. To keep the buzz alive for their 9th studio album Centipede HZ that comes out September 4th, they're releasing 73 that includes "Honeycomb" and "Gotham" to tide the fans over until the album's release. Expect unique sound collisions, all over [...]

For being stoned 24/7, Curren$y is probably one of the hardest working emcee's out there. Releasing The Stoned Immaculate last month and announcing he would have a collaborative mixtape with Wiz out in August, Curren$y brings us his yet another project. Cigarette Boats mixes Harry Fraud's elegant style of smoked out beats, which in Curren$y's case, is a great platform [...]

Yours Truly and Adidas Originals continue their "Songs From Scratch" series, which gives you a behind the scenes look at artists making a track. In the latest episode, "Songs From Scratch" combines the unique talents of producer AraabMUZIK and emcee Danny Brown in their process of creating "Molly Ringwald." Considering that both AraabMUZIK and Danny Brown are genre benders in [...]

As promised, Frank Ocean released his highly anticipated new album Channel Orange via iTunes last night at midnight. After listening to the album twice, I can say Frank has quite an EXCEPTIONAL album on his hands. Balancing his abstract lyrics with a strong vocal performance in almost every song, this by far one of the top R&B albums of the [...]

After getting the album teaser last week, Tame Impala's new album Lonerism is starting to really sink in. Giving us the first cut from their album entitled "Apocalypse Dreams," the band stays true to their use of reverb while spicing up their instrumentation. Grab "Apocalypse Dreams" below via the widget thingy and enjoy the solid indie rock sound Tame Impala [...]

Following their 2010 release of Before Today, Ariel Pink's Hunted Graffiti will be releasing a new album entitled Mature Themes on August 21st. In addition to "Baby," a cover of Donnie and Joe Emerson’s 1979 classic, Ariel Pink gives us a song entitled "Only in Dreams" that is released right in time for Summer. With soothing vocals, cheery guitar riffs, [...]

• Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Only In My Dreams

The Walkmen's new video for "The Love You Love," from their new album Heaven, is quite the interesting one. The video includes slow motion crashing, lucky chinese cats, and guitarist Paul Maroon’s creepy son Otis. Watch the interesting video below.

John Legend's smooth "Tonight (Best You Ever Had)" gets the remix treatment by fellow G.O.O.D. member Pusha T. With the original version having Ludacris, Pusha T delivers a softer verse for the ladies showing his listeners he can be gentleman to (for the most part). Check out the remix below!

Singer/songwriter Frank Ocean had quite a liberating week to say the least. After recently posting a "Coming Out" letter via his tumblr, Frank Ocean has been the center of media buzz. Fortunately for us at Side Street of Life and his fellow musicians/celebrities, only positive things have come of it because many people commended his courage to come out on [...]