Blog: beat Lawrence - A music and video weblog

Craig Finn Mount Moriah Appearing at The Record Bar (Kansas City, MO) on Saturday, February 11, 2012

Bad Weather California Appearing at The Record Bar (Kansas City, MO) on Monday, January 02, 2012

Cursive Ume Appearing at The Record Bar (Kansas City, MO) on Friday, March 02, 2012

Jenny Owen Youngs Appearing at The Record Bar (Kansas City, MO) on Monday, February 13, 2012

Diego's Umbrella Appearing at The Record Bar (Kansas City, MO) on Sunday, March 11, 2012

Katie Herzig Appearing at The Record Bar (Kansas City, MO) on Monday, March 05, 2012

Scott Kelly Eugene Robinson Appearing at The Record Bar (Kansas City, MO) on Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Reverend Horton Heat Larry And His Flask The Goddamn Gallows Appearing at The Bottleneck (Lawrence, KS) on Saturday, February 25, 2012

Supersuckers The Spittin' Cobras Appearing at The Bottleneck (Lawrence, KS) on Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Mountain Sprout The Ragbirds The Ben Miller Band Appearing at The Bottleneck (Lawrence, KS) on Friday, January 27, 2012

The Northern Ireland rock group, General Fiasco , is set to release their new EP, Waves , on November 14th. Here's the video for the single "Waves."

Comprised of Keith and Hollie Kenniff, Mint Julep is set to release the new album Save Your Season on November 21st. Keith lays his "vivid, glinting keyboards, towering guitars and miscellaneous instrumental hooks" under his wife's "seductive" and "dreamy" vocals. Take a listen to "Why Don't We" from the upcoming album.

A musical tribute to James Franco. That's what the world has been missing. Hoodie Allen has filled that gaping hole in our lives with his hip-hop ode to the actor. Hoodie, whose real name is Steven Markowitz, is a New York rapper who recently quit his job at Google to devote all of his time to his music. He released his third mixtape, Leap Year , this year and "James Franco" is ready to tear up the internet. You won't be able to resist the "James Franco" chant. You can download the song, and the full mixtape, for free [...]

It's been twenty years since U2 released Achtung Baby . Twenty years. Seems like, well, okay it does seem like twenty years ago. Well, now some notable artists have made a cover album, AHK-toong Bay-bi , for Q magazine . The cover album includes The Killers, Snow Patrol, Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode. Listen to some of their versions. Snow Patrol - Mysterious Ways (U2 Cover) by Snow Patrol

• Snow Patrol - Mysterious Ways (U2 Cover)

Bass Drum of Death, from Mississippi, features John Barrett on guitar and vocals and Colin Sneed on drums. Barrett wrote and recorded their debut LP, GB City , himself using drums, a guitar, a USB microphone, and a computer before teaching Sneed to play drums for the live shows and beyond. They describe their music as follows: "The songs are about drugs, religious girls, panic attacks, mild to severe depression, Elvis appearing in your dreams and giving you advice, gravity bongs, and the devil living inside your brain." I'm not entirely sure that description makes me want [...]

• Bass Drum Of Death - i dunno

Sam Cohen has released a new video for Yellowbirds, his solo project. "Beneath The Reach Of Light" is the latest single off of this year's album, The Color . Check out the video.

Their sound has been compared to The Cure, Echo and The Bunnymen, Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand and The Killers. They are The Hundred Days and they recently released their debut album, Really? . The San Francisco band derived their name from them actually crafting their music in a house for one hundred days. The newest single off of the album is "Girl At A Party" and you can watch the video below. Also, watch the video for the first single from Really? , "Sex U."

I came across this last week on The Music Ninja . It needs to be shared. It's a mashup of a remix of a remix of a song. I think I got that right. Anyway, DJ 21azy, who according to his Facebook page has been inspired by "a combination of Girl Talk and boredom", has put together this mashup, featuring Biggie's "Can I Get Withca," of Skizzy Mars' remix of Xaphoon Jones' remix of Grouplove's "Colours." You follow that? No? It doesn't really matter. Just listen to the song. Here are links to the [...]

• DJ 21azy - Colours (Remix) - Skizzy Mars ft Biggie Smalls

Australian band The Jezabels released their debut album, Prisoner, last month and it shot it up to the top of the Aussie charts, right behind Adele. They aren't signed to a label and released this album on their own. Below is the video for their current single, "Endless Summer."

Montreal's Stars have released a video for "Dead Hearts" and you can take part in a "crowd-sourced" version of the video. Stars enlisted the help of Canadian street artist Roadsworth to conceptualize the heart imagery used in the video. Now, the band is asking fans to create their own "dead hearts" and share that work with them. For more details on the contest, go to the band's Facebook page . "Dead Hearts" is also featured on the soundtrack for the new movie Like Crazy .