Blog: Pretty Much Amazing

Bon Iver hit up Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night and performed this downright epic, eight minute rendition of "Perth" with the legendary Roots. Continue reading: Bon Iver & The Roots - "Perth" Read more articles like " Bon Iver & The Roots - "Perth" " on PMA | Pretty Much Amazing . No tags for this post.

The last thing we heard from LA electro songstress Ramona Gonzalez aka Nite Jewel was her hyper-minimalist, intimately confessional cover of Stevie Wonder's "Visions," but she's back to her chilly, synth-driven M.O. on the latest single from her second LP One Second of Love , "In the Dark." Over an impossibly catchy backbeat and her classic thick, shimmering planes of cold, cutting synth and piano, Gonzalez effortlessly shows off her impressive vocal range. That's not to say Gonzalez has abandoned the personal emotionality of her Stevie Wonder cover – "In the Dark" feels like she's whispering it [...]

Beach Fossils' Dustin Payseur has promised new material from his band will take a turn for the edgier, so we were a little surprised when "Shallow," the band's latest 7" single on Captured Tracks, sounded, um, exactly like a Beach Fossils song. We're a little more excited by that track's b-side, "Lessons," which plays up the band's new-wavey interlocked guitars and motorik drums into something a little darker and more interesting. Continue reading: New: Beach Fossils - "Lessons" Read more articles like " New: Beach Fossils - [...]

If there's one song we love, it's Cults' "You Know What I Mean," in its gloomy poppiness one of the best and most self-defining tracks on the band's 2011 self-titled debut, so we're psyched that it's the band's next single and they've chosen to make an appropriately sweet and dark video for it. It casts Cults' male half Brian Oblivion as a carnival stuntman and its female half Madeline Follin as his devoted girlfriend whose disapproving father goes to extreme measures to try and keep them apart. Check it out. Continue reading: Video: Cults [...]

If there's one song we love, it's Cults' "You Know What I Mean," in its gloomy poppiness one of the best and most self-defining tracks on the band's 2011 self-titled debut, so we're psyched that it's the band's next single and they've chosen to make an appropriately sweet and dark video for it. It casts Cults' male half Brian Oblivion as a carnival stuntman and its female half Madeline Follin as his devoted girlfriend whose disapproving father goes to extreme measures to try and keep them apart. Check it out. Continue reading: Video: Cults [...]

Manchester pop duo The Ting Tings may have taken four years to record the follow-up to their hugely successful We Started Nothing , but they weren't just sitting around – extensive touring and scrapped early sessions finally culminated in Sounds from Nowheresville , recorded in Spain. The record's second single is "Soul Killing," probably the only pop-reggae track in history to sample a creaking rocking chair, destined to be the band's next lighters-in-the-air anthem – "they can never hold us down!" Katie White sings over No Doubt -y dub guitars and bursts of horn-section wailing. [...]

"Niggas In Paris" was "videojacked" late last night, now we have the official visuals for the hit. Continue reading: Official Video: Jay-Z & Kanye West - "Niggas In Paris" Read more articles like " Official Video: Jay-Z & Kanye West - "Niggas In Paris" " on PMA | Pretty Much Amazing . Tags: Jay-Z , Kanye West

B | 01.30.11 | DFA | STREAM | MP3 "Pop-hip-house." "Liquid-bmore-house-step." "Rave-garage." Just when you thought the UK house scene could not possibly concoct anymore arbitrary sub-genres, along frolics our faux ursine duo drafting an indietronica doctrine for world peace. "But it can sound awful if you talk about it too much," Hot Chip and the 2 Bear's Joe Goddard tells The Guardian , diffusing the altruistic ambitions of the group's first true LP, Be Strong . � Continue reading: Review & Stream: The 2 Bears - [...]

"Videojacking: Action of stealing a music video, an audiovisual work, even before the artist asked for itself, ordered, undertook, realized, and even thought about it." Continue reading: "Niggas In Paris" Videojacked Read more articles like " "Niggas In Paris" Videojacked " on PMA | Pretty Much Amazing . Tags: Jay-Z , Kanye West

A few weeks ago, Lana Del Rey's Saturday Night Live blunder caused a maelstrom of negative press for the young singer (note that it didn't end her career , as many mean-spirited Tweets predicted). Sure, we weren't crazy about her debut album as a whole – contrary to popular belief, this had nothing to do with said blunder – but we're still rooting for Lana , and we're glad she proved to TV land that she can come out and give a proper performance , and that she didn't cancel [...]

Kindness will release his debut album, World, You Need a Change of Mind on March 19. Here's a funny video featuring "Gee Up," a short track Kindness first released in 2009. Continue reading: Kindness - "Gee Up" Read more articles like " Kindness - "Gee Up" " on PMA | Pretty Much Amazing . Tags: Kindness

The infamous Earl Sweatshirt , that young, skilled and up and till now, "missing" ( ex? ) Odd Future cohort is now home, according to his newly launched Twitter account . To celebrate reaching 50,000 followers in a matter of hours, Earl has unleashed this new track, aptly titled "Home." Continue reading: New: Earl Sweatshirt - "Home" Read more articles like " New: Earl Sweatshirt - "Home" " on PMA | Pretty Much Amazing . Tags: Earl Sweatshirt

Swift-tongued MC, Twista hops on A$AP Rocky's "Purple Swag" and leaves us feeling a little bit dizzy. Continue reading: Twista - "Purple Swag" (A$AP Rocky Freestyle) Read more articles like " Twista - "Purple Swag" (A$AP Rocky Freestyle) " on PMA | Pretty Much Amazing . Tags: A$AP Mob , A$AP Rocky , A$AP Ty Beats , Twista

Last night, and the night before, Jay-Z brought his unfiltered show to the the hallowed stage of New York City's iconic Carnegie Hall. The black tie affair, with tickets exceeding $1,000 a seat, benefitted United Way of New York City and The Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation. During his set, which revisited mid-career hits from "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" to "Dirt off Your Shoulders" and "99 Problems", Jay-Z performed, for the first time, "Glory," his heartfelt dedication to his newborn daughter Blu Ivy Carter. After the performance (which was met, at [...]

Brooklyn-via-Midwest crew White Rabbits announced their upcoming third record Milk Famous along with first single "Heavy Metal" a few weeks ago, and now they're giving us all another taste with new teaser "Temporary." Where "Heavy Metal" sounded even more minimalistically Spoon -y than anything on the band's previous, actual Britt Daniel-produced record It's Frightening , "Temporary" is a little different in the best way, a fantastic foray into delightfully busy, dizzyingly crosscutting territory. Continue reading: New: White Rabbits - "Temporary" Read more articles like " New: [...]

Brooklyn-via-Midwest crew White Rabbits announced their upcoming third record Milk Famous along with first single "Heavy Metal" a few weeks ago, and now they're giving us all another taste with new teaser "Temporary." Where "Heavy Metal" sounded even more minimalistically Spoon -y than anything on the band's previous, actual Britt Daniel-produced record It's Frightening , "Temporary" is a little different in the best way, a fantastic foray into delightfully busy, dizzyingly crosscutting territory. Continue reading: New: White Rabbits - "Temporary" Read more articles like " New: [...]

We're psyched on brand new XL signee Willis Earl Beal's knack for bringing a lo-fi, DIY aesthetic to back-porch soul Americana, and we're psyched on the latest offering from his new label's upcoming reissue of his record Acousmatic Sorcery , "Take Me Away." The best comparison we can make is Saul Williams and S am Cooke collaborating over a discarded tUnE-yArDs drum loop – we're talking electric passion that bleeds effortlessly through Beal's dirty bedroom production because it's not bandaged at all, it's still fresh, it's still raw. We guarantee [...]

It might surprise you to learn that some of your favorite moments of nostalgic sun-blind guitar fuzz in Deerhunter's catalog were written by its unassuming rhythm guitarist Lockett Pundt ("Strange Lights," "Like New," "Agoraphobia," and, most impressively, Halcyon Digest standout "Desire Lines," to name a few), who's been quietly releasing music on his own as Lotus Plaza for as long as his band's been in the public spotlight. Continue reading: New: Lotus Plaza - "Come Back" Read more articles like " New: Lotus Plaza - "Come [...]

Once a Dum Dum Girl, a Vivian Girl and even a Crystal Stilt, Frankie Rose is now doing her own thing, doing it darn well. On February 21 she will release her effervescent solo debut, Interstellar ; you can stream it in its entirety below: Continue reading: Full Stream: Frankie Rose - Interstellar Read more articles like " Full Stream: Frankie Rose - Interstellar " on PMA | Pretty Much Amazing . Tags: Frankie Rose

Covering a song as universally adored as M832s sublime "Midnight City" is risky business, but New York's The Knocks , joined here by vocalist Mandy Lee , manage to lovingly recreate the night driving anthem and dress it in new, disco-bound clothes. The original is by no means a stranger to the dance floor, but with their cover, The Knocks make it that much easier to play "Midnight City" at your next glow stick-appropriate event. Listen and download this hump day treat below: Continue reading: MP3: The Knocks - "Midnight City" (M83 [...]