Namaste Muffins. I'm always excited to bring new bands to the bakery and my enthusiasm is at an all-time high for Lightouts , a kickass duo hailing from NY via BK via Gowanus. The band got together after founder Gavin Rhodes went old school and plastered a want ad near the Gowanus Canal that simply read "Robert Smith/Emily Haines, where are you?" The call was heeded by Greg Nelson and boomtown, Lighouts were born. Lightouts are in the process of putting together their debut album and I've been lucky enough to listen to some of [...]
Axel : Trizzy my man, I've been waiting in this car for 10 minutes now, what's going on? Train : Just had to run upstairs to grab this mixtape so that we can get our car-rock on son... Axel : What are we listening to? Train : Just drive, you know I got you covered... Yeasayer - Crazy (Seal cover) Adele - Last Nite (Strokes cover) Alex Winston - The Cave (Mumford [...]
Face it: you hate your job. And, the person you are dating hates you (well, the person you were dating-they broke up with you, remember?). Basically, your life sucks. Start March off fresh with a bangin'-ass mixtape. At midnight (EST) on March 1 st , Chip Tha Ripper released his "Gift Raps" project-in association with Chuck Inglish of The Cool Kids. If you know me, you know that's all I needed to know. I heard this mixtape has been a year in the making. If I remember my [...]
Team Me is a new indie pop outfit from Oslo, Norway. From what I hear they have been making a big splash on Norwegian radio. They just released a five song, self-titled EP. However, it is only available for purchase in Norway. Weak. It looks like it will be released soon in the UK, my requests for a US date went unheeded. If you do however live in the UK, they are about to tour all of the place. And judging from their self-described seven-piece orchestral sound, they probably put on a pretty stellar show. If you [...]
Caveman is a band from Brooklyn. But their music sounds more like it was shaped in the Montana countryside or on a deserted beach boardwalk. They use mostly traditional instruments, but of course because they are from Brooklyn they'll throw in the occasional computer-generated drum pattern or synth (that is a good thing). They sing with soft, flowing melodies that are often filled with harmonies. Harmonies are great these days, bands like Local Natives and Fleet Foxes really put harmonies back on the map. Caveman can surely be added to that list. Their first track here [...]
Exactly ten years ago I took a high school girlfriend to see Coldplay at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles. They were on their first U.S. tour and she fainted during the song Yellow. That was the only time I ever saw her faint, so that gives you an idea of how good the show was. So... Happy Valentine's Day! I wrote about Jhameel a couple weeks ago . The band Barbara (who did that Kid Cudi cover a year ago) decided to make a Jhameel song their first remix project. Turned out pretty swell! [...]
It's no secret that Miami is currently the epicenter for synth-pop, with bands like Yeasayer, Delorean, and YAWN. Wait, no? No, none of them are from Miami? In fact, Miami is known for Reggaeton dance clubs and retirement communities? I see. In any case, ANR has plans to change that, and from listening to their new album, Stay Kids , I am fully supportive. Now, I didn't just name drop those bands to make fun of Miami, those would be the "listen if you like" bands for ANR. Their sound is filled be [...]
My boy Sinden is killing it. Fresh off a a skrong (yes, "skrong") 2010 that saw Sinden tour the world + drop the long-awaited full-length project with his comrade Herve, he's back on his underground ish. Yep, a Gucci Mane mixtape. I am sure you're all familiar with "Free Gucci, Vol. 1," the mixtape monster that Diplo and the folks at Mad Decent dropped off last year. Well, this is a Euro version. Sinden pulled together Gucci re-works by producers from all over England. It's essentially a "Who's He?" of [...]
Namaste Muffins. My friend and yours, Ace Reporter is back with another EP culled from the treasure chest of songs he amassed during his amazing threesixfive project . The first EP ( Untouched and Arrived ) found Ace get his rock on whereas electro energy infused the sounds of the Lean Honey Lean EP . This week Ace released the Sleepyhead EP , an introspective offering of stripped down acoustic songs and let me tell you, I'm picking up what he's putting down. This [...]
The last time we heard from Jhameel I was comparing his debut album to early Sufjan and Chris Garneau. Jhameel has just released his sophomore album, The Human Condition. And this time around, you might want to leave your meloncholoy at the door and put on your dancing shoes. Listening to the album you can hear tastes of a lot of the best bands out there right now, like Yeasayer, Passion Pit, maybe a little Local Natives. Not saying Jhameel is changing his sound to match current trends, it sounds more like [...]
The good folks at Fool's Gold dropped this thing back on the 11th, but I didn't have a chance to peep it until last night. In short, it's major. So, there I was, doing my taxes, minding my own business, when this mixtape landed on #8 ("Gucci Rag Top"). I immediately went to the "OH HELL NO" face while keying in values to my "2010 Taxes" Excel sheet. I mean, yes, Kid Sis is kind of on the "girly" side, but I personally feel like she goes hard on this mixtape. And, the beats [...]
Namste Muffins. I love discovering new music which is why I love writing for The Muffin. I suspect that also you love finding new music and exploring the sonic seas, which is why you're here today reading The Muffin. The tunes sometimes find me and sometimes I find them - either way there's nothing better than firing up a song from a band you haven't heard of and realizing that you've just inadvertently stumbled into jam city. Why am I waxing philosophical about all of this? Well, a little while back a friend sent me an email that simply read "Click [...]
Iron & Wine's new album, Kiss Each Other Clean , comes out today. And I think it is safe to say if you are an Iron & Wine fan you will probably pick it up, and if you aren't you could care less. I sit strongly with the first camp. Iron & Wine just makes good music, who can argue with that? But regardless of where you stand with I&W, there is a song on their latest album that you have to listen to. The song features some crazy percussion, but most importantly some sparse, but dramatically [...]
Train : Happy New Year Axel! Axel : It's almost February, you can't really use that anymore Train... Train : Relaaaaaax Reverend No Fun. New year means new covers! Axel : Now you're speaking my language, hook me up with something to listen to in the cruiser Train : I got you covered my man, I got you covered... Wonder Bear - Runaway (Kanye West cover) Gorillaz - Crystallised (xx cover) [...]
We got duped like everyone else by one of the fake posters that floated around the internet. I was gonna let it go until I realized 500 people liked our article on Facebook - whoops! Here is the real lineup, straight from coachella.com . The biggest difference in this poster versus the one we posted before is the substitution of Daft Punk with Kings of Leon. I'm pretty excited for this change because I've never seen Daft Punk and kinda want to keep it that way. And [...]
As much as I hate the Hype Machine's Zeitgeist this year (oh maybe I'll give this topic a proper rant later this week), I did enjoy the remixes they were able to secure from some hot DJs. Well actually, all of the twenty-plus remixes were pretty cool, but it was the one from the band Clock Opera that was clearly the stand-out. We listened to them every morning they were released during my vacation in Colorado, and both my friend Derek and I's eyes clearly lit up when the first song on the Clock Opera mix [...]
Namaste Muffins. The new year is barely three weeks old and there are already so many new bands vying for digital domicile on my iPod. In addition to getting my jam on to Mona , I've been listening to The Vaccines on the reg lately too. I heard about these guys a month or two back when I was scouring the list of upcoming bands at Mercury Lounge, and shortly after they were named to the BBC Sound of 2011 list , sparking a flurry of hype and frenzy among [...]
Namaste Muffins. So for some reason I've had 'Lola' by The Kinks stuck in my head for the last two weeks, a fact my coworkers would painfully attest to. I've also been thinking about the band Mona for the last two weeks or so and now for the life of me cannot say their name in my head without singing 'Mona, M-o-n-a, Mona, mo-mo-mo-mo, Mooooona' - yes, I probably need some sort of help, I'm aware. But, I actually have no problem with having Mona (in some way) stuck in my [...]
Happy New Year my Muffin friends! And what better way to start off the UnoUno than another EP from my friend and yours, Ace Reporter . Ace has now completed the herculean task of writing and recording one song everyday for 2010(!) and as you may recall, is now releasing four free EP's culled from his library of 365 sonic adventures. (Note: I'm not talking about this kind of sonic adventure, though now that I think about it, it would be kinda rad if I was). The first EP, Untouched [...]
Audio Muffin
Beck - 'I Just Started Hating Some People Today' [Listen]
[LISTEN] Gotye (Passion Pit Remix)
Princesse - Tell Me | MP3
