Blog: jetcomx

It may not need justification, but it's become so obvious that I have to talk about it. Artists love It's Blitz! . They just want to get their hands around it, their fingers in it. Yeah Yeah Yeahs have succeeded in making even the alternative unorthodox with this latest album release. And track by track, the remixes pour out. Ears first perked with Animal Collective's take on 'Zero,' a dark horse remixer if that race ever existed. Intriguing, worth the listen, but nothing to write home about. Take a look for yourself: [...]

Just stumbled across the music video for Passion Pit's hit song "The Reeling." The effects in this video, not to mention the song itself, are completely dope. I love the vintage and gritty feel that the beginning of the video gives off. This is one of the most creative videos that I've seen in a while and it definitely gets my vote as one of the coolest music videos of 2009. I'm sure that this will be in everyone's top 10 list come December. In case you forgot, Passion Pit's debut album Manners [...]

This is one of the funnier things that I've seen lately. To kick off Memorial Day Weekend 2009, ABC's Good Morning America booked Green Day to perform a few of their classic songs. For some reason or another, when Green Day started to play "Longview" the Good Morning America staff forgot to bleep out a couple of Billie Joe Armstrong's choice words. A couple of S-bombs and F-bombs make it through. On a side note, what's up with there being soccer moms and 8 year olds at a Green Day concert? Back in the [...]

Last night, the Beastie Boys made an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. At Jimmy's request, they performed the classic jam "So What'cha Want" off of their 1992 album Check Your Head . What made this rendition unique was the fact that the song's instrumentals were played live, rather than previously recorded like in most of their performances. Despite the fact that Mike D, MCA, and Ad-Rock are starting to show some wrinkles and grey, they can still definitely put on a kick-ass performance. It also helps to have an amazing band like The Roots back you up. [...]

What's up everyone. We're going to keep it short and sweet for today's mixtape. Kid CuDi's stuff seems to be getting played on every radio station across the country right now. So, I figured that it would be appropriate to post up a few remixes of his biggest hit, "Day 'N' Nite." On this particular mixtape, there are 17 different versions of the song produced by people like Pitbull, Jim Jones, Trey Songz, Terry Urban, and of course Crookers. Watch Jim Jones' version below: [See post to watch Flash video] [...]

These are probably some of the funniest, cutest, and most honest music reviews you'll ever see. The people over at Scrapple.tv run a weekly web TV show called Breakfast at Sulimay's . The show takes place inside a Philly diner. Every week, Bill, Ann, and Joe listen to some current artists and give us their honest, unadulterated opinions. I can't get enough of these. Why are they hating so much on Dan Deacon & Animal Collective? On a side note, Joe is the man. [See post to watch Flash video] [...]

It was February 2007. Michael Angelakos, a student and singer/songwriter at Emerson College, was looking for that special gift to give to his then girlfriend for Valentine's Day. What he came up with were six songs recorded under the alias Passion Pit . The songs failed to woo his lover, but spread like wildfire at Emerson and caught the collective interest of the student body. It was then that Angelakos realized he had something big on his hands. The six songs morphed into an EP named "Chunk of Change" and was officially released in late September 2008. [...]

This week's Mixtape Mondays installment is a continuation of last week's. So Far Gone is Drake 's latest mixtape, and many people agree that it's his best work so far. Personally, I feel like it's at least as good as Comeback Season if not better. There's a whole lot more singing happening on this mixtape than on the previous one. The standout tracks on So Far Gone are "Little Bit (feat. Lykke Li)" and "Best I Ever Had." The latter has been getting some serious radio play since the album dropped back in [...]

Graffiti is more than just a hobby for Chicago-based graffiti artist Ray Noland ; it's a way of life. He has a penchant for creating works of street art inspired by political figures. Back during the 2008 election season, Noland helped contribute to Barack Obama's grassroots campaign by creating mesmerizing stencil graffiti pieces. More recently, Noland has unleashed two new pieces onto the streets of Chicago: "Run Blago Run" and "Survivor Blago." The first piece illustrates the former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich as he was often seen by paparazzi - in his black tracksuit jogging around the [...]

The indie-folk heroes from Seattle are at it once again, this time performing in and around Paris, France for La Blogotheque 's Take Away Show. In this raw performance, Fleet Foxes show us just how versatile they really are. They perform two songs in this clip: "Sun Giant," which is off of Sun Giant EP , and "Blue Ridge Mountains," which is off of their self-titled debut album. "Sun Giant" sounds great, but "Blue Ridge Mountains" sounds utterly remarkable, due to the acoustics. The unbelievably high ceilings and concrete floors/walls of an abandoned section [...]

Not quite. Among my friends it's known as the boxer story—the day I ripped a wide hole in the crotch of an old pair of boxers, pulled it over my head, and wore it to the mall with a girlfriend I was desperate to dump. Of course I lacked the courage to break up with her, and of course it seemed easier at the time to wear old boxers as a shirt in a public place, with my arms through the leg holes and the waistband clinging to the top of my stomach. It seemed easier [...]

Last Thursday, the guys of Animal Collective made a rare appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman . They performed "Summertime Clothes," which is a cut off of their latest album, Merriweather Post Pavilion , released back in January. I'm actually pretty surprised at how unusually normal looking they were for their performance. With their ecclectic style of experimental folk music, you would kind of expect them to be donning masks/capes/costumes/huge beards for their live set (see above) — but no, instead they chose to rock your standard hoodie. Interesting. Anyway, this song [...]

• Animal Collective - Summertime Clothes (Late Show with David Letterman 05-07-2009)

As I contemplated what mixtape to post up for this week's Mixtape Mondays column, I figured that it's time to show some love to Drake (after all, he's been in the Heavy Rotation section for a good while now). His mixtapes have been out for about 2 years now, but these days, it seems like everyone is head over heels for the Canadian actor/rapper/singer. He's been slowly but surely building a huge underground fan base . Although he's most famous for playing the handicapped Jimmy Brooks on HBO's Degrassi , he has [...]

First of all, I just wanted to say that due to popular demand, Mixtape Mondays is back and here to stay. When Mixtape Mondays went on hiatus, so many people emailed /commented demanding that it needed to come back ASAP. We answered. From now one, you can expect that on each and every Monday there will be a new piping hot mixtape for you to get your hands on. Now that that's out of the way, check out this mixtape. Montréal-based producer Tor really lets his creativity and skills shine on Illinoize , a Sufjan [...]

This is someting that is a little hard to explain, but I'll do my best. Essentially, a handful of guys from two audiovisual labels called AntiVJ and Crea Composite teamed up to put a mesmerising installation together on the face of a building in Brussels, Belgium. You may be thinking to yourself, "What's an audiovisual label?" Well, it's basically analogous to a music label in the sense that it's a collective of artists that work under the same umbrella. Both AntiVJ and Crea Composite have been described as audiovisual labels started by European artists focused on [...]

Whenever an artist attempts to cover a popular song, it's usually a pretty gusty thing. Cover songs ususally end up being one of two things: terrible or amazing. There's no middle ground. Recently, New York University undergrad Nyle performed a cover of Lil' Wayne's "Let the Beat Build" off of Tha Carter III . This wasn't an ordinary cover song though, definitely not. What made his rendition unique was the fact that the audio was recorded at the same time it was being filmed. It was all filmed/recorded in one continuous take as well — the film crew [...]

April has been a busy month for the artist known as DILLON , and he likes it that way. The American-born artist living in Italy has recently finished a new batch of work, done with some provocative concepts over some eye catching patterns (using aerosol over stencils and acrylic on canvas of course). He has also been showcasing his art at various shops and cafes around Italy, as well as embarking on a book signing tour. DILLON was born in Phoenix, Arizona and lived mostly in Las Vegas, Nevada before relocating to Italy. [...]

The people over at New Balance have come out with the latest style of their famous 577 shoe for New Balance's Spring 2009 collection. It wasn't available in the US until now. I feel like nearly everyone has owned a pair of 577's at some point in their lives. I used to rock these bad boys for a short stint in my high school career. When it was imagined by the New Balance UK team in 1988, the 577 was originally launched as a performance running shoe for "heavy" runners. But that quickly changed. The 577 is updated this season [...]

Indie art, fashion, music, graffiti, and design magazine Beautiful/Decay is undergoing a complete overhaul. Starting with their July 2009 issue, Beautiful/Decay will have a number of new and innovative changes. I like to think of it as Beautiful/Decay 2.0. The magazine was started over 10 years ago as a hand-copied, black and white 'zine. Since that time, it has quickly blossomed into one of the most well-known magazines in the industry. Today though, the state of the economy is wreaking havoc on many companies and businesses. Beautiful/Decay is no exception to that fact. But, instead of laying off [...]

Maxwell Drummey and D.A. Wallach, better known together as Chester French , are two of the most promising names in music today. The boys of Chester French actually first met while studying at Harvard back in 2003. It was during their 4 years at Harvard that they learned how to sound engineer and record music. During their senior year, they went on to send their finished demo CD to a few famous producers like Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, & Jermaine Dupri. Pharrell eventually signed them to his label, Star Trak . Today, you can see them touring with [...]