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The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – “Heartbeat In the Brain”"

“Heartbeat In the Brain” is one of many tracks the good people at Topshelf Records have seen fit to release onto the Internet from the new The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die album, Whenever, If Ever, which is dropping in June and can be streamed in full here.

The Connecticut band combines elements of emo, indie, and post-rock into a heavy and life-affirming musical experience. Enjoy!

fuckyouuuu

Top-50 Albums of 2012

It’s been another year, y’all! So here are my favorite albums from this past year! It’s been fun doing reviews for you on the regular, and I plan to continue into 2013. Thanks for liking, commenting, watching, and believing.

Here is a YouTube playlist of music from these 50 albums.

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Ondatrópica- Ondatrópica

Cumbia supergroup Ondatrópica puts over forty musicians to work on what might be the most essential Latin music record of 2012.

WATCH THE REVIEW

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Murder Construct- “Red All Over”

Murder Construct drops a new video promoting the release of their debut album, Results. Check a review of it right here.

Some pretty dark stuff going on here. Dramatic lighting, blood, and what seems like a political statement all wrapped up in a big, leaky body bag.

Look for Results on Relapse.

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Ondatrópica- “Tiene Sabor, Tiene Sazón” / “I Ron Man”

Columbia’s Ondatrópica is nothing short of a musical supergroup, featuring both seasoned vets and young up-and-comers in Columbian music. The whole project has been spearheaded by musician Mario Galeano and producer Will ‘Quantic’ Holland, and the group’s self-titled LP is out now viar Soundway Records.

Anyway, how to explain this LP. Well, I suppose the most interesting thing about it is getting this particular mix of both young and old musicians together in a room has resulted in a huge variety in tracks. Songs such as “Tiene Sabor, Tiene Sazón” has really classic cumbia sensibilities, while the Latin revamp of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” not only feels fresh, but intentionally goofy as well.

I like that these guys can show off some tasteful music with traditional tendencies while modernizing things with beatboxing, strange covers, different musical styles such as ska, strange effects, and more.

The band shoots for a festive mood with every track on this new release. Depending on which version you get, you could be dealing with up to twenty seven tracks, too!

Dig on “Tiene Sabor, Tiene Sazón” above and “I Ron Man” below.

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My Vinyl Collection: Part 2

Yay! It’s the second installment of my alphabetical trudge through my entire vinyl collection. Remember: This isn’t all of the music I own. Just because I don’t own a record doesn’t mean that I don’t own it on CD, and it especially doesn’t mean that I haven’t heard it. Don’t be daft, lulz.

These are the artists whose records I talk a bit about in this video:
Afrika Bambaataa
The Beatles
Behold… The Arctopus
Big K.R.I.T.
The Black Keys
The Black Lips
Black Moth Super Rainbow
Black Mountain (not High On Fire)
James Blake
Bongripper

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TNGHT- “Bugg’n”

TNGHT drops a new video for the track “Bugg’n,” which features a myriad of visuals. There’s nightmarish depictions of a child’s room and toys; loads of live footage of the duo performing; there are some dark city streets as well. Heck, you can even see a dude in a Needle Drop t-shirt at 2:25.

The video is good, and I get kudos to Dominic Flannigan and Peter Marsden on directing and editing. Check out a review I did of TNGHT’s new EP right here.

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My Vinyl Collection: Part 1

This is the first of what will be an ongoing series of 10-minute videos talking about every record in my vinyl collection. Of course, this kind of thing isn’t going to be of interest to everyone, but those who have been asking me to do something like this have been very passionate about it. Obviously, this excursion is one of an alphabetical nature, and future videos will continue through my collection as such. I should be hitting up my 7″s and singles when I finish the 12″s.

These are the artists whose records I talk a bit about in this video:
Africa Hitech
Andrew Jackson Jihad
Animal Collective
An Albatross
Fiona Apple
Battles
The Beach Boys
Beach House
The Beastie Boys
The Beatles

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TNGHT- “Higher Ground” (Hudson Mohawke x Lunice)

Let’s get one thing straight: Next week, There is no release I’m looking forward to reviewing more than the new TNGHT EP. The EP is self-titled and will be out on Warp Records.

TNGHT is basically the collaboration of Hudson Mohawke and Lunce. Both producers have a history of producing some real bangers, and I mean B-A-N-G-E-R-S! Joining forces for five full tracks on this upcoming release, these guys only seem to be pushing one another to take everything one step further.

Energy, energy. Bass, bass. Drops, drops, BANG, BANG, BANG!

Insanity, hello, my name is Anthony. It’s nice to finally meet.

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Black Tambourine- “What’s Your Game”

Stream: Black Tambourine- “What’s Your Game”

Until this year, noisy twee pop legends Black Tambourine had been defunct for over two decades. However, with this year bringing the arrival of the 20th anniversary of ’90s indie pop zine chickfactor, which vocalist Pam Berry co-founded, the band has decided to come out of hibernation for a handful of a shows and a new EP. Titled OneTwoThreeFour, the EP features no original material, but rather four covers of songs by The Ramones.

Above is a link to Black Tambourine’s take on the Ramones song “What’s Your Game,” featuring background vocal contributions from Rose Melberg of Tiger Trap/Go Sailor/The Softies, Kristin Gundred from Dum Dum Girls, Linda Smith, and Honeymoon Diary’s Jenny Robbins. The band runs the song through their characteristic filter of dreamy, girl group-influenced noise pop, and consequently makes the cover feel like a natural fit. It’s refreshing to hear them put their own spin on it instead of attempting to emulate the attitude of the original.

Listen to the track via the SoundCloud widget at the top of the post, and feel free to stop by Slumberland Records for both double 7″ vinyl and digital releases.