Hipster Humpday : Akron/Family and Portugal. The Man

    First off the title doesn't mean if you use Vimeo and only listen to artists that are dead you get to hump anything, its just me trying to ween you guys off metal for the day.

      Last week you may remember I took a two day hiatus to see some friends and do some soul searching. I know, two days isn't much but a lot was accomplished. The first day once I got out from under the disdainful eyes of my mother was spent with a dear friend in bookstores and along rivers, on trails and cruising down country roads. We spent a long time sitting on the edge of the Grand river skipping stones and talking life while Akron/Family softly played from his headphones.

     Akron/Family is a folk influenced experimental rock band whose member live across America. Facebook describes them as a form of dramatic expression, and that is the most truthful thing I've heard all day.

Akron/Family - Akron/Family

Akron/Family - The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT

     Experimental music is very hard to explain without actually hearing it. So first off let me encourage you to at least look into this amazing band before you move on, and better than that download two of their albums above, it may be exactly what you need. 

     Soft vocals and guitars, eerie organs and many other sensational instruments will caress your senses and leave you in a rainy day mood, let you sit down and think. I know since I first received one of their songs from a friend of mine back in the Dropbox days Akron/Family has encouraged me to take life slowly and progressively, I encourage you to do the same. Bands like this make me proud to have helped you experience them and sort of guilty for letting people download them for free, but truthfully good luck finding them in your local HMV. 

     The second band holding me together today is 

Portugal. The Man. Almost in the same group as Akron/Family, but only in the same sense as peanut butter is in the same grouping as jam. PTM is an alt-rock (and I use that term loosely) group from Alaska. Again I have to thank an old friend, for if you had not invited me to a dropbox session, I would be without so many amazing albums and so much musical knowledge.  

Portugal. The Man - In The Mountain In The Cloud

     Portugal takes the ingenuity of A/F and upgrades it to a more everyday friendly sound. My mind took a long time today to process that sound and to me its as if The Beatles and MGMT met and somehow had a lovechild. If you take the time to download the album, the password is pop-to-core.blogspot.com and this link will take you to a page with all of their albums for free, its definitely worth it.

     I apologize for making the first section a story and doing no justice to Portugal. The Man, but my artistic feelings quickly fade, usually after the first artist. I encourage you to listen to and download the music we shared today. As always this music is intended as a preview and you should probably go buy it and support the artist. Please like our page on Facebook for up to date info and other awesome stuff, also if you have suggestions I would love to hear from you as I'm quickly running out of material. Hopefully I have inspired you to do some thinking or maybe some searching for your rainy day music, cheers.

Toxic Tuesday 15 : Dillon Francis & Cory Enemy and Com Truise

     Don't mind me, I thought today would be a better day if I just jumped right into the music, so straight to the drop.

     Dillon Francis, is a Los Angeles based electronic DJ/producer and has been getting some cray hype from a lot of big names. Recently he released and EP with Cory Enemy, who shamefully I know nothing about.

Dillon Francis & Cory Enemy - Ultra EP 

(Click to download)

     This EP is pure energy, injected beats and synths straight into your brain. The whole EP has an amazing mix of electro/dubstep/glitch and of course a liberal amount of swearing. Grab the EP from Mediafire above or each song separately just below.

Dillon Francis & Cory Enemy - Ultra

Dillon Francis & Cory Enemy - I Love You

Dillon Francis & Cory Enemy - Who The Fuck Are You

     I must admit I've known about Com Truise for some time now, but only ever sampling one track at a time and never really taking the time to enjoy a full album. Well I fixed that about two weeks ago when I recieved an email from The Glitch Mob (before you go crazy, I'm not awesome enough to know them, I'm on the mailing list). In that email they were hyping some new artists that they enjoyed and toured with, and as soon as the word free pops up on the screen I'm there.

Com Truise - Cyanide Sisters EP

(Click to download directly)

     Classified as new wave electro or synth-pop Com Truise has one of the most unique sounds I've experienced in quite some time. Straight electro with an 80's feel, thats how I would explain it, but don't listen to me, hit that direct download above and drift back in time.

Monday Mix-Up

Basically this post is a weekly rewind of the most listened music of the previous week, and well some of my favorites from the previous week.

Well as we all know Amy Winehouse died on the 23rd; a rather short lived life, but nevertheless she was talented. It's reported that Amy had frequent checkups with her doctor because of her frail condition after abusing drugs and such and recently underwent one of these check-ups prior to her death. When I first heard the news break I thought oh great most likely a overdose, but when they searched her home they found no trace of drugs, so I'm awaiting the autopsy results. Anyways the first song is Valerie Ft. Amy Winehouse - Mark Ronson.

Psychic Powers - Dreamboat (RAC Mix)

Ok well what can I say, How to Love by Lil Wayne defiantly shows the softer side of Lil Wayne. I admit I don't listen to that much of his music, but I had to download this song. I'm sure he has blew all his fans away with such a sincere and sweet song. I hope to hear more songs like this in the future.

This week my favorite band has been The Morning Of. There's just something about the duets in their songs. Jessica Leplons' voice is pretty much flawless and is just a pleasure to listen to.

The New Is In - The Morning Of is off their 2008 album The World As We Know It.

Mellow Monday 4 : Feature : Omar Linx

     Welcome to another solid week of music to assault your ear holes. Hopefully you've been enjoying the ride so far, we've got something special for you today, something I was saving for a while.... so we're off to the City of Ommz.

     So along time ago I agreed to let one of my publishers write on this topic but apparently my phone slept with his phones girlfriend and they don't talk anymore. The fact he released a new mixtape a week or so ago sealed the deal, you've waited too long.

     Omar Linx, an unsigned hip hop artist from  Toronto, Ontario, and one of my all time favorite rappers. He works with DJ Nef-You, in case you couldn't tell by the tags, and he's produced a couple bangers with DC & Hooks from Zed's Dead, a Toronto based dubstep duo. He's dropped two mixtapes in the last couple years and they sound more like albums.

Omar Linx - A Cold Welcome

Omar Linx - City Of Ommz 

     Hit those links to download from Mediafire for free obviously, but if you're feeling generous (and I encourage you to do so) grab them from itunes. Now on to the actual tapes. Both of these tapes contain more talent and heart than most of the mainstream rap thats being lauded as award winning these days. His first album, the one that caught my attention is a soul rending masterpiece. I could compare Omar to Kid Cudi, only for the fact that they both like to tell it how it is, life isn't always happy and those moments need to be heard. The second release tones down the emotion a bit and focuses more on the actual rap which is a bit disappointing but still amazing. So in retrospect, hit "A Cold Welcome" first then once you're sure you love Omar as much as we do grab his new release off itunes and show some support.

Review : Dream Jefferson - Punch Perm

     If you remember a couple months ago I snuffled through a cold and completely destroyed any self respect I had by butchering a post about Dream Jefferson. Sadly enough I didn't expect anyone to see it let alone Corboe and Owel, their labelmate Danny Deleto, and their record label crew... I butchered it completely. So today lets see if I can redeem myself and spread the word.

     Its amazing really how they've managed to capture the first moment you hear their music in the label art and I'm not the first to say that. I've been a fan of Dream Jefferson since their debut album Sasquatch Bury Their Dead. Since then I've explored almost everything that's been done under Rifle Eyes Music, featuring at least 1, 2, 3 other ear raping artists here on the blog and saving the rest for the most opportune moment. I feel like there should be a break into another paragraph here but I'm done taking English probably forever. So grammar aside we can get into the meat of the post as it were. Consisting of two Canadian rappers, Corboe and Owel Five, Dream Jeff has a flow like no other. Thier newest tracks feature lyrics about the royal wedding, the X-Men, and Final Fantasy and Beyonce in the same song, and it doesn't stop there. With the amount of generic rap that's oozing out the radio these days isn't it nice to have something that will hit mainstream media when hell freezes? Their sound has evolved into something a bit more new age, with synths and backup vocals not very apparent in their debut, but I guarantee it will stick the name Dream Jefferson in the mind of everyone who hears it. I think I should end this on the note that I'm not amused at having missed the release party in Ottawa but making this EP free kind of makes up for it.

"Couldn't get a grip with a wish and a fat chance..."

Dream Jefferson - Punch Perm EP

(Click to download from Bandcamp)

Tracklist : 

Robokill Beneath Disco Club Layla

Westminster Abbey

Purple Hearts

The Danger Room

Embrace Before The Fall

The Seed & The Sower

All Things Shining

Saturday's Special: Chris Yenney

I feel like all too often I'm apologizing for not posting on time, or at all. Today is my make-up post. I feel bad for not posting on Thursday. I figured today I would switch it up just a little bit and focus on an artist that I met about a month ago at this fundraiser concert thing for a couple of my friends who were headed off for a year with Youthbuilders.

From what I've seen and heard of him, Chris Yenney seems to be a genuinely nice person, not to mention that he's got a pretty impressive voice. The first thing I ever heard him perform was a cover of Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri, and I was just blown away. I'm not sure what it is with this community and talent, but there seems to be a lot of it hidden around. Here is this young man who attended the school I just graduated from, and he's so dang talented. His piano playing is great, his voice is great, and you put the two together to get a pretty fantastic artist.

His Youtube channel has many covers of songs, but there are also a couple of his original songs too such as "Hopeless Romance" and "Not Coming Back." I'm a pretty big fan of his original stuff too, and I'm seriously considering heading over to itunes to invest in his album "On the Surface."

That's all I've got for today, and I'm sorry that I do not have any downloads for you, but I really want to support this artist. It can be difficult to be from a small town like ours and trying to have a music career, so please check him out on itunes and buy his album if you like his work. You can also check him out on his Facebook page. You can follow him on Twitter if you want, but frankly, I'm too lazy to look up what his account is, and I'm sure you can find that out from his page.
Thanks for continuing to check in! This would be pointless without your views. 

Hasta Luego,

K.

Hardcore Humpday 10: Rage Brigade

Alright, K here, stepping in for MrFlawedLogic. Hardcore Humpday...this does not sound like much of what I'd listen to (considering the types of posts I pull out), but here I am. There are a couple reasons for this...One is that I'd do pretty much anything for C. The other is that I've been struggling with a lot of stuff lately and I wanted a bit of a challenge to keep my mind distracted. I'm going to stay true to myself and keep the post short and try to stay away from those run on sentences C is famous for. I hope yesterday's two posts make up for this.

Here goes nothing.

Today's band is Rage Brigade, and to be honest, I've listened to each of their songs once, and I still am not quite sure what to say about it...but perhaps that's just because it's so hot out today and all the heat is getting to my head. So I guess what I'll do is just leave you with the music, and you can create your own opinions.

What I do have to say for this band, is that I respect it. The respect I hold is for their lyrics. They bring forth some issues that are pretty common in society these days, and they put it into terms that anybody will understand, but they clearly show their stance. So if for no other reason, whether you're into this kind of music or not, do some digging for the lyrics and listen to them. They're worth it, they deserve it. Just do it.

You can find their music on their Facebook page, and C handed me a free download, which you can find here or at their Bandcamp. They're the same deal, just different sources.

I'm sorry again for my lack of any real discussion or anything of interest, but I hope the music speaks for itself.

Ciao,
K.