Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda music video is here and it is crazy, colour and controversial as ever. It has had a mixed reaction but she looks stunning and is a great example that not everyone needs to be thin to be beautiful. This is another fun slice of hip hop pop.
What do you think?
We love music at Frost and this mini music mixer really caught our eye. You can switch songs in style with the all new Mini Mixer.
Ditch the decks with the simple, miniature mixer that allows you to fade between tracks to create a rad musical vibe.
Set the sounds and turn up the volume, this DJ device will have you mix two tracks from any two music devices in a flash, for that ultimate sound.
Style songs to your taste, this piece of kit is quirky and cool – essential for easy listening or powerful partying.
Produce a fresh fusion of tracks with your favourite tunes; this is a great gadget for all music lovers.
Whatever genre, wherever you are, this device is portable, unique and sleek – so blend those hits for a hot new track.
Switch it up with this hip gadget – whether you are creating summer beats or want a sizzling stocking filler, you need this in you ryhematic life.
Try out your skills and put on the party! This genius gadget is available for only £19.95 at www.prezzybox.com
· Requires 4 x AAA batteries (not included).
· (Compatible with phones/mp3/iPods etc.)
· 4 x Connection Wires included
Band/Artist: aCr
Location: Houston, TX
Styles: Post-Future Rock
Similar to/RIYL: Queens of the Stone Age, Russian Circles, Red Sparowes, Fugazi,
CD: Ghost Note Manifest
Members/Instruments: aCr – everything. Drums on The Mechanical Motion of Dying Stars: Ryan Jimenez; Drums on “Turnstile Intervention”: Jason Sherman.
Tracklisting: The Mechanical Motion of Dying Stars, Turnstile Intervention, 1st Assumptions vs. 2nd Doubts
Bio: Ghost Note Manifest is the first solo effort from Alvaro Che Rodriguez (aCr), guitarist/vocalist of Liquid Casing. GNM isn’t about laying out one’s inner soul for everyone to see, but only represents a snapshot in time while trying to decipher one’s own riddle.
The three song set was written, produced, and performed by aCr with some help from Ryan Jimenez and Jason Sherman on drums.
Production: Craig Levy at Little Pioneer Cider House in Brooklyn NY
Bio:
Nehedar is the project of NYC-based singer/songwriter Emilia Cataldo, who is releasing her 7th independent album “The Warming House” on Aug 13.
On the new record, Nehedar continues to blend her antifolk-rock style with other unexpected sounds and genres, only this time with a deeper Americana influence. The result, is mesmerizing.
The Warming House – which is the artist’s first crowd funded album and was recorded in Brooklyn with producer Little Pioneer (Craig Levy) – takes listeners on a journey spanning down-home fiddling to majestic horn parts to electronic beats, from angry punk to upbeat pop to sad folk to playful country tunes to feminist anthems.
While blending and shifting between genres has always been part of the music of Nehedar, The Warming House represents a true crystallization of her all-embracing, diverse musical style. It is the artist at her most mature and fully developed stage.
Cataldo began performing her original music in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and NYC’s Lower East Side in 2003, and the anti-folk influences from those early years still shows.
She released her first album “Pick Your Battles” in 2007, and has released one album per year, every year since.
To gain a deeper understanding of Nehedar, one needs to understand her eclectic background.
The child of free-spirited, nomadic musicians, Cataldo grew up exposed to a wide variety of cultural and musical influences – treasures she has drawn from to create her richly layered recordings that have always been best described as original.
Her father is a saxophone playing Nuyorican (Puerto Rican New Yorker) jazzman. Her mother was a classically trained piano teacher who liked folk music. Together, they would shut themselves up in their room every night to practice while their six young children ran wild.
The music of Nehedar reflects Cataldo’s fascinating journey through life From the Latin influenced environment where she helped her father run his liquor store as a girl in Miami, to a troubling adolescence in the fascinating midwestern town of Zion, Illinois (which she draws from in The Warming House’s nostalgic title track).
Cataldo left Zion at 17, and traveled with the Rainbow Family of Living Light, where she began learning about her mystical Jewish heritage. That led to her taking on the name Nehedar (which means “wondrous” in hebrew) for her and her band, and Jewish mysticism continues to infuse her work.
July made an album in 1968 that has some of the greatest psychedelic rock music ever put to wax in its grooves , The band were initially called the Dreamers then The Tomcats and in 1968 after securing a label contract with Major Minor Records with new manager Spencer Davis they became known as July.
The album at the time of its release did not sell that well but has since become one of the most collectable records of not only its time but of all time and it’s fair to say that its rightful place as one of the very few albums that will transcend time and space is now secured, this leads me nicely into in fact why I’m doing this review! It’s the brand new album by that very same band.
JULY – RESURRECTION
Tom Newman, Pete Cook, Chris Jackson & Alan James reformed July around 2009 and this new album is just like a continuation from that marvellous record of 1968, if you are a true fan of music that is made by musicians who truly care about the art form of sounds which can conjure up feelings and indeed thoughts to take you to those very special places we all know exist but in real terms very few embrace then this album and this band are your very own first class ticket to ride!!
July – Resurrection is like listening to all your favourite bands at once but still retaining their own very special distinctive, unique, quirky, idiosyncratic, isolated, does not sound like anything else charm. It would be easy to say The Beatles , Xtc , Blossom Toes, or even Jethro Tull but that could be say my comparisons on that level as easily as someone else might say The Koobas ,SRC , or even Captain Beefheart, but then again ALL that stuff is in there somewhere . Check out `can I go back again` for instance. These are the sounds of JULY, A great album by a great band of musicians. Do yourself a favour now.
Album available now at http://www.griffiths-clothing.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_(band)
Thurston Moore returns to North London independent record label Blank Editions with a new extended space age composition for the cassette series, Blank Tapes.
Inspired by the comet-chaser Rosetta presently orbiting an epic journey to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, Sonic Youth founder Thurston Moore sings to the spacecraft “you were born to catch her light / and revel in her flight / before she goes too far / to unnamed stars / into deepest solar reaches / past all she has yet to teach us….” with heavenly accompaniment by Hush Arbors on guitar, Samara Lubelski on ethereal violin and Sunburned Hand of the Man’s John Moloney on drums. This original seven minute and twenty second song is a rare treat from this group recorded to honour Sun Ra on the occasion of his Earth-birth centennial.
Side B’a “Rebellion of Joy” is a bliss-metal excursion of four minutes and twenty seconds splendid in instrumental chaos sounding much like the cassette’s cover artwork: Sun-drenched goddesses smeared into a black magick skull galaxy.
Produced by Ecstatic Peace Library in the name of Thurston’s unending love of the cassette tape format. Offered in a limited edition of 700 copies and presented in a library case with a full colour printed j card featuring collages by Julien Langendorff.
Blank Editions previously released Thurston Moore’s radical springtime protest single “Detonation.” Thurston Moore’s forthcoming full length record “The Best Day” will be released later this year by Matador Records also on cassette tape!
Basement Jaxx headline RBMA Notting Hill Carnival party – 25 August 2014
As the Out-of-Offices start tumbling in, and the sounds of summer swell with the chorus of late night hedonism, the August bank holiday rolls ever nearer, and with it the promise of carnival. Red Bull Music Academy Sound System, a stalwart on the carnival circuit, returns with its vibe-infused miscellany of stomach-crunching bass, cocktails, and jerk delights.
Storming the headline slot with a special DJ set – the frenetic, rabble-rousing antics of UK party house revolutionaries Basement Jaxx, dropping their hotly anticipated new album the very same day. Normally found topping the bill at the likes of the best festivals and best and biggest arenas around the world, catching a DJ set in more intimate confines is a chance not to be missed. With two BRIT Awards under their belts and shows that have become near-mythologised for their heady rambunctiousness, this will be a carnival show-down to remember.
They’re joined by a host of acts who’ll be blessing the carnival crowd with their UK debut: Jamaican reggae/dub cohorts Protoje & Yaardcore, Tropkillaz, blending trap and tropical bass with the pelvic rhythms of their native Brazil, and RBMA alumnus Kalbata & Mixmonster, who’s newly released album Congo Beat The Drum – recorded between their studio in Israel and Kingston, Jamaica – sliced through the blogosphere to high critical kudos. They’ll also welcome first-generation dancehall MC Clapper Priest as part of their set. Soca-fuelled riddim fanatics Jus Now, fresh from repping their hometown at the RBMA x St Paul’s Carnival Sound System, are back and bass-laden for the Notting Hill edition, whilst Mixpak Records, home to the sun-summoning likes of Dre Skull, Popcaan, Vybz, and Jubilee, bring their sonic powerhouse Mixpak Soundsystem to the fray. Finally, feverous bashment crew The Heatwave complete this year’s line-up, bringing the spirit of the Caribbean to the concrete jungle.
Tickets will be free and available via ballot system, with hopeful entrants able to apply from Monday 11th August until Friday 15th August via redbull.co.uk/rbmacarnival
In anticipation of the annual Notting Hill Carnival, a diverse cast of Londoners attempt to master a selection of must-have carnival dance moves including the Big N Nasty, Tempa Wine, Bruk It Down and Willie Bounce in this Carnival Dance Guide set to GotSome x Jus Now’s ‘Run Di Dance’. Check it out below:
Band/Artist: Rival Empire
Location: Chicago, IL
Styles: Alternative Pop/Rock, Synth-Pop, Electronic Dance-Rock, New Wave
Similar to/RIYL: Duran Duran, Cut Copy, The Killers, Friendly Fires
CD: (Self-Titled): Rival Empire
Members/Instruments: Steve Rivera – (Riv): All Electronic Instruments: Drums, Bass, Guitar,
Piano, Synths, MIDI, and Vocals.
Matt Koliopoulos – (MFK): Lead Vocals.
Tim Franz – (Frantana): Rhythm & Lead Guitar.
Production: Steve Rivera: Producer, Recording & Mixing Engineer
Primary Recording & Mixing took place in: Home Studio, as well as, “The
Bunker” on Paulina / 35th Street Studios in Chicago, IL.
Final Stem Mix/Mastering Completed By: Crazy Daisy Productions in
Beaverton, Oregon.
Bio: The Rival Empire is an idea, born out of randomness and captured in the moment. The Album came from the most simple of beginnings. Two old college buddies, lets call them Matt & Steve, were hanging out one summer night when Matt said, “Hey, let write some songs.” Steve’s response, “For sure.” A few months down the road our two old friends met a new gentlemen along the way, lets call him Tim, and said “Hey Tim, we’re writing some tunes”. Tim’s response, “I’m in.” And so there were three, and so they wrote…
After writing their first three songs they realized that each of the songs were very different from one another, radically different in fact. They had started off by writing a dance song, a reggae song, and electronic rock song. At this point they probably should have questioned what in the hell it was that they were trying to accomplish. But that question never arose, and an idea did instead. That idea was the Rival Empire.
The Rival Empire was from then on not meant to be about writing a single genre album with a common style. However, the album was not necessarily meant to be about genre chaos either. They simply wanted it to be free from the more familiar structures of the “mainstream” album. Once you give the album a good listen you will clearly see that they still wanted to capture the essence of several popular genres, with the “Theme” serving as the main commonality and unifying factor. The principal theme here is an introspective and often satirical look into oneself, society, and pop/mainstream culture. Interestingly enough, throughout the writing
process, sometimes the best way to convey that theme was through the combination of genres within a single song, ie. Casino. Also, taking it a step further they also found that integrating key portions of popular songs into there own work added the artistic and satirical punctuation necessary to deliver their intended message, i.e. Reagan’s Rancho Del Cielo, Cameo Crush, Casino.
(Rival Empire would like to take a moment here in advance to respectfully thank: Phil Collins, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan, Christie Brinkley and their corresponding Publishers/Rights Owners, for their understanding of Rival Empire’s artistic use of repurposed lyrics and minor compositional melodies from: One More Night, Little Lies, Billie Jean, Ronald Reagan’s excerpts, and Ms. Brinkley’s namesake, respectively. All of the above uses were designed carefully to
fall under the fair use protection of section 107 of the Copyright Act. The uses of these works are clearly transformative and parodic, intended to serve as comment and social criticism. The key factor here being social criticism and commentary, as there is no intention of malice toward the above-mentioned persons.)
Beyond taking the above-mentioned artistic liberties, our friends at the Rival Empire, simply wanted to write songs that they enjoyed and that hopefully provide some meaning to you as the listener. This is a crucial element, because the Rival Empire isn’t only about the creation of what might seem to be at times, outlandish music. It’s also about we as people and viewing ourselves from a different perspective. Creative expression, social criticism, plain old fun, and free thinking is part of the essence of who we are as people. So if we all for a moment can step out of our collective structures and into the randomness, we can rise as a Rival Empire.