I’ll let you in on a little secret — when it comes to R&B, all I really look for is sex. You know, the type of sleaze that made R. Kelly so iconic in the early and mid 90s. Contemporary artists like The-Dream and Drake understand this and bring the right balance of cocky swagger and sexytime to the track. I’ll be completely honest here and just say that my familiarity with Trey Songz’ work peaks somewhere around his high-profile, high-swagger collaboration with Drake; “Successful” from Drizzy’s So Far Gone mixtape. On “The Usual”, Trey Songz is reunited with Drake to make up what is shaping up to some sort of R&B dream team making dream sex jams, just how I like. Hear/download the song below:
At the heels of his unbelievably popularThe Notorious xx mash-up album, DJ Wait What has released This Is Real Life, a project that brings the hip hop kids and hipsters together — a popular notion these days. With pairings like Diddy vs Sleigh Bells, Mase vs LCD Soundsystem, and Nas vs MGMT, you are going to want to check out the well-crafted This Is Real Life. You can listen to the album in its entirety on the SoundCloud player below:
You can download the entire mash-up album for free, if you want, but if you dish out some coin for a download, you will be helping a youth charity promoting writing. #guilt. Make your choice…at BandCamp.
Chiddy Bang’s debut album, The Swelly Life has officially been pushed back to early 2011. Earlier, the 19-year-old duo had mentioned a late Fall release. Well now, CB are releasing an eight track “mini-album” on October 11 aptly titled The Preview. Like Xaphoon put it, “The main purpose of this release is to give our fans some new music whilst we finish recording our debut album, Swelly Life. It’s called The Preview because it gives listeners a glimpse of what’s to come on Swelly“.
The Preview will include the best of Chiddy Bang’s earlier days — the MGMT-sampling “Opposite of Adults”, the Passion Pit-sampling “Truth” and the Sufjan Stevens-sampling “All Things Go”. The mini-album will also spawn a new single, “The Good Life”, which Xaphoon Jones produced with N.E.R.D’s Pharrell (!!). Then, Chiddy Bang will have hip hop legend Q-Tip on a “fierce dance-floor friendly dubstep” jam called “Here We Go”.
Like I said before, The Preview will be out October 11 on EMI. We don’t have any media from the new mini-album yet, so let’s remember the greatest Chiddy Bang track that didn’t make it to any of Chiddy Bang’s mixtapes and, presumably, their album — their Radiohead-sampling “Because”. Chiddy just kills it but Radiohead won’t clear the sample… come on Radiohead, you’re harshing my buzz.
Portland disco kings, Strength have been packing venues and setting dance floors on fire for a few years now with their suave, sexy, butt shaking electronic disco pop. Part electro, part Rolling Stones, part best drunk make-out of your life, these three puddle town gents, Bailey Winters (vocals), Johnny Zeigler (keyboards, programming), and Patrick Morris (guitars, drum machine, bass) make dance music chock full of positive vibes, funny lyrics, and unforgettable hooks. Their second album, “Mind-Reader” drops September 3rd on Community Disco. Chris Young over at Oregon Music News did a great story and interview with them that I highly recommend. Read it here. More info on how to buy the record soon. If you’re in Portland, see them live at Holocene for their CD release party with special guests Fake Drugs and DJs Copy and Patricia Furpurse.
An extension to our regular PMACAST, we will have short weekly Hump Day Playlists to help get over the usually crappy first few days of the week and roll down the still somewhat crappy hill that leads to TGIF, #followfriday’s and the overall weekend. Listen to this week’s 10-track playlist in the embedded player above. Full tracklist and mp3 download can be found below:
Tracklist: The Rolling Stones – “Sympathy For The Devil” (Beggars Banquet) Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes – “Home” (Up From Below) The Walkmen – “Stranded” (Lisbon) Wild Nothing – “Living In Dreams” (Gemini) MGMT – “Congratulations” (Congratulations) The Naked & Famous – “Young Blood” (Young Blood 7″) Delorean – “Real Love” (Subiza) Beck & Bat For Lashes – “Let’s Get Lost” (Too Good for a F#%king Twilight Sequel) TV on the Radio – “Young Liars” (Young Liars EP) Kanye West – “Monster” (f/ Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver) (Watch The Throne)
Earlier today, Kanye West approved MC Big Sean released his new mixtape, Finally Famous Vol. 3 with some crazy guests including Drake, Bun B, Asher Roth, Chip The Ripper and PMA favorites Chiddy Bang. CB sample & beats maestro Xaphoon Jones produced the tape highlight and Hockey-samplin’ “Too Fake”. You can hear the track below:
