True, wallpaper is typically meant to blend in. But if you've been out on the town of recent to Lit or Hiro, you've probably been pummeled with the beats of Bay area musician/dj/music addict Eric Frederic and know he rarely blends in. Eric's also not a fan of vowels either, a facet to which us RCRD LBL folk tend to take a biased liking. So we're bringing out Wallpaper to central stage- with the exclusive track "Evrym We Do It" that's pure party electro-pop- nestled somewhere between scuzzy disco and trans-galactic electronica. It will rotate around in your head for hours just after one listen. Brilliant. Oh- and we also threw in the track "Txt Me Yr Love," which is digitalized R & B blues about a girl, a phone, ringtones and texts.
What do you get when you cross A-HA with Hall & Oates? Why, we're so glad someone asked! The new Chromeo video, "Momma's Boy" has some serious "Take on Me" overtones with the whole sketch-like animation theme. The song is pretty cute, even though it borders slightly on the creepy side: watch the video and you'll get what we mean. Love you Mom!
We saw Gnarls Barkley last month and it was totally amazing, and even though we'd seen them blow the roof off of venues before, there was something special about this last time. It could just be that their second album The Odd Couple, is chock full of the same neo soul jams that made their debut so enjoyable--double your pleasure, so to speak. In any case, the Downtown RCRD LBL blog has an MTV.com-powered stream of their new video, "Who's Gonna Sane My Soul" and it's a doozy. Enjoy!
Our new favorite blog ever, The Highness, posted this insane remix of "Trapped" by '80s "urban contemporary" pop star Colonel Abrams. We hadn't heard this song in a good while, so we thought we'd dig up the original video. The song was produced by Richard James Burgess, who also produced the first two Spandau Ballet albums (figures, right?). In short: we want that jacket.
If you grew up in the '80s and early '90s, you'll be perfectly acquainted with the horror that is about to unfold before your eyes: the Rock-afire Explosion was an anamatronic band that would crank out kid's songs at Showbiz Pizza, a kind of Chuck E Cheese's knock-off playroom/restaurant. Before seeing the above video we had completely forgotten about this phantasmagoric nightmare, but the magic of YouTube has brought it all rushing back: the piano playing ape, the sun and moon locked in a never-ending battle for the skies, THE CHEERLEADER MOUSE. So scary.
Anyway, some dude actually purchased one of these monstrosities, and has been programming the machines to belt out current pop tunes, including Usher's new single "Love in This Club", which kind of already has an amusement park, Leprechaun in the Hood aspect to it with the creepy, mindless synth line. Basically, this is viral video gold, and probably what the CIA had in mind when they invented the Internet during the Cold War (not really).
Chromeo just filmed a segment for MySpace’s fashion show The Fit, where Dave 1 and P-Thug go through their favorite fashion tips for all your fans. On the menu: Odin NYC, Comme des Garçons wallets, and Air Jordans. Check out the Fool’s Gold RCRD LBL blog for the video, it’s pretty hilarious.
2006 had "Crazy", 2007 had "Umbrella". What will be 2008's Song of the Summer (SOTS)? Help us decide by leaving comments with your nominations!
We'll be frank: we were slow on the uptake on "Sexy Can I", mainly because we were so saturated with the Ray J./Whitney tabloid news (what can we say, we read Crunk & Disorderly a lot) and we've never really trusted anything that Ray's big sister, Brandy, has even remotely anything to do with, except of course "The Boy Is Mine". Anyway, when we finally were goaded into listening to "Sexy Can I" by one of our DJ friends, who recently got a gig at a Sweet 16 and got nothing but requests for this song, it all kind of made sense. It's catchy as hell--the sing-song, nursery rhyme aspect of the chorus is too much for our frontal lobes to handle. We've been whistling it all week. And as the saying goes: if you can whistle it, it's a hit (we just made that up). Let's review the pros and cons:
Pros:
Catchy as all hell
Ray J. already has a certain level of notoriety (Whitney, Brandy, etc)
Cons:
"Sexy Can I" was released way back in January and already has over 5 million views on YouTube. While the song has lasted with radio airplay this long, most R&B aficionados are probably already over it.
What's a Yung Berg?
SOTS probability: 55% .
So there you have it, another song compared and duly evaluated. Check this space for more in the coming weeks, and as always leave your suggestions in the comments field.
We’re super excited that it’s summer and everything, but one tiny anomaly (other than you know, global warming tornadoes and stuff) has us kind of concerned: as far as we can tell, there hasn’t been a Song of the Summer yet. That one, genre-busting crossover pop hit that everyone undeniably loves. A SOTS gets bumped incessantly at BBQ’s, blasted from car windows, is covered “ironically” by at least three major indie bands, and somehow, you never get sick of it. 2007 had “Umbrella”, 2006 had “Crazy”, and so on so forth. But today is June 17th, 2008, and we ain’t got a SOTS for jack. So, RCRD LBL readers, together, let’s make this happen. We want YOUR comments and suggestions on which songs should be this year's SOTS. The only rule is that the song had to have charted in some format in America. Until some amazing song comes along, we’re going to nominate recent mainstream tunes in hopes that, by putting positive vibes into the Internet ether, we’ll save summer 2008 from total SOTS-lessness.
Estelle has finally broken America, it seems almost accidentally, after years and years of being kind of under the radar in her native Britain. “American Boy” is cute and all, and has a guest spot by one of the hottest rappers in the country (just ask Bonnaroo. Yikes). Let’s review the probability of “American Boy” being this year’s SOTS.
Pros:
Estelle is a fresh face on the music scene in the US, thus an American audience has no expectations or preconceived notions of her work.
Kanye is featured on it prominently.
We’re pretty sure there’s a heavy ‘80s soul/R&R sample up in there somewhere.
Cons:
The Kanye rap is ridiculously sub-par and kind of takes over the song. Rhyming "UK" with "You 'K?" No.
Having a fresh face also means no one know who the hell you are.
Probability of “American Boy” being a SOTS: 70%.
While the probability is (possibly prematurely) high, the quest continues. Leave your suggestions in the comments and we’ll review their eligibility. Only you can save 2008 from being that summer where people just had to play old Michael Jackson songs over and over.
Our Aaliyah obsession has reached fever pitch here at RCRD LBL, and it seems like every time we have a discussion about music lately the conversation somehow drifts to One in a Million, or Aaliyah, or anything that has to do with the legendary singer. Tonight we actually said the words: "Could you imagine if FutureSex/LoveSounds was an Aaliyah album?" and totally, totally meant it. Anyway, here's the video for "One in a Million", featuring a Timbaland cameo (duh) and some sort of weird hollow eyepatch thing Baby Girl rocks in the beginning. Classic.
The Downtown RCRD LBL blog has footage of Gnarls Barkley on The Late Show With David Letterman, performing “Going On”. It just so happens that we saw Gnarls play the 150th MySpace secret show at Irving Plaza the day before, and they totally killed it, despite the venue being about 70 million degrees Fahrenheit. Our buddy Abbey from Punk Photo took a bunch of pics, which you can find over at her blog.
