It’s just a few months old, but cassette-based WHOA WHOA Records is already making a splash in the underground lo-fi scene with two impressive releases, and much more to come. The first is from Pakistani cowboys Sunny Ali & the Kid, whose new EP Try Harder is a 50’s-influenced, fuzzy free ride.
Next up is Teen Witch, my new favorite garage band. Listen to a track from their self-titled EP below, available for purchase from WHOA WHOA.
Grab both EPs here, and look out for more WHOA WHOA releases coming soon, including material from up-and-coming Lubbock rockers Naked Pictures and Altered Zones-lauded Night Manager. Listen to a track from the latter below.
Every Saturday, I post a 15-20 minute podcast featuring some tracks I’ve been jamming the previous week, as well as some commentary and random musings from yours truly. Enjoy!
Tracklist:
Nicki Minaj feat. Ester Dean – Super Bass
Jacques Greene – Another Girl
Adele & Jamie XX vs Cecile, Mr Lexx & Timberlee – Rolling In the Heat (Heatwave Refix)
Wiz Khalifa – Roll Up
Today I continue my ongoing feature showcasing my personal picks for the best songs of the past decade, posting ten songs at a time.
20. The Postal Service – Such Great Heights
My favorite Ben Gibbard album is Give Up, even amongst all those great early Death Cab masterpieces. Before the twee synth became commonplace, Gibbard took it to every first-generation iPod, car commercial, and teen soap montage (I’m looking at you, The O.C.). And of course, he did so with this song, still as beautiful as I remember it back on WOXY-FM my sophomore year of high school.
Today I continue a series of posts dedicated to the best albums of the last decade, posting analysis of one album at a time.
39. Outkast – Stankonia
The underground hiphop sensational duo of Andre 3000 and Big Boi, now Grammy-winning superstars of today’s pop landscape, were just a blip on the radar when they dropped the now-classic Stankonia, an hour-long space-age, futuristic pimp, Southern rap adventure. The boys had made a name for themselves with equally strange-yet-funky albums ATLiens and Aquemini, but with the hit singles “Miss Jackson,” “So Fresh, So Clean,” and the explosive “B.O.B.,” Outkast launched onto MTV and pop radio almost overnight.
It’s hard to believe it’s been over ten years, and the guys have since made a double album of solo concepts, a movie with a better soundtrack, and their own solo material (Big Boi has stayed the most productive in that realm, dropping the amazing Sir Luscious Left Foot last year, while Andre has yet to make his first solo album, instead collaborating as a guest star on many A-list tracks since the release of Idlewild nearly five years ago). Still, Stankonia remains for most their crowning achievement, an apocalyptic sounding rap catastrophe in a world that had just survived Y2K. Who would have known then that a song called “Bombs Over Baghdad” would come to broadly define the next ten turbulent years?
SNL hiphop trio the Lonely Island haven’t exactly hit gold yet with the leaked tracks from their upcoming sophomore release Turtleneck and Chain (the title track featuring Snoop Dogg has been the best, though the joke grows stale by the second verse). Where, you might be wondering, are the “I’m On a Boat”s or the “Jizz In My Pants”s or even the “Dick In a Box”s?
Well, never fear – Samberg and Co. haven’t lost their touch, especially when recruiting pop icon Michael Bolton. This one’s funny for sure, and it features one of Bolton’s trademark “big, sexy hooks.”
Every Saturday, I post a 15-20 minute podcast featuring some tracks I’ve been jamming the previous week, as well as some commentary and random musings from yours truly. Enjoy!
Tracklist:
Washed Out – Eyes Be Closed
CSLSX – Keep On Shining
Niki and the Dove – The Fox
The Hood Internet – VCR (feat. Freddie Gibbs, Telli of Ninjasonik, Elizabeth Harper of Class Actress)
Last week psych-folk heroes the Diamond Center rocked Austin Psych Fest on the main stage at Seaholm Power Plant, but beforehand, they stopped by the spiffy Do512 Lounge and debuted a new song, “California.” See the beautiful damage done for yourself.
