The Chuckness

I was sent a couple of tracks by The Parlotones from a buddy in the industry, and I’m 100% sold on “Honey”, a sneak peak at their upcoming album Journey Through The Shadows. The South African rock band has been in the game for a minute now, seeing significant success in their homeland. I don’t know though, with a sound like this — I could see them breaking through the American threshold. It doesn’t hurt that the lead singer sounds like the long lost brother of The Killers’ Brandon Flowers either. Hit the stream below for a little taste.

Today, the homie Michal Menert released his much anticipated sophomore album, Even If It Isn’t Right through the Pretty Lights Music label. I can’t tell you how much I love this dude, but I can tell you that he’s been slaving away for months trying to complete this project. I’ve been lucky enough to call this dude a friend and had the privilege of sharing the stage with him on a few occasions. It’s rare these days to meet someone as passionate about music as Michal Menert. Seriously though, homeboy lives, eats, sleeps and bleeds an infectious passion for music. Throughout the album, Menert blends a eclectic taste of soulful samples, raw bass patches, and almost Dilla like drum programming. Needless to say, the album is straight fuego my friends, and not to mention 27 tracks! Snag the album for FREE right here and show the homie some love.

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Download: Michal Menert - After the Rain

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Download: Michal Menert – Winter’s End

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Download: Michal Menert – Still Dreaming

Purity Ring has quickly attracted fans and established a mini cult movement with a limited musical catalogue. It’s borderline impossible to pinpoint how a band becomes “cool”, but Purity Ring is definitely following the right steps. They dropped this little gem off to the blogosphere today, and it’s eerie as hell, per usual. Look out for their album Shrines come 7/24.

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Download: Purity Ring – Obedear

If you haven’t heard of Night Slugs, it’s a UK collective run by L-Vis 1990 and Bok Bok. They also house artists like Egyptrix and Jam City. I have yet to find something I don’t like about these slugs. Having been a fan of all these artists before learning they were part of the same collective, it’s so convenient to now just head over to Night Slugs for all the hot shit.

Today, they’re introducing a new and very official mixtape series. “The first tape in the series comes from label executive DJ Bok Bok. 1 hour + of brutalist rhythm tracks, featuring plenty of fresh material from the NS crew.” (via their newsletter) It’s 27 track (listing here) banger full of gems. Worth a listen just to get to #25: Dizziee Rascal – “Wheel”. HOT.

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Download: DJ BOK BOK – NSMIX001

Back in late March, the Brooklyn-based duo Manicanparty came out of left field and blew me away with their debut track “Rebels In The Light”. Their follow up song, and second leak off of the upcoming Manicanparty EP, continues the trend of focusing on pristine vocals over melodic, spacey production. Pretty sure I could get used to this.

Arguably the most unoriginal video of 2012? I think yes. You can’t just have an entire video made up of horses running in slow motion because you have “horses” in your song title. That’s a bunch of bullshit. Either way, it’s still a jam.

The new single off of Wiz Khalifa’s upcoming sophomore album has landed. Lamely titled “Work Hard Play Hard”, it features production from heavyweights Stargate and Benny Blanco — and the chorus is probably going to be enough to propel it to the top of the hip-hop charts. Sounds like it came directly off Rolling Papers to me — which is ironic because he said he was going to try to stray from this sound on his next album. Either way this will be a smash, and O.N.I.F.C. is due out 8/28.

Thoughts?

Got a nice little preview here of what should be a completely outrageous remix. The first time Tiesto and Hardwell worked together they dropped “Zero 76″ on us, so there’s definitely high expectations for their second effort. The full version is due for release on April 24 on Tiesto’s Club Life, Vol. Two – Miami which you can pre-order here or here.

It’s incredible that one of the biggest names in the game and one of the most promising up-and-comers are remixing an indie jam that dropped two years ago; it’s really a testament to how amazing “Young Blood” is.

UPDATE:

So the full version was released — pretty legendary. Go to town.

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Download: The Naked And Famous – Young Blood (Tiësto & Hardwell Remix)

The story behind this track is pretty awesome. Deadmau5 created the instrumental for “The Veldt” (inspired from the short story), and let people submit their vocals for it to give it some legs. The catch was that he wanted the vocals to relate to the story. This random dude Chris James sent in his take on it, Deadmau5 randomly clicked on it, completely flipped out and loved it — and they worked together to make it an official jam. The majority of this all took place as Deadmau5 was doing one of his live uStreams, which you can check out after the jump if interested.

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Looks like we have some sleeper talent right here. Lucy Stone is a product of Philadelphia, currently a student in the music program at Drexel University. First thing’s first — she’s got the name to succeed. Lucy Stone is the quintessential name for musical success; you really can’t get much better. On top of that, she’s got the vocal talent. Start up “Out Of Time” and you’ll notice it’s on full display throughout — just raw vocal skills. With a jazz-infused bassline, a refreshingly unique hook, and a name like Lucy Stone, this track deserves more than your attention.

Shout out to B-Rob with the find — who found the track via his mother and brother — C-Rob and E-Rob respectively. Or something like that.

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Download: Lucy Stone – Out Of Time