DJ Shadow - I'm Excited (ft Afrikan Boy)

Fears about the new album from DJ Shadow are slowly alleviating for me. "I'm Excited" features a bouncing, galloping, dancey beat and an infectious "I'm excited" refrain between verses from Afrikan Boy. This is nothing like Endtroducing..., which is finally OK, because this track is a place I actually like going to.

This is a wonderful Friday afternoon gift, if you ask me, cause it makes me want to leave work now and get the party started. Check it:

http://soundcloud.com/island-records-uk/dj-shadow-ft-afrikan-boy-im/s-DXUH3

"I'm Excited" goes on sale August 1, and the new full length, "The Less You Know The Better," is out September 5.

Buy more music from DJ Shadow at his website.

Posted via email from One Stupid Mop

First flyer is out for the 23rd Annual Swing for Seniors Golf Tournament at Woodmont in Tamarac. We've got a new venue and lots of stuff on tap for this thing. Save the date NOW!

The Aging and Disability Resource Center of Broward County, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that helps educate seniors on services and assistance they are eligible for (and also my employer), is gearing up for the 23rd Annual Swing for Seniors Golf Tournament at Woodmont Country Club in Tamarac, FL.

Prizes and perks to be announced soon...........................

Posted via email from Stephen Feller

Turmtable.fm is calling out the Chromebook. Boom.

Posted via email from Stephen Feller

Now that is a well-dressed beer!

Posted via email from Stephen Feller

The Lonely Island - Rocky

Rocky by The Lonely Island Listen on Posterous

Comedy rap seems a little repetitive considering that a lot of the best lines to come out of any MC's mouth are the hysterically funny ones. In the case of The Lonely Island, though, since there's nothing serious about them, at all, and it works. Hard.

Turtleneck & Chain finds the boys of Lonely Island mostly rapping about being dorks. Weak dorks, at that. I mean, really, mom harassing you while you're trying to record bad-ass rap songs? Too shy to perform? A pimp who gets murdered by Rocky before AND after picking up men and women? Yeah, there's 19 tracks on this thing that sound strange in traffic. But when Rihanna sings the words "boner alert," you'll love the looks you get from other cars. That's a true story, by the way. Some guy in an SUV was really wondering about me while waiting to get on the highway. Awesome.

As good as the album is, you've got to respect Lorne Michaels for allowing Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer to use the album tracks for digital shorts on SNL. It's almost like MTV in the 90s where, before you grab the record, you've heard a few great ones. Unlike a lot of the shite that MTV pimped in the 90s, the rest of this album delivers too.

Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer have been doing, basically, well, this for more than a decade, starting when they were in high school. At this point they're really good at it. And though it's not lifechanging, Turtleneck & Chain, for all the seriousness behind Justin Timberlake suggesting everybody get down with everybody else's mothers, asks the most important question there is these days: Why so serious?

Buy The Lonely Island's Turtleneck & Chain at Amazon.

And if you don't already have it, grab Incredibad too. "Natalie's Rap," with Natalie Portman, is a revelation. For real.

Posted via email from One Stupid Mop

Beastie Boys - Crazy Ass Shit

Crazy Ass Shit by Beastie Boys Listen on Posterous

I didn't detect any of the "have they still got it" or "have they still got anything" or "I fear it's going to suck really baaaaaaaaaad" in the lead-up to Hot Sauce Committee Part Two's release three weeks ago. That's what I heard for weeks leading up to the release of To The Five Boroughs in 2004, and then "it's way better than I thought - like, really good" almost universally. After the release of two tracks on the Super Surprise EP last year, and especially "Make Some Noise," the potential for a good Beastie Boys album turned into an expectation this time around.

More than one review has pointed out places that Hot Sauce Committee Part Two sounds like Check Your Head but it's hard not to hear echoes of Hello Nasty throughout too. For all the effects and live-playing a la 1992, what a lot of it adds up to is the bouncing, playful sound of 1998. The combination works well on an album that finds the Beasties sticking to a single subject: Just how bad-ass they are.

"Nonstop Disco Powerpack" has a refreshingly familiar "Pass The Mic" vibe, and "Make Some Noise" is perfectly in line with "Intergalactic" and "Ch-check It Out" as lead singles from a new Beastie Boys album meant to get the party started. For any reminders of Beasties history, and, as always there are plenty, this is no rehash - and not even in the Check-Your-Head-and-Ill-Communication-sound-the-same kind of way.

Aside from distorting their vocals way too often - I mean, really, it's going to take twice as long to memorize the lyrics now - this could be another instrumental album. Unlike the uber-jazz of The Mix-Up, this is a hip hop album in every way, from samples to scratching to outros that are often better than the beat actually rapped over in the song. Even if the rhymes weren't as referential as they are, and it's often references that are old school, or just old, but in a good way, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two is perfect for those hung up on the instrumentals of Madlib, Diplo or Oh No, among others.

The only reason the Beastie Boys aren't still the tastemakers they were throughout the 90s is because it's been six years since their last album and this is a very different world. The Beastie Boys are still the Beastie Boys though, their universe is still vastly more cool than anything we live out here, and the occasional glimpse still makes some of us hope to get halfway there one day.

Buy Hot Sauce Committee Part Two directly from the Beastie Boys.

Posted via email from One Stupid Mop

Seeing this drive at you is like seeing the face of God...

Posted via email from Stephen Feller