Jay-Z announce “Magna Carta Holy Grail” out July 4th!

During tonight’s NBA Finals Jay-Z in a partnership with Samsung aired a commercial announcing his new album Magna Carta Holy Grail. The album is expected to be out July 4th. Samsung has purchased 1 million copies of the album and plan on releasing it to the Galaxy smart phone users through an app. The album will be available prior to the official release for S4 owners.

This is exciting since I purchased the S4 just a few weeks ago so I’m hoping to be part of this promotion.

The commercial features heavy hitters in the Hip-Hop game Pharrell, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, and the legendary Rick Robin. This all star collaboration is definitely sparking interest throughout the Internet!

Kanye West: Yeezus has LEAKED! Are you really that surprised?

Kanye West’s new album Yeezus is set for release on June 18th but it seems that like the other hotly anticipated albums of the summer it has leaked. Spin magazine reported that about a hour or so ago Yeezus was leaked onto the internet through the site what.cd they confim that this is a real leak and that it matches the track listing that was leaked earlier in the week as well.  Kanye had two different listening parties for the album the last one being earlier this week in New York.  He also spent last weekend performing at Governors Ball where he previewed his new work as well. 

While Spin magazine and other media outlets are refusing to share the link to the link they have been giving out a pretty good jumping off point if you choose to go on the hunt. Thanks to twitter and the thousands of people who are now talking about this believe me it isn’t that hard to find. Kanye is known to send out cease and desist letters to anyone posting a link to the leaked content. That seems a little excessive considering that pretty much everything he does leaks at some point.  The leak can be found on Zippyshare.com

  

The wait is OVER! Daft Punk: Random Access Memories Leak

If you haven’t heard that Daft Punk’s new album Random Access Memories has been leaked then you are missing out on one of the top stories of today. Electronic Dance Music (@edm on twitter)  tweeted about the Daft Punk Leak early this afternoon and shared the download link to everyone. Since the link hit twitter Daft Punk and Random Access Memories have been a trending topic. @EDM is urging people to download while still available while also telling everyone to buy the official ALBUM on itunes, If fans purchase Random Access Memories from itunes they will be able to stream it in its entirety before the official release May 21st. This is all part of a special pre-order promotion that coincided with the a Daft Punk interview on BBC radio late this afternoon

@EDM is standing behind their decision to post the leak. They feel that this is going to be one of the most remixed Albums of the summer and anticipate that remixes will be flooding the internet in the next few days. Considering how secretive the group tends to be I’m not surprised that a leak happened. Whether it is intentional or not the fact that it happened shows that fans are determined to be the first when it comes to new music. Having been so secretive seems to dive up curiosity to find it and have it before anyone else.

Daft punk tents to send the internet into a frenzy when it comes to anything related to their music. A rumored secret SXSW performance sent fans into a frenzy when posters of the album art work were posted on a building in downtown Austin. The rumor milled went crazy with people anticipating a pop up show on the steps of the Capital building during SXSW.

So far the song I’m liking the most is “Doin’ it Right”

Download Link

Fall Out Boy releases Save Rock and Roll on SoundCloud prior to 4/15 Release (Listen Here)

Music|News SXSW 2013

I was lucky enough to get a chance to see Fall Out Boy at SXSW and their performance was phenomenal  I have been looking forward to the release of Save Rock and Roll since Fall Out Boy announced their return several months ago. In preparation for their new music I’ve been listening to all the old stuff and as I’m singing at the top of my lungs in the car I’m often left wondering why did they ever have to leave. Their music was always great and made you want to sing an dance and have fun. While at the show during SX I noticed that people who love Fall Out Boy LOVE Fall Out Boy! Every single person in Vice sang every word to every song whole heartedly.

The entire message surrounding this release has been about the fan and I understand it now. This isn’t a comeback because they didn’t leave music most have all been working on different projects and I respect that. As a fan yes I always wanted more but don’t we always. I have really enjoyed the build up to the release of Save Rock and Roll. It has been so well marketed and built up to be something great. The music behind it lives up to the hype and fans are excited. They are selling out shows everywhere and are coming back with an arena tour this fall.

The music Industry has gotten stuck in the past and it is failing because the old school regime is unwilling to change. They don’t understand the fan or how people want to feel connected to the music. They don’t understand the powers of social media or that making music should be about MUSIC. Wow what a concept. I’m interested to see what the numbers are come Tuesday but then again in this day and age does it even matter? Fall Out Boy will sell music because it’s good. They did the right thing by making this record in secret away from everything that could have tainted it.

If you haven’t seen Fall Out Boy live you are missing out! All of their summer shows have been sold out for some time now but catch them on the arena tour it is worth it!

Stream Save Rock and Roll below and tell me what you think!

Asher Roth: “Turnip The Beet” Official Video Released TODAY!

Asher Roth dropped the official video to “Turnip The Beet” earlier today. It’s something fresh and new and worth checking out. He has been slowly releasing things here and there which gives me hope that an official album will be out in the near future. He is currently signed to Def Jam and is working on his Album that previously had a January release date.

I have had the opportunity to catch him live a few times. The last time being at SXSW. It’s such a great place to see your favorite artists because the relaxed environment lets artist mix and mingle in a way you rarely get to see as a fan!

Flux Pavillion “OneTwoThree” (Make Your Body Wanna) Listen Here!

Flux Pavillion will be releasing his Blow The Roof Off EP on January the 28th. This is the an NEW Single “OneTwoThree” just released a few hours ago on SoundCloud.  I have to say I am loving this track and I’m looking forward to the release of the EP at the end of the month.

The song is also available as a Free Download

 

OneRepublic “Native” will be out March 26th

I’ve seen enough concerts to last a lifetime so when people ask me which ones are your favorite I have an automatic list that I go through. The ones that have stuck out in my memory tend to have special circumstances maybe I wasn’t supposed to get in or be there, or I came across it completely by accident, or it was because of the people I was with that made it memorable. OneRepublic is on my list because it was a last minute decision that even years later I’m so happy I did it. I saw them in 2008 at La Zona Rosa in Austin. TX. It was one of those life moments where you feel and know that for whatever reason you are in the right place at the right time. I had been obsessed with Dreaming Out Loud from the moment it came out.  The reason that this concert has always been so high on my list is because I was completely and utterly blown away. The musicianship of everyone in the band was nothing like I had ever experienced before.  Each member is so incredibly talented that they brought the performance to another level. They are each so skilled on so many different instruments that each song came to life in a way that I never expected. It truly was the most remarkable show I’ve seen.

Having said that I’m sure you can easily see why it is I’m so excited about the announcement of their upcoming album Native. I will be counting down the days until the new album drops! The cover art work is done and the first single has been chosen. It was a pretty unanimous decision that the first single would be “If I Lose Myself” which was performed on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. I look forward to them getting back on tour because if the opportunity presents itself I will be there again for sure!

Here’s the First Single off Native I hope you enjoy it!

Timbaland Thursdays

Finally home from vacation and trying to get back into the swing of things! Hope everyone had a great New Year! While I was gone I had trouble keeping up with my twitter feed but I did notice quite a bit of noise coming from Timbaland and his Timbaland Thursdays  This isn’t a new initiative he’s been releasing new music ever Thursday for some time now. The marketing model is taken from Kanye West and his G.O.O.D. Fridays where every week he released a new song leading up to the release of Watch the Throne. Timbaland took the advice of his brother and decided to the same and Timbaland Thursday was born in January 2011. Initially the concept was for it to lead up to the release of Shock Value III which as of today January 2, 2013 doesn’t have an official release date.

Why did I go into the history of it? well mostly because it kind of surprised me that it had been going on for so long. I thought maybe at the most it had been around since the beginning of December. It’s been all over twitter for the last few days and there is now a SoundCloud page that goes along with it. I’m hoping that this last push means that the release of Shock Value III is in the near future but like with most things in the industry you can’t ever really tell.

Despite there clearly being something holding up the release the songs released on Twitter this past week sound amazing. I have always been a Timbaland Fan and find his work as a producer incredible. You can always recognize a Timbaland beat and that’s always cool to me. I love his signature sound and the way he can easily mix so many genres onto one album.

These are a few songs to check out:

Music Flowing Through the Speakers

In the beginning of November I signed up for the 30-Day free trial of Spotify and fell in love with it. I don’t think that I’ll be that person who only streams music, I still like purchasing albums, but it gives me time to make up my mind on how I feel about what it is I’m listening to. I like reading the bios and seeing other related artist in a neat little list that is easy to navigate. Since downloading Spotify to my computer and phone I feel like I’m constantly exploring and listening to good music.

I thought that I would share what I have been listening to lately. Well for starters the Big Boi Album Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors was released yesterday and I have listened to it several times. In a previous blog I mentioned how much I loved the song “She Hates Me” and it is still one of my favorites off the album.  Every song is so artfully crafted and the sound that he went for mixes the old with the new. You get that typical Atlanta/Southern sound with songs like “In The A”  which features T.I. and Ludacris and “Gossip” which features Bun B of UGK and Big K.R.I.T. the beat just grabs you and forces you to listen. My other favorites are “Shoes for Running”, “CPU”, and “Tremendous Damage” all of which surprised me in one way or another. This is only the second studio release for Big Boi as a solo artist. He incorporated different sounds and genres into the making of this album and every part of if stands out individually and as a whole. He chose to work outside the box and make something different then what is currently available. It is definitely worth checking out.

The other album that I have streamed several times this week has been Imagine Dragons Night Visions. I kept running across people talking about the album on twitter and the radio. I finally remembered to look them up while looking stuff up in Spotify and have streamed it several times this past week. I will be adding the album to my collection very soon! I enjoyed listening to the album all the way through and really enjoyed the songs “Radioactive” and “Bleeding Out” as well at the one that get the most radio play “It’s Time”. With Spotify it’s nice to have everything at your finger tips. I know that you can’t find everything on it but it’s better than other services I’ve tried. I wish it gave the exact release date of each album instead of just the year because I like to get a general idea of how many weeks something has been out.

The list of what has been blaring out of my speakers at home is endless. If you haven’t tried Spotify yet the free version is just as good and worth it if you are unsure about how to use it or what it does. I wasn’t too sure how I was going to like it at first at it has become my go to for playing music while I’m on the computer or in the car!

 

SHE HATES ME (Big Boi ft. Kid Cudi)

Have you ever  seen a Song title and thought I really need to listen to that? That’s how I have felt about Big Boi’s new song “She Hates Me” It’s been in the back of my mind now for the last two days and I finally pulled it up on SoundCloud. Let’s just say that I already have it on repeat. The track is so good I love every beat and sound and Kid Cudi adds so much in the subtlest of ways. I’m already a Big Boi fan but after the single “Mamma Told Me” I wasn’t happy with what I was hearing. His New album Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors drops in 7 Days and I’ve been watching the countdown on my twitter feed. Everything about this album has me intrigued. I love the name of it and the album artwork draws you in! It’s going to be  a long week. All I can do it wait as patiently as I can!