Stupidfool.org

Big Boi's Mixtape for Dummies

This is great! (via Gorilla vs Bear)

Janelle Monáe, performing "Let's Go Crazy"

via www.youtube.com

Incredible.

Robyn, "Dancing On My Own" (live)

Via perpetua.tumblr.com, this is Robyn performing "Dancing On My Own" live. I'm excited about this album.

Kanye West, "Power"

mixtape maestro:

Oh, and as far as being looked as the "abomination of Obama nation"? Yeezy could care less, quickly brushing off any slight tinges of remorse concerning that role with this typically egotistical line: "At the end of the day/ Goddammit, I'm killin’ this shit".

Honestly, as much as one might want to hate Kanye when he’s on one of these power trips, dude is right: "Power", taken in as a whole, is an epic shit-killer.

"Power" is so, so good. Listen here:

Gift Wrapped Kitty Cats

Perpetua posts a Girls Aloud comp:

Taken at face value, you’d be forgiven for being skeptical about Girls Aloud. They’re a girl group created by a UK televised singing competition, and it’s not exactly easy to tell the singers apart on record. The thing that makes Girls Aloud special is that they have exclusively worked with the production team Xenomania since day one, and they’ve basically become a front for that group’s brilliant, hyperactive brand of rock-infused dance pop. At their best, the Xenomania/Girls Aloud team-up results in gleefully campy super-charged pop tunes with lyrics that push the themes of Chick Lit into the realm of nonsensical absurdity and/or biting satire. If you’ve never heard this stuff and you’re looking for some intensely joyful pop, you’re in for a good time.

This is a great introduction to a fantastic pop band.

Devil Horns Best Friends

Fluxblog:

6. Let's stop for a moment to reflect on the finale of "Infinity Guitars." You know, the part where it comes back even louder than before, and the BASS OF ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION kicks in? That is so so so so so awesome.

So true. This is my favorite musical thing so far, in 2010!

Sleigh Bells - Treats

From Maura's review of Sleigh Bells' Treats:

One of the things that I bemoaned about "indie" for so long was its overly mannered nature — bands that would garner accolades from critics seemed to me like music made for droning one's life away in a vaguely creative cubicle farm, full of beautiful, correctly executed moments that had zero resonance except to serve as placeholders until the next batch of aesthetes came along. Sleigh Bells feels like it was created as a direct protest against this type of music — the songs that spill out of Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss are vital and fun, maxing speakers' volume in a bone-shaking way that can't help but transfer outward to the rest of one's person.

It's true. This is the funnest album I've heard in so long (it feels like I've been waiting for it forever, though it's only been seven months, for me), and I've been listening to it all day, today.

My favorite moment? The 1:50 mark in "Infinity Guitars"; up til then, the track's sounded just like the demo from last year, but at 1:50 it just explodes in this glorious way, and it's louder than anything I've heard in a long time. I love it.

The album's streaming on NPR's site, and it's available for purchase on iTunes.

Quadron - "Buster Keaton"

via lizzyville.blogs.com

A lovely video for a great song. Quadron is one of my most-played albums this year, easily.

January-March mixes for 2010

Eric Harvey of Marathon Packs has posted two mixes for the first 3 months of 2010 (one, and two).

Both are great, but I'm partial to the second (probably because it more closely matches my iTunes for 2010), particularly for this great four-song sequence in the middle:

5. Vampire Weekend, "Giving up the Gun"
6. Yeasayer, "O.N.E."
7. Big Boi, "Shutterbugg"
8. Fat Joe f. Young Jeezy, "Ha Ha (Slow Down)"

I'd never heard "Ha Ha" before. How had I never heard "Ha Ha" before!?

A new Sleigh Bells track, "Tell 'em"!

... at Stereogum. It's good.

Plus, the artwork for their upcoming album, Treats.