The Music Tank

Longtime favorite producer of mine, Nottz, is getting ready to put out his first solo effort as an MC titled You Need This Music. On the first single Shine so Brite, Nottz pays hommage to J Dilla. The video also has some crazy visuals, check it out. You Need this Music coming soon.

Coming back with the throwback flavors is a feature on the Lost Boyz. The group composed of Mr. Cheeks (lead vocals), Freaky Tah (vocals), DJ Spigg Nice & Pretty Lou hails from the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York and were active right upon Freaky Tah’s tragic passing in 1999. During that span, they released 3 original albums and a bunch of singles. Mr.Cheeks was the leader of the group but Freaky Tah, acting both as a vocalist and promoter, filled that “Hype Man” role and was the glue to the group’s success.

Hit the jump to see the full post.

Read the rest of this entry »

The remaining members of Pennywise announced that Ignite vocalist Zoli Teglas is now officially the new front man. Teglas, a longtime friend and tour mate, recently played a handful of So Cal shows with Pennywise, including the 2009 Smokeout Festival and a sold out Holiday Benefit concert for Amnesty International at Long Beach Arena.

Here is a dope-brand-new video form Kardinal Offishall whose building up to the release of his next album Mr. International. Directed by Chris G.

Foxy Shazam have released the first song off their upcoming Warner Bros. debut album entitled ” “Unstoppable.” The album is set to come out sometime in spring.

The track of the same name is available now at iTunes (who have a web based interface now by the way) . The track will also be featured during this Sunday’s Super Bowl game, though I don’t know in which context it will be played.

The White Stripes have announced the release of a new box set. “Under Great White Northern Lights” is set to be released on March 16th and will ncluded a DVD of a documentary bearing the same name, a DVD of the 10th anniversary show, double LP/CD of 16 live tracks, exclusive 7 inch vinyl, silkscreened print, and hardcover book of photography.

Trailer:

Video:

Seems like “tagged commercial” rapper David Banner is hooking up with “underground extraordinaire” producer 9th Wonder for a soon to be released Mixtape project titled Death of a Pop Star. The mixtape should follow soon but until then you can’t test the waters with the track Slow Down right below also available for download.

Download David Banner – Slow Down (prod. 9th Wonder).mp3

Well it looks like 2010 releases are on the right side of the track. One of the first album that is catching our attention is the return of the psychadelic animated group Gorillaz. The band will follow up 2005’s Demon Days with their third album Plastic Beach. As always, Gorillaz will surroung themselves with numerous guests inlcuding Mos Def, Snoop Doog, De La Soul & Lou Reed amongst others.

The first single Stylo feautring Mos Def & Bobby Womack will be made available for download on January 26th but you can hear it over here. Plastic Beach will be released March 9th. Look below for the full tracklisting.

1. Orchestral Intro
2. Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach (feat. Snoop Dogg and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
3. White Flag (feat. Kano & Bashy)
4. Rhinestone Eyes
5. Stylo (feat. Bobby Womack and Mos Def)
6. Superfast Jellyfish (feat. Gruff Rhys and De La Soul)
7. Empire Ants (feat. Little Dragon)
8. Glitter Freeze (feat. Mark E Smith)
9. Some Kind Of Nature (feat. Lou Reed)
10. On Melancholy Hill
11. Broken
12. Sweepstakes (feat. Mos Def & Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
13. Plastic Beach (feat. Mick Jones & Paul Simonon)
14. To Binge (feat. Little Dragon)
15. Cloud Of Unknowing (feat. Bobby Womack)
16. Pirate Jet

The Bled has a brand new MySpace page with 2 new songs from their upcoming Rise Records release “Heat Fetish”.

The album will be available March 2nd but you can pre-order it on their MySpace.

OK Go’s new album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, drops next week on Jan 12th. In the meantime, the band is touring Europe:

01/11/2010 Norwich UEA Norwich, UK
01/12/2010 O2 Academy Birmingham Birmingham, UK
01/13/2010 Shepherd’s Bush Empire London, UK
01/14/2010 Concorde II Brighton, UK
01/16/2010 O2 Academy Sheffield, UK
01/17/2010 O2 Academy Liverpool, UK
01/18/2010 ABC Glasgow, UK
01/19/2010 Nottingham Rescue Rooms Nottingham, UK
01/21/2010 AB Box Brussels Brussels, BE
01/22/2010 Melkweg Amsterdam, NL
01/25/2010 Werkstatt Cologne, DE
01/26/2010 Nouveau Casino Paris, FR
01/28/2010 Vega Musikkenshus Copenhagen, DK

The EP released alongside the Playstation 3 game God of War III, titled God of War: Blood & Metal, was announced to be released two weeks prior to the game, on March 2.

On it, you will find five previously unreleased songs from five Roadrunner artists that are exclusive to and recorded for this release. The artists contributing tracks include Killswitch Engage, Dream Theater, Trivium, Opeth and Taking Dawn.

Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy stated, “Dream Theater recorded an exclusive instrumental track for inclusion on the soundtrack. This is the first time in 24 years that we’ve written and recorded a song for anything other than one of our own album, so we’re up for the challenge and excited to have been asked!”

A brand new video from Freeway + Jake One is out for their single Know What I Mean. The rapper and producer are hooking up for a full length LP titled Stimulus Package due out in February.

Here is the brand new video for the ill Mos Def song Supermagic off The Ecstatic.

Rivers Cuomo came out of tour bus accident in upstate New York with minor injuries on Saturday night while the band was going from Boston to Toronto.

Read more over at The Guardian:

Weezer were travelling to Boston after a concert in Toronto on Saturday night. At about 7:30am, the tour bus hit a patch of ice on the New York State Thruway. The back end of the vehicle slid out of control, according to CNN, pushing the bus on to the motorway median, over some reflective posts, then back across the highway. After breaking through the guardrail, it landed in a ditch.

Though Cuomo’s wife, two-year-old daughter and another passenger were uninjured, Cuomo and assistant Sarah Kim were both taken by ambulance to St Mary’s hospital in Amsterdam, New York. Kim was suffering from back pain.

Somalia-bred/Toronto adoptee singer-songwriter K’naan just got a huge stint of publicity. His song Wavin Flag, off his critically acclaimed Troubadour album, has been selected as the official anthem of the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup. I figure that this will be huge for K’naan’s career. The song has been somewhat modified (as you can witness in the embed video) but the message of hope stays unchanged.