Artist Profile: Florrie

Twenty-one year old Florrie specializes in making U.K.-style electro pop. Lest you think the Bristol-born singer is another wannbe pop tart with a bottle of peroxide and a push up bra, Florrie is a drummer and guitarist who writes and remixes her own material. The hooky, frenetic and energetic music combine with Florrie's bouncy, sultry vocals are to get people to the dancefloor. But she also played her first performance at age seven dressed in a fish costume, so the girl knows how to have fun too. All of Florrie's songs are currently free to download at her website. Here are a few of my favorite tracks below:

Call 911

Come Back To Mine

Panic Attack

You Wanna Start Something

New Music: Mama's Boyfriends

Ye' busted out this new track off his upcoming fifth album during a performance in New York. The rapper's song, which samples a Billy Joel piano riff,  had assistance from John Legend on the keys. Watch the clip below:



For details about the performance and Kanye's album, read the full-story at RollingStone.com

Album Review: Big Boi Sir Luscious Left Foot...Son Of Chico Dusty

In bands or duos, fans and critics always find a way to relegate the individual members, no matter how talented, to individual roles. In the case of Outkast, Big Boi was cast as the earthy, street everyman to Andre's 3000's P-Funk mothership fashion statements and extraterrestrial lyrical prowess. While 2003's Speakerboxx showed Big Boi's knack for making smooth, futuristic funk, Sir Luscious Left Foot, his first proper solo disc, proves there's room for more than one musical genius in Outkast.

Artist Profile: The Dollyrots

The pop punk trio, based out of Los Angeles, is released their third album, A Little Messed Up, on August 17th. The band, which has been around for more than decade, formed in Florida while in college and released their first album, 2004's Eat My Heart Out on Lookout Records. A stint on the Warped tour led to band signing with Joan Jett's Blackheart Records label. 2007's follow up Because I'm Awesome led to supporting tours with Bowling for Soup and The Buzzcoks and television appearances.

Personally I'm not aware of much of the band's back catalogue, but the two tracks I've heard from the new album tell me I might've been missing out. Besides, a co-sign by Joan Jett is pretty dependable. Download "A Little Messed Up" and "Rollercoaster" below, and check out the band's official site here.

A Little Messed Up

Rollercoaster

Vid Pick: Dev "Booty Bounce"

You can never have enough DJ-play-my-song anthems. L.A.-based dance artist Dev makes her contribution to the cause with "Booty Bounce." Watch the video for the song below:

Artist Profile: Murdocks

Anyone looking for loud, nasty, metallic power pop rock need look no further than Murdocks. The Texas-based band has all the ingredients needed for three-chord catharsis. Roaring power chords? Check. Screaming vocals? Check. Melodies and riffs that lodge themselves in your skull like a venereal disease?Check.

The band's new album Distortionist, set for release on Septemeber 14th, will contain plently of guitar-heavy, melodic music if the songs on their Myspace page are any indication. Some of the tracks, with titles like "Bloodsicle" and "OMG" sound heavily influenced by Dookie-era Green Day, but Murdocks don't come off like imitators. You can download four tracks from Distortionist by clicking on the widget below, and watch the band's video for "Black Jesus Knocking."

Artist Profile: Le Vice

This San Francisco foursome, made up of vocalist Alex Lee, bassist/keyboardist Sean Stillinger, guitarist Renzo Staiano and drummer Darrin Thomas, specialize in a unique brand of hip-hop soul-influenced hipster funk. Think the Roots with Laruyn Hill or Erykah Badu as a frontwoman, or Maroon 5 with MC Lyte or Salt-N-Pepa occasionally moonlighting.

Le Vice's musical influences include everyhing from rap and R&B to jazz and metal. Such diversity is on full display with tracks like the hip hop/indie rock mash up "2 O Clock," showing Lee in full, braggadocious emcee form, and dancefloor gems like "Hard To Be Ill," and "Shy Guy." Le Vice's self-titled debut comes out on August 17th.

Check out the group's official site here, and listen to a few downloadable tracks below:

2 O'Clock

Hard To Be Ill

Shy Guy

Remix Of The Week: Flava In Ya' Ear

This remix is still fiyah. Get into the clip below:

Vid Pick: Kanye West "Power"

I can't stop watching this video. To be honest it's really more like an ancient Greek or Renaissance-era painting than a music video. And it's less than two minutes! Mr. West has again shown that hip hop videos can be more than Money. Cash.Hoes.Rinse in champagne/other expensive alcoholic bottles. Repeat. And for the uniformed, a quick P.S.A: "Power" draws from The Sword of Damocles, an ancient Greek myth about allure and perils of having power. It is not confirmation that Yeezy is part of some secret Illuminati/Devil worship society hell bent on destroying us all. K? Now watch the clip below:

Album Review: The Limousines Get Sharp

"The kids are disco dancin'/They're tired of rock n' roll/Don''t bother telling them that drum machines ain't got no soul," vocalist Eric sings in The Limousines' Buggles-inspired "Internet Killed The Video Star." Don't take this statement at face value however. The San Francisco-based act, made up of Eric and beatmeister Gio, seem set on proving that the groove is not only in the feet but in the heart as well.

Remix Of The Week: Aaliyah "At Your Best"

For this week's remix I thought I'd slow things down a bit while taking us back to the glorious mid-90s, one of the best eras for R&B as far as I'm concerned. While it's hard for me to pick a favorite Aaliyah song, this one is definitely in my top 5. I can't believe she's been gone almost 10 years. Rest in peace Aaliyah. Get into the clip below:

Could It Be...

L-Boogie just might make a comeback for 2010. The singer recently performed at the Festival Dos Oceanos in Libson, Portugal in front of 40,000 fans. Watch a few performance clips, including one of The Fugees' classic rendition of "Killing Me Softly" below:







h/t Rod 2.0

Vid Pick: Janelle Monae "Cold War"

Janelle Monae channels Sinead O'Connor(and a little bit of D'Angelo-check the bare shoulders) in her new up-close-and-personal video for "Cold War." Watch below:

Pride Tiger

Back when I was a sophomore in college (waaay back three years ago:) and working at the campus radio station, I got Pride Tiger's The Lucky Ones in the mail. If you've ever worked at a station, you already know one of the chief responsibilities is sifting through mountains of crappy music to find one or two(if any) gems. Luckily Pride Tiger was one of them. Their music was catchy and melodic, but still had edge. Think Thin Lizzy but updated for the 2000s. Sadly, when I looked up the band to see if they'd released any new material since, I'd discovered they had broken up. Oh well. At least I'll always have memories of The Lucky Ones *starts to sing Boys II Men's "It's So Hard."* Okay enough of that lol. Check out some of the group's music, as well as a live performance below:

What It Is by Pride Tiger

Fill Me In by Pride Tiger

Forget Everything by Pride Tiger

Artist Profile: Sleigh Bells

Picture this. A soundtrack of sputtering drums that sound like atomic bombs, beats that reek of Southern hip hop bouncing alongside crushing metal riffs, while light, girlish vocals are delivered above all the mayhem courtesy of a former-teen pop singer-turned- fourth-grade teacher turned rock star. Lil' John meets Metallica with a dash of Phil Collins. Sounds like it a recipe for a Grade A Hot Mess doesn't it? But Sleigh Bells, a Brooklyn noise pop duo made up of guitarist/producer Derek Miller and singer Alexis Krauss and signed to M.I.A.'s N.E.E.T. label, are anything but. Their album Treats has been deemed one of 2010's best albums and with good reason. The group's music manages to pull off the difficult balance of simulatneously being fun, catchy, danceable and aggressive. Listen to a few tracks below:

Tell 'Em by SLEIGH BELLS

Kids by SLEIGH BELLS

Riot Rhythm by SLEIGH BELLS

Rill Rill by SLEIGH BELLS

Infinity Guitars by SLEIGH BELLS