Kingdom Come, indeed.

XXL previewed the second track to appear from Hova's new LP, and it's the title track, Kingdom Come.

Download here.

Enjoy...no guarantees on how long it'll be up.

Broken Social Scene Music Videos

BSS has a new video for Major Label Debut (Fast). Linkage follows.

Major Label Debut (Fast)
Fire-Eye'd Boy
(7/4) Shoreline
Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)

I have the videos from You Forgot It In People lying around on my computer, and a few of them (Cause=Time, Anthems, Almost Crimes) are really something, so I might put them up later in the week. We'll see.

Anyway, Broken Social Scene does a tour video. Hmph. Does this bode for the real end of three years of touring? Or will there be a final Canadian leg of the DMST/BSS tour after they announce the impending release of the Ohad sessions from 2005. Time will tell.

It's all about the Chi...

So, it's been a fair number of months since I've posted here. Here's the deal. I had surgery, and then I was working at camp all summer, and then I got my wisdom teeth out. I'm back at college now, I have time to become obsessed with music again, and ergo...blog ressurrection.

The past few weeks have seen my listening habits pretty much dominated by rap. Specifically stuff out of Chicago (and I don't mean Kanye West). Two of the more anticipated debut albums from the area came out over the summer - Rhymefest's Blue Collar and Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor.

Both are strong efforts, which are self-assured and impressive in and of themselves, let alone due to their debut-status. The production on Lupe's is a bit same-y, but his ridiculous flow and clear talent on the mic overcome any deficiencies there. A significant number of tracks are straight-up storytelling, and he never really lets himself be fit into any peg, be it gangster or backpacker. This isn't Kanye West-style ambiguity as much as it's a pure rejection of any labels within the genre and a left-turn out into a world where songs about giant robots, skateboarding and Zombies not only work, but make perfect sense.

Rhymefest bounces back and forth between more standard fare and political and social consciousness. He experiments sonically with production, sampling everyone from the Strokes to Citizen Cope, all within the same song. In fact, his joints are so strong when he turns an eye on politics, drugs, education, Iraq, AIDS, or what have you, that some of his other tracks seem hollow in comparison. Nonetheless, the album holds up well in comparison to most other things right now. Plus, anyone who beat Eminem freestyling really deserves to be checked out, neh?

Finally, I can't believe I missed out on K'naan and his album, The Dusty Foot Philosopher when it came out last year. Somali-born refugee from Toronto who incorporates tribal drums, spoken word, splashing water and hard rock guitars into his hip-hop sensibilities, and wordplay as dextrous as you'll find anywhere in the U.S. scene. Ditto for Sway Dasafo's This Is My Demo - British Ghanian who by turns clever, hilarious, moving and positively brilliant. Plus, k-os' Atlantis: Hymns For Disco comes out in 10 days.

NaS' may be releasing Hip Hop Is Dead in November, but you don't need to look hard to see that it's anything but.

[M4A]The Cool - Lupe Fiasco
[M4A]Kick, Push - Lupe Fiasco
[M4A]Devil's Pie - Rhymefest
[M4A]Bullet (ft. Citizen Cope) - Rhymefest
[M4A]Soobax - K'naan

Amy Millan - Honey from the Tombs

Tomorrow is the release date for the oft-delayed solo album from Stars' frontwoman Amy Millan. The album is comprised mostly of songs written in her pre-Stars days, and they all have a very country-esque sound to them. They're smoky bar songs. They're not the most amazing songs I've ever heard, but they do what they're supposed to and occasionally they transcend. Ruby II has an acoustic guitar solo that's totally divine and Millan is a solid lyricist, if not as polished as some of her contemporaries in Broken Social Scene.

What I've heard of Honey may not reach the heights of Jason Collett's Idols of Exile, but it's worth a listen or two. There are songs on the album that will definitely become frequent listens, but which those are will vary on a person-by-person basis. Plus, I've only heard 6 or so tracks, so the other half could be pure genius. We'll see. If you go into this album with an open mind, not expecting to hear Ageless Beauty, you'll probably enjoy it. To be frank, since this is a back-catalogue compilation along the lines of Collett's Motor Motel Love Songs, I'm more interested to see what Millan does with her solo-career after this album...

MP3s:
Ruby II - Amy Millan
Skinny Boy - Amy Millan

In other news, September 26th will see the release of Emily Haines' solo album, Knives Don't Have Your Back, completing the trifecta of solo-albums from the women of BSS. So look out for that.

EDIT: I forgot to apologize for the lack of postage this past month. I had a bit of surgery earlier in the month, and you know...that got in the way. Won't happen again.

Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds

Final Fantasy...is a lot of things, including a series of Japanese video games. But more importantly, Final Fantasy is also the stage name of Toronto's Owen Pallett, violinist and multi-tasker extraordinaire. Having arranged strings for Arcade Fire, and played significant roles in Les Mouches and The Hidden Cameras, Owen went solo last year at the prompting of his boyfriend and CBC's Vinyl Cafe.

Solo, you say? But he's a violinist! Exactly. And therein lies the brilliance. Final Fantasy is Owen Pallett, his violin, and a loop pedal. Nothing more, nothing less. He plays melodies on his violin, loops them, records over top of those, and continues to loop until he has an orchestra of himself supporting his vocals. At any rate, his first effort was the delightful, but slightly uneven Has a Good Home an album with about 6 of the best songs of 2005, and about 8 tracks of filler.

His follow-up, He Poos Clouds is easily one of the 3 best albums released so far this year. Conceived as an 8 song cycle about the schools of magic from Dungeons & Dragons, and recorded with a full string quartet, the sound of the album is richer and more developed, and Pallett experiments a bit more structurally, incorporating some of the primal yelps and percussive use of the violin that have been concert staples for a while. Standout tracks are "Song Song Song", "Many Lives -> 49MP" and the...well...Toronto-centric real-estate diss track, "This Lamb Sells Condos".

I had the chance to see his live show in April right before my finals, and it was ridiculous. For the entire duration of the show, one of his friends was telling the story of Orpheus on a slide projector accompanying Owen's music...plus, as his encore, he did a cover of Mariah Carey's "Fantasy". I mean, seriously. Owen Pallett? Violin god.

MP3s:
This is the Dream of Emma & Cam - Final Fantasy [from the Young Canadian Mothers 7"]
This Lamb Sells Condos - Final Fantasy
Many Lives -> 49MP - Final Fantasy

Artist Profile: Alexi Murdoch

Alexi Murdoch, for the six of you out there who don't already know, is a Scottish singer-songwriter, who got his (relatively, at least so far) break in Los Angeles through the marvelous Nic Harcourt and KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic back in the early 00's (noughts?). His self-released Four Songs EP (2002) remains the highest seller on CD Baby to date, and in spite of his independent aspirations, his music has seeped into popular culture through Orange Sky which has been on approximately umpteen-hundred soundtracks. The liner notes of his debut proclaim that "there's nothing wrong with space" and his mellow, intricate, strangely intense songs do nothing but justify this statement, carried by the lilting tones of his voice.

The point? you ask. Well, after an multiple delays and pushing-back of release dates, it appears as though Alexi's full-length debut, Time Without Consequence is set to appear in just over a month (June 6th). The album will contain three tracks off the EP, and 8 relatively new ones. He has three live radio sets that can be streamed online at KCRW (Los Angeles) and KEXP (Seattle), but I've encoded them into mp3 format for easier consumption. I'm sticking up two new tracks for now, plus Orange Sky. Enjoy.

MP3s:
Breathe - Alexi Murdoch
Shine - Alexi Murdoch
Orange Sky - Alexi Murdoch

On a side note, I know how annoying the gradually expiring links are for music, really I do. I'm working to find an alternative, and after the summer and likely give up in favour of a pay service. For the meantime, humour me.

EDIT:
I've been listening to Edith Piaf for the past few days after going on a Jeff Buckley live kick. She rocks. A lot. Did in the 50s, does now.

MP3:
Je N'en Connais Pas La Fin - Edith Piaf

Cold War Kids, The Little Ones, and...Feist!

Two bands that have completely absorbed my attention over the past month of so have been Cold War Kids and The Little Ones.

Cold War Kids are...well relatively hard to describe. The best I can come up with is an indie-rock band fronted by a blues/soul singer. Like an indie-rock Maroon 5 except you know...less shitty...that sings about tax-deductible charities and alcoholism. They just simultaneously released two 6-track EPs, Up In Rags and With Our Wallets Full. I haven't heard much from Wallets, but Up in Rags is ridiculously good.

MP3s:
Hospital Beds
We Used to Vacation

I discovered Los Angeles' The Little Ones courtesy of gorilla vs bear and I'm fairly impressed. They just released their Sing Song EP, and the featured tracks on their website are golden.

MP3s:
Lovers Who Uncover
Cha Cha Cha

And to end on a really super-exciting note, Feist. I know it's been available on iTunes for a week or so, but Open Season, her remix/collab album, comes out on Tuesday. I have a fair number of the tracks already, but regardless, it's nice to have some new(ish) Feist stuff. The wondrous Leslie Feist is recording her new album in Berlin now, so that's more to look forward to. The four track I'm posting tend to kick ass. The first is a duet with French superstar Jane Birkin. The other three are recorded from Feist's concert at Park West in Chicago...one's a new song and the other two are covers...one of Nina Simone, and the other of Broken Social Scene (yes, Feist is part of BSS...not the point).

MP3s:
The Simple Story (ft. Jane Birkin)
Sea Lion Woman
Intuition
Major Label Debut (Fast)
BONUS:
What is Feist?
On a side note, All Things Feist is a website with literally hundreds of Feist tracks, from live performances, to early solo stuff, to songs from her days with Placebo.

Anyway, that's it for now. Next week, if I can find a quality free file hosting service, I'll probably be able to stick up more stuff that I want to, rather than stealing bandwidths from the artists' websites. Should I do so, I'll probably be posting on Alexi Murdoch's new album (Time Without Consequence) which I have a few tracks from, and the new Final Fantasy album, which I picked up at his show last week. Owen Pallett is a violin god.

Here we go again...

So in the past few weeks, I've come to the realization that all I ever used my old blog for was to go on ridiculously long rants about music. As a result, it really makes more sense to just start a full-fledged music blog and just go nuts.

Why, you ask? Why, when there are already hundreds of these damn things littering the internet? Well, mainly just because I feel like it. I mean, in all honesty only people I know will be reading this (if that), and there are already tons of amazing ones out there (see: Gorilla vs. Bear, Stereogum, etc.), so I'm going to acknowledge the distinct pointlessness of this right now.

Over the next few days, I'll probably litter the blog with tracks from albums coming out in the next few months/weeks that should be relatively awesome.