Ray Spaddy

Fox and the Law, "Feel So Blue"
Out now, self-released
Website

Fox and the Law's 2010 self-titled EP alternated between straight-ahead punk and slow, gritty blues-rock, and with "Feel So Blue," the first offering from the band's forthcoming full-length, they've found a happy medium between the two styles while keeping their garage-rock ethos intact. The song is uptempo and riff-heavy, if not particularly novel, featuring a breakdown and a noisy solo section while melding the best elements of the band's earlier work. It shows Fox and the Law haven't evolved or moved on from their first EP's garage-rock sound--they've only gotten better at it.

Watch the video for "Feel So Blue," featuring some self-recorded tour footage, after the jump.

More >>

freshchoppedbeats.bandcamp.com

The bio on Teodros' Bandcamp page describes him as a "Cultural worker and hip hop pathfinder," which is about as accurate a description as I can think of for the artist. He makes rap music with a very poetic tilt, and conveys his message of love and unification with each verse.

The new video for "Blossoms of Fire", which is the first single from his upcoming Colored People's Time Machine full-length, takes us inside his community, where he is an active participant. The shots (put together by Barni Qaasim and Shadi Rahimi) are lovely snippets of women (who are perhaps the "blossoms") making art, dancing, writing poetry, and so on; and the track (produced by BeanOne) appropriately works a female vocal sample. The mid-song line "I'm fighting them lies, lines, assumptions: beware we wear" could refer directly to the "I let go and let love," refrain. Teodros likes to remind us to brake free of the labels we place upon ourselves and others, and show that he is willing to lead by example.

Watch the vid after the jump...

More >>

fatallucciauno.bandcamp.com

The most gifted, and storied lyricist signed to Seattle's Sportn' Life Records, Fatal Lucciauno has just released the first single from Respect, the follow up to 2007's extra-raw The Only Forgotten Son. Lucciauno has always had the skill to craft beautiful, painfully affecting tracks, and he alternates between introspective quiet storm, and hard as nails concrete warrior. "Amazing" is more the former than latter, but I'd say it's more of a collection of thoughts than anything. There's not a very focused plot to follow, but the song's scattered aspiration and warm memory recall is more than enough to carry it. The beat is an easy-listening Jake One soul track, and the J Pinder chorus sounds nice and natural. (The Jake One/Pinder/Lucciauno trio could make game-changing albums, btw). If I have one knock on the joint, it's that there's too much reverb on the vocals, and the echo is accentuated if you're listening with headphones. Overall, though, the song is a plus.

Check it out after the jump...

More >>

To his inestimable credit, Damien Jurado hasn't shied away from reinventing himself over the course of his decade-and-a-half long career--from acoustic singer-songwriter to found sound collagist to electric rock to the studio rich '60s pop sound of last year's Saint Bartlett. His latest single, "Nothing is the News" off the forthcoming Maraqopa, finds the Seattle stalwart chasing his muse down another unexpected alley, into swirling, slightly fried psychedelia. Like Saint Bartlett, the song was co-produced with Richard Swift, but it hops about a decade ahead--and some substances sideways--of where that album left off. It's a testament to Jurado's easy, mournful singing voice and his solidity as a songwriter that he can make such stylistic jumps sound immediately like his own.

Members Only

Today, Seattle trio State of the Artist released the first single from their upcoming Slopes release, a track called "High in the Air" which features scholarly lyricist Sol. The production is handled by previous collaborators Ski Team, and all four MCs take their turn on the mike.

One of the issues I've had with previous SOTA tracks that feature one or more guest vocalists is that the verses feel packed-in and the construction a bit contrived, as they've also got to make time for the obligatory group-member verses, although that dynamic doesn't weigh down a "feel"-heavy song like this--where the focus isn't so much on the lyrics as the sound--comparatively. I'm also not entirely sold on Parker Joe as a lyricist (he is a talented producer), a feeling that wasn't helped much by his opening verse on this track. Sol has been steadily improving, and sounds good here, and compliments verses from HY and Thaddeus nicely. The beat is also easy-listening and along with a slick chorus, "High in the Air" bodes well for the group.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

MembersOnly206.bandcamp.com

So F-LA-grant

Yeeaaahh" is the note of approval you might be hitting when you hear that the new Hi-Life Soundsystem track is some trunk-rattling G-funk. The beat is deep-bore undulation and low-pitch lazer-gun effects, and a strange synthesizer siren in the background that also says classic West Coast. The production by Crispy and cuts by Sebino are all on point, and at just under three minutes, it's a quick-hitting track perfect to toss in the middle of your DJ set.

"Posted on the block, 35th and I'm holdin'/G-boy stance, left hand on my scrotum/Light on the light, yeah that's medical I'm smokin'/I'll pass on that blunt, but keep them zig-zags rollin'." The lyrics from B Flat and Khingz are a nod to the careless Long Beach City lifestyle, although the ever-conscious Khingz can't help dropping in lines like "I'm Third World hungry," and "For all the people the President fail to serve..." every now and then to keep things real.

More >>

Head Like a Kite front man Dave Einmo doesn't exactly portray himself as an artist with much to say about classic rock. I don't know if it's the group's zany dancing mascots, flying feather boas, or electro-dance-pop orientation that gives me this impression, but appearances aside, Einmo seems to hold a candle for certain veterans of the genre, along with other relics of scenes-gone-by.

More >>

The Life

Seattle hip hop/R&B label Sportn' Life Records recently released a pair of tracks: one from primary artist Fatal Lucciauno, and the other from developing artist SK. Stylistically, they couldn't be more different, yet both are solid tracks in their own right, and shed light on the direction the label is heading in the post-D.Black era.

More >>

Courtesy of bumbershoot.org

Macklemore X Ryan Lewis - Can't Hold Us Feat. Ray Dalton by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Our man Macklemore made another appearance on XXL's website, this time with his and Ryan Lewis' new single "Can't Hold Us". The song's whining synth and choral backing reminds of Lewis' collaborative record with Rhode Island MC Symmetry. The Lewis/Symmetry project was a stellar, left-of-center dance-hop release, in part because Symm has the ability to sing, and paints his versatility all over the disk. Not sure this kind of heavy dance instrumental works as well with Mack unless it's on a track like "And We Danced".

I've still got it in my head that Mack's voice sounds best over sample-heavy production, like that that was favored on his 2005 debut The Language of My World (see below). What do y'all think?

Brothers From Another say...

The beat is filthy, says I. It sounds good in the car, the headphones, the dorm room. The Sabzi-produced "BFA Say" is the new single from Seattle's Brothers From Another's Quality of Living project, which is set for a September 1 release.

The rhymes are a bit light when stacked up against a few of their Two Weeks Vacation tracks, but their collective cool-as-a-slushy-from-the-student-union-building delivery and their ability to craft a smooth song from Sabzi's thumping beat-battle-ready instrumental makes the track a winner, and will definitely keep their buzz going while they're off crafting term papers at college in Whittier, California.

Give it a listen after the jump . . .

More >>