You Look Good In A Dress = Kickin Ass Soundtrack Part 2

With both summer & wedding season fast approaching, we all could use extra motivation to work out a little bit harder. I'm attending a black tie charity event this Saturday night for which I recently bought a new, fancy, rather tight, little black dress & playing the track Dress by Sylvan Esso 3 times in a row while on a 4 mile beach run this afternoon just inspired me to run much faster than usual. Try it. You'll see!

You look good in the west. You look good in a dress.

Rillo Talk by Wild Child

I can't get enough of this delightful song & whimsical video by my Semester at Sea friend Evan Magers' Austin-based band Wild Child. I was truly bummed to miss Wild Child's most recent performance at The Roxy in West Hollywood last Friday night due to a cold but I heard it was an excellent show. I need to these guys live as soon as possible!






“Kelsey Wilson, one of two leaders of this playfully old-timey Austin-based band, has the voice of a Jazz Age Broadway baby, all coos and hiccups and shivers. Songs like this one are gin cocktails, fizzy with just a hint of a juniper-berry bite. - NPR

Lisa Sawyer by Leon Bridges

Was anyone lucky enough to catch Leon Bridges at The Hotel Café in Hollywood last night? I tried to purchase tickets a few weeks ago when they first went on sale but, after refreshing the ticket page at 11am ON THE DOT, selecting 2 tickets & entering my payment information, I hit the "purchase" button only to receive an error message stating the show was already sold out! I was heartbroken :( 

I need to see Leon Bridges live ASAP. I can't wait for him to announce another show in LA hopefully soon! I'd also be OK with him playing Outside Lands in SF in August!

Happy 40th Anniversary to Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti!!

Happy 40th Anniversary to Led Zeppelin's renowned 6th studio, double album Physical Graffiti which was released on February 24, 1975!!

I'm so grateful NPR Music shared this AMAZING performance of Kashmir (plus a medley of The Ocean & Immigrant Song) by the Louisville Leopard Percussionists, a percussion ensemble of fifty-five 7 to 12-year-old kids from multiple schools in Kentucky, in honor of this special day. Jimmy Page also recently posted the video on Facebook saying it's "too good not to share!"

Led Zeppelin will forever be at the top of my list of bands I WISH I could've seen live. I did have the pleasure of seeing Robert Plant at The Shrine Auditorium on June 26, 2013 which is probably as close as I'll ever get to seeing LZ live & he blew me away. The man's voice is only getting better with age! It's unbelievable.

I'm now going to ROCK OUT out to Zeppelin ALL DAY & I suggest you do the same!

Never Let Me Go by Adryelle

I can't stop listening to Never Let Me Go by Adryelle! This Baltimore-based, electro dreampop babe has a VERY bright future ahead of her. She is singer, songwriter & multi-instrumentalist who writes, records & produces her own original music & music videos. She's an oddly perfect blend of Tori Amos, Depeche Mode & Phantogram. I hope she schedules a show in LA soon!

The Best Song from Father John Misty's New Album I Love You, Honeybear Is...

When You Are Smiling And Astride Me.

The entire album is simply marvelous but I can't get over how much I adore this 1 track in particular. 

Father John Misty is a soulful man with a twisted sense of humor ;)

GO OUT = The 1st Single From Blur's 1st NEW Album in 12 YEARS!!!

BIG NEWS!!! Blur is releasing their 1st new album since 2003 on April 28th!!!! It's called The Magic Whip &, apparently, it's primarily the result of an "accidental" jam session that occurred in the spring of 2013 in a tiny recording studio in Hong Kong after a scheduled concert in Japan was cancelled. For Blur fans, this may be 1 of the greatest accidents of all-time!!

Check out the lyric video for the 1st single entitled Go Out below. Now we'll just be needing the Los Angeles tour date(s) please!

The Magic Whip tracklist:
1. Lonesome Street
2. New World Towers
3. Go Out
4. Ice Cream Man
5. Thought I Was A Spaceman
6. I Broadcast
7. My Terracotta Heart
8. There Are Too Many Of Us
9. Ghost Ship
10. Pyongyang
11. Ong Ong
12. Mirrorball

2 Rad Versions of Money (That's What I Want)

The best things in life may be free but, because I'm currently seeking a new, amazing job in the music industry, money is what I want too!!

The 1960 original song Money (That's What I Want) by Barrett Strong:

My favorite cover of Money by The Flying Lizards:

1612 by Vulfpeck Featuring Antwaun Stanley

This funky jam by Vulfpeck featuring Antwaun Stanley will surely get your toes tappin' on this sunny (at least in SoCal!) Tuesday afternoon :)

STRFKR DJ Set @ V Lounge in Santa Monica - 2/13/15

I'm 95% sure the member of STRFKR who DJed at V Lounge in Santa Monica this past Friday night was the drummer, Keil Corcoran, but, regardless of which band member it was, the STRFKR DJ set was on point! Way to land a big name for a super fun westside dance party, Take 2 Entertainment!

You Make My Dreams by Hall & Oates From 500 Days of Summer

1 of my favorite scenes from my favorite rom-com ever 500 Days of Summer:

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

The Bones of J.R. Jones @ Silverlake Lounge - 2/8/15

The Bones of J.R. Jones (aka Jonathon Linaberry or J.R. Linaberry) is a Brooklyn-based musical dynamo I had the pleasure of seeing live for my 1st time this past Sunday night at Silverlake Lounge. 

Based on his album Dark Was the Yearling, I assumed The Bones of J.R. Jones would perform with at least 2-3 other musicians but it turns out J.R. is able to play up to 3 instruments at once so he's actually a one-man band! I was blown away watching J.R. play a guitar with his hands, drums with his feet plus a hands-free harmonica! The man's also got crazy banjo skills! 

I could listen to The Bones of J.R. Jones' sing all day & feel honored to have heard a lot of his new material live for the 1st time including the following track entitled The Heat:

And I couldn't resist recording the song that started my obsession, Hearts Racing:

Don't Wanna Fight by Alabama Shakes

I wouldn't call myself a huge Alabama Shakes fan (although they were AWESOME when they opened for Neil Young at Red Rocks on August 8, 2012) so I wasn't expecting to love their new single Don't Wanna Fight as much as I do! I'm now curious to check out the rest of their new album Sound & Color due out on April 21st. It won't hurt getting to hear a bunch of the new material live on day 1 of weekend 1 of Coachella on April 10th!

Just Like You by Chromatics - NEW!!

The 1st single from Chromatics upcoming album Dear Tommy is quite soothing during a winter heat wave ;)

Daybreaker Featuring Hoj @ V Lounge in Santa Monica - 6:30-8:30AM on 2/11/15

On Monday night, I received an Email from KCRW listing 5 Things To Do This Week in LA & 1 of the things listed was a dance party event at V Lounge in Santa Monica on Wednesday at 6:30AM! Daybreaker is a "morning movement" that promises to "start your day off unlike anything else" & boy does it deliver! 

My girlfriend Sarah & I went into this morning's Daybreaker event assuming it'd just be a small group of people getting some morning cardio under their belts while dancing to some cool electronic music. When we entered V Lounge shortly after 6:30am (after getting up at 5:45am which was intense in itself!), we were greeted by an already PACKED room full of wild, pumped up dancers bustin' moves to the sweet, sick beats of Hoj. We then proceeded to dance our asses off for almost a full 90 minutes. I was sweating up a storm so I got my cardio in for the day FOR SURE! Best workout ever!

There was also free coffee, juice & Kombucha included with our $20 ticket so we took advantage of the all-you-can-drink beverages...although it turns out I am NOT a fan of Kombucha :-P lol

The next time Daybreaker hosts an event in your town, GO!! You won't regret it. ATTENTION SAN FRANCISCO: There's a Daybreaker party happening at City Nights THIS Friday 2/13 from 6:30-9:30am!! Get your tickets NOW! 

Mark Ronson, Mystikal & The Roots Perform Feel Right on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - 2/9/15

Mark Ronson, Mystikal & The Roots did SUCH a kickass job performing Feel Right (from Ronson's latest album Uptown Special) on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night!! I loved the little snippet of Shake Ya Ass (from Mystikal's 2000 album Let's Get Ready) that they threw into the mix at the 1:42 mark!

Huarache Lights by Hot Chip - NEW!!

Tuesday is always the best day for new music! I love it! This morning, HOT CHIP announced they'll be releasing their 6th studio album entitled Why Make Sense? via Domino on May 18th! Check out the 1st, bumping single Huarache Lights NOW! 

Since Hot Chip is scheduled to play The Greek Theatre on Tuesday, August 11th, I'm hoping that might mean they'll play Outside Lands in SF the weekend before but, regardless, I NEED to see Hot Chip live again this summer!

The Blacker The Berry by Kendrick Lamar - BRAND NEW!!!

On the heels of his 2 GRAMMY wins last night for Best Rap Song & Best Rap Performance for his current single entitled I, Kendrick Lamar JUST treated us all to the next track off his upcoming (I believe still untitled) album. This Boi-1da-produced track is called The Blacker The Berry & the juice is, indeed, SWEET!

GRAMMY Awards 2015

I just finished watching the 2015 Grammy Awards ceremony on TV & I'm beyond grateful I chose to record the awards ceremony while I was at a concert so I could then come home & jump through the commercials. It worked out perfectly because it only ended up taking me about 2 hours to watch what would've taken 3 AND A HALF hours to watch live! I feel for people who stuck it out watching in real time because, overall, the show was a giant snooze-fest. Beck winning 2 Grammys for Morning Phase & Kristin Wiig surprising everyone with her emotionally charged (& unexpectedly serious) interpretive Chandelier dance are the only 2 truly noteworthy things that happened the entire 210 minutes!

The very few other highlights were AC/DC opening the show (which got me extra pumped for their Coachella headlining set), Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett dancing & BEAUTIFULLY singing Cheek to Cheek, Annie Lennox joining Hozier for I Put A Spell On You & Madonna at least TRYING to keep things interesting despite no longer being musically relevant. I wish Madonna would've performed a medley of her countless hits versus a new, not-very-good song no one recognized. I also, of course, love Beck live ALWAYS but could have done without Chris Martin on backup vocals. I understand the Grammys like to do as many mash-ups as possible but sometimes I wish they'd sometimes just leave well enough alone.

The majority of the whopping 23 musical performances last night were overwhelmingly lackluster. Maybe I'm not being sensitive enough but, if I'm going to watch artists like Beyonce, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, Adam Levine, Gwen Stefani, Usher & Kanye perform live, I want upbeat songs with fun, flashing lights & cool choreography. I don't want to watch Usher singing with ONLY a harpist & black & white photographs of trees backing him. I also don't want to stare at an overly auto-tuned Kanye dancing over a solitary white light for 5 minutes. Every Grammy performance doesn't need violinists & a gospel choir in order to class things up a bit. I'm not saying there shouldn't be ANY slow songs performed at the Grammys. Feel free to throw in a top quality ballad here & there then utilize the rest of your time actually entertaining the masses...not boring them to sleep (OR fast forward...as I occasionally couldn't help but do).

Also, they totally should have included a montage of all the other already awarded GRAMMYs!!! Jack White, Kendrick Lamar, St. Vincent & Aphex Twin are exceedingly more interesting to me than 90% of the people they were praising during last night's televised awards ceremony. 

Finally, no matter how much everyone else apparently LOVES Stay With Me by Sam Smith, I think it's annoying & ridiculous that Smith just won 4 Grammy Awards essentially for only ONE song. I've tried listening to Smith's album In The Lonely Hour in order to give it a proper listen & chance but found that, despite being well produced, it's simply not my cup of tea. I can only stand Smith's voice for 1-2 songs max then I'm eager to switch things up ASAP. I'd take Taylor Swift, Katy Perry &/or Beyonce over Sam Smith ANY day.

Killing Strangers by Marilyn Manson (As Featured in JOHN WICK)

The 1st track on Marilyn Manson's latest album The Pale Emperor (released 1/15/15) is entitled Killing Strangers & was featured in the film John Wick which I just saw for the 1st time last night. Both the song & John Wick are pretty badass. If you like Keanu & you also dig super violent movies, John Wick's for you! A sequel is apparently already in the works.

Jack White Performs That Black Bat Licorice on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - 2/5/15

As expected, Jack White just delivered THE most phenomenal performance of That Black Bat Licorice as the closing act for the last of this week's Los Angeles tapings of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon!!!!! I didn't think it was possible but I'm now even MORE excited for Jack's headlining set at Coachella in 2 months!!!!

And, just because it's 1 of my most beloved concert-going memories, check out my video of Jack performing 1 of THE best White Stripes song Ball & A Biscuit at Sasquatch 2012:

4th and Roebling by The Districts

When La Blogothèque shared A Take Away Show featuring The Districts last week, I had never even heard of the 4-man band from the tiny town of Lititz, Pennsylvania. I now am smitten with the following track entitled 4th and Roebling & am seriously considering purchasing tickets to see The Districts at Troubadour in West Hollywood on March 7th. They're also playing Sasquatch! Music Festival over Memorial Day weekend so that's just 1 more reason Sasquatch! 2015 is gonna be rocktastic!

The Sasquatch! Music Festival 2015 Lineup Announcement!

The manner in which Sasquatch! Music Festival announced their whopping 4-day, 2015 Memorial Day weekend lineup last night makes me wish more than I ever that I was currently gainfully employed so I could justify splurging on another unforgettable journey to The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington!! The lineup is radical!

Sasquatch! Music Festival 2015 Lineup Announcement from Sasquatch Festival on Vimeo.

I attended Sasquatch from 2010-2013 but, last year, when the festival attempted to expand to 2 separate weekends (Memorial Day & 4th of July) with completely different lineups each weekend, I decided to take a year off & see how the double-fest attempt turned out. The 2nd fest ended up being canceled in late March because the fans were not "embracing" the 2nd weekend addition aka ticket sales were unexpectedly low. 

At that point, I'd already decided I wasn't going to Sasquatch! 2014 but, since then, I've hoped to be able to make Sasquatch! 2015 happen. Now it's February 4th, I've had ZERO income since Thanksgiving (someone please give me a new paying job in music ASAP!!!) &, in order to be a responsible adult, I have to skip another Sasquatch! Music Festival :( 

For those of you who ARE able to make Sasquatch! happen, I urge you to do so. As much as I love Coachella year after year, Sasquatch remains my most beloved music festival of all-time. See the wallpaper on this page to catch a glimpse of the wondrous beauty that is The Gorge. It's the most GORGEous live music venue imaginable!!

Two Neil Youngs Perform Old Man on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - 2/3/15

Can someone PLEASE bring me to 1 of the remaining 3 Los Angeles tapings of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon​?! I was stalking the Tonight Show's Twitter & Facebook pages for weeks eagerly awaiting the announcement of when LA tickets would go on sale &, still, I somehow ended up missing the 2-minute window when tix were available on January 20th. It makes me so sad :'(

Monday night's episode alone was beyond epic with the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air opening credits parody, the new Brian Williams Snoop Dogg rap, the Chris Pratt/Chris Evans/Jimmy Fallon Super Bowl XLIX photobombing prank AND Kid Theater with Michael Keaton!!

Then, tonight, Jimmy Fallon topped all his previous Neil Young impersonation performances thus far by performing Old Man WITH THE man himself, Neil Young!!! Up until now, Fallon's "Neil Young" performance of the Iggy Azalea hit Fancy featuring Crosby, Stills & Nash had been my favorite & it's still fantastic but double Neil Youngs took things to a whole new level!

I've said it before & I'll say it again: Jimmy Fallon is 1 talented & hilarious dude. He & The Roots are DESTROYING IT on The Tonight Show & putting The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to shame! Leno should have retired sooner!



For comparison's sake, check out footage of Neil Young performing Old Man in 1971 (44 years ago!):

Reconfiguration by Other Lives

I've been impatiently awaiting new music from Other Lives for a while now so this morning's release of the 1st single off their upcoming album Rituals (due out May 5th) was everything I hoped it'd be & more! 

I've been a fan of Other Lives since I first saw them perform at Sasquatch in May 2011. I then proceeded to see them again at The Satellite in July 2011 AND El Rey Theatre in November 2012. Wayne Coyne was front & center watching their mid-afternoon Sasquatch set only a few feet away from me & Danger Mouse was standing 3 people to my right during their entire set at The Satellite. I already knew I loved Other Lives but it was validating to see Wayne & Danger Mouse diggin' them as well :) 

I can't wait to see Other Lives LIVE again!

Pre-order Rituals Now!
Official Store: http://smarturl.it/OtherLivesOfficial
iTunes: http://smarturl.it/iTunesRituals
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/RitualsAmazon

Iron Rose by Cannibal Ox Featuring MF DOOM

When in doubt, add a guest MF Doom verse to your new track & you'll most certainly end up with a hit! That's what Harlem-based hip hop duo Cannibal Ox did with this 1st single off their upcoming sophomore album Blade of the Ronin which is set for release on March 3rd via IGC Records / iHipHop Distribution. Blade is the follow-up to Cannibal Ox's 2001 debut album The Cold Vein so, for diehard Can Ox fans, it's been a long time coming!