Say what you will about the Based God, but he’s got some work ethic. I read a lot of Hip Hop blogs and I swear Lil’ B has dropped a video everyday this week (that’s for sure not true but he has dropped several videos this week). Here’s the new clip for “Black and White” off his The Silent President mixtape. With a smooth beat and some poignant lyrics, this is a dope track. Dig it.

If you want to go to a free Мишка Halloween show then you are in luck. If you don’t want to go keep reading this and by the end you will. Tonight, October 28, we’re hosing a show with a Salem DJ set along with live performances by Tearist, P-Fang, WhITCH, and GuMMy†Be▲R! As I mentioned, it’s free with RSVP and we’ve got things to give away all night!

Hailing from Michigan, Salem have been hailed as the genesis of what some call “Witch House.” It’s electronic pop with production elements of Southern Rap, Chicago juke, and the Houston screw, but with terrifying synths and elegant vocals. Their music is simultaneously packed with emotion and entirely void of it. But you already knew that, didn’t you? Below is their video for “Dirt.”

RSVP over at 1015, it’s free. Free! Plus we’re giving stuff away, so it’s almost like you’re making money. Almost. Check it out.

Friday October 28th 10pm-4am
One Zero Three
103 Harriet Street
San Francisco, CA
FREE with RSVP

I, Elbows, would like to personally invite you to the Halloween function of the year. My band, Pharaohs, are throwing a Halloween party on October 28 and if you like my writing, you’ll probably like my music, because that’s how it works. There’ll be music throughout the night by Pharaohs, along with DJs Wodge Daddy, EliMakesBeats, $trange Loop$, and Al-9000. And dancing; there’s going to be dancing too. And it’ll be Halloween so everyone will be costumed-out. It’s gonna be sick. This is less of an invitation and more of an advisory, really. I would hate for you to miss this.

Also, because this is pretty great, there’s an open bar! Right? Pretty great.

So you’ll come, you’ll dance, you’ll wear a costume; it’s going to be spooky as hell: Halloween-themed music, decorations, cauldrons, the whole deal.

It’s Halloween, Pharaohs style. See you there.

Friday October 28, Doors at 9pm
Amo Studios
55 Waterbury St
Brooklyn, NY

L train to Montrose Ave

Mellow Grave - Smoke Filled the Room, We Slept (2011) [Living Tapes] // Grade: A

Bored with witch house? Never liked it in the first place? Please meet Mellow Grave. Aucklanders Adrian Bird and Jordan Puryer spawned from the witch house universe but work well beyond its borders, conjuring hell noises both metallic and fluid, beautiful and gory — and based enough in classical composition and multi-textured atmospheres to make any naysayer think again.

We’ve talked about it before on Sounds From the Other Side, but the message bears repeating: Debut full-length Smoke Filled The Room, We Slept is an album you can’t miss. In terms of necessity, sure — definitely don’t sleep on this one (um, no pun intended) — but also sheer size. Smoke is a large record, seething and unmissable, twisting itself perfectly around the edges of hip-hop, shoegaze and industrial. Tracks like “Raining Meth” and “Merk That” come at you hard, knives in hard, like foggy techno soundtracks to some dangerous dystopia, while “Oxygen” and “Don’t Deliver Us” lurch along slowly, through the dewy mist of a morning after. And then there’s a jam like “Amphibian”, the perfect mid-point between the two: Frosty synths stutter over a steady club beat, as much glistening neon as dreadful, enveloping grey. Think of it like a modern The Fragile, albeit a gazillion times shorter; Smoke wavers back and forth between watery and aggressive, imprecise and exactly right, forcing itself through a purgatory more unsettling than hell itself.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Mellow Grave are among the most promising new bands to phoenix up from the witch house landscape. Keep one eye keen to everything they do.

In case there was any question as to whether The League is a show to watch with your mother-in-law, or your conservative aunt, this week’s episode is a reminder that it is definitely not. ”Ol’ Smoke Crotch” raises the bar on the toilet humor (there’s room in here somewhere for a pun, like, “it raises the seat,” or something. I don’t like puns though), with many of the jokes being hit or miss. Overall the episodes pretty good though.

The opening bit sees Ruxin taking care of Baby Jeffrey while his wife is away now that his au pair has taken up fornicating with Pete. This scene sets the tone for the rest of the episode as Ruxin is forced to take Jeffrey into the bathroom with him and the kid proceeds to eat ice out of a urinal. This, being one of the more mild bits. Ashley the au pair then catches Ruxin in a compromising position, in turn blackmailing him to let her live at his house, take naps, and have sex with his best friend while she does nothing even close to looking after Baby Jeffrey.

In the same way that you would bring in a cat to get rid of a mouse (especially if you hate cats, or are allergic to them), Ruxin invites his brother-in-law, Rafi, to come stay at his house in hopes of forcing Ashley out. Once Rafi enters the crude humor increases exponentially — and it’s great. “Well, you should absolutely court her,” Ruxin suggests. “Yeah, I’m gonna court martial her…vagina…with my weiner,” Rafi establishes. Rafi delivers most of the good lines in this episode, later saying, “I don’t lock doors — it’s rude!” when Ruxin walks in on him in the bathroom.

The weaker lines, on the other hand, come during Kevin’s B plot about getting a white pubic hair and feeling embarrassed. There’s one awesome scene where he and Andre go to a spa, beginning with Andre consoling Kevin by saying, ”We all have our little secrets. For example, I’m losing my hair.” That was the only part of that story I found worthwhile, with most of the jokes being flat and the entire plot culminating with Kevin actually lighting his crotch on fire in another instance of over-exaggerated slapstick. I actually liked the beginning of his plot better, in which he thinks he has brown hair and everyone else insists it’s red, not that here was anywhere for that to go.

“Ol’ Smoke Crotch” has its good moments and its bad, with Ruxin delivering a particularly good performance. The episode is more in line with “The Sukkah” from two weeks ago, with its shticky B plot and overly-crude humor. In this episode the crudeness works, though, for the most part. As an aside, isn’t this a show about football? There has been such little discussion regarding the fantasy league I’m beginning to question if I’m watching the right show. Also, is Jenny a main character or not? Because she is barely in this show at all. That’s it. Pretty good ep. Don’t watch with your mother, unless she likes that type of stuff.

If you are a devoted follower of our brand and blog you know that we’re huge fans of UK label/producers Night Slugs. And we’re happy the feeling is mutual. The DJ/production duo turned record label is comprised of Bok Bok and L-Vis 1990 and have been responsible for exposing the world to acts like Girl Unit, Kingdom, Egyptrixx and Jam City. The duo has come a long way and is currently hosting a weekly show, Tuesdays on Rinse.FM pioneering the sound dubbed as future bass which consists of  equal parts grime, garage and house. L-Vis has recently released his disco opus, Neon Dream, completing his voyage from heavy bass to outer space while Bok Bok recently dropped two EPs, a solo by the name of Southside and Night Voyage Tool Kit along with Tom Trago. Both warm our dark grimey hearts and makes our teeth grind.

It seemed only fitting to team up and celebrate the labels first year of life with a logo t-shirts which are available in black (these are glow in the dark) and white. We also made a Starter snapback featuring that same iconic logo which was created by Bok Bok, the label’s art director. And for good measure we also made a t-shirt featuring the cover for one of our favorite releases from last year, Girl Unit’s I.R.L. EP.

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725
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Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA
213-536-4234

Cover design by Kevin Heckart

Seapunks unite and get your weekend started right! Coral Records very own Ultrademon AKA Fire For Effect (when producing) was more than gracious to lace us up with a brand new mixtape of sweet, sweet house. Hopefully you all read Pictureplane’s write up on the Seapunk movement some weeks back and got up on all of this liquidy goodness. But enough yammering from me. I’ll let Ultrademon speak on the whole Seapunk movement and the mix.

I get asked a lot how to define “seapunk” is it a (micro-)genre, fashion, statement, ideology, etc. I’ve never really thought of it as any of these things, I view “seapunk” as an entity that we can summon to help propagate the collective manifestation of better future that we all share. #Occupy mixtape is a collection of works that I would define as “seapunk” music that moves from low-key jams by some of the main seapunk players, then into the depths with house/techno/feelgoodforever ;)

This thing is seriously one fuckin’ good time and chock full of all sorts of exclusive and forthcoming tracks for the Seapunk stronghold. One of which is from the forthcoming EP, Soaked which is a split between Api and Papoose. That EP will be for pre-sale on Monday, October 31st via Coral’s bandcamp and will be shipping out on 11/11/11. Get some E and your favorite people in the world and just vibe out to this. All teal everything. Full tracklist after the jump.

Ultrademon – #Occupy Mixtape by Мишка Bloglin

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Tom Waits – Bad As Me (2011) [ANTI-] // Grade: B

Before listening to the latest Tom Waits LP this past week, I took a long hard look at the record’s cover. Although I rarely purchase new releases in their physical form these days, I find there’s really nothing wrong with staring at a high-res JPEG on your laptop screen while listening along to an album. Anyway, something struck me funny about the photograph we’re presented with here. While I may be reading into matters too much, it occurred to me that the ultra blurry image which was ultimately printed on the Bad As Me sleeve may have been employed to disguise the now-grizzled visage of Mr. Waits himself.

Upon actually hearing the album for the first time, this sentiment seemed even more peculiar, as Tom appears to have completely settled into his role as the wacky elder statesman of outsider music oh here. Similar to most fellas transitioning into the twilight of their days, you never get a sense that Waits is trying all that hard to come off as cool, or even groundbreaking. Unlike many of the musty old turds Neil Young has been crapping out lately, Bad As Me breezily hops from genre to genre with each passing track, and is a truly fun listen. Considering much of the heavy material feature throughout Tom’s penultimate Orphans release made me want to go out and commit suicide by cop,  this lighter tone was a welcomed surprise.

Many of the touchstone musical tropes that Waits has often worked around are trotted out here, mostly to great success. Early on, “Raised Right Man” finds the artist performing a watered down version of that demented Carnival stomp which he so expertly pinned down on the much-lauded Rain Dogs, and Swordfishtrombones. While these particular records didn’t personally click for me at first, I eventually found that I enjoyed this version of Waits most, when referring to his entire discography. Later on, “Hell Broke Luce” follows suit, and boasts perhaps the most brutal vocal take these new 13 tunes have to offer, as well as some “Army Dreamers”-style firearms sound effects.

Throughout the rest of the record, there are a number of roots-informed numbers, such as “Pay Me”,  that sound akin to the stuff featured on the Bawlers disc of the aforementioned Orphans collection. On “Kiss Me” we’re presented with the return of that down-and-out piano-man who was so heavily featured on the earliest Waits records. Finally, “Get Lost” features Tom in some wacky Rock-a-billy posture, “New Year’s Eve” reminds me of a Walkmen song, and “Satisfied” kind of sounds like the shitty theme song to that vampire show on HBO that I never watch. I believe I’ve covered all my bases.

I could keep flappin’ my gums off at you jerks at this point, but really, similar to most other Tom Waits material, some folks are going to love this thing, while the LP will almost certainly leave others out in the cold. Despite the fact that such high-caliber shredders like Keef Richards and Flea were recruited to back our man on these recordings, Bad As Me is a Tom Waits record through and through. It’s pretty unmistakable. Although some will throw jabs at the California native, claiming his troubadour image to be contrived, I happen to think he’s a true original in most respects. With the new release, Waits doesn’t necessarily do much to expand upon his gritty signature aesthetic, but certainly proves that he’s the master of his weird little domain.

VHS Head – Death Dimension

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Real Magic – No Things Left

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Memory Tapes – Offers

Video/Horror/Show just dropped their newest release courtesy of Philly’s Psychic Teens who have described their music as “that time you saw your creepy metalhead brother at 80’s night.” Which is a pretty apt description for their brand of handbanging shoegaze.

Tapes features 3 tracks each with its own video which are presented on white VHS housed in a clear case with hand screen printing. Each copy is hand numbered and limited to an edition of 75. Get your copy now!