Summer may be months away in reality, but it definitely doesn’t seem that way when the feel-good buoyancy of First Rate People’s “Girls’ Night” is spilling through your speakers.
Here, the Ontario-based seven-piece piece together a fetching swirl of indie rock, R&B and bedroom-pop style stamps, the song’s encircling male and female leads at times feeling like two different songs being mashed together in perfect harmony.
We’re not particularly clear what the two singers are going on about (something about sending postcards and crashing an all-female outing), but honestly we could care less, because what is fully understood, is that by the time this two-and-a-half minute tune has faded out on a sunny high of chirpy guitars and that crunchy, hip hop-esque drum track, we’re immediately hit with the uncontrollable need to hit “replay” so that we could be immersed in it’s catchy goodness all over again.
Expect a full-length debut from FRP sometime later this year.
After peeping this live performance of Calvin Harris’ summery-tastic “Ready For The Weekend”, we’re now even more inspired to catch one of his shows in person, just so we can pogo with glee to this (and fully absorb the aftershocks of Mary Pearce’ sirenic wail) while half-sloshed and stuck in a stinky pit crowded with swarms of other tipsy boppers.
Our only gripe: Lip-syncing may be a no-no with the Live Lounge people (understandably) but “RFTW” in this context would have been a lot more satisfying if Harris had allowed in the studio version’s heavily vocal-processed latter verse bits as opposed to his somewhat buzzkilling lower-range (or just chucked off that entire section entirely, since we’d rather have Pearce’s magnificent hook arrive a lot quicker anyway).
Catch a clip of the performance as well as a Mary-led cover of Kasabian’s “Fire” below:
How much of a bummer is it to know that Summer has already reached it’s mid-way point? We know, we know, we shouldn’t even dare speak of such depressing things, but HEY!!, at least we got the new single from psych-pop British band The Clientele to help perfectly soundtrack the month and change that’s left of this warm season.
Drifting along a breezy sea of dreamy jazz and bossa nova flourishes and “bah-bah-bah”’s that pierce the air with such sweetness they threaten to give our ears cavities, the group’s latest ’60’s-hugging nugget “I Wonder Who We Are” is so sunny, it’s virtually impossible not to have a smile draped across your face when immersed in it’s aural pleasantries.
It’s the first single from their upcoming fifth long-player Bonfires on the Heath, due in October.
During the summer of ‘96, you couldn’t go anywhere without the inviting anonymous female vocals and giddy booty bass bump of Ghost Town DJ’s “My Boo” being blasted from some passing vehicle or neighborhood window. And even if it was heard close to two million times a day, nary a complaint was made, because the song was THAT GREAT.
Fast forward a decade and some change and this one-off smash has lost none of it’s feel-good appeal, especially when updated with a choppy B-More stutter-swing courtesy of the consistently solid remixer DJ Solly.
Arriving just in time to coincide with the triple-degree peaking temperatures of the season, “Mercy Mercy”, the debut single from new Swedish pop quintet Le Kid, is about as perfect as perfect can get when it comes to blissful, summer-ready pop.
It’s got chirpy pin-up babe vocals demanding potential male suitors to “wind me up” and “treat me right”, effervescent “nah-nah-nahs”, a lovely brush of horns on the hook and spunky cheerleader chant interjections that spell out the band’s name…and, oh yeah, it also happens to have as a main chunk of it’s musical source, a nearly too distracting sample of Girls Aloud’s ‘08 contender for perfect pop, “Can’t Speak French”, which gives it a nice dose of familiarity.
Ragga-froggy-voiced curioso Sean Kingston is back, and while his latest effort “Fire Burning” might not have the power to distance him from the novelty whispers that will probably always surround him, it’s conveniently armed with a dancefloor-ready charge that’ll surely earn him lots of spins alongside the Lady Gaga, Flo Rida and Black Eyed Peas tunes currently dominating Top 40 playlists.
In need of someone to blame for your inability to break from under “Fire Burning”’s spell? Target producer RedOne, the man behind GaGa’s trio of Top Ten hits. He envelops Kingston’s disinctive growls about some dame’s mesmerizing “birthday cake” (read: ’09’s version of a badonkadonk) in a spirited assault of gleaming synth work and buzzing bass sounds that may come across a bit chintzy when heard while alone, but when heard blaring from the DJ’s speakers while stuck within a mass of drunk and sweaty party-goers, feels like the peaking moment of an excitement-filled Friday night out.
There’s something about the distant, sleepy-ish tone in twin sister R&B duo Nina Sky’s harmonized vocals that, when attached to a danceable beat, creates the perfect summer jam. Yet despite a sustained presence in the mixtape circuit and various leaks from them over the years feeling like they have the potential to be the ideal follow-up to their irresistable breakout “Move Ya Body”, the girls have yet to release a proper follow-up album to their debut, an LP that dropped FIVE DAMN YEARS AGO!
What’s the deal? It’s understandable why a label would wait to unleash a full-length when the artist isn’t producing anything with a wide-enough appeal, but in the case of Nina Sky, these girls really should have been on their third or fourth near-or-at-Gold-selling disc by now.
Whatever. Trying to fathom the ways of a hopelessly lost music biz won’t get us anything but a headache, but what is completely understood right now is that Nina Sky once again have something catchy on their hands to satisfy listeners through the hot months with their latest gem, “On Some Bullshit”.
Supported by restless production that nods to 80’s freestyle with a slight tinge of Latin influence, the Salaam Remi-helmed “Bullshit” affirms itself as a fizzy delight almost instantly. Yeah, it’s half-baked lyrical plot about coming across a jerk of an old boyfriend bears little that’s arresting, aside from a few needless, albeit brow-raising, expletives (“Cause after all I thought you were a nice guy/ (Really you were a bitch)”), but the paired sound of the two ladies’ breezy melodies remains just as pleasant as they did when they mimicked Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam’s “Can You Feel The Beat” lines over that omnipresent Coolie Dance riddim way back in ‘04.
From their forthcoming, yet (unsurprisingly) still dateless, sophomore collection, The Musical.
While it was sad to see Lil’ Kim get booted off of “Dancing With The Stars” a couple nights back, bringing an end to a surprisingly successful run, not too many tears are being shed from this corner of the “web-iverse”, since the elimination hopefully means she’ll now have the free time to start focusing on finally giving us the fifth album she’s pushed off for so long.
And by “album” we mean body of work that gives us the fierce-on-the-mic Lil’ Kim of the “Quiet Storm (Remix)”, not the lost-sounding rappress that’s been struggling at the music game comeback since her release from behind bars three years ago.
Though her current single “Download” lands as a capable summertime jam (mostly thanks to it’s lazy sampling of 80’s R&B fave “Computer Love” and another stellar vocal performance from the underappreciated Charlie Wilson), it’s just not the official re-introduction Kim (or the sadly dissipated female rap genre) needs right now. With it’s corny cyber-sex rhymes (“We goin’ back and forth, sendin’ e-mails/ He a thug, so i hit him on his Gmail/ His sense of humor got me writin’ L-O-L…”) and her trendy teeter-tottering from half-sung to provocative whisper raps, “Download” is third or fourth single material at best.
All we ask is that she take that inner-fire that made her a fan-favorite on the “Dancing” stage (or the same dedication she has towards plastic surgery) and somehow transport it to the pad and pen to give us something that will truly blow us away. Come on Kim, we know you got it in you.
Every once in awhile a new song emerges that smells like a season-long smash hit based on it’s opening seconds alone. Right now, that record is “Throw It In A Bag”, a collaboration between Fabolous and the ever-ubiquitous The-Dream that firmly plants the duo in their most successful element: female-friendly club jam territory.
The official lead single from Fab’s upcoming fifth (!!) LP, Loso’s Way, “Bag” busts out of the gate oozing summer banger attractiveness thanks to producer Tricky Stewart’s tip-toeing piano lick and trash can stomp, and once Dream enters the frame cooing “I know you ain’t over there staring at my girl” in that addicting featherweight chirp of his, it’s future platinum-certified status is basically a given.
The only question is whether any of today’s struggling, un-employed masses will cry foul over it’s slightly cruel, recession-proof bragging (the song centers on Fab’s endless showering of his girls with expensive gifts, with more than one reference to his dismissal of “price checks”) or if everyone will simply accept it as an ear-candy escape from their real-life troubles?
You could probably mash Jennifer Paige’s lone ’90’s hit “Crush” with damn near anything and achieve pop bliss perfection, but this pairing of the record’s summery instrumental with the vocals of Chris Cornell’s “Part of Me” (via Austrian DJ/ remixer DJ Schmolli) deserves some stand-out kudos.
Far more successful in fulfilling Cornell’s weird pop star ambitions than the entirety of the highly awkward, Timbaland-produced nightmare that is Scream, “Crush of Me”’s breezy backing groove serves a pleasant base for Cornell’s gritty dismissal of a naughty little PYT (a role now humorously fleshed out through spliced-in snippets of Paige’s sultry ad-libs). Even that horrid “That bitch ain’t a part of me” hook manages to find a comfortable home in this brilliantly pasted-together confection.
As nice as it is to get free music, think of how much better your soul would feel if you purchased it the old-fashioned way.
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(MP3 posts are for promotional and/ or previewing purposes only; if any artist or their representation wish to have the links removed, contact me and I will happily comply!)
Summer may be months away in reality, but it definitely doesn’t seem that way when the feel-good buoyancy of First Rate People’s “Girls’ Night” is spilling through your speakers.
How much of a bummer is it to know that Summer has already reached it’s mid-way point? We know, we know, we shouldn’t even dare speak of such depressing things, but HEY!!, at least we got the new single from psych-pop British band 
During the summer of ‘96, you couldn’t go anywhere without the inviting anonymous female vocals and giddy booty bass bump of 
Arriving just in time to coincide with the triple-degree peaking temperatures of the season, “Mercy Mercy”, the debut single from new Swedish pop quintet 
Ragga-froggy-voiced curioso 
There’s something about the distant, sleepy-ish tone in twin sister R&B duo 
While it was sad to see Lil’ Kim 
Every once in awhile a new song emerges that smells like a season-long smash hit based on it’s opening seconds alone. Right now, that record is “Throw It In A Bag”, a collaboration between 
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