* Stumbled across Mumford & Sons while browsing Bandit.fm with my free monthly $20 credit….. Nothing is as exciting as discovering new music, especially when it is a little left of the center…. These guys from England have just released their debut album called ‘Sigh No More’.

Mandolin, Resonator Banjo, Upright bass, guitars with different tunings and drums/ percussion… How can you not be excited?

To visit, their myspace, Click here.

* I know… It sounds like an old English store….

This song combines the old with the new. A combination of MGMT and Bob Marley, who really could not be more opposites. That is what makes this song so special. Everyone loves both artists, so why not mash them? Xaphoon took care of this one for us.

Xaphoon Jones produces the music for Chiddy Bang, who has been previously blogged about. Listen and let me know what you think. This song is off his first mix-tape.

Lisa Helen Mitchell (born 22 March 1990 in Canterbury, England), is now known as an Australian singer-songwriter, who grew up in Albury, New South Wales.

Her debut EP, Said One To The Other topped iTunes in Australia and its success brought her to the attention boutique London based publisher, Little Victories a subsidiary of Sony/ATV, with whom she signed in 2007. Subsequently, Mitchell relocated to the UK for much of 2008 where she spent the summer working on songs for her debut studio album, Wonder which was released in July 2009.

“Neopolitan Dreams” – Lisa Mitchell

To buy the music of Lisa Mitchell click HERE

Melvale Speedway discovered a music blog entry this week discussing their music’s apparent influences, and, remarkably, none of the band’s members had ever heard of any of them. According to the blogger, Sam Marcos, “Melvale Speedway’s sound is obviously influenced by the late 80s West coast style of bands like North Shore Campers, Santrope, The Xymes, Harborfront Diatribe, and Rubbertron. In the singer, Daniel Reissmann’s, vocals you can tell he spent a lot of hours listening to the unique approach of frontmen Fred Pallow, Gerry McNally, and Marcus Dallow.” The blog offered further detailed and obscure analysis of the band’s songs, all of which confused the group and caused Reissmann to wonder aloud,  ”What the hell is he talking about?”

So I recently stumbled upon Band of Skulls (NOT because of  New Moon) and have found myself unable to turn them off. The band’s moniker may lead many to believe that the trio are some death metal outfit, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. These Brit rockers produce a sound that is equal parts The White Stripes and Nada Surf. Each song has its own distinct sound, a feat most rock groups fail to achieve.”Baby Darling Doll Face Honey“, the debut album from Band of Skulls, is the perfect record for a crappy Saturday when you’re looking for some motivation to get movin.

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...Aww, You Thought I was Done?

Common blesses us again with a new and introspective gem called, “Strange Fruit” featuring the vocal stylings of John Legend and the production mastery of Kanye I’mma let you finish, but West. 

This is a really good listen and the production by Kanye leans it to the sound of the BE album (which I REALLY liked).  This is a definite boost for my arguments of Common’s greatness and a glimmer of defense against the wackness of Universal Mind Control.

…enjoy the freshness.

Common - Strange Fruit

AkShone – The Tennessee Volunteer

Getting ready to make her comeback Toni Braxton released another song called Stay. This song is nice Toni’s vocals are not bad it’s not this kind of song that makes you say wow but I see this rather as a track on the album than a single but heres to her come back is strong.What do y’all think of the song?

Think I’m a little late reviewing this record.  It is a 2009 release for sure, but I’ve only got my grubby little paws on it now and I’m pretty sure it was released much earlier this year.  Anyways, I am a pretty big Peter Broderick fan.  His previous album ‘Home’ was stunning and his work with Horse Feathers is equally beautiful.  And then of course he went and signed with Erased Tapes who are home to some fabulous artists including TSP favourites Olafur Arnalds and Finn.   This is a slight departure from the previous Peter Broderick record simply because it’s fully instrumental.  Whilst ‘Home’ delivered pop gems that sparkled and shone like little diamonds, this record has a whole different ambiance and atmosphere about it.  Classically trained on the violin (i think) Broderick is known for his string arrangements on the Horse Feathers records, and his ability to beautifully arrange instrumentation come to the fore on this startlingly dark and haunting piece of work.  Similar in style to label mate Arnalds and clearly nodding towards influences such as Max Richter,  Johann Johannsson and even, to a certain degree, Ludovico Einaudi, this is a really fascinating change in pace from the young Scandanavian.  I’m a sucker for simplistic piano.  For dark, lush string arrangements.  I love this particular style of classical.  It’s not over blown.  In fact it’s completely understated.  But Broderick adds his own twist to the pot.  Sometimes jarring, sometimes dischordant but always retaining the beauty and always underpinned by a beautiful warmth.  It really has been the perfect record for me at the end of a long, tiring week.  My head hurts tonight.  As I sit and listen to this, with a nice glass of red wine I can just feel that pain melting away.    Check out Peter Broderick here.   And buy his records here.  Enjoy.

TSP Grade = B+/A-

The single “I <3 Boston” has spread thru many colleges in the Boston area with the multiple shout-outs. It has become a fan favorite and will indeed be featured on “Grey Goose W/Klonopin” Listen here:

I Love Boston

With the mixtape being days away, we will give you a sneak peek at the intro track of the cd! Listen below:
1. Intro

Some rumors said that Timbaland kicked Chris Brown’s verse on his album off, but after this track it doesnt seem like that.

This tune has a really nice beat, combining the old, typical Timbaland snare with some new style techno synths – nice one !

Check it:

Timbaland Feat. Keri Hilson, Chris Brown & D.O.E. – Maniac

Here is Leona’s latest pop export and here is her performing “Happy” and “Outta My Head”. “Outta My Head” is quite a delicious slice of pop pie so enjoy.

Email me at thenoisepicnic@gmail.com if you want to contact me about anything music  related

MG

Single is out on December 21st! Just in time for Christmas

MG

MG

As you may know from listening to the “Milktape” the mixtape Milk put out last year Pauly Shore likes to make a few guest spots on Milk’s cds. He kicked off last years mixtape with a classic intro you can hear here at http://myspace.com/buythemilktape. This year he is back at it again. Pauly made the intro for his good friend Milk Tyson, and you can hear the exclusive track free below:

Pauly Shore Intro to Grey Goose W/Klonopin

Here’s the first leaked track, “Meth vs. Chef II” off the Rae, Mef & Ghost joint LP The Wu-Massacre dropping in February 2010.

Props: NR

Check out this video from  Snoop dog his new song called I wanna Rock. What do y’all think of the song?

http://www.datpiff.com/Dj_Ill_Will_Dj_Rockstar_Tyga_Black_Thoughts.m79330.html

This is a definite download check this mixtape out his other mixtape was awseome but this is a step up in my eyes.

Chris Brown is a “maniac” for love on Timbaland’s new cut “The One I Love,” also featuring Keri Hilson and D.O.E. C. Breezy was dropped from the final version of the song, reports TMZ.

A rep for Timbaland confirmed the news, insisting the removal had nothing to do with Brown’s personal life. “The decision was a mutual decision since both artists were at the time working on their solo projects,” the rep told E! News. “Chris is a friend to us.”

Timbaland’s Shock Value II and Chris Brown’s Graffiti are both due December 8.

Download: Timbaland f/ Keri Hilson, Chris Brown, & D.O.E. – “The One I Love”

It was at Small Beast, of course, the weekly Monday series booked by Botanica frontman Paul Wallfisch, who usually hosts. This past Monday he was in Germany with Little Annie, so fellow dark rocker Carol Lipnik ran the show and opened it with characteristic noir panache. Small Beast being simply New York’s most exciting weekly rock event, it gets so much press here that we’ve tagged all the shows we’ve seen there (if you go to Categories, to your right and scroll down to Small Beast, you’ll find an embarrassment of riches). So it was no surprise that the best New York concert of 2009, barring something even more off-the-chart intense happening in the next month, would take place here.

Lipnik has a franchise on dark carnivalesque rock, more so than Tom Waits or anyone. This time out it was just as much about her four-octave voice – which she ran through two separate mics, one with a bullhorn effect – as it was about the songwriting. Climbing to the top of her stratospheric range, she whispered, purred and wailed, through a bunch of originals from her most recent cd Cloud Girl as well as an original setting of a Rumi poem, the hypnotic, raptly tense Your Pure Sadness. She also brought out every bit of surreal macabre in the Michael Hurley cult classic Werewolf (which you may know from the cover versions by Cat Power or Sarah Mucho). This was just the start of the night.

Next up was the self-described “baroque folk-punk” cellist/songwriter Bonfire Madigan, playing solo with the help of a loop pedal that she’d use to lay down a nimble pizzicato bassline over which she’d layer stark sheets of ambience along with some absurdly catchy pop melodies.She opened with a number based on a seditious seventeenth-century British play and followed that with a savage, two-chord Rasputina-esque chamber rock number. Several of the later numbers hitched Siouxsie-style menace to a clever pop sensibility. She closed with the dramatic, tongue-in-cheek grand guignol of a song titled The Lady Saved the Dragon from the Evil Prince and encored – the crowd wouldn’t let her go – with a somewhat pensive number that evoked Cat Power without the affectations.

Sporting a new Pat Benatar bob, Rachelle Garniez took the intensity to redline in seconds flat, playing solo and switching between accordion and piano. Even in the quietest moments she’s a charismatic performer, but this time out there was no doubt that she had come to conquer - the evening’s lineup had quickly turned into a Murderesses’ Row and Garniez was swinging for the fences. Just as Lipnik had done, she had the the vocal pyrotechnics going even before her first song, the wistful country ballad January Wind, had begun. She likes to jam out her intros and this was a prime example: “So happy to be her as the winter descends upon our town…your heart is cold and I wish mine was too, but instead the snow falls on my heart and creates a hissing sound.” After a long and very funny digression on frogs and their psychedelic properties, she sweated and sighed her way through the orgasmic vocalese of the noir cabaret Medicine Man with a passion that would do Millie Jackson proud. “I wish I’d written this and it was me performing,” one luminary in the crowd whispered to another.

The metaphor-laden 6/8 outsider anthem Tourmaline got the benefit of a gorgeously chordal accordion solo, then Garniez launched into a quizzically fierce new one inspired by someone from her past who’d recently found her online and was no less enamored for all the days between. As angry and dismissive as the song was – “you could have been anyone,” she raged – it also radiated poignancy. Garniez clearly left a mark during her early punk rock years and she makes no secret that she misses at least the fun parts of the pre-Rudy Mussolini era. She wrapped up the too-brief set with a defiantly jaunty version of My House of Peace, the new single she just did with Jack White: “Nobody gets away with murder in the House of Peace.” She’s at Barbes on Dec 3 at 10 if you’re cursing yourself that you missed her here.

Vera Beren also swung for the fences, but with an icy, unforgiving cool. Backed by a one-guitar version of her aptly titled Gothic Chamber Blues Ensemble, she played more piano than she usually does, filling out the sound with a characteristically slashing, gypsyish chordal attack whie bassist Greg Garing swooped, dove and pummeled the crowd with chords when Beren’s crushing, goth-inflected anthems would rise to a fiery crescendo. She showed off her punk roots with a noir blues in 6/8 (it’s hard to think of another songwriter who writes so many great songs in that time signature), a “careless evil lullaby,” as she put it. Her big crowd-pleaser The Nod was a typically roaring, furious, hypnotic gypsy stomp, Beren’s contralto a black river of venom. Another number paired off fast Siousxie-esque rock against a stately, Blue Oyster Cult-inflected 6/8 art-rock sway. “I should have held you, not repelled you,” she lamented. She wrapped up her too-brief set with an old song from the 90s, Baby, an indelibly New York, Jim Carroll-style tale of the cab ride from and maybe also to hell, pelting the crowd with white roses as she roared to a finish.

After all the sirens, it might seem that McGinty and White would be anticlimactic, but they weren’t, which speaks volumes. Ward White has always been a good singer – that he could hold his own alongside the women before him, let alone continue the vocal intensity, testifies to how good he’s become (his version of Life on Mars was the high point of a recent Loser’s Lounge evening). Playing acoustic guitar and accompanied by  ex-Psychedelic Fur Joe McGinty on piano and Claudia Chopek on violin, he might have sung his best show ever. McGinty, by contrast, has all the vocal range of Lou Reed, but he’s all nuance anyway, on the keys and on the mic as well, contributing both his bubblegum pop satire Get a Guy and keeping the innumerable levels of the rest of the songs from ever going too far over the edge. Their playfully titled new album, McGinty and White Sing Selections from the McGinty and White Songbook is high on the Lucid Culture list of best albums of 2009. Unsurprisingly, the set list was full of these selections: the doomed romance of Everything is Fine; the sultry Big Baby, Chopek’s gently beautiful violin a study in contrast with McGinty’s jaunty piano; the ruthless kiss-off anthem Knees; the casual El Lay nightmare roadtrip ballad Stay In Love and the night’s closing number, Wichita Lineman, just White crooning over McGinty’s plaintive keys. By this point, it was almost two in the morning, most of the crowd had dissipated into the drizzle, but it was pure exhilaration for those who were sufficiently energized or unemployed to stick around. The next Small Beast will be December 7 featuring Wallfisch - back from Deutschland – along with the reliably charismatic Reid Paley and others.