SOME STUFFS: Conner Youngblood offers song from EP due in October

Most of you may not know who Conner Youngblood but if you know of him or are familiar with any of his music, you are a good music fan. Perhaps you can let more people know about his forthcoming EP (his second) called The Generation Of Lift, to be released this fall. His roots may be in Dallas (he currently lives in Nashville) but for this song, he is immersed in “Stockholm”, find out why.

FREE MP3 DL: Lazy Knuckles’ “Dreams Of Memories”

Bucolic (Gold Robot) will be released on September 11th and what is it? The debut album from Ohio artist Lazy Knuckles, whose mom knows him simply as Brandon Klaiber. His style of hip-hop could be considered thought provoking, but it depends on how you’re listening. Try it out for yourself and discover how trippy he is and/or can be(come).

(Bucolic is available for pre-order from Amazon.)

VIDEO: ClarkAirlines’ “GoodTimingYeah”

Are new releases becoming hashtags as a way to help promote its release? I don’t know, but ClarkAirlines’ new release is called #TrillAir, an EP that may be as easy to remember as it is to listen to. Perhaps there is a reason you are reading this at the precise moment, for this may be the reason why it’s called “GoodTimingYeah”.

VIDEO: At The Gates’ “The Book Of Sand (The Abomination)”

At War With Reality (Century Media) is the name of the latest effort from At The Gates, and they give you “The Book of Sand (The Abomination).” It is a performance video shot at the Rockstadt Extreme Fest in Romania on August 15th, which means these images are just two weeks fresh, and now you can have a look and listen at its supremacy. (At War With Reality can be ordered directly from Amazon.)

AUDIO: Aeroplane’s “Page One Is Love” (EP)

Aeroplane has a new EP ready for you to check out called Page One Is Love (Eskimo Recording)(, which works as a single but it also features a remix of each song. The tracks consist of “Dancing With Each Other” and the nice title track and again, each one is remixed to its fullest potential as a way to hear it in an alternative universe, even if it means just the dance floor.

(Page One Is Love can be ordered from Amazon.)

FREE MP3 DL: Slayer’s “Cast The First Stone”

Slayer will be releasing a new album very soon, the first after the passing of guitarist Jeff Hanneman. The album will be called Repentless and as to be expected, Slayer continue to be as relentless as they have been for over 30 years. The song is also here as it is a new installiment in the Adult Swim Single series. Grab it and hear what Slayer is doing in 2015.

(Repentless will be out on September 11th, which you can pre-order by heading to Amazon.)

VIDEO: Roqy Tyraid’s “Nonpareil”

Roqy Tyraid may be the perfect name for someone whose brand of hip-hop sounds like this, where the moment you pop this inside of a room, everyone gets into a ruckus. Make sure your shovels are sharp, for this is all about the “Nonpareil” way of living, so get to it and memorize the lyrics, the realize this is what Phoenix hip-hop can be and is.

REVIEW: Tairrie B.’s “Vintage Curses”

The first time I became aware of Tairrie B. was when she was one of the dancers in Everlast’s first music video for “I Got The Knack”, where she even got a shout out in the lyrics. She would be signed to Comptown Records via MCA and released her debut album in the form of The Power Of A Woman and I bought the 12″ for “Murder She Wrote” and the album. I’ll be honest, I liked what I saw but upon hearing her music, it was easy to really like what I heard, vocally and lyrically. Her self-proclaimed “mafia style” was direct and to the point and if we were to compare her to other white MC’s of the era, she didn’t sound like Everlast, 3rd Bass, the Beastie Boys, and definitely nothing like Vanilla Ice. She was on her own path and could easily be compared to the likes of Yo-Yo, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Queen Mother Rage, and Monie Love. Sadly, being on her own path would make some people feel she was on her own, if not push her away from the pack. Despite recording an album that was meant for release in 1992/1993, that album never came out when it was meant to and Tairrie B. became a hip-hop side note, never to be heard from again. Or at least that’s what people thought or expected her to do, until she resurfaced in the second half of the 1990’s as a hard rock/heavy metal singer in bands like Manhole, Tura Satana, and finally My Ruin, where she gained an all new following with the help of band member (and husband) Mick Murphy, reaching levels she was never able to achieve as that woman who was always “being in total control of herself”.

25 years after she released her debut album, she has decided to not abandon her love of metal but let her metal fans where she had come from before, which might be a shock for those who didn’t know she was a rapper. For those who were hoping to be “Swingin’ Wit’ “T”” eternally, they can do so with the release of Vintage Curses, which shows that with style, grace, and maturity, you can still show how powerful it can be to be a master, or mistress, of ceremonies, regardless of age.

Let’s be blunt and to the point: if Chuck D. can still be doing his thing as he approaches 60 and Ice-T never afraid of delivering his classic flows at 57, Tairrie B. shows you can be 50 and still sound as youthful as she was when she was in her mid-20’s. If there is one obvious difference between then and now, she sings with a lower register. That will bring a sense of maturity that isn’t forced, it’s genuine and there. Lyrically, she drops rhymes about what matters to her, her experiences both good and bad, some hopes and fears but also the confidence that has helped her not only as an artist, but as a woman. There was a time when female MC’s were plentiful, which meant you could hear diverse voices from as many locales as possible, be it Mia X, Missy Elliott, and Nicki Minaj. The only downfall is that in the mainstream, there can only be one leader of representation. By being on the indie side for years, Tairrie B. is more or less dropping songs with a statement that doing it a way that is expected is complete bullshit. It doesn’t hurt if you truly do it yourself, as long as you have a community that shows support and respects who you are.

The songs on Vintage Curses range from being dark in nature, showing shades of what she has done within My Ruin but also displaying a few songs that owe back to the hip-hop production of the early to mid-90’s, as if she pulled a few surprises from the vaults and said “I never forgot.” As LL Cool J would say, don’t call this a comeback, for she has always been here for years, but some may listen to these new songs and ask themselves “what is she trying to prove?” For one, it seems too many people in hip-hop have put faith in that hip-hop if a young man’s game and once you hit 25, if you are not on the level of Jay-Z or Eminem at that age, you should apply for a new job. However, some of the most well known rappers never achieved their greatest successes until after the age of 25. Then again, put faith in ageism all you want and you will discover that it is bullshit too. You might also say the title Vintage Curses has a double meaning, for one might say Tairrie B. is also vintage in nature. However, just because she is vintage doesn’t mean she should be expected to be prim and proper. However, she has something to say and what better way than to do it in a voice that is very much of herself, regardless of genre. She shows that just because you’re a rapper or have done rap doesn’t mean you can only be one thing or sound one way. She could easily do a country EP in 2016 and throw people off even more. For now, her Vintage Curses consists of music for today’s audiences, along with those who have supported her when she let the beat rock, however method she chose to rock the mic.

(Vintage Curses is available from Bandcamp as a free download, but definitely use the “Name Your Price” option to show support.)

REVIEW: Various Artists’ “Nail House Party”

Nail House Party is a very healthy 20 band compilation from the Emotional Response label and “very healthy” means with 20 bands to choose from, it’s very difficult to remain bored at any point during its listen. The comp goes everywhere from brutal psychedelic pop to rough rock without hitting hard rock to calm things that sound like an itchy anus ready to be dug. It sounds like a group of different guys in the same clubhouse, ready to please each other for the sake of making music and making sure the sonic pleasure is good enough to last throughout a weekend. Bands like Tangle Excitement!, Kids On A Crime Spree, The Debutantes, GRRR!, Rooibus Orbison, The Safe Distance, and Victorian Slang are just as uncertain as their names may be but it is safe you will find a number of bands to become your personal favorites. Collegiate rock? Nothing wrong with that. Crafty university pop? Sure. Does it matter where you go to school in order to make this music feel good? Not at all, for it’s just a party, either in the distance or right in the floor below you.

REVIEW: Urban Killas’ “Down On Earth”

With a name spelled like Urban Killas, some people may immediately assume they are hip-hop related but knowing this album was released on Aut Records, I knew it couldn’t be. Aut is generally jazz, but not just typical/ordinary jazz so I opened it up to find out what’s going on. Urban Killas could be considered jazz fusion, but that would be a loose interpretation of what this group can do. The musicians are Italian (Yuri Argentino (tenor/baritone sax); Andrea Vedovato (guitar); Riccardo Di Vinci (bass/doublebass); Simone Sferruzza – (drums)) but their music is other-worldly, their land of origin could not easily be detected based on what and how they sound. They create noise textures that could easily make them from New York City, Chicago, or Detroit or perhaps hanging out in some Medeski, Martin & Wood village circa The Dropper, or maybe in some German village or a Spanish village deep where the musicianship echoes in the valleys. It almost sounds like these guys are individually on their own track but without them bouncing off vibes and hints from one another, it wouldn’t sound as united as it really is. Things are chaotic and frantic in songs like “Icecream”, “Gas Panic”, and the opening track “Voices” and even when it feels like things are at a calm level, it’s anything but. If they are killers on urban upbringing or wanting to change what living in urban circumstances is defined as, Urban Killas are definitely going to spawn some sense of dialogue between one another, even if it means bringing in another horned instrument, killing it, then bringing it back to life.