For three years now, we’ve watched as Beach House has gone from humble, subtly hypnotic Baltimore slack-key-core twosome to a fully realized and accomplished recording act. With the forthcoming release of Teen Dream on their new home label of Sub Pop, the team of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally will have completed a transformation that has allowed them to take on a new sense of direction in the music and in their lives.

Check out this track, “Norway”, from the forthcoming album & head over to Sub Pop for further details on the band and their new record.

Beach House – Norway

[Beach House at Sub Pop]

Skewby, “Proving You Wrong Since 1988 – The Mixtape”

Hip-hop heads, Skewby is in the house and he’s letting you know right up-front: this ain’t what you’re used to. Proving You Wrong Since 1988 is a warning filled with shots fired at the status quo of Memphis’s traditional style of rap. I’ve had this sitting in my queue for a couple of months now, and to say I slept on it would be an understatement. Don’t you be a sleeper, too — if you do not have this mixtape, you are sleeping on one of the illest mixtapes I’ve heard come out of Memphis in my life.

If you’re looking for another gangsta rap mixtape, you’re in the wrong place — this is straight original styles mixtape with the love and respect to the masters I have never seen the likes of here. Shouts to DJ Crumbz and DJ Charlie White. Wake up and download it here now now now gooo.

Skewby – “I’m Here Now”
Skewby – “No Critics Allowed”

(You can find out more about Skewby over at his blog, Something About Skewby or follow him on Twitter)

Details of the contest, tour dates, and a sweet MP3 after the jump!
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You already know how much I love the new O+S record. I’m thrilled to offer you a second song from the album, one that I think will give you an even better window into their sonic diversity. “Permanent Scar” is the first single from the self-titled album, and I hope you’ll dig it as much as I have been.

O+S – Permanent Scar

_{You can purchase o+s from Amazon by clicking here. O+S will be appearing at SXSW on Friday, March 20th, 11pm @ The Radio Room.}

There’s a tricky dissonance that wafts through the undercurrent of the most beautiful recordings I’ve listened to in my life. It’s the unexpected collaborations or spellbinding accidents of circumstance that unite elements into original flavors. The illogical syllogisms in music are the ones that surprisingly seem to work the best. Such is the case of O+S, whose self-titled debut will be released via Saddle Creek Records on March 24th.
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An observation: I think if Erlend Oye were a type of fabric, he’d be a smooth vinyl suede.

After all, the Norwegian crooner has made his career out of experimenting with various combinations of the synthetic and the smooth. The latest of these efforts is Rules, the second release from The Whitest Boy Alive, due out on Bubbles in March. The Berlin-based group’s 2007 debut, Dreams, was about as close as dance-rock can come to producing a concept album; the stripped-down guitar/bass/drums/vocals galvanized by spare, funky rhythmic consistency made for an album as danceable as it is listenable.

This sophomore release resists the temptation to rehash the formula and instead elaborates on that signature sound by way of more ambitious compositions and an expanded sound palette. Rules sacrifices some of what made Dreams such a standout, mostly in terms of restraint. Oye’s smooth but angular guitar phrasing is still insistently there, as are his haunting, ever-so-slightly-flat vocals, but they are augmented by a smattering of vintage synthesizers, fuzzy basslines, and lots of adrenaline-inducing dynamic shifts in the drumming. The songs are still irresistibly catchy and the lyrics wry as always, but nevertheless Rules comes off as less of a carefully-edited statement and more of an enthusiastic exploration of the possibilities of rebuilding on a solid minimal framework.

The Whitest Boy Alive – Island

_{You can purchase The Whitest Boy Alive – Rules by clicking here.}

They’re best known for their insane onstage antics — things like making out with each other and pissing into their own mouths. I mean, I can’t make this stuff up folks — I’ve seen it in action (…pause).

But on top of that sideshow freakishness, Georgia’s self-proclaimed “flower punk” band Black Lips are a stunning live rock experience unlike anything you’re likely to ever see. High energy, a group dynamic that is unprecedented, and hey — they can play their instruments in the nude without blinking. Wait a minute….paused again.

Recently, they escaped the jaws of death on a trip to India (in which members attempted a couple of the previously mentioned stage tricks to the chagrin of locals). They survived long enough to give us a chance this aptly-titled track from their highly anticipated upcoming album, 200 Million Thousand, entitled “Short Fuse”.

EDIT: If you tried to download the song before and got a 1 minute clip, try again. It’s fixed (thanks @ViceRecsChris)

Black Lips – Short Fuse

More after the jump.
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This is a very fresh new video for N.A.S.A.’s track “Hip-Hop”. Featuring guest appearances from Slim Kid Tre, Fatlip and KRS-One, it’s a bumping video bound to turn a party out. N.A.S.A.’s The Spirit Of The Apollo (including the song “Hip-Hop”) will be released on February 17th.

Last year, I procrastinated heavily. I think there were a lot of good records that came out the last couple of years, but I started to think that for every record that came out, there was an equal number of these “best-of” lists being bandied about. At first I thought, “Wow, it’s finally happened. Everyone’s a music critic.” Then, with this pervasive thought entrenched in my gourd, I started reading these other lists before making my own.

I suddenly felt small.

So deadlines for the “best of 2007″ rolled around, and I was in a tailspin, dogged by the massive amount of music I had encountered. I kept reflecting on these words of Billy Corgan that I’d read years ago. Billy had once quipped to, I think, Rolling Stone, that, “Not every year can be a great, or even good, year in music.” This thought just stirred in my head and fed into some neurosis. The thought actually fucked with me; maybe 2007 wasn’t that great? Or was it? So I slacked until it was way too late to really do it with any fervor.

Newsflash: Shit aint happening like that this year. I’m past all that, and this year’s going to be different.

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