VIdeos of the Week November 17th

It was definitely a performance-centric top five this week. Led by Travis Scott's memorable performance at the 2017 MTV Europe Music Awards, the week got off to a noteworthy start. Not sure about y'all, but I would be pretty hesitant to be jumping around while performing when I'm standing on top of a giant floating bird about 30 ft about the crowd. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Butterfly Effect and the performance was lit, but join me in hoping he never falls off that big, menacing bird.

On a less dangerous note, both Daft Punk and RL Grime put out tour videos this week to give everyone a glimpse of what they're missing. Having recently seen RL live, it was cool to be reminded of how hype of a show he's capable of putting on. Switching to a more calming, intimate setting, Anime did his thing on NPR's Tiny Desk stage this week. He cycled through a few Good For You favorites like Caroline, Slide, and Wedding Crashers during the short set. And of course last, but always the most entertaining, Macklemore stole the show with his Corner Store performance on Fallon. Such an uplifting track and those horns man...such a solid track...#CornerStore

Travis Scott Rode His Huge Bird Performing at the EMA's

Daft Punk Alive Tour Video

RL Grime - Nova Tour Video Part 1

Anime Puts on a Tiny Desk Concert

Macklemore, Dave B & Travis Thompson Perform Corner Store on Fallon

Photo Credit: YouTube

Videos of the Week June 23rd

It's been a while since I've been this stoked about a trio of music videos released in one week. Led by the seductive Rihanna and smooth vocals of Bryson Tiller, DJ Khaled's Wild Thoughts started the week off on a high note. Then, around mid-week, two of my favorite songs in 2017 were blessed with visuals. Desiigner's white-hot fire track Outlet finally was anointed with the cinematic fire that it deserved. It's a rare soccer-centric sports anthem with Sidney rocking a Manchester United away jersey. Man...if that track and video doesn't get you hype and wanting to take on the world, I don't know what will.

On a more mellow, but equally interesting note, Odesza's Line of Sight took a more Sci-Fi route into the top five. The story of a young kid befriending a robot was apropos for the serene vibe of the track. As a side note, I'm more than a little excited to have the opportunity to see Odesza at The Greek in October. Even though it's months off and I just saw them at Red Rocks, they're without a doubt in my top three favorite live shows right now and I'm more than excited to see them again.

Outside of the world of music videos, Khalid did a superb cover of Frank Ocean's Lost in the BBC Radio 1 studio. The piano session was perfect introduction to the up-and-coming vocalist if you haven't given him a listen yet. And rounding out this week's top five was a novelty all the way from Germany where the Rundfunk-Tanzorchester Ehrenfeld did a orchestra cover of Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. It's not the easiest track to cover, so tip of the cap to how they put it together with the computerized vocals and all...#RundfunktanzOrchester

DJ Khaled feat Bryson Tiller & Rihanna - Wild Thoughts (Video)

Desiigner - Outlet (Video)

Odesza - Line of Sight (Video)

Frank Ocean - Lost (Khalid Cover)

Rundfunk-Tanzorchester Ehrenfeld : Daft Punk - "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"

Photo Credit: YouTube

Videos of the Week March 17th

Another week in the book and another music video heavy top five. Those rumors about Fallon falling off a bit since Colbert won the election must be somewhat true considering the dearth of funny content coming across the radar of late. Nevertheless, the show goes on starting with crisp new videos from The Weeknd and Linkin Park. The former is what you'd expect from a video shot on another planet, while the latter is emotionally charged and dramatic as the lyrics suggest. BUT, it all paled in comparison to the massive uproar that Snoop caused with his slightly more than suggestive shot at Trump. He even got the old Donald to lash out on Twitter, which is nothing new, but interesting that the video was taken seriously.

Outside of the world of music videos, we got some fresh reaction from Chance the Rapper off his recent Grammy win. Hip Hop is lucky to have a well-spoken, genuinely good dude like him leading the way. He does a lot of good things and that's all in addition to the amazing music he's been churning out of late. Lastly, we got a fun behind the curtain look at how Ed Sheeran and UK rapper Stormzy feel about internet trolls. There's a lot of negativity in the world, so it's nice to see an example of how artists let it roll off their back. It may not quite have lived up to a Kimmel Mean Tweets, but it was a fun watch anyways...#InternetTrolls

The Weeknd feat Daft Punk - I Feel It Coming (Video)

Linkin Park feat Kiiara - Heavy (Video)

Snoop Dogg feat BADBADNOTGOOD & Kaytranada - Lavender (Video)

Chance the Rapper Complex Interview

Ed Sheeran and Stormzy Respond to Internet Trolls

Photo Credit: YouTube

Videos of the Week February 17th

Man, I'm not sure what the deal is with 2017, but it's been one stellar week of videos after another. This week I legitimately had about 15 videos that I had to narrow down to a top five, which proved to be a thankless task. It was a tough decision, but if I didn't include Melissa McCarthy's latest SNL skit where she roasts Sean Spicer, I wouldn't be doing this list any justice. Maybe our political system is a bit messy right now, but it's creating such an onslaught of comedy gold that we've got more than enough to be distracted with. Similarly, I probably could have created an entire post dedicated to The Grammys, but instead I've been sprinkling the videos across posts this week. I particularly enjoyed Weeknd's performance of I Feel It Coming with Daft Punk, though.

In the world of regular videos, The Weeknd made sure to keep his name circulating with visuals for Reminder. In the video you may see Drake, Travis Scott, and A$AP Rocky partaking in the expensive cars and private jet with Abel. Must be nice to have so many friends in high places. In case you forgot about Alex and Drew for a minute, they got back in the limelight with their new video for Paris. Man they really meant that "if we go down, then we go down together" line because there was a lot of falling from heights in their new one. Luckily there was a soft landing, sort of like the couch in NxWorries performance of What More Can I Say on Fallon (see what I did there?). Who says you can't perform on stage in your jammies? I know Anderson .Paak doesn't care and neither should you...#NxWorries
The Weeknd and Daft Punk Perform Star Boy and I Feel It Coming at The Grammys

Melissa McCarthy IS Sean Spicer on SNL

The Weeknd - Reminder (Video)

The Chainsmokers - Paris (Video)

NxWorries Perform What More Can I Say on Fallon

Photo Credit: YouTube

The Weeknd & Daft Punk Are At It Again

It's becoming easier and easier to close you eyes when listening to The Weeknd and hear the ghost of Michael Jackson. It never feels right comparing anyone to MJ, but vocally and stylistically, the sound is strikingly similiar. Take for example his new one, I Feel It Coming, featuring Daft Punk. The track has a lullabye ballad sound similar to so many MJ hits like Will You Be There, for example. Instead of the soft, choir vocals on the MJ track, you get the digitized, Daft Punk vocals. It doesn't have the sexy pizazz and addictive bassline like it's predecessor Starboy, but it showcases the softer, well-rounded skills of The Weeknd as an artist. With the release of Starboy less than a week away, here's a whole list of reasons to continue getting excited for it...#IFeelItComing

OFFICIAL TRACKLIST : https://t.co/LZqp1rFBnd pic.twitter.com/foEgtjPlSi

— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) November 17, 2016

The Weeknd feat Daft Punk - I Feel It Coming

Videos of the Week September 30th

The past few weeks have been relatively unbalanced in my eyes. When I say unbalanced, I mean it's either been mostly music videos or mostly funny/novelty videos. This week's top five got back to a nice 60/40 split between music and funny. Leading the way for videos was without a doubt The Weeknd's new video for Starboy. The more I listen to the track, the more impressed I am with the Daft Punk collabo's lyrically edgy, retro funk vibe. As a bonus, you get to see Abęl go to town on some expensive memorabilia with what can only be described as a crucifix glow stick.

In other musical efforts, you had a live cover of twenty-one pilots' Heathens from Bebe Rexha and Martin Garrix. It's crazy how much traction the Suicide Squad Soundtrack ended up getting and this collaboration is further proof of it's wide spread appeal. If you're looking for more trippy, Sci-fi stuff, you'll appreciate the zero gravity video put together by Flume and Tove Lo. Now I know what it would be like to walk on the sides of buildings with a space suit on.

In the world of funny and ridiculous, it doesn't get more extravagant than 2 Chainz's new season of GQ's Most Expensive $hit. In the past, we've seen him taste high end bottled water or expensive kittens, but this year he's expanding his tastes to coffee. So why not explore the Kopi Luwak civet coffee that cost $600 a pound? If you don't know what type of creature a civet is or even why I'd be mentioning an animal when talking about expensive coffee, just give it a watch and prepare to be slightly grossed out. If lavish isn't your bag, then you've got the good 'ole conventional funny from Jimmy Fallon and Sting who played everyone's favorite game, Textual Experience. Even though it might not have lived up to the awkwardness that Aziz Ansari brought to a previously posted episode, both Sting and Fallon brought their A game vocally, which made for a fun watch...#TextualExperience
The Weeknd feat Daft Punk - Starboy (Video)

2 Chainz Drinking $600 Cat Poop Coffee on GQ's Most Expensive $hit

Martin Garrix & Bebe Rexha Cover 21 Pilots Heathens on BBC 1

Flume feat Tove Lo - Say It (Video)

Jimmy Fallon & Sting Have a Textual Experience

Photo Credit: YouTube

"We Don't Pray for Love, We Just Pray for Cars"

Well...feel free to file this one under the "set the internet ablaze" variety of hyped singles. It doesn't get more buzzy than a collaboration between one of the hottest vocalists (The Weeknd) and a legendary EDM duo (Daft Punk). Still, Starboy manages to stare those lofty expectations in the face and live to fight another day.

The first thing I noticed was the "Kanye-like" kick on the drums that seems to punch and keep punching with increasing intensity throughout the entire track. Like most Weeknd tracks, it rides the fence between soulful and edgy with pleading vocals and unapologetic lyrics. It may not be as "electronic" as you'd expect from a Daft Punk collabo, but I was pleasantly surprised given how it all came together. As it stands now, this one will be the lead track on Weeknd's upcoming album due out on Thanksgiving. I find it entertaining that two of the tracks have names so far with the rest being shrouded in secrecy by being labeled as generic track numbers...#Starboy
The Weeknd feat Daft Punk - Starboy

Videos of the Week October 10th

Unlike most weeks, there is a clear favorite video in this week's top 5. I don't know whether to applaud it for it's weird wilderness vibe or continue to question why Pharrell has some huge clothespins on his shirt. What I do know is that Gust of Wind is a great track and seeing huge prehistoric looking Daft Punk heads come to life to sing the hook felt appropriate. Beyond that, there was quite a bit of Hip Hop released this week with Logic's epic crime spree short movie and Ne-Yo's ode to pole dancers leading the way. The surprise of the week came from Ed Sheeran's dance moves. Evidently dude isn't just a great singer, he can also cut a rug when given a chance. Finishing out the week is the obligatory silly and entertaining Jimmy Fallon video featuring Steve Carell. In the video they take random quirky words and try to fit them into casual conversation. Hilarity ensues, making it a great pick to round out the top 5...#FallonTonight
Pharrell feat Daft Punk - Gust of Wind (Video)

Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud (Video)

Jimmy Fallon & Steve Carrell Play Word Sneak

Logic - Under Pressure (Video)

Ne-Yo feat Juicy J - She Knows (Video)

Photo Credit: YouTube

Autograf Breathes Fresh Air Into Gust of Wind

A few months back I raved about the original version of Pharrell and Daft Punk's Gust of Wind for its undeniable funk. I still have yet to remove the track from my go-to playlists, which is a feat in and of itself. Now, thanks to Autograf, we have an electronic version that's ripe for summer. It's not a huge departure from the original, but the whole "Future House" feel of the track provides enough poolside appeal to be a solid addition to your upcoming party playlist...#GustOfWind

Pharrell - Gust Of Wind (ft. Daft Punk) (Autograf Remix)

Some Tracks Are Too Good To Be True

Before you uncontrollably spaz out after noticing the collaboration below, know that it is not passing the smell test. It's been processed, cut and pasted together to form what we all hoped was an epic collaboration. Though it was initially rumored that Kanye produced the track and it was a leftover from Daft Punk's latest album, it's all just too good to be true. Thanks to the diligent folks on Reddit leading the investigation, this is what we know.

First and foremost, the synths sound a whole lot like the synths from the track The Son of Flynn off the Tron Legacy Soundtrack. Yes, that makes it sound a lot like a Daft Punk song since Daft Punk produced the Tron Legacy Soundtrack. Instrumental below for reference...

Second, although nobody seems to have heard Jay Z's verse on the track prior to today, his references to an iTouch and Blackberry date the verse to somewhere around 2009 when the Tron Legacy Soundtrack was being put together. Third, the vocoder vocals sound like 100% genuine Daft Punk. The vocals, combined with the never before heard Jay Z verse are what the die hard believers are holding onto as far as believing that it's a new track. Nobody has stepped forward to take credit for the mash-up or legitimize it as a demo, but I'm willing to bet the story is only beginning with this one. I'm more impressed by whoever did it than impressed by the sound of the track since it sounds like a demo. I don't think it would have lived up to expectations had it been real, but for a mash-up/demo, well done whoever threw this together...#Computerized

Daft Punk feat Jay Z - Computerized (Mash-up)

"Like a Gust of Wind You Hit Me Off Sometimes"

The Pharrell and Daft Punk train is downright unstoppable. Even though their new collaboration off Pharrell's upcoming album Girl sounds like an extension of Get Lucky, the level of funk is still undeniable. There's a touch of old patented old school auto-tune with plenty of strings on top of a groovy bassline. This one speaks for itself, here's to hoping Skateboard P's entire album is littered with gems like this one...#GustOfWind

Pharrell feat Daft Punk - Gust of Wind

Videos of the Week August 29th

I'm gonna put it right out there and state that if Jay Z's Holy Grail video doesn't win some sort of video of the year award, there's a problem. I not only appreciate the dark aesthetic the video captures, the screwing and chopping for effect does a great job of defamiliarizing you with a song you already know very well. That's not easy to do in video and I'll take it a step further in saying that most artists wouldn't even try to undertake that ambitious of a task.

In other news, Big Sean snaps a kids neck then gets hacked to death in Fall Out Boy's new video for The Mighty Fall. I was a little underwhelmed at the simplicity of Daft Punk's video, but the Bingo Players made up for that lack of creativity with their new video. Seeing the Made in America trailer really makes me miss Philly. So many great shows every week, such a great city...#PhillyLove
Jay-Z feat Justin Timberlake - Holy Grail (Video)

Fall Out Boy feat Big Sean - The Mighty Fall (Video)

Daft Punk feat Pharrell - Lose Yourself to Dance (Video)

Bingo Players - Buzzcut (Video)

Jay-Z Made in America Tour (Trailer)


Photo credit: Facebook

The Day Everyone Got Their RAM

Well now that Daft Punk's new album has finally leaked four days before the official release, Daft Punk did what they could do today by allowing everyone to stream the entire album on iTunes. All you need to do is go to iTunes and click View in iTunes and you can hear the entire album. Kudos to the music industry for adapting to the new culture of music on the internet and realizing that if there is a physical copy of the album somewhere on a truck, it has probably fallen off that trunk already, been ripped and made readily available to everyone on the internet.

After one full lap around the album, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the sound of the album. By new EDM standards, it's definitely not an electronic album. It's more of an intricately composed funk album with a bunch of electronically amplified vocals. It's way more mellow than it is exciting and it's packed to the brim with grown and sexiness. If you were to ask me to pick a quick favorite, I was most intrigued by DP's collaboration with Indie superstar and Animal Collective founder Panda Bear. The simplicity and funkiness of the track is addictive. Panda's vocals are a stark contrast to Daft's usual lyrics and the synth breakdown around the 2:30 mark is pretty cool too. Pretty fun track overall, but it's one man's opinion, go over and pick a favorite yourself on iTunes...#RAM

Daft Punk feat Panda Bear - Doin' it Right

Daft Punk and Pharell Like to Get Lucky

If the blogosphere has any sway over what albums do well in 2013, the album that will get the biggest push will be Daft Punk's upcoming release Random Access Memories. The French electronic duo were electronica before electronica was cool, which is why I get the groundswell of appreciation for their trail blazing efforts. It's crazy to think that they haven't released an album since 2005, but the amount of hype they are getting is reaching epic levels. You would think that their new album is being released next week the way people are clamoring over their Collaborators project videos, SNL ads (below) and interviews. Below is the latest media release that came across today...

Their newest one is about as grown and sexy as it gets for electronic music. It took until the 1:06 mark for it to sound anything like a "usual" Daft Punk track, which shows a potential new direction for their music. I'm not quite buying into the hype as much as the the internet wants me to, but I'm intrigued to hear their new direction...#RAM

Daft Punk feat Pharrell & Nile Rodgers - Get Lucky

Attack the Block Soundtrack Will Be Worth Buying

It all started with the Oscar award winning soundtrack to Social Network that @NINEINCHNAILS lead man @trent_reznor co-produced. The at times dark, electronic sound of the score subtly did wonders for a movie that gained so much media acclaim by portraying Mark Zuckerburg as a wildly independent genius. I doubt it was a cause and effect premise that caused Disney to make the decision to reactively give @daftpunk the nod in creating a musical number to Tron (since they came out two weeks apart and were filmed in the same time period), but nonetheless, the sweet trend of giving electronic/dance artists the ability to craft the sound of a movie continued. Sure, if Captain Obvious were to swoop in and hear me say, "Movies are significantly better when the music is used as a tool for shaping emotional scenes and putting exclamations on exciting parts", he would probably call me out.

What you may not know is that following Tron, @chembros were given the opportunity to craft the theme for the movie Hanna. Below is the theme song to the movie, an extremely well done, electronic hymn, Hanna's Theme...

That brings us to the next movie, Attack the Block, brough to you by the creators of Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead. Starring Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul) and sans-Simon Pegg (for a change), the film lacks and other noticeably famous names, but was a huge hit at SXSW back in March. The film is marked by heavy British accents and is being marketed as a battle versus otherworldly aliens, but has garnered the most praise for being a high suspense, chase film, rather than a comedy like the previous releases by Big Talk Productions. Peep the trailer below...

The movie opens next Wednesday, May 11th and features a score produced by @TheBasementJaxx. In case you haven't heard of them, they've done some pretty dope tracks like Take Me Back to Your House and a remix to Vampire Weekends track White Sky. What has me excited enough to share all this with you is the track below, which is being used as a promo song to hype the upcoming release of the movie. The track, The Ends, is a haunting, big-synth masterpiece that starts out at a slow drudging pace, but picks up the pace around the 1:30 mark init more of a haunting jog or march if you will.

Supposedly this is the track that ends the movie, which is almost a waste and kinda sucks you have to wait the whole movie to hear it, but maybe it'll be the icing on the cake of the low profile, British, fly under the radar alien invasion flick. Between the music and the rave reviews, I'd by some stock in this flick and make a point to check it out the next few weeks...

Basement Jaxx - The Ends
 

Mickey Factz Goes In On Daft Punk's Derezzed

Seems like this whole Hip House trend is continuing with a lot of the new, up and coming Hip Hop acts taking on electronic house beats. On the freestyle below, @MICKEYFACTZ takes on Daft Punk's Tron flavored Derazzed and manages to keep up lyrically with the frenetic tempo. Pop culture is eating up faster paced music and in a reactive way, Hip Hop is segmenting itself by evolving it's own sound to include the shift in musical tastes. Being a fan of club, house, techno...really anything upbeat and danceworthy, I'm open to the trend continuing despite old school Hip Hop heads being resistant, making it a racial issue in saying that Hip Hop is somehow selling out by embracing music traditionally well liked by "white people". With artists @bostonsboy, @MacMiller, @asherroth, or @napalmlive breaking out, it's safe to say Hip Hop is becoming more open minded to assimilation of Caucasians and that's nothing but awesome because objectively, how else is Hip Hop going to expand to a larger demographic?

Little food for though on a Friday that is worth pondering over a speaker rattling mix of fast paced Hip Hop...

Mickey Factz - Distressed (prod by Daft Punk)

|Download

Tron Legacy Will Be Great Because Of Daft Punk

With the 3D movie craze taking over theaters the past couple years, it's rare that an upcoming 3D movie would need another tactic to draw in viewers. Intentional or not, Tron Legacy, due out in theaters December 17th, is sucking in a secondary demographic of electro/dance fans with the Soundtrack to the movie.

The Tron Legacy OST is produced entirely by the French electronic duo Daft Punk, one of the best and most influential dance/electro groups ever. The past year or so, trailers have surfaced like the official one below, which showcase the music and how well it will fit with the movie...

The effects should be epic, but for me at least, there's nothing better than having background music that makes the movie memorable...you know? Like you remember certain scenes in a movie sometimes based on the music, that's what I see happening with Tron Legacy. When you've got the stunning 3D visuals like in the trailer above and mix them with the type of music in the YouTube video below, I'm not sure what more you need to get excited for a movie...

Soundtrack is due out December 7th and the movie comes out December 17th...cop one, watch the other...oh and say a little prayer that we keep getting more music out of Daft Punk. They hadn't released an album since 2007, three years later...one hell of a finished product in the form of a Soundtrack...

Daft Punk - Tron Legacy Theme

|iTunes

Daft Punk Sprinkled With N.E.R.D.s

Interesting collab with N.E.R.D. dipping into the Daft Punk alectronic flavor for a minute. The only thing more out there than this song is N.E.R.D's website, which literally explodes at you if you hover over the middle of the page. It definitely sounds more @nerdarmy than @daftpunk...in other word it's less dance/electro and a lot more...uh... weird Hip Hop? Over a mid-tempo, bubbly, danceable beat Pharrell comes equipped with a seductive falsetto, sure to made old school R&B fans cringe.

I'm not sure how much I like this track, but I was a little let down when I saw Daft Punk as the feature and then didn't get much of a dose. I did find the whole "20s, 50s, 5s, 10s" bridge toward the end of the track interestingly robotic and awkward to a point that I find myself singing it every time I hear this song. This is set to be the third single off N.E.R.D.'s upcoming album Nothing due out on Nov 2nd.

Give it a listen, it may take a while to grow on you, but it's not like most music you hear...which is a victory in it's own right with Hip Hop sounding more like a bakery of late with so much cookie cutting goin' on...

N.E.R.D feat Daft Punk - Hypnotize U
| Download