"Spread it Like Peanut Butter Jelly"

Is it me or is disco making a comeback disguised as EDM? With the help of Galantis that statement is starting to grow legs. I waxed poetic about my groupie like affinity for their latest single Gold Dust and now I'm starting to realize that I really just enjoy their music.

If you're expecting a remix to Peanut Butter Jelly Time, you're going to be momentarily disappointed at first. But then you'll find yourself getting sucked into this really catchy disco vibe that leans heavily on a computerized voice to carry the melody. The post-drop beat is everything your parents liked about the 70s with plenty of strings and horns. By my count, this is their third straight awesome single off their upcoming album, Pharmacy, due out in early June. I guess the only thing left to do is get them to come to the Bay Area to perform...#Pharmacy

Galantis - Peanut Butter Jelly

Sam Smith's Lay Me Down Gets the Tiesto Treatment

If this track weren't real, it would be a great click bait candidate for Buzzfeed. Fortunately for us, the track is legitimate and showcases an uncharacteristically mellow vibe for a Tiesto creation. As you'd anticipate, Sam's vocals carry the track, but the easy-listening house vibe of the beat creates a much different experience from the original. The remix is much closer in sound to the original than Flume's drastic departure, which can be good or bad depending what you're in the mood for. Either way, start studded cross-genre collaborations between two artists at the top of their respective mountains don't come along that frequently, so let's enjoy this one for what it is...#LayMeDown

Sam Smith & Tiesto - Lay Me Down

"All I Can Think About is Coming Over, Coming Over"

While much ado is being made about Bieber's shenanigans at Coachella, the biggest music related story has to be the miscommunication between Dillon Francis and Kygo. Apparently, the much-hyped collaboration below was willingly let loose into the wild by Kygo following his performance at Coachella. To be clear, there was nothing at all mischievous about how the song leaked, Kygo literally tossed flash drives into the crowd with the song on it. To which Dillon Francis responded via Twitter below...

Yikes! It sounds like a bit of a breakdown in communication if Dillon was that displeased by with the song being intentionally leaked. Nevertheless, we all benefit from it because we finally get to sink our teeth into the collaboration. It's every bit as chill as you'd expect, but less tropical sounding that usual for a Kygo track. James Hersey's vocals play really well over the slow synths and calmingly snappy beat. Judging by the tweet above, we now have a follow up Dillon Francis album to look forward to, which is also pretty awesome. I'm still insanely jealous of whoever is seeing Kygo close down Coachella tomorrow night...#Coachella2015

Dillon Francis & Kygo feat James Hersey - Coming Over

Videos of the Week April 17th

Honestly, this entire post could have been composed of salacious Coachella videos. From the Bieber ejection, to the Kendall Jenner/Bieber story, to the Chanel West Coast entrance denial, to the Drake and Madonna make out...there was a lot of stuff that went down. I'm posting the Drizzy surprise kiss because, you know, Drake, but this is a Bieber-free zone for the most part, so feel free and find those other TMZ videos elsewhere.

In non-Coachella news, Rihanna dropped a provocative, highly politicized new video for American Oxygen. Similarly, Snoop and Lupe released videos for their latest singles So Many Pros and Adoration of the Magi, respectively. My favorite video of the week was young AJ, the two-year old prodigy who can hold down the 1's and 2's like a champ. It's easy to lose faith in humanity on a daily basis, but these young kids who do things we could have only dreamed are what find a way to restore it when we start to see the seams in life...#2YrOldDJ
Rihanna - American Oxygen (Video)

Snoop Dogg feat Pharrell - So Many Pros (Video)

DJ AJ the 2 Year Old DJ Prodigy

Lupe Fiasco - Adoration of the Magi (Video)

The Madonna/Drake Surprise Make Out at Coachella

Photo Credit: YouTube

Steve Aoki & Linkin Park Make Great Music Together

So nice it had to be done twice! That's the only logical answer to another Steve Aoki and Linkin Park collaboration. In case you missed it, they released a track back in 2013 titled A Light That Never Comes. Press play below on the lyric video for a quick catch up...

Needless to say, the unstoppable collaboration set the bar extremely high for a sequel.

In case you missed it, their new track was debuted on Twitch earlier this week when Steve Aoki and Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park) battled in Mortal Kombat X. I wouldn't go as far as saying Darker Than Blood surpasses their first effort, but it's every bit as awesome. It follows the dark, electro-ballad style, but this time with a bit more Top 40 appeal than club appeal. The track is scheduled to land on Steve's upcoming album Neon Future II that will hit stores in about a month. I'm not sure about you, but I'm looking forward to the less poppy, darker style of the new album...#NeonFutureII

Steve Aoki feat Linkin Park - Darker Than Blood

Porter Robinson Embraces The Thrill

From what I've heard, Coachella is an awesome festival to attend. Despite having the clear path toward a ticket this year and being within a few hundred miles of the venue, the festival still remains on my bucket list. Despite not being able to attend, I'm loving the immense amount of stories and new music that is coming from the festival. A few days back Ratatat debuted a new single and now we have ourselves a soothing, vibrant and bass heavy remix of Nero's The Thrill from Porter Robinson.

To put it bluntly, the remix doesn't sound at all like the original. Other than the vocals, Porter took the original and added a shot of pure electronic jubilation. The new version of the track takes on the thematic sound that most of Porter's music embodies. The high pitched synths are intense, but all in all I appreciate the different take on a track that was starting to grow on me. If you're heading to Coachella for the second weekend, do what you can to make it for Friday so you don't miss Porter's set...#Coachella2015

Nero - The Thrill (Porter Robinson Remix)

"Finding the Right Fabric to Keep Your Family Knit"

Taking it to the underground Hip Hop scene tonight with a new collabo off Alchemist & Oh No's upcoming Welcome to Los Santos. If you're into funky, jazzy, enlightened Hip Hop, you'll be able to vibe out to Ab-Soul's Trouble. The rolling bassline and ethereal twinkle of the keys set the tone from the start. Aloe Blacc sweeps in for to deliver a soulful hook that serves as the R&B glue between verses. All in all, it's a breath of fresh Hip Hop that will take you back to the days of Slum Village and J Dilla where live instrumentation paved the way for true lyricism. Welcome to Lost Santos is due in about a week and it's chalked full of goodies featuring the likes of MNDR, Phantogram and E-40...#WelcomeToLosSantos

Yelawolf & Eminem Just Shut it Down With Best Friend

With Yelawolf's sophomore album about a week away from release, feel free to fully allow yourself to get excited. His last two singles are evidence that he's regained the momentum that landed him a Shady Records deal. It's not just me that thinks it either, he touched on "things changing for the better" in a recent interview he did with Complex. As it turns out, all he needed was to go back to Tennessee to regain that low-fi, analog sound...

As soon as I noticed that tracklist to Love Story was devoid of features, it became abundantly clear that Yelawolf wanted to get back on his feet without any help...except for one track on the album. That's when he enlisted the help of his boss to lay down yet another legendary verse on Best Friend. The track is a perfect canvas for Em to go in on. It has a mellow, acoustic vibe to it that sets the mood right for the 0-100 style of intensity that Em brings on the mic. I need not wax poetic, he's a legend, go cop Yelawolf's album next week, it's in the lead for album of the year in 2015...#BestFriend

Five Years Later, Ratatat is Back With a Vengeance

Yeaaaaa buddy! For the first time in five years, Ratatat is back with a new single. Cream on Chrome is a refreshing example of why Ratatat's brand of electro-rock is so uniquely awesome. As an added benefit they even tossed some funk into their new single. It's a bit more chill than you'd expect from the Brooklyn duo, but the sound represents an interesting evolution of their style. Adding a bit more live instrumentation is a welcome addition that will only improve their already stellar live show. Speaking of which, they debuted their new single at Coachella last night...
Man what I would have given to be at that set! No word on when their new album is going to his shelves, but don't fear, you'll hear plenty more new music from them on this site before a full album comes to fruition...#CreamOnChrome

Savoy & Sound Remedy Take Future Bass Higher

I'm still trying to figure out where Future Bass fits into the grand scheme of EDM. Generally, I associate Future Bass with a chill electronic sound with slow, melodic drops. Savoy and Sound Remedy's new track featuring the vocals of Jojee fits my mental model of Future Bass, but they take uplifting to another level.

The track reminds me a lot of Adventure Club because it's half Pure Moods, half ethereal electronics. The track gives off a bright vibe and it helps that the lyrics are motivational and catchy. It's another great reason why I'm looking forward to seeing Savoy and Sound Remedy at Red Rocks in a few weeks...#SavoyRRX

Savoy & Sound Remedy feat Jojee - Leaving You

Videos of the Week April 10th

The top five this week skewed heavy toward Hip Hop this week with three out of the five coming from the genre. Leading off is the third on the trilogy of Maddie Ziegler featured videos from Sia. Big Girls Cry is more of a demonstrative solo filled with plenty of provocative facial expressions and gestures. It's another stunning example of how hard it is to take your eyes of Maddie when she's performing.

In other news, Louis C.K. may have thrown a wrench in Jimmy Fallon's plan to star on the Dana Carvey's show. Hilarity ensues. Then, 2 Chainz and Diplo met up with a water sommelier who treated them to water that cost $100,000. Yes, there's so much wrong with the previous sentence that I'm not even going to touch on outlandish it is. Finally, Chuck Inglish gave us all a huge doss of bass with Damage and Yelawolf continues churn out top notch tracks that will make us forget about his last album. I absolutely can't wait to hear his album as a whole because so far it's been nothing but fire...#LoveStory
Sia feat Maddie Ziegler - Big Girls Cry (Video)

Louis C.K. on Jimmy Fallon

2 Chainz & Diplo Taste 100K Water

Chuck Inglish - Damage (Video)

Yelawolf - American You (Video)

Photo Credit: YouTube

More Hype Vomitstep From Snails

A couple of things to note about Snails new track below. 1) It's easy to tell why Skrillex signed Snails. He has a big sound that is different and has just the right amount of unbridled uniqueness. 2) Big Ali might as well be Fat Man Scoop. They have to be related. 3) Why is in the world would you release an acapella version of King is Back? Maybe the hype samples are adequate enough to copy and paste onto other beats, but there are huge chunks of the track without vocals. Without hearing it, I'm scratching my head a bit.

Strange circa-2000 CD-style-release, the track below goes hard. There's some reggae mixed in, plenty of dubstep bounce and a whole lot of crazy synths. If you're in the mood to wild out, give this one a few spins...#Vomitstep

SNAILS feat Big Ali - King is Back

"I'll Tell You All About it When I See You Again"

It's been a while since someone dropped a sincerely heartwarming Hip Hop tribute to someone who passed away. When I think of classic Hip Hop tribute tracks, Diddy's I'll Be Missing You and UGK's One Day come to mind as favorites. With those examples in mind, Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth did a hell of a job commemorating the life of the late Paul Walker.

Anyone who has seen one of Paul's movies hurt a little bit when they heard the tragic news of his passing. The original Fast and the Furious will be how I remember Paul. The latest Fast and the Furious will be the last in the series that will feature Paul, but they made it to the seventh movie in large part because of his effort. Watching the video for the track below really hit me hard, but Wiz's verses and the Charlie's vocals did an excellent job of harnessing the sadness and channeling it in a positive direction. If you haven't already, check out the star studded soundtrack for Furious 7 and the movie that reached Certified Fresh status recently...#Furious7

"Don't Throw Fists, Throw Parties"

Another day, another crazy Trap/Hip Hop collaboration. This time Dillon Francis and DJ Snake hooked up with the Hip Hop duo who wake up hype and never stop being hype at any point during the day. You've probably been living under a rock if you haven't heard of Rae Sremmurd, but as a quick recap, you might want to check out No Type and No Flex Zone. Those two tracks are what got them on the map, but they continue to incite crowds every single place they go, including Highly Questionable.

In a nutshell, these guys are like what you'd picture Lil Jon at the age of 19. Knowing that, it's easy to understand why their energy fits so well with Trap music. Good call by DJ Snake and Dillon Francis for seeking out the duo for the remix because they are on a short list of Hip Hop acts that are capable of matching the energy of beat. If you're in need of something hype of the weekend playlist, feel free and head on over to iTunes to cop this on Dillon's newly released version of Money Sucks, Friends Rule...#SremmLife

Never Sleep on Kaskade

I generally associate Kaskade with vibrant chords and soothing vocals. His new single is in the same neighborhood as what I'd normally expect, but with a much more bubbly, future house vibe to it. Never Sleep Alone will draw you in close with the harmony, then coerce you to dance when the beat drops.

The seamless mix of radio-ready melody with driving synths was first debuted at Holy Ship and today it finally hit iTunes. He may not always get mentioned as one of the greats, but Kaskade can hang with all your favorite DJs and the song below is proof of that...#NeverSleepAlone

Kaskade - Never Sleep Alone

"Whip Game on Bruce Wayne"

Suffice to say RL Grime isn't getting complacent and riding out the success of his debut studio album VOID. He's back at it in a supporting role, helping Tory Lanez with his new single In For It. The beat has RL's paw prints all over it, but the R&B vocals and verse continue to remind you that it's a heavy Hip Hop track. It's another shining example of how Trap and Hip Hop can make intriguing bedfellows when the two forces combine. If you're looking to cop it, you're going to wait for the new Tory Lanez EP to drop. Until then be on the look out for more from Argentina Fargo and continue livin'...#Swavey

Tory Lanez - In For It (prod by RL Grime)

Kill Paris is Taking Future Funk to a New Level

Big bass and chill melody is what Kill Paris does best. Despite the somber tone of the vocals on You Don't Love Me No More, the jubilant synths and cool sax more than make up for it. There's a subtle computerized funk in the mix that might remind you a bit of Daft Punk, but the deep bass is what I'll remember about the track.

The single is the second off his upcoming debut studio album Galaxies Between Us. The best part about it is he's giving the track away for free via Soundcloud. He'll also be embarking on a 40 city tour this spring to promote his new music. I'm pumped to hear the entire album and I've got April 25th marked on my calendar...#GalaxiesBetweenUs

Kill Paris - You Don't Love Me No More

Videos of the Week April 3rd

It would have been extremely easy to post damn near every set from Ultra Music Festival, but for the sake of diversity, I only posted the festival ending set from Skrillex. If you haven't seen Sonny live, that's a shame, but here's your reprieve. The entire set is a great example of how music, performance, showmanship and raw energy can be transformed into something that can inspire thousands of people at the same time.

UMF aside, there were a few interesting music video releases this week. The most influential of the videos was Kendrick Lamar's square shaped visuals for King Kunta. Despite the odd shape, the video is very much so Compton, which was throwback as hell, but cool. Two less discussed videos were The Chainsmokers Let You Go and Life of Dillon's Overload. I'm still really digging the organic and downright happy vibe of Life of Dillon's lead single. Finally, the Legendary Roots Crew came through with a bit of novelty when they put together a one minute summary of Game of Thrones. The concision speaks for itself y'all...#TheRoots
Life of Dillon - Overload (Video)

The Chainsmokers feat Great Good Fine OK - Let You Go (Video)

The Roots Recap Game of Thrones in One Minute

Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta (Video)

Skrillex Ultra Music Festival Set

Photo Credit: YouTube

The Chainsmokers Are the Dirtiest of the Dirt

Just when you thought The Chainsmokers were nestling into a familiar groove, they smack you in the face with something new and bangin'. Alex and Drew took Steve Aoki's original version of Back to Earth with Fall Out Boy and gave it a bit more boom and bounce. Feel free to peruse the original below for comparison...
All in all, the two tracks are different types of cool. While the original is much more rock sounding with the various guitar riffs, the remix takes on a more bass heavy, trap vibe. The methodic clap on the remix is much more head nod worthy, providing a much more methodical take on an already great song. This track along with a few other mixes of the song should be arriving on iTunes any day now, so keep on F5-ing through the weekend if you so choose...#BackToEarth

Steve Aoki feat Fall Out Boy - Back To Earth (The Chainsmokers Remix)

If You Love Trap, You'll Love Love Trap

Just what we all need, a new R&B twist to the slow bass of Trap music. Enter Australian DJ Alison Wonderland who recently teamed up with The Flaming Lips' lead singer Wayne Coyne on a bit of a heavy duet you could call it. Between his falsetto and her vocals, there's a moody, unstable under tone on U Don't Know that is perfectly captured in the video featuring McLovin below...

The original great in it's own right, but fellow Aussie producer Just a Gent took the essence of the original and amplified it tenfold. The melody is the same as the original, but there's a bit more depth to the remix and the drops are much more exciting and exaggerated. Is it me or has the quality music coming out of Australian increased a ton in the past year? Chalk this one up to another successful remix from another talented DJ across the pond...#UDontKnow

Alison Wonderland - U Don't Know (Just A Gent Remix)