Free Music Friday...ON A THURSDAY!!! The Everything INCLUDING the Kitchen Sink Edition

Guess what, kids? i'm headed to NY tomorrow for a couple of Prince concerts, so this is probably it for me this week. If you happen to be at either the Meadowlands on Friday night or MSG on Saturday, i'll be the sexy motherfucker getting his groove on in the aisles.

i suppose today's post could have just as easily have been a "Beat Meet," "More Xmas Music" or even an "Otherwise Engaged" post, but you get all of 'em rolled up into one, big ball of aural goodness! You lucky, lucky, friggin' bastards.

If you're not going to be in NYC on Friday, but will be in DC, i highly recommend catching Liz Phair at the 9:30 Club or Gene Ween at the Black Cat on Friday night. i hate when there are a preponderance of excellent shows all happening at the same time, but what can you do? Me, i take drugs, but that's another story entirely.

Let's get into that tunage now, shall we?

Xmas tunes first...

White boy soul singer Mayer Hawthorne tackles the Charlie Brown classic with quite fine results.

mp3: Christmas Time is Here (Mayer Hawthorne from Mayery Christmas to All!)

The Pallers had this to say: "While working on our debut-album we decided to celebrate you all by recording this winter greeting.This is to say "We think about you, we will meet again, sometime after the snow is gone and the days are longer!" But for now we´d like to share with you this Christmas song, this warm caress with a promise, this Arctic Hymn." Sounds like a plan to me.

mp3: Artic Hymn (Pallers from Artic Hymn)

Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, but where's my Xmas beat, bitches? Keep your pants on, kid. We've got your back. Not sure if the second track is Xmas-specific, but it certainly is holiday oriented. And it has beat boxing, which makes everything, even anal probes, more enjoyable.

mp3: Xmas Rush (Dub) (Nathan Fake from XLR8R.com)

mp3: Dancing in the Snow (Ernest Gonzales from Been Meaning to Tell You)

And now, for something completely the same, if we're discussing your normal Free Music Friday.

Korallreven puts together a nice and smooth beat for Victoria Bergsman to get her jam on to with this lush number.

mp3: Honey Mine (ft Victoria Bergsman) (Korallreven from Honey Mine 7")

If you feel your beat music could use a little funk, Georgia Anne Muldrow is a name you need to commit to memory. To make you want to buy her latest, VWETO, she's been gracious enough to offer up this beast of a groove. Me likey oh so much.

mp3: fOnkRocker (Georgia Anne Muldrow from her VWETO)

As the LA Series comes to a close for the year, they've decided to break my heart. This new, stuttering jam from TokiMONSTA makes me hate myself even more for missing her open for Bonobo a while back. God damn, this is a booty shaker!

mp3: Park Walks (TokiMONSTA from LA Series 8)

MORE beat music? Hell, give 'em the knee shooters, i always say.

i'm only just getting into Mux Mool, but if Alex B sees fit to remix the guy, i'm hooked.

mp3: Hog Knuckles (Alex B Remix) (Mux Mool from Wax Rose Saturday EP)

KRS-ONE is going to get posted here every opportunity that comes my way. That being said, is it just me or is old boy's voice starting to hit a wall on this one? Don't get me wrong, he's still one of the best in the game, but i think someone might have suggested a lozenge and a cup of tea to Kris before he picked up the mic this time.

mp3: 5% (ft. KRS-ONE and Grand Puba) (DJ Premier from Get Used to Us)

And just because i'm telling you it's the right thing to do, we're going out with some Beans.

mp3: Deathsweater (Beans from End It All)

Live Review: Bonobo at 9:30 Club, 11-10-10

Let me preface the following bitchfest by acknowledging that i realize this is nobody's fault but mine, but, hey, it's my blog (and Meg's, too, natch), so what are you going to do? Nothing. And like it.

This was supposed to be a HUGE beat freak week in DC, and wouldn't you know it, damn near all my plans fell through to make the most of it. To kick things off, The Gaslamp Killer was supposed to be at DC9 with Daedalus this past weekend, but what with their recent legal issues, that show didn't happen. Yes, it was rescheduled for a club in Baltimore, but after the late night affair that was the LET extravaganza, i just didn't have it in me to make the trek. Sure, shame on me, but it was what it was.

i allowed myself to pass that one by, reassured by my tickets to see TokiMONSTA and Bonobo last night at the 9:30. Now, i ALWAYS check around 10 am on the day of a given concert at the 9:30 to see when the sets actually are slated to start. With the exception of two shows of the dozens and dozens i've seen there, the 9:30 is EXCELLENT at actually sticking to published start times. Anyway, the day got away from me, and when i checked at 6 pm, that 9 pm show i so was looking forward to seeing turned out to be starting at 6:30. Long story short, i missed all of Toki and what i was assured was "only about 10 minutes" of Bonobo. i'm not going to lie, i was pretty pissed at myself, but i can say that the approximate hour of Bonobo's set that i did see was incredible.

Surrounded by a full band comprised of a multi-reed instrumentalists (dude who played a lot of horns), drummer, couple of guitarists and a gadget tweeker (i believe introduced as electronic percussion), the man himself slapped de bass with a passion for the entire gig. And, of course, Andreya Triana made a few appearances, singing her hits from the recent Black Sands. It's hard to describe the music, but, of course, i'll try. Imagine a post-sex glow vibe amalgam of funk, jazz, Eastern and beat, right when you're almost through the refactory period. Yeah, that works.

i've got to say, this was quite possibly the largest crowd i've ever seen at a 9:30 Club early show, and the crowd only swelled as the gig continued. Sure, a lot of them were club hopping ass hats, but at least their taste in music was admirable. Clearly, the entire room gladly would have stayed and grooved all night long had the club permitted it.

Next time Bonobo comes to town, i will check the website set time early and often, i tell you what, as i do not want to miss a second of his set next time.

mp3: Eyesdown (ft. Andreya Triana) (Bonobo from Black Sands)

mp3: Kiara (Bonobo from Black Sands)

mp3: Little Bit (TokiMONSTA Remix) (Lykke Li from TokiMONSTA bootleg remix)

mp3: Alpenglow (TokiMONSTA, Lunice & Swede:art from Various Assets - Not For Sale - London 2010)

More Mixtape Madness

Obviously, the greatest mixtapes you're ever going to hear are put together here at LET, but it would be unfair of us not to give credit where credit is due when we come across winners from others (second place is respectable, too, folks, so good on ya', mate!).

While LET probably is never going to be your definitive source for outside mixtapes, you know we're going to hip you to the good stuff.

Believe it or not, Tri Angle Records has just dropped a Lindsay Lohan inspired mix. In their own words:

"Inspired in part by Lindsay Lohan’s grotesquely fascinating black hole existence and in part by my unwavering belief in the power of pop music as an artform, I saw an opportunity to create something interesting with her music, and decided to ask some friends to reinterpret some of Lindsay’s songs. 'Tri Angle Records Presents: Let Me Shine for You' is the result. Even though we are all fond of Lindsay in our own ways, there is no FREE LINDSAY agenda here. We all love pop music and this is merely an experiment. All of our intentions are very sincere."

While this simply could have been a joke, the tracks are surprisingly good. It certainly doesn't hurt that some top notch talent was assembled to add tracks. Think somewhere between drone and chill, but without wearing its panties in the limo while people stand around taking cellphone pictures.

mp3: I Can Try to Run (Stuck) (Babe Rainbow from Tri Angle Records presents: Let Me Shine For You)

mp3: Something I Never Had (Laurel Halo from Tri Angle Records presents: Let Me Shine For You)

While we've posted tracks sponsored by Red Bull before, clearly i was uninformed on just how into the music scene your favorite vodka mixer actually is. Seems that since 1998, they've been sponsoring a traveling music academy. Essentially, they set up an HQ for two fortnight-long terms in a different musical metropolis each year, pulling "together pioneers of days-gone-by and musical legends of tomorrow from all aspects of rhythm and sound." This years' 60 participants set up shop in London, resulting in a pretty damn kick ass 41-track mixtape, bringing together some of the biggest names in instrumental electronic music. Seriously, TokiMONSTA and Oddisee on the same track? Do not pass go without picking up this bad boy. Be forewarned, however, at least i had a bitch of a time extracting the files from the zip. With that in mind, here are a couple of tracks to prove it's worth the effort of figuring it out yourself.

mp3: River Song (J-Wow & Sui Zhen from Various Assets - Not For Sale - London 2010)

mp3: Jackin4beats pt. 4 (TokiMONSTA feat. Andreya Triana & Oddisee from Various Assets - Not For Sale - London 2010)

i've inadvertently been sitting on a mixtape from Alex Ludovico for so long now that's he's since put out another one. You might recognize AL from various mixes we've put together ourselves, but his own stuff tends to be pretty damn good by itself. Homeboy spits fiyah and tends to kick it over dope beats. Expect to hear more about and from this up and comer.

mp3: d.o.a. (Alex Ludovico from Winning/Losing)

And finally, we recently received an interesting, homemade mixtape coming in at a handful of tracks at under ten minutes. As fans of the DIY ethic, here's a nod of the cap to Alex Gladwell. Sure, the production is a bit rough, but we all have to start somewhere. Plus, i'm pretty much a sucker for any beat that heavily samples Disney. Snow White in the house, y'all!

mp3: Childhood (Alex Gladwell from For the Mixtape)