The Best Music of 2014 (Amazon Edition)

jessie ware best albums songs 2014

READ IT ON AMAZON

It’s a special year-end list that makes room for Jessie Ware (above), Linkin Park, and Eric Church, and I’m happy to say I spilled positive ink on all three for Amazon’s Best of 2014 albums and songs roundup. Also held forth on such tuneful peeps as Sylvan Esso, Sam Smith, Bleachers, Little Dragon, Chromeo, the War on Drugs, Beck, Charli XCX, Alt-J, FKA Twigs, and ScHoolboy Q, to name a few. Visit Amazon to see what you missed, and why you should care.

Holy Ship 2014: High With Skrillex on the High Seas

Skrillex at Holy Ship!! with Tiesto and Zedd

READ MORE AT SPIN

We went on a rave cruise and it was ridiculous. For your vicarious enjoyment (not ours, no, of course not) we left from Miami on January 9 and returned three days later, stopping along the way at two private Bahamian islands for beach parties featuring the likes of Diplo, Chromeo, Disclosure, and Duck Sauce. There were also a ton of skull-drilling EDM performances within the hull of a mega-ship. And 4,000 fellow revelers. And a never-ending pizza buffet. And that time Skrillex smoked us out onstage while Pharrell performed two feet away. Continue reading

Review: Chromeo Channels Hall & Oates on ‘Business Casual,’ Matures Sorta

Chromeo aim for "maximum dancefloor penetration" on Business Casual.

I like the word “wistful” right now. I’ve used it too much. It’s now made the moratorium list. Yes, “wistful” is on hiatus. It apologizes to its fans. Here’s where it all started, in a review for The AV. Club of Chromeo’s third (!) album, Business Casual. Choice quote:

“Like Hot Chip before them, Montreal’s Dave 1 and P-Thugg have set out to prove that they’re better musicians than they are ironic, party hat-wearing hipsters.”

Mysterious, right? Read the harrowing conclusion over here.

Continue reading

News: Boyz Noize RMXs Chemical Brothers, MEDcal Marijuana, Snoop & Quazedelic, New Baths Video Channels Princess Mononoke

Boyz Noize remixes the Chemical Brothers' "Swoon"

Quick bloggy bits from around the L.A. underground (and up). Share ’em.

  1. FEATURED: Boyz Noize Remixes Chemical Brothers on ‘Swoon’*
  2. Oxnard Rapper MED Celebrates His Medical Pot Card in New Video
  3. MP3: Snoop Dogg & Quazedelic Shout Out the Güeros in New Song
  4. Baths Meets Mononoke in Samurai-Feat Vid for ‘Lovely Bloodflow’

* “The Chems have gotten noisier on their new album, but one of the smoother tracks is first single “Swoon.” Apologies, but this is not an electro megamix of the 2009 album by Silversun Pickups.”

(all stories via West Coast Sound, via L.A. Weekly)