Anybody remember Sweetums?  I actually met him, once, a long time ago when I was little.  He was huge.  Tall, I mean.  Not like what these chicks are thinking.

Mahna Mahna-Cake

Techno is not my bag: It’s busy, noisy, and usually irritating.  Which may be why I really enjoyed Pantha Du Prince’s third album.  His brand of electronic music is known for being minimalist and textured.  This latest release, on Rough Trade records, is fascinating–subtle kettle drum percolates under thumping, but slow, bass on “The Splendour.”  “Stick to my Side” has vocals and crisp chimes and beats.  It’s almost folky.  The album feaures songs with Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox of Animal Collective and Tyler Pope of !!! and LCD Soundsystem.  Highly recommended.

The Splendour

Yukon Blonde’s debut is a little bit optimistic My Morning Jacket, with some shades of The Delfonics (on “Kumiko Song”) and generally high-quality indie rock.  The band’s debut is coming out March 23rd, and you can catch ‘em on tour.

Yukon Blonde 2010 Tour Dates:

Wind Blows

BUN-B!  You have to know who Bun is, right?  You have to.  Best flow in the biz these days, now that Hova fell off.

LINK

FREE AND LEGAL BUCKSHOT REMIXES!

I’ve also written a lot about Buckshot and Boot Camp Click over the years.  I forgive you if you don’t know him, but I’m telling you now: Duck Down records is probably the most consistently great underground label out there.  Nothing but grimey hardcore.  Last year’s team up of Survival Skills brought Buckshot together with Mr. Stop The Violence himself, KRS-One, and now mixtape legends Mick Boogie & NVME have remixed Buck’s Duck Down catalog, digging all the way deep to the fantastic Black Moon work, with new artists like Tanya Morgan, The Kid Daytona, Sha Stimuli, and others.  Almost every track is fantastic.

It’s free and legal and you can get it here!

Holy crap do you need to see this.

Is there an instrument sadder than the cello?  I don’t think so.  The Portland Cello Project are a collective of Oregon artists, which have included both Thao Nguyen of Thao With The Get Down Stay Down (who created the second best album of 2008) and Justin Power, who makes beautiful indie folk. 

I wish I’d heard this 2009 release sooner, because it would have been a best-of-the-year candidate.  The The Portland Cello Project kicks off with a painfully sad religious piece, “The Lamb,” by JohnTavener, before bringing in Thao to play one of her greatest songs, “Beat (Health, Life and Fire).”  The Thao songs aren’t very differently arranged than the album versions (except for the extraordinary rendition of Tallymarks), but the addition of live cello gives them a little more gravitas.  They’re great–and the “cello solo” during Violet is a pretty cool cello equivalent of cock rock.

This was my introduction to the work of Justin Powers, and it definitely made a fan.  Oh, and there’s a cover of Pantera’s “Mouth for War” performed by the PCP, and a song by the grossly underrated band, Norfolk and Western.  This album gets my highest recommendation.

Buy it here for just $11.70.

Beat (Health- Life And Fire) (Featuring Thao)

1. Hate Me
2. Irregular Heartbeat Intro
3. R.I.P.
4. Money On Me
5. Mex
6. Russian Roulette
7. No Competition
8. No Comment
9. The Cypher
10. We Outta Here
11. Anti
12. World Keeps Spinnin
13. Forgive Me
14. State Of You
15. Good Enough
16. Freight Train
17. Connect 4 Feat Young Chris
18. Tito Santana
19. Never Again
20. Warriors
21. In My Sleep
22. Blood On The Wall
23. 5th Gea

LINK

I’ve posted Budden a buncha times here, and none of you fools ever drop a comment of appreciation.  You don’t know hip hop if you don’t know Joey.