Brain Salad – March

Brain Salad – March 2012

Despite being relatively absent from the blogosphere for the past few months, I have been listening to a fair bit of music.  So here I am picking it back up with a brand new Brain Salad release.  March’s mix continues the trend of eclectic compilations with everything from Shigeto’s exciting glitchy remix of Sufjan Steven’s “Futile Devices”, to the light folky soul tune in Michael Kiwanuka’s “I’m Getting Ready”.  Highlights from this month’s include a quality track titled “Lonesome” from another quality release from Dr. Dog off Be the Void.  The new track from one of my personal favorites Yellow Ostrich, “Shakedown” is a driving rock tune that starts off strong and ends with a crescendo that is as fulfilling as it is hectic.  Blood Orange has been ringing its smooth R&B Rock through my head for the past few months, so I figured I’d share “Forget it” with all y’all.  By the way, Blood Orange is the project of one Lightspeed Champion, who I found out about through Emmy The Great, won me over with his excellent name and even better music, so check him out, please.  Pepper Rabbit comes through with a nice catchy tune that is just plain nice.  Michael Kiwanuka and Ben Howard wins the best folk tunes so far this year.  Polica and Rhye and Grimes all came out of nowhere this year with some awesome female dance/electronic tunes.  Conner Youngblood continues to crank out tunes that I can’t help but love, and even better, “Will You Be There”, came on a free EP called Sketches Pt.1.  Last of all comes A$AP Rocky’s “Peso” which if you aren’t already aware of, fix it, because A$AP Rocky is doin his own thang like none other, and gettin paid for it.  As always, thanks and enjoy and thanks.

Tracklist after the Jump.

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Brain Salad – August

Brain Salad – August

**Free Download**

This month’s Brain Salad is full of wonderfully fun songs that have guided me through the summer days with relative ease.  Lookin forward to getting back to the brick streets of the university and enjoy the company of my friends.  There was a large quantity of good music released this months, and some wonderful new albums have made their way through my ears (Fruit Bats, Beirut, Portugal the Man) I’m seeing the Head and the Heart(!!!!) w/the Decemberists this week so alot of my listening has been occupied with that.  First is a song that I’ve been sitting on for a while, “Wedding Song”, is a song by Anais Mitchell from her Folk album Hadestown featuring Justin Vernon (Bon Iver).  Its a sweet sweet song with nice harmonies that have been stickin to the inside of my head for quite some time.  Next is my favorite song of the new Vetiver album The Errant Charm.  “Can’t You Tell” is a chill song perfect for strolling around in the sun on any given summer day.  ”Dolly” by the Fruit Bats is a playful number from one of my new favorite bands.  Their new album has been on repeat.  The new stuff from The Kooks, Portugal.  The Man, and Beirut is all just as quality as one would expect from these wonderful bands.  The new song “Go Outside” from the Cults is just too summer (cool) to leave off this playlist, I’m really liking it.  ”Somebody That I Used To Know” found its way onto the playlist because it enlisted the magic of a wonderful dual male/female lead vocal part.  Just can’t get enough of this track.  The next is the electronic section of the salad, is really quite groovin if I do say so myself.  The new track from Bjork, “Crystalline”, pleased me to hear because of its similarity in percussion to Sufjan Stevens on the Age of Adz.  Tycho’s new song goes in the category of “Superchill” and fit right in.  ”Gucci Gucci” by Kreayshawn has been remixed and thrown into mashups and mixes so much since we first heard it, and I put my favorite of those on here.  The final track is remix to “Somebody that I Used To Know” that I really enjoyed when I came upon it.  Hope you do as well.  In addition I hope the entirety of this mix improves your mood and has you better than you were previously.

**Click to Download**

http://www.mediafire.com/?ufic25wkw935oj5

**TRACKLIST**

1. Wedding Song – Anais Mitchell
2. Can’t You Tell – Vetiver
3. Dolly – Fruit Bats
4. Junk of the Heart (Happy) – The Kooks
5. Got it All (This Can’t Be Living Now) – Portugal.  The Man
6. Santa Fe – Beirut
7. Go Outside – Cults
8. Somebody that I used to Know – Gotye ft. Kimbra
9. Rising – Son Lux
10. All There Is – Chrome Sparks ft. Steffaloo
11. Crystalline – Bjork
12. Hours  - Tycho
13. Circles – Digitalism
14. Gucci Gucci (Rock It Scientists) – Kreayshawn
15. Somebody that I Used to Know (Rufus Re-Edit) – Gotye ft.  Kimbra

thanks and enjoy and thanks.

Chiddy Bang

Chiddy Bang is a hip-hop duo comprised of “Chiddy” the rapper and Xaphoon Jones the producer.  They first came to my attention because of a freestyle that Chiddy did over the UK rapper Tinie Tempah’s song “Pass Out” instrumental.  Immediately I loved his flow and lyricism for creativity and its sheer originality.  Also it helped how articulate he was.  After picking up more of their material I was impressed with the collabs and the samples they used.  Passion Pit features on the song “Truth”, the always lovely Kate Nash’s (love her….) song “Skeleton” is sampled on the hard hitting “Breakfast”.  The list goes on, MGMT… Darwin Deez…Radiohead…Gorillaz… Sufjan Stevens… Not to mention I had a Xaphoon Jones remix on a Mansions on the Moon album that I loved.  Having been pretty burnt out on most of the Hip-hop I had been hearing, this was quite refreshing.  Bottom line, Chiddy Bang is on point with the genre I would consider Indie Hip-hop.  From lyrics to production to collabs, Chiddy Bang is doing it right.

For Fans of: Hoodie Allen, The Hood Internet, Childish Gambino

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