Benji is the newest album from Sun Kil Moon.  This 6^th album from the band was released in early February 2014.  The band was formed in San Francisco in 2002 primarily for guitarist Mark Kozelek to vent some creativity.  Benji is an interesting and sad record worth a listen.  I heard the song Ben’s My Friend the other day and immediately liked it, so tell me what you think.

Chill-out master Tycho dropped a new album today.  If you have ever heard anything he has done in the past, Awake seems more up-beat, and exactly like what you would expect, all at the same time. Enjoy.

Cities Aviv has released a new album titled Come To Life. The Memphis rapper has taken a different approach in his new material than with his previous Ep's.  Come To Life sounds like more of a dance party album than a rap album. Never being one to shy away from heavy sampling, Cities Aviv has taken his sound to a whole new level with this album, but that's not a bad thing. It's definitely worth a listen or two. Plus, you gotta rep the 901, dawg.

Wisconsin based indie band Phox has been making some interesting music lately.  It kind of reminds me of The Head and The Heart crossed with The Alabama Shakes.  Although there is no official word on when their first full length album comes out, it looks like they will be hopping on the summer festival train to get their music out there. Until then, check their single "Slow Motion" and a nice live take of "Evil".

Apparently Atmosphere released a single last year called "Bob Seger". How did we miss that? They also have a brand spankin' new album coming out in May! Here is the video of last years one-off single. I suggest giving it a watch and listen separately to get the full effect, because the video is pretty captivating.

I stumbled upon an interesting article yesterday and thought I would share it with the rest of you. So the short of it is that there is this company that goes by the name of The Echo Nest, a group that calls itself "the music intelligence company" for major music firms. They compiled data from Spotify which calculated the relative number of streams for a given artist for all 50 states. The results were visualized using a map of the United States.

It's important to note that these aren't necessarily the most-listened to bands in each state, but rather the bands that have unusually hight support in each state. So for example, Vermonters skew more towards Phish more than other Americans do, and Texans are bigger George Strait fans than anyone else.

To read the entire article click HERE

*Update* A new map has been released that displays each states least favorite band.

Hard Working Americans is a new band featuring Todd Snider (singer-songwriter), Neal Casal (The Cardinals and Chris Robinson Brotherhood), Chad Staehly (Great American Taxi), Dave Schools (Widespread Panic), and Duane Trucks (COL. Bruce Hampton’s School of Music).  These musicians have been around the block and have joined together to lay down some solid tunes.  As you can imagine, it is some good old southern rock and great to have a few cold ones to.  I was able to catch them at The Fillmore in San Francisco and had myself a blast.  HWA came out with a debut album and it is available for purchase.  They have a few more shows left on the tour, so check out this video of them on Conan and get out to see them!

The Shouting Matches are a side project by Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.  The band has enjoyed the success of their debut album Grownass Man, which has a very JJ Grey type bluesy feel to it.  Today however, I will post a song from their recently re-released EP Mouthoil.  In the true spirit of Valentines day "I Had a Real Good Lover" is some nice, depressingly beautiful, blues music. Be sure to check out Grownass Man as well.

Son Lux has a very unique, complex, and futuristic sound that's hard to pin down to one genre. Their first single from Lanterns is "Lost It To Trying", but be sure to check out the whole album over at Bandcamp for an interesting listen.

This post is a little different from our normal discussions of new, unusual, and awesome bands that you should check out. This is a really cool new podcast that I caught wind of. The name of it is "Song Exploder" and to put it simply it is

"A podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made." 

The first episode that I listened, they spoke to the other member of Postal Service (Not Ben Gibbard) and broke down the song "The district sleeps alone tonight". This will particularly appeal to super fans, audiophiles, and those of you who are interested in music production. I recommend it!

Click here to visit their website

Featuring Megafaun's Nick Sanborn and Mountain Man's Amelia Meath Sylvan Esso is an interesting collaboration of heavy electronic beats and Meath's signature vocals.  To date they have only officially released 2 tracks, both of which are excellent listens. Enjoy.

Hailing from Birmingham, AL St. Paul and the Broken Bones are bad to the bone. This boy can sing, and it's impossible not to get swept up in how good he does it. Unfortunately all they have released is an EP to date, but keep an eye on this talented group. Big things are coming.

Named one of USA Today's "Top Bands to Watch in 2013" Toy Soldiers absolutely kill it in this video.  Want more? Head over to Kickstarter and help them fund their next album. Enjoy!

Thank You Scientist has a very unique yet strangely familiar sound.  It's like every band I absolutely loved in 9th grade suddenly formed a supergroup.  They effortlessly bounce around from tight ska horns to emo-punk choruses to hardcore-like breakdowns.  With songs averaging well over five minutes each, you never know where Thank You Scientist is going to take you.  Check out "Feed The Horses" from their newest album Maps Of Non-Existent Places below.  Welcome to your new guilty pleasure.

Like Hip-hop? How about weed? Well my friend this album is for you! Amen For Weed/ Hi-Life is a FREE album over at Bandcamp is a collection of Copenhagen artists expressing their love of the sticky icky. Take a nice sample hit below. It's pretty dope! (Look I made a pun!)

The UK based indie singer Daughter has finally dropped her debut full length album.  If there is one thing to be said about Daughter, it's that she has been consistently brilliant with her previous releases.  Here's hoping that If You Leave is a continuation of that hot streak. I think it's a safe bet.

What better song for the official start of the summer than a song about the ice cream man? Hailing from Vancouver, Five Alarm Funk is a high energy ska/funk band whose sound is just plain fun.  Here for your viewing pleasure is their newest track/video "We All Scream".

Illiam B Gates just completed a tour of South Africa in September (their spring) for an amazing festival. He ended up writing an (upcoming) EP with Sibot, PH Fat, Jam Jarr and a few other amazing humans.

Youngsta and Gates were both feeling fresh and kicked out a summer jam we call Orange Sky. This one is all  good times and good friends, so it's our pleasure to share it with you.

Turn the system up and let's roll...

http://ill-gates.com/?p=3542

Much love from ill.Gates, Youngsta and the Cape Town Studio Crew

Instead of trying to come up with my own description of what this thing is it's better to simply let this thing explain itself. Just know that it is awesome and that you should check it out.

"This is an algorithmically-generated map of the musical genre-space. 

Genres and artists are positioned by code and data, adjusting for

legibility, but the underlying vectors are less interesting that the 

 juxtaposition and clusters that they produce, so the axes have been

deliberately left unlabeled and uncalibrated. You are invited to

imagine your own qualities and magnitudes that the geometry might

be expressing. I may occasionally spin the axes just to see what happens.

Click anything to hear an example of what it sounds like.

Click the >> on a genre to see a map of it's artists"

http://www.furia.com/misc/genremaps/engenremap.html

Here is a link to the new Ill Gates Mix EnJoY!

JENI aka Jenny Suk is a rising star on the YouTube front.  Not only does she have quite the vocal range, but her production chops are pretty tight too.  Here is her cover of SBTRKT's "Wildfire (fet. Little Dragon)" with some Drake thrown in for good measure.  Keep an eye on this one.

Don't fret! On this joyous day of celebration People Under The Stairs have your back. Now just click play and sit back and you know what to do after that.  Enjoy!

It could be said that I have a soft spot for really good songwriters, especially those ones who can make a song with brutally realistic yet whimsical lyrics.  Dad Rocks! falls right into that category.  Their single "Funployment" is one that tells of life and career choices in a light, humorous fashion that I think most people can  relate to. Not to mention they have an amazing band name. 

With the absence of Jai Paul from the music scene over the past year, sometimes the best a fan can do is get a fresh take on a favorite track.  Producer Filip Filipi has taken the wheel on that front with his remix of "Jasmine (Demo)".  It's a nice track that stays true to the source material while adding in some hip-hop vocals. Here's to (hopefully) the triumphant return of Jai Paul. 

Maximum Hedrum is the name of the band which, most notably, consists of New York based producer/dj Sam Spiegel and Sepultura lead singer Derrick Green. The fusion of New York experimental electronica with Brazilian heavy metal has fostered form a funky futuristic sound that is very much their own. The video listed below is for one of my favorites called "Synthesize" off their self titled album.

Enjoy!