Pearl Jam is back with a new album, Backspacer, and flannel shirts are back in style.  It’s like middle school all over again.  Truth is, for most of my friends, Pearl Jam and flannel shirts NEVER WENT OUT OF STYLE.  For me, I took a break from both, like lots of people did (I haven’t bought a Pearl Jam album since Vitalogy and all my flannel shirts got handed down to my sister back in her alternative years), but there’s a lot of positive vibes surrounding PJ’s new album.  They seem to be in a good place as a band, embracing new media, marketing, and business strategies (they inked a distribution deal with Target  for the album release and an all Pearl Jam Rock Band video game is in the works).  They even made a video for their first single!  Check it out below…

In celebration of this new release, let’s go back to where it all started and check out some classic jams from the original flannel years.  Here’s a couple of my favorites from the good old days…

Temple of the Dog “Hunger Strike” (Official Video)

Pearl Jam “Black” (Live)

Congrats to Pearl Jam on the recent success.  I know all their long time supporters are pumped for this new album.  Should be an awesome autumn for them.  As for flannel fans, well it looks like your time to shine has come back around this season.  Out with the autotune, in with the LL Bean…

Pearl Jam Backspacer is in stores now (album cover is sick).  And if you’re near a newsstand, cop the latest Spin Magazine.  Great cover story in there on them…hollerrrrrrrrrr.

I’ll take a late pass on posting this video.  It’s a year and a half old, but it’s absolutely awesome.  Dirty Nasty “Cracker Ass Fantastic”.  Yeah, that’s Simon Rex from the old school MTV days for those of you not up on him.  He’s a hilarious white rapper, and surprisingly good.  And very fun.

And here, watch this clip of Dirt Nasty getting wrecked with Andy Milonakis and some dude Riff Raff from the show G’s to Gents (who is a total character).  They start freestyling for the camera around 1:40 in.  Looks like they were having a great time.  Funny flows.  Stupid, but funny.  “I’ll knock out L. Ron Hubbard”….hahahaha!!!!

More on Dirt Nasty HERE.  Uno…

Without a doubt, Eastbound and Down was the best new show on TV this year.  The problem is that it was only six episodes long.  The good news is that there is a season two in the works, but it probably won’t air until next year.  For now, let’s just thank the DVD gods for blessing us with so many hilarious deleted scenes and outtakes from the first season of the show.  Looks like they had a blast filming all this stuff.  Here’s some deleted scenes to start with…

Now check these outtake reels.  Will Ferrell is off the yelzabar!!!

Seriously, I could watch these all day.  How does anyone ever get through a scene with Will Ferrell without cracking up?  I guess the answer is….they don’t.  Finally, check out this bonus deleted scene with Stevie talking about how he banged a 90 year old woman at a nursing home.  Unreal.

Can’t wait for season two of Eastbound and Down.  Until then, I’ll have season one on heavy repeat.

This dude Kutiman is one talented mofo.  One of the kids I work with put me on to his videos a few months ago, where he takes different Youtube clips of people playing or singing music and mashes them together to create these amazing songs with the videos to match.  It’s really incredible.  Think sampling but with videos!!!  Kutiman is from Israel, and is a professional musician with one full length album under his belt, which has gotten a lot of press and is supposedly really dope ( it’s titled Kutiman and I can’t wait to check it out).  But his ThruYOU project is what’s really getting him a ton of exposure across the world right now.  I need a bit of a late pass for this, because it popped off earlier in the year.  Still, it’s so timeless that it doesn’t even matter.  I think “Wait For Me” is my favorite one (below), but there’s seven in all, so check the link underneath to watch the whole project.  Propps Kidd!!!!!!!

WATCH ALL THRUYOU VIDEOS

When you go to the link above, you should click the CREDITS box on the right side under the video playlist to get links to all the original clips used in each of Kutiman’s creations.  For example, here’s the original clips of the drummer and the guy singing on the talkbox from “Wait For Me” so you can get a feel for how he gets his mash on.

Also, make sure to watch the ABOUT video in the link above for behind the scenes footage of how he does what he does.  Peace…

I bought Radiohead’s The Best Of  album off the strength of one song.  “Jigsaw Falling Into Place”.  My boy Gippamaldi sent the mp3 to me around the time their album In Rainbows came out and I fell in love with it.  I didn’t own any Radiohead albums, and I was curious to see if they had any more songs as good as this one right here since people always tell me how amazing they are.  I figured this would be a good way to start.  I’ll let you know if I find any other gems that I’ve been napping on.  For now, check out their video for “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” (love the bike helmets), and also a clip of them performing the Scotch Mist version (not sure what that means haha) of the same song.  Yeah, it’s not a new track, but I just saw these videos for the first time and I wanted to share them.  It’s my blog and I’ll post if I want to!!!!!!  

What’s your favorite Radiohead song?  Favorite album?  Let me know.  And don’t say “Creep”.  I’m not that mushy.

*Bonus*

I always liked the video for the Kanye/Lupe/Pharrell collabo “Us Placers”, which samples Radiohead’s lead singer Thom Yorke’s solo cut “The Eraser”.  The kids are cool in this….

Check ya later!

I never knew much about Fashawn, other than that he’s a west coast rapper who’s cool with The Alchemist (one of my favorite producers).  Well I gave his latest mixtape a listen and I really liked it.  The Antidote, a warm up of sorts for his debut album coming out next month (titled Boy Meets World), is put together entirely by The Alchemist, and has some great moments.  Many of the songs are made up of re-worked samples that you may recognize from classic 90’s hip hop records.  And there’s even Bob Marley vocal interludes (of him talking), which I found to be a nice touch.  Standout tracks include “Got It Sewn”, the short but sweet title track “The Antidote”, and the even shorter but sweeter “FYI”. Props to The Alchemist for his excellent production, and of course to Fashawn as well for showcasing a refreshing style of laidback floetry.  His voice and accent kinda remind me of a young Ras Kass (probably because they’re both from California but have more traditional east coast styles of rapping).  In fact, here’s a song from the mixtape called “Play It Cool” that you can preview, where Fashawn calls himself the only west coast rapper that “could’ve been in the Wu”.  Give it a spin, and then download the whole project below…

DOWNLOAD FASHAWN THE ANTIDOTE PRODUCED BY THE ALCHEMIST

*Bonus*

Remember this?  One of my favorite releases in the 21st Century.  Prodigy and The Alchemist is one of the all time most potent combinations in rap music.  Haters like to give Prodigy a hard time, but the real geez know that he’s dope as hell on the mic.  Check the classic lead video from Return Of The Mac, “Mac 10 Handle”.  Free Pee!!!!

P.S.  Raekwon’s “Surgical Gloves” on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II, produced by The Alchemist, IS THE TOUGHEST SONG OUT RIGHT NOW.  I bang this in my whip every morning…

Hold up.  Did Rae just say “bulletproof brothels with the Jew bitches” on that song??!?!?!?!  That’s awesome.  One.