Curren$y-This Ain't No Mixtape

Curren$y's a young rapper who's put out his first album this week after a string of excellent mixtapes. Since leaving Lil Wayne's Cash Money Records, Curren$y has really stepped up his game and his debut album just expands on the work he's done over the course of his first 6 tapes. 

Standout Tracks: Elavator Musik, The Jets Son

This Ain't No Mixtape is available online now

Review: Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band- Outer South

Four out of Five Stars.

Less than a year after Conor Oberst ditched his "Bright Eyes" moniker to record a solo album he's back with a

 whole new set of tunes. There's no big changes in the Oberst songs but the big change in this record is the addition

 of songs written and sung by Oberst's

 band mates. To put it bluntly, these songs are not very good and just have no place on the album. Conor Oberst is questionably one of the best lyricists of our generation and he should be the one writing the songs in this band. But ultimatley, the songs that are written by Oberst on the album are spectacular. From the opening rocker "Slowly (oh so slowly)"  to the moving "White Shoes" Oberst covers a plethera of subjects and produces some songs that may some day be considerd in his best work. The standout track is "Ten Women" a moving acoustic piece that definatly supports the "his generations Dylan" idea. Though i'll find myself skipping the bands tracks on this one it's a great example of why Conor Oberst is one of the great singer-songwriters going right now.

Wilco- Ashes of American Flags DVD

Got this in the mail the other day and its been on replay since then. What an incredible concert film. It really gives you a great insight into a band on the road and also a look at the corprate takeover of American life. The shows are intimate and magical, this is really a band at the height of their powers. Wilco will continue their push to become America's greatest band with a new album this summer.

Phoneix- Wolfgang Amadeus

this band is too good. Im pinching my self that id never heard of them before this but im glad i know them now because this is one of the records of the year so far. The album starts out with the excellent one-two punch of "Lisztomania" and "1901" and dosn't slow down from there. Another standout is "Rome" which reaches excellently high levels. Its synth pop at it's finest and is something to be celebrated. 

Stream Outer South

Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band's new album Outer South is streaming on Merge Record's website (http://www.mergerecords.com/store/store_detail.php?catalog_id=605) His first record with the new band was excellent, this one sounds really great as well.

(UPDATE: the record is no longer streaming, but has leaked.....http://www.mediafire.com/?joekmywzimt)

Charles Hamilton- New Mixtape

Charles Hamilton is a young rapper that hasn't even released an album yet, but hes got TONS of mixtapes out there. He's real creative and is different from anyone you've ever heard before. His new mixtape is called "The Dead Zone" and if you like his other stuff your sure to like this. Some people have been complaining about the album art but if you look at it, it clearly says "I know what this looks like". Who knows why he chose that as the cover, lets just focus on the music.

Link: 

http://www.zshare.net/download/579645979e4a317f/#