Allthyngs

More from Daytrotter! Frightened Rabbit is one of those bands that I don’t like all that much generally but has come out with a few songs that I adore. Download this version of Good Arms vs. Bad Arms now! Scott’s accent, crooning, and unaccompanied guitar make you want to feel as sorry for him as he is feeling for himself. I think this version is a huge step up from the one on the album.

Check it out on daytrotter.

This is possibly one of the most useful websites I have ever found. You can convert any youtube video to an mp3, you can select any part of the video and also edit its tags for iTunes, you can use it for songs that you can’t find or don’t feel like buying, or for comedy routines or something you want to listen to later. It doesn’t always work, it can be slow, and some videos require a few tries. When it works, however, it’s really awesome.

Check it out at Dirpy.com

Certain things just don’t get old. MGMT’s catchy electronic hit Kids is one of those things. Chiddy Bang, a spankin’ new rap group out of Philly, exemplfies the immortal quality of Kids by using it as the beat for their beyond catchy breakout single, Opposite of Adults. The music video’s cool to boot, bringing back fond Goldeneye-era memories.

We can’t embed it, but check it out on YouTube Read more

People have been playing music in basements for a long time. Most of the time it’s crappy, but every once in a while good bands get back to their roots and play in underground spaces. From the Basement is a website that has high definition videos of performances by some awesome bands like Radiohead, Beck, Damien Rice, and Gnarls Barkley just to name a few. The bands play with no audience in small spaces that displays their talent. You can tell that they are having a lot of fun playing. Click around the videos there are a lot of good ones.

Check it out at Fromthebasement.tv

This song combines two really talented artists. Tiesto is the consummate DJ; there are few people in the world who even compare. Deadmau5 comes to mind but he hasn’t nearly reached the same amount of people worldwide. Tegan and Sara had a song on Grey’s Anatomy or something like that. Despite that, they’re really great and have a unique sound. I can honestly put this song on repeat and not get tired of it.

Mixtapes and DJ mash-ups are an addiction. Luckily for you, I’ve got your next fix and it’s big. The Hood Internet, a DJ tagteam from Chicago, have nearly 150 tracks divided over 4 mixtapes and 2 vs. albums, which I will confidently say are almost all awesome (I’ve only listened to like 20 so if they aren’t all awesome I apologize for my hubris). They mainly do mash-ups with indie rock, which seems to be a new fad lately, but I’m definitely not complaining, it’s fucking legit.

Check them out at Thehoodinternet.com, and check out one of their newest tracks, The Jump Off Intact (Lil’ Kim vs Dam-Funk), embedded after the jump.

Passion Pit’s Sleepyhead is probably one of the most fun things to dance to ever. This remix is better.

I go to Bowdoin, a small college in New England, and we have a lot of bizarre stereotypes. The first time I walked on campus I noticed that a lot of the boys rolled up their jeans a little too high so that their Tevas would poke out. We also have a lot of lacrosse bros who listen to too much Dave Matthews for anyone’s good. This video is technically about Middlebury, but the stereotypes it points out definitely apply to all of the other tiny liberal arts colleges in the area. Bowdoin doesn’t have a Quidditch team, but we are still G’s throwin some free granola.

You may have already dismissed Kid Cudi as just another auto-tuner, but you should look again (meaning watch the videos embedded after the jump). Kid Cudi may have gotten his big break from Kanye by doing Day n’ Night, but his repertoire includes so much more. With calm beats and fun lyrics, Kid Cudi is coming up in a different way than the average rapper, an issue which he addresses in Man on the Moon. I really can’t do him justice in this short description, so I’ll just let you watch his videos to understand my loss for words.

Damn Lil’ Wayne is everywhere nowadays. He’s even infiltrated the most eccentric genre of soulful/unique/I don’t care what anyone thinks of me, I’m gonna do my own thing music, which really only comprises two artists: Erykah Badu & Andre 3000. Nevertheless, this song is fire… and the video is very weird, yet oddly intriguing. A must have for any fulfilling music collection.

Unfortunately, you can only watch the video on Kanye’s website, so check it out over there.

Josh Ritter’s Girl in the War is definitely one of my favorite songs of the past four years. The originally recorded version is just really lush and atmospheric — the music is so gorgeous that his amazing voice kind of gets lost. This live acoustic version exhibits his husky voice and endearing drawl really well, and the crooning at the end is my favorite part. If you haven’t heard the original version yet, however, get on it now.

You probably know what a Rube Goldberg machine is — one of those contraptions where a ball slides down a slide and hits a windmill which triggers some other mechanical event. This OK Go video features what is basically the mother of all Rube Goldberg machines and even inspired me to think about making one of my own.

Like terrible music? Neither do I. That’s why I spend quite a few hours of my time searching for a good new music site. I’ve come across hotnewhiphop.com, datpiff.com and hypem.com, but Fratmusic.com is currently my website of choice. Fraternities all across the country submit their playlists via youtube videos so anyone can listen to them. I have found more good music the last few weeks than I have found this entire semester. My Playlist, Party N’ Bullshit, is currently number nine on the “Hot This Week List,” so check it out and vote for it if you like it.

Check out everybody else’s music at Fratmusic.com

I’ve been resisting posting this for a while, because it’s just me shamelessly sharing a song I’m obsessed with. But this is a DAMN good song and I haven’t been able to get it off of repeat since, well, November.

Find out more about the Avett Brothers at Last.fm
And watch the video for November Blue, embedded after the jump (click “read more”).

Grooveshark is an internet radio site that lets you pick the songs you want to hear, which is really cool. You can listen to whole albums or selected songs, and you can even make a playlist that wont suck. There are a ton of bands on the site, but it’s mostly just newer bands, which is the one draw back. Definitely check it out though, because it’s a great way to listen to music. They even have apps you can use on your phone for a few bucks a month.

Listen away at Grooveshark.com

Thom Yorke plays, and we pay attention. This is how it goes for most Radiohead fans. Here’s a video of him playing Airbag in Cambridge, England form. It’s haunting and simple, and gets to the heart of why so many of us love this band and their music.

This song is simply the tits. I love the Talking Heads and I love this song. This version of it simply pushes it over the edge. Miles Fisher went to St. Alban’s in DC (one of my rival high schools) and then Harvard. He’s clearly a really smart guy and incredibly talented. He modeled this video after Christian Bale’s performance in American Psycho. The juxtaposition of this song with that movie really puts me in a good place and it’s incredibly clever. Check out the video after the jump (click “read more”).

Like all things Australian, Dub FX is awesome. Using only his supernatural beatboxing skills and some echo-pedal doohickeys, Dub FX redefines the one-man band. Suck on that, Dick Van Dyke.

Check out his website for more: http://dubfx.bandcamp.com/, and for God’s sake buy his CD.

If you haven’t heard “Tik Tok” By the gloriously gifted autotune singer Ke$ha, then you have been living under a rock for the last 3 months. But yesterday I heard a pretty good remix that I thought was worthy of recognition. I understand that Lil’ Wayne has his critics and his die hard fans, and I admit that at times he has used autotune too much and his lyrics have gone down hill, but everyone has a soft spot for Weezy. LMFAO also contributes nicely.

You can download the remix at garageband.com
Or watch the video after the jump (click “read more”).

A bunch of famous artists (seriously, like all of them. Even Lil Wayne, but don’t worry, he’s auto-tuned. And is that Scarlett Johnasson in the back there?) got together recently to re-record We are the World to help Haiti. To keep them from helping Haiti, I’m posting it here for you to watch the video (which was made by Oscar winning director Paul Haggis), but if you actually want to help Haiti, you can pay to download the track at www.World25.org. It’s a good song, and Haitians have it pretty shitty, so go download the damn song. Or just watch it here and send some money anyway.