Here’s the official release to “No Church In The Wild” from Jay-Z & Kanye West’s 2011 mega-hit album Watch The Throne. The visual imagery compliments the song in high cinematic fashion. Filmed in Prague last month by director Romain Gavras, you get the classy European artwork mixed with the rough rebellion street fight. We think it’s stunning how Gavras tells the story of the song without including Jay, Ye & Frank Ocean (who sings the hook). If you are planning an overseas trip this summer you can catch Grammy Award winning super hero duo continue on their European concert tour.
Azealia Banks finally releases her EP and title track “1991” (digital May 29th, physical June 12th). This infectious lil’ darling from Harlem has a penchant for catchy hooks and provocative lyrics wrapped around dance infused hip hop. After critical acclaim of her single “212″ and her short yet spark-filled shows (she crushed it at Coachella), Ms. Banks‘ management feverishly tried to keep up with her European booking requests through 2012. However, Azealia knew she couldn’t hold out on delivering the EP so cancelled many of those dates in order to finish her project. Thank goodness, because we need the club banger energy to kick off Summer 2012! Iggy Azalea better be cookin’ up something tasty w/ T.I., because “Ms. 212” is in the lead for sure at this moment. Let us know what you think…
brandUn DeShay is truly young fresh talent in the music industry. The Chicago-bred Producer/MC (who now resides in Brooklyn) curated some of last year’s most influential “freshman” in the game (Mikey Rocks, Tyler The Creator, Mac Miller, Curren$y, etc). Even legends such asQ-Tip (A Tribe Called Quest) praise his work ethic and natural skills. “All Day” DeShay has been most notable in the past as a former member of Odd Future, but he definitely holds his own as a solo artist. Brandun’s effortless rhymes over his own production or mixtape beats seem to fit like a glove. You can download his mixtapes and LPs here. Check out his latest single “World Famous” and the laid back lovers diddy “Ur Fresh” and let us know what you think.
If you are an electro-dance music, you gotta peep the new releases by British Indie Pop duo Summer Camp. Multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Warmsley and vocalist Elizabeth Sankey weave a great pattern of indie-dance music with heavy lyrical harmonies that keeps it breezy and refreshing. Here’s the title cut from their upcoming EP, Always(due to hit cyberstores and shelves July 10th). As a bonus, we included the first single “Life” so you can get an extra taste. Oh yeah, please don’t mistake them for the Alt-Rock quartet (Summercamp) from Santa Barbara, CA. Summer Camp has their own swag which pleasantly permeates authentic English 80′s new wave.
Swizzy is back with another banger “Street Knock” from his upcoming Limitless mixtape. This time he teams up w/ Harlem’s A$AP Rocky to create a summer anthem NYC style. Since becoming Alicia Key’s husband a few years ago, Swizz Beats has been adding lots of international corporate power moves to his resume. He’s come out with a line of cars for Lotus, signed a sneaker/apparel deal with Reebok and will be responsible for bridging the gap between Korean music artists via South Korea’s ON-Media (genre known as “K-Pop”). All this in addition to keeping it thorough stateside by working as resident producer for NYU’s Tisch School of Arts while preparing for the Rough Riderz reunion. Whew. Can’t knock the hustle. Anyhow, peep Swizz Beats tear up the NYC streets in his signature Lotus with a special guest appearance by retired NBA bad boy Allen Iverson, whom makes the video’s street edge complete.
SwitchFlip proudly introduces Elegant Animals to your eardrums. The Philadelphia born and based duo released their 7-song EP Spectrum Nocturnalin late February 2012. After being in SwitchFlip Media’soffice rotation heavily through March, our head honcho D-How caught up with the group. After interviewing Jules &Brandon (whom share love for same types of music and upbringing in the Philadelphia area) we are dedicated to supporting their “come up”. These cats have a bright future ahead of them as they continue to craft their unique blend of sounds. Check out the full interview & download their debut EP Spectrum Nocturnal at the link below…your ears will thank you.
(Click above to hear and download Elegant Animals’ EP Spectrum Nocturnal…it’s Free)
SFM: Who is the Band or “Outfit” and what is up w/ the name? EA:The band is composed of myself (Jules Kazys) on lead vocals/production and Brandon Shockley on guitar. The name came from a Pablo Naruda poem that was written in Spanish. The word “Animales Elegantes” jumped out and just decided to go with Elegant Animals. We like it for now….
SFM: Where are you from? Please give us your nicknames (at least). In addition to the place you represent, age range, etc. EA:We are both from philly born and raised. The two of us have gone to school together since grade school and started playing music together in high school. We’re now in our mid 20s and still reside in the Illadel.
SFM:Who does the production and engineering? What entails a live show? EA:Joe Reinhart from The Headroom Studios in Philly was the engineer on the album. We did a lot of arrangements on our own with our equipment and all that. I’d say we were about 70% done with the album and then took into into the studio with Joe to flush things out, record vocals and guitar, and add some little touches. He was a huge help in the recording process. He has an ear and musical knowledge that neither of us have and he was a major factor in creating the quality of the sound.
SFM: So you’re Reppin’ Philly…how is it for you and how do you rep the City of Brotherly Love? EA:Philly is the shit. We both love it here and it really has a great music scene in its own right. When we first started sending out the EP to blogs and stuff like that we would always mention we were from Philly, which we thought might have caught people’s eye or something, not really thinking about it too consciously. We also wanted to give ourselves a bit of an identity since there really aren’t any pictures of us online or anything. But we both love it here and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
SFM: What about Tours & Deals? EA:We would love to tour, its most bands’ dream to travel around and play, but want to hone in the live sound a bit more before we get ahead of ourselves…this is a growing process. Can’t say much on any deals right now, but I think we are pretty comfortable where we are at the moment in that we have total 100% creative control of everything we do.
SFM: You sound gorgeous on wax, but I don’t want to be scurred to book you some Hollywood LA shows. Do you love studio versus live? how do you want to come across at a live show? EA: I think playing live and putting things together in the studio are two very different things. Being in the studio is great and being able to flush out creative ideas and experiment is what I love about the studio. We definitely love making music that people can listen to closely and get intimate with. There are definitely things that you can do in the studio that you can’t quite do (or as easily do) live as well. But the same things go with playing live, in that you have to really think about the energy of the songs. I think there are some really great performers who can stand in front of a computer and make the live show an amazing experience in terms of energy. To this day I think that Flying Lotus was one of the best live shows I have ever seen and it was just him, his computer and his equipment. I walked out and remember feeling like I had just seen Jimi Hendrix or something it was dope. But I think the only way we can really get that together is with more human elements, so I think the live show will be somewhat different than the record. It wont just be the two of us with a computer and guitar, lets put it that way.
Come check out this benefit concert tonight at The Central in Santa Monica! All proceeds go to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Team In Training. We have great sponsors such as WeLoVenice,Aviator Nation, Schecter Guitar Research, etc. 3 Bands (Epic Jam, MK & The Gentleman, The Hang) and 2 DJs (SwitchFlip’s very own DameDigiplus Venice Ale House’s Freshair). Doors open at 8:30.
Real Estatecrushed a pretty cool live set on KEXP 90.3 Radio in Seattle. The NJ quartet released their self titles debut album (to much critical acclaim) in 2009. This live session’s jams are from their latest album Days, which hit cyberstores in mid-late 2011. We anticipate a new album later this year. Catch them on tour this summer…you’ll dig their well crafted pop songs formatted in breezy surf rock.
Mobb Deep‘s Prodigy releases the first video “Gangsta Love” for his upcoming solo album HNIC3 hitting cyberstores on July 3rd. Surprisingly a smooth video for the well known “keep it throrough” hardcore MC, we find Prodigy kicking it for the ladies on this one. There’s been rumors that P and Havoc (the other half and producer of Mobb Deep) are twitter beefing. However we are certain all will be well with the longtime partners this summer so we get that anticpated full length M.O.B.B. record this fall. As always, Illuminati P delivers strong bars but we aren’t sold on Esther’s delivery of the hook. Regardless, all real hip hop fans will enjoy the fact that we get the new “post-prison” Prodigy HNIC installment soon enough! You can get this single here. Let us know what you think about this flick…does it represent P and Mobb Deep or not?
The Coathangers released the third video from 2011′s Larceny & Old Lace for the song “Go Away”. Directed & edited by Jason Travis, the video shows the girls grinding it out on tourthis spring. Their extended tour took them from Seattle to Nashville through April. Stay posted for any summer concert dates. We dig how simple yet haunting the video is (athough the content displays the comraderie between bandmates) as they go on random escapades on the road trip across country.
