Very much enjoying Pete Lawrie’s song, Paperthin. Makes me feel grounded and sublime.
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I caught this pic last week at Upfront’s office in London. Can’t say we didn’t deserve this after those 8 years.
I was sharing a cab with a Topspin band in London on Friday evening heading from the PIAS office back to my new home in Shoreditch and heard the lead singer mention the band Beast. Wikipedia entry here. He gave it his strong recommendation so I had to check it out. Mr. Hurricane was the first song I heard from Beast, and it captured me quick with it’s indie-rock and hip-hop stylings; some are calling them trip-hip-hop-rock. I live for moments like these when the art form is practically indescribable. I then checked out the video, and it was amazing. I’m not the only one who thinks that as it was nominated for a 2010 GRAMMY for Best Short Form Music Video in the company of Black Eyed Peas, Coldplay, Depeche Mode, and Oren Lavie. I really like what I hear and see, so I’m looking forward to checking them out at SXSW and catching them live when I can. Enjoy:
Getting my fill in of wonderful Venice Beach, California sunsets before shipping off to London. Venice Beach sunsets are truly special, and I’m going to miss them.
Tags: sunset, venice beach
Check out Brad Barrish’s December 2009 Mix in full-length stream glory. He’s got impeccable music taste and has introduced me to more good music than anyone. That’s quite an accolade considering I’m fortunate enough to swim through great music at Topspin.
I’m a religious subscriber to his monthly mix tape. I highly recommend it. You can give him your email below, and he’ll deliver them to your inbox regularly. You will be pleasantly fulfilled with his dose of good music monthly.
Thank you Brad and mad respect for your consistent gifts of music and vibe.
Sub Swara’s Coup D’Yah is a classic from 2008. David Starfire just remixed Koli Stance available for free. Just enter your email in the widget below and the free track will be mailed to you:
If you want a refresher on Coup D’Yah, one of my favorites of all time, check out the full-length streams here:
Some of my best peak out tracks:
Go over to Sub Swara’s Coup D’Yah page and buy the album. It’s the freshest sound around town.
When I was in London for Topspin work last month, I had a chance to grab a seat at the sold out Barbican show featuring Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones opening for them. I’ve seen them all before and was excited to have a chance to see them again as I’m a huge fan of Bela Fleck and Victor Wooten especially. Victor is widely regarded as one of the best bass players ever. He’s won Bass Player Magazines’ “Bass Player of the Year” three times in a row and is the first person to win it more than once according to his Wikipedia bio. I queued an hour before the show and was lucky to grab some great seats at face value from a lovely lady who had extras since her kids weren’t able to come. Bela, Victor, and his brother, Mr. Futureman were a real treat. Check out Futureman’s drumitar. The Wooten brothers definitely have the genius gene. It’s amazing to see such virtuosos artfully and skillfully moving us with their music. At the show, I managed to capture Victor Wooten ripping it up on my point and shoot camera. Enjoy.
It’s a massive honor and thrill to be involved in the live release of Paul McCartney’s performance at Citi Field in New York City. Topspin played a role in the online marketing and distribution of his latest project titled Good Evening New York City. With 33 songs spanning over 2 and a half hours of live music, this release is a great collection of Beatles, Wings, and solo classics. There are two premium physical packages in addition to the digital audio and video options: a Standard Edition with a dual CD live album plus DVD of the performance and a Deluxe Edition with an additional Bonus DVD of McCartney’s performance on top of the Ed Sullivan Theater along with the documentary, “Good Evening People.”
Here’s a video of the show with Paul playing “Highway” off of his project with Youth in the The Fireman.
Good Evening New York City shows McCartney in action, and it’s a real treat. We get to hear his stories about Hendrix, Lennon, and the making of “Blackbird”, a much revered guitar classic. It’s makes you smile to see Paul have so much fun on stage. It’s a special night as The Beatles played Shea Stadium in 1965 to the biggest rock show ever at the time, and when Citi Field opened up this summer on the site of the old Shea Stadium, they asked Paul to perform the stadium’s first show. The magic is clearly in the air reminiscent of the 1965 performance as the camera beautifully captures the sea of eager fans across the colossal new stadium. Download the free “Highway” video and get an MP3 of “Let Me Roll It” from the show. Just enter your email below, and a link to download the music will arrive in your inbox.
Much has been said of the impact and influence Paul and the Beatles have had on today’s music culture. I have looked up to them as innovators, activists, and songwriters since I was young enough to appreciate music. This release was one of the most exciting and rewarding projects I have had the privilege of working on at Topspin. The best part of the whole project, however, was the way my team rose to the occasion when Scott Rodger, Paul’s manager, asked us if we could configure a Topspin purchase flow that only accepted American Express. Amex approached Scott with a special offer for their card members where they would receive a bonus exclusive track from Paul McCartney if they used their Amex card. It all sounded like a great idea, except Topspin didn’t have an Amex only option in our purchasing system. When I went to the team to ask them if it was possible, I didn’t get an, “are you kidding me?” reaction, but rather an eager, genuine willingness to make it happen. In seven days the Topspin engineering and QA team pulled if off. Check out the Amex only purchase page here. Purchase with your Amex card exclusively and get the bonus track, “(I Want To) Come Home,” from Paul McCartney. Kudos to the Topspin team for over delivering and doing so ahead of time. It’s a true honor to be working with a legend like Paul McCartney and his awesome team (Scott, Lisa, Ruth, Nancy), and also with the team at Topspin who reacted to this Amex challenge with a keen passion to eagerly serve our artists. I feel blessed all around. Thank you.
Great Sexy Time mix on Memekast. Sexy Time comprises Mimosa and Sleepyhead. I’m liking these tunes at Novel Cafe in Santa Monica on a wonderful Sunday evening while putting some hours in on the computer. Dubstep, crunkstep, glitch-hop, hard to classify. Might as well be called Sexytiming.
These are not to be messed with driving beats with fun and fleeting touches of sweet and chunky droppings. Cool soloing amidst tasty remixing adds to the spice. Thanks Ameet Mehta for sharing the tunes. It’s nice when we work 10 feet away from each other. Our Topspin Santa Monica office is blessed for Ameet’s music stylings and recommendations.
Click here to stream or download. Enjoy.
Mix:
Fire – Sexytime
Holla Like Whoa! – Sleepyhead
Day & Night (Mimosa remix) – Kid Cudi
Take You There (Sleepyhead thizzle refix) – Sean Kingston
Club Steppin – Sexytime
Freeway – Sexytime
I’m A Flirt (Sleepyhead Remix) – R.Kelly
Dirty Diamonds – Eprom + Sleepyhead > Twista Accapella
Superbad (Mimosa Remix) – Sofia Fresh
Forgot About Dre. W/ Nelly Furtado (Mimosa Remix) – Dr.Dre
Topspin’s latest release is from Eminem. His new album Relapse is available on his site. We’re honored to be working with him and his team, and this project has been on of our biggest ones to date. You can check out a video and thirty second clips from the album at the widget in the bottom of the page. Normally, we encourage our artists to stream full-length tracks in their promotional widgets as it encourages sharing and sampling of the music to prime the purchase of a download, but Eminem belongs to a major label which thinks differently on this specific topic. Regardless, we’re excited to be powering his direct-to-fan release for his new album.
Although I’ve always respected Eminem for his MCing and for what he’s accomplished, I’ve never been a mega-fan. I became a believer, however, with his Mosh video below, a protest song against George W. Bush before the 2004 election. It was an inspiring call to arms or rather a call to get out and vote. It gave me chills the first time I saw it and still does today. Check out the video below.
I love it when artists explicitly weave social messages into their music. Eminem released Mosh early before his album Encore in late 2004 to influence the youth to vote against Bush and the war. This one is definitely a favorite of mine. It shows that Eminem is not content to sit still and watch the world go to hell. He rose to the occasion to motivate others to make the right change.
Check out more of Eminem’s latest album below and click through to the offer page where you can get the downloads, deluxe packages, vinyl, t-shirts, hoodies, autographed prints, and high-quality audio-file formats.
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