Whenever you watch a rookie, regardless of whether its in sports or music, there's always a feeling you're rooting specifically for them. You want to see them reach their potential, throwing small stepping stones along the way.
We've already talked about supremely young (15 and 16 years-old) Japanese production duo BenZel when they remixed Jessie Ware's"If You Love Me" cover, which passed the bar pretty well. Today, the two premiered "Fallin Love," which features a rework of another 90s R&B single, SWV's "Can We."
Up-and-coming king of the southern rap scene, Big K.R.I.T. has released his first new material since his June studio debut Live From The Underground. "Now And Then," fitting the prototypical K.R.I.T. vibe, features help from Slim Thug.
The track will be featured on DJ Wally Spark's upcoming SPKSMEN mixtape, which is scheduled for release December 10. Stream or download it out below.
About a week back, The Guardian premiered this inventive video for Fiction's intensely catchy single "Museum." The track will be featured on the little-known band's March album The Other, which will be released via the always good Moshi Moshi Records. Check it out below.
Supreme avant-garde electronica brain grinders Black Moth Super Rainbow are on a relative mission. The band's most recent output, Cobra Juicy, a hypnotic blender of sultry synths, spacey vocals, and curiously inventive hooks, becomes a much more ambitious project when you look at what the band is doing for it.
The band launched their Cobra Juicyefforts on Kickstarter in order to self-release the project, asking donors in total for $45,000. Surpassing $125,000, the project went off well, and spurned a rich array of extra goodies, all available on the group's site.
BMSR brainchild Tobacco created personalized sketches, masks, stickers, posters, and even Polaroids and a super-special offer of, yes, having Tobacco throw his own version of a roller derby disco. That last offer comes merely for $10,000.
Aside from goodies, the band's live performance is consciously weird, swirling with ever-present imagery to go along with the multitude of masked eccentricities the band brings along.
You can catch the Pittsburgh band tomorrow alongside Savannah, Georgia group Casket Girls and Philly upstarters Creepoid at Philadelphia's Union Transfer. Doors will open at 8 p.m., with tickets still available here.
One of 2012's most unsuspectingly stellar mixtapes comes from producer DJ Dahi, who's fame has nabbed him some time with Freddie Gibbs and Kendrick Lamar on good kid, m.A.A.d city's "Money Trees."
Jumpy, disconnected, and large in scope, Toys 2.0 is welcoming in its all-over appeal. The instrumental album doesn't dwell solely in the realm of hip-hop production, taking surprising leaps to clever chip tune pop on tracks like "Simon," and jazz soul revisions on "Binyah Binyah" (the name-sake from notorious 1990s kids show Gulla Gulla Island).
It's a must listen, and, oh yes, totally free to download. Grab a copy here.
Revivalist Portland punk band Mean Jeans is less than two weeks away from their December 18 7" split with Big Eyes (via Dirtnap), which boasts this furiously fun "I Miss Outerspace." Think The Spits but more spacey and Jeansy.
"Wait," the last entrant into the M83 + Fleur and Manu video series is one of Hurry Up, We're Dreaming's more subdued less well-known tracks. Full of splendid imagery, the video follows "Midnight City" and "Reunion" through the spacey realm of childlike whimsy. Check it out below.
Ducktails, the side-project headed by Real Estate member Matt Mondanile, just released this gorgeous new single "Letter Of Intent." The track features the help from some familiar names, including Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never) and Joel Ford, whom you may recall was his partner on Ford & Lopatin. Additionally, Jessa Farkas provides some heart-warming vocals.
Check the track out below, and grab Ducktails' new album The Flower Lane January 29, via Domino Records.
Chill rock (has anyone said that yet?) New York band Beach Fossils have released the first single from their upcoming album Clash The Truth. You can stream and/or download the track below, and watch out for Clash The Truth February 19, via Captured Tracks.
A day after A$AP Rocky released the official confirmation date of his long-awaited LONG.LIVE.A$AP album, the Harlem phenom released this emerging all-stars music video for his previously released "Fuckin' Problems." The track features the likes of 2 Chainz, who handles the chorus, Drake, who wears a terrible shirt, and Kendrick Lamar, who gives his best in the finale.
Check out the video below, and mark your calendars for January 15, 2013 - the official release date of LONG.LIVE.A$AP.
From producer Nosaj Thing's upcoming album Home, is this cleverly subdued "Snap." You can stream or download the track below, and watch out for Home, which is scheduled for release in January.
Alek Fin's masterful four-track Mull EP may have come a bit late in 2012, but it would surely make any deserving end-of-the year list for the best EP's. Unfortunately, B&B doesn't have one. So we can just assume it'd be up there for now.
You can stream the entire EP below, or grab Mull on iTunes.
Every December, the pace here begins to slow down. Less and less new fun stuff seems to leak out, and instead we see more and more year-end lists. Not that that's a bad thing, because I do love my year-end lists. But until Bears and Bullets gets to its annual year-end ones, we're stuck with little to say.
Luckily, that time is very quickly approaching. Until it does, we'll do our best to provide what little seems to be out there. Today, workaholic Johnny Jewel released a brand new mixtape featuring work from his collective Chromatics, Glass Candy, and other projects. Also included are a few seminal cuts from Kraftwerk and Nico. You can stream it or download it below.
