Midwest hip-hop seems to all I rock these days. Minnesota rhymesayer Slug and his backing band Ant are Atmosphere. Beats and rhymes about ex-girls, getting drunk and urinating in fish tanks, introspective thoughts, homages to Minnesota, ETC. When he’s playing around, you can’t help but smirk; when Slug is being real, you can’t help and admire his sincerity. His verses with Murs are always a good time.

Since Atmosphere has done well for themselves the past decade, Slug wants to thank you again. This time, it’s an up of a seven cut EP. Check a sample below and after that, enjoy the EP. Thanks, Slug.

Atmosphere :: C’mon

Atmosphere :: Leak at Will EP

I’ve come to repel away from the remix, re-fix, edit, ETC. Because more times than not, the original was perfect; there wasn’t a need to reinterpret it. On the flip though, I’ve discovered artists through their reinterpretations of coveted tracks. When little known group Soulwax cranked Muse’s “Muscle Museum” up some BPMs and put their dirty feel to it, I took a gamble on the duo behind the remix. And now, Soulwax has it’s own category on this blog.

Denmark’s Trentemoller, a DJ/producer with funky, minimal techno tendencies puts his spin on Franz’s rather ubiquitous single, “No You Girls”. Rather than add a pastiche of pulsating beats or rave-like atmospherics like your standard remix, he keeps it clean; and adds only what’s essential to complement and not turn attention away from Alex Kaprano’s vocals.

Franz Ferdinand :: No You Girls (Trentemoller remix)

This time, the Danish sound is geared for the club. It’s druggy, gloomy, and glorious – all at the same time. I hope you’re patient enough to endure all eight minutes…

The Knife :: We Share Our Mother’s Health (Trentemoller remix)

you see, that is the problem with being a fan of modern funk/soul. more than any other genre i can think of, it is always being compared to its past. critics bomb it. consumers more or less bomb it. like, how the fuck can we compare a soul album in 2009 with one from 1964? of course it’s not as good when set beside sam cooke or james brown or stax or all that early 70s southern soul groove that smokes.

i mean, why even listen to anything that isn’t the pinnacle of its genre? everything’s been done better before, right? so why don’t we do this with other genres?

The funk, soul brother is one I’m still playing catch up with. That chase will go on forever – the catalog is almost infinite, because it’s been in the making for forty plus years, right? Instead of backtracking to the greats of the past, I’ve ventured into modern day soul igniters – like Raphael Saadiq and even the white wonder: Jamie Lidell. Since I’ve yet to truly dive into the 60’s and 70’s movement of soul, I don’t know better; these moderns sound excellent to me.

Which brings us to 2009 ’s My World masterfully presented by Lee Fields and The Expressions. With age comes experience and wisdom; Lee Fields has both, but also a knack for laying down the throaty jams that have the potential to smoke. Sure, these present-day composers bite the classics of yesterday; but when they are taking from the old, their blend with the new and modern creates something fresh for all to delve into. A record I keep returning to. Who knows, maybe his name will materialize in my next Last FM Wordle. See why below…

Lee Fields and The Expressions :: Do You Love Me (Like You Say You Do)

Lee Fields and The Expressions :: Last Ride

That’s what you’ll see if you venture over to the ex-Dismemberment Plan’s front man’s page. Yes, Travis Morrison, the man who I’ve got excited about again, is calling it quits. TBD if this is legitimate.

A fellow contributor to this blog linked me to this greatness today. Wordle, the word cloud creator, has been making the rounds in educational circles for various activities; but now, we have a reason for a shout. Take your Last FM statistics and create a nice visual of artists you spin regularly. The larger the text, the more love you show that artist. Mine looks spot on…

Thanks to Master Giraffe…

Wordle meets Last FM

An artist with medium-sized text holds the spot for overall top track on my Last FM…

Foals :: The French Open

Tiga, the Quebec shaker, who loves to comb hair and disrobe shoes, has caught my attention with Ciao! Thanks to the always beat pounding Dewaele brothers, this album gets up and moves me.

Tiga :: Beep-Beep-Beep

If their secret is disrobing of their kix, your favorite band needs to bite. Nashville’s best kept secret, Heypenny, want to share their love for Peter Pan – or the king of pop, Michael Jackson. From today’s blog….

Shit, it’s the band with as many pop tricks up their sleeve since TN’s other best kept secret: sElf

With “Oh No” and now this, I have a feeling 2009 might unveil another blissful masterpiece. Take “Ticket” for a spin and wonder why they are too good of a band to blog about…

Heypenny :: Ticket (MySpace stream)

What do you get when you mix spazz-rock, an exuberant Travis Morrison, and John Gotti’s fridge? A rather giddy track, to say the least. But this freak-out persona The Dismemberment Plan personified often was why I still return to albums like Emergency & I. A bonus track, to their debut LP is waiting to detonate below. Travis is about to explode; the drums are set to too many bpms and each hit makes this track bump that much stronger.

The Dismemberment Plan :: The Dismemberment Plan Gets Rich

Reunite just so I can experience this song live….

Remember when it was a huge deal when artists you respect and enjoy were on late night television? I’d go out of my way to let the crew know; set the Tivo and simply be amazed a coveted act is on a major network: The Features are on Kimmel tonight! Well, that was a big deal then and still is today. Autolux on Kimmel? But how about when out of the blue, LCD Soundsystem are all of a sudden on Letterman? Really? Maybe me, but isn’t it now common that bands in rotation by you are making the rounds on all the major networks? You can always tell the audience is going through the motions when one of these bands we like more than them are being showcased – the lack of enthusiasm and forced applause –if any – is plenty apparent.

It seems like Stereogum or your favorite board are showcasing on a weekly basis last night’s performance by bands you didn’t think we’re ready for the masses. Do they deserve the exposure? Most definitely. Take ex-Polyphonic Spree/ex-Sufjan Stevens’ bandmate St. Vincent unleashing “Marrow”. She’s received the exposure and accolades; and now she also makes her network debut on you guessed it, late night television.

This is some sophisticated shit – and when those horns come alive, I don’t know if I should stand in disbelief or move my feet.

From Autolux’s MySpace:

Instead of receiving one big helping of psychetronica, care of Maps, or a leak of his forthcoming Turning The Mind, I like these tasters the man is serving us. It has kept me anxious for his second full-length to be unleashed. “Let Go Of The Fear” is hard hitting and heavy on the trance atmospherics; “Valium In The Sunshine” is reminiscent of the We Can Create era – with whisper-like vocals and light pulsating beats, or music to lose yourself in while doing nothing. Bedroom dreamin’ at its best.

And now we have “Everything is Shattering”. As expected, from the rather somber title, the theme is about loss.

..about losing the true love of your life, and then having to settle for the next best thing, because, I guess sometimes you just have to. And it can be a really painful experience in the long term.

But upon listening, you’ll quickly notice the overall uplifting tone throughout. James had this also to say about today’s taster:

Everything Is Shattering can be taken to mean different things (feel free to comment on what you get from listening to it!!), it can either mean ’shattering’ as in ‘everything is falling apart’, OR it can mean, although life IS shitty a lot of the time, it can also be shatteringly beautiful some of the time . Even if only for brief moments.

Regardless of its true theme, I await Turning the Mind in September…

Maps :: Everything is Shattering (MySpace stream)

The 90’s sound that is. I open up Facebook to be greeted to these lyrics on my wall…

The morning image from the satellites is all blue and green.
And we’ve all got wounds to clean,
here’s a rag, here’s some gasoline.
It’s all green to me.

From none other than the heavy and droning noise of Champaign, IL’s spacesters Hum. A like-minded music friend posted them; not the always geeky Hum scientists. Upon reading those, I fired up Downward is Heavnward – maybe one of the better albums to come out of this lost and never forgotten period.

Hum :: Green to Me

And this morning, we all were graced with the offiical reunion tour for Sunny Day Real Estate. If they can bring half of this churning guitar play, I’ll be pleasently satisfied. Their debut, Diary needs to be queued up quickly! Denver gets them 9/21 at the Ogden and Chicago greets them at Metro on 9/24. ‘09 continues to bring nostalgia at its finest.