Giddyup!

There's lots of odds and ends that have caught my attention this week, so I thought, like the cattle men of old, I would get up on my trusty steed and herd them over to you.

The Bravery (Drop the Lime remix) - Drop the Lime was at Bard at the same time I was, and I remember seeing him spin crazy jungle sets in the Old Gym. It was awesome. Since then, he's opened up his style and become kind of a big deal. Nice. On this one, he captures some indie power and turns it into an electro-house banger.

Karniege "Hard Times" - Karniege (pr. Carnage) is one of the more recent additions to the Def Jux camp, and he just dropped a mixtape, Can I Kick It? Vol 2 in honor of Camu Tao, and this track off the latter half is pretty fresh. Camu Tao produced it, and K's verses are on point - doing what good rappers do best, talking 'bout the hard times. The mixtape (get a copy here) has a couple really hot tracks, a couple quotables, but there's about half of it I'm just not feeling, but I'm also a lot pickier about my rap than most.

Beardo "John Lennon" - Beardo is a west coast entity, part of the Mickey Avalon camp - and a quick listen to the album makes that abundantly clear. Beardo is a little more stylistically diverse, ranging from thrashing party rock to anthemic power jams, but the idea remains the same - lots of partying, pills, groupies, and a lot 'yeah, I just went there, and you love it.' The album is available soon.

Oddisee "Pulp Fiction" - This man Oddisee stays so busy. A few weeks back he dropped a lovely instrumental compilation called Odd Autumn, which is nice and seasonal. These are beats you could rake the leaves to, or maybe enjoy a nice cup of tea on a brisk afternoon. Find a copy of the whole thing here.

High and Mighty "Hands On Experience" (Falside Remix) - I don't remember where I found this collection of remixes by Falside, but there were some nice tracks on there. Among my favorites were this High and Mighty track, partly because I had kinda forgotten about High and Mighty, who put out some really nice albums earlier in the decade, and partly because dude borrows a sample Madlib chopped for Madvilliany and puts a different spin on it. There's a small slip in the first 20 seconds, but it's a nice little remix.