Free Music Friday...ON A THURSDAY!!! The Everything INCLUDING the Kitchen Sink Edition

Guess what, kids? i'm headed to NY tomorrow for a couple of Prince concerts, so this is probably it for me this week. If you happen to be at either the Meadowlands on Friday night or MSG on Saturday, i'll be the sexy motherfucker getting his groove on in the aisles.

i suppose today's post could have just as easily have been a "Beat Meet," "More Xmas Music" or even an "Otherwise Engaged" post, but you get all of 'em rolled up into one, big ball of aural goodness! You lucky, lucky, friggin' bastards.

If you're not going to be in NYC on Friday, but will be in DC, i highly recommend catching Liz Phair at the 9:30 Club or Gene Ween at the Black Cat on Friday night. i hate when there are a preponderance of excellent shows all happening at the same time, but what can you do? Me, i take drugs, but that's another story entirely.

Let's get into that tunage now, shall we?

Xmas tunes first...

White boy soul singer Mayer Hawthorne tackles the Charlie Brown classic with quite fine results.

mp3: Christmas Time is Here (Mayer Hawthorne from Mayery Christmas to All!)

The Pallers had this to say: "While working on our debut-album we decided to celebrate you all by recording this winter greeting.This is to say "We think about you, we will meet again, sometime after the snow is gone and the days are longer!" But for now we´d like to share with you this Christmas song, this warm caress with a promise, this Arctic Hymn." Sounds like a plan to me.

mp3: Artic Hymn (Pallers from Artic Hymn)

Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, but where's my Xmas beat, bitches? Keep your pants on, kid. We've got your back. Not sure if the second track is Xmas-specific, but it certainly is holiday oriented. And it has beat boxing, which makes everything, even anal probes, more enjoyable.

mp3: Xmas Rush (Dub) (Nathan Fake from XLR8R.com)

mp3: Dancing in the Snow (Ernest Gonzales from Been Meaning to Tell You)

And now, for something completely the same, if we're discussing your normal Free Music Friday.

Korallreven puts together a nice and smooth beat for Victoria Bergsman to get her jam on to with this lush number.

mp3: Honey Mine (ft Victoria Bergsman) (Korallreven from Honey Mine 7")

If you feel your beat music could use a little funk, Georgia Anne Muldrow is a name you need to commit to memory. To make you want to buy her latest, VWETO, she's been gracious enough to offer up this beast of a groove. Me likey oh so much.

mp3: fOnkRocker (Georgia Anne Muldrow from her VWETO)

As the LA Series comes to a close for the year, they've decided to break my heart. This new, stuttering jam from TokiMONSTA makes me hate myself even more for missing her open for Bonobo a while back. God damn, this is a booty shaker!

mp3: Park Walks (TokiMONSTA from LA Series 8)

MORE beat music? Hell, give 'em the knee shooters, i always say.

i'm only just getting into Mux Mool, but if Alex B sees fit to remix the guy, i'm hooked.

mp3: Hog Knuckles (Alex B Remix) (Mux Mool from Wax Rose Saturday EP)

KRS-ONE is going to get posted here every opportunity that comes my way. That being said, is it just me or is old boy's voice starting to hit a wall on this one? Don't get me wrong, he's still one of the best in the game, but i think someone might have suggested a lozenge and a cup of tea to Kris before he picked up the mic this time.

mp3: 5% (ft. KRS-ONE and Grand Puba) (DJ Premier from Get Used to Us)

And just because i'm telling you it's the right thing to do, we're going out with some Beans.

mp3: Deathsweater (Beans from End It All)

Free Music Friday: The Modelling, Californian, Fishy, Pornographic, Blunt, Minimal, Snogging, Stringy, Hot, Bomby Edition

OK, i've got a HUGE backlog of stuff, so guess who wins? Anyone checking out Free Music Friday, natch.

First up, we've got Cilla K. , an up and comer born in the French West Indies who currently resides in NYC. When not bringing her stamp to the neo-R&B sound, she models, meaning the woman clearly has a rough life. Chanteuse AND model? How does one find the time? Fortunately, her debut, Fine Line, is a fine piece of soul/jazz/funk, so that's all we'll focus on for now.

mp3: Demain (Cilla K. from Fine Line)

LET fave Jason Lytle finally has dropped the first official track from his Admiral Radley project, I Heart California, from the debut album of the same name. While it's impossible not to hear traces of Grandaddy in the mix, the new band (which also includes members of both Grandaddy and Earlimart), this one has a looser, more "fun" vibe at play, at least in this first single. As is the growingly common move, the debut CD is being offered in an extra special format on July 1 for $100. Now i have to decide whether or not i need another "exclusive" tee shirt and accompanying pictures.

mp3: I Heart California (Admiral Radley from I Heart California)

For today's male/female drums/guitar duo, i submit Little Fish out of the U.K. (we get submissions from the world over, but i won't consider us a true success until we get something from Estonia; i'm just saying). Fortunately, this is not a simple White Stripes rip-off (thank Black Dynamite). If anything, i catch shades of the Pack A.D. Regardless, they put on a blistering performance on their new single, Darling Dear. If you like your rock with an ample side of piss and vinegar, Little Fish might well be just the band for you.

mp3: Darling Dear (Little Fish from Baffled and Beat)

Sure, when you think of that chick from the New Pornographers, you probably automatically go to Neko Case. And while that's a fine place for your mind to go, Kathryn Calder would like to remind you that she's in the band, too. Not only that, but now she's making music of her own. Scheduled to hit shelves August 10, keep an eye and an ear out for Are You My Mother? First single "Slip Away" is a fine bit of songcrafting with plenty of "oh oh oh ohs" that ambles along like a butterfly on a breezy afternoon. Watch out for this one.

mp3: Slip Away (Kathryn Calder from Are You My Mother?)

Sometimes, it's the no bullshit approach that works best. Dalton M recently dropped me a line saying, "I am trying to get heard/mentioned in a blog or two, and wondered if you could help?" Since his brand of dreamy, synth soaked pop works fine by me, yes, Dalton M, i can help.

mp3: A Live Instrument (Dalton M from Flashlights)

Kyle Bobby Dunn makes expansive, minimalist instrumental pieces. His latest, A Young Person's Guide to Kyle Bobby Dunn, paints broad soundscapes using the slightest of palettes. Think good soundtrack music for something involving a bleak, winterland murder mystery. At least, i did, but i also take a lot of drugs.

mp3: Small Show of Hands (Kyle Bobby Dunn from A Young Person's Guide to Kyle Bobby Dunn)

Sweden's Pallers have a new blisswave track, The Kiss. An ever building affair that starts with simple percussion before growing to include sweeping strings and airy vocals, consider this today's GvB track. And it's a good one.

mp3: The Kiss (Pallers from The Kiss Single)

Matt Stevens plays instrumental acoustic guitar. And he plays it well. Similar to Kyle Bobby Dunn insomuch as this one sounds like it would make for great soundtrack music, too. Instead of the starkness presented by KBD, however, Stevens has a much more upbeat, at times almost rollicking, sound (though he does a good job of covering the full emotional spectrum here).

mp3: Big Sky (Matt Stevens from Ghost)

Coming off of a seven year hiatus, Sheila Nicholls is back with Songs from the Bardo, a singer/songerwriter work. During her self-imposed time off, she built a studio, taught herself ProTools, and started her own label. The results speak for themselves.

mp3: Bardo (Sheila Nicholls from Songs from the Bardo)

And to close things out, sloppy noise rockers Night Beats are here to offer H-Bomb. Think a grungier, more rock/less artsy version of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and you won't be too far off.

mp3: H-Bomb (Night Beats from H-Bomb EP)

And on that note, my office is closed for summer hours, bitches, so i am out of here.