About This Site
Each month I select 20 songs (10 songs twice a month) that I am either hooked on or am curious about. Most of the music I select are rock, hip-hop, R&B and pop songs.
My song selection comes from 20-30 CDs I get from various sources each month, as well as recommendations from iTunes and Amazon. I also check out the charts in US, UK and Japan.
What a year for Canadian DJ, Joel Zimmerman known as Deadmau5 in 2010. He was the house DJ during Vancouver Winter Olympics as well as MTV VMA, and he climbed up two spots to take the #4 spot on DJ Magazine’s annual Top 100 DJ Poll. His latest album titled 4x4=12 contains bunch of songs that is sure to get your head bobbing, and dancing all night.
LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy was chosen as one of the artist of the year from Spin magazine. Also on its magazine’s top 5 list, it places on #4. #1
Cee-Lo Green – Fuck You; #2
Arcade Fire – Ready to Start; #3
Kanye West – Power; #4 LCD Soundsystem – All I Want; #5 Neil Young – Hitchhiker.
I’ve never watched the original movie, Tron, but seeing the trailer, and hearing Daft Punk’s name makes me want to go to the theater, just to hear Daft Punk’s soundtrack in surround sound. And the movie looks amazing, visually. I do have to say that a lot of the songs on the soundtrack doesn’t sound much like Daft Punk from the past. But this single makes you want to break out the glow stick.
When I first heard this song, and saw that it was climbing up on the charts, I didn’t particularly think much of it. Then I read that Far East Movement consist of all Asian members from different background; Chinese/Japanese, Korean and Filipino, and that boosted my curiosity. Now this single has climbed up to #2 on the Billboard chart, and their major debut album just came out.
UK electronic musicians Underworld released their 8th album, Barking. Although the album failed to break Billboard top 100 album, they have been warmly welcomed in other countries, including Japan which boosted this single to #1. On the latest album, there is a collaboration track with Paul Van Dyk titled, Diamond Jigsaw.
UK electronic music master, The Chemical Brothers are back with a new album, Further. It’s been three years since their last release. Further is the first album by the Chemical Brothers that doesn’t have any vocal collaboration with anyone.
British electro duo, Goldfrapp, lead by vocalist Alison Goldfrapp is back with their fifth studio album, Head First. The whole album is very 80s-ish, including this single. Just as the title suggests, it is a dreamy track, but it gets a little boring after the first few minutes.
Hot Chip had a breakout hit with “Ready for the Floor” from their third album, Made in the Dark in 2008. Two years later, they have released their fourth album, One Life Stand. It’s a good electronic song that should get your head bopping.
I assume this DJ name is pronounced, “Dead mouse.” Deadmau5 is a popular house/techno DJ from Toronto, Canada. This track, “Ghosts N Stuff” have been around for some time, but the album was released just a couple of months ago. The beat is great. Being a Canadian, he performed during the winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Oscar winning rapstars, Three 6 Mafia’s new album, which is rumored to be titled, Laws of Power, has seen its release date bumped to later dates several times already. “Feel It” which was produced by superstar DJ, Tiesto is the third single, and it is packed with addictive dance beat, and features Sean Kingston on the hook, and Flo Rida for some rapping. It is climbing on the dance chart, but hasn’t had much success on the mainstream chart just yet.
La Roux is electropop musician from UK. She’s came out strong this year with her debut album, La Roux, which already had three top 40 singles. When I first heard, “In For the Kill” (peaked at #2), I thought it sounded annoying. Not my cup of tea. But a few months later, I heard “Bulletproof” and I was hooked. The track even climbed to #1 on US dance chart.
For those of you who listen to trance and electro music, Tiesto is a well known name. Earlier this year, fellow European DJ, David Guetta (France) was able to break into mainstream pop with hits like “
When Love Takes Over” and “
Sexy Bitch” as well as producing hot track, “
I Gotta Feeling” for Black Eyed Peas. Dutch DJ, Tiesto tries to gain more audience, but instead of going pop, he recruited some of the best indie rock musicians such as Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke, Priscilla Ahn, and my favorite, Tegan And Sara. I haven’t heard the whole album, but am enjoying this track very much. Stayed tuned for the new Tegan And Sara album as well, coming out later this month.
After releasing his biggest album, “Play” in 1999, he hasn’t had that much exposure (other than Eminem threatening him at 2002 MTV Video Music Award). Moby is now releasing his ninth album, “Wait For Me” which isn’t as up tempo and danceable like his previous effort. He claims that it’s his most personal album yet, and it shows. A lot of the songs are quite touching. The vocal for the song is provided by relatively unknown Amelia Zirin Brown.
I haven't listened to The Crystal Method since their 1997 album, Vegas, which was released in the peak of 90s electronica music scene (along with Orbital, Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy just to name a few). Their latest single, Drown In The Now featuring the Jewish reggae rapper Matisyahu, is a cool song reminiscent of their glory days. But the rest of the album, not so much. I don't know if they are trying to go pop, but none of the other tracks on the album sound as strong. Their latest album is available for $3 at Amazon MP3 store.
no sample
First of all, look at the cover. It really is something (kind of remind me of Adam Lambert from this year's American Idol). I was first hooked into Fischerspooner because of the song "Never Win" from four years ago. This track, which is available for free download from their official website, isn't as good, but it sounds good when you turn it up really loud in your car.
Yes, The Prodigy is back. I was disappointed by their last two albums, but this one puts them back on the map of electro-techno music. Their last effort was done solely by the lead singer, and didn’t include other band members. Good thing Liam Howlett decided to bring everyone back, because the songs sound good. Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters is supposedly playing drums on two tracks from this album.
There has been a lot of noteworthy bands coming out of Denver/Boulder, Colorado recently such as The Fray and Flobots. Add 3OH!3 to that list. 303 is the area code in Boulder region. With humorous lines like, “Tell your boyfriend if he says he’s got beef that I’m a vegetarian and I ain’t fuckin’ scared of him”, and accompanying music video that feels like it was produced by Saturday Night Live staff, these guys know how to have a good time. They sound like All-American Rejects mixed with Scissor Sisters trying to be crunk.
Shiny Toy Guns had a decent hit two years ago with "Le Disko" (they were even nominated for Best Electronic Album Grammy award). Now they have replaced their lead female vocalist, and are releasing a new album titled Season of Poison, which has much harder sound, reminiscent of 90s Marilyn Manson. The new vocalist Sisely Treasure and Chad Petree share vocal duties for this track. This winter they will be performing at Deck the Hall Ball in Seattle along with The Killers and Death Cab For Cutie.
CW is an American TV network that targets mostly teenage girls with shows like Gossip Girl, the new Beverly Hills 90210 and One Tree Hill. I’ve never watched any of those shows, but people have been raving about the music on these shows. I decided to check out the music section of their site and was surprised to see a lot of the semi-obscure songs that I had selected in the past months had been used on these shows. I was curios to check out the songs that I didn’t recognize, and one of them was this track. Sohodolls is a British pop electro band led by vocalist Maya von Doll. Their music is sexy. It seems like a few of Sohodolls songs have been used on CW shows. I may not sit through their shows, but I may have to check back on CW networks’ music list once in a while.
At first listen, this song kind of sucks. But after a few listen, similar to Justice's "D.A.N.C.E", this song gets to you. Hot Chip is one of UK's most famous Electro-Pop group, and this song scored on UK's top 10 chart.
At first listen, this song kind of sucks. But after a few listen, similar to Justice's "D.A.N.C.E", this song gets to you. Hot Chip is one of UK's most famous Electro-Pop group, and this song scored on UK's top 10 chart.
Embodying the rags-to-riches rap dream, Jay-Z pulled himself up by his bootstraps as a... 