Christopher The Conquered & H.D. Harmsen @ Bullhorn Creative

The NoLi Friday Concert series continues tonight at Bullhorn Creative tonight at 5PM. Come out and enjoy some BBQ from J. Renders. Some beer courtesy of the peeps at Bullhorn. And some tunes from Christopher The Conquered and H.D. Harmsen. The show is completely and entirely free.

If you'll remember, I've written about Christopher The Conquered and his album, The Fate Of A Good Man, before. As a reminder, here's his tune "Life Is Not Always Easy." Tonight, he'll be playing solo.



Opening for Christopher The Conquered, we have his buddy H.D. Harmsen. A fellow popsmith from Iowa, he and H.D. have been traveling and playing together for a while. Here's the titular tune off his new album Papoose.



The show starts around 5PM in the Bullhorn backlot, which is located at 804 N. Limestone (corner of Loudon and N. Limestone). See you there.

Introducing: Eddie Gomez

Eddie Gomez may be on to something. The Oregonian-raised, LA-based singer/songwriter has taken an older style and dressed it up for today. With a soulful stomp and a catchy chorus, his tune "Someday" has burned itself into my brain. Produced by the currently ON FIRE Captain Cuts crew (the Smallpools EP and several killer remixes), this tune is going places.



It's already been featured by Pigeons & Planes and Perez Hilton. I wouldn't be surprised to here it climb up some adult contemporary charts. Lovers of Amos Lee and Lenny Kravitz, look into this dude.

Eddie Gomez on
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All I wanna do is live in ecstasy.

When John Gourley, the man behind indie-rock powerhouse Portugal. The Man, was asked how he wanted his next album to feel, he said:

"We just wanted to make something that was The Beatles meets Wu-Tang." (Pigeons & Planes)

Well, they accomplished something close to their goal with Evil Friends, a wholly amazing album. Their most pop-centric album to date, Evil Friends was the product of the band working with producer extraordinaire Brian Burton AKA Danger Mouse. This is important because Danger Mouse has done amazing work on albums for Gnarls Barkley (which he was half of, by the way), The Black Keys, Gorillaz, and Beck. With his feet firmly planted in both the indie rock and hip-hop worlds, Danger Mouse was the perfect man to lead PTM down this road. The most potent pop concoction they created in the lab was their "let's get famous so we don't have to work" anthem, "Purple, Yellow, Red, and Blue."

Considering Portugal. The Man's hip-hop sensibilities, producer/mash-up artist Terry Urban decided to bridge the gap with a mash-up album called Portugal. The Man & Friends combining PTM and some of his favorite rappers (Jay-Z, Kanye, Biggie, and J. Cole). The entire five-track album is up for free download on his soundcloud.

My personal favorite is "Purple Night," which mashes up "Purple, Yellow, Red, and Blue" with Jay-Z's "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" off his Dynasty: Roc La Familia album. It manages to keep the essence of the PTM track while adding the swagger of a younger pre-Bey Hova.

There's no sun today, but, hey, I'm out to play.

It's been a long and fruitful few weeks out in LA. I don't have a lot to tell about GRAMMY Camp or the days thereafter. I'm just looking forward to getting back in the swing of things here on the blog.

New music has been flying in. I'm working on a review for Bad News Bears, a possible collaboration with All Things Go, continuing the concert series, doing an interview or two, and, of course, my scavenging never stopped.

A quick sample, here: Sombear's debut album dropped last Tuesday and it's everything I wanted. That's right. Brad Hale, the drummer for the Now, Now is back with a full album of electropop and chillwave goodness. If you need to be reminded what Sombear sounds like, try to imagine if CHVRCHES were led by a guy...or just check out my first post on them. The songs range from ethereal, skying pop to laid-back chillwave. It's a great summer album and there's a free stream of the entire album over at Consequences Of Sound that I highly recommend.

Bonus! He'll be playing the following tour dates with Dessa from Doomtree:

9/14 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern
9/15 – Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig
9/17 – Allston, MA @ Great Scott
9/19 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Café Live
9/21 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Smiling Moose
9/22 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
9/23 – Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
9/26 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar <------- I'll be there (probably)
9/27 – Columbus, OH @ The Basement

Recommended Tracks: "Incredibly Still", "LA" (post title lyrics), "Love You In The Dark", "The Good"

You wait for the sun to make the sky.

St. Lucia, the nom-de-tune of electropop artist Jean-Philip Grobler, is known throughout the blogosphere for his sunshine-laced synths and breeze-laden bass lines. Born and bred in South Africa, Grobler grew up singing in a traveling choir and spending his free time singing along to MJ.

The self-titled debut EP made waves with the single "All Eyes On You," which became nationally known by being featured in campaigns for both Victoria's Secret and Taco Bell.



With his first full length record, When The Night, on its way in October from Neon Gold Records, St. Lucia is poised to make a splash on the big stage with the release of his first single "Elevate". The song absolutely oozes summer and should take its rightful place on your seasonal playlist.

Your thoughts surrounding me

Honestly, I don't know how Dan Croll hasn't taken over the world. The Liverpudlian has charm out the wazoo, he's good looking, and he had the skills to be a professional rugby player until an injury forced his early retirement. On top of all that, he writes, plays, and sings music that toes the line between electropop and folk.

He first surfaced in September of last year with his single "From Nowhere", which leans more to the pop side of things, and then putting out the "From Nowhere" - EP.



Since then he's come storming back with the single and video for the much more folky "Compliment Your Soul". The video features him and his band jamming out in a museum while the horns and happiness kick in around them.



Just this week he dropped another tune, "In/Out", which hits much more on the electropop side of things. It's more than worth a listen. Get your ears on this before everybody catches on.

Cocaine 80's

Cocaine 80's, a hip-hop collective, was started by No I.D. and regularly features the awesomeness of Common, James Fauntleroy, Rob Kinelski, Kevin Randolph, Steve Wyreman, and Makeba. It's understandable that this isn't a super recognizable list of names, but you really should familiarize yourself with this group because of the following reasons:

1. All of their EP's (there's four) are available as free downloads. That particular link has all of the downloads bundled.

 2. They make feel-good chilled out alt-R&B when led by James Fauntleroy. Check out "Unchain Me/Love 3x".



3. Do I have to say that everything they've ever released is free again?