ATTENTION:

I have moved my activity to the noticeably spiffier icanliftacarblog.com
Please continue to peruse these old posts, if you wish. I won't be deleting them, but they have been imported over to the new site.
New site. New goals. New tunes.
Let's keep moving.

tongue full of acid, a lung full of nicotine

Here's what you need to know:

•  Cass Lowe has written and produced for artists like Toddla T, Chance The Rapper, Say Lou Lou, Diana Vickers, Madeon(!!), and, wait for it, the Backstreet Boys. 

•   So one could say that he's gifted at crafting huge...Larger Than Life pop anthems that will move you emotionally. 

•  Cass Lowe has a new single called "Birthmark".
  
  
  
  "Birthmark" is a massive, dark, soaring pop song and Lowe's voice leaves absolutely nothing to be desired. If all of his solo stuff sounds like this, I would be a very happy camper. Also, the music video is a gorgeous and fittingly dark piece of art. Here's hoping Cass Lowe produces a full album of amazing.

do just what you want with me i'll be what you want me to be

So...Eli "Paperboy" Reed has been making music for almost a decade now, but it wasn't until the lyric video for his new single, "WooHoo", surfaced on The Burning Ear that I found out about his soulful awesomeness.



"WooHoo" dances dangerously along the line that divides funk and pop, resulting in a jam that sounds like the lovechild of Bruno Mars and James Brown. This thing will have you movin' and shakin' and shuckin' and jivin' your way through the day. If the infectious beat isn't enough, the pure saccharine energy of Reed's vocal performance will surely win you over.



If you want more from Reed, he's released three (THREE?!) albums that your ears should take in. Also, here's his doo-wop style cover of Beyonce's "Love On Top" that THE QUEEN herself has signed off on.

High voltage when we kiss.

I feel like I'm late to the Bad Suns party. Their debut single (and only official song to date) came out in February. So it's just been floating around the net, getting blog attention from a few of my favorites, The Burning Ear and Neon Gold, before finding its way to me. And being from LA, these dudes got tons of well-deserved love from KROQ whenever their single drop.



This song is absolutely perfect for anyone that digs Imagine Dragons, X Ambassadors, or Ghost Beach. It fits right in to that neat little niche that alternative radio stations love and that I completely adore. With its slow-burning start and catchy-as-all-hell chorus, "Cardiac Arrest" is a listening staple for me at the moment.



The song is available for purchase on their bandcamp. But, of course, you can always stream from their soundcloud and like them on Facebook.

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
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
SOUNDCLOUD

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.