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Two girls absolutely smash this cover of "Killing In the Name"

Two girls absolutely smash this cover of “Killing In the Name”

OK.

I know it’s been far too long since I’ve posted on here, but I just came across a Rage Against the Machine cover that undeniably kicks ass and I wanted to share that with everyone. If it’s awesome enough to bring me out of my blog slumber, then it’s awesome enough for you to watch it.

They’re kid sisters who have covered Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing In the Name.” They do the vocals and…

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Excuse me while I melt into Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul

Excuse me while I melt into Isaac Hayes’ Hot Buttered Soul

If I said this to myself once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Every single time I find new music — new to me, anyway — I regret not finding it sooner. Major case in point today: Isaac Hayes’ 1969 landmark album Hot Buttered Soul.  

I’ve been familiar with the album cover, and Hayes in general, since forever, but I fell into Hot Buttered Soulby accident this time. I had picked up a Stax Records…

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Dionne Warwick, always a heartbreaker

Dionne Warwick, always a heartbreaker

My first impression of Dionne Warwick was from listening to her pleasant, calming vocals during car rides with my mother 30 years ago. In the ’80s, her music was experiencing a mini revival, gaining new fans from her time hosting “Solid Gold” and riding on 70s hits like “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and the 1982 disco-jazzy “Heartbreaker.”

My second impression was that she was from San Jose —…

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Run The Jewels are taken down by the broken prison system in video for "Legend Has It"

Run The Jewels are taken down by the broken prison system in video for “Legend Has It”

Run The Jewels’ newest video places rappers El-P and Killer Mike squarely in the crosshairs of a police state and its standard perceptions that black people and/or rap musicians are criminals.

In the video for “Legend Has It” from RTJ3,the duo mysteriously multiplies as they’re placed in a police lineup. As the song progresses, a little girl, a guy in a full body cast and a nun are later replaced…

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Rebecca Ferguson: I'll perform at inauguration if I can sing "Strange Fruit"

Rebecca Ferguson: I’ll perform at inauguration if I can sing “Strange Fruit”

It’s a New Year.

The U.S. presidential inauguration nears and the line of participants continues to narrow.

British singer Rebecca Ferguson has taken her invitation a step further and today posted she would “graciously accept” Trump’s request to perform at the Jan. 20 inauguration, but only if she can perform “Strange Fruit.”

“Strange Fruit” is a poem by Abel Meeropol in 1937 and was performed…

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Charles Bradley cancels tour dates due to cancer diagnosis

Charles Bradley cancels tour dates due to cancer diagnosis

Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires have canceled their upcoming tour dates. In a statement released today, the soul singer, 67, announced that doctors have found a cancerous tumor in his stomach.

Bradley wrote part of the statement:

In the past few months, I have had to cancel a number of shows due to illness, taking me away from my beautiful fans.

My doctors recently discovered a cancerous…

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ICYMI: Charles Bradley: "You Put the Flame On It"

ICYMI: Charles Bradley: “You Put the Flame On It”

In case you missed it, soul singer Charles Bradley appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week with the song “You Put the Flame on It.”

Bradley released his acclaimed second album, “Victim of Love,” in spring 2013. The album’s been added to a plethora of ‘best-of’ lists, so it’s worth your while to listen to what all the fuss is about.

Charles Bradley’s lived a storied life: He lived on the streets…

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Black metal band's album cover stirs controversy

Black metal band’s album cover stirs controversy

While music is always about personal expression, there’s a level of humanity that can still be found in the darkest of music genres.

The album cover for post-black-metal band Numenorean is of a young dead girl who appears to have been brutally murdered.

That’s shocking enough, but the album has also received positive reviews from at least two music sites, one of which is not exclusively about…

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DC's Pure Disgust is back with a timely, rage-filled album

DC’s Pure Disgust is back with a timely, rage-filled album

Pure Disgust’s self-titled album, released on Bandcamp on July 13,  is take-no-prisoners punk to the extreme, with boiling hot lyrics that match seething, agitated vocals like “The new racism is a denial of racism.” Rings a bell, doesn’t it?

Some songs, like “White Silence” or “Untitled,” begin with deceptively calmer throwback intros, but then let loose like an angry dog, linking timely subjects…

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The Julie Ruin's Hit Reset is out now

The Julie Ruin’s Hit Reset is out now

Hit Reset, Kathleen Hanna’s latest installment of her off, on musical project The Julie Ruin, can be ordered online today, but you can still hear it through Spotify and read Ann Powers’ take on the album at NPR Music here.

If you haven’t heard Hit Resetyet, Hanna sounds just as good as the first Julie Ruin album, a bit more reserved than Le Tigre, and with all the fire she’s had since she was 9,…

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Open Windows 3: Deap Vally grinds and Alexis Taylor unwinds

Open Windows 3: Deap Vally grinds and Alexis Taylor unwinds

Prince’s influence on the music world after his death continues unabated. Via FactMag, Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor has now covered the Prince unreleased rarity, “Old Friends 4 Sale,” with heartfelt, somber piano notes. Taylor unplugging himself from his electro-synth world is jarring enough; Taylor explaining how he wanted to relearn the song as a tribute to Prince is even more emotional.

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after coming out of Purgatory: So you say you like me -- is this true??

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Catch The Buzzcocks on their brief U.S. tour

Catch The Buzzcocks on their brief U.S. tour

British punk originators Buzzcocks have announced an eight-date U.S. tour, welcome news for fans.

They kick off Sept. 22 at Vic Theatre in Chicago and wrap up Oct. 1 at Irving Plaza in NYC. Tickets go on sale June 17 but an AmEx presale starts tomorrow (6-14). They’ve already been touring in Europe as part of their 40th (!) anniversary.

For the U.S. dates visit BrooklynVegan.com, while the Buzzco…

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Sir Weston's EP "Over" touches on the mellow side of indie folk

Sir Weston’s EP “Over” touches on the mellow side of indie folk

Sir Weston (Matt Martin and Weston Taylor) is an indie/folk/pop group that creates well-crafted hooks that are extremely pleasing to the ear, begging to be memorized.

According to Sir Weston’s Bandcamp page, Weston Taylor, of Atlanta, has been writing for more than 10 years. Sir Weston’s slightly skewed, heartfelt style recalls the sound of Soul Asylum or early Coldplay vocals from the “Yellow”…

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Lady Lamb visits all dimensions in existential "After"

Lady Lamb: “After”

With “After,” indie-folk singer-songwriter Lady Lamb has crossed that perilous chasm of the sophomore album in beautiful fashion.

“After” is more polished than “Ripely Pine,” Aly Spaltro’s 2013 debut shorn from a cache of hundreds of recordings she spilled out into the night while working at a movie-rental store in Maine in 2007.

The album explores human mortality, its before…

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Open Windows 2: Nice dreams, coathangers and shoegaze/metal fire

Open Windows 2: Nice dreams, coathangers and shoegaze/metal fire

Atlanta garage punk group The Coathangers paid a visit to Paste’s studios recently. The band members all have stage names ending in Coathanger — Rusty Coathanger, Crook Kid Coathanger and Minnie Coathanger. They’re already seasoned punk veterans, with their fifth album, Nosebleed Weekend, out April 15 on Suicide Squeeze Records.

With the constant tick-ticking of the rim and two acoustic guitars,

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Fall down the rabbit hole with the Claypool Lennon Delirium

Fall down the rabbit hole with the Claypool Lennon Delirium

Just when you think things couldn’t get any weirder, along comes the joint venture of Sean Lennon and Les Claypool, in the form of The Claypool Lennon Delirium. Claypool, of course, was the driving force behind Primus, and Sean Lennon shares John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s DNA, so there’s that. In addition, though, they make a pretty good rock-psych band.

They’ve released a lyric video for their…