New Music Weekend: Wiz Khalifa, Elton John, Lucinda Williams, and More!!

Hey there music lover! You like new stuff? Great! You’ve stumbled into the perfect corner of the internet.  Each week all sorts of audiolicious goodies are unleashed onto the masses and this is where they come to be judged. I’ll tell ya what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s a waste of your precious time. So strap on your headphones and let’s take a ride!
The Big News

The big news this week? Eh, it’s kinda a toss up. Two huge stars, Elton John and Wiz Khalifa, are releasing new albums this week and honestly I really don’t care for either one of them so I really can’t tell ya which is more important.  I know my mom would say Elton is bigger, but my son would definitely Khalifa is the bomb or something like that.  I guess we’ll just have to settle this the old fashioned way: whoever has the most Twitter followers wins. Let’s see… Sir Elton has 575,000 followers and, um, hmm, well… Khlifa has… well, lets just call it significantly more and consider the issue closed.
Okay, so the very, very popular dope rapper from Pittsburgh unveils his sixth record, Khalifa, this week. It follows, conveniently enough on the heels of some high profile twitter beef or whatever between Khalifa and Kanye West that a lot of people seemed to think was a big deal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seFZY8BtupQ

The Other Big News
Sir Elton’s 32nd release, Wonderful Crazy Night sounds like a live album, or the name of a modest and polite English porno flic, but alas, ‘tis not. ‘Tis yet another pedestrian at best release from pop music’s preeminent prince. Quoth The Arts Desk:  “It’s largely middle-of-the-road fare that treats modern Disney-type tunes with a hefty wash of soft country rock…” They’ll love it in Pomona, Ms Desmond.

Beats and Bling

Rapper Young Thug has a new mixtape for your listening pleasure, Slime Season 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDZ0X78ZQNA

The Queen Abides

Ghosts of Highway 20, Lucinda Williams’ latest release sounds like a winner, with all the “time-scarred, unapologetic, but still potent” glory Rolling Stone has thrust upon it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg90Fkk1FWg

Indie Miscy
English indie darlings Field Music’s latest, Commontime, alights into existence this week. Pop Matters praises the album for it’s “economy” and “tight, frugal funk”.

Sub Pop darling, and keeper of the Hooray for Earth flame, Mass Gothic drops it’s debut this week. It’s  an eclectic self-titled little number that Cheese on Toast praises for it’s “charm”, claiming that it is indicative of a capable artist’s ability to express in more than just a couple of ways.”

RIP

This is the part of the show where we say goodbye to those who’ve played their last solo. Rest in peace and rock on, brothers and sisters.

Signe Toly Anderson, the original vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, died last week but her death was not reported until later.  She died on the same day as Paul Kantner, her bandmate in the Airplane.

Jon Bunch, vocalist for Sense Field, died at 45.

And Maurice White of Earth, Wind, and Fire.

My Recommendation

My interest has been piqued in this new Nonkeen release, The Gamble.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbjdzfo7R0c

Next Week

Tune in next week, same new music time, same new music channel, for new stuff from: some dude named Kanye!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJae2OpoHeE