It makes me want to dig up my old first dot-matrix printer to sample.

With nearly 85K views, it goes to show you that a solid video can do a lot to promote your music. In this case, it starts with a good sound. I’ve seen a lot of artists try to create a viral video to help promote their band, with the end goal of getting signed to a major. I’ve heard that it’s actually harder to get a video to go viral than to start a band and get signed to major. Start with the music, use the web to push your music from there.

You can check out this track and more on Mistabishi’s album, Drop.

VIDEO: Mistabishi – Printer Jam is a post from: wax&wires

Kosten crosses several genre lines, mixing breakbeat electronic with the raw emotion found in more traditional pop music. It doesn’t hurt to have Chris Martin, Michael Stipe, and Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips) contributing either. Though the album doesn’t really congeal as a whole for me, it has enough good single tracks on it to warrant a pick up.

My favorite track is easily the single, Where Is My Boy, which has garnered all the attention for featuring Chris Martin.

Faultline – Your Love Means Everything

Wax Pick: Faultline – Your Love Means Everything is a post from: wax&wires

Minneapolis hip-hopper POS lands in the line up covering “Why Go,” and actualy stands out as potentially the only redeeming cover in a list full of boring acoustic renditions by artists like Staind and The Academy Is. He does a solid job at not messing with the arrangement or progression, not trying to imitate Vedder, and yet making the song completely current and styled to his own genre; a great balance of the original track with new flavors, which is what every good cover should be.

Extra super bonus points for being a rapper that didn’t pull the Auto-Tune card too, even though he had to actually sing the song. He holds his own pretty well and what his vox lack, he makes up for in spades with his keyboard riffs.

We’ve all heard more than enough about Lil Wayne and how his biggest influence is Nirvana, mostly because he keeps reminding us of how original and out-of-the-box he is with his musical tastes. POS, while not as well known, cites Minor Threat as a key influence in his music, and I’m actually more inclined to believe him. As a skateboarding, midwestern, black punk youth in the 90s, POS claims that the angst and alienation represented by Minor Threat and other punk outfits struck a strong chord with him, even listing his genre as “hip hop/indie/punk”. A quick listen to the tracks like “Half-Cocked Concepts” and the guitar and drum driven “Drumroll” lend credibility to his claims and help fill in the gaps as to whether or not he belongs on the notoriously punk rock warped tour.

We’ve been seeing a cross-pollination of genres lately, and I’m digging it.

Rapper P.O.S. Covers Pearl Jam is a post from: wax&wires

This video is bananas, and had to be excruciatingly tedious to make. I really dig the song in its own right, and the fact that it was made from found pieces on YouTube raises my appreciation for it even more.

THRU YOU: Kutiman Mixes YouTube is a post from: wax&wires

N.A.S.A. exists as a collaborative between DJ’s Squeak E. Clean and Brazil’s DJ Zegan, from North America and South America respectively (hence the name, N.A.S.A.). From there, the two dance club aficionados put together a dream team of artists to work with including George Clinton, John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Lykke Li, Karen O. (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’s), Kanye West, M.I.A., Santogold and more. When I saw the lineup I thought that this album could be 2009′s Version, producer Mark Ronson’s album featuring an all star cast from back in 2007. The biggest difference is found in that N.A.S.A.’s debut LP is loaded with original content, rather than creative covers.

The Spirit Of Apollo offers quite a few tracks that will definitely be heard in clubs around the world, and releases just in time to build momentum heading into Spring and Summer, when listeners find themselves itching for fun and bouncy hits.

N.A.S.A. – The Spirit Of Apollo

Wax Pick: N.A.S.A. – The Spirit Of Apollo is a post from: wax&wires

DJ BC on the project:

“Bowie’s classic glam album, remixed, mashed-up and spaced-out. With bootleg mixes and mashups from myself, ATOM, A plus D (Bootie), World Famous Audio Hacker, and ToToM. Videos from VJ Brewski and AJ ‘Hatperson’ Mazur. (You may remember AJ as the genius behind the now legendary ‘Cooking By The Book’ video.) Art by the very talented Shana B. This record has been in the works since ‘Wu Orleans’ but the arrival of my daughter and some ‘official’ releases distracted me, and drove me to seek help completing it. And I am glad I did. A+D’s MGMT mashup and ATOM’s ‘Star Man’ remix are nothing short of genius.”

You can download a copy here.

Ziggy Stardust Remixed – FREE DOWNLOAD is a post from: wax&wires

I’m still back and forth on Kanye’s latest release, 808s and Heartbreak. I love the beats and sonic textures, but the auto-tune drives me a bit bonkers after a while. Yes, I just said bonkers. It’s been out for exactly 2 months today, and already a remix has been released. American artist Max Justus has released 8 from 808s & Heartbreak, which is, just as the name implies, 8 songs from Kanye’s new album remixed and available for free download from his site. 

I like the new take on the album. Max uses a lot of lo-fi and bit crushed sounds, which I’m a sucker for. All that noise takes some of the focus off of Kanye’s voice too, which was my least favorite part of the album to begin with. Check it out here. 

Max Justus Remixes 808s & Heartbreak – FREE DOWNLOAD is a post from: wax&wires

There’s actually a series of 3 videos on Pandora, I definitely recommend that you check them all out.  The Glitch Mob is definitely pioneering a new sound; hyper-compressed, hard-driving, heavy-hitting, genre-defying electronic hip hop with the likes of Justice.

Check out the other videos here.

The Glitch Mob is a post from: wax&wires

Related posts:

1. New Justice Track – “Civilization”

Found this over at CDM, and thought it was pretty interesting that we’ve come to a place of such immediate media turnaround.

Inauguration Speech Live Mashup – Tim Exile is a post from: wax&wires

Thanks, Kyle Starr, for coming up with another great find!

DJ Earworm – United State of Pop 2008 (Viva La Pop) is a post from: wax&wires