Some Kind Of Awesome

Earlier today Third Man Records announced a partnership that is sure to put a smile on your face. As  we all know, with every passing day budgets for music education programs are being constantly being slashed. To combat that, Jackie White’s label is offering students in school choirs and bands everywhere the chance of a lifetime. With the help of their partner Brightspark Travel, students will get the opportunity to visit the Nashville-based label, record some of their songs there, have their recorded songs pressed in dual-color 7” vinyl (their school colors), and receive a commemorative plaque.

Bravo to you, Jackie. You may keep us guessing with things like appearances on _American Pickers_ and deciding to work with Insane Clown Posse, but you’ve done a great thing here.

Check out the video below for more details.

  http://skoa.co/17gQHg

Australian-American synthy goth-rockers Wazu have unveiled their video for their single, “Murder 1” from their self-titled release that is now available wherever dark dancy wonderful music is sold (or you can get it on iTunes if you prefer that, too). After catching their EP release show at Cameo Gallery a couple weeks back, this video has me itching for their upcoming show at Pianos on February 6th because it captures their essence so well.

If you head over to their website right now you can grab “Murder 1” for the actual retail price of $FREE.99 to listen to a few times before you cave and grab the EP. http://skoa.co/17gJJl

Following a U.S. East Coast tour back in December, Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox, also known for his solo project Atlas Sound, has announced six tour dates throughout North America to further support last year’s _Parallax. _Starting in Los Angeles on February 24th, the short tour includes a coffee shop show in Binghamton, New York, as well as performances in San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Minneapolis and Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

You can take a look at Atlas Sound’s entire tour itinerary after the jump, and head here if you’ve yet to hear _Parallax_. http://skoa.co/17fJkB

Today, Das Racist member Heems let loose a leftover track from his recently released mixtape _Nehru Jackets _titled “Mr. India.” Released via his Tumblr, the track combines traditional Indian sounds, as well as some Bollywood thrown in there, with classic East Coast hip hop, and sees Heems laying out his classic non-sensical lyricism. Give the track a listen below.

Heems - “Mr. India” http://skoa.co/17f3pc

One-man dream pop artist Jack Tatum, aka Wild Nothing, has been rather quiet since the 2010 release of his debut album _Gemini_, but, on February 21st, Tatum will be releasing the two-track 7” single “Nowhere.” Tatum has also let loose “Nowhere,” the a-side on the upcoming single, which features guest vocals from Twin Sister’s Andrea Estella. The track is available to stream below.

The “Nowhere” single is set for release on February 21st, and will be backed by b-side “Wait.” The single is available for pre-order on the Captured Tracks website, and a limited 500 copies will be printed on white vinyl. http://skoa.co/17dvtr

Below, you can listen to and download the second taste of Toronto dream pop duo Memoryhouse’s upcoming debut studio album _The Slideshow Effect_, which is set for release on February 28th via Sub Pop. “Walk With Me” is a fantastic demonstration of how to take a slow build and perfectly transition it into an exhilarating combination of instrumentation, so do yourself a favour and give it a listen. As well, if you’ve yet to hear the duo’s first single “The Kids Were Wrong,” you can listen to it here. http://skoa.co/17dds7

Last year in the midst of Odd Future being literally everywhere you may remember BADBADNOTGOOD creeping into our consciousness. They’re a jazz trio who uploaded some interpretations of Tyler, The Creator’s and the whole OF gangs tracks. For a taste of what they did, go watch them do “Goblin” here. In October last year the trio hooked up with Tyler and got to perform some tracks with the man they’d been covering on the internet. Today, Prefix points towards another video they’ve uploaded from the Tyler session. It’s of the Radicals jam “Orange Juice”. Check it out at the top. http://skoa.co/17cQzh

Azealia Banks is getting all sorts of attention at the moment and that includes attention from big fashion labels. She recently performed at German fashion giant Karl Lagerfeld’s house in Paris and some footage has hit the net via Fader. I can’t imagine what Karl thinks of the young talent but hey, it gives us something fun to watch! She performs “212”, a personal stand out track for me from everything else I’ve heard from so far. I’m sure 2012 is going to be big for her, and this video goes to show her chops in a live scenario. Give it a watch at the top and join in with the dancing if you fancy it! http://skoa.co/17c8Hz

The War on Drugs have let loose the official visuals for their track “Brothers” which features on the great sounding second record, _Slave Ambient_. The video sees an old timer cowboy going a little crazy firing his gun left right and centre. Talking to Vulture the team behind the video explained how it came to be and a little of the inspiration: _”We kept picturing it as the soundtrack to a dark Western, like Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid or Unforgiven, That is where the deranged TV cowboy character came from.”_

See the end result at the top. _Slave Ambient_ is out everywhere now via Secretly Canadian. http://skoa.co/17bpyN

Yesterday we got to hear a new track from Tennis and their forthcoming LP _Young & Old, _which_ _is due out on February the 14th. How romantic. Today the band release a live video recording of them performing “Origins” and the beautifully shot video is simple in its delivery but a great watch, and a lovely taste of what’s to come from the album. It was recorded during a performance in Portland, OR in December at the Doug Fir Lounge. Hopefully we’ll get another little preview before the Patrick Carney produced LP drops on Valentines day. http://skoa.co/17bVRh