New Jams

Of course, you could easily discover the hottest new tracks if you were to simply stay on top of my last.fm profile. But you're probably too cool to do that, so I'll just lay it out for you, and you can head over to Cheapo and listen to a few songs yourself:

Ayatollah: Now Playing - some great sample-laden downtempo (mostly) hiphop. There aren't really any MCs on this, which is usually a bad thing for me, but I like it anyway. Standouts on this album are Kingston and Who Got It?

Eliot Lipp: Tacoma Mockingbird - more hiphop-type beats, but Lipp has much more of a electronic feel than the Ayatollah record. Less sampling, more original keyboard stuff. Again, no MCs. What's up with that, anyway? If you liked the Ratatat record, but didn't think it had enough soul, you'll dig this. Standout tracks are Rap Tight and Check Weight.

The Flaming Lips: At War With the Mystics - Hopefully you already are a huge Flaming Lips fan. If you're not, something's probably wrong with you. This is pop music at its finest. Standout tracks are The W.A.N.D (which sounds like a single) and Free Radicals (which sounds like Ween).

Also, the new Elvis Costello album is pretty good - though it's all jazz...who'da guessed? Also, I don't like to make promises, but you should check back in to this blog frequently - I'm promising to link to one of the best music videos ever, but it needs to finish uploading. Stay tuned.