Darq E Freaker: "Pills & Cocaine" [feat. Danny Brown]

All I can do to keep WKMR from turning into a Danny Brown unofficial fan site. Can't help it. He's that good. And here he is hooked up London's Darq E Freaker, who is previously unknown to me, but one way of changing that is to hook up Detroit's finest with a beat that is equal parts haunted circus and rave hoovers. Somebody's on something.

Tennis: "My Better Self"

This video sucks. You don't have to watch it, particularly if you happen to have familiarized yourself with the song (Young & Old - the album - came out back in February and is available on Spotify). If you haven't copped to the tune yet you'll soon be wondering why people still give a shit about The Shins and The Decemberists when accessible bands like Denver's Tennis are on the scene, yet haven't been around long enough to lose the plot yet. Seriously: what the fuck does Death Cab for Cutie think they're doing nowadays? And why are you still paying attention? Don't let brand loyalty cause you to sleep on this here.

Netsky: "Come Alive" [Rockwell Remix]

Even electronic producers that ostensibly wouldn't touch brostep with a 10 foot pole still seem compelled to acknowledge the menacing, fractured monolith of sound that the genre has inspired... everyone is scrambling to top the latest fucked up beats. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we may have a winner: Rockwell starts off modestly enough on his remix of Netsky's "Come Alive", but in just over two-and-a-half minutes he manages to cover a pretty impressive range of spastic schrizophrenia.
(via FACT, for whom homeboy has also put together a long-form mix)

KILLER COVERS || The Flaming Lips: "God Only Knows"

Anyone familiar with the Flaming Lips - particularly their mid-90's (semi-)crossover period - knows that there's always been a certain pop sensibility behind their skewed, acid-drenched aesthetic. That said, this brand new cover of the Beach Boys classic "God Only Knows" proves that they're not particularly interested in separating the psychedelia from their pop. While arguably one of the more "accessible" things they've done in recent memory, they turn this old chestnut out (Paul McCartney's favorite song of all time, incidentally... let him do his own faithful cover if the original is so damned bulletproof).

This was recorded for one of those MOJO magazine cover CDs that seem to be nothing but anniversary celebrations of classic albums via current artists putting their own spin on the tunes.

Metric: "Youth Without Youth"

Metric have to be pretty happy that the ongoing "are they or aren't they?" controversies surrounding the likes of Sleigh Bells and Lana del Rey have kept the heat off of a band frequently cited as being too poppy [read: inauthentic] for their own good. I could care less. What I generally don't like about pop music is not its slick glossiness, but the canned, manufactured beats and predictable, cookie cutter melodies. Metric don't fuck around with any of that. Their sound hearkens back to the 80s, where you could be as slick as you wanted to but it really didn't mean a thing if you didn't have a killer hook to go along with it. That, of course, was before MTV established cultural hegemony and made it ok to settle for an image, with nothing more to offer... which leads us to where we are today. At least there's Metric.

Synthetica is out June 12

[UPDATE 6/12/12: added music video]:

Professor Green: "Remedy" [feat. Ruth Anne]

It takes balls to look like the chav Rick Astley.

Unicorn Kid: "Pure Space"

At 20 years of age, Oliver Sabin isn't even old enough to remember the original generation of 8-bit video games. That hasn't stopped him from becoming one of the more heralded chiptune producers, and possibly the one most likely to cross over into the mainstream with his Unicorn Kid alter ego. This isn't purist shit here. The backing synths obviously don't rely on circuit bending but just good old fashion analog. Either way, just think of it is instrumental dance pop if that's what it takes.

Phonte: "The Life of Kings" [feat. Evidence & Big K.R.I.T.]

With more and more ambulance chasing rappers gravitating toward trendy ass dubstep beats, thankfully there is an alternate movement to recapture that old vintage soul-sampling aesthetic that rap cut its teeth on in the first place. Hell, even the sissy ass ballads these pop rappers are peddling on the public rarely sample anything that could conceivably put their treacly, cry baby lyrics over the top. 9th Wonder ain't having that shit. Tell me he didn't produce the hell out of "The Life of Kings". How is that virtual unknowns like Phonte can afford to hire a guy like 9th Wonder and clear the samples at the same time, but multi-millionaires like Rick Ross and Wiz Khalifa are still coming out with that Casio rap?

N.O.R.E.: "Google That" [feat. Styles P & Raekwon]

The $2 wi-fi homeless dude cracks me up, because AT&T actually pulled something similar during SXSW this year - basically paying homeless people to walk around with wireless routers strapped around their waists to help alleviate the typically overtaxed cell towers - but there was no $2 charge. Come to think of it, I neither saw any of these homeless people wandering about nor benefited from any better service than I've had at past conferences.

Anyway... there was a time about a decade ago when N.O.R.E. was considered an elite rapper, but sadly his popularity seems to have waned through no fault of his own. He's still bringing the same on point rhymes over super catchy beats, it's just that fewer of y'all are paying attention. It's that fuckin' pop rap shit, isn't it? Your girl likes Drake so now you like Drake. If you don't know what a punk ass bitch is and there's no mirror handy, go on and Google that.

KILLER COVERS || School of Seven Bells: "Kiss Them for Me"

If you know three Siouxsie & the Banshees songs "Kiss Them for Me" is one of them ("Peekaboo" and "Christine" are probably the other two... "Lord's Prayer" if you're nasty). No matter how many times you've heard the woozy Siouxsie version you probably won't place the version School of Seven Bells laid down for Record Store Day until the lyrics get rolling. Which is really kind of a baseline expectation for any cover song that legitimately aspires to greatness.