Outasight aka Richard Andrew

Outasight hails from Yonkers, New York and as a teen he was heavily influenced by A Tribe Called Quest, Talib Kweli and Stevie Wonder.  Since 2007, he has been pounding the pavement honing his craft and pushing to get his music heard.   A heavy circuit of club, cafe and festival appearances has provided Outasight the opportunity to prove his musical prowess.  He has also mastered the fine art of releasing mix tapes.  To date, he has five solid tapes under his belt.  In 2008, it was an appearance on mtvU that brought him to the attention of executives over at Warner Bros.

Studio backing helped Outasight bring his first studio EP, Further, to the masses.  The six track EP has created some solid buzz all leading to his upcoming full album release.  Outasight delivers smart rhymes with a lyrical flow that doesn’t sell the listener short.  He simply speaks to what he knows and demonstrates that he is an artist with a clear vision.  Simply put, he is an innovator that is raising the bar in a genre that has become saturated with sound-a-like hacks.  Treat yourself to something different and be a part of a music career that will certainly make waves.  Scroll on down to the bottom of this post to find out how you can get your hands on his latest mix tape for FREE!

KC’s Personal Picks:  “Catch Me If You Can”, “Stranger Than Fiction” and “Brand New Day”

Check out “Catch Me If You Can”

Buy the album

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Want his latest mix tape Never Say Never for FREE?  Get your copy here!

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So says the blind, kooky disc jockey from the classic film “O Brother Where Art Thou,” after which the Soggy Bottom Boys blow the roof off the little radio station with a young Robert Johnson fiddling away on the gee-tar.

What a good-lookin' group.

In 2010, we still haven’t quite outgrown old-timey material, and The SteelDrivers are—in the words of George Everett McGill—“silly with it.”

This Nashville bluegrass group made some noise in 2008 with their self-titled debut album, when the track “Blue Side of the Mountain” got nominated for a Grammy. But now they’re back for a second go-round with a record called “Reckless,” which is about as modern and mainstream as bluegrass gets.

While we’re a Chicago-based company, there’s no denying the fact that both Tank and I came from somewhat rural roots. The residue of a country music up-bringing still lingers in our veins, and anything with a banjo, fiddle, and soulful lead singer still gets the ol’ heart beating and the ol’ toes tappin’.

If you’ve got any affinity for bluegrass, it’s impossible to pick out any single track that’s not 100% agreeable, but our favorites include “The Reckless Side of Me,” “Peacemaker,” and “You Put a Hurt On Me.” It’s a good mix of upbeat and slowdown; country, bluegrass, and blues.

It’s delightfully old-timey, and constant sorrow will be yours if you don’t grab “Reckless” on your way home from work today.

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It’s a G.D. shame.

After gaining a ton of momentum in 2009 with super-group Slaughterhouse, also featuring Crooked I, Joe Budden, and Royce Da 5’9”, Ortiz recorded an album called, fittingly, “Free Agent,” which was supposed to be released all the way back in June. In the midst of trying to leave E1 for Eminem’s Shady Records, the release got held up, and now it’s just sort of hanging out there in development hell, while huge fans like myself wait impatiently to finally hear it.

In the meantime, the best you can do is get a hold of mixtapes where Ortiz is prominently featured. That’s where I’ve bumped into a few of my favorite lyrical gems of the last couple months, including his “Lemonade” freestyle and 50 bars over J. Cole’s “Who Dat.”

Throughout these and every other Ortiz track I’ve ever heard, I laugh. I laugh because the metaphors and analogies and wordplay he employs are so witty that I’m not sure what else to do. Also, I laugh because, ya know, some of them are actually very funny. The guy cares about the words that are spilling forth from his mouth, which is exactly what real hip-hop heads should be looking for. Well, hip-hop heads, here they are. Indulge yourselves.

In the end, Ortiz didn’t end up with E1 or Shady; last month he signed on with SRC/Universal Motown, and shortly afterwards it was made known that “Free Agent” would hit streets before ’10 was over. I say thank God to that, and I’m sure Ortiz is saying it too, but louder.

Here’s the “Lemonade” freestyle, which rocks:

And Joell’s version of “Who Dat,” which I might even prefer over J. Cole’s:

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But beyond the novelty of their popular single, Colin Hay has produced songs beyond his time with Men At Work that are powerful and catchy.  I first came across his solo work through the show Scrubs.  There is one episode that utilizes the song “Overkill” for a particularly emotional scene in an episode for an earlier season.  I immediately fell in love with the song and had to find out who it was.  Imagine my surprise when I googled it to come up with the lead singer for Men At Work.  I thought to myself, “This isn’t right. I have to dig deeper.”  So using my extreme computer hacking skills, I checked an underground website known for digging up this kind of information (Wikipedia) and confirmed that it was in fact the Aussie from the 80s pop band.

Upon further exploration I came across Hay’s album Man At Work which contained the song “Overkill” as well as some retakes on the popular single “Down Under”.  The entire album is very pleasant, but what really sticks out for Hay are his simplistic “guy and guitar” tracks.  In my opinion, he’s best when it is just the melody and the lyrics.  With songs like “Waiting For My Real Life To Begin” and “I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You” (made popular by the movie Garden State) Colin Hay has a real knack for simple, powerful acoustic tracks.

Check out his appearance on Scrubs:

Buy Man At Work:

Amazon Music

As the seasons starting adding up over at American Idol, we the audience began to see a contestant pool that was blending together.  Folks started looking alike and singing alike.  So, it was like a hearty slap in the face when Blake Lewis hit the stage for the first time.  Not only did Blake’s clubish clothing and faux hawk catch my attention, it was also his unique infusion of vocal percussion into his performances.  As the weeks went on I found myself tuning in just to see what he would do next.  In the end it was Jordin Sparks’ candy coated smile that kept him from taking the top spot.

Instant exposure ended up being the greatest prize for Blake.  His 2007 major debut album, Audio Day Dream, just went through a major replay in my car stereo.  It is safe to say that Blake has not gone on to super stardom, but his unique pop/soul/club style certainly did invade a lot of households across the globe.  Audio Day Dream is something worth checking out.  It is not your typical pop album.  If A.D.D. leaves you wanting more, you can check out his 2009 sophomore album, Heartbreak on Vinyl.  Fans of Justin Timberlake are gonna be lovin’ them some Blake Lewis.

KC’s Personal Picks: “Know My Name” featuring Lupe Fiasco, “Break Anotha”, and “Gots to Get Her”

Check out the video for “Break Anotha”

Buy the album

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Figure 1.1

Their new release Feeding the Wolves not only has a manly name, but a manly album cover (see Figure 1.1).  Historically I’ve found that if an album has an awesome cover, an awesome name and an awesome artist behind it, you are destined to have something worth its weight in gold.  Don’t believe me?  Tell that to Michael Jackson’s Thriller or Guns N Roses’ Appetite for Destruction.  Yeah, I didn’t think so.

The entire album is a hard-hitting mix of heavy guitar and steel-laden vocals to match.  The tracks rarely miss a beat, taking breaks only to show their softer side with powerful ballads (that are not-so-much ballads, I just can’t think of another word to describe them.)

10 Years is currently on the tail-end of the Carnival of Madness tour with the likes of Shinedown, Chevelle, Sevendust, and Puddle of Mudd.  But not to worry, they will be headed back out on the road with numerous upcoming tour dates to support the release of their new album.

Buy Feed the Wolves:

Amazon Music

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I know we’re supposed to have this policy of introducing readers to new artists, and T.I. clearly already has hit it big, but this new song produced Timbaland is without question the hottest track on my playlist. To be fair, I’m an unapologetic Timbo junkie that immediately falls in love with 80% of everything he’s ever done, but this particular track works on just about every level possible. T.I. knows how to rock a track, and he knows how to write a hook. Those two things linked up to a dirty, dirty beat makes for a real gem. Enjoy:

Finger Eleven – “Living In A Dream”

The new Finger Eleven record drops next month, but we’ve been given “Living In A Dream” to help tide us over. You must decide whether it’ll just arouse your appetite without bedding it back down or whether you really need a taste to keep yourselves from starving. Either way, you need to know this stomping, upbeat rock diddy is everything we’ve come to love from F11.

Mark Ronson featuring Ghostface Killah – “Lose It”

We were first introduced to Mark Ronson in 2007 when he teamed up with Lily Allen to put out “Oh My God,” which quietly became an FS favorite that year. Then came that sweet video for “Bang Bang Bang,” which rocked our asses equally hard, and now there’s “Lose It,” featuring one my favorite Wu-Tang Clansters in Ghostface Killah. The track takes about a minute or so to really warm up, but once Ghost hits the beat everything is right in the world. I’m starting to wonder if there’s a Ronson track out there that I wouldn’t like. Hmm.

Paula Fuga and Jack Johnson

American Idol enthusiasts that have a freakish memory regarding past contestants will remember Fuga’s audition.  If you want to see the judges blow a decision you can watch it here.  So AI didn’t work out for her.  Were the judges too concerned with selling an image and not finding amazing vocal talent?  Well dawg, we will let you be the judge of that one.  That “missed” opportunity has not held her back one bit.

Fuga’s 2010 EP, Misery’s End, is the follow up to her 2006 self-released debut album, Lilikoi.  Fuga doesn’t need Simon, Paula Abdul and Randy.  On Misery’s End she saddles up with Jack Johnson and Ziggy Marley.  Yeah, we think she is doing just fine for herself.  Fuga’s music is simply beautiful.  Her style blends traditional Hawaiian sounds and instrumentation with contemporary blues, soul and jazz.  Misery’s End is the perfect music to celebrate the remaining weeks of summer.  Support amazing music.  Support Paula Fuga!

KC’s Personal Picks:  “Country Road” and “Parachute”

Jack Johnson joins Paula Fuga on a live version of “Country Road”

Buy the album

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*Thanks April!*

That’s a great idea and everything, but Pandora isn’t the only place in cyberspace to find new music. Another website, StereoMood.com, has actually figured out a way to tailor playlists to your mood. If you’re in a Jack Johnson mood or a Buddy Guy mood, then use Pandora. But if you’re feeling less specific—happy or relaxed or bummed out—StereoMood is the way to go.

The idea for the site came from four friends in Italy—Giovanni, Daniele, Maurizio, and Eleonora—who concocted the idea as a way to use technology to link music and mood.

“Three years ago when we worked together at mtv.it here in Milan, we decided to provide a new way to listen to music,” says co-founder Eleonora. “We started to investigate what was the best web music service and how it worked. Websites like Hype Machine, Last.FM, and Musicovery inspired us to create a new web application that allows you to listen to music with a new classification based on emotions.”

The site is painfully easy to use; the home page has a huge list of emotions, with the more popular ones appearing in larger font. All you have to do is click on the one that most closely matches your mood, and the playlist pops right up.

One of the good things about these playlist—at least in our opinion—is that you don’t see many mainstream pop hits added to the mix. The music comes from artists all over the world, and that international flair is something Eleonora says they always strived for.

“Every song you will find on StereoMood comes from a selection of the best international music blogs, reachable from the ‘read post’ link on the player. The order in which you will find the songs in every different playlist is counted by an algorithm that tracks their freshness, their listening frequency, their popularity, and the number of tags that the users assigned to them. This algorithm is also able to show the last uploaded songs or the ones users love the most.”

According to Eleonora, the website has grown quite a bit in the short 8 months that it’s been in existence.

“We now receive every day mail and comments on our Facebook and Twitter fan pages. Most of the users express their need of a mobile application to bring StereoMood with them.”

However, plans for expansion stretch beyond just the addition of mobile apps for the iPhone and Android phones. Right now, the website is just a hobby for these four friends in Italy. Eventually, they’re hoping it expands to a point where it can be profitable enough for them to quit their day jobs.

“We want StereoMood to become our main work. We want to create a complete StereoMood team, besides us, to grow up and make the website better. We want to try to sell ad space based on our emotional concept—for example we can make an ad hoc campaign for Kleenex into the ‘feel like crying’ playlist.”

In the meantime, while this innovative website continues to get itself off the ground, listeners can channel their musical mood into an actual, specific playlist. As good as Pandora is, even they can’t do that.

Score one for StereoMood.

Click HERE to check out StereoMood and start discovering new music today!

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But the waiting was worth it.  JJ Grey & Mofro’s latest release is a soulful blend of down-home raspy vocals, heart-wrenching organ licks and some serious slide guitar.  I’ve always said that this man’s albums never do justice to his live shows, but this album definitely gets closer with its more intimate moments.  Of course, there may be none more intimate than the track “Slow, Hot & Sweaty”, but I’ll let you be the judge of that.

JJ Grey & Mofro have come a long way since Country Ghetto, but one thing I appreciate is that even though their sound has continued to evolve, they have not strayed away from their original style.  They continue to be the same gritty blues band they were 3 years ago (and before.)  They form the industry instead of the other way around.  Props JJ Grey.  Props.

Buy Georgia Warhorse:

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