sam smith - love is a losing game (amy winehouse cover)
taken off his just released 'in the lonely hour : drowning shadows edition', sam covers the amy winehouse classic with a bit of lush strings and smith-ian phrasings thrown in. it's a different kind of heartbreak, but kind of perfect for a friday.
nas feat amy winehouse - cherry wine
taken off his upcoming album 'life is good' this is an album leak that fans have been waiting for. amy sounds amazing and nas' album is looking to be something pretty astounding too.
conor maynard - can't say no
[houston, we definitely have a problem! this UK kid is going to do some serious rounds on the screaming girls front (heck, his fans already call themselves mayniacs). and like the bieber, conor made his viral name via posting covers on youtube. the kid is talented and the fact that his debut single has some serious neck bouncin grooves shows me that there's some interesting releases in the horizon. like!]
conor maynard - valerie/back to black (amy winehouse tribute)
want more? check out some of conor's youtube performances below:
conor maynard - slow dancing in a burning room (john mayer cover)
#26-50 (the youtube player has all the videos above in a playlist, press >> for the next song)
26. Jessie J – Nobody’s Perfect / Abracadabra / Domino
[though i'm a fan of the jessie j, i do feel that the hard selling of this talented artist (the harsh image, the overproduced videos, the way she sings so hard live that she goes sharp) has turned me against her by the end of the year (but still not enough to showcase three wonderful highlights from her album). it's a shame cause this girl can be great... she just needs to tone it down a notch!]
27. Bombay Bicycle Club – Lights Out, Words Gone
[featuring the lovely harmony of lucy rose, this dreamy indie pop number has a disarmingly mature groove underneath that showcases just how solid their music really is. brilliant!]
28. Young The Giant – Cough Syrup / My Body
[what a wonderful debut from this irvine, cali band! lead singer sameer gadhia has a killer caberet-esque quality to his vocals that draws you in instantly. throw in the fact that they write incredibly catchy hooks and you've got one of the better new acts of the year.]
29. Rizzle Kicks – Mama Do The Hump
[you gotta give it up to the rizzle kicks boys as they cranked out one sweet gem after another in 2011 (they also collaborated very nicely to #1 with olly murs). but it was this norman cook (fatboy slim) produced number that made the best impression... i mean they even got their mum's to perform in the video! do the hump mama!]
30. Maroon 5 feat Christina Aguilera – Moves Like Jagger
[one of the peppiest songs of the year reminded us that both maroon 5 and christina still had it in them to be a part of the pop zeitgeist. it was instant love during the summer and remained a crowd pleaser for the rest of 2011]
31. David Guetta feat Sia - Titanium
[though david guetta had alot of solid collaborations on his hit friendly album 'nothing but the beat', it was this awesome number with the always smashing sia that kicked them all to the curb. i'm a sucker for defiant anthems and this one really made the cut for 2011!]
32. Wretch 32 feat Josh Kimbra – Don’t Go
[my fave british rapper of the year, wretch 32 not only brought grime into the mainstream but still managed to produce this beautiful mid tempo breakup ballad to the top of the UK charts. sweetness!]
33. Calvin Harris – Feel So Close / feat Kelis - Bounce
[calvin just cranks out the hits doesn't he? producing smart dance songs that also translate to the top of the charts, this DJ/producer made a massive impact in 2011, but more on that in the next half of my year end list!]
34. Lady Antebellum – We Owned The Night
[if there is any such thing as a 'stadium' song for lady antebellum, this is it. three part harmonies, bygone lyrics and a sentiment that just asks for collective 'whoa'-ing at the end!]
35. Professor Green feat Emeli Sande – Read All About It
[emeli's part in this massive hit is easily my favorite vocal hook of the year! but as for professor green's lyrics about his daddy... i don't really have any strong opinion about it. oh well, back to emeli! i wanna sing... i wanna shooooout...]
36. M83 – Midnight City
[anthony gonzalez really knows how to make shoegaze electronica with a strong nod to the 80's! the layers of vocals and riffs is just one of the most glorious sounds of the year. love!]
37. Robyn – Call Your Girlfriend
[robyn is the only electro dance diva that comes up with lyrics that is filled with such yearning. she ruled the 'best of' list (#1 yo!) last year and then came back in june with this insta-love experience! desperation never sounded so good!]
38. Joe Goddard feat Valentina - Gabriel
[just like hot chip member joe goddard to throw down beats and grooves to make valentina's vocals into a house anthem with lo-fi leanings. genius!]
39. Switch feat Andrea Martin – I Still Love You
[a heartbreaking soulful song wrapped around a minimalist beat and yelp loop made this song into one of the saddest club tracks of the year. brilliant]
40. Kanye West and Jay Z – Niggas in Paris
[the back track is so balls hard that shit crazy! easily my fave track from their solid 'watch the throne' album.]
41. Amy Winehouse – Our Day Will Come
[sigh... we miss you amy]
42. Nero feat Alana - Promises
[easily my fave crossover dubstep track of the year due to the awesome waawaawaa bass line that kicks in during the chorus. solid!]
43. Sugarland and Matt Nathanson – Run / Tonight
[jennifer nettles is one of my favorite female vocalists around at the moment and i openly claim my love for sugarland and everything she does. so there!]
44. Lianne La Havas – Age / Final Form (Everything Everything cover)
[many of us fell in love with lianne's jazzy vocal sway on jools holland with the confident simplicity of her 'age' performance. so much so that i have strong anticipation for 2012 when lianne will show us just how potentially incredible her talents will be. bring it!]
45. James Vincent McMorrow – Higher Love (Steve Winwood cover)
[nothing like folkie james to bring back the love to this steve winwood classic. simply beautiful.]
46. Kelly Clarkson – What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)
[one of pop strongest voices returned this year with this solid dance rock electro disco mash anthem. try not to fist bump to this when you hear it at your next bar mitzfah/wedding/top 40 party!]
47. Laura Marling - Sophia
[oh laura... fast becoming the folk voice of our generation... finally finding the confidence in her music to create something so very 'laura marling'. the gut feeling is that the next album will be the definitive example of her true talents, this is just a teaser.]
48. Washed Out – Amor Fati
[chill out 80's electronica made all the better with the accompanying journeyman video shot entirely in iceland. just so dreamy!!]
49. Birdy – Skinny Love (Bon Iver cover) / White Winter Hymnal (Fleet Foxes cover)
[at only 16, young birdy offered up a collection of indie covers with sparse arrangements and haunting innocent vocals. an obvious marketing hook, but yet worked quite lovely in the long run.]
50. Flux Pavillion and Doctor P – Supabad / Bass Cannon
[bringing the stankface to the mainstream! i LOVE the breakdowns of flux pavillion, heck they even make 70's blacksploitation stankface cool!]
amy winehouse - love is a losing game (live @ other voices)
[the amazing irish music program other voices released this wonderful performance of amy's back in 2006 and it's well... just press play]
amy winehouse - hidden treasures story
[the making of lioness]
as promised by her PR, 2 new amy winehouse tracks from her posthumous album 'lioness: hidden treasures' was released today. one is a reggae cover of a classic doo wop tune, the other is a collaboration with rapper nas. check out the songs below:
amy winehouse - our day will come (ruby & the romantics cover)
amy winehouse feat quincy jones - it's my party
[taken off the upcoming retrospective album 'Q: soul bossa nostra', chronicling the music of producer quincy jones, ms. winehouse reunites with mark ronson and puts out new material since her now classic back to black album. all this really just whets my appetite for new winehouse stuff and i am HUNGRY!!!]
mark ronson feat amy winehouse - valerie (baby j remix)
[hot remixed version of a most favored tune featuring a slew of mc's in the form of Rukus (Antourage), Precha (C.O.V), Alex Blood (Soul Alliance), and Malik (MD7). i could feign total 'in-ness' but i have no clue who they are ;)]
amy winehouse - love is a losing game (kardinal beats remix) [link 2] [though amy's grammy performance may have seemed like it was nothing special, my feeling was that it was indeed one of the bigger obstacles of her career. these days, we can only watch her live life one day at a time and not expect too much (since she could fall back into hell so easily). which only makes this video kind of sad and creepy at the same time.]
if you missed sunday's award ceremony, here are a few of the highlights from that evening (thanks to alis blog for the vids!):
beyonce and tina turner - intro / what's love got to do with it [what a massively flambouyant introduction to the divas of music! it's a tad letdown when it all boils down to...tina turner.]
kanye west and daft punk - stronger kanye west - dedication to mother [two wonderful performances, one with added grooves thanks to daft punk, and the other a moving tribute to kanye's recently deceased mother]
amy winehouse - you know i'm no good / rehab [a bizarre mix of upfrontery and total fear, this was one of the most raw performances of amy's i've ever seen. can't say i loved it, but when she hits those notes, i am all hers.]
alicia keys and john mayer - no one [this was THE performance of the evening. with an arrangement that far outshines the original, this will easily go down in grammy history as one of it's best!]
amy winehouse - back to black [link 2] [taken from the album that just kept on buzzing with timeless hits, it's hard to imagine a period when the downward spiral of amy's personal life didn't overshadow her brilliant music. who knows if she'll ever be able to record a note again, but if she doesn't, these four minutes perfectly encapsulates the natural heartbreaking talent that she inhabits.]
amy winehouse - back to black (2007 MTV EMA performance) amy winehouse - back to black [link 2] [just to prove how completely naturally talented amy is, even when off her head and slurring in klingon, she still sounds amazing!]
concert day! my posse and i have been psyched about going to the virgin music festival for awhile, but something about getting up at 5am to drive to baltimore kind of put a grouchy damper on the days excitement (it didn't help that i was up until 3am watching the summer finale of degrassi high ... oh yes, i go there!).
but once we got to the venue all fatigue was forgotten as our group of 8 music lovers split up to check out bands and dj's throughout the three spaces. first up for me were the fratellis. the scottish trio played at the 2nd stage to a relatively enthusiastic, but small crowd, of about 200-300 fans (it was also 1:30pm). what surprised me were the amount of young (like 14/15 young) kids who knew the lyrics to the band. i'm so used to seeing people my age at nyc's venues that checking out kids who rock is just weird. the band zipped through their hits before playing a few new tracks that showcased a rockier sound, but with all their trademarked sweet harmonies thrown in.
amy winehouse was next, but things were getting increasingly hot that afternoon, so the group met up at the vip lounge (where drinks were plentiful and massive cooling fans were placed on the viewing decks). yeah, we wimped out by watching the wine-ster from afar. it wasn't the best performance cause amy sings through her album with pure nonchalance. imagine what she would sound like if she actually put some effort into it! amy winehouse - rehab [link 2] after stocking up on liquids, i braved the 102F weather and headed out to the dance tent to check out felix da housecat.
now it's been awhile since i've gone clubbing, but i completely forgot how these guys play to the masses at these large venues. repetitive beats were plentiful and vocals were left to a minimum. luckily felix started his set with some good ol classics to get the room going. i haven't heard this in awhile so it was worth the sweat! the prodigy - smack my bitch up [link 2] oh look, richard branson! peter bjorn and john were already a few songs deep into their set before i made my way back to live music. since i already saw these boys at the beginning of summer, i kind of stayed back and just bopped my head to everything. looking around, i quickly gathered that most of the people watching hadn't had the spring of 'young folks' like i did. some girls started to do some freaky hippy dancing and i knew that it was my cue to go back to the vip lounge for more drinks. peter bjorn & john - young folks [link 2]
oh the wacky people of music festivals! on the way back to the lounge, i stopped through the dance tent once again to see the 'legendary' danny tenaglia.
now i'm totally dating myself, but back in my day danny was an AMAZING dj that worked the room into a tribal frenzy. house was his sound at the time, and i was hoping for something other than the techno i was hearing so far.
but what i got was worse. danny circa 2007 has become a friggin minstrel of a dj. standing in front the crowd making cheesy faces and dance moves, it was completely embarassing to see a legend boiled down to this monkey of a level. after two songs, i had to walk out. looking at my watch, i realised that i didn't have enough time to go back to the lounge, so i rushed back to the 2nd stage to get as close to the front of the lcd soundsystem performance as possible.
lucky i did that cause i bumped into a friend en route who told me he had an extra pass to watch the whole concert from the stage!
walking behind the stage to go to the vip side, i passed by the completely unassuming and adorably stocky james murphy (aka the lead singer of the band) and gave him this big smile that was half 'oh my god, there he is' and 'oh yeah, i've been around celebrities before'. i think i just looked constipated as a result.
minutes later james went on stage and rocked easily gave the best performance of the day with his band of multi-instrumentalists. i've never been able to catch lcd in new york, so this performance exceeded all my expections. energetic, raw and darn funky, i basically got my dance on throughout the 50 minute set. amazing!
finally got my wish to go back to the lounge for a rest, but the area was completely packed with other people who had the same idea.
with no place to chill, i went back out and caught some tv on the radio before it got too hot for me to handle (visual proof i was there for one song).
ducked into the dance tent to see old schoolers sasha and digweed do their thing (i use that term loosely since i'm probably only 7 or 8 years younger than they are). i have to admit the grooves were addictive, but the heat was really getting me (and the fact that i hadn't found any place to rest was putting a strain on me). i just bopped slowly as the rest of the energetic (and probably chemically enhanced) kids went apeshit around me. here's one of the tracks they played during the set: the chemical brothers - do it again (oliver huntemann mix) [link 2]
nightfall offered no reprise as the heat and the increasing sandy dust just made it unbearable. which is a total shame because by the time the police came on, i had turned into a crabby tired evil festival go-er. i do have to say that sting sounded pretty amazing but dammit, i was ready to go. the police - roxanne [link 2]
[with new dates added on to her US tour and a top 10 single in the Billboard charts, it looks like our girl amy has finally broken through the mainstream in a big way. just how will audiences deal with her infamous drunken antics and constant no-shows will be another story. just to celebrate, may i present this smooth grooved up version of the 4th single off her back to black album.]
concert day! my posse and i have been psyched about going to the virgin music festival for awhile, but something about getting up at 5am to drive to baltimore kind of put a grouchy damper on the days excitement (it didn't help that i was up until 3am watching the summer finale of degrassi high ... oh yes, i go there!).
but once we got to the venue all fatigue was forgotten as our group of 8 music lovers split up to check out bands and dj's throughout the three spaces.
first up for me were the fratellis. the scottish trio played at the 2nd stage to a relatively enthusiastic, but small crowd, of about 200-300 fans (it was also 1:30pm). what surprised me were the amount of young (like 14/15 young) kids who knew the lyrics to the band. i'm so used to seeing people my age at nyc's venues that checking out kids who rock is just weird.
amy winehouse was next, but things were getting increasingly hot that afternoon, so the group met up at the vip lounge (where drinks were plentiful and massive cooling fans were placed on the viewing decks). yeah, we wimped out by watching the wine-ster from afar. it wasn't the best performance cause amy sings through her album with pure nonchalance. imagine what she would sound like if she actually put some effort into it!
after stocking up on liquids, i braved the 102F weather and headed out to the dance tent to check out felix da housecat.
oh look, richard branson!
peter bjorn and john were already a few songs deep into their set before i made my way back to live music. since i already saw these boys at the beginning of summer, i kind of stayed back and just bopped my head to everything. looking around, i quickly gathered that most of the people watching hadn't had the spring of 'young folks' like i did. some girls started to do some freaky hippy dancing and i knew that it was my cue to go back to the vip lounge for more drinks.
oh the wacky people of music festivals!
on the way back to the lounge, i stopped through the dance tent once again to see the 'legendary' danny tenaglia.
looking at my watch, i realised that i didn't have enough time to go back to the lounge, so i rushed back to the 2nd stage to get as close to the front of the lcd soundsystem performance as possible.
ducked into the dance tent to see old schoolers sasha and digweed do their thing (i use that term loosely since i'm probably only 7 or 8 years younger than they are).
nightfall offered no reprise as the heat and the increasing sandy dust just made it unbearable. which is a total shame because by the time the police came on, i had turned into a crabby tired evil festival go-er. 
end of day one!
amy winehouse - tears dry on their own (al usher remix) [link 2]
