Ahh the wonderful world of Dubstep. It's impossible not to jerk your butt in odd directions at 140 bpm. Here's a cut from Distance off of Dubstep All-Stars Vol 5 mixed by N-Type. He has a simple feel to his music. The first track you can hear his his crunchy bass lines that are not too cheesy, and tasteful to the right degree. In the second track, you get a sense of the sick ambiance Distance has goin on in most of his tracks. It's feels dissonant and spooky as if somethings gonna jump out at you. By the way, N-Type is playing tomorrow at a small bar in the city, in case anybody is reading this shit.

This piece will break your heart. It's the "theme" song from the 1952 French movie Jeux interdits (Forbidden Games) about a little French orphan during WWII. The song basically fades in and out of the movie the whole time. The host at my restaurant showed me this - a 68 year old Japanese man who always dreamed about becoming a classical guitar performer. If you YouTube "Romance Guitar" there are a bunch of different people doing their own rendition. Ahhh it's so beautiful. By the way, no one really knows who composed this piece.

Easy Star All Stars are doing big tings. In 2009 they did a dub version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band backed a slew of big time reggae vocalists. Steel Pulse, Sugar Minott, Luciano, U-Roy, Matisyahu, Michael Rose and more. Who knew U-Roy was still bangin?



Then 2010 brought us a remix of the remix, Dubber Side of the Moon. Their original release, a dub version of the Pink Floyd album, came out on the scene and blew everyone away. It was an album that was sick its own respect. Seems hard to top, eh? But this release gives you more echo, more syncopated rhythm, and much more bass. What can I say, its love when a solid band such as the Easy Star All-Stars moves towards Dubstep.

These guys rip it up. As of now, it is hard to recall going to a show that gave me as much energy, convulsion, and hardcore rawness as the Blood Brothers did. Truly standing the test of time, I still get the same chills down my spine when I throw on This Adultery is Ripe, or March On Electric Children, not to mention ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn. They are so good, I have to put two songs up.

YouTube didn't have it so I hope this works:

Sick of indie pop? Then Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. is for you. This song is a off-the-beaten-path approach to things in 2010. They got the vocals of Devendra Banhart and the slap smack of Skream. I just found this duo from Detroit in the feature section at KALX Berkeley. This is off their debut EP and I hope for good things in the future. Tomorrow: Punk Rock.

The HorrorPops are a psychobilly band outta Denmark. They got signed to Tim Armstrong's Hellcat Records after coming up in the scene in the late 90's. "Psychobitches Outta Hell" was a popular hit in the clubs and is my favorite song off of their record, Hell Yeah! The chick reminds me of a rockabilly version of Brody Armstrong, which is pretty damn sexy

Don Carlos can be considered a reggae superstar. Out of Jamaica, he joined up with Black Uhuru in its early stages. His solo career began in the early 1980's and he has been performing wicked shows ever since. I believe he lives in Marin or Santa Cruz, so you can catch him playing at least a couple of gigs a month around the bay. The album Cool Johnny Cool is a good start, if you can't see him live.