Asides

Where ya been hiding House of Pain?

Sometimes I live under a rock. Case in point – am I the last person to find out that House of Pain has essentially reunited under a new name? I was flipping through a March issue of Scene magazine (a free weekly from Cleveland) when I spotted an article that started off with a mention of former House of Pain MC Danny Boy. The deeper I read into the article, I discovered that Danny Boy put the old crew back together (DJ Lethal, Everlast) for a new project called La Coka Nostra.

La Coka Nostra’s debut album, A Brand You Can Trust, will be released by Suburban Noize Records on my birthday, July 14.

For now, check out a video for “That’s Coke” (and for all you watching at work or in front of the kiddies, this one ain’t safe to listen to in front of youngsters or co-workers).

True Live

David, Ross and I were hanging at the Australian BBQ during SXSW, drinking some free beer, eating some free food when this really cool music started playing on the house speakers – a fusion of hip-hop, soul music and jazz. I knew it was something that I’d want to check out later so I asked Glen from the Australian Music Collective  who it was we were listening to. He ran over to the soundboard, looked at the iPod that was serving as DJ and reported that it was True Live. He told me that True Live was a hip-hop band with classically-trained musicians who played all the music live rather than relying on samples to create the sound.

I don’t think the collective’s new CD, Found Lost, is available yet in the U.S. and to be honest I’m not sure it ever will be but if you dig what you hear, you should be able to track down the CD somehow even if it is just a digital copy through an outlet like iTunes of eMusic.

Free music Friday

PICK OF THE WEEK
It Hugs Back – “Work Day”, “Now + Again”

OTHER FREE DOWNLOADS
Papercuts – “You Can Have What You Want”
Camera Obscura – “My Maudlin Career”
Spain Colored Orange – “Who Am I”
1090 Club – “Itson”
The Atomic Bitchwax – “Revival”
Lewis & Clarke – “Petrified Forest”
The Veils – “The Letter”, “Killed By the Boom”
Anni Rossi – “Ecology”