OUT OF CONTROL INDIE-SOUL

This Tuesday (tomorrow) - Los Angeles' The Central SAPC heats up with some fierce indie soul from emerging artists Weapons of Audio and Austin Brown.

The former are blood brothers from Atlanta who elected to turn L dot A dot into their hometown in the past year - and since then have been steadily creeping their way into the limelight.  From "If You Want Me" being a free ringtone through Coors Light to judging Sweden's Next Top Model to photo shoots as featured artists in Gilette's "Masters of Style" campaign - Weapons of Audio have been letting their swag flag fly high.  In their spare time they just happened to release a steamy, smanging bar anthem "Night Light" - co-produced by Grammy award winner Graham Marsh.  Returning to play The Central SAPC for the first time since their very first LA performance - Weapons of Audio are likely to cut that stage up and, if we're lucky, debut some material they've been cooking up since arriving to the left coast. 

Here they are rocking "Night Light" acoustic style on Jam In The Van.

WOA just sets the mood and stage right for another talented bloodline - the Jackson family.  Austin Brown, Michael Jackson's nephew, will again do his best to channel his uncle's skill set as he offers a taste of what's to come in his bright future.   Last week - the kid nearly kicked over a drum set and knocked a microphone off stage with his energetic dance moves and flexing.  The band is filled with young players and the music has plenty of pop stylings, from its soul to its subject matter ("Menage A Trois") to suggest that Brown has a lot of room to grow.   Check out some of his videos below and then make sure you get your ass to The Central SAPC early tomorrow - its FREE and its FUN!

OUT OF CONTROL INDIE-SOUL

This Tuesday (tomorrow) - Los Angeles' The Central SAPC heats up with some fierce indie soul from emerging artists Weapons of Audio and Austin Brown.

The former are blood brothers from Atlanta who elected to turn L dot A dot into their hometown in the past year - and since then have been steadily creeping their way into the limelight.  From "If You Want Me" being a free ringtone through Coors Light to judging Sweden's Next Top Model to photo shoots as featured artists in Gilette's "Masters of Style" campaign - Weapons of Audio have been letting their swag flag fly high.  In their spare time they just happened to release a steamy, smanging bar anthem "Night Light" - co-produced by Grammy award winner Graham Marsh.  Returning to play The Central SAPC for the first time since their very first LA performance - Weapons of Audio are likely to cut that stage up and, if we're lucky, debut some material they've been cooking up since arriving to the left coast. 

Here they are rocking "Night Light" acoustic style on Jam In The Van.

WOA just sets the mood and stage right for another talented bloodline - the Jackson family.  Austin Brown, Michael Jackson's nephew, will again do his best to channel his uncle's skill set as he offers a taste of what's to come in his bright future.   Last week - the kid nearly kicked over a drum set and knocked a microphone off stage with his energetic dance moves and flexing.  The band is filled with young players and the music has plenty of pop stylings, from its soul to its subject matter ("Menage A Trois") to suggest that Brown has a lot of room to grow.   Check out some of his videos below and then make sure you get your ass to The Central SAPC early tomorrow - its FREE and its FUN!

Hip-Hop Artists On Their E-Mail Grind

Every once in a while you got to give love to those hip hop hustlers that are on their e-mail grind (or have people on their e-mail grind). We're constantly giving love to Kosha Dillz, who is just on the grind everywhere and always. Just in case you don't know about him, check out his website Kosha Dillz World and also peep this track, "Echi Ani Olech," off of his Gina & The Garage Sale EP. He spits in three different languages on that one.

Another hard grinding MC (who rolls with Dillz sometimes) is Verbs or Verbsisthehomie. He just dropped a wicked ill track "Feelings Get In The Way." He spit it at Knocksteady in this video, but you can just cop the download. He makes personalized CDs with his own illustrations - well worth the cash he is peddling them for.

Then there is Weapons of Audio - who are not from LA, but are moving to LA. They hail most recently from Atlanta and some of that southern fried flavor can be heard in their music. Their track "If You Want Me" was downloaded over 19,000 times in June and is still in my rotation. I'm definitely looking forward to catching their first ever Los Angeles performance, whenever that is...

Other MCs on their grind include JAMS. You might not know it because it isn't the first thing that turns up in a Google search for JAMS, but homeboy has somebody who was sending me e-mails and I'm glad I opened this one up. Coming out of Chicago - I gave the dude a chance, and was able to get past the fact that these look like some kids from my high school trying to make a rap video where they look hard. Just because I think their fashion choices don't fit their white suburban, I've never seen a gun or been through a fire look doesn't mean "Through The Fire" featuring Bradley Bacci isn't a good song. It is worth listening to and the video does have train tracks (thats a + in my book).

Wasn't Kidding About Weapons of Audio

Heard from some friends in NYC that the Weapons of Audio show was way way impressive. Their words exactly were "they should be playing arenas." That forced me to go dig around the 'net a little bit and I unearthed this video for "If You Want Me." Not only does the sing remind me a little bit of Prince, but apparently that female vocalist has been on The Voice.

Brothers Floyd and Jeremy Daniels clearly have the hotness. And here they're joined by Coco, Breezy and Angela Wolff. Peep it for yourself...

What The Knux? ('Roo Preview)

In light of Bonnaroo announcing their schedule - I'm continuing with my 'Roo Preview and countdown of artists SUPERGOOD thinks are super good. The Knux, hailing from New Orleans, blend of rap has been a favorite on my speakers since I first heard the album "Remind Me In 3 Days..."

With clear influences from Outkast and The Pharcyde, and a style that embraces a little bit of a rocker's swagger, it surprises me that The Knux didn't explode more off of "Remind Me in 3 Days..." Honestly, it was one of my favorite records of 2008. From "Bang, Bang!" - the Entourage trailer track to "Cappuccino" to "Powder Room" there were a bunch of bangers touching on subjects not often visited by rappers toeing a line close to pop-hop.

"Daddy's Little Girl" and "Powder Room" survived several years in my i-pod and made a return in 2011 when the duo dropped a leak from their second LP, "She's So Up", on Consequence of Sound in early February. The new material definitely has much more of a rock underpinning to it as heard in the driving guitar riff, but still possesses a catchy hook and their creative flow.

Very exciting to have these two brothers (Kentrell "Krispy" Lindsey and Alvin "Joey" Lindsey) on the 'Roo line-up - and at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday night no less. What a great way to kick off the first night considering they were all the rage of the 2009 festival season (although they didn't perform at that many of them) and are well known for their intense and riveting live performances.

Just like The Knux bubbled up out of New Orleans and seemed to escape the west coast until their songs were synched with some popular TV shows (Entourage) and films (Harold & Kumar), another act from the southeast that should be popping up on the radar for everyone else soon is Weapons of Audio.

Those boys (and brothers as well) hail from North Carolina and have a sound that is one part The Knux, one part Prince, a little bit of Outkast and a cup of something new. Their synthesized soul or synthesized hip-hop soul is plain dope. Sadly, Weapons of Audio are not on Bonnaroo's line-up this year (or anyone else's festival line up either). That said, I promise they should be.

I've checked out some of their tracks on their facebook page after learning that they'd recorded with Grammy nominated Graham Marsh (the producer behind Cee-Lo's Bright Lights Big City) and from there, I just fell in love. You can fall in love with them too and then beg your local talent buyers to bring them to your city. Check them out on their facebook page and be sure to listen to "If You Want Me" if you want to hear the Prince influences; here is a video for their song "Boulevard" from their debut release "Bipolar".