♥ | Steed Lord Releases New Music Video – ‘Hear Me Now’

As of late I’ve been more accepting with my identity as somewhat of a hipster/indie chick, but when I look back and reflect on my 2007 obsession with Icelandic musical art project Steed Lord, I realize I’ve always been drawn to eccentric culture.

Back when Myspace was its own entity and you didn’t have the option to login with your Facebook (that just goes to show how sorry Myspace has become,) I used to frequent the site in search of new music. Upon my search for various genres of music, I had run across Steed Lord, an art and music collective with a crazy sense of style and amazing synthpop tracks.

Since Steed Lord’s formation in 2006, I’ve been an avid fan of their music. At first I was shocked to run across a group of amazing artists from Iceland. It’s not everyday you hear someone say, “Hey, have you heard that new synthpop band from Iceland?” But I set aside my random thoughts about Iceland, and I allowed myself to fall in love with Steed Lord’s music.

Even though they started off in Iceland, the group now lives in Los Angeles. And over the years they have evolved musically and have continued to push forward with new creativity.

Steed Lord has many great tracks and cool music videos that show off an avant-garde approach to film and fashion. And yesterday, they released a new music video for “Hear Me Now.” The song has that synthpop sound I love, and it makes me grateful for Myspace leading me to their music back in my high school days of slowly becoming a music junkie.

If you’ve never heard any of Steed Lord’s music, the you’re truly missing out on the amazing vocals of Kali and the great production of Demo and Mega. Not only are you missing out on some great music, but you’re also missing out on some avant-garde fashion + film.

So what are you waiting for? Dudes and dudettes, I urge you to watch Steed Lord’s new music video,  “Hear Me Now.”

Hear Me Now

Because I love their music so much, I’m going to post some other great tracks + videos from Steed Lord. 

123 If You Want Me

Hideaway

Precognition

Mushroom Jazz | Mark Farina – ‘Dream Machine’ + Other Jazzy Tracks I ♥

I’m pretty sure if you scanned my Facebook page you could get a general idea of my personality simply by viewing my YouTube likes, page likes, and all my pictures (including artwork I’ve done.) Yet, when I had a Myspace page you could easily get a sense of who I was by listening to my page song, “Dream Machine” by Mark Farina.

The first time I heard the name “Mark Farina” was in 2005 during my high school Myspace days. I had spent a lot of time bouncing from high school to school due to moving around frequently, so the only way I could stay in touch with people was mainly via Myspace. It was so much easier to say, “Hey, do you have Myspace? Let’s be friends.”

Since a lot of people starting friending (can’t believe that’s an actual word) me on Myspace, I wanted to choose a song that would show off attributes of my eccentric personality, yet still remain enigmatic. It seems as though everyone had some type of “popular” song as their page anthem, but I decided to go a different route. So by simply searching Myspace for house/jazz music, I ran across Mark Farina and fell in love with the mushroom jazz sound of “Dream Machine.”

Even though he was born in Chicago and grew up on that Chicago house style, Mark Farina moved to San Francisco in the 90s and began cultivating a new style of music, mushroom jazz. 

Mushroom jazz derives a lot of its influence from acid jazz, downtempo, jazz, hip-hop, latin, and a funky organic fusion of unorthodox sounds. It’s the type of music that you can chillout to, dance a little, bop your head to the funky hip-hop lyricism, and zone out into a world that is essentially a “Dream Machine.”

I’ve always been a big fan of jazz, especially when it involves innate experimentalism, so mushroom jazz surely appeases my musical cravings. “Dream Machine” will always be the first track that introduced me to Mark Farina and the world of mushroom jazz, so it would be a disservice for me to abandon that track and not include it as one of my favorites.

If you’ve never listened to “Dream Machine” or any mushroom jazz, then allow your ears to experience a new level of sound…jazzy-funky-organic-fusion.

Dope lyricism…ah, the yacht club. 

Parisian Groovin | J’aime la musique house français

I absolutely slept till noon today. No shame. I was up all night on the phone consecutively from 10pm to around 3:30am. I ended up catching up with an old friend (I’ve never met) from the days of Myspace chatting, and then I had to talk to one of my favorite friends who still lives out in Colorado (oh, how I miss him dearly.) We talked on the phone for quite some time, and then I ended up talking to someone else till about 3:30am. Basically just catching up with a lot of people last night. On top of that, everyday this week I was helping my brother move stuff from his apartment to ours since he officially is moving back to L.A. in a few days. So, I was uber exhausted from the entire week, which explains my laziness today.

I’m still going to have a lazy/chill Friday, but at least I got up, took a shower, and now I’m laying down in my bed before I work on school work. But now that I’ve finally risen from my slumber & started my day, I decided to spend some time looking for some new music. It’s been about a week since I’ve stumbled some good new music (aside from house.) So I headed over to YouTube and saw that one of the channels I’m subscribed to decided to upload a track by a Parisian artist named Darius. I had never heard of Darius, but after clicking on video & after and heading over to the official Facebook page, I was hooked.

I suppose it’s hard for me to get away from house, because every time I go on these hunts for new music, I end up finding music within the genre of house or EDM (electronic dance music.) So when I started listening to Darius, I realized that I had found a new favorite French House artist. I’m still madly in love with the sounds of L’Étranger & Louis La Roche, but Darius is pretty massive. He is just yet another one of the Parisian artists to add to my list: Bob Sinclair, Dimitri From Paris, and Darius.

When I say “Parisian” I don’t just mean the origin of the music, but I also am referring to french house. It has this unique disco vibe, but then it’s infused with a pop-ish electronic sound. Not only is the music reminiscent of the disco days, but the overall vibe is this timeless class. For instance, take a look at the picture of Bob Sinclair & Dimitri From Paris below, that picture is just a symbol of how timeless & effortless a lot of their french house tracks are. Well, a lot of Bob Sinclair’s old tracks have that vibe. Most of his new stuff is….eh, not so great. I miss the old Bob Sinclair. But that’s an entirely different blog post.

So when it comes to French House, I’m in love with a lot of different tracks. And today, the sounds of Parisian grooves are the perfect anthem for my ultra chill Friday. I’m over here jamming to Darius, Dimitri From Paris, Louis La Roche, L’Étranger, and some other unique artists I found on soundcloud. So if you happen to be a fan of the nu-disco vibes of French House (also referred to as French Touch),  then check out some of the tracks I found below. It’s nice to shuffle between soulful house & the Parisian groovin’ of French house. When I’m in a timeless mode, then I set the mood to the sounds of Paris. I close my eyes and daydream about the city of lights & the music pulsating throughout the sky. J’adore la musique house française. C’est merveilleux! (Oh yeah, I studied French…so I know some.) Even more fitting for the occasion!

Napoleon IIIrd – The Unknown Unknown (L’Étranger Remix)

OMG, it’s insane for a track to be this good! You can download for free too….so download it!

L’Étranger – Falling For You (Original Mix)

Une chanson magnifique! (A wonderful song.)

L’Étranger – Touch (Original Mix)

Darius (Official) – Original Mix

All these tracks are awesome, but my favs are: Maliblue, Road Trip, & Falling In Love.

©Jasmine McGee.ThinkSoul25. http://thinksoul25.com

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Monday Dosage of House, Dance, & DNB

Happy Monday!

I know Monday is usually the day of the week that always seems to start off slow. While most days of the week have room for spontaneity, Mondays seem to always be the same old blah fest. You wake up, reflect back on your wild weekend or romantic rendezvous, and you force yourself to get to school/work on time. It’s one of those days you love to hate and hate to love; it’s always filled with mixed emotions and a lot of plotting for the long week ahead.

A lot of people may have remedies to get through those days that suck, but I’m telling you house music is the answer. It’s that “pick me up” that doesn’t cost a thing, it isn’t dangerous, and it makes you feel limitless. House music is that bucket filled with mysterious chemicals that gives mutants there powers, so dip in a bucket of house music and feel powerful.

You can’t survive a crazy long week without having your Monday dosage of house music, with a taste of weekend aspirations. But you also, especially if you have a diverse personality, might like to though in some dance and dnb. So in order to celebrate a new week ahead and wishing Friday was already here, I’ve decided to post some great music; I’m also posting a song that has been my weekend anthem for about five years now. So turn up your speakers or put on your headphones(if you’re at work and your boss is just lurking) and get lost in a heavy dosage of house, dance, and dnb.

House music is the cure for everything, even those ghastly Monday morning blues!

This track below is from  JB4SoulfulHouse’s YouTube channel. I’ve been subscribed to him for a few months and he never ceases to amaze with the soulful house tracks that are surefire to blow your mind.

Bah Samba Carnival Phil Asher’s Restless Soul Mix

One of the best house tracks I’ve heard in quite awhile. This mix is amazing! I just want to get up and go dancing through the streets screaming my love for house music.

Armand Van Helden & A-TRAK Present Duck Sauce – Anyway

I’ve posted this song a long time ago, but it never gets old! The past few days my mom and I have been singing this and just acting a fool; it’s great!

Kerri Chandler – We Are Here (Kaoz Stressin’ Me Mix)

Ever had those days when people just keep stressing you and blowing your phone up? Well this is the perfect song for all those annoying Monday morning messages from clingy exes and weekend mistakes. Kerri Chandler always comes up with the best house music, he is truly one of my favorites. This song is so funny and I love his irritation with the girl hitting him up on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and just stalking him! The best line is: That chick is photo-shopped to death, so you know what…leave message!

High Contrast – Everything’s Different

I’m a huge High Contrast fan and the video for this song is pretty unique. Check it out!

Roni Size / Reprazent – Brown Paper Bag

Yet another good video that has a sweet drum & bass rhythm.  I also love the lyrics, very unique!

And the last song for this post (don’t want to overwhelm you with videos!) is my favorite weekend anthem. Maybe it will help you get through the week and excited about the weekend; or perhaps the guys will just watch it for the sexy half naked dancing on a copier.  Either way, it’s a great song! lol….

Michael Gray – The Weekend

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©Jasmine McGee.ThinkSoul25. http://thinksoul25.com