Sheena Beaston

MNDR to Headline London's XOYO; Gives Away Free Mix of Caligula

Hey all ye lads and lasses in fair London-town, I suggest you get thee butts to XOYO on November 24, because our favorite chromed out gal, MNDR, has just announced that she's headlining the space. And sure we'll say it til we're blue in the face: this lady is one of the best things to ever happen to our ears. Get a ticket here.

 

 

To celebrate the news, she's giving away new mix of her song, Caligula, for the (free) cost of your email address. I thought about posting the mp3 for you here, but c'mon seriously, this is one mailing list you need to be on. Stream it below; cop it over at her site.

 

MNDR - Caligula (The Cold Mix) by sheenabeaston 

 

 

Don Diablo (featuring Dragonette) - Animale (new single, video and remix!)

Honest to goshness, Don Diablo was a big player in Beastonia about two solid years ago...and maybe it was me just getting my blog legs underneath me and getting excited that someone actually wanted to debut material with me...in which case he kind of fell off my radar, cause well, shit started sounding generic. But he gots the remedy to that now, because he wisely teamed up with hot Canadian trio, Dragonette, for his new single, Animale, and all prior missteps be never spoken of again, cause this is super hot. So let's pretend this is the first we've ever heard of the DJ/producer, and "OMG y'all, what an amazing debut!" Jokes aside, here we go...

 

 

For the line "stamp your hind legs, get behind me..." alone, this song is certifiably Beaston-approved. Also, the entire arrangement and lyrical content is pure pop bonkers and enjoyable in the same breath.

 

Video for the song is out now, it makes no sense, but it gives you another chance to listen to the tune. I think it's something to do with ravecave kids making out and tripping out on orange slices, kind of like a bad peewee soccer game at halftime, yeah? Whatever. Datsik's remix is yours to gobble up wit yo animal fangs too.

 

If you're in the Netherlands, buy the single officially on iTunes.

 

 

 

mp3: Don Diablo (featuring Dragonette) - Animale (Datsik Remix)

mp3: Don Diablo (featuring Dragonette) - Animale

 

 

 

Katy B (featuring Ms Dynamite) - Lights On (new video!)

After catching wind of this nice new jawn earlier this week, Katy B and her RinseFM backers released the official video clip of Lights On, the singer's new single, which features the equally talented Ms. Dynamite's spit stylin'. Easily my most played track this week, and it's a no brainer as to why: any song about dancing and not wanting to stop chalks right at the top of my list. Also, the beat and bending vocals kinda slay face. Big ups to Geeneus and Zinc on the production tip.

 

 

So now, here are your visuals, which frankly are on the underwhleming side, but in doing so, at least gives us the complete song to listen and love as opposed to that radio rip we sneakily posted a few days back...cause that's just annoying for everyone.

 

Video first. Complete track after.

 

Winzone.

 

 

 

mp3: Katy B (featuring Ms Dynamite) - Lights On

 

 

Robyn - Indestructible (new video!)

Yep swooning and I want a water tube jacket immediately. Robyn just released the official clip for new single, Indestructible, and the answer is no, and the question is, "can this woman do any wrong".

 

 

mp3: Robyn - Indestructible (The Krays Remix)

 

 

Saint Saviour - Woman Scorned (Evokateur Remix)

Oooh this is really smooth. And it's even nicer to see Saint Saviour, whom we first lauded nearly a year ago to the day when she jumped on board with Groove Armada for the especially spectacular track of theirs, I Won't Kneel. Now that she's taking her distinctive vocals on a solo ride, with single Woman Scorned, it's time to pay closer attention to what makes her Beaston worthy and approved.

 

 

Saint Saviour released her first single on October 11 after having spent the last year recording and touring the world with GA, during which Andy Cato described her as "the performer of her generation". Already compared to everyone from Mariah Callas and Antony Hegarty to Karen O and Patti Smith, the singer is writing music that few could reasonably be expected to deliver, but as a former vocal coach and sought after session singer who practiced 10 hours a day at her piano, Saint Saviour is keen to push the limits, both technically and physically. 

 

Woman Scorned covers 3 octaves in its 4 minutes and DUH, I love it. Hear it over at her 'Space, and in the meantime...

 

...grab the super sultry Evokateur mix of the single. It's a dandy.

 

 

mp3: Saint Saviour - Woman Scorned (Evokateur Remix)

 

 

Baths - Pop Song (new song!)

Bummersville, USA. That's where I was living last weekend as I missed out on Baths final CMJ show at Glasslands in Brooklyn, but frowns are turning upside down today because the gentle gentleman from Chatsworth, CA is still kicking it in our hood, holed up in his temporary place of residence, making new tunes. We'll gladly take that as a consolation prize any day of the week.

 

 

From his words, via Facebook, straight from awesometown: "♥ ♥ NEW SONG ♥ ♥ totally sketch thing that i did last night in the apartment where I'm staying in brooklyn. super pop + super simple, hence the title. enjoy :D"

 

He's right. Except for the sketch part. I'd substitute that with sublime.

 

Enjoy Pop Song below.

 

 

mp3: Baths - Pop Song

 

 

Ida Maria - Bad Karma (new single!)

Rock! Hard! It's our favorite Norwegian strummer and singer, Ida Maria, back with a new tune, and the promise that her second album will be out, oh, sometime soon. While details surrounding all of this are still vague-ish, we can confirm that new track, Bad Karma, was a proper release in her homeland back in September. We can also justify that this song...is badass.

 

 

Powerful riffs and deep drumkicks make this new jam quite the jam indeed, seeing Ms. Maria evoking a more traditionally classic rock arrangement as opposed to the unique intricacies seen and heard on debut album, Fortress Round My Heart.

 

AS mentioned, the new song is called Bad Karma, and was produced alongside Desmond Child, he of responsibilities in manufacturing hits like Made For Loving You, Living on a Prayer and Poison. The track will find its way onto her forthcoming sophomore effort, Katla.

 

Ummm...so excited!

 

 

mp3: Ida Maria - Bad Karma

 

 

No, But Really: Who's Behind the Barbra Streisand Sample and Phenomenon?

Is there really any doubt that Duck Sauce's Barbra Streisand has become that one song which is universally accepted as a dance floor filler and fist pumper of a ditty, no matter the occasion or situation? No, there's not. And as much as I tire of it, there's really no escaping it, which lead me to do a little digging on the origins of the song, because as well as we all know how talented A-Trak and Armand Van Helden are, we also know that those dudes did not create what's become an iconic loop and sound. No dis on 'em, but some Germans and soul funk singers get all the credit here, brahs.

 

 

In 1973, kraut brothers Heinz and Jürgen Huth formed the band Nighttrain, which fell mostly into obscurity, save for their single, Hallo Bimmelbahn, which caught new life when revitalized and reimagined by fellow countrymen of the disco variety, Boney M, in 1979.

 

While the former "rockers" version is sung all in the native tongue, it's easy to hear the immediate infectiousness of the arrangement and now unmistakeable "ooh oo-oooh ooh oo-ooh oohs". Lots of tambourine in Nighttrain's version too. Solid.

 

Boney M lifted the track for sampling purposes on their single Gotta Get Home, complete with full chorused vocals and steel drums. This fix is much more reminiscent of Duck Sauce's current smash, and is quite strikingly similar in more ways than one: the opening rolling tones, the disco beat, the hand clapability factor, etc...

 

Regardless, this is one song, sample and selection that we won't soon hear the last of. In whichever way you like your funked out fun.

 

 

mp3: Nighttrain - Hallo Bimmelbahn

mp3: Boney M - Gotta Go Home

 

 

Interview: CockNBullKid Matures into Adulthood

I'm pretty pumped for CockNBullKid to release her debut album. I mean, it's only been 27+ months since I first started loving up on her tunes, so with much awaited and baited breath, I've been patient for the freshman full length. Adulthood will see daylight in February of the impending year [read = not soon enough] but we've waited this long, and what's a few more months to hold out for what will surely be a major player in my repertoire. To get ready and get amped for what's to come, chats are in order, and it's Beaston vs Bull in this installment.

 

 

CockNBullKid is currently on tour with Marina & the Diamonds and Kele. She's covered tracks by both artists, which you can grab for free here and here respectively. Also be sure to check out her cover of Rui de Silva's Touch Me over on her 'Space. Loving that. Even better, watch CNBK and Gonzales (her album collaborator and producer) doing a live cover of Destiny's Child Bills, Bills, Bills here. Most amazing!

 

 

SB: Describe CocknBullKid. I know it's your music moniker, but if you had to classify that term/phrase as a noun, or a genre of music, what would the definition of it be?
CNBK: Crying till you laugh and laughing till you cry.

 

SB: Talk about your earliest influences in the musical world. Did you grow up playing instruments, listening to mom and dad's old records, or what sparked the notion that "hey I think I need to be making music."
CNBK: It sounds cliche but as long as I can remember I have been into music. My parents don't own a musical bone in their bodies so I'm really not sure. My dad played loads of records round the house, so that probably had some influence. I also went to pentecostal church with  my Mum and younger brother. Music was a big part of that. Asides from that, I have harboured this ambition to be a singer and a writer.

 

SB: Over the past 2 years, a good deal of buzz has started to flow throughout blogs and online publications about your music. What's your response to the good dose of praise that you've been given for the material already out there?
CNBK: For every gushing review there's one saying your hair is shit or whatever. I try not to take it too seriously. I don't want to sound ungrateful to the people who have supported me though. I'm not really famous yet so I haven't read anything too bad or hyperbolic yet. But let's see what I say this time next year!

 

SB: Your debut album is coming out in February 2011. Talk about the process...writing, recording, working with Gonzales, etc.... it's been over two years since you first came out with initial cut On My Own, so how has the music evolved from then til now with the new material on the disc?
CNBK: I feel my writing has come a long since I first released On My Own in 2007. I always wanted to do something bigger, the album is quite unashamed and I'm proud of that. I got to work with great people like Gonzales who I clicked with immediately. He helped me to get back my focus for writing lyrics. I worked with Peter from Peter Bjorn and John- the Scandic have a great sense of humour so I hope that came across in the songs we did together. The album has taken a while and at times it was hard but it was never dull. Liam Howe ended up doing the production on most of the tracks. He is a big kid trapped in a mans body. We also clicked really quickly and he's very easy to work with.

 

SB: What happens next? More writing, recording, performing, etc...
CNBK: The warm up single One Eye Closed is out in the UK on Nov 8, then I go on a nation wide tour with Marina and the Diamonds. Then I do a few dates supporting Kele Okereke. Next single will be out after that then the album in Feb. 

 

SB: Quick questions: please pick one of the two options of eac

David Bowie or Giorgio Moroder
Bowie

Basquiat or Warhol
Warhol
 
Steak or Shrimp
Shrimp
 
NYC, London or Paris
Dying to go to NY, I just know I will love it. But for now gonna stay patriotic and say London.

8-Bit or Vocoder
8-bit

ABBA or Adriano Celentano
Abba! Obv.

Lady Gaga or Coco Chanel
Damn, love them both but I'll say Coco Chanel.

Spring or Fall
Spring

High Fives or Thumbs Up
High Fives

Computer or TV
Computer

Radio or Record Player
Record Player
 
Champagne or Shots
Champagne schweedie.

  

 

mp3: CockNBullKid - Misery (Hercules and Love Affair Remix)

mp3: CockNBullKid - One Eye Closed (Aspirins For My Children Remix)

 

 

 

Katy B (featuring Ms. Dynamite) - Lights On

Oh, ok. Wasn't aware I was going to be giving you something super amazing today. Well, now I'm cognizant of this fact, only after being revived and "jump paddled" back to life because I put this new jam on, danced around for like an hour, and then passed out in a sweaty heap of myself. It's Katy B. It's Ms. Dynamite. It's cooler than anything right now.

 

 

Brand new jawn is called Lights On, and it's another dandy banger courtesy of the RinseFM camp, who are quickly eclipsing any other team of producers for most beastliest badassedest of the year. Pairing Dynamite and B together is like the hugest DUH ever, and of course the resulting track is of the utmost quality, with it's dubby touches, bending synths and vocals, and a pre-chorus and hook to scream for.

 

I keep on moving with the lights on (with the lights on)!

 

Check out the below video of MD and KB performing and chatting about the track at this summer's Notting Hill Carnival.

 

 

 

mp3: Katy B (featuring Ms. Dynamite) - Lights On