Gettin' Ready For The Weekend

Nothin' like some Big Pig to get you pumped for the weekend.

Sin Lugar A Douster

Nothing gets me in the mood quite like some heavy tribal drum beats; pulsating, bass-filled dance hall wreckers that push ravers to the limit.  And one guy who seems to have this down is Douster.  The Agentine bass baron's latest release, Triassic is filled with just such jams for all you sweaty little hard-bodies.  Fresh off a great show last week at Paris Social Club, look for some heavy duty stuff coming from Douster in 2010.

Douster - Ladinian


Classixx - I'll Get You (Douster Remix)


(Note: this remix reminds me of middle school slow dances)

Monday Evening Tracks-5 Words Or Less

I feel like I say this every week, but work seems to be getting increasingly busy due to the holiday crunch so tonight I just wanna throw up some jams for you without going into a lot of detail.  So here are 3 tracks described in 5 words or less.

Frank Lucas would be proud:
Jayou - Blue Magic


Send forth the night, ladies:
Peaches - I Feel Cream (Larry Tee & Alexander Technique Blogula Rmx)


Heavier than flatbed dump-trucks:
Pendulum - Showdown (Excision Remix)


Check out Jayou, Larry Tee, and Excision on myspace.

Magic In The Air

To celebrate Disney returning to its animated roots, I'd like to give you some remixes from Mad Decent's Toadally Krossed Out.  I promise if you kiss either of these amphibians, they won't turn into a prince but they just may kiss you back (bonus track after the jump).

Fool's Gold - Surprise Hotel (Toadally Krossed Out Remix)


Amanda Blank - Shame On Me (Toadally Krossed Out Remix)

Wednesday Freshness....Heavy Edition

Wednesdays are generally busy for us here at Metal Top Hat so I'm gonna cut back the talk and just pass on some tunes for ya.

Le Castle Vania is an ATLien I've had my eye on a lot lately, he's been devastating crowds at some of our favorite parties here in LA as well as San Fran, NYC, and of course the dirty dirty.  His latest is as heavy as ever and will surely smack you in the face.

Le Castle Vania - Nobody Gets Out Alive!


Next is a remix from another MTH fan-fav, Hey Champ.  The Chicago funk masters take on Mike Posner's Cooler Than Me, one upping the original which makes me beg to ask, is anyone cooler than Hey Champ??  Doubtful.

Mike Posner - Cooler Than Me (Hey Champ Remix)


And finally I've got a dandy little remix of Dragonette's Pick Up The Phone by Jaxsur, hope you enjoy.

Dragonette - Pick Up The Phone (Jaxsur Remix)


Till next time, Love, Peace, and Chicken

Feelin' Hella Stoked for 2010

It's that time again!  Time to sit down, grab a cup of hot cocoa, and dig through the CD library to find another of our favorite 20 albums from this wonderful decade.

Our next selection comes from OC Heroes: No Doubt, who departed from their signature ska-tastic sound to bring you 2001's Rock Steady, a dub inspired fusion of Gwen Stefani's enchanting soft voice, dancy beats, and sexy synth patterns. The band recorded much of the album in Jamaica and feature dancehall heavy hitters, Bounty Killer and Lady Saw.

Coming off the less than stellar performance of 2000's Return of Saturn, No Doubt decided to venture away from their normal musical stylings as they began to explore dancehall music in tour after parties. (more after the jump)

Marry X-Mas From The Bloody Beetroots

Just in time for all you holiday shoppers, Italian Super-Villians The Bloody Beetroots released their ever furious Christmas Vendetta EP on DIM MAK earlier today.

To say these tracks are festive would be an all out lie, they sound more like chainsaws, hammers, and all out destruction in the Beetroots' style.  WARP 1977 features Dim Mak kingpin Steve Aoki's screaming battle cry as his loyal henchmen seemingly torture a captive with a full on aural assault of destructive synth power.  Enjoy!

The Bloody Beetroots - WARP 1977 (Feat. Steve Aoki and Boberman)

RIP

John Winston Lennon

October 9th, 1940 - December 8th, 1980

"Dimebag" Darrell Abbot

August 20th, 1966 - December 8th, 2004

The Constant Sorrow of 2000

We're getting closer and closer to 2010, so let's all gather 'round and take another look back at one of our favorite albums from the last 10 years.

In late 2000 the Coen Brothers commissioned T-Bone Burnett to score their upcoming film based on the story of Homer's grand Odyssey, and I'm sure they expected great things out of him. What they ended up getting was a #1 album and "Album Of The Year" at the 2002 Grammy's, (along with 2 others).

In the summer of 'ought 2 (2002 that is), I had the opportunity to do some manual labor for my friend John; he was remodeling his 18th century home and had decided the finishing touch would be a large, in-ground concrete fountain/hot tub.  So, being that I had no experience building hot-tubs or anything of the sort, I was given all the back breaking labor; excavation being my main task.  I probably spent 4 hours pounding earth with my trusty maddox before I decided to put some music on to help pass the time.  Now John didn't have much in the way of a CD collection but he did have a burned copy of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack.

 Seeing as I hadn't heard the album yet I decided to give it a spin and after the first few bars of the opening track I could tell it was the right selection for my task.
The soaring harmonies and catchy nature of the old timey songs made the album amazingly fun to sing along with even though I hadn't seen the movie.  Being serenaded by the Soggy Bottom Boys as well as Alison Krauss, Harry McClintock, Norman Blake and others made time pass fairly quick in the back yard.

AC Slate-d for West Coast Landing

Brooklyn heavy hitter AC Slater (aka Aaron Clevenger) will be making his way out west to play at a couple of our favorite parties, CONTROL Friday's tonight 12-4 (w/ DJ Craze, Mr. White, and JAMESmonroe) and BLOW UP next Friday 12-11 (w/ Richie Panic and Jeffery Paradise); so we felt it only proper to give him a blast here at Metal Top Hat.

Slater has been blasting out tracks with his deep crafty dub bass sound for the past few years and his latest release, Jack Got Jacked (out now from Palms Out Sounds), features remixes from the likes of Jack Beats and B. Rich. Aside from original works, he's remixed D.I.M., AutoErotique, and Adam Freeland. Today I'm featuring 2 original tracks (and one remix after the jump) to hopefully convince you of his glory, enjoy!

AC Slater - Night Shift

AC Slater (feat Fagget Fairys) - Kuku

Re-Branded Contraband

As this new decade creeps closer and closer into our lives, we here at Metal Top Hat would like to continue our feature on 20 of our favorite albums released in these past 10 years.

Many strange and interesting events occurred in 2004. In presidential news, Ronald Regan passed away at the grand ole age of 93 and incumbent George W. Bush was re-elected to a second term in office. At the box office, Spider-Man 2 set opening weekend records while another sequel, Shrek 2 lead the way for total global grosses. In other news, a Tsunami rocked south Asia, Mars got a few visitors, and USC won the first of it's 4 Rose Bowl games of the decade.

Following two soundtrack standouts for 2003's Hulk and The Italian Job, Velvet Revolver was a surging supergroup on the rise. Comprised of a chunk of Guns N' Roses, a vein of Stone Temple Pilots, and Dave Kushner, star power was clearly not an issue and in the Summer of 2004 they released their debut full length, Contraband.

Debuting at #1 on Billboard's Top 200 list, the album would soon go on to double platinum status behind a somewhat tepid critical response. Stand out tracks include: "Slither", the lead single garnered VR a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance; "Big Machine", a pounding track showcasing Weiland's scratchy, harsh vocals; "Superhuman", another STP flavored track enhanced by Slash's signature singing guitar; and the ever-corny ballad "Fall To Pieces" (video after the jump).

Harvard Bass-ics

One dude I can't seem to play enough of lately is Harvard Bass. I stumbled upon his Beni remix a while ago and it sent me on a hunt for more. His Caked / 81 EP (pictured below) is out now from Sound Pellegrino on Beatport and iTunes. Today I'm featuring two of Bass's remixes as well as a Renaissance Man remix after the jump.

First I'm tossing up his remix of Drop The Lime's "Set Me Free" which leads the way on the Set Me Free (Remixes) release last month.

Drop The Lime - Set Me Free (Harvard Bass Remix)

Next up is another remix released by Sound Pellegrino for Laidback Luke and Gina Turner's latest team up, Nouveau Yorican. The track is called "Boriqua" and Bass delivers a fantastic rework, combining stabbing synths, pounding kicks, and sheer balls to bring your ears joy like christmas day.

Nouveau Yorican - Boriqua (Harvard Bass Remix)

One Month To Go!!!

It's coming everyone! That's right, the year of the Tiger is only 31 short days away and that not only means the end of 2009, it's the end of the freakin' decade yall!! To celebrate, we here at Metal Top Hat will be re-living 20 of our favorite albums of the past decade (in no particular order as we don't believe in lists of any kind). It's been a tumultuous last 10 years to say the least (in fact Time Magazine is calling it: "The Decade From Hell"); it started with a terrible attack on our soil and is coming to close in the midst of one of the worst economic downturns in our country's history. Nevertheless, some pretty amazing music came out of this "lost decade" so we wanna remember it in the right way, by posting pictures and videos.

And, to start us off on the right foot, I've chosen an album released in the spring of 2000; in May of that year the all and powerful Britney Spears released her sophomore album "Oops!...I Did It Again".

The anticipation for this record was ridiculous, coming off her smash debut "...Baby One More Time" (14x Platinum and a #1 single in the title track), Britney had a lot to live up to. The title track from "Oops!" was released as a single to massive appeal worldwide, but especially on the US airwaves where it set the record for most adds in one day and it was quickly atop the TRL countdown.

In addition to the title track, the album boasts such Britney classics as:

"Lucky", "Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know", "What You See Is What You Get", and my personal favorite off the album, "Stronger" (Video Below).

Readers must remember that there once was a Britney before the controversy, before K-Fed, and before this. So I invite you all to remember the Britney of our youth, the cute and cuddly southern belle who won our hearts and minds. If you haven't heard this album lately, I suggest digging it out of your CD bin and giving it a spin if anything, as a celebration of the decade that was.