Ups and Downs

Obey The Brave release their debut EP "Ups and Downs" on May 22nd!
Preorder your LP or Boundle (7 Inch & T-Shirt) on Good Fight Entertainment

Skrillex: Bangarang EP, Voltage LP

How the fuck does he make those SKREEWERPPZZZZBLAAW noises? GarageBand? America's dubstep don steps away from the Dark Side on this fizzy, party-ready single. (It will still probably scare your parents, though.)
Don't believe the hype: Skrillex didn't set out to wrestle dubstep from its brainy dub-reggae roots and warp it into an aggro dance-metal hybrid that online haters call "brostep." "I thought I'd play the Echo in L.A. once a month for 150 people," says Sonny Moore, 23, who quit fronting screamo band From First to Last to focus on beatmaking. Instead, Moore has played to thousands almost daily since dropping his first LP, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, last year on Big Beat and his buddy Deadmau5's label.

But he's not surprised by the rapid ascent of dubstep in the United States. "It's so fun," he says. "It just lets so many people in and there's nothing about it that seems shoved down anybody's throats. You can connect with it culturally because it brings so many different types of people together, from ravers to hip-hop people to whatever people like to dance." He's bracing himself for what will happen when the music fully crosses over in the mainstream, though. "There will come a time when it will be watered down and sensationalized like everything else. That's not a bad thing, every type of music goes through that. But right now, for how big it is, if you turn on Kiss FM, there's no real dustup on the radio right now."

Keeping up with the dubstep world has become overwhelming these days with millions of Djs trying to make a name for themselves and of course the massive amount of  electronic adaptation attempts by traditional artists and established stars. However, if there is only one DJ that you keep up with in 2012 than it might as well be Skrillex.

Bangarang EP

The album takes a sharp turn into experimentation starting on "Bangarang" and really takes off into the unknown after that. "Bangarang" is exactly what the dubstep world asked for. A mainstream radio hit that is accessible to the masses and still unique and intriguing enough to appeal to the die-hard, more technical fans of Skrillex and electronic music in general. This track also introduces us to some samples of Sirah, an up and coming female rap/pop talent from Los Angeles. Sirah truly shines on "Kyoto" where she is able to lay down some full bars and present her ambitious delivery style. 

My favorite song from the EP, and by far the most experimental, is "Breakn' a Sweat" featuring the surviving members of The Doors, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore. The track is part of a project knows as Re: Generation.

I also wanted to allude to the upcoming LP Voltage. It was talked about heavily a few months ago but it appears to have lost some steam recently. I wonder if Voltage sort of morphed and dwarfed its way in being Bangarang. Perhaps the rumors of A-list collaborations like Pretty Lights and Nero are holding up the creative process. Maybe he is just taking his time in order to make sure his first full length cut is a fuckin banger! Or the more likely chance that Hollywood politics are slowing down the release of the records just to figure out more ways to make money off the deal. 

Either way I'll be on the look out!

The White Stripes

The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White (vocals, guitar, and keyboards) and drummer Meg White (drums and occasional vocals). Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced. After releasing several singles and three albums within the Detroit music scene, the White Stripes rose to prominence in 2002, as part of the garage rock revival scene.

Their successful and critically acclaimed albums White Blood Cells and Elephant drew them attention from a large variety of media outlets in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The White Stripes used a low-fidelity, do-it-yourself approach to writing and recording. Their music featured a melding of punk rock and blues influences and a raw simplicity of composition, arrangement, and performance. The duo was also noted for their fashion and design aesthetic which featured a simple color scheme of red, white, and black as well as the band's obsession with the number three.

The band's discography consists of six studio albums, one live album, two extended plays (EP), one concert film, one tour documentary, twenty-six singles, and fourteen music videos.