I know most people on this forum are pretty well verse with the independent hip hop circuit, but this is just something to open people up to a few more artists. Also I was kind of bored and decided to do one, so I hope you enjoy.

01. "Alphabet Aerobics" - Blackalicious

The song that got me into hip hop. I remember I had a friend of mine pick me up from work, we got baked in his car and he threw this song on in an attempt to open me up to hip hop and well... it worked. Before I heard this I had the popular misconception that all hip hop was misogynistic music that glorified violence and consumerism. Boy was I ever wrong...

02. "She Says..." - The Blend

More of a rock based song, but out of all The Blend's songs, I felt this one is probably their strongest. It brings to light just how much more you can get out of your music if the emcee can both sing and rap.

03. "Digital Cafe ft. Viveca" - Audible Mainframe

I've been pushing these guys for awhile, and for good reason... they're fucking good. This is probably one of the most relaxing songs I've ever heard in my life, with a great song structure and delivery.

04. "Remember His Name" - Jurassic 5

The best thing about hip hop is that it's a story telling genre, much like country music. Jurassic 5 were one of the first indie groups I got into and for good reason, they know how to tell stories while making great laid back beats that the West Coast is known for.

05. "America Loves Gangsters" - CunninLynguists

CunninLynguists are quite possibly my favourite hip hop group, so trying to choose a song that represents their best attributes can be tough. I think this one does the best job because it has a great beat, and shows the skill of all three of it's members, Deacon The Villian, Natti, and Kno.

06. "Angel Eyes" - Sadistik

Newcomer to the underground hip hop scene, but this kid has got some serious talent. When I first heard him I thought he was just another Eminem clone, but then I started listening to him with headphones on and could hear the passion in his voice and lyrics. Just try and listen to this song and tell me he's not talented.

07. "Comes And Goes" - Sweatshop Union

Yep, I had to throw in a Canadian group, if not to prove to people that Canada can create some pretty good rappers, but to share this incredibly catchy and well written song. Probably one of the best beats and hooks I've ever heard, this song is easily in my top ten.

08. "None Shall Pass" - Aesop Rock

I was conflicted with what song to choose, at first I was leaning towards "9-5er's Anthem" because it was my first Aesop Rock song that, ironically, I heard as I was walking to my dead end job. I decided to choose "None Shall Pass" though because it's one of the few songs in which Aesop Rock actually flows with the beat. Incredibly catchy and inspiring, it is one of his best.

09. "What's Hardcore" - K'Naan

The first K'Naan song I ever heard and man does it ever pack a punch. For people not familiar with this artist, he's a Somalian hip hop artist who lived there during the Somali Civil War, after his father fled to New York, continually sending money back. His mother filed for an Exit Visa, and as luck would have it, they managed to leave Somalia on the last commercial flight out of the country before the government of Mohamed Siad Barre fell. Living in Somalia during the civil war gave K'Naan a first hand few at the horrors of war and the desperation in people. While living in New York City and finally Canada, he saw the commercial rappers talking about living in their ghettos and the pride some of them took in the violence that follows, and decided to answer back with "What's Hardcore". Seriously pay attention to the lyrics on this one.

10. "You Never Know Ft. Jean Grae" - Immortal Technique

No indie hip hop compilation is complete without at least one Immortal Technique song. I decided to choose one of his less angry and conspiracy based songs on a more personal one. This is one emotional song taking a more realistic and beautiful look at what love really is, easily his best work.

I hope you enjoy this little mix, if anything strikes your fancy and you want to hear the rest of the album just let me know and I'll see what I can do about giving you a hook up.

Enjoy!

Download
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I'm gonna check out your comp Pete; I think my music collection needs some more hip hop in it. You should also check out The Hilltop Hoods... pretty funky Australian indie hip hop group.

Sorry for bringing up an old post (sort of), but it's good that you posted this for anyone wanting to get into REM. I know that it took me a long time to find all their hidden gems.

o man. just found this thread. gotta contribute. im thinking modest mouse as a starter.

I am actually working on a big project on world hip hop so I will definitely take a look for them, Australian hip hop is a truly wonderful thing.

Yes please! I saw them open for REM last year and they were great!

A Beginners Guide to...
THRICE

Thrice is a band of many musical styles - from their "thrash pop punk" beginnings, to their more recent explorations of electronic music and folky acoustic styles - that started in California in the late 90s. The band is comprised of singer/guitarist Dustin Kensrue, guitarist Teppei Teranishi, and brothers Ed and Riley Breckenridge on bass and drums respectively. As teenagers, the band released their first EP First Impressions in 1998. To say this was "rough" is an understatement. The band began as basically a byproduct of their location, the pop-punk style of bands on the Epitaph and Fat Wreck Chords labels - but they incorporated fast thrash metal riffing and hardcore screaming into their brand of pop-punk.

While First Impressions was rough, inexperienced, and largely forgettable - the band refined their sound on their first proper album Identity Crisis in 2001. Now sounding like a tighter, more professional band, they began to gain a cult following and some press. In 2002 Thrice released the followup The Illusion of Safety. This was a landmark album for the band, as they kept the basic ideas of Identity Crisis - but also began to experiment with various time signatures and song structures. This album received alot of praise among people in their music scene, which led to Thrice being signed to Island and releasing their major label debut, The Artist in the Ambulance in 2003. The album was yet another progression for the band, as they developed a knack for writing fantastic hooks while building upon the best elements of their sound. The album featured the singles "All That's Left" and "Stare at the Sun" which were thrown into regular rotation on rock radio and MTV 2.

After The Artist in the Ambulance, Thrice began talking frequently about a change in sound. Influences ranged from such diverse sources as heavy bands like Isis and Pelican to Radiohead's Kid A and Deftones' White Pony. It was rumored that when the label asked what the album sounded like, Dustin handed them a copy of Talk Talk's Laughing Stock record. In 2005 the band released Vheissu to loads of critical acclaim. The album was fantastic, and a huge departure for the band, as they began to incorporate piano, electronics, and music boxes into their now distinct sound. Vheissu, for all its critical acclaim, was not a mainstream success, and the band was dropped from Island.

For the followup to Vheissu, Thrice declared they were releasing a concept record called The Alchemy Index. Released on Vagrant Records in two parts in 2007 and 2008, the album contained 4 separate volumes: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth, each based around an element of the bands sound. The Fire disc contained their heaviest work to date, with the band using baritone guitars for the first time. The Water portion was a mostly electronic based project, and contains arguably the band's best and most beautiful work. Earth was a stripped down, mostly acoustic and piano based record. The Air volume explores a few different styles, but the songs all have a delicate, floating sort of feel to them.

Thrice have had a long and varied musical career, and I feel they are the most overlooked band around right now - which is why I've made this mix a priority. Due to their initial association with "the scene" which eventually birthed things like My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy, they often get pigeonholed. While they may have toured with bands like those, and at earlier times sounded like they fit into that scene - they have progressed so far beyond it at this point. This mix serves as a guide to all aspects of the band - but is mainly focused around the past few albums, as even the band themselves has said they are somewhat embarrassed by their early days. Originally I had planned to put these in chronological order, to show the progression, but I feel it works better as a random collection and shows the band's versatility. Hopefully some will give this band the chance they deserve, and I feel most people should be able to find at least one aspect of the band's sound they can enjoy, especially in the newer stuff. If you don't want to download the mix and are curious to listen to any one track from the band, I'd recommend the beautiful "Red Sky" - and as always, any feedback is appreciated :)

A Beginner's Guide to Thrice

1. Like Moths to Flame (from Vheissu)
2. The Whaler (from Vol II: Water of The Alchemy Index)
3. Stare At the Sun (from The Artist in the Ambulance)
4. Broken Lungs (from Vol III: Air of The Alchemy Index)
5. Backdraft (from Vol I: Fire of The Alchemy Index)
6. Trust (from The Illusion of Safety)
7. Lost Continent (from Vol II: Water of The Alchemy Index)
8. Moving Mountains (from Vol IV: Earth of The Alchemy Index)
9. The Flags of Dawn (b-side from the Red Sky EP)
10. Under A Killing Moon (from The Artist in the Ambulance)
11. Atlantic (from Vheissu)
12. Digital Sea (from Vol II: Water of The Alchemy Index)
13. T & C (from Identity Crisis)
14. Burn the Fleet (from Vol I: Fire of The Alchemy Index)
15. Daedalus (from Vol III: Air of The Alchemy Index)
16. For Miles (from Vheissu)
17. Silhouette (from The Artist in the Ambulance)
18. Deadbolt (from The Illusion of Safety)
19. Come All You Weary (from Vol IV: Earth of The Alchemy Index)
20. Silver Wings (from Vol III: Air of The Alchemy Index)
21. Red Sky (from Vheissu)



To those who were interested in my "Essential Smashing Pumpkins" mix and my "Beginner's Guide to Real Emo" those are coming next. The Pumpkins set will be two discs - each covering one of the main moods of the band's overall sound. I'm debating whether to split the Emo mix into two discs covering the 1st and 2nd wave, or trying to cram it into one.

I also apologize to those who are disinterested, and probably going to be consistently scrolling by these mixes - I just simply have alot of free time these days and love making mixes. Moderators, please let me know if I'm overdoing it too much and I'll cut back.

hey, would you guys be interested at all if i made a Beginner's Guide to Between the Buried and Me?

Sure! I'm always open to new music.

ok then! i'll have one up in a jiffy.

Between the Buried and Me, or BTBAM for short, is a metalcore band from North Carolina. They have been known to mix metal, jazz, and progressive elements into their music, which itself is calculated and technical enough that they could be able to transcend genres in a matter of moments. they have cited their influences in Metallica, King Crimson, Queen, Pink Floyd, Soundgarden, Counting Crows, Smashing Pumpkins, and Blind Melon

this compilation touches upon the gist of their careers, from their self titled debut to their last record, the hour long epic, Colors. I have omitted their album of covers, The Anatomy of..., because i wanted people to focus on their original music than their covers of other great bands. that and because i don't have it yet :o:

Please do a hum guide, I have there most popular track "Stars" and I really like it and If there other songs are similar I could see myslef getting into them.

I have some extra time on my hands today and I was thinking about doing some comps on these bands, all of them being ones I am very confident i could really show people some lesser known things about.
Let me know if you want one, I'd really like to help some people out.

Nirvana(favorite)
I am probably the most insane Nirvana fan ever, I have pretty much all of there released material along with some Kurt Cobain demo tapes before Nirvana came out with lots of bootlegs. I really would like to do this comp,it would contain a lot of great lesser known tracks

Sublime
A lot different from other bands I like but I am pretty into them and I feel I could really show people what they are about.

Mudhoney
One of the more underrated bands of the Grunge scene that deserve more credit then they get.

Wingnut Dishwashers Union
A one man band containing the infamous "pat The Bunny" an anarchist homeless man that lives out of his car, the nicest most amazing human on earth. He plays his acoustic preaching anarchy and freedom. He's considered Folk Punk.

Like i said I am very passionate about these bands and would really like to help people out so please someone tell me if you'd like a comp.

Thanks <3

If you like that song, you'd probably like the other stuff. I'll work on that one too :)

youre welcome!

Sweet. Thanks :D

no problem

the beginner's guide to...
Modest Mouse
http://cdn.stereogum.com/img/modestmouse_press.jpg
from This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About:
1. Dramamine
2. Breakthrough
3. Novocain Stain
4. Talking Shit About A Pretty Sunset

from Lonesome Crowded West:
5. Teeth Like God's Shoeshine
6. Doin' The Cockroach
7. Lounge(Closing Time)
8. Trailer Trash

from The Moon & Antarctica:
9. Gravity Rides Everything

from Good News for People Who Love Bad News:
10. Float On

from Building Nothing Out Of Something:
11. Grey Ice Water

You may have noticed the selections from the newer albums are particularly spare. This is because I don't like them as much. Enjoy!

http://www.mediafire.com/?zycmueyhwqx

^^^^
Downloaded and listening to right now, pretty damn good! The only album i have is their last album We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank which is still pretty good, i never got around to their older stuff. Maybe this will change things, cheers! :)

uh, yeah.....just wondering, did anyone download any of the comps that i made?

I don't like BTBAM fella :(

:(......can't win em all i guess

Well thanks a lot, man. Nice to find another big R.E.M. fan on here.

I find Between the Buried and Me's music interesting but the amount of metal growling is too much for me...Selkies is a great song though, the ending is one of the most beautiful guitar parts ive ever heard. I just find whenever I listen to them, I feel like I have to "suffer through" the growly metal parts to hear the good melodic parts.

I would have downloaded it otherwise to give it a shot, but I've heard most of their stuff.

On another note, I noticed no one seemed to download my Thrice mix, according to megaupload...I spent a ****load of time on that, especially the whole writeup of the history of the band and such and the others I plan to upload soon, so I'm wondering if anyone checked it out or plans to - because as much as I love making mixes, I don't think I wanna keep spending big chunks of time on something no one's listening to.

again, the ones I mainly planned on putting up soon are Essential Smashing Pumpkins, Beginner guide to real Emo, Guide to Hum, Guide to Shoegaze, Guide to Catherine Wheel, and possibly a Guided By Voices mix that focus on more than just their lo-fi indie days. If any of you are still interested in any of those, let me know. Otherwise I'll just do the ones that were requested

Between the Buried and Me is a band that only suits people who enjoy a wide variety of music (including extreme metal), but are incredibly talented at whatever they do.

As far as your Thrice comp goes, I would DL it, if I didn't already own every album of theirs (except Identity Crisis, because it blows big time). Great choice of band though. Nice to see Thrice love on MB these days.

Yes they are very talented, the growling just always bothers me in music like that and I dont ever get used to it. I can deal with screaming, sometimes even like it, stuff like Dillinger Escape Plan I'm ok with - but the deep death metal style growls are so off putting to me.

Thrice is a great band, nice to see someone appreciates the brilliant recent stuff the band has put out - and I agree, while I loved Identity Crisis when I was 15, it truly sounds immature and almost laughable nearly 10 years later. There are a few songs I still enjoy being nostalgic, and I put "T&C" on the mix just to show something from that era - but if I wasnt trying to vary the mix in different eras It would be all Vheissu-now...I do like Artist, and most of Illusion, but if i heard them for the first time today after something mindblowing like the Water EP I wouldn't be impressed

i may actually go for that Thrice comp, been wanting to check out their stuff.

wait, where's the link?

the link is the underlined title above the tracklist...hmm, maybe that's why no one's downloaded it

thanks, downloading now

Introducing...

I'm a bit bored, so I thought I'd compile a couple of mixtapes from the work of another one of my all-time my favourites. The reason we haven't got one link is, as those of you who've heard him before will know, there is quite a difference between Scott Walker's early work and his latter-day output.


^ This is far and away the most easily-accessible and melodic of his work that you'll come across. His earlier solo albums all make for a very syrupy sweet blend between Sinatra-esque chamber music and a much darker and more lyrically-evocative form of folk. The first four of his solo releases, sampled from above, are by far the best of his pre-80s work, and well worth a gander.


^ This mix, though, is the much more interesting one for me. Basically, after calling time on his solo career and reuniting with the Walker Brothers, Scott went solo again but this time wrote much, much darker, original, endlessly fascinating and unsettling songs. Very, very good listening if you're having a sober night in in the company of your MP3 library. The music in that mix basically defies genre tags (for me at least), which makes things even more interesting.

Re-arrange both mixes in the chronological order of the albums each song comes from (as I've done in this post) if you want to get a good flow out of them. Click the pictures for the links and enjoy!

Got a Smiths one in the wroks. Also Brand New if anyone is actually interested.

The Beginner's Guide to Graf Orlock

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-kUQYH3Jz7...IMG_7663lr.jpg

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

An awesome cinema-inspired grindcore band from California that's gained some popularity on these boards (thanks a bunch to Captain Caveman).

Tracklisting:

1. Tactical Destruction
2. 50 Year Storm
3. Dutch and the Demon ---------- Destination Time: Yesterday (2006)
4. Massacre! Main Title
5. A Chat with the Pentagon

6. A Shocking Interrogation
7. A Misappropriation of Sector Resources
8. "I Think I'm Going to Love the Future" ------- Destination Time: Tomorrow (2007)
9. Todd and Janelle
10. The Dream Left Behind

11. Chapter III
12. Run Over By a Truck
13. Jamming in Traffic ---------- Destination Time: Today (2009)
14. Talking Terrorism
15. Days of High Adventure

hmmm.......i'll check it out

I've got a Nirvana compilation finished, just need to figure out how to convert them into a zip folder and get them on here.

Anyone interested in a Nirvana comp?

By the way, this comp has a lot of tracks in it that are uncommon and not very well known that I think really show what Nirvana is about and proves why they have so many loyal fans.

i guess i would be, never really got into them

...they've got so many loyal fans because there are so many delusional teenagers who think that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is the best song ever.

No.

I'll get the comp up as soon as I can.

You'd be surprised.

So, how do I go about uploading this onto here? I have it made in a folder on my computer and I'm registered on Megaupload but can't seem to upload the folder in all of its entirety, could someone help?