The music lineup for the 9th annual Lightning in a Bottle Music and Arts Festival has been announced, featuring Moby, Little Dragon, Phantogram, Gramatik, Beats Antique, Baauer, Gold Panda, Simian Mobile Disco, Chet Faker and more!

Lightning in a Bottle returns with new dates, from May 22-26 2014, and a new location at San Antonio Recreation Area in Bradley, CA  (Google Maps). This new location at Lake San Antonio sits perfectly between Los Angeles and San Francisco in beautiful Monterey County.

Tags: Baauer, Bradley, Festival preview, Lightning In A Bottle, Lightning In A Bottle 2014, Little Dragon, Phantogram, Ryan Hemsworth, Simian Mobile Disco

Talk about an artist that is soon to be blowing up… look no further than Manhattan MC Anthem. After featuring him on our latest edition of Best You Never Heard he has since eclipsed over 10,000 fans on facebook and has been able to put out even more dope music and music videos to accompany some of these songs. Check out five of my recent favorites from Anthem.
Anthem – FucktheIndustry by AMGEsquires

Anthem-Before I Let Go by AMGEsquires

Anthem-Survival of the Fittest (AMG) by AMGEsquires

Anthem-Ordinary Life (F*ck That) by AMGEsquires

Anthem x Phantogram – Don’t Move (Joy & Pain Mix) by AMGEsquires

Many of the tracks above will be on Anthem‘s upcoming project, Joy & Pain EP. Below watch a short trailer to his upcoming debut EP. (more…)

Tags: Anthem, Joy & Pain, Joy & Pain EP, Phantogram, Upcoming EP

New e-dubble! I’m watching game 7 of the World Series so I’m not going to give any description, this game is too important.

Listen and download “Fight For Days”. E-dubble’s “Fight For Days” features a sample from “Don’t Move” by Phantogram.
e-dubble – Fight For Days

Here’s the original song from Phantogram.
Phantogram – “Don’t Move”

Tags: e-dubble, Phantogram

HBO’s best show, How To Make It In America premiered it’s third episode of the second season this past Sunday. Just like we’ve done for the first two episodes, we will provide you with some of the best music from this one. Though a lot of awesome things happened in this most recent episode, in my opinion the music wasn’t at it’s best. However, some of it was still enjoyable. Below are my five favorite from this past episode. Enjoy!

Phantogram – “When I’m Small” (Download)

Lady Saw – “No Long Talking” (Download)

STRFKR – “Bury Us Alive” (Download)

Blue Oyster Cult – “Don’t Fear the Reaper” (Download)

Bobby Womack – “Across 110th Street” (Download)

Tags: Blue Oyster Cult, Bobby Womack, Episode 3, HBO, How To Make It In America, Lady Saw, Phantogram, Season 2, STRFKR, weekly review

As we drove down the 5 freeway headed to the Pacific Festival, the excitement level was rising like a hot kettle on the stove. With a loaded lineup headlined by Snoop Dogg & Cut Copy and artists such as Calvin Harris, Phantogram, Ghostland Observatory, Steve Aoki, Fred Falke, Bag Raiders, The C90’s, !!! (Chk, Chk, Chk) on the schedule, there was no better place to be on August 13th, 2011 than Oak Canyon Ranch in Orange County, California. Having VIP Backstage access was sure to make it epic. What follows is just that. E.P.I.C.

Click read more to read my part 1 review of the Pacific Festival. (more…)

Tags: Bag Raiders, california, Calvin Harris, Cut Copy, Electro/hip-hop, Fred Falke, Ghostland Observatory, Good Music, Los Angeles, music, music remix, Orange County, Pacific Festival, Pacific Festival: OC, Phantogram, remix, snoop dogg, Steve Aoki, The C90s

So were less than one month away to the first-ever Orange County Pacific Festival on August 13, 2011. I’m super excited for this festival as it features many underrated acts and I really respect the fact that the organizers of this festival were able to bring in so many quality acts in their first year of this festival. Here’s a cool Pacific Festival trailer to watch that has more info on the event.

Some of the notable acts performing include Snoop Dogg, Cut Copy, Steve Aoki, Calvin Harris, Ghostland Observatory, Phantogram, toro y moi, Bag Raiders, and many more! Buy tickets here.

I am so excited for the Pacific Festival that I decided to make a 25-track mixtape with my favorite songs from many of the artists performing on August 13, 2011 in Orange County, California.

Download the Unofficial Pacific Festival 2011 mixtape presented by BeforeBigs.com

Tracklisting after the jump. (more…)

Tags: Afroman, Bag Raiders, BeforeBigs.com mixtape, Bird Peterson, Calvin Harris, Cut Copy, Fred Falke, Ghostland Observatory, Hanni El Khatib, Mixtape, music festival, Orange County, Pacific Festival, Phantogram, Poolside, snoop dogg, Steve Aoki, Toro y Moi, Zeds Dead

RAC which stands for Remix Artist Collective, is a group of international producers who create re-interpretative rock/electronic/dance remixes for musical artists. They strive to stay away from “club” type remixes and to bring something new and different to the song.

I like many of their remixes and have included five of my favorites that we haven’t blogged about yet.
Foster The People – Houdini (RAC Mix)
Two Door Cinema Club – Something Good Can Work (RAC Mix)
Phoenix – Armistice (RAC Mix)
Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream (RAC Mix)
Penguin Prison – Worse It Gets (RAC Mix)

Follow RAC on soundcloud for many more remixes!

Previous: Chromeo – Fancy Footwork (RAC mix), Super Mario Bros – RAC

Tags: Empire of the Sun, Foster the People, Penguin Prison, Peter Bjorn and John, Phantogram, Phoenix, RAC, RAC Remix, remix artist collective, Two Door Cinema Club

Sorry to bunch up four emerging indie electro-pop artists into one post but at least you get to discover more than 1 artist that you might not have heard of (except Phantogram). Above is Phantogram performing “Let Me Go” live. It sounds just a little bit better than listening to their non-live version below.

First we got Fritz Arnaude who samples some of Phoenix to start off the song gets Skizzy Mars spitting some bars and overall love the instrumental. This is the kind of song that builds up so well you really can’t wait to hear what’s next.
Fritz Arnaude – Possibilities [Ft. Skizzy Mars]
Next we got Phantogram with “Let Me Go”. I love Phantogram becuase of how catchy, complex and intriguing their instrumentals are. Close your eyes and listen to the instrumentals and tell me your not hooked. Plus the vocals are nice.
Phantogram – Let Me Go
I downloaded this Stepdad almost a month ago and loved it because of the instrumentals. Listening to it again in the car today, I kept thinking how great the instrumentals could be in a mashup. Plus I really like the weird lyrics.
Stepdad – My Leather, My Fur, My Nails
Lastly, Twin Shadow is becoming a new favorite of mine. Below is my favorite from them, “At My Heels”, which is a chill song, reminds m relaxed Two Door Cinema Club instrumentals but with American flavor (their from Brooklyn).
Twin Shadow – At My Heels

Tags: Friz Arnaude, indie electro-pop, indie electropop, live video, Phantogram, Skizzy Mars, Stepdad, Twin Shadow

Above is a 4-minute beat-box of some of the best rap songs through music history. It’s pretty clever and overall really cool figuring out which songs he’s beat-boxing in the video.

Below are 4 hip-hop artists that rap on a track to improve the original, especially in the Ke$ha song in which I’m puking on the inside a little bit for posting.

First rapper & producer Intuition jumps on indie/electro duo Phantogram, who I’m very fond of. Wasn’t the biggest Intuition fan until I heard him add some hip-hop to “When I’m Small”, now I want to hear more.
Phantogram – When I’m Small (Remix feat. Intuition)
Outkast was amazing, but individually Andre 3000 and Big Boi are still great artists. Andre 3000 jumps on the Ke$ha track “Sleazy”. Perfect song title, the drum instrumental is hot and overall Andre 3000 kills it.
Ke$ha – Sleazy (Remix) (feat. Andre 3000)
For a more relaxed jam than the three above, Zion I jumps on Rebelution’s “Safe & Sound”. I think the original reggae/dub song is solid but then bay-area hip-hop group Zion I jumps on the verses and a little on remixing the production, which makes it so much better.
Rebelution – Safe & Sound (Zion I Remix)
Lastly for an even more relaxed jam, Gilbere Forte‘ jumps on Miguel’s R&B single, “Hard Way”. It’s a very chill track, didn’t like the original but with talented MC (and XXL Freshmen 2011 snub) Gilbere Forte’ I suddenly enjoy this song a lot more.
Miguel – Hard Way (Remix) ft. Gilbere Forte’

Tags: Andre 3000, Eklips, Gilbere Forte, Intuition, Ke$ha, Miguel, Phantogram, Rebelution, Zion I

Official music video for OnCue’s “Your Own Supply” from his last mixtape, Leftovers. I’m glad OnCue chose this song for what I’m pretty sure is his first major music video. “Your Own Supply” is in the top 5 and probably top 3 best songs OnCue has released and the music video is dope.

OnCue – Your Own Supply (prod. CJ Luzi & Phantogram) (right-click (PC) or control-click (Mac) to download)

Tags: alternative hip-hop, alternative hip-hop/R&B, alternative/hip-hop, CJ Luzi, Leftovers, Leftovers mixtape, OnCue, Phantogram