Mikey Shanley – “Vampires Unite” + Rolling Stone!?

Well, Mikey Shanley is back at it again! If you’re not familiar with Shanley, he’s the coast-to-coast Golden Child of house music. Seriously, from Key West to Toronto, Pittsburgh to Seattle, he’s rocked the entire damn continent. (For more info, just go check out his damn site  already and get it over with. And while you’re there, you might as well check out his free, monthly podcasts as well.)

Make sure to check out his latest track, “Vampires Unite”. It’s available on iTunes, Amazon, as well as a few other vendors (ihearmusic, Spotify, and eMusic), but if you buy it before August 13, 2011 on Amazon, you’ll get six months of Rolling Stone for ONE DOLLAR. So seriously, you’re getting 6 months of a magazine and an MP3 for a grand, whopping total of $1.89. In times like these, what better way to get your music fix? Now, I did buy mine while I was logged into my Amazon account and got an email with the offer a few days later. It’s not an immediate thing, but you’ll get a code and a link in your email and you can take it from there.

As for the track itself, it’s certainly out of Shanley’s usual realm of bumpin’ house tracks and even the early days of hardcore. Delightfully creepy, it’s mere inches on the correct side of that fine line between industrial inspired, dark wave electronic and campy, Halloween music that you find on 99¢ CDs at the Halloween stores in the fall. We also get a little taste of Shanley himself on the vocals (oops! Am I supposed to tell you that!?) which brings me way back to the good ol’ days when he still fronted local bands and before the infatuation with electronic music even began.

It’s not just Halloween appropriate though… It’s ear candy to all deep and tech house aficionados and even trance fans alike. It’s got a hypnotic, down-tempo groove with a deep, dark side that lingers right there. Ready to jump out and get you at any given moment.

In the meantime, check this shit out from Ultraviolet in Pittsburgh back in June. If you ever doubt Shanley’s capabilities, keep in mind that it was about 110° in that tiny, tiny little club, and he still manages to rock the fuck out. (Sorry for the sound, guess you’re just gonna have to go download the track for better quality!)

Mikey Shanley @ Ultraviolet 6/18/11

Who needs coffee when you have Ruckus Roboticus?

http://theoriginalgirlwithablog.blogspot.com/2010/06/who-needs-coffee-when-you-have-ruckus.html

Chemical Brothers – Further

http://theoriginalgirlwithablog.blogspot.com/2010/06/chemical-brothers-further.html

Some Friday Funky Beats

Sometimes, I love Myspace, but wish it wasn’t such a wasteland of spammers and porn-bots. Once in a great while, though, you find some decent things.

Like this guy, Paul Faulkner’s (aka Wainscott or Luna) beats. Some good, old fashioned, electronic music. From the house tracks released under Wainscott or the trance tracks released under Luna, Faulkner’s bringin’ it back, old school.

Great, now I want to go dancing. Curses for living in Pittsburgh.

So for your Friday, have some funky beats to get you through the day. Be sure to catch his other tracks on Myspace, Facebook, or Reverbnation.

“7th Heaven”

“In the System”

An Interview with Mikey Shanley – 12/19/09

Finally it’s here! The very first video interview on That Girl With A Blog. I’m going to be honest with you, it was terrifying. Thankfully, it was with a good friend and a great amount of booze. So here it is, everybody…my one on one (ish) with Mikey Shanley. Make sure to check out his new EP, GAga Night, streaming for free on his Myspace.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Thanks again to Mikey Shanley for agreeing to do this. Thanks to Adam and Casey for being our faithful cameramen. Thanks to Shelby Proie and her family for the use of their awesome movie room. And thanks to all of you for tuning in to the very first video interview here on That Girl With A Blog!

Mikey Shanley – GAga Night

Miami resident, beach bum, DJ, and all around good guy Mikey Shanley is at it again with his new EP, GAga Night. It’s been strange to see Shanley go from eyeliner-ed emo rocker to happy hardcore to house and everything in between, but house music seems to be where Shanley finds home. Maybe it’s the Miami nights, the clubs, the sand and the heat that makes beats like this. They’re rough, they’re rich, they’re sexy, and goddamn are they dance-able. From the press release:

“It’s 80 degrees in Miami Beach right now, and while most would kill for a South Florida beach in late November Mikey, just across the street from the sandy salvation, is in his recording studio putting the finishing touches on his EP entitled “Gaga Night”; which will be available for free via mikeyshanley.com in late December. Mikey’s EP has a funky futuristic house sound with a banging techno groove and psy-trance, electro bass lines. This EP is packed with enough glow stick power and thumping warehouse beats to keep party people going as the sun comes up.”

That is absolutely correct. While this EP is definitely made for DJs by a DJ, it’s shockingly listener-friendly. When you find an album with such technical prowess, you also find all those long, naked gaps. I know, they’re for mixing, but I don’t wanna hear the same beat 64 times. Shanley finds that happy medium, and it carries throughout the entire five track EP.

While every track on this album is fantastic, “GAga Night” and “My Soul” are the gems. They ARE house music. From electro to deep soul, this album has a little bit of something for every house head. Filled with luxuriously rich beats…it’s like taking a hot bath in house music.  Buildups are spectacular, drops are well placed, this album is…awesome. It’s just awesome, dammit. So get check it out at Mikey Shanley’s MySpace, streaming for free RIGHT NOW! A!

Faceoff: David Guetta vs. Felix Da Housecat

VS.
The time has come for the HOUSE MUSIC FACEOFF! Two completely different sides of the world. David Guetta vs. Felix Da Housecat! Paris vs. Chicago! London vs. LA!

Guetta’s One Love and Felix’s He Was King were both released on August 21, this was just meant to happen people.

Let’s start off with Guetta. First of all, Guetta has always been that guy who made music for other people. He remixed and produced and made the magic happen…for everyone else. Even now, working with prominent artists like Kelly Rowland (just sayin’, in a vocal battle, Kelly Rowland could kick Beyonce’s ass) and Akon, and remixing a song that he produced for the Black Eyed Peas, I think Guetta’s finally gonna make it big in the states. Damn near every song on this album makes me wanna dance. It has this early 90’s radio edit Euro vibe goin’ on. Guetta’s bringing club music back to mainstream America. He knows what’s up. He’s been a chart topper in the UK for years, it’s about damn time he does something over here. As for the album, it’s super funky, heavy ass beats with a slightly hip-hop touch on the vast majority of the tracks. In other words, it’s a whole lotta fun. This is the kinda album that gets every slutty chick on the dance floor.

Seriously, check this shit out:

“When Love Takes Over” official music video:

Mmmmmmmm…dancey.

Then there’s this, “Gettin’ Over” official music video:

Holy electro, Batman! Where the ravers at!? This song makes my heart hurt and I’m not even on drugs. I think I would explode if I was. This whole album is amazing…it’s one of those where every song is good. Except for “Choose” because it really sounds like “…you wanna make me shoes”. Ne-Yo needs to learn how to enunciate, bad.

Onto Felix Da Housecat! I’ve loved Felix since the Kittenz and Thee Glitz days (c’mon, who doesn’t remember “Phantasy Girl”!?) and it kills me to say that this album is a huge disappointment.  I guess I can understand where he’s going with it. Futuristic, mechanical vocals, epic, spacey beats. The vocals really ruin this album for me, though. The only song that really redeems this album is “LA Ravers”, and that’s because there are no vocals to fuck up, sans the brief robot noise at the beginning. It’s got that funky electro beat…

“LA Ravers” (Not an actual video, just the song.)

And I mean, if you wanna see how bad this album goes, check this out:

“Kickdrum”

Now this song just annoys me. WTF, Felix? So, this is like, you’re 12th album, that’s no reason to start churning out crap.

So, I think it’s safe to say that David Guetta is the clear winner of this battle. I’m sorry, Felix. I really am. Maybe that will entice him to make better music. If you would have asked me before I listened to these albums who the winner would be, I would have said Felix, hands down. Well, I have certainly been proved wrong.