Cory Graves
Greg Hardy Drops A Mixtape, Erykah Badu Saves The World and Damaged Good$ Finally Returns.
Talk about perfect timing: A few days before his team left for spring training in Oxnard, California, controversial new Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy dropped his debut album.
Or did he?
It's true that an album called Governing Past Dues that's credited to the 2013 Pro Bowler is currently available on iTunes, yes. But Hardy has been adamant online that he had anything to do with the release. And he doesn't think people should buy it, either, going as far as to tweet: “Don't go buy this crap someone stole my old stuff & threw some BS edits on it & put it out pretending to be with me.” So stick it to the man or something, and just stream that shit instead, I guess? That's your call below.
Another surprise mixtape that came down this week comes from Erykah Badu who posted her Feel Better, World!…Love, Ms. Badu mix online with the following message: “ALL OVER THE GLOBE…KEEP WALKING TALL BROTHERS AND SISTERS. SOMEDAY WE WILL ALL BE FREE. THE WORLD IS IN NEED OF HEALING…. I CAREFULLY AND LOVINGLY SELECTED HIGH FREQUENCY TONES FOR THE SOUL…. PLEASE LISTEN FROM TOP TO BOTTOM.”
You best just do what she says. And we've made it easy for you by embedding it below.
Another fellow that knows a thing or two about getting in the mix is former Dallasite DJ Deshay, who used to “revolve it” for Vanilla Ice back in the day. And it turns out that getting shouted out a la “Well that's my DJ Deshay cuttin' all them Z's” in Ice's “Play That Funky Music” is about the least interesting thing that's ever happened to him. The strip club DJ/gameshow contestant/car thief/YouTube star/owner of an Usher sextape chronicled his story recently for The Daily Dot, which, in turn, labeled him as the most interesting man in the world.
Of perhaps more legitimate interest this week is Cool Dundee, who just released a new album under the Damaged Good$/DMG$ name — the first since the tragic death of his old rap partner Theodore Beard earlier this year. The rapper accompanied the release with the following note via the group's official Facebook page: “LONG STORY SHORT, HERE ARE SONGS I MADE THAT MAKE ME LOL. CUZ IM SAD AND I NEED TO LOL AND BE GOOFY AGAIN. NOT 'SUPER RAPPER' SONGS. SONGS THAT MAKE ME LOL.” While suicide and depression are briefly touched upon in the lyrics, the majority of the tracks are lighthearted and enjoyably goofy. It's in no way a downer — actually, it's pretty high-energy ad great — and it's well worth streaming below.
Speaking of rap duos that used to run this city: Mohicans member Devan Bernard recently released a new solo cut of his own. You can stream “OoWay,” the first single from an album that should be released later this year, below.
Also out this week is the Spotify Session from Leon Bridges, which was recorded back when the Fort Worth soulman was busy winning SXSW earlier this year. It was fitting that he was introduced at this live session as, “an old soul that in two months' time will need no intro.” How true that turned out to be. Stream the much-raved-about performance below.
Late last week, meanwhile, Gorilla vs Bear premiered the first single from Botany's upcoming Dimming Awe, The Light is Raw full-length that's due out on September 18 via Western Vinyl. Says that site's founder, Chris Cantalini, of the lead single: “[It] works as a perfect intro to the record's glorious synthesis of dusty hip-hop vibes and cosmic free jazz spirit (if you're feeling this one, wait until you hear the mind warping 6-minute mini-epic “Bad CGI”).”
Another album out day is the new one from OBN III's, which also premiered a track this week. The one-Denton-and-now-Austin-based garage-y outfit's classic rocking “4KD” debuted via Noisey, and can be streamed below.
On the music video front, the new clip for Demi Lovato's hyper-sexual “Cool For the Summer” sent the hot new single surging back up the charts, all the way to No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100. It's a jam, for sure.
Moving on, one of the more surprising stories from the week comes from the aforementioned Noisey, which met up with a couple that got engaged onstage at a recent Power Trip show. In the piece, frontman Riley Gale mentions that he's not really a fan of that type of thing, generally, calling proposals cheesy. That said, you probably won't want to try repeating the feat when the beloved hardcore band returns to town next month.
As for that show, the band will perform alongside progressive California indie outfit Tera Melos and experimental Nashville lo-fi act Basecamp at the next Red Bull Sound Select show, which takes place August 20, at Trees. Two years into the program, you've probably figured out that an RSVP here is required to snag $3 entry.
A couple other shows worth mentioning include the upcoming Ridglea Music Festival which, as the name implies, will go down at the mostly-devoid-of-music-these-days Ridglea Theater. As the Star-Telegram reports, a lineup of hip-hop acts including Smoothvega, D Flo, Remember the Name, Nadiya Sol, Osama tha Great and Lou Charle$ will perform at the venue on August 14, with a second, more rock-oriented lineup set to go down the next day.
Speaking of surprising news: That JIBE reunion show we previously mentioned that was originally set to take place at Gas Monkey Bar N' Grill on September 25 has since been moved to the larger Gas Monkey Live, after tickets to the original show sold out in less than 10 hours.
Finally this week, the Texas Musicians Museum we've mentioned before opened up over the weekend. The Dallas Observer's Eric Grubbs did a nice little write-up on the museum that just might convince you to haul your ass all the way to Irving to check it out.
Maybe.
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