Sometimes these days you really can’t go by you’re first impressions on music; example: who liked Rebecca Black the first time we heard Friday? Or Lana del Rey? The same can be said for college girl-turned-Weird-rapper Kitty Pryde who may very well have come up with the lyrics to her viral hit Okay Cupid in class, on her note book. After the third listen, you can’t get the synthy back beat and whiny lyrics (she has a “princess” lip tattoo) out of your head. 

“Yeah shorty you’re a ten, and I wait for your drunk dials at 3:30am, I love them.”

Whether or not you like the ditzy, girly girl raps, it’s nice to see a girl enter into the Weird Rap movement. 

With over one million views on YouTube in six days, Lana Del Rey‘shaunting Carmen is a perfect, ominous mix of the self reflection. Half Britney Spear’s Lucky  and half Del Rey’s brand of self-destructive but-I-love-him theme, with low-fi cuts of images of Del Rey herself as she sings “lying to herself cuz her liquor’s top shelf” in Brooklyn and LA, keeping Del Rey’s album as our favorite guilty pleasure.

Filed Under: Danny Brown’s “Radio Song”

Get used to Danny Brown because we predict we’ll be hearing a lot more from the Detroit rapper. 

Filed Under:  Sleepy Man Banjo Boys

I love everything in this video, from fast-paced fingers, to taxidermy, to the millenium falcon on the nightstand.  Almost everything here is falling in to the backwoods trends we’ve seen popping up in entertainment.  I have a feeling this isn’t the last we see of this talented trio.

Friends of Trendera and current Chicagoans, Supreme Cuts, have done it again. When the duo first came out with “Amnesia” I think I played it 10 times in a row and now I find myself doing the same with their latest installment ”Silkk”. “Silkk” keeps with their dance roots but explores off into this dreamy slowed down world that has me repeating “I read your letter” over and over again. Enough talk check it out for yourself and keep a look out for their next release. 

We’ve talked to you before about some of the key fashion statements in music videos, but MIA’s recent video, “Bad Girls” might be the most fashion forward of the year. The Fader pointed out some of their favorite co-star outfits, but we know that fashion and style isn’t only what you wear but how it’s worn. The confidence and attitude in the above video put half-steppers to shame. 

Our expert forecasters here at the Trendera office say that Dominant Legs is going to blow up on the indie scene. 

Filed Under: (When You Lose) Someone Great

The trailer for Shut Up and Play the Hits came out earlier this month. The documentary captures the end of legendary electronic band LCD Sound System. The deliberate decision of frontman James Murphy to disband the group at the height of their career meant not only the end of their hits, but signified an end of an era for electronic music. The film debuts at Sundance next week, here’s to hoping it gets picked up so the rest of it can watch!

As music in 2012 gets more and more stripped down, Vancouver native Claire Boucher AKA Grimes is showing that even witch house is following in the trend. With a voice as different and enticing as Grimes’ it makes sense that she would strip everything down to some samples at a nice dance pace. 

Still a bit new to fame, Boucher released two albums in 2011 and we see 2012 as the time for the one woman show of Grimes to take off. Check out her most recently released song “Genesis” which we’ve had on heavy rotation at the Trendera office. Can’t wait to see what’s more to come from this incredibly talented workaholic. 

Grimes - Genesis by factmag

As the Weird Rap movement becomes more  widely mainstream, we see the same synth heavy, ethereal, dark experimentalism in up and coming R&B artists like Odd Future member Frank Ocean and more recently, The Weeknd. With lyrics like

“Open your hand

Take a glass

Don’t be scared, I’m right here

Even though, you don’t roll

Trust me girl

You gonna wanna be high for this”

In one of his most popular singles High for This, The Weeknd delivers what at first seems to be dreamy courtship rap, which quickly presents itself as frightening, off putting experimental lyricism that we can recognize from Odd Future. Keep an eye on this artist, if this isn’t a marker of acsent to fame itself, he’s already collaborating with Drake on his third album Echoes of Silence, available for free on his website.

Sebastien Tellier may be known for his association to Daft Punk, but around the Trendera office he’s just known a Parisian musical genius. His 2008 album Sexuality still has influencers moving their feet on the dance floor and now the announcement of a 2012 album titled My God Is Blue will reenergize everyone until its release.