SwiftSessions Blog

Hello everyone, this week’s song is ‘Ain’t Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo)’ by Blackroc. This is a collaborative record between one of my favourite blues rock bands (The Black Keys) and some of my favourite hip-hop artists such as Mos Def, RZA and Q-Tip to name a few. I first heard about this from an article in Rolling Stone Magazine, which mentioned the Black Keys were working on their new album and there happened to be a little blurb about Blakroc at the end. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney got called out of the blue from Damon Dash of Roc-a-fella records to make this record. He basically told them, “Do whatever you want to do” and sure enough, they made an excellent hip-hop album. I would suggest you watch some of the Blakroc Webisodes on youtube: it’s a behind the scenes look at some of the production and effort involved in the making of this collaboration. This video put a big smile on my face when I saw Dan Auerbach and Mos Def just jamming out and enjoying the music.

People always ask me, what ‘kind’ of music do you listen to and I always have a difficult time giving them a straight answer. If I say I listen to everything, they assume I don’t know anything about music or that I’m not passionate enough about it. I would follow by saying: “If it sounds good, I like it”. That’s what this collaboration is to me. It’s genuine, it’s pure, it’s simply good music. I was never a big fan of Jim Jones, but he definitely came through on this track. I hope you enjoy this half as much as I do.

Blakroc – Ain’t Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) (Lyrics)
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Hey all, welcome back. I hope you had a great christmas and new year; I know I certainly did. Let’s start this year off right! Here’s a little tune called ‘Samson the Mason’ by Israel Darling. Enjoy

Hey all, Merry Christmas! This week’s song is ‘Robots’ by Dan Mangan from his 2009 album Nice, Nice, Very Nice. I just stumbled upon this song on a random indie rock playlist and I really liked the raspy vocals. The video features a compilation of photos that someone on youtube posted. It’s a pretty catchy tune, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Oh, I almost forgot. My girlfriend got me Dinosaur Jr. tickets for Christmas, can’t wait to go see them in January, it’s gonna be amazing! Thanks Liz!

I also wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy Holiday, this may be my final post of the year and it’s been a really great year for me personally. So thank you all for visiting my website and posting comments, you know who you are. Cheers.

Dan Mangan – Robots (Lyrics)
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This week’s song is ‘Just Breathe’ from Pearl Jam’s latest album Backspacer. I heard it on the radio a little while ago and I love Eddie Vedder so this was an easy choice for me. This song is simply beautiful, there’s nothing else I need to say. Enjoy

Pearl Jam – Just Breathe (Lyrics)
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Hey all, this week’s song is ‘Taking Drugs at the Amusement Park’ by The Silent Years from their 2009 EP Let Go. I just discovered this band pretty recently and I really enjoy their sound. It sort of reminds me of The Arcade Fire, while still being unique in it’s own right. The video is pretty good, it was filmed with the students of the Paul Green School of Rock in Rochester, Michigan; I wish I went to rock school. Couldn’t find the lyrics to this one, so I wrote them down myself with a little help from the video. Enjoy!

Edit: Thanks to Lucy from SideCho records for the official lyrics. I was pretty close =P

The Silent Years – Taking Drugs at the Amusement Park (Lyrics)
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Hello and welcome to an early edition of my Song of the Week. Well it’s not exactly early, but I usually don’t get around to posting a song until its almost Friday haha. But nonetheless, here I am, it’s definitely Thursday and I’ve definitely been looking forward to posting a new song today. I narrowed my choices down to 2 songs and I had such a hard time deciding which one to choose, I decided to post both of them. I really enjoyed both of the music videos for these songs; you’ll see why when you watch them.

So enough rambling from me. The first song is ‘Skeleton Boy’ by The Friendly Fires. I know Slavica will appreciate the awesome dancing in this video hehe. The second one is ‘Diamond Rings’ by Fake Problems. Enjoy!