Rdio’s fancy new Help site is live, thanks to the good folks at Assistly, and our very own über-talented Designer, Adam Polselli. We’ve already been using Assistly behind the scenes for a while, to provide support for Rdio’s users in a variety of ways like email, Twitter and Facebook. This launch brings Rdio’s forums into Assistly alongside these other ways of communicating with you, which will let us provide a much more unified and coherent support experience going forward.
Whether you try something completely new or revisit an artist you liked previously, reward yourself with some new tunes this week. Let your eyes lead you to some catchy album art or pick something from your network’s recent activity—who knows what new greatness you’ll find? For a selected sample of music, try our New Music Tuesday playlist and read our notes below.
Playlist Notes
Little Dragon, Ritual Union:
The detached, heartbeat-like rhythms and alluring voice of Little Dragon’s third album, Ritual Union, make it hard to fight off the urge to dance.
Drake, Marvins Room: After his rapid rise to fame, Drake uses his distinct combination of singing and rapping to tackle some of the pitfalls of success on his latest single, which is off his upcoming album, Take Care.
Wilco, I Might: Veteran alt-country rockers Wilco drop a long-awaited single from their eight studio album, complete with distorted guitar, some serious organ, and a tried and true garage-band edge.
Kelly Rowland, Here I Am (Deluxe Version): There are more than just love songs and heart-sick ballads on Kelly Rowland’s third solo album. The former Destiny’s Child singer creates modern pop and dancefloor-ready songs with the help of guests like Lil Wayne and Big Sean.
Joss Stone, LP1:
In honor of her newly created label, Joss Stone named her fifth album LP1 for its first album release. Co-written and produced by the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, Stone executes with raw vocals and an earnest spirit.
Who do you think is an important musician most people have never heard of before?
We live in the age of the Internet, so most things have been heard of at this point. There’s this songwriter/musician from Detroit in the 70’s named Ted Lucas who I’ve been enjoying lately. I’m only aware of one of his records, but it is pretty timeless. The guy had an amazing voice and the record I have is really stripped down, just vocals and acoustic guitar, mainly. Pretty much the best Sunday morning music imaginable. Such a great voice.
Another band I’ve been listening to lately is this Parisian band named Herman Düne. The 2-piece band is certainly not unknown, but is pretty under appreciated in the US. The singer sorta looks like a hipster Raffi and the songs have a lot of playful wordplay in them. New record (Strange Moosic) came out in May and the songs are really great…
If you had access to any record in the world, what would you listen to right now?
I have a computer, so I sort of do already. When are these questions from, 1994? That said, the other day I was listening to an old vinyl 7” of Stevie Wonder doing the Beatles “We Can Work It Out” and that was pretty damn awesome. You ever watch YouTube clips of him on Sesame Street? Pure gold. It’s hard to believe how long people were allowed to play music on TV back in the day. I think I saw him do like a 7 or 8 minute song. So cool. Plus, he really knew how to rock a turtleneck.
What album or artist do you most associate with your childhood?
This week, the only place you’ll find Mark Ronson’s remix of the Black Lips’ song “New Direction” is here on Rdio. Ronson—producer, turntablist and (when backed by his band The Business Intl) recording artist extraordinaire—puts his own spin on the Black Lips in the “New Direction (Mark Ronson Dub Remix).
Is this the best news you’ve heard all week? Stay tuned—we have a Black Lips Chicago ticket giveaway (in case you are missing them at Lollapalooza), playlist, and Five Questions with the Band straight from the Black Lips’ Cole Alexander coming up later this week.
The Delicious Vinyl story goes something like this: two Los Angeles DJs with similarly excellent taste start a label and find immediate success. During the beginning, Delicious Vinyl was home of Tone Loc, Young MC, and Def Jef. Delicious Vinyl didn’t limit itself from there—they release dancehall reggae, dance music, Spanish rap, and later helped elevate West Coast rap to minds across the country. Almost 25 years later, Delicious Vinyl maintains its legacy in it’s catalog and new projects.
So find your favorite Delicious Vinyl albums, add them to your collection, hit play and “Bust a Move”.
