Music, music, music! I’ve been waiting all week to share these, so finally, here they are! I’ve got some of the most amazing dubstep I’ve found so far, two new albums, and a foreign phone commercial that will blow your classical music mind.

From Mortal Kombat to Ellie Goulding, and Bob Marley in between, here’s some great dubstep, sit-in-the-sun, and party banger tracks to get your Springfest on to.

• Renegade VIP ft. Maxsta- The Qemists
• California Sunrise by LS Royale ft Shwayze
• Lights by Norwegian Recycling
• Where Dem Girls At (ft. Nicki Minaj & Flo Rida) by David Guetta
• Paradise City (ft. Mickey Avalon) by Cisco Adler
• Wanna Know Now (Xaphoon Jones) Bob Marley vs. MGMT by THEBINGOBALLS
• Reptile by Skrillex
• The Best Ocean (Drake vs. Frank Ocean) by Hunter Bouchard

I also listened to two new albums this week, by Incubus and Augustana. Both albums are mellow but pleasing to the ear. Good tracks from the Incubus album If Not Now, When? include “Isadore”, “In The Company Of Wolves”, and “Adolescents”, which has a caliber more like “Anna Molly” from their 2009 album,  Monuments and Melodies. The new album is set to release on July 12 of this summer, so don’t miss it!

The San Francisco band Augustana released their self-titled album on April 26. According to iTunes, “Just Stay Here Tonight” is the most popular so far, followed by “Counting Stars” and “Steal Your Heart.” Unfortunately, it seems as if they’ve practically fired their pianist; many of their older songs had beautiful piano riffs, and it’s practically non-existent in this album. However, if you like bands like Lifehouse, you’ll probably appreciate this album.

Last, but not least, I found an amazing video that I must share.  The video is beautifully filmed, and features hundreds of feet of wooden blocks, lined up in a forest, fashioned into a xylophone. A wood ball is rolled down the blocks, and the tune of Bach’s Cantata 147, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” can be heard. As the ball hit’s each block, a not of the song sounds. At the end of the three-minute video, one comes to realize that the video is really a commercial for the DOCOMO Touch Wood SH-08C phone. Absolutely amazing.

I’ve discovered some amazing music and videos this week and I’m excited to share. This includes Benny Benassi, Adele, and Cisco Adler, to name a few. On another note, Billboard.com informed us this week that “Weird” Al Yankovic will be allowed to release a new leading single, “Perform This Way”, a parody of Lady Gaga’s most recent hit. Unfortunately, there will also be a music video (groan here). However, all proceeds from the song and video will go to the Human Rights Campaign. Good news there.

Usually, I try to touch on music I do not approve of. I’ve got something interesting this week. I realized, if Rebecca Black had started out as a country artist, she would’ve done just fine, because being a country artist is really not that hard. To be a country artist you must have an annoying voice, and sing about one or more of these six things: a bad relationship, God, beer, a truck, tractor, or vehicle, your dog and America. I know Rebecca Black only mentioned one those in her song, but if her song had been country song it might have made “Friday” more enjoyable. The reason I even bring this up is because the first song from FOiT this week is “Staying’s Worse Than Leaving” by Sunny Sweeney. Even her name makes me shudder. It oozes that country twang. Her album cover is of a rhinestone-encrusted guitar, which is pretty weird, but here are the first lines of the song: “Leaving’s hard, trust me, it’s really bad/ it’ll shake ya, damn near break ya, it always has”. Really? You know what’s bad? Even Rebecca Black could’ve written that. Not impressed, to say the least.

Dubstep Saved My Life

Let’s move on to the good stuff, shall we? First up, Benny Benassi. The dude has done it again. I found a remix to his March 8 release of “Cinema,” on a blog that blew my mind, called Dubstep Saved My Life (I’m waiting for the day that Dubstep is actually recognized as a genre by the general public). Skrillex put a fantastic twist on Benassi’s dance hit, and it’s available for download from the link above. Please, enjoy.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Adele lately, in lieu of her newest album, “21.” I found a video of her singing “Someone Like You,” live at her house. At the beginning of the video, she gives a rundown of the meaning behind the song and if you’re a sap like me and swoon at her voice, the video may bring you to tears.

To wrap things up, I hit a goldmine the other day at GoodMusicAllDay.com. Cisco Adler, who makes up half of the urban hipster band “Shwayze”, released a mixtape, titled “SuperCaliforniaLipstickSexyMagicDopeShit” (Microsoft Word seizures when trying to recognize this). This album vibes hard, and some of my favorites include “Cry Myself To Sleep (featuring The Knux)”, “Paradise City (featuring Mickey Avalon)”, and California Girl (featuring Shwayze). If you’re looking for some music to “beach bum” to, download it now.

I’ve come to realize that I really don’t spend much time looking through music on iTunes. I get my music suggestions from a ton of other websites I’ve randomly discovered over the past year or two. iTunes normally charges $1.29 for music, and most of the less

69 cent songs.

popular or older music is sold for 99¢, but they also add weekly to their mixes they sell for 69¢. I know I’m probably the last to realize how great this, but really, it is great. Looking through their list of Alternative songs this week, I found some great old hits that I haven’t heard in years. These include “Black” by Pearl Jam, “Dark Blue” by Jack’s Mannequin,  “Famous Last Words” by My Chemical Romance, “Good Girls Go Bad” by Cobra Starship, “Killing In the Name” by Rage Against the Machine, and “Starstrukk” by 3OH!3.

If you’re one of those people that’s sitting there asking, “Well, so what? It’s music for 69¢. I can still find it for free somewhere else”, please realize that yes, it’s a marketing strategy, but there’s more to it. iTunes is making money off of old songs that everyone already has, but so are the artists. If not for iTunes, at least look into the 69¢ songs to benefit the artists. Most of the songs that are marked down are being sold at this price because they’re good, even if they’re not as well known anymore. The big “69¢ Songs” icon is drawing attention to itself for a reason; don’t forget to keep enjoying the classics.

Another discovery this week was the #newmusic trend on Twitter. This will amaze you, I promise. If you have a Twitter account, look for this trend. Every 30 seconds or so, some underground artist is linking their Tweets to their own music. I’ve found some promising music listed here within the past few days, and not everything is one genre or the other. Have a look!

To wrap things up, “This Is What Rock n Roll Looks Like” by Porcelain Black ft. Lil Wayne was released as a single on FOiT. I was really excited to see that Lil Wayne had teamed up with someone I’d never heard of, especially someone that looks and sounds like Porcelain Black. The beginning of the song was good, and I liked it, but it left me hanging. I kept waiting for some awesome hot beat to drop, but instead, it slowly eased into the first verse. No big bass, nothing. I was disappointed. Back on April 1, Birdman commented on Lil Wayne’s “new energy” in a Billboard.com article. I sure hope his upcoming music will be better than the work he put in for the “Rock n Roll” single.

This week I have some new discoveries of older music, and a breakdown of “Femme Fatale.” If you haven’t already heard these, check out Band of Horses’ album “Infinite Arms,” Sufjan Stevens’ album “The Age of Adz,” and Deerhunter’s album “Halcyon Digest.” I particularly love the song “Desire Lines.”

Twelve years ago, Britney Spears released her first album, “…Baby One More Time.” I remember getting that album for Christmas that year, it was the first CD I ever owned. Over the years, Britney’s career has definitely had its ups and downs, what with rehab, losing all of her hair, and the whole K-Fed deal, but within those past twelve years, she’s released six studio albums. Why is it that I can’t name them? It’s been a long time since Britney was at the head of the game, and it seems she’s been fighting her way up stream just within the past few years. Now she’s back, folks, and she’s not going to let us ignore her. Could this be lucky number seven for her?

When “Hold It Against Me” was released, I cringed. Only Britney Spears would take the dumbest pick-up line ever and turn it into a hot club banger. As hard as I tried not to listen to it on the radio, I started seeing remixes pop up, and they were actually worth listening to. I decided to cut old Britney some slack (and when I say old, I mean 29 years old). Now that she’s released her newest album, “Femme Fatale,” I figured I’d look into it and see if there really is a reason to be excited for her to try to make a real comeback. Honestly, I’m impressed. She’s really embracing the changes in the sound of pop music, and although her music doesn’t sound the same as it used to, it’s different in a good way. She’s conforming to the now popular dance-club-party-banger style, and it was probably a safe move on her part. If she had tried to come back into the music scene with something new or different, there’d be a good chance of failure and criticism. “Femme Fatale” is exceeding my expectations, and the statistics are there to further prove the album is a success.

According to Billboard.com’s track-by-track article, this album was majorly produced by Dr. Luke and Max Martin, and features a little help from the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am. The opening song on the album features a theme widely used within the past year- “Till the World Ends.” The track is her tenth Top 10 single, taking the number nine spot two weeks after its debut. My favorite song on the album is “Big Fat Bass” with will.i.am, I think it’s going to eventually become the next big party song. Billboard reviews it as “a slight bump in the road” but I don’t agree. I think will.i.am makes up for whatever the track is possibly lacking.

Overall, thumbs up to Ms. Spears. The album is a little more genius than I imagined it would be.

As much as I hate to bring this up, I really have to. For those of you who have not yet had the displeasure of hearing the song “Friday” by Rebecca Black, consider yourselves the lucky few. For those who have, you’re probably wondering, who the heck is this chick? How the heck did she get a record deal? Why is she waiting at the bus stop for friends that are picking her up in a car that probably doesn’t belong to them? Is it really that hard to decide whether to sit in the front or the back? Do these 13-year-olds really think we don’t know that Thursday comes before Friday, or that Sunday comes after Saturday? Is this even real?

This song is so bad, it’s making Rebecca Black an overnight sensation. She’s made $25,000 in iTunes sales, and has had 61,445,900 views on YouTube since Feb. 10. Some would go as far to call it the worst song ever. I’m not kidding, go to Google and search “the worst song ever,” and you’ll get Good Morning America’s interview with Rebecca Black, bringing to light the ridicule and hatred of the song as the worst anyone has ever heard.

Yes, America, this is real. Yes, the song pretty much sucks. However, the more you watch the video, the more you listen to the song, the more famous “Friday” becomes. A big thank you to Tosh.O for starting Rebecca Black’s career, and Tosh.O found it here.

A band named Sex Ray Vision remixed her song, and it’s actually really good! It was posted by my favorite blog, Camelback Music, and I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Okay, enough of that. Let’s move on to things that are more important. I’ve really been diggin’ the song “All of the Lights” by Kanye West ft. Rihanna and Kid Cudi. The video for the song is unique: the first minute of it is a recreation of Kanye’s favorite French black & white film. The next minute is just text, different effects on the lyrics of the song being flashed on the screen. It’s pretty sweet. The song itself seems to be Kanye’s redemption song, and being replaced by Drake after an absence in the music scene. Rihanna was put in charge of the chorus, and she just kind of stands around in an outfit looking to be made out of seatbelts… But it’s okay, because she’s hot. Kid Cudi’s appearance in the video is really fun, adding his deep vocals as a bridge. I really love the scenes with Kanye standing on top of the cop car in the ally, with the lights flashing and bouncing off the brick wall.  The whole backbone of the song is a sweet horn solo, which really gives the song an imperialistic tone, I think, fitting Kanye’s overall attitude.

There are two sweet remixes to this one, the first is still Kanye, but featuring Lil Wayne, Drake, & Big Sean. I have a feeling that this isn’t a Kanye remix, what with Drake being featured.  The other remix is by Cris Cab, who gives us a reggae/acoustic version, the YouTube video for it is cool, check it.

This week in music has really got me excited, so get ready for your world to be rocked. First off, I’d like to express my exhilaration in finding out that Aerosmith will be working on a new album this summer.

The last album they released was 2004’s “Honkin’ On Bobo”, and I’m pretty sure anyone will agree that Steven Tyler will never be too old to release a new album. His Twitter post on March 7 read, “Aerofreaksrejoice… Joe and I sent smoke signals… shot the shit and chewed the fat for the last year, but just smoked the peace pipe for an hour and are on our way to rock’in your fkin worlds this summer by locking ourselves away somewhere [with] guitars and drums… Luv ST.” If you’re not an “Aerofreak”, you’d better clean the cotton out of your ears and get with the program. They aren’t going away anytime soon.

Here’s what I’ve been listening to this week, these are keeping me alive:

• “I Believe In You” by Cat Power (Alternative)
• “Daniel” by Bat For Lashes (Alternative/Indie)
• “My Body by Young” The Giant (Alternative/Rock)
• “Pass Out” by Tinie Tempah (Hip-Hop/Rap)

The amount of free music on iTunes this week is a little sad, not even a video. But don’t let it fool you. I haven’t been this impressed with FOiT in a long time.

“Till the End of Time” by Timothy Bloom will literally make you want to get down on your knees and cry. The song is basically him asking his girl to remember him if he happened to die the next day, and that they’d help carry his legacy by having a child… it’s one of those “make love to me here and now” songs, and WOW does Bloom really blow it out of the water.

Timothy Bloom was born in El Paso, TX and raised in Fayetteville, NC. He grew up playing drums, piano, guitar, and bass. He’s the third person to play on Nat King Cole’s grand piano, besides Stevie Wonder. Listen to him.

I wish iTunes would add the option to create different tabs in their store… It’s so hard to go back and forth between artists and videos and such when a person can only view a page at a time. Someone needs to complain to them about that. This week’s Free On iTunes (FOiT) selection is pretty spiritless (aside from the video and R.E.M.’s “ÜBerlin”, good song), so I’ll just get right to it, then.

I’m going to make this week about young artists.

There’s a lot to say about the free video this week, Miranda Cosgrove with “Dancing Crazy”. Miranda started as an actress in the 2003 film School of Rock. She’s also been part of two TV series’, Drake & Josh, and more recently, iCarly. According to an article from the New York Post, she’s the second highest paid child actor, making $180,000 per iCarly episode. Even more recently, she’s signed with Colombia Records. Which brings us to her music video. It’s pretty sticky sweet Disney pop, exactly what you’d expect from someone with her job history. The video itself is cliché, a teenage girl sneaking out at night to have a dance party with her “friends” in the middle of a football stadium, and meets up with the boy she’s been eyeing. Yeah, it’s cute, but really, it’s not anything to get excited about. When I started paying attention to the song, it sounded like Teenage Dream by Katy Perry, Sleazy by Ke$ha, and Dancing Queen by ABBA somehow had a threesome that resulted in a child… Hire someone new to write for you, Miranda, because the writers you have are cheating on you. There’s a reason your video is free this week; no one is going to pay for that unless they’re under the age of 16.

Now that we’ve gotten the crappy music of the week out of the way, here’s the good news. I’ve made some great discoveries all by myself. I’ve recently fallen in love with Mat Musto. You can find him on iTunes. He first released an EP back in 2008, titled “Brightness”. Unfortunately, there’s not much information easily available about this kid, but judging from his photos I’d guess he’s about 19 or so, give or take a few years. He’s a mix of Indie and Pop, a very smooth sound in all of his music. His songs are beautiful and unique, and they really do make you want to fall in love. If you like The Script, Mat Kearney, and Mike Posner, you’ll love Mat Musto. I discovered other music by him that isn’t from iTunes and is available for download from Good Music All Day’s Midterm Mixtape, which is a FANTASTIC idea to download all together, just sayin’.

From the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Free On iTunes (FOiT), I’ve got you covered. Here’s a bit of what’s been happening this week in music.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are due for a new album, and according to front-man Anthony Keidis, the album will be titled “Dr. Johnny Skinz’s Disproportionately Rambunctious Polar Express Machine-head”. Yeah, sounds like an acid trip, right? Correct. The album name is inspired by a friend’s reminiscence of an acid trip. As fond as Keidis is of the name, it’s still subject to change. This will be the 10th album the band has produced since they formed in Los Angeles in 1983. Read more at NME.com- Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Daft Punk is making another surprising appearance after their Tron gig. Look for them in a nightclub near you, as they team up with Coca-Cola to produce exclusively designed gold and silver “Club Coke” bottles, inspired by their helmets.  Production should begin next month, and collectors, get ready. They come in boxed sets, made exclusively in Paris. Their website will go live within the month, Daftcoke.com. Read more at Hypebeast.com- Club Coke.

Honestly, what’s more satisfying than free music? Every week, iTunes presents brand new music that virtually no one has ever heard of, and, it’s free. I take advantage of (legal!) free music any chance I get, and I advise you all to do the same. These upcoming artists are being featured for a reason: they’re good and worth listening to!

This week’s single is Blue Skies Again by Jessica Lea Mayfield, a folk-inspired artist from Ohio. She began her career at age eight, singing in her family’s bluegrass band. If you like Norah Jones, Regina Spektor, and A Fine Frenzy, you’ll like Mayfield. Her song has a groovy bass-line and a pretty guitar riff or two. The song itself is perfect for everyone here in Fairbanks, Alaska. Some lyrics for you: “Birch trees are bones, stripped of their leaves/ and pressed between the pages of my memory/ This heart of mine is ready for the spring/ open up my window/winter bird take wing.”

The free music video this week is quite interesting. Taylor Momsen of the TV series Gossip Girl has turned to music as a career, and in 2009, she formed her band, The Pretty Reckless. The music video for her song “Just Tonight” starts off with a close up shot of obvious fake blood streaming from her fingers, and her walking down a tiled prison hallway in a liquid red dress… Keep watching! She’s about to sing. And when she does, you’re blown away. If you like punk rock girls Avril Lavigne and P!nk, you’re going to like Momsen. The video is basically her being a blond haired bad-ass, and if you divert your eyes from the video and just listen to the song, it’s really great. If you look back at the video in time to see the random and mysterious woman standing behind her in a red ball gown, about a minute and 27 seconds in, you may just agree that this video is pretty creative and captivating. Enjoy.