Listen to 6LACK

I’ve been sleeping on this one, so get ready if you have, too. 6LACK, pronounced BLACK, released his second album “East Atlanta Love Letter” back in September, and it is pure gold, flowing from classic R&B tracks to eloquent, thoughtful rap, without an ounce of pretense. My favorite track, “Loaded Gun,” reminds me so much of Kendrick, and A$AP, and yet it stands on its own, heavy, powerful, loaded. Listen to this. More than anything this week. And see if you can stop.

Listen to Curtis Harding’s New Single “Where We Are”

Curtis Harding’s voice does this thing in my brain that invokes all the great soul singers from the 60s and 70s. It’s a voice seeped in the past, in history, that somehow fits perfectly into 2018. Curtis just came off a world tour supporting Lenny Kravitz and today dropped a new single for “Where We Are,” a song brimming with pain and promise, hope and anguish, and emphasized by full arrangements even Marvin Gaye would praise.

Listen to Acid Dad’s Single “Living With A Creature”

And to bring it back full circle, listen to Acid Dad’s new single “Living With A Creature,” their first new track since debuting back in March. “The song is meant to take listeners on a demonic ride,” reads the press release. Watch the trippy video, a visual adventure through the depths of their twisted minds. Looks like the single is meant to stand on its own, and catapult these goons back into a slew of tour dates that go through February of next year. So if you like what you hear, go see them live. You wont be disappointed.

Listen to Ty Segall’s Cover of The Dil’s “Class War”

Ty Segall’s new covers album comes out at the end of this month, and so far his reinterpretations have been steady bangers but also pretty true to their originals. Not this time. The Dils were a 70s California punk band, which you’d think would bring out the true punker in Segall, but instead he’s thrown this one completely on its head, and dished out a slowed-down, drawn-out, melodic cruiser. Listen to the original and compare, but in the end, Segall proves once and again that a cover can definitely stand strong on its own.

Listen to Boy Azooga’s Cover of “Do The Standing Still”

And while we’re talking covers, check out the new video from Boy Azooga for their rendition of The Table’s 1977 single “Do The Standing Still.” Boy Azooga debuted earlier this year on Heavenly Recordings with their album “1 2, Kung Fu,” and have a slew of North American tour dates coming up. These guys pull inspiration from a wide variety of talent: William Onyeabor, Black Sabbath, Outkast and Sly & The Family Stone, to name a few, so to take a Welsh punk hit and kick it in the teeth, so to speak, is completely on point.