It's summer time, so that means two things: more tropical jams to relax to on the beach, and also more pop gems to dance to. I've got the tropical jams covered lately, with jj and Fool's Gold, so here's another pop gem for everyone aching for something new. The artist is British pop-star-in-the-making Anita Blay, aka thecocknbullkid. She's got an impressive build-up already: NME "Radar" feature, headlined BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury last year as well as lots of other UK festivals, support from Nylon, Spin, The Independent and a bunch others, and then also tours with CSS, Santigold and Late of the Pier.

But the question is: how do the actual songs hold up? Well, if "Clean Apart" is any indication, they definitely do. This was produced by The Aspirins For My Children. Mmmmmm pop music.

Her debut EP Querelle is out on August 4th on our IAMSOUND label.

01) Kiss Kiss Kill
02) Clean Apart
03) Boys and Girls
04) I'm Not Sorry

thecocknbullkid - Clean Apart

Summer is in full swing now, and summertime jams should be dominating everyone's playlists at the moment. What may be one of the best summertime jams this year is jj's "From Africa to Málaga," a gorgeous, relaxing tune from the fine folks at Sincerely Yours (Air France, Tough Alliance). Appropriately enough, it sounds like it almost could be an Air France side-project, and it could be, we have no idea. They are taking this whole mysterious thing to a completely new level, with no myspace, website, OR EVEN TWITTER. DEAR LORD!

Does it matter who they are though? Just listen, and if you are feeling generous, support them by purchasing. Unfortunately not on vinyl yet.

jj - From Africa to Málaga

You know by now that I love those British dance-pop girls, and so of course I have to post this new video from Marina and the Diamonds, who I told you in May that I may or may not have been obsessed with.

The video comes off of her Crown Jewels EP that came out this week, and was directed by famed photographer Rankin, co-founder of Dazed & Confused magazine.

Marina & The Diamonds, "I Am Not A Robot" from Neon Gold Records on Vimeo.

LA band Fool's Gold (yeah, not the label!) will be releasing their debut album on September 29th through HSB's sister label IAMSOUND Records. They're definitely not the normal fare that IAMSOUND signs or that HSB posts about, but that doesn't mean they aren't fantastic. I've seen them live quite a few times, and it's mesmerizing every time - a mix of West African pop, krautrock and a little bit of 80s dance music, sung in a mixture of Hebrew and English. If that doesn't get your attention, I don't know what will.

The band features members of Foreign Born, Glasser, We Are Scientists, and The Fall, as well as a visual artist and an Argentinean pop star. Basically, they don't fuck around.

Tracklist
1. Surprise Hotel
2. Nadine
3. Ha Dvash
4. The World Is All There Is
5. Poseidon
6. Yam Lo Moshech
7. Night Dancing
8. Momentary Shelter

Fool's Gold - Surprise Hotel

In one aspect, I'm insanely late on Threat Misses. They haven't logged into their myspace profile since August of 2008, and footage of girls dancing to their song "Juke Ya Girl" was uploaded two years ago to youtube. However, looking at it the other way, not a single other person has posted on them, so I can't be that late, can I?

Anyway, I know almost nothing about Threat Misses other than what I can figure out from their myspace - a group of young female rappers from Universal City, Texas (just outside of San Antonio), who are probably still in high school or were at the time they recorded. It's entirely possible that they're not even together anymore and that this song I'm about to discuss is just their swan song, their Shape of Punk to Come. I heard their song "Juke Ya Girl" on the Salem mixtape I posted about last week, fell in love with it, and had to look it up more. "Juke Ya Girl" is a slow, booty-grinding (obviously, "juking") jam that, well, just watch the video below and you'll get the idea of what it should do to you (NSFW? I can't tell why her shirt is off in half the video and on in the other half). I've never claimed to be an expert on hip hop but this will likely be stuck in my iTunes playlists for quite a while.

Note: the song below is really low-quality, as you can't really find the song anywhere...
EDIT: MP3 link wasn't working, it's now been fixed.

Threat Misses - Juke Ya Girl

Bat for Lashes was recently in LA for a little while, playing a sold out show at the El Rey, a RSVP-only event at the Lucky Store in Santa Monica (it was the first in many events billed as the Lucky Brand Neighborhood Social), as well as stopping by the KCRW studios for a live session at Morning Becomes Eclectic. This is one of the most enchanting live MBE sessions I've heard in a while so thought I'd embed the widget below for everyone else to hear. Stripped down and live, her voice is still just as strong, showing her true talent.

Bat for Lashes - Sleep Alone (Live on KCRW 6/15/09)

You know I'll post pretty much any video that has anything to do with Fever Ray by now, right? The album is just that good.

Here's the new video, for "Triangle Walks". Creepy and weird, as always.

Triangle Walks from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

I'm (as IAMSOUND(System) with Niki of IAMSOUND) djing tomorrow night in LA at La Cita, with our buddies in Chairlift as well as Mike Simonetti of Italians Do It Better.

RSVP by clicking below!

The Hollywood Bowl is starting up its 88th summer season this month, and as always the shows are pretty eclectic and something that everyone needs to go to at least once! The first one is this Sunday, June 21st, with legendary Nigerian musician Femi Kuti (yes, son of Fela Kuti of course), Santigold and Raphael Saadiq. If you listen to KCRW at all, you probably will absolutely love this line-up (like I do).

Anyway, tickets are available now, but if you're too cheap/broke to buy tickets, I'm giving away a pair. All you have to do is either email me at paul [at] hatesomethingbeautiful.com or @reply me on twitter (twitter.com/paultao) by noon PST tomorrow, Wednesday. I'll pick a random winner then!

Brooklyn duo The Hundred In The Hands begs the question - do we really need another duo from Brooklyn making catchy, hip dance/pop music? (Hint: yes)

The band consists of Jason Friedman of The Boggs as well as Eleanor Everdell, who contributed vocals for TV On The Radio, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, etc., and so far they've only released one single, "Dressed In Dresden," but show incredible promise. I've heard their newer songs and I would be very surprised if they weren't the next big thing come next spring or whenever they finally release them to the world, so keep them on your radar for now. This single (below) is good, but the stuff that will hit eventually, it's even better.

The Hundred In The Hands - Dressed In Dresden