YHT Turns One Year Old

You Hear That had its very first birthday over the weekend, and I want to offer a huge THANK YOU to all the wonderful people who have been reading, contributing, and commenting during the last 12 months. Whether you just started reading or have been following along for a while now, it means the world to me that you’re out there, somewhere, smiling at the same stuff that makes me smile. I’m super duper excited to jump into a second year of posting awesome music, tenuous analogies and stupid cat pictures, but before I do, I want to offer you a little something more than just words of thanks …

MERCH!!! As a gift to you wonderful people who make my blog world go round, I’m giving away a limited number* of YHT shirts! All you have to do is send an email to youhearthatblog@gmail.com with your name, address and preferred size and the merch fairy will drop a shirt on your doorstep. It’s that easy. Delivery time may vary, as the You Hear That Sweat Shop isn’t 100% operational yet (underage textile workers take FOREVER to train UGH), but rest assured, if your request comes in before supplies run out, your goodies are on the way. Now, I originally thought about leaving you with “Birthday” by the Beatles, but I’m pretty sure a Hunger Games hovercraft would appear out of the sky and extraordinarily render me to a remote prison in some ex-Soviet bloc country if I posted a Beatles song, so I’m leaving you with the next best thing — a reggae remix of “Birthday Sex” by Jeremih. Holla!

Jeremih — “Birthday Sex” (Reggae remix)

*How limited is this number? I haven’t quite figured that part out. Math isn’t my thing. If your request doesn’t make it in time, I’ll be sure to let you know so you’re not repeatedly coming home to dashed hopes.

Wiz Khalifa

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is underway, and twelfth-seeded VCU scored a big win over fifth-seeded Wichita State last night, upping the Rams’ two-year tourney record to 6-1. That’s just bonkers. Shaka Smart is a total badass, and VCU’s was easily the most exciting game of the day. And I say all this from the perspective of a University of Richmond grad who is currently licking his wounds from a pretty cruddy season that didn’t even come close to resulting in an NCAA tournament berth. But the Rams’ win over Wichita State has me feeling like it’s 2011 all over again. I’ll never forget how supportive the city of Richmond was of both teams last year, when UR made it to the Sweet 16 and VCU plowed ahead into the Final Four. It was so much fun to cheer for VCU after UR was knocked out, so it feels totally natural to do the same now. I watched last night’s game with a friend who’s a grad student at VCU, and once the win was secure, he had what I gather is a fairly typical reaction — he snagged the nearest AUX OUT cable, plugged it into his phone and blasted “Black and Yellow” by Wiz Khalifa (I was told to mention here that VCU’s colors are actually black and gold, but I’m pretty sure everyone’s cool overlooking this particular technicality in this particular context). While this victory anthem played and my Twitter feed started filling up with ecstatic posts (a welcome break from the jealousy-inducing SXSW tweets), I started searching on Hype Machine for a remix of the song that could keep the celebration going. As you can see, there are a zillion of them, and no one of them could truly capture the excitement in the air, so I did the only reasonable thing — I played every one I could get my hands on at the same time and recorded the ensuing din for posterity. Without further ado, I present to you, in honor of Shaka’s 6 tourney wins in just 2 years, 6 remixes of “Black and Yellow” being played simultaneously. These include [taking a deep breath] the “Morsy Bklyn Booty Mix,” the “Big Gigantic and Samples Remix,” the “Go Periscope Remix,” Xavier Pryce’s “Wack And Yellow,” a version from DJ Kue, the “Mister Gray Dubstep Edit,” and last, but certainly not least, something called the the “DJ Smerk Transition.” By making it through the whole thing, you’ll be displaying the exact same fighting spirit that has earned VCU their impressive tournament record. You may also be damaging your hearing. Listen below (I’ve also included the original to cleanse your aural palate afterwards), and best of luck to the Rams in Saturday’s game against Indiana!

DJ You Hear That — “Six Remixes Of Black And Yellow Playing Simultaneously

Wiz Khalifa — “Black and Yellow

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

OK, so I’m sure everyone with an Internet connection knows by now that Madonna is headlining this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. Big fat whatevs. All I care about is that Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. are going to be performing as well, backing up the Material Girl on her new and somewhat unbearable song “Give Me All Your Luvin.'” These guest appearances are exciting for two main reasons. First of all, it’s funny to think about how nervous NBC’s Standards and Practices department is going to be with M.I.A. and Minaj on stage and Janet Jackson’s nipple in the back of everyone’s minds. Secondly, I’m hoping upon hope that Minaj pulls an Elvis Costello, stops everything and launches into the song she should be performing. You know which one I’m talking about. Seriously, what sense does it make for her to be galavanting around at the Super Bowl NOT singing “Super Bass“? How on Earth are they passing this opportunity up? In the immortal words of Mugatu, “I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!” Of course, the only thing that could top this unlikely occurrence would be Sophia Grace Brownlee and her mute but completely awesome sidekick repelling down from a helicopter to join in. Now THAT would be super. I just hope their tiaras survive the high winds generated by the chopper’s rotors. Enjoy their kickass performance above, Minaj’s below, and join me as I cross my fingers and hope for a Super Bowl miracle.

Nicki Minaj — “Super Bass

SOPA/PIPA

So Google and Wikipedia called me this morning and were all like, “Today’s protest will be nothing without You Hear That! You gotta join in!” And I was all like, “Alright guys, I got your back. Let’s do this.” OK, all kidding aside, it’s scary to think what SOPA and PIPA could mean for blogs like this one, especially because of the effect they could have on my precious, precious SoundCloud, so I hope you’ll check out the video above to learn more about these pieces of legislation and what you can do, if’n you’re so inclined, to stop them. If you’d like to read more, click here to go to Consequence of Sound’s very nicely written editorial about the whole to-do.

The Lagomorph

Did everyone have a wonderful Christmas weekend? Did you get enough holiday cheer? Get that new iPhone you asked for? If not, I hope you handled it better than these people. In any case, as you dig yourself out from the daze of the holi… days, I hope you’ll take a few minutes to look back at the year in music via the latest edition of The Lagomorph, which just went live today! It’s the fourth edition of this “periodic document of musical experiences from the past year,” and I’m very excited to have been included alongside some truly talented Richmond writers, photographers and musicians. Click here to check out interesting pieces by folks like Andrew Cothern of Richmond Playlist, PJ Sykes and more. After all, as Ferris Bueller once said so astutely, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

The Phonograph

If anyone’s interested in Girl Talk and/or Tumblr, I invite you to have a look at this article I wrote for The Phonograph. If you’re not already a Phonograph fan, I highly suggest you check it out for some really interesting stories about everything from Silvio Berlusconi’s album of love songs to the EMI merger to Pete Townshend’s John Peel lecture. Enjoy!