Start off the new year with a bang … literally! And why not – there’s nothing else to do in these frigid temps. Your best bet is to burrow under a down comforter with something cute and snuggly and not your childhood stuffed animal. Sure, you could hit the gym – that’s one way to combat the doughy advances on your midsection – but the gym can’t make out with you; this methodology is a welcomed alternative for calorie burning.

(Please note: Radio Exile does not take responsibility for any buns that may manifest in any ovens, as a result of promoting this mix).

The sky continuously throwing down snow is Mother Nature’s way of practically begging you to get laid. Stop making her job more difficult. What sounds better: trudging through slushy streets and icy wind blasts en route to the bar (where you’ll have wet feet and a perpetual sniff the entire time), or reenacting spicy Calvin Klein ads to a hot soundtrack after watching a little Family Guy?

The latter. Obviously.

These songs should get your proverbial juices flowing. Mix, match and discard at will – there isn’t any particular order to them. Care has also been taken to include a variety of tempos to please differing, em, aesthetic preferences. Please leave additional tunes in the comments section, for future testing in the Radio Exile labs.

And remember kids, when these beats are a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’. …read full article…

Heading into the Holiday season, I was making a list of all the things that I am really thankful for. After the health and happiness of my friends, I feel really fortunate that I get to receive, critique and talk about music with passionate fans and musicians. After discussing this with friends, we admitted that we’ve all heard tracks this year that deserved more credit than they received when initially released. Knowing that they won’t receive much support at commercial radio doesn’t make things better so if they’ve got a cool video with a great concept, they might gain some new fans online.

That’s where “8 Great Videos…” comes in. Basically, the following videos I like and either have featured or haven’t given just enough love to yet, but really wanted to give more credit to. In this piece, you’ll see new and established artists alongside a parody cover and some fun music. Either way, it’s all great and we hope that you hear of at least one new band for the first time.

Check out “8 Great Videos Worth Checking Out Now” “after the jump” …read full article…

Everyone seems to talk to about Thanksgiving as if it is their favorite holiday. It makes sense: when it all boils down, no one loves gluttony more than an American. We can justify spending money on food (over presents), knowing that we will partake in shoveling these tasty purchases through our personal pie holes. More mashed potatoes, please!

I’m cool with it. Especially when I know that the feed fest I’m attending is forty-five people deep. Forty-five people means a lot of conversations (“Have you put on weight?” “When are you going to pop one out?” and my personal favorite, “How’s work?”), but it also means a lot of desserts. It’s a trade off (and yes, I still sneak cookies before dinner and, yes, I would do that at a stranger’s Thanksgiving).

For my festivities, I am also lucky enough to only have a forty-five minute drive to the very town that brought you Thanksgiving. Since it’s at my in-laws house every year, I have a lot of leverage in the the car ride soundtrack. “Alice’s Restaurant” will obviously be played at noon, in typical Thanksgiving day fashion, but after that, I plan on listening to the below.

Check out “Go Stuff Yourself – The Thanksgiving Mixtape” “after the jump” …read full article…

Courtesy of BuzzFeed (thanks Tanner), we’re looking what I will now say might be the absolute best mashup this Fall featuring Notorious B.I.G’s “Party and Bullshit” laid over that stupid as hell tune about “partying” and “America” from Disney pop princess, Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana. The DJ in this case is pro skier Andrew Hathaway and this track is hot as eff. That’s saying a lot as you’ll know I love vulgar/inappropriate raps laid over absurd pop tunes.

If you’re curious as to how this sounds, come grab the track “after the jump” …read full article…

Sooooo, I took about a month off from posting on this site. I think Shawn hates me now. Oh well, I probably deserve it. Anyways, in an effort to win back his love and affection, here are five great songs that deserve some hypin’ love!

Awesome songs from Yellow Ostrich, The Big Pink, The Music Tapes, The Beets, and The Drums after the proverbial jump…
…read full article…

I keed, I keed. I really can’t grow a beard, so it’s out of the question.

Megafaun [MySpace], that Durham-based trio birthed from the ashes of the amazing Deyarmond Edison, extended their tour in support of the critically-acclaimed second album, Gather, Form & Fly after their recently successful six week tour with fellow North Carolina-based group Bowerbirds. Brothers Brad and Phil Cook and Joe Westerlund are hitting the road on a tour that will see them hooking back up to share the stage with former DeYarmond Edison bandmate, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). Yes, The Dodos [MySpace] will be there as well, but let’s be honest, this would be like Damien Rice letting Bell X1 open for him.

Ha.

Check out tracks and tourdates “after the jump” …read full article…

Has it really been almost a month since I did one of those? My, how time flies! Lets get on it!

And best yet, this is number TEN! Hype Device TEN! American History X? Nah, Hype Device X. In honor of HD:X, here are TEN songs that deserve some blogger love, some buzz spice, and and whole lotta hype!

Ten awesome new artists and mp3s after the jump! …read full article…

So apparently I like to start new features all the time over here at Radio Exile. I thought of another good one the other day; it’s called Covered and this is the first edition of it.

Everybody loves a cover and Covered will be a feature where we round up a bunch of covers of a single artist and give them a letter grade. Today’s Covered artist is Joy Division.

Check out the covers after the jump… …read full article…

Elie and I are pretty sure that Casiokids [MySpace] are the greatest thing to come out of Norway since the whole “McCafe” idea, but we just got a piece o’ email that said “hey, new song, post it if you like,” so I will. This is the b-side to “Finn Bikkjen!” which was released on Universal Monday and the new track, “Gomur Mamma,” sounds like the weird horn and electro-funk dance party fluttering in my head after a night heavy drinking and tequila shots. You think I’m kidding, don’t you?

Check out what my brain sounds like “after the jump” …read full article…

I usually try and focus on contemporary music with these Hype Device columns. After all, the entire point is to bring some attention to under looked, but deserved bands. There will always be some groups and songs that are over looked; even with an entire collection of music that deserves to be heard, not all can be worshiped. Thus, this edition of Hype Device will focus on songs and artists that deserve some reparations (…of hype) to offset the deficiency of attention they received when they were releasing music. So hype we will. Retroactively, of course.

Check out mp3s from Wimple Witch, The Gerbils, Sons and Daughter, The Coral, and the Star Spangles “after the jump” …read full article…

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Put It In Your Ears contains immature humor in downloadable form three times a week. The music shows will be posted to Radio Exile on Friday afternoons. It’s hosted by Radio Exile staff member Rob Blatt and Gavin St. Ours from The Gavin Show.

Music from Anamanaguchi, I Fight Drgagons and OxygenStar. All the songs are on ‘Weezer – The 8 Bit Album’ tribute album put together by Pterodactyl Squad and was released this week. Read about it on Radio Exile – The 8-bit Weezer Tribute Album …read full article…

If you’re a fan of chiptune or are developing an odd fascination with 8-bit versions of music that you already love like we are ["Smells Like Teen Spirit" , 8-Bit Hip Hop or Super Smashing Pumpkins Bros] this tribute album from The Pterodactyl Squad is my awesome Tuesday gift to you. Some of the best “micromusicians” to ever rock a sound chip (Anamanaguchi among them) have banded together to create what might be the most ambitious bunch of 8-bit covers from Weezer’s back catalog. Despite the cute graphic, don’t expect only “The Blue Album” covers, but if you’re a fan you should check this out.

Get more info and preview a track “after the jump” …read full article…

Hyping songs that deserve it since 2008. This may be my favorite collection of songs I’ve featured yet. Check out awesome stuff from Tristen, Bombadil, Run Toto Run, Kurt Vile and the Violators, and Nana Grizol after the jump…

…read full article…

I have decided to re-review the Rural Alberta Advantage’s [MySpace] fantastic debut album, Hometowns. I have two reasons for this. First, after riding a seemingly ever increasing wave of buzz, the RAA have signed to Saddle Creek, who will re-release their debut album on July 7th. Second, I was never pleased with my original review of Hometowns. While I still very much agree with the sentiment, the original review was rushed and poorly written. Because the Radio Exile review is the third result on Google, and because this is a band that will soon be experiencing a wave of (deserved) attention, I feel that a better, up-to-date review is in order.

As the six months since I’ve first heard Hometowns has passed, there has been nothing to even remotely dissuade me that Hometowns isn’t the best album released in 2009 and that the Rural Alberta Advantage is one of the best bands in the indie world today. Hometowns is an album that I liked upon first listen, loved upon second, was in my year end top ten by my tenth, and my all time top 10 after my 50th listen. It is true that I am predisposed to liking Hometowns. I worship Neutral Milk Hotel with their fuzzy acoustic punk, heartfelt lyrics, and emotional delivery. I tend to enjoy nasally singers in the vein of Jeff Mangum or 1960’s Bob Dylan. And I love indie folk with enough volume to blow my hair back. …read full article…

Throughout my weeks and months I collect songs by relatively unknown bands that are deserving of hype. I try to post a collection of these songs every week but some times life gets crazy and I don’t get around to it for a couple weeks. The common theme of this week’s Hype Device is that Pitchfork has stolen my thunder on 4 out of 5 of these songs. I made this Hype Device a couple of weeks ago and in the interim, P4K reviewed 4 of these songs. Damn them to hell, I say.

Oh well, at least they have good taste.

On with the show… …read full article…

I’m no lame fidelity fanatic but I do like my music to be of a certain quality. If it’s not 192kbps (and preferably 256kpbs) then I don’t really want to hear it….unless it’s REALLY good. If it’s THAT good then I’ll take the song in any form, even as a horrible radio quality MySpace or YouTube rip. Below are five songs that I am totally in love with that I could find NOWHERE online, except on YouTube or MySpace. I’ve ripped them and I’m posting them. If you’re the artist behind one of these poor quality rips and you would like me to replace the song with a higher bit-rate version the please e-mail the track (did I also mention that I’ll love you forever, ’cause I will)

Anyways, let the hyping begin! …read full article…

And we’re back with our weekly roundup of underheard music that deserves some love from the many hype machines out there. This week we have some power-pop, no-fi pop, a song from Staten Island, a Dan Aykroyd pun, and a Wolf Parade cover.

Yup.

On with the show. …read full article…

Seems like just yesterday that I posted Hype Device 3. Actually it was five minutes ago. I’m posting several of these at once. Shhh! Don’t tell!

Anyways, back to our weekly round up of “underheard” music that deserves some hype.

Set your iPods to stun as we go full steam ahead!

(Tom’s note: That was probably the lamest thing I’ve ever written in my life.) …read full article…

On with the show.

Check out the Radio Exile mp3 Hype Device III “after the jump” …read full article…

I couldn’t tell you the last time I actively thought about Ernie Barnes before he died last week. It was likely a decade or more since then, but I grew up seeing part of the world though his eyes. Looking at his paintings now, I am struck by how much his vision jibes with my own, and given the fact that I would have been exposed to him at an impressionable age, I’m nearly positive this guy I couldn’t find in a crowd made a significant difference in my life.

Triple Play 35 [Listen Here] (Hosting issue sorted out and it’s on our server now!)

…read full article…