soulRocks » NER*D

Progressive Soul Vol.25

soulrocks — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:49:27 +0000

Track listing
1. Robin Thicke Feat. Lil’Wayne – Pretty Little Heart
2. Elle Varner – Do You Want To
3. Frank Ocean – Whip Appeal
4. Stalley (Prod. Chad Hugo) – Everything New
5. Miguel – Me, Oh Me, Oh My
6. J Dilla Feat. Vivian Green/Lucy Pearl – Fanatic/Without You

Video – Tokyo Rising Featuring Pharrell

soulrocks — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:51:29 +0000

The 30-minute film follows key members of Tokyo’s young creative class in the months following the 3/11 earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster as they react to the heightened sense of reality surrounding the dangers of nuclear power combined with living in an earthquake zone surrounded by water.

Progressive Soul Vol.15

soulrocks — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Track listing
1. Mos Def/Georgia –Roses
2. NERD – take it off
3. Sade – By Your Side (neptunes mix)
4. Tiombe Lockart – Stay With Me
5. Citizen Cope – More Than It Seems

soulROCKS minitape pt2

soulrocks — Thu, 05 May 2011 20:17:59 +0000

Track listing
1. RES/N*E*R*D* – So Good
2. 4hero – Take My Time
3. Mgmt – Electric girl
4. Erykah Badu – Soldier
5. Roisin Murphy -Dear Diary
6. Hi-tek – Piano

soulROCKS minitape pt1

soulrocks — Sun, 01 May 2011 20:13:13 +0000

Track listing
1. Lenny Kravitz -Lady
2. N.E.R.D – Don’t You Worry About It
3. Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc
4. Gnarls Barkley/ The Raconteurs – Crazy As She Goes
5. The Roots – The Seed 2.0

N.E.R.D.

soulrocks — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:19:48 +0000

The acronym N.E.R.D. stands for “No One Ever Really Dies,” but childhood friends Chad Hugo, Pharrell Williams, and Shay most certainly used the group to proudly emphasize the nerdier aspects of their musical personalities. Before this side project took shape,Hugo and Williams — as the Neptunes — had established themselves as giants in the field of pop production, whether they were working with hardcore rappers, smooth crooners, or teen pop groups. Although their faces were known to many due to this prominence, N.E.R.D. allowed the duo to take center stage, as rock stars, even if a new alias was being used.

The trio recorded its first album, In Search Of…, and released it in Europe in late 2001. Not entirely happy with the results, they reshaped the album using live instrumentation — with significant assistance from the funk-rock band Spymob, to further differentiate the material from Neptunes productions — before issuing it in the U.S. in March 2002. Singles “Lapdance” and “Rock Star” made minor indentations on the singles charts; despite this, the album didn’t come close to achieving the kind of commercial success won by the average Neptunes production. In March 2004, after another endless influx of hitmaking Neptunes work, they resurfaced with Fly or Die. This time out, Hugo and Williams handled more of the instrumentation. Unrelenting in their knack for the absurd, lead single “She Wants to Move” was promoted with a video that depicted the three members performing in the rear “compartment” of a female-shaped space vessel — a very literal interpretation of the line “Her ass is a spaceship I want to ride.”

The trio’s third album, Seeing Sounds, followed in June 2008. UnlikeIn Search Of… and Fly or Die, the disc failed to reach gold-selling status in the U.S., even though it had a strong first week and reached the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. The group eventually welcomed Rhea into the fold and performed as quartet, but the vocalist was let go several months prior to the release of September 2010’s Nothing. The album was preceded by the single “Hot-N-Fun,” featuring Nelly Furtado.

http://n-e-r-d.com

Chester French

soulrocks — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 17:48:11 +0000

Named for Lincoln Memorial sculptor Daniel Chester French, the L.A. via Boston duo Chester French — consisting of vocalist/songwriterD.A. Wallach and multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Maxwell Drummey– mix classic songcraft and power pop hooks with arrangements and beats that nod to synth pop and rap. Originally from Boston, Drummey began music lessons when he was three, moving from classical piano to jazz guitar to jazz and classical composition when he was in high school; however, Wallach, a Milwaukee, WI, native, dabbled in comedy, politics, magic, and drumming before settling on singing in his teens. The pair met in 2003 as freshmen at Harvard and began playing in a five-piece version of Chester French at local bars. After winning a battle of the bands, the group recorded its debut EP, Chester French’s First Love, in two days at Harvard’s on-campus recording studio, Quad Sound Studios. Wallach and Drummeywere so intrigued by the recording process that they became engineers at Quad Sound, and as they worked on their degrees and their first album, they paid for their recording by engineering sessions for other artists. Drummey and Wallach completed the album Love the Future in spring 2007, when they also graduated from Harvard. Their recordings attracted attention from Kanye Westand Jimmy Iovine, among others, but the Neptunes‘ Pharrell ended up signing Chester French to his Star Trak imprint, which released the She Loves Everybody EP via iTunes late in 2008.

http://chesterfrench.com/

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