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This deliciously great song/video was just sent my way and I think you’ll enjoy all 2:54 of it if you like smooth rhymes set to samples from ancient songs. The ‘video’ features clips from the movie American Pop, directed by Ralph Bakshi (who also did Fritz The Cat).

Skittlebrau is a periodic side project featuring Conner Lovat-Fraser & Ben Arsenault (Boys Night Out) and Bob Anderson. The vocals in this song are reminiscent of old Del (Tha Funkee Homosapien, ya know?) and the groove is rather infectious. Check the video below!

Skittlebrau Return Of The Waterboys

Links:
MySpace: Skittlebrau

Lykke Li is not the name of a Chinese pop star or a porn star (ouch). She’s an amazing new Swedish singer. Her name is actually Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson. Even more complicated, so I get the short form (pronounced: Looky Lee).

The most intriguing thing about her is her super confidence. She’s like a mature adult for her young age. The old thing isn’t about her looks; she’s sweet & adorable. It’s about her personality & superhuman drive. At the age of 22, she has her own record label, and is playing the same venues as her co-country musicians The Hives (Lykke Li’s first release was 2007; The Hives was in 1997…do the math).

And just six months ago, Lykke Li thought her rise to fame was happening too slowly… she was saying stuff like: “Why am I not a huge star already?”

Lykke Li’s probably so advanced for her age because her mother’s an artist & her father’s a musician, and they moved her around the world like boho nomads. She started out in a small Swedish town, moving onto Portugal, Lisbon, Morocco, Nepal, India & New York, all by the age of 19.

Lykke Li is also a total chameleon. If you watch her video for Little Bit, you can see an artistic edge. It seems like she’s hooked up with subculture directors & artists. But then in Breaking It Up, Lykke could give Brit Brit a run for her money as a pop tartist.

Her choreographed dance numbers in every video are no coincidence. She used to be a dancer, and actually considered dance her career until she decided to make a last-minute switch to singer. This could have been bad, except she has the most beautiful & flawless voice. Listen to her sing in this Black Cab Sessions recording. Sounds amazing even though no instruments accompany her & it’s recorded in the back of a cab.

Also don’t miss her impromptu video with Bon Iver shot in an L.A. Once you’re done checking out Lykke Li, move on to Bon Iver, because he’s another totally amazing singer with a weird name.

-Sabrina Saccoccio

Links:
Official Site: Lykke Li
Official Site: The Hives
Official Site: Bon Iver

I’ll admit, Weezer’s new video for Troublemaker is amazing & so creative. It’s even better than Pork & Beans, which defied most bands’ video-making efforts by featuring Youtube stars with actual acting scenes.

Watch Troublemaker
Watch Pork & Beans

During the shooting of Troublemaker, Weezer and their fans broke several Guinness World Records. They even had a Guinness official onset to make sure. Here are a few of the records:

*Largest game of dodge ball
*Most people in custard pie fight
*Biggest group playing air guitar
*Longest Guitar Hero marathon
*Drumming on the world’s smallest drum kit

Obviously, Weezer has a great sense of humour in their videos. But in interviews, not so much. Around Muchmusic, Weezer (especially Rivers Cuomo) are known for being incredible shy & kings of the “one-word answer”. For a recent episode of The NewMusic, I cut together a bunch of awkward & weird Weezer moments from their interviews over the years.

(Recent NewMusic episode)
(Awkward & weird moments)

After doing this, I’m not sure exactly what makes them so awkward. A few theories…

1) I have a hunch Rivers is intimidated by female interviewers. He crumbled during every interview with a female VJ in our archives, particularly Sook-Yin Lee, who he seemed to have a crush on from reading about her in Chester Brown comics. With men, he was better. He opened up a bit more to George Stroumboulopoulos and particularly in a recent interview with Matt Wells.

(Matt wells interview)

2) Weezer is actually media savvy and realized we would one day use their interviews for alternate purposes.

3) And the obvious theory, they’re just incredibly shy, and better at reading comic books than talking about themselves.

You can watch our show with Weezer coverage online here!

Maroon 5 performed in Toronto this weekend as part of LG Fashion Fusion. As such, we asked frontman Adam Levine to fill in a Mad Libs about this season’s latest trends. He happily obliged.

Oh, and be sure to watch our Maroon 5 interview on MuchNewsWeekly next Monday @ 9pm ET!

Adam Levine Photo Courtesy Of Getty Images