[$FREE.99] Yak Ballz - 'Gas Galaxy'

It's been nearly a year since we heard anything from Yak Skywalker who was releasing his new album Gas Galaxy track by track each month. But after several months of silence Yak has decided to drop his brand new LP for free. That's right, free. Take a listen to The Weathermen member's album below, co-produced by the homie Chapter 7 and features dope artwork by Oliver Cartwright as well as remixes by Lunice and Circuit Bored. Just some good hip hop for your weekend. Enjoy.

[Listen] Minus The Bear - "Steel and Blood"

Check out another track from Minus The Bear's forthcoming album Infinity Overhead dropping this month on the 28th via Dangerbird Records in the US and Big Scary Monsters Recording in the UK this September. Peep the lead track "Steel and Blood" below courtesy of Big Scary Monsters. And if you haven't heard the band's previous single "Diamond Lightning" you can peep that here.

[Watch] Electric Guest - "Ritual Union" (Little Dragon Cover)

Asa Taccone and Matthew Compton better know as the band Electric Guest head down under and pay a visit to the Triple J studios for this week's Like A Version to cover Little Dragon's title track of their latest album, Ritual Union. Check out the guys absolutely killing this cover in the video above and if you haven't picked up their Danger Mouse produced debut album Mondo, we highly suggest you do that as well.

[Listen] Jessie Ware - "Sweet Talk"

It's been a lovely ride to watch Jessie Ware tease us in recent months in the lead up to her highly anticipated album, Devotion, which will be released on August 20th via PMR Records. Today we get another track/tease from her, this one is titled "Sweet Talk" and is a definite little treat on a Friday afternoon sat in a stuffy office. 

We've already heard her tracks "110%", "What You Won't Do For Love" and "Wildest Moments" so why not pre-order the album if you like them all over here?

[Listen] Just Tell Me That You Want Me - 'A Tribute To Fleetwood Mac' (Full Album Stream)

We've heard a couple of songs from Just Tell Me You Want Me - A Tribute To Fleetwood Mac over the past few months. Today we get to stream the entire project which features covers of Fleetwood Mac from the likes of Tame Impala, MGMT, St. Vincent, Washed Out, The Kills and Lykke Li. Stream it in full below and from the 14th of August you can pick up a copy of it over here.

[Watch] Muse - "Unsustainable" (Video)

If you follow me personally on Twitter, or SKOA, you may have seen me tweet a link last night to a new Muse track. The track in question is the one everybody dreaded, the dubstep track they previewed in their album trailer for The 2nd Law. Yesterday evening the band took to Twitter once more and announced a pre-order for the deluxe version of their album. Pricey as it may be, it came with two exclusive videos. One was available immediately and the second is to be made available to buyers on October the 1st when the album drops. 

As a rather big Muse fan I was hesitant to firstly pre-order and secondly hear the track, "Unsustainable". Ok, so the band wanted to experiment and those of you who've seen Muse live will know Matt likes to mess around with his built in Kaoss pad and Fuzz Factory but the band making dubstep via their instruments just didn't sit too well with me. The result isn't as bad I'd expected but I'm still nervous to hear the rest of the album. From early listens some journalists have had, this seems to be the only track of this nature. We will wait to see how the rest of the album sounds when it's released in October. 

Rumours have also stated that Muse's new single "Madness" was to be given a play on Zane Lowe's show on Monday 13th of August but it appears it has now been pushed back until the 20th. We'll update you as and when we have new.

[Outside Lands 2012] Top Five Songs We Can't Wait to Hear Live

This Friday marks the beginning of this year's Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, the fifth edition of the cultural highlight. SKOA will be attending the festival this year, and each day leading up to the festival we will be dishing out a feature focused on the bands set to appear at Outside Lands. Today, our spotlight is focused on the top five songs we cannot wait to hear live at the festival.

No matter how good a band's repertoire is, there is always one song that stands out, one song that automatically comes to mind whenever you think about said band. That recollection is even more potent when you go to see them live in concert, bringing the immediate hope that they will play that song live and it will be even better than the studio quality version. Of all the bands playing at Outside Lands this year, there are five that have songs so damn good that we're shaking with excitement to hear them live. Now, keep in mind all of these songs are relatively new, having been released at various times over the past year or so, but that doesn't mean they aren't highlights in the catalogues of these artists. Rather, it's the opposite. These songs are gems in the handfuls of songs these bands have given us over the course of their long, or short, careers, and they are sure to be as good if not better live in concert. Check out our top five picks after the jump.

NOTE: For all of our Outside Lands coverage, head here.

Bloc Party - "Octopus":

Jack White - "Sixteen Saltines":

Alabama Shakes - "Hold On":

Tame Impala - "Apocalypse Dreams":

Passion Pit - "Constant Conversations":

[Night Out] Alt-J @ Mercury Lounge (8/6/2012): How Not To Be 'That Guy' At A Show

credit: @SproutdrAfter pilling into the back room at Mercury Lounge and making a move towards the stage with Sprout, we nestled in amongst a happy group of fans and eagerly awaited to dance our faces off to some Alt-J jams, which for the most part they did. It's always a really great experience when not only does the band deliver a solid performance, but the fans are actively participating in the show instead of bobbing with their arms folded looking disinterested. A lovely blonde girl to my right at one point stopped and looked at me to say, "Have you ever heard these guys before!? I love them so much!" It's that kind of fan energy that I thrive off of when I'm in a crowd.

Wanna know what will stop a good evening almost completely dead in its tracks for me? "That Guy". You know, that guy. The guy who selfishly ignores the people around him for his the sake of how he thinks his experience should be, no matter how rude or obnoxious he is all night? I have to admit, had initially debated whether or not to even bring up this guy because by the end of the night I was so aggravated with the guy that I was ready to make sure he could never have children again, but after a day to cool off about the whole ordeal I decided that there probably aren't enough reminders circulating these days about how not to treat people at shows.

So there we were, the dedicated happy fans on the left side of the stage when suddenly the guy in the very front just off to the left of center stage starts convulsing (or what he would call "dancing") to the point where he's starting to knock into people. It was clear everyone thought: "Okay dude, you're having fun, just take it easy." But of course he doesn't. His next round of convulsing after stoping to take a breather and grind up on his girlfriend and lick/make out with her a little was to make sure he flailed his arms around enough that he was knocking people in the head and face a bunch. At this point people around me are all looking at each other like, "What the crap?", some are chuckling, and others started trying to get pictures of this musical exorcism of sorts in action.

"That Guy"

All this time, mind you, our dear friend Sprout is to the right of him trying to dodge his arms and snap some great photos of the night, thus earning her +1 to the fullest of her abilities. During round three of the girlfriend grinding/flailing combo I saw his arm smack Sprout's camera which rammed into her face and gave her a nice whack to the nose. It was then that I had enough and the rock mama deep down inside of me stepped in. In between songs I grabbed this guy and gave him a good shaking. After he spun around I leaned over and said over the chatter of the crowd, "Could you please do me a favor? My friend over here *points to Sprout* is trying to get photos of the band because this is like... our job and stuff? Maybe look out for her please?" To which the guy seemed to happily agree to, but proceeded to go about his flailing/grinding business as if nothing ever happened. For a moment I thought we might be able to get rid of him, because all of a sudden in the middle of the set he squeezes through the sold out crowd to go get a drink for himself. (Un)fortunately enough, other people are a lot nicer than I am and let him back up to join his girlfriend once more. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty great show, but if it had been devoid of "that guy" I would probably remember it even more fondly than I already do.

If you are "that guy" at shows and do things that remotely resemble this, I just have one thing to say to you:

You, my fellow human being, are a douche. Like, the douchiest of douches.

Seriously though, the internet. This is your friendly reminder of the moment to remember to be cool to each other when you're at shows. We're all trying to have a good time and being thoughtful of everyone else having a good time will probably save you from getting pushed or having a drink spill on you or something of that nature.

If you haven't pre-ordered Alt-J's debut album, An Awesome Wave, make sure you do that ASAP. It drops on September 18th via Canvasback Music (it's out now in the UK, btw). You can also befriend the band on Twitter and Facebook.