MyMusic Inbox: Dreamgirls, Harlem Shakes, Yo Majesty...

What up, dawgs?

Here's what's dropped on my desk music-wise (including a couple I came across online) recently.
Cue it up!

DREAMGIRLS - Music from the Motion Picture
Would this movie come out already!??! The press hype is crazy—and yes, I’m loving it, but the movie’s proper release is still 12 days away and I can’t imagine it can get any bigger. Anyway, the CD arrived in the mail, and yes, it’s a pretty straightforward collection of all the tunes in the film. And yes, I am telling you that Jennifer Hudson’s showstopper “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” rocks just as much on CD as it does in the film. I expect to see you all in your cars singing along like madwomen. And yes, Beyonce’s showstopper “Listen” rocks, too. But I’m also loving Effie’s comeback anthem “I Am Changing,” the groovy ballad “Patience,” and no disrespect toEffie but I love the kitschy disco-ed out version of “One Night Only” as performed by Deena (Beyonce) and the Dreams. Drag queens will be all over this one...

DAVE KOZ - At The Movies
Need a holiday gift for your movie-loving mom, or movie-loving gay Uncle Arthur—or anybody who’s grown-up and into movie themes and adult jazzy stuff? Dave Koz (the nice-looking, out saxophone maestro) has a new disc out called, appropriately, At The Movie. It’s full of old movie audio samples (like Ingrid Bergman from “As Time Goes By”, and Judy Garland on “Over the Rainbow”) and guest appearances by folks singing. You get Vanessa Williams on “The Way We Were” and Anita Baker on “Somewhere,” Indie.Arie on “It Might Be You” from Tootsie. It’s very adult-contempo and safe, and beautifully arranged. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

HIS & HERS: Volume One – Various Artists
This one’s very slick, and I’m leery of something that bills itself as a “lifestyle compilation.” What does that mean? Evidently this disc is the first in a “lifestyle compilation series” of CDs launched by club promoter/ “lifestyle” producer Amanda Scheer Demme (she throws glam parties—or did—in L.A.). It sounds to me like a “chill out” CD, that segues from one hip track to the next. For example, track 8 is Goldfrapp’s “Ooh La La”; track 9 is the Jaffa remix of Nina Simone’s “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair”; track 10 is Ryan Adams doing a somber “Wonderwall”. And I do like the damaged/dandy version of “Against All Odds (Take a Look At Me Now)”. And there’s Luna doing the Serge Gainsbourg/Brigitte Bardot nugget “Bonnie & Clyde.” Expect to see this one sold at Starbucks or Anthropologie.

The Harlem Shakes: Having a "Birthday" party.

HARLEM SHAKES - Burning Birthdays EP
Brooklyn indie pop rock goes crazy with the latest from this clangy, fun quintet. They’ve toured with the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Fiery Furnaces and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. It’s fun, rocky stuff and their EP, Burning Birthdays, will be out this coming February. Their pr stuff says “think Housemartins meets the Shins mwith Beach Boys harmonies and a dash of Eno-style weirdness.” Okaaaayyy...

Chester French: Schoolboys in stereo.

CHESTER FRENCH - Love the Future
Super-blogger Arjan wrote about these guys recently. They’re precious young Harvard lads (Max Drummey and D.A. Wallach) making zippy pop music. Their stuff is chock full of violins, zingy riffs, organ sounds... Sort of like Supergrass meets an all-boy Mamas and the Papas at a hipster mixer. I like their tune “People” (sort of Beach Boys vs. a lighter Cheap Trick!). They’re readying music to release next year (the album's called "Love the Future"). And they’re preppy and stylin’. (Should we not be suprised that they’ve got a song called “The Jimmy Choo’s”?

Trabant: Icelandic guys without shirts.

TRABANT
Okay, these Iceland dudes aren’t necessarily new (their last release came out in 2005), but I just stumbled across their MySpace page. And the freaky pic of shirtless five guys lounging all over each other caught my eye. But it was the remix of their tune “The One” that sold me. It’s an electro-grinding-pulsating boinkfest. Give it a listen. Plus, they seems wasted and crazy, and prone to taking their clothes off onstage (which may not be the best idea, in their case...)..

All hail the queens (from left, Shon B, Jewl.B & Shunda K.): The women of Yo Majesty!

YO MAJESTY
Okay, I just learned of this all-woman trio on Stereogum. And this stuff is raw (and kind of amazing). It’s not PC at all. [Warning: Graphic language—for real!] But these rapping women from Tampa throw down crazy beats that are pretty relentless. You can read a bit here, and trip out on their MySpace page. There you’ll find the hot tunes “Club Action,” and “Hustle Mode” and one track called “Kryptonite P***y”. And their tune “Monkey” which references the female anatomy. A lot. Consider yourself warned. (And this may be their label? Or some distributor?)

And I don’t know (and won’t begin to presume) anything about the sexual orientation of these women. But whatever their deal is, their beats are very universally, unambiguously intense. Yep, really.