Ahhhhh…. Summer! New adventures, happy couples, weddings, water sports, blah da-dee, blah da-da. We don’t necessarily buy into all that shit, but neither can we deny a special connection. What we do believe in is all the freshness summer yields. The artists, movies and music are showing off this time of year. While the mainstream spends millions hurting our ears with bad Top 40 and blowing shit up at the theater, raw organic freshness continues to abound under the radar. We’ll start out with THIS summer love connection that you should not miss….

Fresh from the pages of MySpace (yes, there’s still fresh MySpace), TroubleAndrew and Santigold have each broken away from the pack as artists whose music should definitely be heard. Are you as past due on new music as you are on your bills? Are you anxious for tracks to get your mind out of debt and into the summer? If so, one half of this pair might be the light you seek. For us it was both. These two lovebirds have each released new albums and we highly recommend you check them out. At the moment, we don’t know much about them (stay tuned- we have been in touch), but this power couple has caught our attention for two reasons.

First, each is making hot music; both styles independently unique, danceable and nothing like anything the radio is trying to force feed us. Second, though these two are clearly in a relationship, each partner has their own separate flavor. These completely unique styles manage to coexist. As a result, we have chosen them as our summer love poster couple. They mix music, uniqueness, independence, summer and love altogether, making their art our summer love! They are currently on tour together and so long as they’re not Sid & Nancy behind clothes doors (again, we are working on the interviews but don’t know much yet) we can just imagine how much fun they’re having. Despite the actual condition of their relationship, (we’ll leave that kind of bullshit, irrelevant, nit picking to ‘People’ and ‘TMZ’) we’re simultaneously bouncing to the music of both and we can definitely see how their inspirational planets have come into alignment. Here are some snippets of personal introduction right from their pages:

I am Trouble Andrew aka Trevor Andrew aka TRZA aka Private Joints aka Billy Lotion aka Trev Dirt aka Trev Hollywood. “Crunk rock” aka Douche Wave, Douche core he he, a sound that we created mixing the musical influences of my youth. I have been a pro snowboarder for Burton Snowboards, Analog, Gravis, Pro Skates, and Oakley for the last 10 years. I was born in Nova Scotia, Canada. When I was 15, I dropped out and moved to the mountains. I now spend my time between British Columbia, Brooklyn, and road. Snowboarding and sk8ing is my life. Music has inspired my riding as my riding has shaped my music. It’s been a long time since I heard something new that takes me back to the way music once hit me. Trouble’s gonna fill that gap! Gonna be Trouble in 09!!!

In 2004, I tore my ACL and needed surgery. I was off the snow for nine months. Looking back, I’m so thankful for that knee injury because it led me to this part of my life. I moved to Philly to stay with my girlfriend Santi White and rehabilitate my knee. At the time, she was fronting a band “Stiffed”. Stiffed got me stoked on punk rock again. When I was a kid I was listening to bands like, Bad Brains, DK, Black Flag, Husker Du, Descendents, Minor Threat, Agent Orange, Suicidal, Sub Society, SnFU, Mcrad. In 90’s I listened to a lot of rap like Spice 1, Ice Cube, Ren, Master P, 2PAC, B.G, Lil’ Wayne, Snoop, Tripple 6 mafia, Gangsta Pat, Black Moon, Beastie Boys. Rap represented a lot of the things that punk rock once had for me. At the end of the day, Punk Rock, Hip Hop, SK8, Snowboard, and Surf cultures have a lot in common. We all made something amazing out of what little we had.

The “TROUBLE ANDREW” record is now available on itunes and cdbaby.com. (Since 05, the record has been remixed and remastered and will be dropping everywhere on Feb 10th Virgin/Trouble Records) AND, his Lady Love and inspirational muse- Santigold, whose music, we’re coincidentally happy to report, is our other summer soundtrack.…..

Santigold is a survivor of a half century worth of living along musical evolution’s most cutting edges. The only live act that can boast of having out-aged Barbara Bush, having outlived Mr. Miyagi and out styled Liberace, Santigold is here with future flavor.
Already receiving weighty club rotation and airplay in urban Afghanistan and downtown Beirut, Santigold is the first act of the century to boast a post-war following on the International Space Station Mir. Following a live performance broadcast from three thousand miles off the Cape of Good Hope last June, inmates at Leavenworth Penitentiary received Santigold with a celebratory confetti parade. Just another first for the modern super group that knows no bounds.

Composed of absolutely no members, Santigold is also the first musical outfit capable of claiming the planet’s broiling collective consciousness as their front woman. Longtime collaborator, singer and songwriter Santi White says of her work with Santigold, “We began trying to write pop songs to sell, which made us depressed, so we started writing songs for ourselves instead.” The results of that self centered conceit is the songwriting work heard for the first time on the full length self-titled Santigold album, released in 2008 on Downtown/Lizard King (US) and Atlantic (UK).

As unmastered tracks leaked over the internet this past November, the request lines of radio stations from Miami to Hanoi began freezing with a flood of calls from listeners eager to hear the new Santigold sound over their frequencies. From his radio show in the United Arab Emirates capital city of Abu Dhabi, Michael Jackson (the King of Pop) played what Santigold snippets he had been able to pirate from a bootleg MySpace page dedicated to the group. Days later, BBC Radio One reported that the unreleased Santigold debut was heard blasting from the iPod shuffle of Libyan ruler Moammar Qaddafi as he entered an international summit in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. Recognizing the urgent need to address the uproarious buzz, Santigold released the following statement through their label reps: “The response to our unmastered songs has been both premature and phenomenal! We were happy to hear that the children of Darfur have found hope in our melodic interpretation of life on the battlefield of love! We’re hoping that each and every 20-something from downtown San Francisco to central Mumbai will also learn something from our work! And to the people dropping no-knock fire on old ladies in Atlanta: shame on you! Santigold ain’t with that shit!”

Love, commitment, art, political consciousness… in all their forms… and set to beats? Yeah. We can do that. Can’t wait to meet ‘em. This happy couple is judgeMental approved. Feel free to add their music to your brain.

*Also check out our other summer love lovers, Matt & Kim in our Movies/Music/Books section.

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