D Rock is an occasional writer for the Audio Muffin and also happens to be from Albuquerque, New Mexico.  You know what else is in Albuquerque?  Burglars.  Van burglars to be specific.  I know this because the two founders of MJMJ Records had their van robbed in MFing ‘Burque (that’s what the locals call it).  The van they were living in at the time (is the rumor).

And if your powers of perception are strong you have figured out that MJMJ isn’t one of the major labels, and apparently this theft was a pretty crushing blow.  Andy, from the label, also happens to be the drummer of Truman Peyote and the solo artist behind the electro-melodic-noise project known as Vacation Dad.  The burglars nabbed all of his music-making and label producing equipment (estimated value – $6,983), pretty lame right?  It gets worse.  They also stole the other half of MJMJ Records, Charlie’s, clothes!  They took all the dudes clothes (estimated value – $17)!

Being the musical entrepreneurs that they are, they came up with a plan.  A plan involving Kickstarter and the talents of their label acts and extended family of artists.  The result is a pretty cutting edge mixtape with a ton of great music that you can hold over your friends heads as that new new.

The mixtape comes in two flavors, side 1 is all rock and side 2 is all electro.  Maybe I lean too far to one side but the rock stuff didn’t really strike me as that interesting, but the electro stuff is very good.  I would say most of it is in the neighborhood of Animal Collective-style electro, but there are definitely some traditional jams for you folks that still go to clubs in Hollywood.

I’m not sure I’m completely sold on musical ventures being funded by Kickstarter donations, but in this case it seems like a no-brainer.  So go to their Kickstarter and donate!  And if you are new to the whole Kickstarter phenomenon, you get stuff from them based on your level of donation.  And with any Kickstarter campaign you always need to scroll to the bottom of the donation level list.  There is always the most ridiculous shit for the top level of donation and MJMJ do not disappoint.

Back to the mixtape, the best thing about this is that there are a few songs on there that I KNOW will blow up on the Hype Machine.  And I checked the Hype Machine and they aren’t even there yet.  So allow me to strike the match on a couple hot tracks.  One of the tracks is from Galapagos; you need to check them (him?) out, good stuff.

And finally, although I’m not adding a track here for Yalls, this appears to be the latest artist releasing an album through MJMJ and it is also worth checking out.

Galapagos – Do It

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Lil’ Wayne – Stuntin’ Like My Daddy (FAMUEL Remix)

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