If all you knew of Himanshu Suri and Victor Vazquez was their stoned spoof "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell," you might dismiss the rap surrealists as an amusing waste of a liberal-arts degree. In fact, their debut mixtape, Shut Up, Dude, was a hyperliterate good time, kicking flavor like "W.E.B. Du Bois/We be da boys." This new mixtape feels more pro, bringing in name producers (Diplo, Dame Grease) while joking about Dwight Schrute and Peggy Noonan. On "hahahaha jk?," they ponder a Middle America takeover: "We're not racists/We love white people/Ford trucks, apple pies, bald eagles." They're a Beastie Boys for the Tea Party era.

“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.