Albums You Should Own Pt. II

Black Flag
My War
SST, 1984

Black Flag were formed in SoCal (I can't remember the specific area, and I'm one of those people who refer to everything south of Santa Barbara and north of San Diego as "Los Angeles") in the late 70s by Greg Ginn (who is a cousin or brother of artist Raymond Pettibon, who designed the Black Flag Bars). Their early incarnation featured Circle Jerks singer Keith Morris on vocals, and was straight ahead hardcore. Their 1978 EP Nervous Breakdown is essential early hardcore punk.

They went through a revolving list of singers and musicians before finally settling on a young Henry Rollins, who jumped onstage to sing at a show in DC. Rollins brought his own element of angry, tough-guy alienation to Black Flag, and purists often say he ruined the band. Personally, I was a huge fan of Rollins, and I much prefer Rollins-era Black Flag to the earlier stuff. The band had some label drama after they released 1981's Damage, which resulted in them not being able to put anything out for three years. When the embargo was lifted, they were insanely prolific, putting out SIX albums between March 1984 and October 2005. My War was the first.

The album marked Black Flag's shift from a hardcore punk band to a Sabbath-inspired metal band. The first side of the album contained heavy punk songs, but the entire side two is just three long, slow dirges. Again, purists freaked out. Where were the two minutes blast of angst? Who needs a six minute metal blues jam with Rollins screaming lyrics like "I might be a big baby/But I'll scream in your ear/until I find out just what it is I am doing here?" Well, I did. As a 13-14 year-old, I thrived on Rollin's brand of alienation. The entire lyrics to "My War" are essentially "My war/you're one of them/you say you're my friend/but you're one of them." That is pure teen angst. Fuck my parents! Fuck the popular kids! they're one of them!

I listened to My War endlessly as a teen. It was heavy, it was angry, it was awesome. It had a huge influence on my as a kid, how I viewed others, and how I viewed myself. Music in general, and Black Flag specifically, were this oasis where I could retreat to. They echoed a lot of the feelings I was having, they acted as a surrogate for emotions I couldn't express, and they validated all the dramas and traumas I was going through, from the minor to the major. It's tough being a kid, and being able to look up to these burly older guys who were screaming their heads off was incredibly therapeutic.

I downloaded My War from emusic the other day, and I have to say that while it is still awesomely heavy, the lyrics don't quite move my soul the way they used to. For example: "My life's a piece of shit that got caught in my shoe/and i've been grinding that stick in the dirt for a long time now!" At 14 that sounded awesome, at 33 it's just kind of embarrassing. It's shocking to think that My War is twenty-four years old. It is an album that has loomed large in my life since I first saw its iconic cover in a Cymbaline record store in Capitola circa 1987. It remains one of my favorite album covers of all time. I think Raymond Pettibon's art is genius. I've considered buying a t-shirt of it, but I feel like I'm too old. I still have a soft spot in my heart for My War, and I'm looking forward to burning copies for my nephew when he comes of age. Although hopefully he will be a much better adjusted kid than I was.

Albums You Should Own

Mogwai
Come On Die Young
Matador, 1999

Mogwai are a Scottish band who formed part of what is sometimes known as the “post-rock” and slow-core movements. To paraphrase/plagurize Wikipedia, post-rock is essentially non-rock music created with rock instruments, and slowcore is along the same lines. Think Slint, Sigur Ros, Tortoise, etc. Basically, they make long, slow, intricate instrumentals using bass, guitar, and drums. It’s influenced by shoegaze bands like My Bloody Valentine, and lots and lots of depressants.

Come On Die Young is actually mellower than Mogwai’s other stuff, which is kind of why I like it. I have to admit that the first few times I listened to it, I was really unimpressed. It sounds like three dudes got together, chased some vicodin down with some pot, and jammed. Only after repeated listens did I really get the subtle beauty of the album, and the intricate patterns and structures in the songs. My favorite track, “Cody,” is the only track with vocals, and it is stunning. My other favorite track is the ten-minute-long "XMas Steps," which slowly builds to this incredible crescendo.

It is the perfect sleepy late-night album: This is driving at 3:00 AM music, when the world is still and quiet and you’re not quiet sure that you aren’t the last person left on earth. It’s painfully beautiful, sad, and lonely, and you should probably own it.

Emusic Roundup

Here are some of the albums I’ve downloaded off Emusic in the past six weeks.

Radiohead – In Rainbows. Is awesome.

Atmosphere – You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having.
This came out a few years ago, and I figured I’d check it out since they don’t have his latest one. Atmosphere does a sort of hip hop Springsteen or something. It’s emo rap with slightly cheesy lyrics that are wholly redeemed by amazing beats and MC Slug’s heartfelt understanding of what it is to be underpaid and overcharged in the U.S. of A. The perfect example is “That Night,” a track about a young girl who got raped at an Atmosphere show. It just skirts being kind of lame and manages to be pretty heartbreaking, while having a pounding, funky beat.

Dodos – Visiter. SF indie folk band who are pretty great.

The Drift – My old roommate Safa is the bassist for this band, who do mellow instrumentals. They are interesting, if a little obtuse. A little like a jazzier C.O.D.Y. - era Mogwai.

Neu! - Neu! Were a German band who were a big influence on Stereolab. I’ve been hearing about these guys for years, and I sort of feel like I arrived too late to the party. In 1995, I would have loved this album (which came out in 1975, the year of my birth). Now, I just can’t get into it.

El Perro Del Mar – I downloaded this for my girlfriend. She’s not excited about it, and neither am I. maybe it will grow on us.

Music With Friends Vol. 1

Sankofa
Music With Friends, Vol. 1.

Sankofa is an indie rapper out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I reviewed his 2007 album “Tortoise Hustle,” which I really liked. This is a free download that isn’t quite as strong, but still worth checking out. www.obeseamerica.com.

Review here.

My New Favorite Song or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Emo Rap

I've never been a huge fan of white rappers. Hip hop is such an idiomatic genre, and so heavily rooted in African american musical and linguistic traditions that when white people do it, more often than not it just doesn't work. They are either trying to imitate black performers, and failing miserably, or they put this pop spin on it that just kind of sucks.

I've always resisted Atmosphere and their brand of emo rap, and I've always written Slug off as a white rapper. Then I heard "Guarantees," off of their new album. The song is just Slug rapping over a bluesy guitar, without a beat, and it perfectly sums up the struggles of the middle-turned-working classes under Bushenomics:

No overtime pay no holiday
Months behind on everything but the lottery
Winter round the corner guaranteeing that my car died
Wifey having trouble juggling both the part times
My cup aint close to filled up
We trying to build up so we can have enough
And when I finally get the color
There won’t be nothing left to paint on
My friend tried to kill himself to the same song

I firmly believe that hip hop is modern blues, and this song is evidence. He comes up with clever, heartbreaking turns of phrase like "Can't save no nest egg in fact this nest is rented
In fact that rent is late, wait." You can download that track and their mixtape Extreme Leakage from www.rhymesayers.com. I just got his 2006 album "You Can't Believe How Much Fun We're Having," and it's pretty awesome. I'm thinking I may shell out 16 bucks for the deee-lucks version of his new one, "When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold," which comes with a bonus DVD and children's book. Turns out that Slug is only half-white, too, which just makes me feel like a big old racist dumbass.

Dert

Dert
The Short List
Illect Recordings, 2008

This is an instrumental album by this hip hop producer. It’s ok, but way too mellow for my tastes. Very downtempo. He did a beat tape using Jose Gonzales’ Veneer album that I’ve been listening to.

Review here.

Or here: http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2008_05_theshortlist.html

Battlehoggs Mixtape

Review here.

Aussies actually make pretty ok hip hop. They got the beats down, at least. Lyrically, it’s mostly about drinking, girls, and life in the city. Not brilliant, but not bad.


http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2008_05_battlehoggsvol2.html

Everywhere At Once

Lyrics Born
Everywhere At Once
Anti/Quannum 2008

This was the featured review last week on rapreviews. I liked it, although it isn’t exactly my type of hip hop – a little too colorful for my tastes. Still, it’s fun, funky album with only a few crumby tracks, and I’m excited that I got it as a promo. Survey says: worth checking out.

Review here.

Or here: http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2008_05F_everywhereatonce.html

He’s Just A Rascal

I first heard British Rapper Dizzee Rascal on the Basement Jaxx’s “Lucky Star” in 2003. I found his hiccupy flow kind of irritating, but was eventually coerced into buying his debut, Boy In Da Corner, when it received obsequious praise from the critics. Dizzee was part of the grime movement, which was basically London gangsta rap over garage beats. It combined hard-hitting rhymes with hard-hitting beats that were more techno than hip hop. Grime is thus named because it is so dirty and grimey sounding.

Boy In Da Corner is a good album, and it has some great tracks on it. Dizzee offers up a sound that is totally unique and unlike American hip hop, while still being true to the spirit of hip hop. His beats are punishing, and his aggressive but staccato flow is lethal. Unfortunately, he is also kind of difficult to listen to for long periods of time precisely because he is so punishing. I’ve never listened to Boy In Da Corner in it’s entirety. 2-3 track of Dizzee is thrilling, 14-16 tracks is annoying.

I didn’t really hear his follow up, Showtime, and when Maths and English was released as a download-only last year, I took a pass. However, when Def Jux re-released it on April 29, I decided to support Dizzee and the label and bought it. As with his debut, there are some brilliant moments on this disc, particularly “Where Da G’s,” featuring Texas duo UGK rapping “Dizze Ras’ and UGK/You know we stay connected/ Trill recognizes Trill.” The track has a whining synth mixed with Dizzee’s signature garage thwump, and like several other tracks on the disc (“Wanna Be,” “G.H.E.T.T.O.”), “Where Da G’s” asserts Dizzee’s street cred while calling out phony gangstas. “What’s with all the fake aggression?” Dizze asks. “I can see that it’s not true/I know killers/ I know gangsters/ and they never heard of you.” “Wanna Be” features a chorus by Lilly Allen, which is pretty awesome. Another brilliant track is “Driving With No Where to Go,” which has a Kraftwerk-like beat. Lyrically, Dizzee deals with staying trill, being paranoid, and basically dealing with the drama of fame. He also gets a little light-hearted at points, but for the most part this is a pretty tough disc. So tough, in fact, that I can’t really listen to the whole thing all in one sitting, and several of the tracks (“Sirens,” Suck My Dick”) must make me feel old. Still, it’s worth listening to, even if it doesn’t come with "Pussy’ole", the best track off of the UK version. I’m pretty sure there were licensing/sampling issues, because the only version I can find is a remix riffing off Rob Base’s “It Takes 2.”

The Roots

The Roots
Rising Down

I want to like the Roots more than I do. Their 1999 album, Things Fall Apart, is considered a masterpiece, and they get constant praise from the critical community. They do angry but positive hip hop grounded in live instruments, and they are said to be the best live act in hip hop. Unfortunately, they kind of bore the hell out of me. I’ve listened to Things Fall Apart a million times, and while it’s ok, it just doesn’t excite me.

I bought their new disc, Rising Down, after hearing “75 Bars.” It is exactly that, 75 bars of Black Thought spitting absolute fire over a hammering, funky drum beat. I always wonder why more rappers don’t create their own funky breaks rather than paying a million dollars to sample them, and producer/drummer ?uestlove does exactly that on this track – he lays down the funkiest, dirtiest break this side of the Funky Drummer.
Black Thought also wins awards for most uses of the word “nigga” in a song:

I'm a modern day saint; I'm a modern day king My definition I can finally explain Cold smooth like that dud Sean Connery was playing I just got to be the man, I'm the father figure and When I spit it's something like a psychology exam If you stand where I stood, you could probably understand How that mic feeling like a million dollars in my hand It's the silence of the lamb, go and cop another gram And twist with your zanny, work your set, work it down What's your net working plan? You better look alive Cause them niggas outside looking desperate again nigga And the blunts and liquor killing our lungs and liver The asthmatic drug addict I function with it I put a rapper in a hole where the dust will sit For spitting played out patterns that once was hitting I got news for you all, let me show you how to ball See the legendary fall? I ain't heard of that Y'all niggas is off the wall like Aresnio Hall I'm a put you right back where the dirt is at 450 fahrenheit on the thermostat Somebody starving like a white girl? that But she not a earner yet, she couldn't put in no work, Not earning that, the black microphone murder vet

The rest of the album is strong, although it can’t maintain the fire of the first few tracks. Some of the guest rappers are less than genius, and there are some cheesy moments. Still, it’s worth the price of admission just to hear Mos Def spit fire on the title track. The boom bap of “Get Busy,” the sinister funk of “I Will Not Apologize,” Talib Kweli’s guest verses on the hard hitting “Lost Desire,” and Wale’s guest appearance on “Rising Up.” I don’t know that Rising Down has converted me to being a hardore Roots fan, but I am starting to understand what the fuss is about.

Radiohead part 2

A few months ago, I wrote a snarky post dissing Radiohead, mostly prompted by the obsequious praise they get from the press, and the hype surrounding their release of “In Rainbows” as a pay-what-you-want download. I have a few things to say RE; Radiohead:

1. “Hail to the Thief” is a shitty album
2. Before everyone disses record companies and praises Radiohead’s DIY approach, remember that they got where they are by all the support and promotion from their record label (and being one of the more amazing bands of the last fifteen years). If “In Rainbows” was the debut album by an unknown group, absolutely no one but the Pitchfork crowd would give a shit.
3. “In Rainbows” is pretty awesome. It is much more human than their past few releases, incorporating actual songwriting into their experimentation.

Keith Murray review

Keith Murray
Intellectual Violence
Legion of Doom, 2008

Review here. It was the featured review on rapreviews last week.

I was impressed by his old school skills, but this album suffers from the same fate as the last Ghostface record – he’s on overdrive all the time, and it grates. The thuggery gets old quick, too.

Survey says: meh.

Tanya Morgan

Tanya Morgan
Moonlighting
Loud Minority, 2006

My review is here.

This is one of my favorite albums in a while. Good, solid, positive hip hop.

Bad Luck and Nathan Blaze

This week on www.rapreviews.com I reviewed Bad Luck’s Make It Brief. He’s a young NYMC who is sort of like a gutter Kool Keith, which is kind of cool. EDK supplies the beats and do some of that somber NY shit mixed with a little esoteric/indie flavor. Not brilliant, but not bad, and worth keeping an eye on.

I also reviewed the demo by Nathan Blaze, which I wasn’t feeling. I never have liked white MCs, especially when they do that Eminem-being-serious thing. It’s like they are trying to hard. Meh. You can go to www.nathanblazemusic.com to sample and purchase if you feel so inclined.

I Am A Fucking Hippy Who Listens To Jam Bands

I have a deep, deep hatred of hippies, dating back to my childhood growing up near Santa Cruz California being suffocated by mellowness. I used to want to make a mock up of the Sex Pistol's God Save The Queen art, only with Jerry Garcia's face. As I've gotten older, however, I've started to embrace some of the very hippy tropes that used to make me want to throw up on myself. For example, I go to yoga, I try to eat organic, whole food, I wear hemp shoes, I recycle, and, most disturbingly, I wear essential oils, including the dreaded patchouli. Patchouli has become my signature scent in some ways, because I use Lush's Aramaco deodorant which has patchouli.

A staple of being an Angry Punk Rock kid was hating the Grateful Dead. I still don't fuck with Jerry and Crew, but I no longer detest them, and compared to a lot of the horseshit being put out today they seem downright innocuous. What really freaks me out is that I've gotten in to two bands recently who are basically (GASP) JAM BANDS.

The first is My Morning Jacket. They are from Kentucky, and do a kind of stoned, Southern-fried indie country that is much, much better than it should be. I have only heard Z, which came out a few years ago, but it is one of my favorite albums of this decade. They got the chops, the songwriting, and they reference classic rock while still being interesting and innovative.

The other hippy-ass band i've been listening to is Wilco, ten years after everyone first started telling me they were amazing. I saw the documentary about them called "I Am Breaking Your Heart" a few weeks ago, and have been listening to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot obsessively since. Like MMJ, they mix classic rock elements with alt-country, and then fuck with it enough to make it sound new and un-tired.

As I was cruising up the Sonoma Coast last weekend in a rented Prius, "Kamera" came on, and I realized that with it's sweetly sung, country-lite harmonies, it could easily be a "Working Dead" era Grateful Dead song. And still I love it. I still detest tie dye, so I got that going for me, but I'm wondering these days when I became such a goddamn hippie. Maybe getting older means becoming what you hate, and realizing it wasn't as bad as you thought.

Rilo Kiley LIVE!

I saw Rilo Kiley at the SF Design Concourse last night, which is located near the Trader Joes/Mars Bar at 8th and Bryant. It was my first show at the venue, which is a little funky - it sort of felt like a warehouse with astroturf carpeting. It's a large space, and was about half full, and about half that crowd were young women who were probably too young to drink. About 2/3rds of the remaining crowd were cuddling couples, and the rest of the audience was made up of single people trying not to throw up on themselves because of all the excessive snuggling.

In rare perfect timing, I arrived exactly as Rilo Kiley came onstage. I don't go to too many shows that are frequented by large numbers of girls/ young women, and the enthusiastic screaming that accompanied everything Jenny Lewis did was new to me.

Speaking of Jenny Lewis, while she remains very fetching, I have to say that standing in a crowd with 1,000 other people who thought she was hot diminished her appeal in my eyes. I've always hated liking things that were popular. Her voice was great, however, and she definitely brings a lot of personality and sex appeal to a band that would otherwise be a bunch of nebbish dudes.

The band sounded pretty good, although it did show that this was the first night of their tour. Jenny fucked up one of the songs and had to start over, and there was a general awkwardness, like a party before people have finished their first drink. The best sounding songs were from their new album, which are more complex and energetic than a lot of their early stuff. After watching Jenny strut her stuff to the pop/R & B of "breakin' up" I wondered if she is due for a pop album soon, reinventing herself as an indie Ashlee simpson or something. They encored with "Portions for Foxes," which was sloppy, but still thrilling to hear Jenny sing "talking leads to touching/and touching leads to sex/ and then their is no mystery left/ cuz I'm bad news/ baby I'm bad news." During the closing chords we rushed outside and caught the first cab that came. It wasn't the best show I've ever seen, and I'm not sure it was quite worth the forty dollars the tickets cost, but whatevs. It beat sitting at home and watching the office. Plus I got to bed by 11:30, so it was perfect for an old fart like me.

Most importantly, we went to Sushi Zone, which was fucking awesome AND cheap.

King Vision

Grand Buffet
King Vision

Review here.

I was somewhat excited by their mix of hip hop, electro punk, and Naked Lunch, but not so much to prevent me from selling it back to Amoeba.

Under the Blacklight

Rilo Kiley
Under the Blacklight
Warner Brothers Records, 2007

I’m going to see Rilo Kiley this Thursday, so I thought I’d catch up on their music. All I really know about them is that Jenny Lewis is really pretty. She has alabaster skin, ginger hair, a gorgeous voice, and a potty mouth. Her musical persona reminds me of the kind of woman whose kisses taste like cigarettes and gin and tonics, whose fragile beauty is on the verge of being destroyed by age and hard living, who drinks enough to qualify her as an alcoholic, and who would feed your heart to the pitbull owned by one of her other lovers. In other words, the kind of femme fatale that has made film noir such a compelling genre for sixty-odd years.

Under The Blacklight is Rilo Kiley’s pop album, and it sounds like it was produced by the team that handles American Idol winners. It’s got a glossy sheen that is a striking contrast to their indie roots. To me it sounds like the soundtrack to a romantic comedy where an impossibly beautiful heroine is dumped by her gorgeous yet oily corporate boyfriend, which leads her to romp throughout Manhattan or Beverly Hills in stilettos in an intense bout of retail therapy, only to find true love in the arms of a chiseled, rugged mensch with tussled hair who can cook and likes kids. And at the end they kiss, the repeat the first thing they said to each other, he says something impossibly romantic, and the film ends assuming that they live happily ever after.

Like a mainstream RomCom from your favorite quirky indie director, Under the Blacklight has it’s share of embarrassing moments, namely the wretched “The Moneymaker,” and the lame, Miami Sound Machine-esque “Dejalo.” They are redeemed, however, by some truly sublime moments, like “Close Call,” the Fleetwood Mac-esque “Dreamworld,” and “Smoke Detector,” which is raunchy rock n’ roll.

Essentially, the album is the mainstream attempt by your favorite indie crew, and as such loses some of what makes them so charming in the first place, and it isn’t entirely successful at achieving the mediocrity that it shoudn’t ever have tried to duplicate in the first place.

I admire Rilo Kiley’s ability to take chances and expand their musical range. I like that they aren’t just treading the same well-worn indie country boards. However, I hope they find a sound that is more comfortable and organic with what they are. The world doesn’t really need another overproduced, dumbed down pop record, and that’s what Under the Blacklight is in it’s lesser moments.

Crack, Strippers, and Guap

Yung Ralph
The Juug Man DVD
Review here.

Naked strippers cooking crack. Yessirree.

Gah.

You Think It’s Alright, But It’s Really Just Shite….

WNYC Soundcheck had a debate between critics Michael Azerrad and Jim DeRogatis about REM’s new album, Accelerate. Jim thought they were bloated, rock stars, Michael thought it was their best album in years. Listening to cuts from the disc, I have to say I can’t be bothered to give a shit. REM were interesting and relevant in the 80s, and made some brilliant music with Out of Time and Automatic For the People. Ever since then, it’s been diminishing returns, Monster was their attempt to get on the grunge bandwagon a day late and a dollar short, and then they just veered into Adult Contemporary blandness. It’s rarely a good idea for a band to decide to rock out late in their career, but especially so when the band never really rocked to begin with. That’s exactly what Accelerate is: a bunch of middle aged dudes trying to rock out/ sound like U2. Some fans are gonna eat it up, and that’s fine. A lot of people like middle-of-the-road, boring rock: just look at Nickleback’s album sales. I am personally reminded of Sick Boy’s succinct appraisal of Lou Reed’s career in Trainspotting: “You think it’s alright, but it’s really just shite.” There is too much interesting, vital music out there for me to waste my time with late-period REM, or any other half-assed effort by musicians past their sell-by date who refuse to grow old gracefully.

That said, I need to remember to buy the last John Doe album: there’s one aging rocker who is still putting out interesting music 30 years into his career.

Joke Rap Is No Joke

Sudden Death
Fatal Error

Review here.

Me and my friends used to do joke raps when we were in jr. high. These guys have been doing joke raps since I was in jr. high. The difference is, me and my friends and I were 13, and we stopped. I have always hated joke bands and "funny" music, be it They Might Be Giants or Weird Al, or basically anything on Dr. Demento. The humor is always horribly corny, and I feel like when you make a song a joke, then it diminishes it's enjoyability. I want to hear a song a million times, but a joke, only once or twice. Even good funny music, like Spinal Tap or Monty Python, I just can't get with it.

This Sudden Death album was monumentally dorky, and painful to listen to. They seemed nice, so instead of given them a shitty review, I rated them on a joke score that is as corny as their music. Happy April Fool's.

PS. Corny is an awesome word, and more people should use it.

Spank Rock

I did a "Back to the Lab" review of Spank Rock's YoYoYoYoYo for Rapreviews this week. Here.

I love that album, and I'm not a fan of the whole dayglo-tight pants scene. I hear they are awesome live.

Superchunk are Superfly

I came late to the Superchunk party. I had heard about the Chapel Hill group, but dismissed them as just another slacker grunge band cranking out half-assed melodic punk and trying to cash in on Nirvana’s success. Finally, in 1998, I bought their 1991 CD “No Pocky For Kitty,” which remains a favorite. What I love about Superchunk is that they combine awesome hooks, the energy of punk, and lyrics that are both snotty and poetic. The album opener “Skip Steps 1 & 3” has the refrain “you’ve been sucking wind so long it makes you feel full,” while on “Seed Toss” they prove that even at their brattiest, they have a literary flair:

“you better memorize this face you better stay right in your place i draw the lines here from now on and your picture's already drawn and this movie goes on to long and this coffee's a little to strong and i think that i'm running on well i guess that i'm running”

While the band excels at blistering melodic punk, they could also slow it down a little, and two of my favorite tracks on “No Pocky” are the slow numbers. “Sidewalk” is an ode to a dead-end town, or a dead-end life, with lyrics like:

“Well you say you feel trapped Yeah I bought you a map And I think you'll find In any other sidewalk It's the same old cracks”

“Throwing Things” is a brilliant, haunting song about love, which has some beautiful, poetic imagery:

I'm blowing up the street like a leaf I skin my back a few times you'll see Head over heels, my hands on my heart I'm making a promise, and that's a start You're leaving a trail for me I see you up in the tallest tree (You're) throwing things down at me I'm starting to climb, well I'm starting on my knees Somewhere along the way Dusk it turns back into day The sky is orange The trees lie down against it”

Ah…It kills me every time. I’m starting to go through their discography, money and time permitting, and so far, four discs in, I haven’t gotten a stinker. They don’t have the angst of Nirvana, but they got those mad indie hooks and sad sack lyrics that make me melt.

Erykah Badu part two

My Erykah Badu review for Rapreviews

(complete with a few typos)

A blurb of my (very enthusiastic) review is on Metacritic

In my defense, i'm not the only reviewer who gave it a 9 out of 10, and I think it deserves it.

Red Ants

Red Ants
Omega Point
Urbnet, 2008

This is some evil sounding music. Like El-P minus the bothersome emotional complexity. The production is amazing, fusing industrial beats and hip hop into something that is dark and awesome. I'd almost give it repeated listens only it is so dark it kind of freaks me out.

http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2008_03_omegapoint.html

Michael Stipe Is Gay

For reals. He told Spin in an interview this month. Holy shit. They also reported that chocolate tastes good, and water is hydrating. You heard it here first.

I respect his right to have never publicly discussed his sexual orientation before, even if it was pretty obvious. However, it may have been helpful if he had come out in 89 or 90, at the height of REM's cultural relevance. He would have been a good role model for a lot of young queer kids, and a powerful cultural ally. Of course, that’s probably why he didn’t come out – who wants their private life to be part of a political battleground?

Their new album is supposed to be awesome, by the way.

90's Indie Rock Nostalgia

I traded in a bunch of stuff I’d reviewed yesterday and got three classic 90s indie albums.

Promise Ring “30 Degrees Everywhere” Jade Tree, 1996

I originally had this on vinyl, but picked the CD up for five bucks. I recently heard “Everywhere In Denver” on my Husker Du Pandora station (and Pandora is awesome, by the way). The Promise Ring were one of the first emo bands to really take the genre into it’s current wimpy and whiney manifestation. They were formed in the ashes of pretentious punk band Cap’n Jazz, and combined journal writing, design, passionate yet out of tune singing, and a lot of chord changes and unusual song structures to create indie pop that was poetic and bland as hell. Sample lyric: "If I put my hands to your stomach, or put my lips to your hand. Birmingham has gone to motors. Take me home, keep your eyes on the road [..] I’m convinced you’re from mars.” High school poetry run amok. I still love "Everywhere in Denver", but the rest of the album makes me kind of angry. Not worth the price of admission.

Sebadoh “Bubble and Scrape” Sub Pop, 1993

This is where Sebadoh stopped being a noise band and started writing sublime pop songs. My favorites are “Soul and Fire” and “Sister.” I originally had this as a cassette dub of my friend Jaime’s copy. This totally reminds me of Sacramento in the summer. Good times. Sebadoh’s next album after this, 1994’s "Bakesale", is one of my favorite album’s ever.

Superchunk “Foolish,” Merge, 1994

I never heard this until now. I got into Superchunk in the late 90s, after hearing fIREHOSE cover their song “Slack Motherfucker.” Their 1992 album “No Pocky for Kitty” is one of my favorite melodic indie/punk albums ever, right up there with Jawbreaker’s “24 Hour Revenge Therapy” and Sebadoh’s aforementioned “Bakesale.” “Foolish” is a breakup album, and as such is kind of a downer. I’m 5 songs into my first listen, and it’s not rocking my world. Maybe with repeated listens.

Emusic

I’m a big fan of Emusic. It is sort of an indie itunes, but on a subscription basis, and with no DRM. That means that you get actual MP3 files, not the bullshit Apple audio files that you can only put on so many computers. They also allow you to redownload whatever you paid for again for free, which makes it really easy to transition between your home and work computer. I pay $14.99 a month for 50 downloads, which works out to be about four albums. They have a somewhat limited selection, in that there isn’t any major label stuff, but they have a ton of indie music, and I’ve downloaded some classic, hard to find albums like the first Freestyle Fellowship record.

I use Emusic to download stuff I’m interested in, but not necessarily enough to spend fifteen bucks a CD on, like old soul, old hardcore, or the Wild Style soundtrack. I also use it to plug in the gaps in my hip hop heavy music diet, rounding it out with other forms of music. Most importantly, I use it to download stuff onto my girlfriend’s computer that we can both agree on, no small feat considering she hates punk, hip hop, and anything noisy and angry.

This months purchases were:

She & Him “Volume One”
Normally I don’t go for actors trying to be singers, but I dig She & Him, which is Zooey Deschenal and M Ward. She’s got a great voice, and it is a lot of fun. I was sold after hearing “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here” on KEPX’s Song of the Day podcast.

Neutral Milk Hotel “On Avery Island” If you don’t own Neutral Milk Hotel’s “The Aeroplane Over the Sea,” go buy it now. If you do own it, go buy “On Avery Island.” If you own both, go listen to them. I got turned on to these guys in 1997, and I immediately made all my friends listen to them. They combine folk, psychedelic rock, indie rock, and general awesomeness. So what if singer/songwriter Jeff Magnum hasn’t done anything since. He’s done enough with these two amazing records, and has contributed much more to the musical landscape than all the Nickleback albums combined.

New Buffalo “Somewhere, Anywhere” AKA iTunes commercial/Grey's Anatomy music. This is mellow female indie pop, and I dig it.

Bratmobile “Ladies, Women, and Girls” Their first album was too primitive to be enjoyable, but their amateurish singing and playing work perfectly on this 2001 (2002?) record. It’s bratty punk meets beach rock meets girl group fantasticness. I first heard “Gimme Brains” on a comp some years ago, and fell in love with it’s combination of sass and hooks. Nothing else quite matches the level of brilliance of that track, but a lot comes close.

Now to find time to listen to all of this!

Husker Du

(The first in what threatens to be a series on me reminiscing about bands from my youth, unless it's not).
One of the few band shirts that I still own is a Husker Du shirt. It features the cover of their Land Speed Record album. It is a black and white picture of soldiers accompanying the flag-clad coffins back of the first eight soldiers to die in Vietnam. I got it when I was fifteen through a catalogue I ordered from the back of a Rolling Stone. I was attracted to the jagged logo of the band, the harshness of the photo, and the fact that it seemed both a critique of the horrors of war, and in a weird way a tribute to my father, who was a Vietnam vet.

The album came out on SST in 1981, and is from a live show. It is 26 minutes of blistering hardcore punk. It took me about ten listens before I could discern things like melodies and song breaks. They did the songs one after another, Ramones style, and they blend into a deafening blur. There are tracks that deal with Stooges-esque teenage boredom and angst (“All Tensed Up,” “Don’t Try to Call,” “I’m Not Interested”), songs that deal with the violence and paranoia of the era (“Push the Button,” “Guns at My School,” “Data Control,”) and even some humor (their cover of Gilligan’s Island features the line “I wanna fuck Ginger under a tree”). In short, it’s fucking awesome.

Husker Du formed in Minneapolis in the late seventies, and were comprised of Bob Mould on vocals and guitar, Grant Hart on drums and guitar, and Greg Norton on bass and mustache. Mould and Hart shared songwriting duties, and typically didn’t collaborate – Hart sang the songs he wrote, and Mould sang his contributions. They had several heavy, melodic hardcore albums in the early 80s, before toning down their hardcore sound into something that became the archetype of grunge, and later, emo. They were one of the originators of the melodic punk, loud/quiet/loud sound perfected by the Pixies and Nirvana and capitalized on by thousands of imitators.

In 1984 they released Zen Arcade, a double album punk rock opera that told the story of a runaway who joins the hari krishnas. Fans were pissed that they were writing acoustic songs, but the album remains seminal and revered. It taught a lot of young punk and indie musicians to think big, and helped inspire other classic double albums like the Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime and Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation. Zen Arcade also contains one of my favorite Husker Du songs, the abrasive, chaotic “I Will Never Forget You,” an out of control rant at a former friend (or lover?).

Zen Arcade and its follow up New Day Rising got a lot of critical acclaim, and major label attention. Husker Du ended up signing to Warner Brothers and releasing Candy Apple Grey in 1986. This is my favorite album by the trio, and to me it sounds like a punk rock Beatles. It starts of with the harsh “Crystal,” in which Mould sings “Crystal glass lined up in a row/ Watched over by the GI Joes/ Sugar in your coffee doesn’t feel quite right/ Feeling the effects for a hundred thousand nights.” It also has the single “Don’t Want to Know If You Are Lonely,” the psychadelic pop of Eiffel Tower High”, and the deeply depressing “Too Far Down” and “Hardly Getting Over It.” It’s the perfect realization of their punk background and pop leanings, and I like it better than the meandering Zen Arcade.

By this time the band was at each other’s throats, and after recording 1987’s “Warehouse: Songs and Stories” they broke up. Warehouse is yet another double album, but this time the punk sheen was gone, replaced by pop songs that I never found very interesting.

Part of it has to do with Husker Du’s two biggest problems, in my eyes: for one, I don’t like the drum sound on their recordings. There is no bottom end, and instead it suffers from that eighties disease of sounding almost digital, but in a bad way. Second, while Mould and Hart wrote some great songs, they are a few steps from genius, and as a result they could also veer into Bad Rock territory (a constant failing of punk songwriters). I’ve been listening to parts of Zen Arcade this past week, and it doesn’t completely hold up. It’s one of those albums that you need to know the context of to truly appreciate. Incidently, I never liked Sugar, his post-husker side project, either, and I haven’t been blown away by the tracks from his new album that I’ve heard. Maybe I’m just not meant to be a Mould lifer. We had a moment 18 years ago, and should leave it at that. I still have the t-shirt.

Project Gampo

Prof
Project Gampo
Alamoyard/Beatchefs Productions
(I originally submitted this to RapReviews, but someone beat me to it. Annoying at times, but not bad That said, I'm still kind of pissed that I listened to it for two weeks straight for nothing. It ain't easy being a critic. Plus, the spinal tap reference is really clever).
Nigel Tufnel, guitarist for the faux heavy metal band Spinal Tap, explained in the film “This Is Spinal Tap” that their amps were specially designed to go to eleven. “You see,” he explained, “most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?…Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? Eleven. Exactly. One louder.”

Like Spinal Tap, Prof is firmly set at eleven, one louder than your average rapper. Imagine if Ludacris were a white suburban kid from Minnesota, or if Lil Wayne were gakked up on uppers and red bull rather than syrup and weed. Prof takes the Southern art of the one-liner and injects it with a Northerner’s hyperactivity. Granted, neither Luda nor Weezy invented the one-liner or goofy non-sequitur, but they have perfected it, and there is no doubt that Prof owns a copy of “Word of Mouf” and has downloaded at least a few Wayne mixtapes. He even nails the potty humor. On “Run Game” he raps:

“I’m over your head like I was in a hot air balloon
Don’t worry or hurry it will be your time real soon
Buy them tickets, bitches, I’m the meanest
Swish!
I’m ahead of the game like I was the first pitch
[…]
I’m so hot, when I shit in a toilet
(Ploop) It drops and boils it”

Later, as if in answer to Lil Wayne’s “Ima fuck around and barf” line, Prof exclaims “I’ll freestyle vomit in your kitchen sink.” He also throws in cartoony exclamations like “WOW! RADICAL DUDE!” doing a kind of Eminem-meets-Robin Williams. The overall effect is like a double espresso with redbull back: exhilarating and a little overwhelming. Prof can be funny, but he can also start to feel like the guy at the party who talks a little too loud and laughs too much at jokes that aren’t that humorous. There were points were I felt like figuring out ways to get up and leave the room without seeming rude, and when I got to the obnoxious “I Dry Heave” I was ready to leave him lying in his own puke.

Prof’s over-the-top flow is matched by the equally ADD beats of Southern producers the Beatchefs. The beats feature samples from Austin Powers and sixties pop, sped-up soul, and frenetic scratching from DJ Fundamentalist. It’s all ON, all the time, cranked to eleven, and while it’s banging, it gets cacophonous. They do slow it down a notch on tracks like “City of Lakes” which features a freestyle over a human beatbox, and on “Rolling Stone,” a sleek and funky cruising anthem. “Ooh Baby” balances out Prof’s horndog rant of “Jump on my bed/and throw your back out/and break my mattress” with a gloriously slow beat.

Prof takes after Lil Wayne in another important way: he pretty much owns the mic. The boy might be a spazz, but he can rap, and when he’s not busy acting like an ass, he’s pretty damn good. He can also sing, and his does all of his own hooks. On “Down Dirty” he offers up a nice bluesy rap, making an explicit connection between hip hop and the blues. He even offers up a heartfelt tribute to his mother on “Mother,” admitting “I wonder if I can ever work as hard as a woman.” It is one of the more insightful and thoughtful songs a rapper has done about his mom.

He may be irritating, and he may copy some out of other rappers’ playbooks, but Prof brings an impressive amount of energy, humor, and skill to the mic. He’s found the ideal partners in the Beatchefs, and “Project Gampo” is definitely worth the price of admission. Hide your daughters, lock up your liquor, keep an eye on your medicine cabinet, and turn your stereo up to eleven, because Prof is one louder than your favorite rapper.

Lyric Vibes: 7 of 10 Music Vibes: 7.5 of 10 Total Vibes: 7.5 of 10

Solid Entity

Solid Entity
Born Sick
Silver Wax Records, 2007

My review is here.
Survey says meh.

New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)

Erykah Badu
New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)

I don't really listen to much contemporary R&B, but I was intrigued enough by Erykah Badu's new album to pick it up, mostly because it features production by Madlib, and also because Sound Opinions gave it rave reviews.

I like this album for two slightly contradictory reasons: it references classic soul and funk, and it embraces modern hip hop. I guess that's not really that contradictory, especially since she works with hip hop producers who are well-known for mining the crates and reworking dusty funk and jazz records. Madlib's work is understated and blunted out as usual, and both "The Healer/Hip Hop" and "My People" develop musical ideas/samples he unleashed on his first "Beat Konducta" album.

The funky breaks wouldn't be enough if the songwriting wasn't up to snuff, and it is. She's dealing with violence, war, poverty, and getting older. She is at turns down to earth and totally out there, playing up both her Billie Holiday comparisons and her more recent stoner witch manifestations. It is a trippy, challenging records, switching from the Funkadelic-like opening track to the neo-soul of "Soldier" to the freaky ""Cell." If I have one complaint, it is that it isn't always a smooth listen, and can be jarring at times. Just like most good art.

It's also sold a ton of copies, which is impressive. I'm always happy when good music is also popular.

She is supposed to release the follow up later this year, which is a little soon considering she released her last full album eight years ago. Whatever- as Lil' Wayne has shown, when you are on a creative tear, you just have to go with it.

NY's Finest

Pete Rock
NY's Finest
Nature Sounds, 2008

Review here.

Solid, if not mindblowing. Unfortunately, I just got a shitty review copy with no artwork, and an annoying voice saying "C'mon guys! This is just the beginning!" every thirty seconds. I hate when they do shit like that. So while I enjoyed listening to it, I'm not gonna blow fifteen bucks on my own copy.

Dream, Extinguished

I'm not going to repost my RapReviews reviews anymore, but instead link to their original posting. I want to direct as much traffic to the site, and I just realized that this site comes up pretty high on Google searches. So....

My review Daniel Swain's instrumental album Dream, Extinguished is here:
http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2008_02_dreamextinguished.html

Final verdict - it's interesting, worth checking out, and unreleased.

Soul Sides and the last thing I'll write about Kimya Dawson

www.soul-sides.com

Soul Sides is an audio blog by critic Oliver Wang that features a few mp3s a week of rare grooves, old soul, and all things dusty and funky. I’m starting to get into old soul, and Soul Sides is a great resource. Yesterday they posted a bunch of old rock by Howling Wolf. He also has links to other sites that post old stuff. Yes, three years too late I’m writing about audioblogs but fuck it, I’m old and it takes me a while to discover this stuff.


I also checked out Kimya Dawson’s site yesterday (she of Juno – remember?) and although I still dislike her music, I will no longer dis her. She’s the real deal, someone who is trying to do something sincere and real and positive, and I applaud her music and her approach to life. I’ve been a cynical fuck for so long that sometimes I have to remind myself that sometimes it pays to actually believe in something.

Now I’m gonna stop listening to the shitty rap I have to review and go listen to some old soul.

Kimya Dawson is Ok by me

After my rant about the juno soundtrack the other day, it dawned on me that I'm not the best person to be judging twee or kimya dawson's music. She isn't making stuff for cynical 30-something men. The women in my office and in my life love her, and her music makes them very happy. I say, great. If she rocks your world. awesome. Plus, she played at gilman street last night (legendary berkeley punk club that launched the careers of op ivy, green day, and blatz, to name three). So that's pretty awesome. Music criticism is dominated by male voices, and we aren't always right.

So as long as i don't have to listen to too much of her stuff, i'm all for kimya. go ms. dawson!!

(that's as nice as an asshole music snob like me gets on such matters, i'm afraid...)

Freestyle Fellowship

To Whom it May Concern..., Beats and Rhymes, 1991

Reposted from www.rapreviews.com

Obscurity automatically gives things an extra layer of reverence and respect. If no one has heard of an album, it must be incredible; after all, no one saying anything about an album means that no one is saying anything bad about it. The truth of the matter is that while a lot of great albums are slept on, there are also quite a few that deserve their obscurity.

So in which category does Freestyle Fellowship's "To Whom It May Concern..." fall? Is it a wrongfully ignored classic, or a merely adequate record that has gained undue notoriety due to how few copies of it were originally pressed (rumored to be less than 1,000)? To answer that question, I listened to this record while pretending that it was as lauded as "It Takes A Nation of Millions..." or "The Low-End Theory," a hands-down, no-brainer classic that should be in everyone's record collection. Even given those high standards, "To Whom It May Concern..." stands up. It sounds remarkably fresh and exciting today, 17 years after its release.

This album is the epitome of jazz rap, and not just because of the jazz samples the group uses. The Fellowship, comprised of Aceyalone, All in All, J. Sumbi, Mikay 9, P.E.A.C.E., and Self Jupiter, don't rap so much as flow, the words spewing out of their mouths like Charlie Parker licks, complex, intricate, and amazing. They were trained in the art of freestyling at the Goodlife Café, and all of that practice shows. Aceyalone's rhyme on "Fantasy" is a perfect example; his lyrics come out effortlessly and relentlessly, never going quite where you expect, but always sounding right on:

"Would you like to be a part of my fantasy?
Fantasy, insanity, vanity, family, Kennedy, can it be?
It'll be great we can break all laws of gravity
Make room, or fly to the moon on a boom
We can let it get better, get etiquette, adequate, that'll get sloppy
Ten-four, you copy?
Big jollopy I pop a seed, pop a floppy
Teenybopper, hoppy, hype, my squad's the gods of the mic
So play vanilla, hammer, shamma-lamma-ding-dong
Killer, slummer, plan a pop song, KA!
But I like breakbeats and beatin' on the walls of bathrooms
The b-boys b boys forever
Yo, punk- what's your function?
Robotics, planets, products, annex, got it
Mechanics or sonics, organic, exotic, narcotic
Bought it, forgot it
I jot it down 'til I'm hooked on phonics
So much to do with a touch of double dutch
Of dodge ball, the Taj Mahaj's right below us
Slow us down and show us the forest
Or a Brontosaurus
I'm a Taurus, poorest one of all
Born in back of a pool hall, a joker
My Pappy's a penny ante poker player
Who's a loser, screwser, booser
Livin' a life of anger
Had one, two, one too many Harvey Wall Bangers
So bungee jump off a bridge and soar
With a rubber baby elastic plastic
Band around your ankle
Fasten up, next stop Banana Republic"

The beats are a combination of jazz, funk, and psychadelica that are banging but never cliche. Even the skits and shorter songs offer an insight into the group's humor and philosophy. "Let's Start Over," which features the group listening to the Triggerman beat, is especially prescient given Southern rap's dominance in recent years; "We Will Not Tolerate" has the group declaring "We are not your O-R-D-I-N-A-R-Y N-I-G-G-E-R-S;" "Dedications" has the group "livercating" the album to their fallen friends, saying "we must be strong, for the killing of ourselves must stop."

This was recorded around the same time as "De La Soul Is Dead" and it shares the edge and darkness of De La's sophomore debut. Gangsta rap was beginning to outshine the jazzier, more positive, more afro centric manifestations of the art form, and a lot of MCs were deeply disappointed by this turn towards the negative. Hip hop was turning into the same tired stereotypes. Why be smart when being gutter sells? Why aim for art when you can go gold rehashing gangster movies? The Freestyle Fellowship retaliated by being just as angry as their gangsta peers. On "Sunshine Men," they criticize fake gangsters who moved to L.A. from parts East to cash in on the latest negativity:

"Those without talents, but big drug profits
Rap becomes a tool often used in vein
Just like a gun
When they want out of the insane lifestyle
But they want the insane pay
So they pick up a mic, yet they have nothing to say
It's a damn shame, 'cause they form the pack
Of those who represent my spot, yet they lack
The skill to get raw with words and cold shoot 'em
Stuck in the past, puttin' raps to a drum computer
Not even worried that the songs not able
'Cause they got juice and hook ups at big labels
No unique-ness, no goals or dreams
No creativity's exactly how it seems
As a sunshine man, with plans and a pen in my hand
Recording thoughts and beats for the next man
Even those who live without a clue
I bring the truth to you, it's not new
To help my cause, the rise or inflation
The incline of western civilization
Words to enlighten and to direct
Brought to you live and correct
From Sunshine Men"

The Freestyle Fellowship didn't manage to dampen the popularity of gangsta rap, and their criticism on "Sunshine Men" resonates just as clearly today as it did when it was originally released. What they did succeed in doing was inspiring and being part of a community of MCs who shared the Fellowship's positive message, including the Jurassic 5, Pharcyde, and Lootpack. "To Whom It May Concern..." might be to hip hop what the Ramones' or Velvet Underground's first albums were to rock music: an album few people heard, but that inspired everyone who did hear it to start a band and make music of their own.

The only negative thing about the album is the fact that it was recorded on a shoestring budget, and the sound quality shows. The levels aren't level, it sounds muddy, and the whole experience is akin to listening to a twice-dubbed tape. The question is, would you rather listen to a piece of shallow garbage that sounds crisp and clear, or a genuine masterpiece that is less polished? Personally, I'll take "To Whom It May Concern..." over Soulja Boy any day of the week.

"To Whom It May Concern..." is an innovative, creative, challenging record, one that pushes boundaries and further blurs the distinction between jazz and rap. The MCs offer some dazzling verbal acrobatics, and a lot of insightful and clever lyrics. This deserves a place next to your De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest albums. Most importantly, it deserves to be listened to, and since it is now available for download on Itunes and Emusic, hopefully it will get a chance to be rediscovered by the legions of hip hop fans who weren't among the lucky 1,000 who copped it the first time around.

Music Vibes: 10 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 10 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 10 of 10

The Juno Soundtrack Makes Me Want to Kill

I saw Juno recently, and while I liked it, the soundtrack bugs the fuck out of me. Not the Belle and Sebastian or Sonic Youth, mind you; I'm talking specifically about the childish, inane, twee as fuck tracks by Kimya Dawson.

Now let me be clear: I've always hated twee, for the very fact that it was childish, inane, barfily cutesy, and just not very well made or fun to listen to. K Records? I'd rather wash my eyes out with soap. Manchild's with acoustic guitars and ukelele's? Grown women and men singing like slightly brain-damaged elementary school kids? um, pass. If i want endearingly childlike, i'll go with something more nuanced, complex, and interesting, like belle and sebastian or sufjan stevens. they fill the same role of other twee acts without sucking. If i want to listen to amatuerish, i'll listen to an indie rock or punk rock act that is at least acting a little bit their age.

The height of my hate of twee came at a dennis driscoll show at kimo's in SF in 2000. After an endless set of him singing about his bucket or how to make brownies, he said "I have a few more songs to do..." at this point the transvestite soundwo/man said, in a voice too deep for her leather skirt, "how about one more?" to which mr. driscoll had a fit, and said petulantly, "actually, i'm not going to do any more songs."

What bugged me about Dennis Driscoll, and twee in general, was how off it was. I understood people wanting to go back to the childhood innocence of their imaginary youth, but at 22, that just doesn't work. There was something really unhealthy and dysfunctional to me about watching adults act out their elementary school role-playing, going all kindergarten. it seemed like a dangerous regression, a way of ignoring the problems of the present by reverting back to childhood. It didn't seem like a healthy way to approach life. Also, the music was really shit.
so the juno soundtrack. It makes me more ornery than the indigo girls, dave matthews, and bob marley combined. I know it makes a lot of people very happy (my girlfriend included), but i can't help but think i'm right on this one.

Thank you and goodnight.

PS: I'm sorry to mr. driscoll for dissing him. check out http://www.dennisdriscoll.org/ and make your own opinion. He has a right to do what he does, and he'd be an idiot to try and appeal to my tastes. I wish him the best of luck on his endevours, and if he makes people happy, all the better.

PPs: my own method of facing the world, ie hiding behind a mask of cynicism and jadeness, doesn't strike me as particularly healthy either. If you learn of a more effective and functional way of dealing with life, please drop me a line. Being a jaded music snob is hard work.

PPPS: also check out www.krecs.com.

Vampire Weekend

On a recent Sound Opinions, critic Jim DeRogatis trashed Vampire Weekend's debut, essentially because they are a bunch of preppie fucks ripping off Paul Simon and singing about pretentious shit like Cape Cod and the Oxford Comma. He's only half right. Yes, they are pretentious preppie fucks, and yes, their lyrics can get too coy for their own good. And yes, they rip off Paul Simon and steal African rhythms in manner that is somewhat distasteful given their aforementioned preppie fuck status. I'll even throw in the additional criticism that they are incredibly over-hyped.

Still, Vampire Weekend are essentially the new Strokes: a group of talented, smarmy musicians that are getting obscene amounts of hype for music that blatantly shows its influences. They also share with the Strokes the fact that they are pretty good. If you ignore their preppie fuck status, their preppie fuck lyrics, and learn to love rather than hate their paul simon worship, you'll find that they are actually quite enjoyable. The album is fun, breezy, and short, the perfect soundtrack for drinking fruity drinks by a pool or making out with your girlfriend. Ignore the haters, and ignore the people giving this album excessive amounts of love: Vampire Weekend may not be the second coming of rock n' roll,k but they aren't half-bad.

Carbon/Silicone

www.carbonsiliconeinc.com

The Clash are one of my favorite bands ever. It’s hard to say how influential the Clash have been on my political and musical development. They got me to accept reggae, hip hop and disco as legitimate forms of music, and got me to expand my palette when all I was listening to was angry 1-2-fuck-you hardcore. Joe Strummer remains one of my heroes, and I love all of their albums (except cut the crap, which is, admittedly, a piece of steaming feces).

I haven’t been as in love with their post-clash work. Joe Strummer had a minor but interesting solo album in the late 80s, “Earthquake Weather,” which sold about 7,000 copies (!)(including mine). Mick Jones went on to do Big Audio Dynamite, mixing hip hop and punk into a pastiche that was interesting about half the time. He’s now formed “Carbon/Silicone” with former Sigue Sigue Sputnik bassist Tony James, and the two have been releasing songs on their website, www.carbonsiliconeinc.com. I love Mick’s voice, but his lyrics and songwriting are always hit and miss, and Carbon/Silicone is no exception. There are some clunky riffs and some clunky lines, but it still sounds great to hear his voice again. I also like the fact that he is doing this himself, and having a lot of fun with it. It’s kind of how I do this blog, only I totally half-ass this, and it sounds like Mick and Tony are actually trying.

(Legal) Free Shit

Here are some free downloads you should check out...

Re-Up Gang - We Got It For Cheap Vol. 3

A year after “Hell Hath No Fury,” the Clipse and Co. release a follow up to 2006’s excellent “We Got It For Cheap” Vol. 1 and 2.” Like those albums, Vol. 4 is more cold-as-ice crack rap over new and newly jacked beats. Unlike “Hell Hath No Fury,” the boys are reveling in their role of crack dealers without remorse, making it slightly unappetizing. It also suffers from the usual mixtape issues, ie too many sound effects and shoutouts.

Killer Mike “Ghetto Extraordinary” This album from Outkast protégée Killer Mike was shelved by Sony in 2005. It’s now being released for free, and is not bad. Killer Mike puts the Angry Black Man back into hip hop, picking up where Ice Cube and David Banner left off. Like those two rappers, Killer Mike is equal parts street poet, insightful critic, and hypocritical dick.

AmpLive – “RainyDayz remixes” In which Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” is remixed to include rhymes by Too Short and Del. After my (pretty lame) criticism of Radiohead last month, I gotta admit that In Rainbows may be worth checking out. This is melancholy and awesome, and avoids sounding like a mash up.

I didn’t include links. You know how to use google, so if you want to find this shit, find it your damn self.

Peaches

The Teaches of Peaches
Kitty Yo/XL Recordings, 2000/2002

(reposted from www.rapreviews.com)

One of hip hop's selling points is that it has retained the sense of danger that rock n' roll lost years ago. Hip hop is music to scare your parents, loud, angry, profane, and as frightening and unwelcoming as the neighborhoods that rappers claim to come from. One of the downsides of this is that hip hop is not the safest or most inviting place for a lot of people, particularly women. This is especially true for female MCs. How do you compete in an arena where you are categorically degraded and put down, where "bitch" is used so commonly it isn't even considered derogatory? Most female MCs have responded by either trying to be badder than the baddest boy, by being a vamped up sex machine, or both.

Enter Merril Nisker, aka Peaches, a Canadian artist who mashes up hip hop, electronica, and rock, and infuses it all with a healthy dose of estrogen. Her philosophy (and schtick) are clearly defined on her first single, "Fuck the Pain Away." Over a dirty Roland MC-505 beat that sounds straight out of "Push It," Peaches raps:

"Sucking on my titties like you wanted me
Calling me, all the time like Blondie
Check out my chrissy behind
It's fine all of the time
What else is in the teaches of peaches?
Like sex on the beaches - huh? What?"

All of this leads to a chorus of "Fuck the Pain Away." That is Peaches in a nutshell: rudimentary, crude, crass, and sexy. In 2001, this sounded like a revolution to a lot of women I knew. Peaches spoke to all of the women who were grounded in feminism but tired of feminism's perceived tendencies towards victimization and prudishness, and tired of not having a space to express their sexuality in ways that weren't tied to male fantasies. After years of addressing the painful and seemingly endless ways in which sex and sexuality are used to oppress women, there were a lot of ladies who wanted to fuck the pain away. Kathleen Hannah echoed the sentiment in Bikini Kill's "I Like Fucking": "Just cuz my world...is so fucking goddamn full of rape/ Does that mean my body must always be a source of pain?...I believe in the radical possibilities of pleasure, babe."

Peaches addressed sex from a woman's perspective, steering clear of the jailbait image of singers like Britney and Cristina, or the porn star chic that was becoming all the rage. Peaches didn't care about getting the boys off; she was too busy worrying about herself. The result was lyrics that were sexy without tying women to being Barbie doll sexpots. Peaches may be on the plain side, but she is decidedly 100% natural. On "AA/XXX" she delivers an anthem for small-chested women:

"I like the innocent type
Deer in the headlight
Rocking me all night
Flexing his might
Doing it right
Keeping me tight
Taking a bite out of the peach tonight
[...]
I'm only double-A, but I'm thinking triple X"

Men remain a necessary evil in her music, and Peaches treats them with the respect that most rappers have for women. She orders them to go down on her ("Diddle My Skittle," "Suck and Let Go"), and on "Hot Rod," exclaims "Give me your rod/Show me what you got/Rub it against my thigh." "Teaches of Peaches" is clearly a woman's show, made for and by females sick of being relegated to the role of video ho, eye candy, or baby mama.

To be honest, Peaches isn't really a hip hop artist, and I don't think she considers herself a rapper. She is more a performance artist, mixing up styles as they suit her to create her own pastiche. Her later albums have seen her veer more towards electronica and cock rock, but "Teaches of Peaches" is firmly rooted in "Licensed to Ill"- era beats. She is as complicated musically as she is lyrically, which means that her beats have two modes: uptempo and dirty, and downtempo and dirty. In fact, all of the songs basically sound the same, which is to say awesome. I wish more artists would reference that old Def Jam sound in their beats. Of course, Peaches wouldn't be nearly as interesting if she were just another white hipster ironically flirting with hip hop. Trust this: Peaches ain't faking it. She's the real deal, as nasty as she wants to be, hardcore for the hardcore.

To me, "Teaches of Peaches" will always be the album that taught SF hipsters that it was ok to get their freak on, and allowed a lot of women I know the opportunity to tap into their inner horndog and feel good about it. When civilization gets you down, when you hear a rapper use "bitch" one too many times, when you are feeling sick and tired of being sick and tired, put on Peaches and be happy being dirty.

Music Vibes: 8 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 9 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 8.5 of 10

"From Here We Go Sublime"

The Field
From Here We Go Sublime
Kompakt, 2007

One good thing about year-end best-of lists is that you can catch up on releases that would have otherwise slipped by you. "From Here We Go Sublime" made a lot of critic's lists, and I finally managed to track it down this week. The Field is a project by Axel Willner, a Swedish(?) electronica artist. The record is equal parts trance, downtempo house, and minimalist techno. Tracks like "Over The Ice" and "Good Things End" have a thumping drive that reference Euro techno without actually going there. "A Paw In My Face" goes towards a more New-Order-esque beautiful meloncholy; "The Little Heart Beats So Fast" has a farting house beat that reminds me of Daft Punk and Tosca. The whole album is subtle, layered, and pretty. It reminds me of some of the other German techno stuff I've heard (particularly on Miss Kittin's "Radio Caroline" mix), and there is even a little Aphex Twin. It could be the one electronica album you need to own this year. My only complaint is that it is impossible to find a digital copy of it.

Pimp C, Sipping that Syrup

The tox tests are back on Pimp C, and they reveal that he had taken a codeine and promethazine cough syrup before his death. That, combined with his sleep apnea, caused his death. Promethazine and codeine cough syrup is better known as syrup, purple drank, and lean, and is what all of the Houston rappers drink. It's also what killed DJ Screw, the pioneer of the slowed down "Screwed and Chopped" genre of hip hop. Syrup is nasty for you. Codeine is not something you want to be fucking with on a regular basis, especially with lots of booze. God knows the chemical concoctions those guys put into their bodies - between the lean, the hennessey, the ecstasy and the weed, they put Scottish ravers to shame.

The Unbearable Beach Boys

I detest the Beach Boys. I hate their vocal harmonies, I hate their icky bahamania vibe, i hate how hipsters faun over Pet Sounds, and mostly, i can never forgive them with making such god awful surf music that had very little to do with either surfing or music. i grew up a surfer (a class only slightly less snobby than music geeks)(of which I am one), and I was bludgeoned with the beach boys my whole life. "Surfin' Safari" is a dubious song at best, but on the 1,000,000th listen, it becomes unbearable. Add to this the fact that the beach boys WEREN'T SURFERS, and that their music has about as much to do with surfing as Vanilla Ice had to do with being a gangsta. Surfers don't even listen to the Beach Boys (although, to be fair, surfers have pretty crummy taste in music as a rule. They tend to like stuff like TSOL and Jack Johnson, neither of whom are a tremendous improvement from Pet Sounds).

So i can't stand the beach boys, i'm sick of them being the unofficial soundtrack to my state, and i hate that so many indie bands emulate their vocal harmonies and melodies. And yet i actually kind of like Panda Bear's Person Pitch, which in many ways riffs off of those very Beach Boy formulas. Panda Bear is one part of the Animal Collective, who as a group do their own fair share of Beach Boys worship. I haven't really listened to them, and it's only by chance that i came to check this out. the fact that pitchfork fawned over it shamelessly intrigued me a bit. It is a big, spacey album, full of vague lyrics and vague melodies. two of the songs sprawl over the 12 minute mark, and they are mostly drones, repeating the same hypnotic rhythms and melodies. It's "interesting" as well as enjoyable, which is a good thing. It's even made me want to put aside some of my hatred of the beach boys, although not enough to give Pet Sounds another spin.

Percee P "Perseverance: The Madlib Remix"

Reposted from www.rapreviews.com

I tend to see all remix albums as suspect, a ploy by labels to sell you the same set of songs twice. "Perseverance: The Madlib Remix" is even more suspect, because it is the same producer remixing his own work, so it can't even offer a radical reinterpretation of the songs. Should consumers pay money to hear a producer remix himself? Would you pay to hear the Neptunes remix "Hell Hath No Fury," Timbaland remix "Miss E…So Addictive" or Dr. Dre remix "The Chronic?"

Maybe you should. Far from feeling like a cash-in rip off, "The Remix" is actually an interesting reimagining of Percee's "Perserverance." What's great about this album is that it changes the relationship between producer and rapper. Since the days when Kool Herc was spinning block parties in the South Bronx, hip hop has been about MCs rapping over beats; in other words, the rappers are usually the ones riffing off of what the DJ is doing. On this album, Madlib gets the opportunity to riff off of the MC, which results in beats that sound more energized and engaged. Madlib is able to craft his beats and samples around Percee's rhymes, not the other way around.

This disc doesn't really feel like a remix album. Part of this has to do with the fact that Madlib plays it fairly safe here, offering another version of the song rather than totally deconstructing it or screwing and chopping it. That's fine with me, as I've always hated noisy, glitchy, seven-minute remixes. I personally am not that interested in listening to how bugged out a DJ can make a track sound, and much prefer the more straightforward approach Madlib takes.

"Put it on the Line" offers creeping guitar in place of the keyboards on the original; "No Time For Jokes" replaces hard boom bap with a jazzy flute loop; The funk breaks on "Legendary Lyricist" and "Last of the Greats" are replaced by electro beats. Some of the tracks are mirror images of the original, like "The Hand That Leads You," which offers a slightly different variation of the original beat. Some beats are more radical reworkings, like on "Throwback Drum Attack," in which Percee's "Throwback Rap Attack" is refigured over a drum fill. "The Remix" also offers a new track, the Soul II Soul inspired "Real Talk." The end result is 14 new Madlib beats, all of which are good, and none of which are merely recycled from his other production work.

Percee's vocal tracks stay intact throughout the disc, with Madlib weaving his way around Percee's bombastic flow. As with "Perseverance," Percee stays in overdrive, and Madlib attempts to chill P out with is beats. In some ways, "The Remix" does a better job of balancing Percee's single-minded flow than the original, and the result is a listening experience that is mellower and subtler than "Perseverance." I did miss the harder funk of "Perseverance," and I felt that in general there was more excitement on that disc than on these remixes. Still, "Perseverance: The Madlib Remix" is a solid album, and is as good as the original. Madlib's beats are always worth checking out, and longtime fans of his work won't be disappointed. People who slept on "Perseverance" should check out "The Remix," but if you weren't a fan of Percee's rapping on the original, there is nothing on here that is radical enough to make you change your mind. That said, either version of "Perseverance" is worth owning, and you might as well get both.

Music Vibes: 8 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 8 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 8 of 10