What I've Been Listening To

I've been on a compulsive jazz-buying binge lately. One of my goals in life is to own every John Coltrane album, and to that effect I bought used copies of Ballads and The John Coltrane Plays. Then I downloaded My Favorite Things. Last week I bought a four-CD compilation of Charlie Parker's work. Europe has different copyright laws, so it is easier for European labels to release budget collection of jazz works. I got a collection of Miles Davis' and John Coltrane's early albums last year, and yesterday I traded in a bunch of CDs and bought a collection of eight Duke Ellington albums, eight Thelonious Monk albums, three Art Blakley albums, and two Dizzy Gillespie albums. Which is sort of ridiculous, I realize, but it was all stuff I wanted to hear and the collections were cheaper than individual albums. The sound quality isn't amazing, and the liner notes suck, but in terms of hearing a lot of their material they are really valuable.

In between listening to all that jazz, I've been working on a review of El-P's new album. He just released a video for "The Full Retard," in which he parties hard with a squirrel puppet. Have you ever seen Meet the Feebles? It's a little like that.

Killer Mike, Pep Love, and Zomby Reviews

I have a few new reviews up at RapReviews.com.

First up is the Killer Mike/El-P collaboration , R.A.P. Music. It's awesome, just like everyone says.

Second is Pep Love's Rigmarole. I wasn't a fan, and gave it a somewhat harsh review. OK Player and HipHopDx beg to differ with my opinion, so maybe it's amazing and I just don't get it.

Finally, I reviewed Zomby's Dedication this week. It's downtempo dubstep that had a hip-hop feel, to me at least. I love it.

I've been listening to the latest El-P and Big Juss, and will hopefully have a review up soon.

Gentleman Review, Killer Mike, Subhumans

I reviewed German reggae artist Gentleman's Divsersity on RapReviews this week.  I've had it for a while, but only got around to listening to it recently. It grew on me.

I also downloaded the Subhumans 1984 album From the Cradle to the Grave. Legally. I have it on cassette. It was one of my favorite albums when I was 15, and it still holds up, especially the 16-minute title track. I should really write a longer piece about it. It's a somewhat rambling diatribe against the British educational system, war, the government, and the SYSTEM, man. But there are some good lines.


They'll say you ought to learn a trade to help you in your life
Success is written in three parts: A job, a house, a wife
They'll say that school prepares you for the awesome world outside
Well it certainly gives you bigotry and patriotic pride

Racism, sexism teacher to class
From school to work remains the sameare you white and middle class?

You'll learn that bad men dress in black and good men dress in white
And the pamphlets in the playground say that's right
And that girls were made for housework and boys were made to fight
And the naughty pictures on page 3 make everything alright

I also got the new El-P produced Killer Mike album, R.A.P. Music.  It's so, so good. Like, Death Certificate levels of good. I'm hoping to be able to write a review of it next week.

And on a totally unrelated note, here is my favorite video of all time right now. I watch it several times a week. Because it's JackTastic! And Sue. We all hate you. We hate you so much.

BeOND Review

I reviewed SoCal rapper BeOND's new album Everythingz Backwardz this week on RapReviews. I wasn't a massive fan of it, and I'm not sure if that is BeOND's fault or if I'm just a jaded old man.


Here's a video for the first single. Decide for yourself.

Branding

I'm home from work to work on a school project on nonprofit marketing, which has gotten me thinking about my own personal branding. I recently joined the board of a nonprofit association I belong to, and I realized that I am not totally comfortable with my various online worlds and personas interacting. I wouldn't necessarily want a fellow board member or a potential employer to read my Death Grips review, for example, or read this blog. I love hip-hop and I love punk rock, but that isn't necessarily the public persona that I want to put forth with people who I want to take me seriously as a nonprofit professional.

To that end I started a blog a few months ago to write about nonprofit issues called Festival of Acronyms.
I'm not in love with the blog name or URL, but it's what I got for now. I'm trying to update it every other week, with some success.

I'm also contemplating the future of my music journalism. While I enjoy writing music reviews, I'm not totally convinced that it is always the best use of my time and energy. I'd also like to use this site to write more in-depth pieces about artists I like who are either unknown or forgotten. I dunno. All I know is the next seven months will be intense with work and school, and my focus in life is changing.

RIP Adam Yauch

Adam Yauch, aka MCA of the Beastie Boys, died of cancer today. He was 48.

While I will admit that I hated the Beastie Boys when Licensed to Ill came out, they eventually became one of my favorite bands, and one of the definitive groups of my generation. They went from being snotty sexist assholes to being Buddhists and feminists. They showed Gen-Xers how to age gracefully, how to give up our childish ways without selling out, and how to retain a sense of humor while actually giving a shit. They were the Ur hipsters of my generation, influencing fashion, music, language, and what people listened to. They are the reason why I listen to Lee Perry. They are the reason I watched Dolomite. They showed how white people could respectfully participate in hip-hop. They made good music. They were decent rappers.

As I mentioned earlier, I really didn't like Licensed to Ill when it came out, and to this day I think it is a pretty terrible album. I wrote them off as irritating frat boys until my brother played "Eggman" off of 1989's Paul's Boutique. That album saw them going in their own, stoned-out direction. The first album of theirs I bought was 1992's Check Your Head. I was a junior in high school when it came out, and I thought the video for "So Watcha Want" was the coolest thing in the world. I spent the next few years trying to imitate their look in that video with baggy pants and knit caps. The thing is, everyone (white) listened to that album: people into alternative music, hip-hop fans, people who hated hip-hop. They transcended the genre. They were just cool. And Yauch was the coolest one. With his gravelly voice and his more serious persona, he was simply a cool dude. He got millions of middle class white kids to explore Buddhism when he came out as a Buddhist. He, along with the rest of the Beastie Boys, channeled that white middle class angst into something more creative and positive than bands like Limp Bizkit or Korn did. The Beastie Boys loss their cultural cache as the 90s progressed, but they never sold out or got pathetic. They stayed true to themselves, releasing two solid albums in the 21st century.

Yauch had been battling cancer for a while, but it still came as a shock to me that he passed. It's like hearing that someone you went to high school died, although he is eleven years my senior. It's made me feel old and mortal.

Death Grips, St. Vincent, Fugazi Live

My review of the new Death Grips is the featured review on RapReviews now. I love that album. Here's a link to the review.

I dug out St. Vincent's second album, Actor, recently. I originally got it for my wife, but it is too noisy and guitary for her. It's an interesting combination of St. Vincent's pretty voice and her slightly gnarly guitar playing. In that sense it is similar to Wye Oak, which I've also been listening to a lot. Anyways, I never gave St. Vincent a real shot when I bought it two or three years ago.





And finally, I downloaded a live Fugazi show that had a lot of tracks off of their 1992 album In On the Kill Taker. My copy of the album was stolen out of my friend's car. There are many great tracks on it that sound even better live. "23 Beats Off' is about someone with HIV (fans have speculated Magic Johnson). My favorite song is "Great Cop," the ultimate punk rock dis.

"You got a lot of questions for me
You got your finger pointing at me
Distrusted
I look for wires when I'm talking to you
You'd make a great cop."

I never saw them live and I really wish I had. Fugazi where one of those bands that I liked but never love. I think that they were always a little too noisy and cerebral for me. Listening to them now I realize that in some ways they were like abstract painters, people who knew their craft so well that they could mess with the structure of it. They could be a little too serious, and their lyrics are sometimes too cryptical, but they are still and amazing band.

Ragga Ragga Ragga Review

I did a review for the Ragga Ragga Ragga 2012 comp this week for RapReviews. I pounded it out Monday night after work, and I just read it and realized I left big chunks out. This is what happens when you don't leave time to edit. I didn't tie together what 420 had to do with the Haight Ashbury had to do with the compilation, other than the amazing pot song "Da Herb Deh."

I'm working on a review of the new Death Grips album, which is great.

"I've Seen Footage" sounds a little like "Push It."


"Get Got" is a much more subdued than any of their other stuff, and the video was shot in SF.

Busy Signal and Giano

I reviewed two albums for RapReviews last week. First up was Busy Signal's Reggae Music Again. This was a return to classic reggae which I enjoyed.

The second was Giano's B Sides and Remixes Volume 2, a new collection of songs from a rapper who straddles the conscious/Christian genres.

I went to two shows last weekend. On Friday I went to see Andrew Bird at the Fox Theater. Unbeknownst to me, our seats were at the last possible row in the entire theater. The sound was great, but we were so far away it was as if we were watching it on TV rather than actually being at the show. Andrew Bird is always excellent live. He came out by himself and did an instrumental number looping his violin so that it sounded like a full(er) band. Then his actual band came on stage: a bassist, a guitarist, and a drummer who also played keyboards. The drummer would also loop himself so that he could play the keyboard parts. I'm not a massive Andrew Bird fan (that would be the wife) and I was dog tired, but it was a good show in a packed theater. Good on him.

Sunday I went to see La Sera and Yuck. I don't know much about Yuck other than they sound like Dinosaur Jr., but I was excited to see a retro alterna rock show. La Sera is the solo project of Vivian Girls bassist Katy Goodman. The band was her on bass, a drummer, and two guitarists. One of them was wearing a flannel and baseball hat and the other looked like Johnny Ramone. Goodman has a great voice, but it was a little too weak to carry through the songs live. The crowd kept yelling "More vocals!!" I really like their latest album Sees The Light, and they were fun live. The best songs were the punchier ones like "Break My Heart," a perfect two-minute pop punk jaunt. They played for thirty minutes to a mostly receptive audience.

Yuck came on around 9:45, which I appreciated given that it was a Sunday. They are also a five-piece, also with a woman on bass. They are young, all between 21-22, but play melodic 90s indie rock much like Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. The crowd were all about 15-20 years older than the band, people who came of age in the late 80s and 90s and were nostalgic for that sound. They were great, playing for a little less than an hour. There is something about that roar of guitar squall that sounds so good live.

Ceremony

I've been listening to Ceremony's new album Zoo. They are a Bay Area hardcore band who have gone in a more rock direction on their new LP. It sounds like an American hardcore band trying to be Wire.
One of my favorite songs is "Citizen," a two-minute blast of melodic punk that has elements of early 80s hardcore.



They did a video for "Adult," which I'm not crazy about. I feel the whole "the happy suburban 50s family was a sham, man," thing has been done to death.



They've put out a few albums, and their early stuff was much more power violence-ey. It's kind of fun, but a little of this goes a long way.

Quakers and E-Train Reviews

I reviewed two producer compilation albums this week on RapReviews. The first is E-Train's On Solid Ground. It's 18 tracks of solid indie hip-hop by a beatmaker with one foot in the present and one foot in old school boom-bap.

I also reviewed the new album by Quakers, which is a production team made up of Geoff Barrow from Portishead and some of his Portishead colleagues. It is really, really good.

Here's E-Train and D Mottola:



And the Quakers:

Shtar and Burial

I had two reviews up last week on RapReviews.

I did a review of the new Burial EP, Kindred. Mostly because I really love that song. The other two songs on the EP are also good, but "Kindred" gets me every time.

I also reviewed an Israeli hip-hop band called Shtar.

Jonwayne Review

I reviewed Jonwayne's Oodles of Doodles this week on RapReviews.
Meh.

Started school again and realized I'm gonna be mad busy for the next two months, which will no doubt impact my writing about music. Although I have a million things in my queue to write about. Well, like five.

I listened to the Red Hot Chili Pepper's Uplift Mofo Party Plan today at work. on Spotify. I bought it on cassette when I was 12, then on CD when I was 15, and have since sold it. It's kind of terrible, since RHCP are kind of terrible, but there are bright spots. I really love "Walking Down The Road," "Behind the Sun" and "Skinny Sweaty Man." Everything else is forgettable rap rock.

This, my friends, is what 80s L.A. was:

Christian Rap, Black Up, and Sad Beats

I have three new reviews up this week.

First out the gate is the latest album by Christian club rapper Applejaxx, Organic. While I'm not his target audience of evangelical Christians, and I thought he labored the "organic" metaphor to death, he's a decent rapper and has some good production.

Then I reviewed B. Durazzo's melancholy beat tape. Worth downloading at his bandcamp page

Finally, I did a review of Shabazz Palaces' Black Up, which came out last year. Pretty brilliant.

A Bad Show Is Like Bad Sex

The wife and I went to see Sea of Bees and Wye Oak at the Independent a coupla weeks ago. The sold out show was part of the Noise Pop festival. We got to the show in time to see Sea of Bees set. The wife loved their twee folk, but it wasn't really rocking my world. The most exciting thing for me was that their bassist was Jake Mann , who I went to high school with. Apparently he has a band called Jake Mann and the Upper Hand.  He was a year ahead of me in school and played bass in the jazz band. It was nice to see he was still involved with music.

Wye Oak are a duo with Jennifer Wasner on guitar and vocals and Andy Stack on drums and keyboards. Yes, drums AND keyboards. Here's the thing: drums are pretty much a two-hand, two-feet kinda instrument. You can't really play the drums and another instrument at the same time. At least not well. Stack proved this with the rudimentary rhythms he was pounding out while playing rudimentary bass notes on a keyboard. It was like talking to someone who is texting at the same time. Not very satisfying.

Still, they were impressive live. Wasner has an amazing voice, and is able to produce a lot of noise out of her guitars. It was so loud the walls were shaking.

Which was the main issue with the evening. The wife doesn't share my appreciation for loud music, and she was not amused by the whole walls shaking thing. I was dog tired from a long stressful week at work and school, the downside of a Friday night show. We sat through four songs, and then a combination of not wanting to make my wife any more miserable, and my own desire to be in bed won over and we left. It was such a disappointing experience, not because the band let us down but because WE let us down. I felt old and tired and lame. Then again, maybe I'm just at the point in my life where going to shows is no longer a focus. I had a chance to see WATERS free last week and didn't go.

As Dr. Evil said, there's nothing more pathetic than an aging hipster.

Hippy Music

I broke down and bought Pink Floyd's Relics the other day. It hurt to pay sixteen bucks for it, but I have been wanting a clear recording of that album for twenty years. I first had a shitty recording from vinyl on cassette. Later I upgraded to a cassette recording of the CD version, but I never actually had it digitally. The album collects their early Syd Barrett-penned singles, including "Arnold Layne," "See Emily Play," and "Interstellar Overdrive." 



I appreciate later Pink Floyd, but not enough to really listen to it. I sold my copies of The Wall and Dark Side of The Moon years ago, and only rarely do I want to listen to either of them. Their early stuff was much more exciting and immediate.

I wrote about the latest Phenomenal Handclap album on Blogcritics recently. I wasn't as in love with it as I wanted to be, but it's worth listening to.



I've been listening to a lot of old eighties punk on Spotify recently, while doing administrative work, the most unpunk activity there is.

Sleigh Bells Make Lana Del Rey Look Like Robert Fucking Johnson

So Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells have a new album out,Reign of Terror, which I just downloaded. They are schticky and work the same formula over and over, but dammit, it's a good forumla. Loud guitars, booming beats, and singer Alexis Krauss's cheerleader barks and girlish whispers.

The new album tones down the guitars a little bit, so that not every song is blowing out your speakers. In place of that, guitarist Derrick Miller channels Def Leppard, and Alexis gets to flex her R&B influence. It's slight but enjoyable, as a good pop album is.

What's funny about Sleigh Bells is how they've become indie rock darlings, despite the fact that they are basically a pop act. Lana Del Rey created a shit storm earlier this year by coming off as inauthentic, and yet Sleigh Bells, who have an equally fabricated persona, are welcomed with open arms. Granted, Sleigh Bells music is more interesting than Lana Del Rey, but that's not saying much.

Like Lana Del Rey, Sleigh Bells have been in the industry for years before reinventing themselves. Miller was in suburban angst hardcore band Poison the Well (their version of Smashing Pumkin's "Today" is almost as hilariously self-serious as Confide's version of the Postal Service's "Such Great Heights,"), while Krauss was in wretched teen pop act RubyBlue. They recorded but never released a disc of generic and forgettable pop in 2001 before disbanding.

Their new album has come with its own aesthetic, which bleeds from the album cover to the clothes they wear onstage and in their videos. Its sort of an ultra-American high school bad ass vibe. All of which is fine, but its interesting that they get a pass while everyone dumps on poor old Lana. Maybe her marketing scheme was less subtle than Sleigh Bells. She can have the last laugh, though; she's selling more records.

Anyways, I like the new Sleigh Bells ok, and sort of hate myself for liking it. Speaking of rocking bands with tuff female singers, I was listening to the Distillers today. Coral Fang is a strong album. Too bad they broke up.

Wildebeast and I-Octane Reviews

I did two brief reviews on RapReviews this week. First up is Robby Wildebeast's instrumental album, My Salad Days Vol. 1.  Sounds an awful lot like Dilla, but that's not exactly a bad thing.

I also reviewed I-Octane's debut. I wanted to like it more than I did.

Clams Casino Review

I reviewed the Clams Casino instrumental mixtape that came out some time last year. I'm a fan. Equal parts ambient and hip-hop.  My favorite track is his instrumental for Lil B's "Real Shit for Real Niggas."
Here's the instrumental:


And here's Lil B rapping over it:



I prefer the instrumental.

Lindstrom Review

I reviewed Lindstrom's Two Cups of Rebel recently on Blogcritics. His last album got a lot of good press, so I was excited to hear his new one. I really didn't like it, and I was afraid that I just wasn't cool enough to like it. I wrote a negative review, and a few days later Pitchfork's review was up, and they agreed with me. In the end, it has a pretty low Metacritic score. I was happy to see that I wasn't alone in my negative perception of it. It's not terrible, but it is basically a noisy, sprawling mess. Totally skippable.

See what I mean?

Beat Street Review

Below is my review of the Beat Street soundtrack, which I bought 29 years ago. Yowza. Originally posted on RapReviews.com


 It's fall of 1984. I'm riding the school bus home from another day in the fourth grade. Two older boys pull out a smallish ghetto baster and start playing some music that is like nothing I have heard before. It starts with an ominous bell, and then a beat kicks in, joined by a synthesized funk track, all punctuated with cuts and scratches. The scratching acts like another instrument, chopping up the music and adding percussive elements. Then a man's voice comes on, sing-talking in a style that I would learn was called "rapping."
"Beat Street, the king of the beat
You see him rocking that beat from across the street
And Beat Street is a lesson too
because you can't let the streets beat you"

That was my introduction to hip-hop and breakdancing, and I was hooked. I came to learn that it had originated in New York, and was supposedly a way for gangs to battle each other without violence. I had never been to any city, much less one as big as New York, but I immediately fell in love with this music.
My siblings and I embraced hip-hop culture. I got fat laces for my converse, and a hoodie emblazoned with "Breakin'" in graffiti writing. We set up cardboard in our living room to breakdance, which was facilitated by my family's total lack of furniture. I wrote in bubble script all over my 4th grade binder. I learned how to windmill from the Hispanic kids at my school, who were were much more hip to what was going on. I was hooked.

I was too young to see "Beat Street," and had to settle for the lesser (but more kid-friendly) "Breakin'." Still, I made my mom take me to the local drug store and popped down my seven or eight dollars apiece for each volume of the cassette version of the soundtrack. I remember bringing the tapes home, unpeeling the cellophane, and popping it into my Radio Shack tape recorder. I was so ready to enter the world of "Beat Street" and breakdancing. Instead, I got a crumby soundtrack with only two or three decent songs.
"Beat Street Breakdown" was and still is a powerful song. Sure, the music and rapping are dated and the unrestrained sincerity is corny by today's standards. That doesn't stop the song to be an epic poem about what hip-hop means to young people, how graffiti opened up a young kid's world, all leading up to the tragic death of a graffiti writer. It reminds you of what hip-hop could have been had we gone the path of Bambaataa's Zulu Nation, truly embracing the four elements.

Africa Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force are represented here with "Frantic Situation," a kinetic blast of electro that went way over my 9-year-old head, although I can appreciate it today. The Phony Four MC's had a novelty song with "Wappin (Bubblehead)." But as far as rapping, that's about it. Most of "Beat Street" is made up of weak electro-tinged R&B like The System's "Baptize the Beat," Juicy's "Beat Street Strut" and "Give Me All," and ballads like Jenny Burton's "It's Alright" and Tina B.'s "Nothin's Gonna Come Easy."
Imagine how disappointed I was listening to this hoping to hear some fierce rapping, and hearing "Us Girls" instead.

 I felt like I had been brought right to the brink of this amazing culture, and then denied entrance. I didn't now what other groups to listen to or how else to find out about the music. The local radio station would only play a few rap songs, and those were mostly rap interludes in R&B songs like Chaka Khan's "I Feel For You." I was hungry to hear hip-hop, and "Beat Street" didn't come close to satisfying my hunger.
The one saving grace to "Beat Street" was the Treacherous Three's "Santa's Rap." In the song, Kool Moe Dee plays Santa visiting the ghetto, while Special K and L.A. Sunshine heap abuse at him about how janky their toys were:
L.A. Sunshine: "You big fat whale you might as well quit
Cause I can name a hundred presents that I didn't get
And if I did get a present it would be a hand-me-down
Yo I got this for Christmas now how that sound"
Special K: "It sounds good to me cause I'm about to freeze
you wanna see something look at the bottom of these
me and brothers can't go out at the same time
cause a coat that's theirs is a coat that's mine"
Kool Moe Dee: "Man I know one thing y'all better get off my neck
And wait till you get ya welfare check
Go on down to the office and stand in the line
Better hurry up see I got mine
Jingle, Jangle, Jingle for the po
And once you get your welfare check
Yo kiss my mistletoe"

As I kid I loved the sing-songy rhymes about lyrics about Christmas in the ghetto. As an adult I realize how cutting that song was, especially considering it was essentially a novelty song. It remains one of my favorite hip-hop songs from that period.

By the time hip-hop and breakdancing hit my little beach town, it was pretty much over. Overexposure killed it. I moved on to new wave, convinced that hip-hop had been a fad. It was only several years later when my older brother got into West Coast gangster rap that I realized that there might be more to hip-hop than parachute pants and corny movies.

I've never gotten around to seeing "Beat Street." I've read about it. How it was supposed to be true to the spirit of hip-hop. How it all got watered down in production. How they used real graffiti writers and then polished their pieces. Until this week, I hadn't heard the soundtrack since the mid-80s. Listening to it now, it sounds as compromised and watered down as the film it is based on. Both volumes are out of print, volume two was never released on CD, and volume 3 was never released at all. I'd recommend seeking out "Santa's Rap" and buying a compilation of Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash's greatest hits to hear the other good songs on this collection. The "Beat Street" soundtrack is obscure for a reason.

Lana Del Rey or Why I Hate the Media

In December, many of blogs I follow started getting all a-flutter about singer Lana Del Rey. They posted the video for her single "Video Game," they wrote breathlessly about her upcoming album, "Born to Die," and basically made it seem like she was the greatest thing since the iPhone. Then in January, the backlash began. She did a stilted gig on SNL. It was revealed that she had released an album before under her government name of Lizzy Grant, and that her hype machine was fueled by major label money. People accused her of not being indie. They made fun of her plastic surgery. They accused her of astroturfing.

Her album dropped last week, and response has been tepid. People have been quick to bash her. Most reviewers point out what is probably the truth, that the album is ho-hum and not worthy of all the attention it has gotten, either positive or negative. Even Rolling Stone gave it 2 stars, and they NEVER give ANYTHING 2 stars. Rolling Stone loves every album. They had a motto up in their offices in the 90s that 3 stars meant never having to say you're sorry.

Most reviewers are spineless fucks, myself included. We don't want to go out on a limb and say something sucks if everyone else seems to like it. We don't want to be mean to an artist. We don't want to admit to not understanding something everyone else loves. The only exception is when something is so loved we want to be contradictory, or when the signal has been given that it is ok to hate on an album.

Case in point. Nicolas Jaar's "Space Is Only Noise" made a bunch of top 10 lists. Why would a weird, meandering electronica album make so many top 10 lists? Because the signal was given that this was a cool record, and people lined up to love it, myself included. The fact that it is indeed a remarkable album helps its case, of course, but that is secondary. There are tons of brilliant records that don't get championed. It's far easier to back a winner than to go out on your own.

But I'm getting off topic. The whole Lana Del Rey thing is an example of the worst element of the media, especially in this hyper connected age. Some little thing will be talked and hyped to death by a bunch of pundits who don't know what the fuck they are talking about, creating this vicious feedback loop that makes a small matter into a giant tumor. Then, just as quickly, the tide will turn and the person or issue will vanish completely. The Republican primary is one example of this. Or Mass Effect as a sex simulator. Or Obama's birth certificate. Or any celebrity couple.

Blech.

Whatever. "Video Games" is a decent song. Also, fake lips are terrible. I've never, ever looked at a woman and thought, I wish her lips were bigger.There is not one case where fake lips look better than real lips.

Tenement and Homeboy Sandman Reviews

I have two reviews up this week. One is a review of Wisconsin band Tenement's Blind Wink album, up at Blogcritics now.  And only a month late.  You can hear tracks of it at their bandcap page.

I also reviewed Homeboy Sandman's new EP, Subject: Matter at RapReviews. I was really impressed by his last album, the Good Sun, but my enthusiasm has waned a bit. Still a good EP and worth checking out.

I haven't been updating this blog as frequently as in the past. There are many reasons. That Tenement record is one of three other reviews I have outstanding to Blogcritics, and then I'll probably hang up my hat for good with that site. I just don't have the time to devote to it. I'm still writing for RapReviews, but I think my output will go down. This week I have two presentations to prepare, a paper to write for work, a paper to write for school, and then I have more presentations and papers in my future, both for work and school. When I get home I don't want to be thinking or typing - I want to be playing video games or watching trashy movies or reading. I had all day Sunday free and didn't write a single word. I still love music, and buy it obsessively, but my need to be in on the newest and latest and greatest is waning. Maybe it's getting older and feeling further removed from the youth culture that is the main audience for a lot of the music I write about. I don't go to clubs, rarely go to shows, and am not part of the zeitgeist. 

I've been listening to a lot of mellow electronica and contemporary classical music lately. I've been digging the newish album by American Nicolas Jaar, Space Is Only Noise, and an old album by Brits Boards of Canada. I bought an album by ex-Rapsutina Julia Kent, which is mostly just cello, and also picked up a ton of used Kronos Quartet albums. I am still figuring out if I like them, if they are too new agey, or if they are too dissonant. Am happy that critics have told me to ignore Lana Del Rey. Almost shelled out a million pounds to download all of the Caretakers albums, but reminded myself that it is music that is more interesting conceptually vs. actually listenable. Got tickets to see Andrew Bird and Wye Oak. Am loving the Wye Oak album.  Good music for a bad time. Like My Bloody Valentine gone folk. The perfect soundtrack for being sad.

Ritmo Machine Review

I reviewed the Ritmo Machine album this week. Latin music meets hip-hop. Pretty good.

I haven't posted a lot recently. I've been busy, my hands have been bothering me, and I'm trying to spend less time on the computer when I'm not at work. In a cruel twist of fate, I just got a PS3 and am discovering that playing it causes me no end of hand pain. Sweet.

I am working on reviews for the new Lindstrom album, the new Phenomenal Handclap Band, a Tenement album I was supposed to review in December, and maybe the new Homeboy Sandman ep. Half-written somewhere are reviews of last year's Shabazz Palaces album and the Beat Street Soundtrack. I also just bought a bunch of Kronos Quartet albums at Ameoba, and am currently trying to figure out if I like them. 

yU Review

Man, I love yU. I loved him in the Diamond District, I loved his 2010 album Before Taxes, and I especially love his new album, The Earn. I reviewed it this week on RapReviews.  Soulful, deep, grown-up hip-hop.

I finally, finally downloaded Leonard Cohen's first album, after twenty years of people saying how amazing he is. Yeah, they were right. He breaks my heart.

Death Grips Review

I reviewed Death Grips album Exmilitary on RapReviews this week. It's heavy, it's harsh, but I really like it. One of the best mixes of punk and hip-hop ever. You can hear it or buy it over here.

It's been on heavy rotation in my iPod, as well as the new yU album, the Shabazz Palaces album, and the Random Axe album from last year.

Eclipse Review

I reviewed Eclipse's 7777 for RapReviews last week. He's a Canadian rapper.

Been listening to the Shabazz Palace album nonstop, along with the new yU and De La Soul's 1993 album Buhloone Mind State, which is amazing. I've been meaning to buy that album for 18 years and finally got around to it.

I went to the Oakland Art Murmur yesterday. It was a madhouse. Much like an outdoor festival, there were too many people and it was better for the scene than to actually enjoy art. There was a lot of Occupy art, including some amazing pictures of the protest at the port (which I disagreed with). Also, Boots Riley from the Coup walked by me.

New Year's Day

I spent New Year's having a crab dinner at a friend's house. We watched the fireworks from the Embarcadero from their roof. I got news that my nephew was born. Kept my alcohol intake to moderate levels, and was home and in bed by two am. Now I am groggily starting the day and getting ready to start the year. I have big plans for 2012: there is a lot going on with work, with school, in my personal life. Last year I made a resolution to see more live music. I'm not making that same resolution in 2012. I want to see more shows, but I feel like I am at an age where I don't have the luxury to stay out until one am on a weekday. I have too many responsibilities, too many projects, too much going on to be able to indulge in hanging out and going to shows. Not that I won't still go, but it's not as important to me as it was last year.

This past year I dug deep into jazz, electronic, contemporary classical, and of course hip-hop. I'm wondering what is on the horizon for me in 2012 music-wise. Right now I'm too busy listening to Shabazz Palace's Black Up to worry about it. I put off buying this album for months, but finally gave in. It's not a traditional hip-hop album. The beats are languid and strange, as is the rapping. It's amazing though, a fitting sequel to the Digable Planet's Blow Out Comb album. I've been listening to it while playing Infamous on my new PS3. One of my favorite passtimes in life is to listen to music and play video games, jumping around a model New York City electrifying things while bumping Shabazz Palaces. I'm sure the people that do the sound and voice acting for games would be horrified to learn that I always mute their creations so that I can provide my own soundtrack.



Happy 2012!

Year End Best Of

I wrote an article about Fucked Up's David Comes To Life for Blogcritics. And with that I am officially done writing about that album. P.S. it's awesome.

I also did my best hip hopalbums of 2011  for RapReviews. 

1. Danny Brown XXX
2. Death Grips Ex Military
3. Has-Lo In Case I Don't Make It .
4. Random Axe
5. Pusha T Fear of God II
6. J Rocc Some Cold Rock Stuf
7. Tanya Morgan You and What Army?

My honorable mentions were:
Deadverse Massive The Takeover
Oyoshe Bring Da Noise 2
Serge Severe Back On My Rhymes Greneberg, S/T
The Aztext: Who Cares If We're Dope? 1-4

If I was going to list my non-hip-hop favorite albums of the year, the list would include:

Jessica Lee Mayfield Tell Me
The Babies S/T
Little Scream The Golden Record
TV On the Radio 9 Types of Light
Sugar Minott Hard Time Pressure
Iceage New Brigade
The Field Looping State of Mind

Some random thoughts:
I was incredibly busy this year, and most of the albums that resonated with me were either mellow or really aggro. Something to either smooth out the stress or match my hectic mood.
There is so much more amazing music made each year than is humanely possible to listen to that it is discouraging.
One of the most popular albums of the year, the Adele record, was actually pretty good.
The Bon Iver record is so boring it makes me angry.
I've gone from not caring about Kanye West to actively disliking him.
I started listening to electronic music again.
Happy New Year.

My Ten Favorite Songs of 2011

Here are ten songs I loved in 2011.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, "Senator"
In a year of total political disfunction, the chorus of "I know what the senator wants/what the senator wants is a blowjob" was the greatest thing ever.



tUnE-yArDs, "Gangsta" Merril Garbus moved to Oakland right around the time Oscar Grant got killed, and saw the aftermath of that as well as Oakland's high black-on-black homicide rate. "Gangsta" is a reaction to that, with lines like "If you move into my neighborhood you'll never make a sound." Ironically, there are no black people in the terrible video she made for it.

Fucked Up, "Queen Of Hearts" I love this band, I love this album, I love this song. It manages to be both uplifting and tortured at the same time, and is surprisingly poetic underneath its harsh exterior. "All we needed was something to give/the dam is broken, we suddenly live."

Jessica Lee Mayfield, "Our Hearts Were Wrong" This album was world-weary, heartbroken roots music done with production by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. This song sums it all up. "I know how you work/I am just like you/No matter what you say our hearts are wrong."

Danny Brown, "30" Danny Brown sounds on the edge of losing switching between clowning and getting scary real as he raps about turning thirty over a drunken Skywlkr beat. "Came a long way from extension cords in the window/borrowing neighbor's power just to plug in the Nintendo"

TV On the Radio, "You" I was too sick to see them live. I asked my wife how the show was, and she said "noisy." I really wish I could have seen them play this live.

Spank Rock with Santigold, "Car Song"  Way bitchin' 80s, yo.

Waters, "For the One" One half of Port O'Brien channels Neil Young and Kurt Cobain as Waters. I'm pretty sure drugs were involved in the making of the video.

My Morning Jacket, "Outta My System" I wasn't in love with this album, but this Beach Boys-ey song about getting your wild days out of your system stuck with me.

Has-Lo "Everything Is"  This is a devastating song about doing the accounts on your life and realize you are coming up short.


 "When your money ain’t right it seems like everything’s wrong 
‘cause everything is 
When your love ain’t life it feels like everything’s gone 
‘cause everything is 
And you search for it, and you hurt for it 
And you promise each other you’ll work on it 
And you might have to let it go free ‘cause it never was yours But that’s everything. 

Tanya Morgan and Spank Rock Reviews

I reviewed two albums last week for RapReviews. First up is Tanya Morgan's new EP, You and What Army?
I'm a fan of TM, and this is another solid release by the group, who are now down to just Von Pea and Donwill. Ilyas saw God and went off on his own.

Then I reviewed Spank Rock's Everything Is Boring and Everyone Is A Fucking Liar. There are some great songs, but the whole thing is merely ok. I love "Nasty," with Big Freedia.

The Field Review

Swedish musician Alex Willner has been recording as the Field since 2005. The Field’s 2007

debut, From Here We Go Sublime, was built upon loops and repetition of electronic elements that burbled along pleasantly. His 2009 follow-up, Yesterday and Today, followed the same template but got a little funkier. He’s perfected his formula for his new album, Looping State of Mind.

This record works on several levels. First of all, it works as a dance record. The beats are bigger and heavier than on the previous albums, the synths louder, and the overall feel is of trance done really, really well. However, Willner’s goal is not to blow MDMA-addled ravers minds, but to experiment with sound.

For this reason, Looping State of Mind works as a piece of avant-garde composition. Willner obviously owes at least some debt to Steve Reich; The Field’s music is built on the same principle of repeating and slightly shifting patterns as Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. A prime example of this is “Arpeggiated Love.” It starts off with a clacking beat not unlike a train. Slowly another pattern is built on top of it, and then another, and another, until all of the patterns are interacting and intermingling with each other. The song shifts subtly with the addition or subtraction of various instrumentation and elements. What seems like the beat at one point becomes something else entirely over the course of the song's 10 minutes. Despite the fact that it takes so long to build, the song is consistently rewarding and never boring. The beat is hypnotic, and each new pattern or shift opens the song up in a new and unexpected way. It is like viewing a painting from an extreme close-up and then slowly panning out, realizing as you do that what you thought was the image was something else entirely.

Looping State of MInd is most importantly a beautiful record. Its songs are gorgeous, and despite the head-nodding beats, this is soothing and relaxing music. I listen to it on my commute home in the evenings and it never fails to make my crowded bus ride bearable. A wall of calming sound that is as calming as it is electrifying, Looping State of Mind is the Field’s strongest record yet, and one of my favorite albums of the year.

Article first published as Music Review: The Field - Looping State of Mind on Blogcritics.

Nocturnals and Strictly the Best Reviews

I did several reviews for RapReviews this week. First, I reviewed the Nocturnals ....To Be Continued album. It's available for free at their website. Left-field hip-hop on an Aesop Rock/Anticon kick.

I also reviewed the reggae compilations Strictly the Best 44 and Strictly the Best 45.

I'm working on a few more, and starting to catch up on albums I missed for my year-end list.

Scott Solter - One River

As a producer and mixer, Scott Solter has worked with Superchunk, Okkervil River, the Mountain Goats, Pattern Is Movement, and the Court and Spark. One River is a re-release of an ambient album he made in 2005.

Ambient music is by nature intangible, meant to evoke sensations and feelings rather than the structure and explicitness of most music. I started listening to One River after visiting the Rothko Chapel in Houston, and I immediately saw the connection between Rothko’s monochromatic paintings and Solter’s washes of sound. Neither is meant to be appreciated in the same way as traditional art. There is no subject matter in Rothko’s paintings just as there is no verse-bridge-chorus structure in Solter’s piece. Instead, both artists are concerned with creating emotions in more subtle ways than does traditional art. What ambient music and abstract art offer is an opportunity to experience art that isn’t trying to define the listener/viewer experience. You aren’t distracted by the form, and so can better experience the sensation that the art evokes in you.

One River is meant to be listened to as one piece, and it slowly ebbs and flows over its 33-minute running time. There are processed guitars, synthesizers, and subtle percussive elements. It pulses and runs like the river it is named after, and the end result feels natural and organic despite the digital tools used to produce it. The overall mood is peaceful and reflective. It never veers into new age cheesiness, and doesn’t contain any unsettling or dissonant moments. I love Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume 2, but there are several tracks on that collection that are truly unsettling; and I was happy that One River avoids getting creepy.

Mark and Laura Solter created a film called Twins and Wives to accompany the re-release. While it is an interesting visualization of the music, I prefer to listen to One River without the visuals. Part of my enjoyment of the album is what images and feelings it brings up. It taps into an area of the brain that most music doesn’t touch.

I really enjoy this album, and I’m thankful that Perth-based Hidden Shoal Recording chose to reissue it. It’s gotten me to explore more ambient music, and has been a wonderful contrast to the majority of music that I listen to. One River is an excellent album that fans of ambient music won’t want to miss.

Article first published as Music Review: Scott Solter - One River on Blogcritics.

Twin Perils Review

I reviewed Twin Perils new album, Speak and Destroy, this week on RapReviews. So not my bag.

I'm more excited about the new Tanya Morgan EP, "You and What Army?" which I may or may not review this coming week.

I've also been meaning to review the Beat Street soundtrack for months. I have the review half-written and everything. The problem is, it's sort of a terrible album. The only real highlight is the Treacherous Three's "Christmas Rap," which is amazing.



In totally unrelated news, there are stencils going up all over Haight Street that feature a sad-looking emo kid and the words "you can't kill me because I'm already dead." This is probably proof of what an old man I am, but it drives me fucking crazy. You are already dead? Really? You are a middle class kid from a good home in one of the wealthiest cities in one of the wealthiest states in the wealthiest country in the world. Quit feeling sorry for yourself and your pathetic first world problems and start living life and doing something positive. Jesus fucking christ.

Kandy Korn Rituals

This is why the internet is ridiculous and amazing.

I've been extremely busy at work. The other day I was jamming, trying to get a handle on the mountain of work I needed to finish, and I suddenly decided that what I really needed to do was find out what that Unwound song was that my old housemate Shannon had on vinyl.

I soon figured out it was "Kandy Korn Rituals" EP. That song is a minute and  a half blast of chaos, with the band sounding like a hardcore band who listened to too much Sonic Youth. It's not sung so much as screamed, and has an unhinged quality that they toned down for later releases.



The song I REALLY love from that EP, however, is "Against," another burst of hardcore noise. Amidst squealing feedback, singer Justin Troper screams "Against all time/against all space/against all matter/what's the matter?" It's a gorgeously ugly song.



I finally found it online, only to realize that I have a copy of it on a collection Honeybear records put out a while ago, when they were still around. That's why the internet is magic.

Aphex Twin

I've been listening to Aphex Twin lately. His Selected Ambient Works Vol. II has been my go-to chillout album since I bought it in 1999. To this day, when I am stressed out or overwhelmed I put it on.


Aphex Twin is an Irishman by the name of Richard D. James. He went to music school, so his take on electronica has more theory and talent behind it than your average e'd out 90s producer. As a result, his music is less groovy and more disturbing than other producers of the same era. His music falls into the irritatingly-named category IDM, or intelligent dance music. In general I haven't been impressed with the few IDM artists I've come across, but Aphex Twin is a different story. He's a little like a drug-addled 90s Brian Eno, using electronic instruments and studio engineering to take music in directions that few other people have dared to go.

I've been getting through his 1995 Richard D. James album. There are a lot of glitchy drum'n'bass beats, but it is tempered with interesting and often beautiful compositions. I've listened to it a few times and so far enjoyed what I've heard. I also bought his last album, 2001's Drukqs. 



 His videos are always incredibly weird. He did several in the late nineties with Chris Cunningham where his face is prominently featured. In the 10 minute long video for "Window Licker" there are a whole series of video hoochies with his face. It's the stuff of nightmares.



Chris Cunningham later did a video called "Monkey Drummer" set to Aphex Twin's "Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels Mount," off of Drukqs.



It's not the kind of music you can just sit down and listen to, but when I'm in the mood for something that pushes the envelope and is a little disturbing, I turn to good old Richard D.

MC Zulu and Pusha T Review

Two weeks ago I reviewed Chicago dancehall artist MC Zulu's new album, Electro Track Therapy.

Last week I reviewed Pusha T's new album, Fear of God II.

I really liked the Pusha T album. One of my favorite songs was "Alone In Vegas," and the video captures the loneliness and creepiness of the song. It's Pusha kicking it in Vegas alone after killing a dude in the desert.

Sugar Minott and 3:33 Reviews

Between work, school, and life, I haven't had a lot of time to think or write about music. I did manage to write two reviews last week for RapReviews. The first was for a Sugar Minott box set, which I really enjoyed. He was a reggae singer in the line of Horace Andy, who did soulful roots stuff.



The other was 3:33's Live from the Grove, best described as horror soundtrack hip-hop instrumentals. Creepy as hell. I can't decide if it was also good or not. Here's the trailer.


I'm currently excited about listening to the Field's new album, A Looping State of Mind. I liked their 2007 debut, missed the album they put out a year ago, and I love this. It's built on loops and repetition, and is really hipnotic.



The other thing I've been listening to a lot of ion Spotify is Southern rap. It's a genre that seems super ignorant and simplistic at first glance, but there are some interesting things going on if you scratch the surface.
Like Paul Wall's "Sittin' Sidewayz." On the surface it's a mediocre song about being the king of the parking lot. But it has a wicked beat, and Wall peels of the inconsequential verses with ease. When I was in Houston last weekend, this was the song that was in my head.

Gregory Isaacs, Backburner, and Blastah Beatz Reviews

Been busy, hence the lack of posting. Still busy, so here's a meager collection of links.

A review of the Backburner album from two weeks ago.

A review of the new Gregory Isaacs box set.

A review of Blastah Beatz Graduate Studies.

That's all I got for now.

Black Soul and I Wayne

I reviewed Madlib's Medicine Show #10: Black Soul this week at RapReviews. An 80 minute disco mix. Good stuff.


I also reviewed I Wayne's new album Life Teachings, a solid reggae album.

Yesterday I went to the opening of Richard Serra's drawing retrospective at the SF Moma. I had seen the same show at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (my sister in law curated the show), but it is even better at the Moma. The pieces are better placed, there is more light, and they've included some of his sculptures. It is very sparse, minimal stuff, but interesting. I particularly like the piece below. Sort of punk rock.

Tenement

Tenement, Napalm Dreams

Appleton, Wisconsin band Tenement are unapologetically anachronistic. In interviews, singer/guitarist Amos Pitsch admits that he doesn’t have Internet access, and is more likely to listen to music on cassette than MP3. The cover art of their album recalls the collages that Winston Smith used to make for the Dead Kennedys, right down to the ironic use of images of happy 1950s families. The music is vintage 1991: chunky guitars, punk distortion hiding 70s-influenced pop, and ironic, sarcastic lyrics.
The album opens with a squeal of feedback before the sloppy, distorted chords of “Stupid Werld” begin. The drummer pounds his set like Dave Grohl, the bass emits a sinister rumble, and Pitsch's strained vocals are somewhere between singing and yelling. Beneath all of the noise lie strong hooks and strong songwriting. Like Superchunk, Tenement write pop songs disguised as punk songs.

The drunken swagger of the vocals disguise an unexpected sensitivity in the lyrics. A lot of the songs deal with love in an oblique way. On “Dreaming Out Loud,” Pitsch sings “I’m retracing all my steps/ Falling in love again/ Break my knuckles open/Glue them back in place.” There are also several references to broken homes, like “Father pissing on the Christmas tree,” in “Spitting in the Wind.” There’s a more damning line in “Earwig,” where Pitsch sings “Two parents who didn’t care/ And a life they could never live/ Even if they would have dared/ ’Cause nothing ever works out.”

Listening to this album gave me the same feeling I got watching Superchunk play last year: rather than dated, the songs seemed timeless, and proved that the decades-old formula still had value and relevance. Alt-rock’s good name was besmirched by the legions of half-assed copycat bands that followed in Nirvana’s wake. Bad rock with distorted guitars is still bad rock, and there were hundreds of forgettable albums released by labels hoping to cash in on the success of Nevermind. Napalm Dream points to an alternate universe, where bands keep true to sound and ethos of bands like Husker Dü and the Replacements, rather than going the way of Nickelback. It doesn’t break any new ground, but it does prove that punk pop has legs.

Article first published as Album Review: Tenement - Napalm Dream on Blogcritics.

Veronica Falls

Veronica Falls:

I’m a cynical person by nature, so most happy music makes me skeptical. How can you possibly sing about everything being all sunshine and rainbows when there is so much trouble and strife in the world? By the same token, the older I get, the less interested I am in listening to music that simply wallows in misery. It seems like a waste to spend so much time on feeling bad. Veronica Falls ride the line between optimism and pessimism, making happy music with heavy hearts.

Veronica Falls are a co-ed foursome from Glasgow via London. The band consists of singers/guitarists Roxanne Clifford and James Hoare, bassist Marion Herbain, and drummer Patrick Doyle. Their self-titled debut collects several of the well-received singles they’ve released since forming in 2009, as well as new material.

The band mixes punk chords, sixties pop, and dark lyrics into a concoction that is gloomy and peppy at the same time. Album opener “Found Love In A Graveyard” is a nice summary of their sound. Elements of surf rock, garage rock, and Elizabethan folk songs combine into a melancholy jangle, the morbid lyrics contrasting with the gorgeous male and female vocals. “I’m broken-hearted/ Dearly departed,” they sing, mourning a lost love.

On songs like “Right Side of the Brain,” they recall Tiger Trap’s masterful take on feminine pop punk, but there is little twee about Veronica Falls. The competing male/female vocals are reminiscent of the Mamas and the Papas, although Roxanne Clifford sounds more like Lush’s Miki Berenyi than Michelle Phillips.

Despite the depressing nature of most of their lyrics, there is more joy than ennui in Veronica Falls' music. They capture the delicious pain of young love. On the upbeat “Misery,” they sing “misery’s got a hold on me,” as if it were the best thing in the world. These juxtapositions between optimism and sadness, between punk and pop, and between male and female vocals are what make Veronica Falls such a strong act. From the surf punk of “Beach Head” to the pop shimmer of “The Box,” Veronica Falls is a wonderful bummer, guaranteed to make your worst moments bearable.

Article first published as Music Review: Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls on Blogcritics.

Cymarshall Law and Ragga Reviews

I reviewed Cymarshall Law's Hip Hop In the Soul II last week for Rapreviews

And the Biggest Ragga Dancehall comp.


But mostly what I've been listening to is mellow ambient and classical music. Part of being stressed out. Maybe the change of seasons. Including Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol. II, which has some very mellow moments balanced with some really disturbing ones.
Mellow:


Disturbing:



This all got started because I am working on a review for Scott Solter's One River, an ambient album from a few years ago that is getting a rerelease. It came at a time when I was super stressed out with work and school, and it was the perfect music to get my mellow on.



Which led me to Hauschka, a German composer who makes interesting stuff. I downloaded two albums by him, one called Snowflakes and Carwrecks that is mostly piano, and one called Foreign Landscapes that incorporates some cello.


Another similar artist I stumbled upon is Max Richter, who makes similar music. He has several interesting albums that I want to check out.



I don't know if I'm at the point in my life where all I want to listen to is avant-garde classical and ambient music, but it is nice to explore music that I am relatively unfamiliar with, and that is totally different to the stuff I normally listen to. Plus, it fits with the colder, darker days.

Finally, a ridiculous videos for one of my favorite songs ever, if only for the line "You're wack, you're twisted, your girl's a ho, tha kid ain't yours an' errybody know!"

Aztext and Ghostpoet Reviews

I reviewed the fourth installment in the Aztext Who Cares If We're Dope? EP series on RapReviews this week.

I also reviewed Ghostpoet's new album. He's a British artist who could be compared to Tricky.



Nice.

Oh well, whatever, nevermind

Twenty years ago Nirvana's Nevermind came out. The album sold less than Creed, N'Sync, and a lot of other shitty albums, but it changed so much. Pre-Nevermind, rock was dominated by hair bands like Skid Row and Warrant. Mainstream, middle America didn't listen to cool or edgy music. We were still coming out of the Reagan 80s hangover.

Nirvana took the angst and ferocity and sincerity of punk and married it to chunky riffs and strong melodies. It was punk music your dad could listen to, Minor Threat by way of Fleetwood Mac.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" was their first big hit, and it perfectly captured the zietgeist of the era. Teenage boredom and frustration. An entire generation of kids grossed out by the materialism and commercialism of the times, not content to be mere customers anymore. As Fugazi howled on a song released at the same time, "You are not what you own."

I listened to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" over and over and over, until I could no longer listen to it. I still can't That song hasn't held up very well. The rest of the album has. "Lithium" is the perfect distillation of teen boredom and dissatisfaction. "Come As You Are" is a creepy pop song with ominous lyrics. My favorite track, and one of my favorite songs period, is "Drain You." Here Nirvana nails their melody, rage, noise, and  suggestive but obtuse lyrics.



After Nevermind, everything was different. You could no longer tell the hip kids by their record collection. All the effort I had put into defining myself by the music I listened to was negated. Jocks were rocking out to Fugazi and Nirvana. Punk became cool.

Cobain managed to last three years before he crashed and burned. "Grunge" lasted a little longer. Soon there were waves of shitty rock bands with distorted guitars riding the wave that Nirvana started. The sincerity and realness of Nirvana was cynically coopted by record execs and business men eager to sell gen x an identity. By 95, I was tired of being bummed out and started listening to Britpop. But from 91 to 94, grunge was kind and Nirvana were the rulers. I'm not sure any artist could shake things up so much in this fragmented media landscape, where even kids in the stix have access to everything ever made.

Ed Sheeran Review, aka I'm Sorry I Compared You to Justin Bieber

I reviewed Ed Sheeran's + for RapReviews this week. I compared him to Justin Bieber, which may be a little unfair. What I meant was that he did pop R&B in a style not too different from the Beebs. It wasn't meant as a harsh dis. There are a couple songs on the album I liked ok. Including "A Team."



I also reviewed Reggae Gone Country, which is covers of country songs by reggae singers. An odd but interesting CD.

Review Wrap Up

I did a few reviews in the past couple weeks that I forgot to post, including

The Ultimate Soca Gold Collection, which I liked more than I thought I would.

I also reviewed a reissue of one of the first dub albums, Java Java Java Java.

And Greneberg, a project between Oh No, the Alchemist, and Rocky Marciano.

Also bought No Age's last album, mostly on the strength of "Fever Dreaming."

The album so far is pretty incredible. Noisy but melodic at the same time.

The Other Shoe

Fucked Up released the second video from David Comes To Life, for "The Other Shoe." I don't like the video as much as the one for "Queen of Hearts," but it is one of my favorite songs off the album. Musically, it's got a chunky guitar riff that builds and builds into a melodic explosion. Lyrically, it taps into a sense of impending doom that resonates in these crazy times. "We can't be comfortable when the whole thing's about to fall!" screams singer Pink Eyes, followed by the chorus of "We're dying on the inside."

The album is a rock opera about a factory worker in 80s England who falls in love with a radical named Veronica, only to lose her to a bombing and....I'm not sure what else happens. I can't follow the story, in the same way I couldn't follow Tommy or Quadrophenia.  What I love about the album, and the first third especially, is how it channels the feeling of falling in love and losing love. Having your spouse die is one of the worst things you can imagine, and Fucked Up manage to convey that feeling on this album.

The other think I love about David Comes To Life is its mix of power and beauty. It's full of loud guitarists and a singer who sounds like he's gargling glass, but it also contains strong melodies and some moments of genuine tenderness, albeit delivered like a freight train. It's a trick first mastered by Husker Du - the sound and fury of punk backed with actual melodies and emotions that went deeper than wanting to fuck the system. I'm sure Fucked Up's hardcore fan base is upset that they are mellowing out, but they are better for it. I've listened to that album so much I'm starting to burn out on it, which rarely happens to me these days.

Gregory Isaacs and CSC Funk Band Reviews

I did two non-hip-hop reviews at RapReviews recently. The first was CSC Funk Band's debut. They are a funk band made up of people from varied backgrounds, including Gwar and noise rock. They are a little noisy at times, but no doubt great live.

I also reviewed a tribute to Gregory Isaacs. Here's a video of him playing live in 85.

Danny Brown Review

I reviewed Danny Brown's XXX for RapReviews this week. It's pretty amazing. Brown manages to be offensive and witty at the same time, and also drops some deep tracks later in the album. Not safe for mixed company, but definitely worth the download. 

Someone did a video for "Monopoly" using footage from "Repo Man." This has my favorite line in the album: "I'm a smart n%%a that does dumb shit."

Here he is performing the title track live.

Danny Brown - XXX - Die Like A Rock Star - BYOBBQ - BK NYC from Brook Bobbins on Vimeo.

Outside Lands

"Is this the way the future is meant to feel/Or just 20,000 people standing in a field?"

I went to Outside Lands last Sunday. It was my first time going. I am not a huge fan of outdoor festivals, but being as it is within walking distance of my house, I figured I should go.

We got there just in time to see Tune-Yard's set. I have been meaning to check out their stuff for a while, and I'm more convinced than ever. It was an amazing set, a mix of indie rock with heavy African rhythms and some serious vocal chops. The crowd was loving it, and a pit was started with a group of people doing interpretive dances. There were several thousand people watching her, and was great seeing so many people getting into it.

We sort of wandered around for the next couple hours, watching a few minutes of !!!'s set, seeing a little bit of Josh Ritter, a song or two of Little Dragon, before finally settling down to see Major Lazer at  4ish. I was really excited to see them, but instead of doing a Jamaican DJ set, ie toasting, they did an American DJ set, ie spinning MP3s and twiddling knobs on a laptop. Their was a huge crowd (larger than the crowd who came to see Girl Talk, the headliner from the night before). It was nice seeing the crowd jumping in one massive throng, but I wasn't close enough to get into it, and I ended up feeling let down by the whole experience.

Incidentally, Beyonce's new single "Girls Who Run The World" samples Major Lazer's "Pon tha Floor."


Next we headed to the main stage to watch the Decemberists. I am not a fan of them, but they were good live, and Colin Melloy had some good English professor stage banter. I went to check out Beirut at another stage during their set, but was so far back we couldn't really enjoy it. This was the major issue with the festival: it was so crowded that it was hard to get anywhere near the stages, so you ended up in the back surrounded by people talking and half paying attention. It wasn't optimum enjoying conditions, and there was no set we saw besides Tune-Yards that wouldn't have been much improved in a more intimate setting.

There were two headliners: Arcade Fire and Deadmau5. We opted to see the Arcade Fire, who put on a great show, although being so far away we missed a lot of the effect. When I saw them at the Greek a few years ago, a lot of the power of the show was seeing their ten-strong band interact. Instead, we saw whatever close ups the camera men chose to project on the giant screens above the stage. I saw clips of the Deadmau5 show, and it looked pretty amazing. I'm not a fan of his music, but in context, with the light show, it's killer.

We left twenty minutes before the encore, not wanting to fight our way out with sixty thousand people. We managed to catch a 71 that wasn't uncomfortably full, and got home fine. I don't have a burning desire to go to another festival anytime soon, but I'm glad I went.

Bad Brains/New Jim Jones

Two new reviews up this week at RapReviews.

First up, my take on the Bad Brains' self-titled debut.


And then, my take on Dre Dog/Andre Nickatina's debut, the New Jim Jones. My fellow critics thought my rating was too high.

Husker Du Take Two

Bob Mould, ex-Husker Du ex-Sugar, was on Sound Opinions recently, promoting his new book. I used to be a big Bob Mould and Husker Du fan, but lost my love for them in recent years. Underneath his Midwestern nice guy facade, Mould seems like an egotistical jerk. I really didn't like Sugar, and I've found his post-Husker Du output less than impressive.

 I wrote about Husker Due three years ago on this blog and called them bad rock.  I would like to correct that statement. I found a used copy of their 1983 double concept album Zen Arcade at Amoeba recently, and I was blown away by it. I owned a copy on cassette in the 80s, and I liked it, but I had begun to think of it as cheesy and underwhelming, something that wasn't very good taken outside of the context of the time.
Then I listened to the entire thing again for the first time in almost twenty years, and I realized how amazing the record is. It straddles hardcore punk, folk, psychedelic, and pop-infused songwriting in a way that works as a cohesive whole. Even more surprising, the whole thing was recorded in 40 hours, with almost all of the 22 songs being cut after just one take.

It starts off with "Something I Learned Today," a blast of negative energy that adds melody to the hardcore blast.



"Chartered Trips" is one the better pop songs that Husker Du recorded, and proved that they could operate at a slower speed without losing their power.




My favorite song on the album, and one of my favorite punk songs ever, is "I'll Never Forget You," one of the most emotional and passionate songs cut to vinyl.

Seeing them play it live, they almost match the intensity of their early hardcore days, before their music had any discernible notes, much less melodies.


I also found a cheap used copy of Husker Du's last album, Warehouse: Songs and Stories. I had remembered this album being kind of terrible, but it's held up better than I thought. By this point they had totally abandoned punk, going more for a second-rate REM sound, but there are some gems on the disc.


In my earlier post on Husker Du, I had criticized Grant Hart's drumming, which I said lacked a bottom. Seeing them play live made me realize that he plays like a jazz drummer. It's not my favorite sound, but it compliments the music perfectly.

So the point here is, the critics are right: Husker Du were an amazing band. I may not love Bob Mould's later output, but it's hard to argue with the records the Huskers put out.