Mr Boss Review

I wrote about Mr. Boss's The Landing this week at RapReviews.  He's a UK producer who makes pretty solid music.

I'm listening to a few Australian CDs to review for next week. And I downloaded Rick Ross's new album and last album. "I'm Not A Star" has become my new jam. Ross's music is like candy - terrible for you, devoid of any nutrition, but still highly enjoyable.

I'm also digging the new Antibalas.



Killer Mike has a new video for "Untitled."

Solo for Dolo and 50 Years

Between moving from the city the the suburbs, I managed to write to reviews. This week I wrote about Solo for Dolo's latest album, Self-Titled. He's a New Jersey rapper who does the indie rap thing pretty well.

The week of the move I reviewed Out of Many: 50 Years of Jamaican Music, a three-disc box set celebrating Jamaica's 50-year anniversary.  It has some good songs, going chronologically from 1962 to today.

And now I no longer live a ten-minute walk from Amoeba Records, and my record-buying budget is being infringed upon by my new house payment and all the associated costs that come with moving. Which gives me more time to listen to all the stuff I amassed over the past year, I guess.

Open Mike Eagle Review

I reviewed L.A. rapper Open Mike Eagle's latest this week on RapReviews. Good, slightly nerdy rap.

And I have this song in my head:

Meyhem Lauren and Soul 7

I reviewed Meyhem Lauren's "Respect the Fly Shit" this week at RapReviews. He's got a dirty mouth, but the man can rap, and has solid production behind him.

I reviwed the Soul 7 Comp two weeks ago. I'm a fan.

Listening to a lot of Rolling Stones and Beatles.

Random Thoughts

I'm supposed to be either packing or writing a midterm or writing the first two chapters of my capstone project right now, but instead I will share these random thoughts.

1. Bikini Kill's Reject All American is one of the best punk albums ever, right up there with the first Ramones album, Minor Threat's discography, Black Flag's Damaged, the Subhumans From The Cradle To the Grave, Operation Ivy's discography, Jawbreaker's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy, and X's Los Angeles.


Need proof? Listen to "Capri Pants."

2. Mayhem Lauren is one of the better young rappers I've heard in a while, only he's almost too dirty for me.I've never been into X-rated rhymes, and he has several songs in which his sexual adventures are described in pornographic detail.


3.As part of my new initiative to listen to entire pieces of music rather than just snippets,  I've been listening to Steven Reich's "Music For 18 Musicians." It has a wonderful hypnotic quality.

4. I've also been listening to William Basinksi's "Disintegration Loop." It's loops of music he had recorded on audio tape that started to fall apart as he tried to record it to a CD. I believe this video is from the rooftop of his friend's apartment where they listened to it as the sun set on 9/11, with the song become this eulogy to the surreal and horrible experience of that day. It's haunting and mesmerizing, although not so much that I've ever managed to listen to all 60 minutes of it.



5. I watched part of "Basquiat" last night, Julian Schnabel's biopic. It was fugging terrible. I'd recommend you watch "Downtown 80" instead to get a real look at him.

The White Album

I just bought a used copy of the new reissue of the Beatles' 1968 White Album. I've never owned or listened to the entire album before. For a while I had a cassette in which I cherry picked the songs I liked on to one side. It's an amazing album, if totally incohesive. It contains some of their most beautiful songs, like "Dear Prudence," "Blackbird," and "Julia." It contains some of their heaviest songs, like "Yer Blues" and "Helter Skelter." It contains some really weird shit, like "Revolution 9" and "Wild Honey Pie." And it contains some of my favorite songs, like "I'm So Tired."

The Beatles were one of the first bands I ever listened to and loved. I remember listening to my mother's copy of Meet the Beatles when I was in first grade. It's amazing how much they changed in their brief lifespan. In seven years they went from the teeny-bop of "Love Me Do" to the psychedelic weirdness of "I Am the Walrus" to the heavy rock of "Get Back." A lot of it was the times: their trajectory followed the trajectory of popular culture, but I'm not sure how much of that was them following the trends or setting them. My only real problem with the Beatles is that I've heard their songs so much I frankly get sick of them. Which is why it's nice to rediscover their later material, which I have not had as much exposure to. Listening to them is like listening to home: comforting, familiar, sweet, and also dysfunctional and a little discordant.

Maundz Review

I reviewed Aussie rapper Maundz's Zero on RapReviews this week. Aggressive rap in the vein of Jedi Mind Tricks. Good for what it is, but not my thing.

In other news, Stones Throw's reissue label Now Again records started a subscription service. I just joined and got the Witch box set and two funk/soul collections. "Introduction" has become my new theme song.

Best of 2012 So Far

2012 has been a hell of a year so far. It started with my nephew being born on New Year's Eve, then a massive fire near my apartment New Year's Day, then my grandmother passing away a few days later, pets dying, friends getting pregnant, kids getting older, people losing homes, selling homes, buying homes. As I write this I am on the brink of possibly moving to the East Bay after living in San Francisco since 1993. I keep reminding myself that the only constant is change, and that attachment to things is the source of all misery. Much easier to say than actually feel. Although when there was a massive fire blazing four doors down from us, I realized that as long as I had my wife, I had everything I needed, which was a nice lesson to learn. Of course, when I heard our neighbor's apartment had been broken into last week and was unsure about ours, all I could think of was "Not the PS3! I've put like 30 hours into Borderlands!!!!"

Which all goes to say that there has been an undercurrent of stress running in the background for me and mine this year. It's like background noise that you get used to and don't notice until it goes away. Or water slowly boiling, to use another analogy. It's nothing we can't handle, and much less than many people deal with. The key is learning how to adapt to it, and to try to not let it all bog you down.

One constant outlet for me is music. I've been voraciously consuming music this year. I've probably bought or downloaded almost a hundred since the year started. I've gotten into jazz in a big way and discovered these new sets from Real Gone Jazz that collect 6-8 albums on 3-4 discs, all for around $14. The packaging and liner notes suck, they put two albums on each disc and the sound quality isn't amazing, but it is a nice way to get an overview of an artist's work. I've gotten sets by Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Yusef Lateef, and Curtis Fuller.

There's also been some great rap albums released this year. YU started things off with The Earn, followed by the excellent Quakers album. Death Grips, Killer Mike, and El-P followed up in the Spring by releasing three excellent albums. And that's just the stuff I listened to. Oddisee, Schoolboy Q and Blockhead have all released new albums that have gotten praise.

Maybe the only constants are change, and music.

In related news, Death Grips has a video for "Double Helix" that was filmed using a car's rear camera:


And the video for Killer Mike's "Big Beast" features zombie strippers and more gore than a horror movie.

House Shoes Review

I reviewed Detroit producer House Shoes' debut album this week on RapReviews, Let It Go. It's good. He works with a lot of underground rappers from Detroit, L.A., New York, and beyond.

Here's a video for one of my favorite songs from the album, "Time."

Harn Solo and Illogic

I reviewed Harn Solo's album Shooting Star.  Wasn't feeling it, but you can check out his bandcamp page to see if it's your thing.

I also review Illogic and Blockhead's album Preparing For Capture. I was a fan of it. You can also get it on bandcamp. 

El-P, Clams Casino,

I have some new reviews up at RapReviews.

Last week I did a review of the new Clams Casino instrumental mixtape. Hard to believe that these are hip-hop beats. They sound more like ambient electronica.

I also reviewed Romain Virgo's latest album, The System. He's one of the more promising contemporary reggae singers out there.

I also reviewed Bigg Jus's Machines That Make Civilization Fun. It is a challenging, daring record that unfortunately doesn't work in execution.

Finally, I reviewed El-P's Cancer 4 Cure.

Here's that review, originally posted on RapReviews:



An El-P album is an event. He's only released three vocal albums in the past ten years, and each one has been a must-own, at least for fans of underground hip-hop. His albums are carefully constructed, full of complicated rhymes, themes, and beats. He does all his own production (only fitting for a man originally known as El-Producto), collaborating with a team of musicians to create music that falls somewhere between hip-hop, rock, and noise. Each of his two previous albums set such a high standard that when he announced his latest release, fans had to wonder if he could keep up his winning streak. From the first listen of "Cancer 4 Cure," the answer is clear: of course he can.

2002's "Fantastic Damage" tried to process post 9/11 New York, and 2007's "I'll Sleep When You're Dead" captured the paranoia and dysfunction of the Bush years. El-P has called "Cancer 4 Cure" his fighting record, and the man's got a lot to be angry about. The economy is STILL in the toilet, being voted out of office somehow made the right wing come back angrier and stronger than ever, we're still fighting two endless wars that we refuse to talk about or pay for, and, oh yeah, El-P lost his label AND his best friend. While the death of Camu Tao hangs over the album, the demise of Definitive Jux seems to have given El-P the gift of freedom. He no longer has to worry about negotiating with artists, vendors, distributors, and retailers. He's not bogged down in the day-to-day business of running a label, and is no longer on the front lines of the disintegrating record industry. Instead he's free to do what he does best: make amazing beats and spit intricate rhymes. He's already done some of his best production work in years on Killer Mike's "R.A.P. Music," so evidently losing his label hasn't kept him down.

Let me put this out there: El-P isn't the most technically proficient rapper. His stentorian flow is reminiscent of Chuck D, but his delivery lacks finesse or swagger. It's not that he's bad, but he's not the greatest rapper ever. When Danny Brown and Killer Mike show up they outshine El-P, despite the fact that both of their verses are tossed-off. However, what El-P lacks in style he more than makes up for by being one of the best lyricists and storytellers in hip-hop. The man should be writing novels and poetry. His gifts almost seem wasted in rap format, especially since he only dribbles out 13 tracks every five years. The operative word here is almost, because the combination of El-P's lyrics and beats is almost always gold.

Case in point: "The Full Retard." The track samples Camu Tao's "When You're Going Down," with the late rapper urging the listener to "pump this shit like they do in the future." And future is exactly the word to describe El-P's production. Ominous synths, clattering noise, and sci-fi samples are his bread and butter. His beats are like art made out of garbage. He takes a bunch of cast-off, disparate elements and molds them into some other level shit. Any idiot with a computer can make noisy beats, though. What makes an El-P beat an El-P beat is his deep knowledge of and respect for hip-hop. His beats are BEATS, grounded in banging drums and often referencing the golden age of 80s New York rap, when being noisy was a good thing. There is a little more bang in this album than on "I'll Sleep When You're Dead." That album had its share of slow and experimental tracks. For the most part, "Cancer 4 Cure" moves relentlessly forward, barely stopping to take a breath.

El-P is a master at one-liners and clever wordplay. "Don't you know this is a rotten time to not not be me?" he asks on "Works Every Time." "I've got memories to lose, man, I am in a rush." On the sort-of love song "The Jig Is Up," he tells a potential suitor "Men like me don't ever get no second chance/Not for the kind of man who showed up at death's door and ding dong dashed so much he wore out a hole in the welcome mat." His lyrics are full of references and double meanings, so much so that you'll still be unpacking them even after hundreds of listens. He's sort of like hip-hop's version of William Faulkner, whose novels are so dense you need the Cliff's Notes just to understand what the hell is going on. Five years after "I'll Sleep When You're Dead" came out I'm still discovering new things in those songs, and "Cancer 4 Cure" will demand an equal amount of attention.

A lot of this album deals with dark subject matter. The single "Drones Over Brooklyn" imagines New York under siege. "For My Upstairs Neighbor (Mums the Word)" seems at first to be about the insensitivity of New York life, as a man is questioned by the police about an incident at his neighbor's apartment:

"You all know what I know and that's heaping pile of donut holes
I didn't even know them
I am not your perfect witness
Your team of fat blue buddies waddling around and trying to crack the case
Are better off locating someone else
I spent the day on my New York shit
Didn't even meet them once
And no I'm not upset, I'm just another guy minding his business
[...]
Come on, you know the drill
These walls are thick
I got my own shit that I'm dealing with
I haven't seen or heard a thing
I never met 'em
That's the city
Good luck working it, Columbo
I'ma bounce
You got my info but you'll never get my pity and I'm out"

It's only later in the song that you realize that what is really happening is that the neighbor has been beating his wife, and the narrator is giving the wife permission to kill her abuser, telling her "If you kill him, I won't tell." This is a return to subject matter he first delved into on Company Flow's "Last Good Sleep," in which he described pretending to sleep while his stepfather beat his mother.

"Tougher Colder Killer" describes a soldier interrogating an enemy, delving into the horrors of the wars we are fighting, and the psychological and physical damage they are inflicting on everyone involved.

"To the mother of my enemy I just killed
Your son, he died with his face to the sky and
It can not be undone
He didn't die hard
In the end he just grinned and bowed
Made him dig his own grave at the point of a gun while he laughed to the gods out loud
And it made me wanna jump out a window
And it made me wanna scream
Tear my face off
Run through the streets
[...]
I wanted you to know that since then I don't sleep
And the uniform tags sidearm ID that I wore when I did it got sent C.O.D to the HQ
Note reading 'This is not me and I hate you
For making me make a man bleed.'"

I grew up with several Vietnam vets who bore the scars from that war decades after it ended, and I can only imagine that our current wars are causing just as many scars on the young people who are fighting them. "Tougher Colder Killer" addresses the deeper, longer term effects of war on its combatants.

This being an El-P album, there are the inevitable songs about dysfunctional relationships, or more accurately, how he doesn't understand why women like him when he thinks he is such a mess. "The Jig Is Up" overcomes its emo self-loathing with a banging beat. "Sign Here" is either an interrogation or a sado-masochistic relationship. Either way it is creepy as hell. The album ends with the eight-minute long "$4 Vic/Nothing But You + Me (FTL)." The production is muddy and dirge-like, until the outro kicks in at the 6 minute mark sampling what sounds like the intro to "Kid Icarus." El-P sheds his hard exterior, rapping:

"I know there's
Something good that I'd die here for
Something great that I'd live here for
Something fly that I'd write for you
Something wrong that I'd bite you for
Something sacred you'd cure me of
Something sad to make sure your loved
Some of us cannot trust no one
Some of us don't deserve no trust
Nothing wrong with not being strong
Nothing says we need to beat what's wrong
Nothing manmade remains made long
That's a debt we can't back out of
Nothing that they can take from you
[...]
They can torture and interrogate
And shackle to my boot
I will gnaw off my own leg
And hop the fuck right back to you"

"Cancer 4 Cure" can get headache-inducing at times. Some of the noisy beats are noisier than others, and it can be an awful lot of vitriol to take in one sitting. Still, it is prime El-P, deep, heavy, funny, and banging all at the same time. The picture El-P paints with "Cancer 4 Cure" isn't always a pretty one, but it is always well-executed and uniquely his own.

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.