April 27th, 2007
Rest assured, Joey “Straight Bangin” and I are putting in work, trying to import the many ballots we received into spreadsheet form. Sadly, it takes a whole lot of time, so don’t expect a full list until at least late next week. All apologies. In the meantime, here’s a look at the next 25 that didn’t make my ballot.
50. Atmosphere-Overcast!
Before concluding that 2Pac was right when he told Biggie, “you gotta’ rap for the bitches,” Slug was a pretty phenomenal rapper. Having not yet waded into the emo deep-end, Atmophere’s debut was a perfect balance between good-old hard-nosed MC’ing (”Cuando Limpia el Humo”) and intelligent introspection (”Scapegoat.)” He said it best on the stand-out “1597:” even if your DJ was Jesus/you could never fuck with these kids.
Download:
MP3: Atmosphere-”1597″
49. Beastie Boys-Paul’s Boutique
Seriously, people need to give these guys a break. No Jews should be able to sound this good rapping. Don’t believe me, go to Hebrew School and see for yourself. L’chaim.
Download:
MP3: The Beastie Boys-”Car Thief”
48. Big L-Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous
When Papoose eventually drops the Nectarine Dream or whatever the hell he’s calling his debut, he should start paying Big L royalties. Seriously, the guy jacked L’s flow and voice wholesale. And by merely doing an L imitation, he’s good enough to be considered one of the premiere young New York MC’s. It’s tragic that L got shot in yet another Harlem unsolved murder case. After all, he was a pretty great rapper and just 24 years old. Perhaps his ghost can rise from the grave and smack the shit out of his former Children of the Corn partner, Cam’ron, for that retarded 60 minutes appearance.
Download:
MP3: Big L-”Put it On”
47. Rjd2-Deadringer
Dear RJD2,
Please stop singing and make an album like Deadringer. It doesn’t have to be an exact copy, just close. Not to be a dick or anything, but everyone’s been talking and we just really like those samples you used to put into your songs and that Vincent Price horror-hop stuff was pretty awesome. And yeah, a few good guest-rappers wouldn’t hurt. C’mon. I dare you. Please.
Sincerely,
Jeff Weiss
P.S. I will even buy you a beer if you do.
Download:
MP3: RJD2-”The Horror”
46. Xzibit-At the Speed of Life
Easily one of the most underrated rap records of all time, At the Speed of Life, is raw, swaggering and surprisingly introspective. If you think Xzibit was always a ride-pimping happy-go-lucky dude, you need to hear him at 22, full of anger and rage at the world, the last and best member of the Likwit crew to emerge. His follow-up, 1998’s 40 Dayz and 40 Nights was nearly as good, but Xzibit would never again write a song as good as “Carry the Weight,” his chilling chronicle of growing up poor and motherless in an abusive home.
Download:
MP3: Xzibit-”Carry the Weight”
45. Fugees-The Score
If you wanna’ know how much hip-hop has fallen off in the last decade, if this CD were re-made today, it would be called Elephunk, and Lauryn Hill would be replaced by a former Disney kid star/meth head/pants pisser named “Fergie.” Just saying.
Download:
MP3: The Fugees-”The Score”
44. Mos Def-Black on Both Sides
It seems rather clear now that Mos Def had a two-year window of brilliance, which immediately shut closed sometime around the Millennium. But what a run it was, featuring a string of outstanding solo singles and collaborations with Talib Kweli, capped by the brilliant, Black on Both Sides. You know an album’s hot when the rapper can turn a song about water conservation (”New World Water”) into the jam.
Download:
MP3: Mos Def-”Hip-hop”
43. Goodie Mobb-Soul Food
Let’s pretend you like more than three songs on that terminally mediocre Gnarls Barkley record. I have the solution for you. Play “Goodie Bag” from Dungeon Family collective , Goodie Mobb’s seminal debut, Soul Food. If that doesn’t change your mind, play “Cell Therapy.” Hell, play the whole debut. If that doesn’t work, play “They Don’t Dance No Mo” and “Black Ice” from Goodie Mobb’s nearly-as-good follow-up, Still Standing. If you still think Cee-Lo is doing better things now, may I politely suggest that you stop listening to hip-hop.
Download:
MP3: Goodie Mobb-”Goodie Bag”
42. Common-Like Water for Chocolate
A great album from a great rapper who decided mid-career that he wanted be the hip-hop Derek Zoolander (really, check those GAP ads again) and hang out with Jeremy Piven. Still with the team of ?uestlove, Dilla, Premier and Common working on this record, it was damn near impossible that it couldn’t be rock-solid.
Download:
MP3: Common-”Doin It”
41. EPMD-Strictly Business
Puffy owes his entire production career to this album. It was Sermon who first pioneered the practice of lifting samples wholesale and rapping over them. “Strictly Business” features Erick and Parish spitting over “I Shot the Sheriff.” “You Gots to Chill” re-appropriates “Jungle Boogie.” “It’s My Thing” utilizes Tyrone Thomas’ “7 Minutes of Funk” nearly a decade before “Ain’t No N—a.” While “You’re a Customer” jacks Steve Miller’s “Fly like an Eagle” (and “Jungle Boogie” again). Sure, it’s a tad derivative. But Strictly Business is funky as hell.
Download:
MP3: EPMD-”Strictly Business”
40. Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek are Reflection Eternal-Train of Thought
When this record was released, it seemed to herald the emergence of Talib Kweli as one of the greatest rappers in recent memory, one certain to go down as one of the greats. The reason was Train of Thought’s incredible consistency, despite its whopping 20 tracks and an hour-plus length. Kweli never again delivered on the astounding promise he flashed here. In particular, “Expansion Outro,” stands alone as one of the greatest civil rights songs in hip-hop history.
MP3: Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek-”Expansion Outro“
39. Gang Starr-Moment of Truth 
Daily Operation and Hard to Earn are stone-cold classics, but the four-year hiatus between the latter album proved essential to the creation of its follow-up, the group’s masterpiece, 1998’s Hard to Earn. Premier’s always head-nodding beats took a cosmic leap as he broadened his array of samples, tossing in everything from The Supremes, to Fleetwood Mac, to Jeff Beck to Liquid Swords. While still maintaining his trademark monotone flow, Guru stepped up his story-telling game, chronicling a guns arrest on “JFK to LAX,” the cautionary street-life tale “The Rep Grows Bigga” and his eulogy to the fallen on “In Memory Of.”
Download:
MP3: Gangstarr-”JFK 2 LAX”
38. Aesop Rock-Float
Judging from the vibe I’ve gotten from blogging for a year and a half, I’m guessing the majority of people reading this don’t care much for Aesop Rock. But honestly it’s time he shed the “nerd rapper” misnomer that music writers have unfairly pegged him with. It’s not a creative label and honestly, the irony of any blogger/music journalist calling a rapper a “nerd” is a little too much for even me to bear (Paul Barman excluded).
Certainly you can chide Aesop for his lyrical density, unorthodox flow and generally esoteric vibe. But out of any record in his discography, Float is the most accessible, with string-heavy orchestration from Blockhead nicely contrasting Aesop’s gutteral two packs-a-day voice. If Labor Days is the novel about the horrors of the 9-5 world, Float is a breezy collection of short stories. Certainly, the tone can get dark at times (it is Aesop Rock), but Float remains cautiously optimistic, yet no less lyrically poignant.
Download:
MP3: Aesop Rock ft. Vast Aire-”Attention Span”
37. Black Sheep-A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing
Fuck ODB. Black Sheep was for the children. How else to explain the video for “Strobelite Honey,” a cautionary tale that advised the youth of America how to properly behave at a disco (a hint: hope that you have good sight).
“The Choice is Yours” (with its endlessly memorable “you can get with this or you can get with that”…hook) and the Jefferson Airplane sampling “Similak Child” this album stands shoulder-to-shoulder with 3 Feet High and Low End Theory as the high-water marks of the Native Tongues Movement.
Download: Black Sheep-”The Choice is Yours Revisited”
36. Big Daddy Kane-Long Live the Kane 
They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But you damn well can judge an album by its cover. The verdict: awesome.
Download:
MP3: Big Daddy Kane-”Ain’t No Half Steppin‘”
35. Boogie Down Productions-Criminal Minded
When I was in college, I belatedly heard BDP’s Criminal Minded for the first time. To my surprise, I’d already heard the damn thing before, as every BDP vocal had already been spliced or interpolated by one of my favorite rappers , every one of Scott La Rock’s break-beats already sampled. But Criminal Minded is more than just influential, it’s a great record, one that feels less lyrically dated than nearly anything from hip-hop’s first Golden Age.
Download:
MP3: Boogie Down Productions-“The Bridge is Over”
34. Eric B & Rakim-Paid in Full
The album in which Rakim invented the modern definition of an MC. Smooth, powerful rhymes, funky dusty beats supplied by the ever-innovative, JB’s-obsessed Eric B. Listening to this album makes think of a line Rza dropped on the song “Biochemical Equation: “there’s no accounting/ how many MC’s have sprung from my fountain.” No disrespect to Rza, but that line should belong to Rakim.
MP3: Eric B & Rakim-”I Know You Got Soul”
33. De La Soul-3 Feet High and Rising
Among the albums that should’ve been included in the top 25, 3 Feet High and Rising stands out as one of the most glaring omissions. Prince Paul’s production is ground-breaking, the rhymes are soothing and life-affirming, the skits are hilarious. In truth, De La released three other albums that could arguably have a place on this list in De La Soul is Dead, Buhloone Mind State and Stakes is High. 3 Feet High and Rising just happens to be my personal favorite. If De La Soul aren’t the best hip-hop group of all-time, they’re damn close, and if nothing else, they’re certainly the most original. Watch the video for “Me Myself and I.” Get upset that no one in the rap world, circa 2007, is even 1/10th this creative.
Download:
MP3: De La Soul-”Eye Know”
32. Camp Lo-Uptown Saturday Night 
Floating somewhere in between the braggadocio of the “Big Willies” and the Company Flows of the NYC of 1997, were the two MCs that constituted Camp Lo: Sonny Chiba and Geechie Suede, flowing on their unique slang-heavy psychedelics meets blaxploitation trip. Too mainstream for the underground and too underground for the mainstream, they flew under the radar and few people bought their outstanding debut, “Uptown Saturday Night.” In recent years, heads have finally come around on Chiba and Suede’s dazzling tongue-twisting flows and technicolor imagery. It’s about time. With “Black Nostaljack” to “Luchini” to “Coolie High” this album had arguably the best singles of any record from the period.
Download:
MP3: Camp Lo-”Black Nostaljack”
31. Digital Underground-Sex Packets
Covered at length here. Listening to the gleeful idiosyncrasy of this record that dropped 17 years ago last month, it’s striking how far removed it feels from the world of 2007 hip-hop. It’s almost inconceivable that a major label will ever again take a chance on an eight-man hip-hop collective that proudly celebrates their weirdness, never trying on hard-core poses, just writing catchy, off-beat songs about sex and psychedelics, (not to mention pertinent advice about the best way to hook-up with your friends in the next room). And of course, “Humpty Dance” is my pick for the best party record of all-time.
Download:
MP3: Digital Underground-”Humpty Dance” (left-click)
30. The Notorious B.I.G-Life After Death
Condense these tracks onto one album and it’s my pick for best of all-time by a wide margin. As it is, it belongs in the top 25. Life After Death is the most infuential hip-hop record of the last 15 years. For better or worse. Ever wonder why great rappers think they can kick club jams without sacrificing any of their street cred? See “Hypnotize” or “Mo Money Mo Problems.” Ever wonder why every rapper thinks they can be the next Mario Puzo. See “Somebody’s Got to Die” or “N—s Bleed.”
Story-telling had been an essential component of hip-hop since “The Message” but no rapper other than maybe Nas and Ghost have possessed the ability to craft tales as nuanced and subtle as Biggie. Like Whitman, he contained multitudes, as seen in “I Got a Story to Tell,” which in just under five minutes captures the myriad sides of Biggie: the sly wit, the violent bent and the Big Poppa player persona, all set to intricate rhyme schemes and delivered in Biggie’s husky, world-weary baritone.
Download:
MP3: The Notorious B.I.G-”I Got a Story to Tell”
29. Jay-Z Blueprint
The Chronic for the 00s, The Blueprint is one of those rare records that kids will remember in 20 years as being the first album they ever purchased. Instantly 5-mic’d. Snapped Jay-Z out of his Roc La Familia slumber and assured his place as one of the all-time greats. Released on Sept. 11, an entire generation had the eerie experience of bumping this record at obscene volumes through the midst of the one of the most tragic weeks the nation had collectively experienced. The most iconic hip-hop record of the decade thus far? I’d say so.
Download:
MP3: Jay-Z -”Takeover”
28. A Tribe Called Quest-Midnight Marauders 
The first time I ever heard this record was at Lollapalooza 94. It was my first concert and Tribe absolutely destroyed the main stage, turning the alternative nation out with grooves like “Electric Relaxation,” “Award Tour” and “Stir it Up” (is there a more iconic album-opener in hip-hop than Phife’s “Linden Blvd represent represent”). Smack dab in the middle of “Clap Your Hands,” I found a joint lying miraculously in front of me on the grass lawn at Cal-State Dominguez Hills, the site of the festival. It was all over from that point on.
Download:
MP3: A Tribe Called Quest-”Award Tour”
27. Ghostface Killah-Ironman
The last of the first burst of classic Wu solo records, Ironman is perhaps most soulful of the bunch, as Rza filled Ghost’s debut with Al Green, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and Delphonics loops, a sharp turn from the nuclear winter mood he’d conjured on Liquid Swords. Using the 60s and 70s greats as his guide, Ironman finds Ghostface reaching a balance of emotional resonance and vicious boasts that set the template for his entire solo career. Tracks like “All That I Got is You,” “Motherless Child” and the blistering rawness of “Wildflower” sit side-by-side with crime sagas like “260″ and “Box in Hand.” “Blood-thirsty and coke-addled, few rhymers have ever sounded this hard and yet this vulnerable.
Download:
MP3: Ghostface Killah-”Winter Warz”
26. Public Enemy-It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
In the comments section for my original Top 25 post, the esteemed, Dallas Penn wrote this: “Passion, I trust the shit you say on a serious level, but by not including any Public Enemy on your list I think you are just being difficult and hell’a contrary. I will change my list for you and add whatever bullshit album from Black Eyed Peas you want to see one album from P.E. in your top 25.”
Of course, Dallas is right. Any “Best of” list that doesn’t include A Nation of Millions is an incomplete one. And in truth, having coming of age in a period when Public Enemy’s star was already on the wane, I never got a proper introduction to the group, coming to them only after the anti-Semitism allegations, the Air America radio show, and Surreal Life (don’t even get me started on Flavor of Fucking Love).
But no matter how much Chuck D and Flav sullied their reputation post-PE, there’s no denying that half the groups on my Top 25 wouldn’t even be rapping if not for PE’s medley of furious shrapnel beats and political-minded raps that captured the zeigeist of late 80s NYC better than anyone else.
Download:
MP3: Public Enemy-”Rebel Without a Pause”
Posted in Lists, Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought?, Best Of | 11 Comments »
April 26th, 2007
It’s that time of year again. Time for the only “LA” music festival in the world. A time when the two concert-a-year crowd (three if Wolfmother comes to town) rents lavish houses in the desert, throws killer parties and dangles their VIP passes like they were Wayne and Garth backstage at an Alice Cooper concert.
I will be staying at a Motel 6 and will not be a VIP. Consequently, my life is not worth living. However, I am currently en route to the Desert, trying not to ward off frightening battery of hippies, Hollywood types and scariest of all, die-hard Rage fans. (Then again, they can’t be worse than Tool).
So I’ve left you all with a monster Best Of post (a final list won’t be compiled for another week….Joey and I need accountants…which you think would be quite easy to find for two Jews, but not so much). No posting Monday but expect a Day One of Coachella write-up by mid-day Tuesday. If you want coverage in the meantime, go to the Times’ website’s Coachella Coverage. I will be helping the Buzz Bands’ Coachella Blog. (And while you’re at it, check out this Times feature I wrote for Thursday’s Calendar on Family Los Angeles, a very cool new book/music shop in town.)
Bjork Says To Read These Links (and Buzzer!!!!)
Brunette Like Me attends the really great Sunset Rubdown show that I attended the other night but didn’t have time to write about.
Blockhead dissects the idiocy of Mims.
New blog to check for is Chickens Don’t Clap. It does not have the clap, but hopefully it will have chickens.
See other Top 25 Lists:
20/20 Proof
Analog Giant
Angry Citizen
Audio Deficit Disorder
Berkeley Place
Bol
Dallas Penn
8 Million Stories
Floodwatch
Fresh Cherries From Yakima
From Da Bricks
Gorilla Vs. Bear
Jamie Radford
Just Sayin’ (1, 2)
Poisonous Paragraphs
Slushy Gutter Summer
Start Snitchin’
Straight Bangin’
Until the Train Stops
Posted in Festivals | 2 Comments »
April 25th, 2007
Brother Ali’s debut record, 2003’s Shadows’ lack of cohesion was best summed up in a ham-handed punch-line, wherein Ali declared he was “a cross between John Gotti and Mahatma Gandhi.” Sure, if being John Gotti means running interference for Slug, helping him escape a pack of deranged emo chicks. It was the sort of lazy boast you’d expect to hear on a Fat Joe record, not someone being talked up as one of the underground’s newest leading lights.
On The Undisputed Truth, Ali delivers a similarly awkward line, now positing himself as a cross between Howard Stern and Howard Zinn. Stupid, right? But after listening to the album enough times, a weird truth starts seeps into your brain. The dude’s sort of right. For (mostly) better or worse. Like Stern, Ali’s record is instantly jarring, with “Whatcha’ Got” and its stomping electric guitars and snarling snare hits. Brash and confident after his four-year hiatus, Ali sounds fierce and hungry, twisting his preacher’s cadence into a growling, cage-rattling rasp.
Ali isn’t hiding what’s on his mind either. With the recording booth as his Sirius Station, Ali balances his tough-nosed persona with a surprising level of candor and vulnerability, admitting to being homeless and touching on the break-up of his ten-year marriage and the death of his mother from cancer. With “Faheem,” his ode/apology to his six-year old son, Ali successfully steers clear of the tired tropes and cloying sentimentality that seem to muck up most rappers attempts at sincerity.
Bababooey Ali: The Albino Howard Stern? 
Displaying increasing versatility, the record displays a more assured Ali, one who can switch styles from fire and brimstone sermons to soulful party anthems effortlessly. Whereas Ali had previously attacked tracks with a bruising anger, he’s learned to change speeds, cradle syllables, and stretch out words with Pharohe Monch-like facility.
But if you listen to enough Stern, it’s easy to get bored when he runs off on tangents no one but him cares about—a trait, unfortunately, Ali seems to share. Frequently invoking his religious devotion, at times Ali looks less like a revolutionary and more like a proselyte. Meanwhile, on superfluous tracks like “Lookin’ at Me Sideway,” and “Here,” he wastes his time issuing vague missives at critics and such.
Zinn, too, remains a vital part of the equation. “Uncle Sam Goddamn” is surprisingly effective despite a groan-inducing, “Welcome to the United Snakes / Land of the thief / Home of the slave” hook. Meanwhile “Letter to the Government,” tackles conscription with a blunt, forceful approach. Like Zinn, Ali isn’t one for nuance. His protest politics have the zeal of convert, a sincere righteousness that you can’t help but admire.
Howard Zinn: God-Body MC
Sonically, Ant turns in his most consistent slate of beats since God Loves Ugly. Ten years into the game, Rhymesayers’ sonic architect remains criminally underrated perhaps due to the fact that he relies so heavily on classic funk and soul samples. Then again, the guy started doing it four years before Kanye and on The Undisputed Truth, his meat and potatoes production proves consistently satisfying and effective.
By the end of the hour-plus record, Ali comes off as an arrogant trash-talker, a loving father, a struggling worker, a grieving son, and an aggrieved activist, displaying a level of depth unseen in most of contemporary hip-hop. You might not agree with him the entire way, but the gale force of Ali’s convictions and talent will leave you willing to believe most of his truth.
Originally Published in Stylus Magazine
Download:
MP3: Brother Ali-”Truth is”
MP3: Brother Ali-”Whatcha’ Got”
Posted in Album Reviews | 4 Comments »
April 24th, 2007
I’m a sucker for a band with a good horn section (no Hillbilly Jim). I don’t know what it is. Maybe the brass fanfare reminds me of Renaissance Faires. Or maybe it reminds me of brass monkeys, both alcoholic and Beastiefied. So when I heard the Minor Canon’s doleful, soulful, and horn-ful (if that isn’t a word, it is now) record, No Deed Goes Unpunished, I was anxious to see the band live, to see how they’d incorporate a trumpeter and trombonist into their melancholic brand of acoustic guitar pop.
And after seeing the penultimate week of their April residency at Spaceland, I got my answer in the form of an alternately haunting, powerful and triumphant hour-long set that paired an uplifting Memphis Soul section to Minor Canon lead singer, Paul Larson’s soft but sturdy guitar melodies. Backed by a piano man, a bassist/organist, a drummer and the horns, Larson sits up front, alternately strumming away and singing with a rich, powerful voice. At other times, Larson pounds away on a second drum set to his left, filling the air with an almost overwhelming sonic fury that belies the plaintive, muted sounds of the record.
Of course, Minor Canon’s impressive performance wasn’t all that surprising considering that Larson is a road-tested vet of the LA music scene, one of the former members of a mid-90s band called Strictly Ballroom, a group who broke up after just one album but whose members eventually went on to form The Beachwood Sparks, Dntel (Jimmy Tamborello was in the band), and the Tyde. (Duke has the entire history here, if you’re interested). In fact, the Postal Service was recorded at Larson’s studio and Larson himself contributes guitar work on the new Dntel record that came out yesterday.
The Minor Canon: Now with 25% More Cannon
But unlike Tamborello’s interest in merging electronic music with rock, Larson is more interested in pillaging the Stax catalogue and setting it up against sensitive wistful acoustic ballads that would feel right on home on an OC Soundtrack. It’s the kind of music that would come off as neutered sad white guy schtick in the hands of an amateur (or Ben Gibbard). But Larson’s no rookie and he knows how to Sing, letting his Jeff Tweedy-esque voice stretch for notes without quivering, pushing the words out with an uncanny emotional force that blanketed the room with a soothing, calming patina of sound.
But it’s the horn section that adds a depth and richness to the Minor Canon and allows Larson’s tunes to be more than something you’d merely expect to see on in a freshman year dorm room iTunes playlist labeled “Just Been Dumped.” Live, each tune explodes to life with resonant trumpet blasts, allowing for a impressive sonic diversity that bears well for re-play value. Minor Canon is never going to make party jams, but they aren’t easy to dismiss either, especially for those who pay attention to Larson’s meticulous pop craftsmanship and veteran’s attention to detail.
Running through the majority of the tracks on No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (which is an early favorite for local album of the year), Minor Canon also debuted some promising new tracks, as well as a very impressive cover of Wolf Parade’s “I’ll Believe in Anything.” The set was excellent and enough to make my include Minor Canon in my personal canon of top local bands. There’s just one just week left in their residency at Spaceland, so go, and while you’re at it go to the Renaissance Faire which just returned to SoCal (just don’t touch their horns). Indeed, this Spring is shaping up to be a banner time for brass fanfare fans here in Cali. Huzzah!
Buy No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Here
Download:
MP3: The Minor Canon-”The Art of the Quickdraw”
Get two more MP3’s on The Minor Canon’s Myspace
Posted in Beards, Blazers, & Glasses | No Comments »
April 24th, 2007
No self-respecting music journalist writes an article on the British five-piece, Art Brut without comparing lead singer, Eddie Argos’ archly ironic demeanor to Jonathan Richman of the Modern Lovers. So let’s just get it out the way. Yeah, Argos has that underachieving but highly intelligent, smirking in the back of the classroom vibe that made Richman endearing. But at this point, with their second album, It’s a Bit Complicated, slated to drop June 26 on Downtown Records on June 26, its time to move past the simple Modern Lovers comparisons (or The Fall or Television Personalities…et al).
Because watching Argos and the gang turn the Troubadour into a raucous celebration last Saturday, the band didn’t remind me of The Modern Lovers nearly as much as they reminded me of another great group from the northeast, The Hold Steady. A description that might seem a little weird if you’ve never seen them live and had only heard the band’s very solid debut, Bang Bang Rock N’ Roll, a record as clever as it was catchy, filled with angular riffs and so-dumb-it’s brilliant hooks, a far cry from complex character-driven sketches about Midwesterners and their lapsed Catholicism.
The debut was no doubt impressive, but still one had to wonder about Brut being a flash-in-the-pan gimmick, especially considering the spiky post-punk that they’d mined so successfully on Bang Bang was played out by the time the record actually saw a US release last year. Argos had razor-sharp lyrics but if they couldn’t once again deliver catchy tunes to back his tongue-in-cheek tales, album number two would be nothing more than ironic hipster schlock.
Garth, Are You Wearing Brut? Yes. My Woman Likes Me in Cologne.
But with their wickedly good live set, Art Brut quelled all and any doubts I might have had. I’ve seen them three times and they seem to grow tighter and more confident with each visit. In particular, lead guitarist Jasper Future has become increasingly more assured since replacing Chris Chinchilla, who skipped out on the verge of their first U.S. tour. With the nickname “Back to the,” Jasper wear a blonde pompadour, handles backing vocals, cups his ear to the crowd and lets off short but blistering solos, a vast improvement on recorded guitar parts that Chinchilla laid down on the debut. The difference between Art Brut pre and post-Future is as striking as the difference between The Hold Steady and their rawer Lifter Puller incarnation, where Tad Kubler languished on bass.
Eddie Argos remains a madman, still jumping rope with the microphone, still raving how you should never trust someone in a band, still commanding Art Brut with rigid comedic discipline,. He delivers asides about “glamorizing bad sex” before launching into “Rusted Guns of Milan.” He starts chants of “Fuck Brooklyn” in retaliation for their booing of “Moving to L.A.” Like Craig Finn, Argos gets the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand instantly, shouting lyrics like a crazed drunk at the bar, telling tales of adolescence and its immediate aftermath. When Argos talks about “Emily Kane.” each time there’s a different wrinkle, a new update, reminiscent of Finn revisiting Holly and Charlemagne.
The set was a manic hour, with Brut running through kinetic renditions of the stand-out tracks from Bang Bang Rock N’ Roll, wisely jettisoning the only so-so, “Fight,” “10,000 Lira,” and “Stand Down.” In their place are several new, very stellar, It’s a Bit Complicated tracks. “Pump the Volume” is the best Weezer song since “Island in the Sun” (and about 1,000 times smarter). While “Direct Hit” is just begging to snagged by music supervisors everywhere.
Eddie Argos: Rock Star By Night, Amateur Abraham Lincoln Assassin by Day
But it’s the new single, “Nag Nag Nag” that might be the best song Argos has ever written. It’s the first time that Argos relaxes his arch demeanor, exposing just a hint of vulnerability, enough to make you realize how great of a songwriter he has a chance to be. It’s a coming of age song that might not be as complex as anything Finn has ever written, but it’s no less resonant. The song is the encore and it seems to seal the deal. In the parking lot outside everyone wears a smile and chants “Top of the Pops.” Sure, its a little ironic. It’s a little British (Newscastles are required), but the mood is always jubilant and celebratory. No matter what you think of this band. You can’t deny that they throw killer parties.
Download:
MP3: Art Brut-”Nag Nag Nag”
MP3: Art Brut-”Good Weekend”
Stream new tracks at Art Brut’s Myspace
Posted in Beards, Blazers, & Glasses | 1 Comment »
April 23rd, 2007
As you may have noticed, Passion of the Weiss, East Coast President, Joey “Straight Bangin’ and I have put out a call to arms for bloggers to name their 25 Favorite Hip-Hop albums of all-time. Of course, its a sorta’ pointless proposition, but so is blogging, so we figured why not combine the two and see what sort of consensus we can get.
Anyhow, ballots are already trickling in, if you’re interested in submitting one, send an e-mail to me at passionweiss@gmail.com or straightbangin@gmail.com. Expect a full list to simultaneously be broadcast on the closed circuit Passion Weiss/Straight Bangin’ cable channels sometime towards the end of this week.
In the meantime, I’m posting my list early, in just enough time for people to lambaste me for excluding Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, BDP and Public Enemy. But before you do, just remember my list is 25 Favorite, Not the 25 Best, or the 25 Most Important. Being 25 years old, I was 7 years old during the peak of the Golden Age in ‘88. Have I heard It Takes a Nation, Long the Kane/It’s a Bid Daddy Thing, Criminal Minded, Paid in Full? Of course. I like them all and they’d certainly make my next 25. But they didn’t soundtrack my junior high and high school years like the music of the second golden Age of NYC hip-hop (93-97) and the independent hip hop of the late 90s and early 00s. I’m biased. Deal with it.
25. El-P Fantastic Damage
The best album from arguably the most important figure in independent hip-hop history. On Fantastic Damage, El perfected his Phillip Dick by way of Joe Pesci persona, captured the spirit of apocalyptic 2001 NYC and updated the Bomb Squad for a new generation. Play it loud, smoke a blunt, it’ll rattle your skull.
Download:
MP3: El-P -”Tuned Mass Dumper”
24. Madvillain-Madvillainy
This choice could very well go to Doom’s similarly brilliant solo debut, Operation Doomsday, or maybe even his Viktor Vaughn record, Vaudeville Villain. But here, Madlib, the best underground West Coast producer of the last decade, plays Doom’s crazed weeded-out sidekick, nodding along to Doom’s twisted prophecies. Bringing the best of the west and east together, Madvillainy was the rare big name collabo that lived up to the hype.
Download:
MP3: Madvillain-”Accordian”
23. Pharoahe Monch-Internal Affairs
Organized Konfusion are first-ballot H.O.F.’ers, but no disrespect to Prince Po, Pharoahe was the star. So his debut solo turn is my personal favorite. On Internal Affairs, Pharoahe creates the darkest record in the Rawkus discography, eschewing Bo-ho Golden Age Rawkus revivalism to craft an vivid portrait of his possessed preacher persona. With gutter dirty beats from Diamond D, Alchemist and Pharoahe himself, the sonics perfectly matches Pharoahe’s poisoned vision.
Download:
MP3: Pharoahe Monch-”Hell”
22. Cannibal Ox-The Cold Vein
“ My goal […] was to produce something that had elements of beauty and, at the same time, elements of sorrow”- El-P
Pairing the intricate slang, poetic detail and pop culture imagery of Wu-Tang to El-P’s Tomorrowland sonics, Vast Aire and Vordul Mega produced the finest LP by any rap duo this decade. With the odds of a Cannibal Ox reunion growing dimmer and dimmer, this LP seems to grow better with each passing day.
Download:
MP3: Cannibal Ox-”Ox out the Cage”
21. The Roots-Illadelph Halflife
This when the Roots stopped fucking around with the hippie jam stuff and decided to make a rap album. The result is nothing short of spectacular. Black Thought and Malik never sounded rawer and ?uestlove hadn’t yet decided to start making music for the critics, setting gritty pounding drums to increasingly complex instrumentation. Bonus: “What They Do” remains one of the funniest music videos ever made.
Download:
MP3: The Roots-”Universe at War”
20. DJ Shadow-Endtroducing
Whoever said a picture is worth a thousand words must’ve had this album in mind. Using only samples, Shadow creates an almost entirely wordless masterpiece, one that evokes more depth and feeling than 99.9% of rappers can create armed with a thesaurus. The album that practically invented a genre, one that all subsequent hip-hop instrumentalist efforts will forever be compared to.
Download:
MP3: DJ Shadow-”Midnight in a Perfect World”
19. The Pharcyde-Bizarre Ride to the Pharcyde
Covered more at-length here. But in short, Bizarre Ride is an amalgam of bright colors, screams, thrills, fun-house lyrical contortions and straight-up hilarity. A 56-minute-long bizarre ride., featuring the Los Angeles-based quartet of Tre, Fatlip, Booty Brown and Imani Wilcox are a funnier and even more fun West Coast, De La Soul, focused less on ethereal abstractions than playful observations filtered under the analysis of strong drink and powerful narcotics. And “Passing Me By” might be the best song ever.
Download:
MP3: Pharcyde-”Passin’ Me By”
18. 2Pac-All Eyez on Me
2Pac is the most overrated rapper of all-time. Getting murdered at 25 will do that to you. With 2Pac’s lionization, rap fans, especially those based in the east, automatically backlash against him. And granted, his bloated discography doesn’t stand up to any other MC’s hailed as the greatest of all-time. But this album does. No rapper has ever sounded hungrier or more ferocious than 2Pac on All Eyez on Me, fresh out of the pen and out for blood.
Download:
MP3: 2Pac-”Picture Me Rollin”
17. Big Pun-Capital Punishment
If you don’t believe this record belongs on the list go and listen to “Tres Leches (Triboro Trilogy”) again. Listen how Pun manhandles the beat and upstages both Inspectah Deck and Prodigy, an almost impossible task in 1998. Listen to his Source ‘98 Verse of the Year on “Dream Shatterer.” Or better yet, listen to Pun’s “Dead in the Middle of Little Italy…” verse on Twinz (Deep Cover ‘98) and then compare it to Snoop and Dre on the original. It’s not even close.
Download:
MP3: Big Pun ft. Prodigy, Inspectah Deck-”Tres Leches (Triboro Trilogy)
16. Aesop Rock-Labor Days
Heads won’t grasp how good Labor Days is for another two decades. They simply won’t be able to give it enough spins until then. Perhaps the greatest re-play value of any hip-hop record ever created, Labor Days is lyrically dense to the point of impenetrability. Aesop’s cryptic slang is rivaled only by Ghostface in contemporary hip-hop. Don’t dismiss it as shallow back-pack babble. Once unraveled, the brilliant method to Aesop’s madness is revealed.
Download:
MP3: Aesop Rock-”The Yes, Yes, Y’All”
15. Redman-Muddy Waters
Covered at length here This could be any of Red’s first three records, but I find Muddy Waters the purest distillation of Redman’s sound: funk-sampling trunk-rattling Erick Sermon beats supplemented by clever lyrics that stick to the three B’s: Bricks, blunts and (crackin’ cold) Becks. And it’s the best stoner hip-hop album of all-time. Bar none.
Download
MP3: Redman-”Do What Ya Feel”
14. Jay-Z -Reasonable Doubt
The first time I ever heard Biggie and Jay-Z scatter bullets across the Ohio Players-sampling, “Brooklyn’s Finest,” I thought it was the best song I’d ever heard. 11 years later, I can’t argue with that logic. The rest of the album is nearly as good, a uniformly flawless work. Easily, the most consistently brilliant of all of Jay’s records (RD has nothing even close to as bad as “Jigga That N—-a)” Reasonable Doubt saw the rise of a young Jay, brash but not yet unsufferably cocky, out-of-harm’s way, but barely. Jay would eventually evolve beyond his Reasonable Doubt mafiosa fantasies, growing more introspective and emotionally resonant with nearly every album. But he never topped the debut.
Download:
MP3: Jay-Z-”Friend or Foe”
13. Mobb Deep-The Infamous
The Infamous is nihilism at its most bleak. Two homicidal man-children barely out of their teens, crafting haunting, harrowing sketches of the Queensbridge projects. The nearly-as-good follow-up was called Hell on Earth, but that label really belonged to their Loud Records debut. Perhaps more than any record, The Infamous captured the feel of the mid-90s New York rap world, with brilliant guest appearances from Nas, Ghostface, Raekwon and Q-Tip. Havoc’s lo-fi productions created an eerie, paranoid mood with restless snares and horror-score synths. Havoc and Prodigy’s graveyard poetry finished the job.
Download:
MP3: Mobb Deep-”Shook Ones Pt. II”
12. Outkast-Aquemini
The poet and the pimp personas of Andre and Big Boi were never this conjoined again. It’s not my favorite Outkast record, but its tough to argue that its not their best, with the Atlanta duo melding their Southernplayalistic Cadillac strut to experimental, space-age funk grooves and Andre’s Erykah Badu-influenced New-Age vibes. On album three, Outkast spit back the sum of their influences: Curtis Mayfield, Sly and The Family Stone-style funk, Parliament and Southern-brewed blues. With guests like Badu, George Clinton and Raekwon. Simultaneously experimental and populist, this is the rare hip-hop record that can please everyone and anyone.
Download:
MP3: Outkast ft. Raekwon-”Skew it on the Bar-B”
11. Eminem-The Slim Shady LP
With Eminem veering further and further into punchline-territory, its tempting to forget that there was a day, not long ago that he was widely considered the best rapper alive. The Slim Shady LP was the best example why, one of the most wildly original debuts any artist, ever. Hip-hop had seen funny great rappers before (The Biz, Dres of Black Sheep, The Pharcyde), but no one had possessed Eminem’s knack for savage satire. Like a hip-hop Lenny Bruce, Slim Shady was manic and unpredictable, packing multiple punch-lines in each phrase, of spitting nasally compelling rhymes honed by listening to Kool G Rap and Big Daddy Kane records. It’s enough to make me forget The Re-Up ever occurred. Almost.
Download:
MP3: Eminem-”As the World Turns”
10. A Tribe Called Quest-Low End Theory
Low End Theory is hip-hop as comfort food. Turn to track one, the jazzy “Excursions” and you forget all your worries and disappear into the warm, affable vibes of Phife and Q-Tip, trading flows with more ease and fluidity than any group outside of Outkast. Low End Theory is the high-water mark of the Golden Age and the Native Tongues movement, with Tribe’s jazz fusion, experimental leanings and smart punchline rhymes perfectly epitomizing the try-anything feel-good spirit of the period. Just a year later, The Chronic dropped, steal the East’s thunder and shifting attention back to the West. When the East returned in late ‘93/94, with Illmatic, Enter the Wu-Tang and Ready to Die, the mood had already shifted to a more violent hard-edged sound, one that 12 years later has barely evolved.
Download:
MP3: A Tribe Called Quest-”Scenario”
9. Dr . Dre-The Chronic
Rumor has it that this one has a few okay-sounding tracks.
Download:
MP3: Dr. Dre-”Deez Nuuts”
8. Wu-Tang Clan-Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers
There was great hip-hop made before this record. There was great hip-hop made after it. Yet more than any rap album ever made, it’s almost inconceivable to me that it could could exist without this record. Wu-Tang are the closest thing hip-hop will ever have to the Beatles. Except somehow they made Sgt. Pepper’s right out the gate.
Download:
MP3: The Wu-Tang Clan-”Da Mystery of Chessboxin’
7. Snoop Doggy Dogg-Doggystyle
Have you ever gone to a party and watched the way people react when the DJ throws on “Gin and Juice,” or “Who Am I (What’s My Name)” or “Ain’t No Fun” or “Doggy Dogg World?” On second thought, have you ever been to a party where a DJ didn’t thrown on one of those records? Somehow Snoop managed to make one of the greatest party records ever made and one of the greatest gangsta’ rap albums of all-time.
Download:
MP3: Snoop Dogg-”Gin & Juice”
6. Nas-Illmatic
I mean, would you trust anyone who didn’t include this on their list?
Download:
MP3: Nas-”New York State of Mind”
5. Ghostface Killah-Supreme Clientele
The brilliance of Supreme Clientele lies in the fact that you if you memorized every line on this
record, you probably could use them in any situation ever, till the day that you died. Say you’re you and your girlfriend are fighting over your lack of commitment and say she asks you, “Goddamn [insert your name here], what do you want?” Just say, “I want 8 ravioli bags, two thirsty villains yelling bellyaches.” She won’t know what hit her.
Say you two break up and you meet a nice young lady at the disco. If she expresses interest in you, just answer: “No girl can freak me, I’m just too nasty.” If she’s confused, tell her to, “pass the honey-dipped spliff.” If she actually does pass you a honey-dipped spliff, it’s meant to be.
Download:
MP3: Ghostface Killah-”One”
4. The Notorious B.I.G.-Ready to Die
Every writing teacher you ever have will always tell you the same thing: show don’t tell. If that’s the case, Biggie was a born artist, scribing minimalist ghetto narratives with the blood-reds and tabloid grays of a ghetto Dashiell Hammett (a fellow high-school dropout).
On Ready to Die, Biggie’s unmistakable gift becomes apparent within seconds, on its first track, “Intro.” Whereas, most rappers burn an “Intro” track on stupid babbling and boasting, Biggie captured the first 21 years of his life in just three and a half minutes and practically as few words. Christopher Wallace starts at his birth, in the hospital, Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly” roars in the background, signifying the year of birth, ‘72. A father yells “push,” the baby wails, the mother shrieks and then to the sound of the cries, the father and Mayfield shout with joy. “Rapper’s Delight” bleeds onto the track, the father and mother fight, breaking up as the birth of Biggie’s consciousness dovetails with the birth of hip-hop.
“Top Billin’” comes on. It’s ‘87, Biggie and a friend are arguing over whether or not to rob the train, Biggie’s voice is hungry and violent, overpowering his friend. They hop the turnstiles, cock their guns and rob the joint blind. He goes to jail, Snoop’s “Tha Shiznit” is playing. The west had taken over, mirroring Biggie’s real-life nine-month incarceration that took place at the dawn of NWA just two years earlier. Finally, a correction officer rattles his keys, the bars shake. He’s out. The first funk-rattle of “Things Done Changed,” comes on the stereo. We’re four minutes in. We first hear Biggie’s husky, blunt-scorched baritone and instantly, things changed.
Download:
MP3: Notorious BIG-”Things Done Changed”
3. Chef Raekwon-Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
The Godfather had it been written by a black man instead of an Italian.
Download:
MP3: Chef Raekwon-”Verbal Intercourse”
2. Genius/GZA-Liquid Swords
In the Wu-Tang manual, the RZA describes Liquid Swords, as being a “winter-up-in-your face joint….songs like “Cold World,” with the wind blowing, I want people to be in their cars…just shivering.”
He created the best winter album ever made. Liquid Swords, a frigid, bone-chillingly brilliant masterpiece. Laced with blood-curdling skits from the martial arts flick, Shogun Assination, the Genius’ second solo record is filled with talk of massacres and executions, alternating between the grotesque violence of a blood-thirsty emperor in ancient China and Gza’s tales of Shaolin, Staten Island, during the post-Reagan Years. Rza’s production rains down like an avalanche. The punchlines are razor-sharp and precise. The guest appearances are among the greatest of all-time. Ironman sips rum out of Stanley Cups. Johnny Blaze brings nightmares like Wes Craven. Liquid Swords isn’t the most important Wu album ever recorded, it’s not the most original. It’s the best.
Download:
MP3: Genius/GZA-”4th Chamber”
1. Outkast-Atliens
Atliens is one of the greatest works of outsider art ever created. The proverbial Outkast’s, Andre Benjamin and Antwan Patton had blown up regionally with their brilliant debut, ’94’s Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, an unabashedly party-sounding record, one whose title was one of the most apt descriptions ever given to an album.
While recording Atliens, Outkast remained largely unknown outside of the rap world. But in their hometown, they were celebrities. People were coming out of the woodwork looking for handouts left and right, as Andre describes on “Elevators (Me & You).” Meanwhile, Andre was lost and searching for himself, quitting weed and liquor and growing out a pair of dreads and covering it up with a turban.
As for Big Boi, he was going through a similarly profound crisis, losing his Aunt Rene, who had to been like a mother to him. With both members of Outkast in the midst of a massive spiritual transformation, they fused their pain and isolation into AtLiens, their most heart-felt, most moving and most brilliant record. With Dre and Big Boi painting in apocalyptic and Biblical language, recognizing their own immortality at just 21 years old, they craft a definitive portrait of life from the outside margins looking in. Atliens is hip-hop at its most existential. It’s hip-hop at its best.
Download:
MP3: Outkast-”Atliens”
Posted in Lists, Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought?, Best Of | 34 Comments »
April 20th, 2007
Ian Cohen inadvertently cursed me before I even had the chance to play the Twilight Sad’s Fat Cat debut LP, Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, telling me: “I really like this record, but the lead singer’s voice reminds me an awful lot of Groundskeeper Willie.”
“Nonsense,” I scoffed (because when I scoff, it always involves the words nonsense or balderdash). “I can get over it. I love some Scottish bands. Belle & Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub, Franz Ferdinand, Beta Band…etc.”
“They’re from North Kilt Town.”
Then I heard it. Lo and behold, Twilight Sad lead singer, James Graham, is the sonic spitting image of a red-bearded, crystal slop bucket-yearning, janitor at Springfield Elementary. Maybe even crossed with Darrell Hammond’s Sean Connery Celebrity Jeopardy impersonation.
There’s nary an animal alive that can outrun a greased Scotsman
After a listen or two, I was able to get past Graham’s Glasgowegian accent and once I did, all was well. They reminded me of U2, Snow Patrol and Coldplay, if I actually liked U2, Snow Patrol and Coldplay. Massive anthemic rock capable of getting vaguely emo at times (No Chris Carababababa).
Live, the band’s charms become readily apparent, as they hit the stage and ignited into billowing waves of sound crashing hard onto the half-empty, Knitting Factory in Hollywood. Clutching the microphone tightly, Graham is gifted vocalist, one who intuitively understands the right time to shift his voice from a smooth croon to a bombastic, over-the top yell. Picture, an early Bono, stripped of pretense, histrionics and those stupid sunglasses.
Behind him, the band wails with the drummer smacking sharp, militaristic drum hits. A blisteringly two guitar attack joins him, filling the air with ethereal distortion-heavy noise, a gargantuan wall of sound delivering almost atonal noise, before regaining control, surging into an almost funky groove. The set was short. A 35 minute warm-up for headliners, Aereogramme. Nonetheless, it was clear that The Twilight Sad are a group with a real shot at greatness. As Groundskeeper Willie once declared: “the kilt was only for day-to-day wear. In battle we donned a full-length gown covered in sequins. The idea was to blind the opponent with luxury!”
Buy Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters from Fat Cat here.
Download:
MP3: The Twilight Sad-”Cold Days From the Birdhouse”
MP3: The Twilight Sad-”Walking for Two Hours”
Marathon Packs also has another MP3 and an outstanding write-up of the record.
Posted in Beards, Blazers, & Glasses | 2 Comments »
April 18th, 2007
About one year ago, I wrote one of my favorite posts ever: The 10 Professional Wrestlers That You Watched When You Were a Kid That Are Probably Gay. In celebration of this most glorious anniversary, I’d wanted to do something in commemoration, perhaps a post that might lampoon the ridiculous racial stereotyping of the WWF, circa 1987. But ultimately, I felt that in order to make this sequel more Back to the Future 2 than Teen Wolf Too, I needed something…someone…special. Enter Imus, America’s favorite faux-Cowboy/bigot. Who better than Imus, to lecture us on the most outlandish racial carictures to ever emerge from Vince McMahon’s steroid-addled imagination? Ladies and gentleman, I present to you, Don Imus’ 10 Favorite Professional Wrestlers.
Disclosure: Imus’ Thoughts Do Not Reflect the Views of Passion of the Weiss ownership. Though Passion of the Weiss ownership does endorse midgets (no Brutus “the Barber Beefcake).
10. Nikolai Volkoff
Russians. You can’t live with ‘em, you can’t live without him. Nikolai Volkoff was a straight shooter. None of this Vladamir Putin, I’m your friend, I’m not your friend bullshit. Nikolai Volkoff didn’t believe in Perestroika. All he needed was red USSR sweatshirt, bushy Bolshevik hat, and a red man-thong and you’d hear speeches about the proletariat until motherfucking doomsday. I just wish he’d have won his election for Maryland’s House of Representives, District 7.
9. George “The Animal” Steele
George Steele played a great retard. As far as retards go, he was at least as convincing as that Corky retard from Life Goes On. I mean, did Corky bite the tunbuckle off at every match? Did Corky have a green tongue? Definitely not. And all this despite Steele having a Masters degree. Did Corky have a Master’s Degree? Don’t think so. In fact, The Animal might be my all-time favorite ‘tard.
8. Big Boss Man
Whether he was called the Big Boss Man or Big Bubba, you could count on this former prison guard to be clutching a police brutality nightstick, wearing a confederate flag patch, and representing what it’s really like to be a good ol’ southern boy. Did he oppose segregation, did he use racist epithets? Of course not. But he certainly implied it. Honestly, he was a big inspiration for my entire radio style.
7. Demolition
Of course, Demolition won all those championships. They were dressed up like Kiss the entire time. And you know who the mastermind of Kiss was? Gene Simmons. A Jew. Demolition’s dominance in the WWF’s heavily contested Tag Team Division during the late 80s was the result of one thing: Jewish conspiracy. The Hebrews have the money, the Hebrews win the title. Coincidence, I think not.
6. . The Haiti Kid
To me, this scene from Wrestlemania III sums up why I love wrestling: A black midget wrestling with an Indian midget, getting grabbed by a possibly gay redneck, standing next to a bald cracker with a microphone. The Haiti Kid was a great midget wrestler, though I was disappointed that he never held a skull or practiced voodoo.
5. Iron Sheik
Personally, I preferred the Sheik’s original wrestling name, The Great Hossein Arab, but I can’t deny that the Sheik was certainly a fiery son-of-a-bitch and certainly knew how to get out the message that all Persians wear towels on their head, handle-bar mustaches and drape themselves in the Iranian flag. I’m also a fan of his his Myspace page, where he lists his favorite television shows, including Good Morning America, and Seinfeld.
4. Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake
Now a born-again Christian, “Brutus The Barber” Beefcake is currently a part of the Christian wrestling group “World Impact Wrestling” playing a heel character known as Stuart “Beefcake” Healey. He has started a wrestling school. At said wrestling school they do a lot of struttin’ n’ cuttin. Pink zebra thongs are a must. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
3. Mr. Fuji
I haven’t met all that many Japs in my life, but Mr. Fuji seemed to be pretty representative of the culture. He was polite, well-groomed, vaguely sinister and frequently threw salt into his enemies eyes. I bet that he was pretty good at math too. That must’ve been what made him such a good manager.
2. Kamala, The Ugandan Giant
A lot of people in the media have called me a racist in the last few weeks, which is just not true. I have lots of black friends, including Kamala the Ugandan Giant. Through my friendship with Kamala, I’ve learned the truth about Ugandans: that they wear zebra loin-clothes and paint stars and moons all over their bodies, while carrying spears in their mouths. Thanks Kamala and thanks Vince McMahon for setting me straight.
1. Sapphire
Sapphire, what’s she doing on this list? Sapphire’s just a napp…she’s just a napp…wait…stay….cool, Imus, remember what you learned yesterday in tolerance class. Okay, now go….
Sapphire is a fine person. I like her very much. See America, I have learned my lesson. I’m not a racist any more. And good news, I’m available for hire.
Posted in Best Of, It Got Weird, Didn't It? | 10 Comments »
April 18th, 2007
Characters:
Hipster Music Critic:Renowned by all four of his friends as a musical sage. Relatively certain that in primitive societies he would’ve been called a shaman.
Hipster Music Critic’s Friend/Joe: Joe is a very normal well-adjusted individual. He likes music with tunes and melodies and intelligible lyrics. Hipster Music Critic thinks Joe is stupid, but once Joe saved Hipster Music Critic from getting beaten up by a tough high school’s women’s field hockey player. They have been friends ever since.
We meet our heroes, surrounded by a thick swarm of bearded, bespectacled, be-blazered individuals and the leggings-clad women who love them.
Joe: Someone needs to give Deerhunter’s lead singer a sandwich. She makes Amy Winehouse look like the fat chick from Wilson Phillips.
Hipster Music Critic: That’s not a woman. That’s a man.
Removing a black fright wig from his head, Deerhunter lead singer Bradford Cox is clad in an ill-fitting floral house dress. He has a pentagram drawn in ink on one of his freakishly thin arms.
Joe: Gadzooks!
It’s a Man, Man! 
Hipster Music Critic: Their music is so primal, so erotic, so sexual. It makes me want to go home and crawl into a bathtub filled with petroleum jelly while listening to Bryan Ferry solo records.
Joe: Why is the lead singer deep-throating the microphone?
HM(I)C: You fool, you are mis-understanding his phallic use of imagery, reflecting the epic cycle of self-abuse and nebulous nullification that make his nihilism necessary.
Joe: Nonsense.
Hipster Music Critic: You just don’t get want they’re doing. They’re advanced. No one in the history of time has ever thought to have a martian-looking lead singer in a dress with four guys playing reverb filled with so much shoegaze that you can hardly stop shoegazing long enough to remember that Pitchfork gave them 89 Pitchforks of love.
Joe: What does that mean?
Hipster: I’m not sure yet, they just keep getting better and need more hard Pitchforkings.
Joe: Right…but did you ever stop to consider that it’s much easier to write songs with purposefully indecipherable lyrics, without any regard towards hooks or melodies.
Hipster Music Critic: It must be hard to be so unenlightened. Can’t you appreciate the beauty in their atonal screeches and how long they can drone. This band could just fucking drone me all night long—hard. Can’t you grasp the brilliance of Bradford’s Cox?
Joe: I don’t understand the question and I won’t respond to it.
Deerhunter: They Hate Deer But They LOVE Sheep (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)
HMC: This is art high art, forged in a fiery furnace by Fiery Furnaces who have properly synthesized their concrete Christ-like crystallizations.
Joe: I’m leaving, I can’t watch this anymore. This isn’t brilliant, this isn’t art, this is what would happen if you tried to soundtrack a migraine headache.
HMC: Philistine! But admit it, their performance raised some questions about existentialism, expressionism, empiricism, Dadaism, Momism and several others words ending in -ism that I’m going to have to invent to properly describe this band.
Joe: Well, it does raise one question.
HMC: Which is?
Joe: How many people are gonna’ figure out that these erstwhile emperors aren’t wearing any clothes?
See also Brunette Like Me’s Similarly Hans Christian Anderson-referencing take on Deerhunter’s Live Show. I particularly appreciate her description of the band’s sound as being akin to the “cacophonous wail of a dying chimpanzee.”
See Also Scott Sterling’s kinder and gentler take on the band, proving once again he is a better person than I.
Download: (Admittedly, these songs aren’t nearly as bad as the live show)
MP3: Deerhunter-”Wash Off”
MP3: Deerhunter-”Strange Lights”
Posted in Beards, Blazers, & Glasses, Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought?, Best Of | 8 Comments »
April 17th, 2007
Kelley Stoltz must be frustrated. I’m sure, being a folksy singer/songwriter living in the Bay Area has its advantages. He plays the guitar quite well and writes really pretty pop songs which must help him snag McSweeney’s type girls all throughout the Bay Area bar scene. But outside of that, it’s got to be at least a little irritating to constantly have to hear the word “underrated” slapped onto the end of your name.
That’s what seems to happen to singer/songwriters without interesting back-stories. Check out recent blog favorites. Elvis Perkins’ songs are fantastic, but they hit a little bit harder knowing his gut-wrenching backstory. Beirut is 20 years old, sings like he’s 50 and has a taste for Balkan Brass Bands like he’s 80. Sufjan writes albums about every state, dressed up up like a Boy Scout and writes songs about John Wayne Gacy (and seemingly this doesn’t make people raise their eyebrows just a bit). Don’t get me wrong, the attention is deserved, but it also comes at the expense of guys like Kelly Stoltz, a non-telegenic 36 year old whose chief biographical quirk involves a stint sorting fain mail for Jeff Buckley’s management company.
To top it off, Stoltz isn’t the most original artist around, a trait that has garnered him a lot of critical sniping as Pitchfork gave Below the Branches, his excellent Sub Pop debut, a middling 6.3, alternately praising the ridiculous listenability and dismissing its “hollow” and “impersonal” nature. Stylus wasn’t much kinder, hatcheting it with a C, reiterating the same sentiments. Certainly Stoltz’s references are obvious: The Beach Boys, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison solo work, with some mid-period Kinks thrown in the mix. But while the music might not be thrilling, it retains an artisanal competence and affability that few records possess.
But I Swear, Jack White Really Likes Me Too
Stoltz hasn’t gotten much recognition from the blogs either, appearing on few year end lists (though Duke named it his favorite record of last year, while it was my #13 pick), not even managing to get much attention opening for the Raconteurs. To top it off, Sub Pop barely promoted the record and subsequently, it moved few units. But live, Kelley Stoltz turned in a performance befitting the tranquil, pastoral vibes of Below the Branches, running through that album mixed in with a grab-bag of crowd-pleasing new cuts.
Effortlessly turning out frothy early Fall melodies filled with rollicking ragtime pianos, and crackling burnt orange guitars, Stoltz’ music possesses a sense of levity and buoyancy that trump its lack of originality. Sometimes, a song is just a song and Stoltz understands that, creating music to listen to, not to needlessly analyze. Picking up steam as the set progressed, Stoltz continually kept the affair light-hearted, even taking out a bubble machine and blowing bubbles into the crowd (yes, Mr. Bubble).
Ultimately, Stoltz’ might not be blazing new trails, yet he remains an impeccable pop craftsman, deserving of more acclaim than the mixed reception he’s received. He does nothing spectacularly but everything well. While his lack of idiosyncrasy or gravity might cause him to get lost in the shuffle, he remains ever-compelling and one of the most breezy and fun singer/songwriters making music today.
Download:
from Below the Branches
MP3: Kelley Stoltz-”Memory Collector”
MP3: Kelley Stoltz-”The Sun Comes Through”
from his self-released debut, Antique Glow
MP3: Kelley Stoltz-”Perpetual Night”
MP3: Kelley Stoltz-”Jewel of the Evening”
MP3: Kelley Stoltz-”Underwater’s where the Action Is”
Posted in Beards, Blazers, & Glasses | 4 Comments »
Rest assured, Joey “Straight Bangin” and I are putting in work, trying to import the many ballots we received into spreadsheet form. Sadly, it takes a whole lot of time, so don’t expect a full list until at least late next week. All apologies. In the meantime, here’s a look at the next 25 that didn’t make my ballot.
Before concluding that 2Pac was right when he told Biggie, “you gotta’ rap for the bitches,” Slug was a pretty phenomenal rapper. Having not yet waded into the emo deep-end, Atmophere’s debut was a perfect balance between good-old hard-nosed MC’ing (”Cuando Limpia el Humo”) and intelligent introspection (”Scapegoat.)” He said it best on the stand-out “1597:” even if your DJ was Jesus/you could never fuck with these kids.
Seriously, people need to give these guys a break. No Jews should be able to sound this good rapping. Don’t believe me, go to Hebrew School and see for yourself. L’chaim.
When Papoose eventually drops the Nectarine Dream or whatever the hell he’s calling his debut, he should start paying Big L royalties. Seriously, the guy jacked L’s flow and voice wholesale. And by merely doing an L imitation, he’s good enough to be considered one of the premiere young New York MC’s. It’s tragic that L got shot in yet another Harlem unsolved murder case. After all, he was a pretty great rapper and just 24 years old. Perhaps his ghost can rise from the grave and smack the shit out of his former Children of the Corn partner, Cam’ron, for that retarded 60 minutes appearance. 
Dear RJD2,
Easily one of the most underrated rap records of all time, At the Speed of Life, is raw, swaggering and surprisingly introspective. If you think Xzibit was always a ride-pimping happy-go-lucky dude, you need to hear him at 22, full of anger and rage at the world, the last and best member of the Likwit crew to emerge. His follow-up, 1998’s 40 Dayz and 40 Nights was nearly as good, but Xzibit would never again write a song as good as “Carry the Weight,” his chilling chronicle of growing up poor and motherless in an abusive home.
If you wanna’ know how much hip-hop has fallen off in the last decade, if this CD were re-made today, it would be called Elephunk, and Lauryn Hill would be replaced by a former Disney kid star/meth head/pants pisser named “Fergie.” Just saying.
It seems rather clear now that Mos Def had a two-year window of brilliance, which immediately shut closed sometime around the Millennium. But what a run it was, featuring a string of outstanding solo singles and collaborations with Talib Kweli, capped by the brilliant, Black on Both Sides. You know an album’s hot when the rapper can turn a song about water conservation (”New World Water”) into the jam.
Let’s pretend you like more than three songs on that terminally mediocre Gnarls Barkley record. I have the solution for you. Play “Goodie Bag” from Dungeon Family collective , Goodie Mobb’s seminal debut, Soul Food. If that doesn’t change your mind, play “Cell Therapy.” Hell, play the whole debut. If that doesn’t work, play “They Don’t Dance No Mo” and “Black Ice” from Goodie Mobb’s nearly-as-good follow-up, Still Standing. If you still think Cee-Lo is doing better things now, may I politely suggest that you stop listening to hip-hop.
A great album from a great rapper who decided mid-career that he wanted be the hip-hop Derek Zoolander (really, check those GAP ads again) and hang out with Jeremy Piven. Still with the team of ?uestlove, Dilla, Premier and Common working on this record, it was damn near impossible that it couldn’t be rock-solid.
Puffy owes his entire production career to this album. It was Sermon who first pioneered the practice of lifting samples wholesale and rapping over them. “Strictly Business” features Erick and Parish spitting over “I Shot the Sheriff.” “You Gots to Chill” re-appropriates “Jungle Boogie.” “It’s My Thing” utilizes Tyrone Thomas’ “7 Minutes of Funk” nearly a decade before “Ain’t No N—a.” While “You’re a Customer” jacks Steve Miller’s “Fly like an Eagle” (and “Jungle Boogie” again). Sure, it’s a tad derivative. But Strictly Business is funky as hell.
When this record was released, it seemed to herald the emergence of Talib Kweli as one of the greatest rappers in recent memory, one certain to go down as one of the greats. The reason was Train of Thought’s incredible consistency, despite its whopping 20 tracks and an hour-plus length. Kweli never again delivered on the astounding promise he flashed here. In particular, “Expansion Outro,” stands alone as one of the greatest civil rights songs in hip-hop history. 
Daily Operation and Hard to Earn are stone-cold classics, but the four-year hiatus between the latter album proved essential to the creation of its follow-up, the group’s masterpiece, 1998’s Hard to Earn. Premier’s always head-nodding beats took a cosmic leap as he broadened his array of samples, tossing in everything from The Supremes, to Fleetwood Mac, to Jeff Beck to Liquid Swords. While still maintaining his trademark monotone flow, Guru stepped up his story-telling game, chronicling a guns arrest on “JFK to LAX,” the cautionary street-life tale “The Rep Grows Bigga” and his eulogy to the fallen on “In Memory Of.”
Judging from the vibe I’ve gotten from blogging for a year and a half, I’m guessing the majority of people reading this don’t care much for Aesop Rock. But honestly it’s time he shed the “nerd rapper” misnomer that music writers have unfairly pegged him with. It’s not a creative label and honestly, the irony of any blogger/music journalist calling a rapper a “nerd” is a little too much for even me to bear (Paul Barman excluded).
Fuck ODB. Black Sheep was for the children. How else to explain the video for “Strobelite Honey,” a cautionary tale that advised the youth of America how to properly behave at a disco (a hint: hope that you have good sight).
They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But you damn well can judge an album by its cover. The verdict: awesome.
When I was in college, I belatedly heard BDP’s Criminal Minded for the first time. To my surprise, I’d already heard the damn thing before, as every BDP vocal had already been spliced or interpolated by one of my favorite rappers , every one of Scott La Rock’s break-beats already sampled. But Criminal Minded is more than just influential, it’s a great record, one that feels less lyrically dated than nearly anything from hip-hop’s first Golden Age.
The album in which Rakim invented the modern definition of an MC. Smooth, powerful rhymes, funky dusty beats supplied by the ever-innovative, JB’s-obsessed Eric B. Listening to this album makes think of a line Rza dropped on the song “Biochemical Equation: “there’s no accounting/ how many MC’s have sprung from my fountain.” No disrespect to Rza, but that line should belong to Rakim.
Among the albums that should’ve been included in the top 25, 3 Feet High and Rising stands out as one of the most glaring omissions. Prince Paul’s production is ground-breaking, the rhymes are soothing and life-affirming, the skits are hilarious. In truth, De La released three other albums that could arguably have a place on this list in De La Soul is Dead, Buhloone Mind State and Stakes is High. 3 Feet High and Rising just happens to be my personal favorite. If De La Soul aren’t the best hip-hop group of all-time, they’re damn close, and if nothing else, they’re certainly the most original. Watch the video for “Me Myself and I.” Get upset that no one in the rap world, circa 2007, is even 1/10th this creative.
Floating somewhere in between the braggadocio of the “Big Willies” and the Company Flows of the NYC of 1997, were the two MCs that constituted Camp Lo: Sonny Chiba and Geechie Suede, flowing on their unique slang-heavy psychedelics meets blaxploitation trip. Too mainstream for the underground and too underground for the mainstream, they flew under the radar and few people bought their outstanding debut, “Uptown Saturday Night.” In recent years, heads have finally come around on Chiba and Suede’s dazzling tongue-twisting flows and technicolor imagery. It’s about time. With “Black Nostaljack” to “Luchini” to “Coolie High” this album had arguably the best singles of any record from the period.
Covered at length here. Listening to the gleeful idiosyncrasy of this record that dropped 17 years ago last month, it’s striking how far removed it feels from the world of 2007 hip-hop. It’s almost inconceivable that a major label will ever again take a chance on an eight-man hip-hop collective that proudly celebrates their weirdness, never trying on hard-core poses, just writing catchy, off-beat songs about sex and psychedelics, (not to mention pertinent advice about the best way to hook-up with your friends in the next room). And of course, “Humpty Dance” is my pick for the best party record of all-time.
Condense these tracks onto one album and it’s my pick for best of all-time by a wide margin. As it is, it belongs in the top 25. Life After Death is the most infuential hip-hop record of the last 15 years. For better or worse. Ever wonder why great rappers think they can kick club jams without sacrificing any of their street cred? See “Hypnotize” or “Mo Money Mo Problems.” Ever wonder why every rapper thinks they can be the next Mario Puzo. See “Somebody’s Got to Die” or “N—s Bleed.”
The Chronic for the 00s, The Blueprint is one of those rare records that kids will remember in 20 years as being the first album they ever purchased. Instantly 5-mic’d. Snapped Jay-Z out of his Roc La Familia slumber and assured his place as one of the all-time greats. Released on Sept. 11, an entire generation had the eerie experience of bumping this record at obscene volumes through the midst of the one of the most tragic weeks the nation had collectively experienced. The most iconic hip-hop record of the decade thus far? I’d say so.
The first time I ever heard this record was at Lollapalooza 94. It was my first concert and Tribe absolutely destroyed the main stage, turning the alternative nation out with grooves like “Electric Relaxation,” “Award Tour” and “Stir it Up” (is there a more iconic album-opener in hip-hop than Phife’s “Linden Blvd represent represent”). Smack dab in the middle of “Clap Your Hands,” I found a joint lying miraculously in front of me on the grass lawn at Cal-State Dominguez Hills, the site of the festival. It was all over from that point on.
The last of the first burst of classic Wu solo records, Ironman is perhaps most soulful of the bunch, as Rza filled Ghost’s debut with Al Green, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and Delphonics loops, a sharp turn from the nuclear winter mood he’d conjured on Liquid Swords. Using the 60s and 70s greats as his guide, Ironman finds Ghostface reaching a balance of emotional resonance and vicious boasts that set the template for his entire solo career. Tracks like “All That I Got is You,” “Motherless Child” and the blistering rawness of “Wildflower” sit side-by-side with crime sagas like “260″ and “Box in Hand.” “Blood-thirsty and coke-addled, few rhymers have ever sounded this hard and yet this vulnerable.
In the comments section for my original Top 25 post, the esteemed, Dallas Penn wrote this: “Passion, I trust the shit you say on a serious level, but by not including any Public Enemy on your list I think you are just being difficult and hell’a contrary. I will change my list for you and add whatever bullshit album from Black Eyed Peas you want to see one album from P.E. in your top 25.”
