October 9th, 2007
Cease to Begin, the sophomore effort from Band of Horses sees its official Sub Pop release today and has been met with solid reviews, with Pitchfork throwing it a 7.7 and Stylus giving it a solid B. In his piece, Derek Miller wrote that, “Band of Horses can still pen some itchingly addictive tunes. Cease to Begin may well be an album of transition, but these Carissa’s Wierdos have proven enough in just two years to mark them as a band to hear stadium-huge in small arenas and smaller speakers in whatever splotch of this vast humming place you call your own.”
Derek’s right, but if you asked me why I like Band of Horses the answer is much simpler: they still sound an awful lot like My Morning Jacket and early Neil Young. While that that might not be original enough for some, any band capable of successfully channeling the pastoral hayseed goodness of Jim James and Shakey is good enough for me.
The move to small-town Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina seems to make sense for the band, whose first album, Everything All the Time, seemed more grain silo’d and bearded than it did rainy day and caffeine-addled. There’s always been a rural straw-chewing quality to their music, nothing complicated at, just shambling pleasant songs to throw before you go to sleep at night or right when you wake up. This might not be a great album but it’s certainly a very likeable record from a very likeable band. Plus, they name one of their songs “Detlef Schrempf.” Which is awesome. Hopefully the next album will have a song “Xavier McDaniel.”
Download:
From Cease to Begin
MP3: Band of Horses-”Is There a Ghost”
From Everything All the Time
MP3: Band of Horses-”The Funeral”
MP3: Band of Horses-”Great Salt Lake”
Unfortunately, Schrempf is More of a Kraftwerk Man
Posted in Album Reviews | No Comments »
October 9th, 2007
Reading Crock Tock’s review of the Dark Star Orchestra show in San Francisco has gotten me in a Dead sort of mood. To get my fix before I see DSO this coming Saturday at the El Rey, I’ve been listening to The Dead’s Golden Gate Studio’s Autumn demos, recorded on November 3rd, 1965, in the final month of their pre-Kesey, pre-Acid Test days.
What’s most strange about these sessions, recorded under the Warlocks name, is how little they sound like the band the Dead would become. Just six songs and 18 minutes, the cuts are far from the the experimental wankery that you’d expect, and more like lost lost gems from a Nuggets compilation.
This is still Pigpen’s band and the raw lo-fi tracks are filled with squiggling harmonicas, garage rock riffs and creaky organs that sound like a hybrid of the Seeds and the 13th Floor Elevators. For anyone with even a passing interest in the Dead, it comes highly recommended.
Tracklist:
1. Can’t Come Down-3:05 2.Mindbender-2:42 3. The Only Time is Now-2:52 4. Caution-3:21 5. I Know You Rider-2:42 6. Early Morning Rain-3:21
Download:
ZIP: Grateful Dead (Warlocks)-Golden Gate Studios 1965
Posted in Album Reviews | 2 Comments »
October 8th, 2007
Barry Schwartz used to write for Stylus. Now he fronts Disco Vietnam, a band that is way more excellent than both Disco and Vietnam (here is the proof). This is his first guest-blog on the Passion of the Weiss. Hopefully it will not be his last
“I’m so far ahead of my time, I’m bout to start another life
Look behind you, I’m about to pass you twice
Back to the future and gotta slow up for the present”
- Jay-Z, “Hovi Baby”
Growing up a chubby Jewish whiteboy from Long Island one tends to learn the essential lessons of social survival rather early. Foremost among these lessons: do everything you possibly can to not completely humiliate yourself in public. That’s just the basic math. As long as you don’t draw the potential for any negative attention to yourself I swear to you you’ll be just fine.
Still, knowing the path and walking the path are two very different things; sometimes a fat kids’s burning desire fails to overcome his physical deficiences and, perhaps one day, while running the dreaded mile in gym class, he gets lapped.
There is nothing worse than being lapped. Stitches in your left side, drenched in sweat, you breathe arhytmically, panting, as some Aryan robot and the girl you’ve had an unrequited masturbatorial affair with for the last seven weeks flies right past you. And they know. They know they’ve lapped you. You know they’ve lapped you. You know they know they’ve lapped you. They know you know they know. Soon, everyone in your gym class will know, and by 7th period the entire school. You’re 13-years-old but the cosmos have already decided: “Settle in, buddy. You will not be losing your virginity for quite some time.” Your whole life just got fucked. Today will be one of the days of your life you will have to watch like in that Albert Brooks movie Defending Your Life.
All because you got lapped.
Which brings us to today’s topic:
Well, Except for the Fact that Russell Crowe Isn’t American
On November 2nd, Ridley Scott’s heavily anticipated crime saga American Gangster will debut in theaters nationwide. Starring Denzel Washington, American Gangster chronicles the life of Frank Lucas, a 1970s Manhattan heroin kingpin, and Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), the detective working tirelessly to bring him to justice. If the trailer for American Gangster is any indication then you know this much: this shit is going to be pretty fucking badass. Being that I myself am also a badass I plan on seeing and enjoying this scrumptious movie.
Within a few short weeks American Gangster has somehow already positioned itself firmly within the tradition of similarly themed films: The Godfather, Scarface, King of New York, all of which have contributed to the glorification of criminal as folk hero. Nothing really wrong with that. Michael Corleone, Tony Montana, Frank White and later Tony Soprano: each of them men of questionable character, questionable intentions and distorted value systems, but each them also inarguably badass motherfuckers. Icons. Frank Lucas, whom the film’s trailer describes as the only black man to operate above the Mafia, has all the prerequisites for induction into this distinguished fraternity. The fact that he was a real person certainly helps. The fact that he’s being portrayed by Denzel Washington, an icon in his own right, also gives him a nice little jump. People are psyched; it’s not everyday you get a new anti-hero, and within the last week I’ve already read and spoken to a number of people who have proclaimed, “American Gangster is going to be the next Scarface.”
Still, I can’t help but feel that in everyone’s haste to annoint American Gangster “The Scarface of our time!” they’ve rather conveniently forgotten to, you know, SEE THE FUCKING MOVIE FIRST! (I mean come on! You don’t watch Entourage? The fuck is wrong with you people? Adrian Grenier isn’t an oracle! Pay attention!)
Now, I’m not saying American Gangster isn’t going to be the next Scarface or even that it won’t be fucking amazing. I’m just saying it isn’t fucking out yet so you haven’t fucking seen it yet so it can’t possibly be the next Scarface yet. In fact, the film technically doesn’t even exist as a pop culture entity yet and can’t be until people have access to it on a mass level.
Oliver Stone: Entirely to Blame for Rick Ross
But, as has been widely reported, one of the people who has seen American Gangster is Jay-Z. Apparently Jay-Z was so affected by the film, overwhelmed by what he perceived to be its startling parallels to his own life and personal cosmology, he has spontaneously decided to record an entire concept album inspired by American Gangster to be a companion piece to the film itself. News of the album was greeted with much fanfare, with many expecting the album to be Jay-Z’s return to a grittier street hustler style, (the hip-hop equivalent of Thom Yorke saying In Rainbows is going to kind of sounds like The Bends) causing mass HOFNARs throughout the nerd kingdom. Whatever it sounds like Jay-Z’s American Gangster will be released on November 6th, only four days after the release of the film.
Now, this seems all well and good until you consider we live in reality; movies don’t really leak, but there’s no way in hell Jay-Z’s American Gangster’s isn’t going to leak before the release of the film American Gangster. Which creates a rather interesting little paradox I like to call “Preemptive Postmodernism”: the metaphor precedes the literal. A rather large group of people experience a piece of pop art directly inspired by another original independent piece of pop art before they will even have the opportunity to access the experience of original independent piece of pop art. That’s a little fucked.
So what this means is if you listen to Jay-Z’s new album before the Friday the film is released, you are potentially allowing Jay-Z’s singular experience of the film to preemptively recontextualize your experience of the film. And this was all made possible because Jay-Z is rich and famous and awesome and they screened the fucking movie for him. This begs the question:
Pop culture is acclerating, but can it lap itself?
I foresee two possibilities: One: If pop culture get’s lapped it will become deeply embarrassed, go into shock and simply pass out and never lose its virginity; in seizing the opportunity to attach himself to the next Scarface Jay-Z effectively ensures that it doesn’t become the next Scarface. (Actual irony!)
Or, two: the encounter could create a time paradox, the result of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe! Granted that’s a worst case scenario. The destruction might in fact be very localized, limited to merely our own galaxy.
Now that you’ve read that last paragraph, imagine I’d written and published it before the release of Back to the Future II. That would be a fucking dick thing to do.
So, Jay-Z I think you’re being kind of a dick. And you might also be putting the entire galaxy in danger so, if you’re so ahead of your time, yeah, maybe you could think ahead next time, ya dick.
Download:
MP3: Jay-Z-”Blue Magic”
Posted in Disco Vietnam | 4 Comments »
October 7th, 2007
Photo by Mark Mauer
I had a good time and all at yesterday’s LA Weekly Detour Festival but honestly guys, if you’re going to advertise $5 Dewar’s all-day, you better be serving $5 Dewar’s all day. None of this running out at 7 p.m. bullshit. How else is anyone supposed to enjoy Justice if they weren’t zonked off Blue Dolphins like the hairy headbanned hipster horde that was losing their shit. I was not on Blue Dolphins, the scotch was wearing thin and quite frankly I didn’t feel like trying to pretend it was Ibiza circa 1999.
As for the rest, Bloc Party reminded me why I loved Silent Alarm as much as I did in 2005 (the less we say about A Weekend in the City the better). The Raveonettes and Autolux turned in pretty much the same set, except the Raveonettes had a slight Danish Danish accent and kept on mentioning “ableskivers.” Patton Oswalt proved what everybody already knew: he’s very funny. The Shout out Louds were pleasantly mediocre. And of course, there were more stripes than Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, circa ‘81. I covered Justice’s set for Kevin Bronson’s Buzz Bands, so go there, and also vote in a contest to determine whether “blog-house” or “nu-rave” is the dumbest term that music writers have coined in the last two years.
Justice Review on Buzz Bands Blog
Download:
MP3: Justice-D.A.N.C.E.”
Posted in LA Times | 5 Comments »
October 7th, 2007
Not like I’m not trying to give you advice, Kells. But y’know, your girl might think that you were with those girls in the club because 92 percent of your album is dedicated to the concept that you get “freaky in the club” and that “you’re a flirt.” Real talk.
Posted in Videos | No Comments »
October 4th, 2007
My problems with Slug have never had anything to do with his rapping ability. In the course of his ten year career, the man born Sean Daley has been frequently brilliant, turning in three very good albums, (the first three), one of which, Overcast!. I consider to be one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever made.
But to loosely paraphrase J.D. Salinger, my favorite rappers have always been the dudes that you’d want to call up on the phone to invite over to smoke a blunt. This is why I’ve always vastly preferred Jay-Z to Nas. While vintage Jay was the sort of dude you’d go out with and end up surrounded by models, popping Crystal on a yacht in St. Tropez, Nas was the sort of guy who’d still be on the model-strewn yacht, but would perpetually be fucking things up by lecturing the models for not knowing who Mansa Musa was.
The point is, I’ve never really wanted to smoke a blunt with Slug. Ok, well maybe I did at one point, but I was about 20 years old and would’ve probably smoked a blunt with Satan himself then (provided that it was good chronic). But this all went out the window when I caught a lackluster Atmosphere show in late 2002, wherein Slug took a thong thrown from the audience and shoved it into his mouth like it was thanksgiving dinner. Nothing against guys that don’t see the several dozen hygenic problems posed by that situation, but ultimately, I wouldn’t want to be the next guy to hit the blunt either.
Listerine Anyone?
I’d seen Atmosphere three times since the infamous thong-eating fiasco and each time I walked away impressed. The thing is, Slug can rap really really well and when he’s not trying to make dull and overly simplistic 808-heavy beats, Ant remains one of the finest producers in the underground (despite looking identical to Norm McDonald playing Burt Reynolds on SNL Celebrity Jeopardy.) But you sort of have to accept the fact that the guy who wrote “Scapegoat” is the same one whose idea of a joke is writing a line like “open invitation/ to catch today’s ejaculation /all across the front of your pretty little apron.”
But Wednesday night at the Henry Fonda brought me back the infamous “naked lunch” of 2002 and it had nothing to do with it being a bad show (it wasn’t). The thing is, Slug now sports a creepy mustache, which coupled with Ant’s sinister upper lip, makes the duo look a pair 70’s porn stars going to a costume party dressed as Snidely Whiplash and Boris of Boris and Natasha. It’s weird and it’s hard to take Atmosphere’s brand of hip-hop melodrama seriously when the guys look like they’re trying to invent Nambla rap. I respect Slug. The guy’s talented and has built up a die-hard underground fan base, started one of the best labels around, and created some great music, thanks to a relentless work ethic and DIY approach. But the mustache just isn’t a good look, particularly coupled with his newfound penchant for wearing different hats during the course of the performance, including a police officer’s cap which convinced me that he was going to launch into a cover of “YMCA.”
By all conventional standards, it was a good show. Slug is a charismatic (if not overly cocky) front-man and he rocked the sold-out crowd with a mic presence that reflected the hundreds of thousands of miles and performances he’s logged perfecting his craft. But between the mustache (really, you just can’t trust anyone with a mustache) and his live band’s insistence on re-interpreting Ant’s beats as though played by Average White Band, I just couldn’t get into it. Thing is, I sort of miss the days before it became de rigeur for every conscious/indie-leaning rapper to play with a full band. I can’t even remember the last time a rapper came on-stage with just a rapper and a DJ, no hypeman, no wank-prone backing band, just some vinyl and some microphone cords. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still check for Atmosphere’s records (this summer’s EP, Sad Clown Bad Summer No. 9 was a welcome return to form), but it might be the last time I ever see them in concert. Unless they decide to shave.
Download:
MP3: Atmosphere-”Sunshine”
MP3: Atmosphere-”Say Hey There”
Posted in Beards, Blazers, & Glasses | 5 Comments »
October 3rd, 2007
Considering Zilla, is a regular contributor to this site, I’m obviously not the most objective person to evaluate his music. But the truth is, if I didn’t think his music was great, I never would’ve asked him to blog for me in the first place.
Since I first wrote about them roughly a year ago, Clean Guns have systematically appeared on just about every single hip-hop blog in this weird and narrow corner of the Internet. The reason behind this is very simple: Clean Guns have the rare ability to navigate the tightrope between traditionalist boom-bap and electro and indie-rock referencing progressivism. They’re intelligent enough for the underground kids, tough off enough for the coke-rap set to bob their head to.
Coming on the heels of their impressive debut, Sometimes There is Trouble, and this year’s Living in Harmony Mixtape: , the World Domination EP is arguably Clean Guns’ finest work yet. With brilliant beats supplied by Los Angeles producer, World Domination Headquarters, Zilla and his partner Knowledge Don step up their game, displaying a marked improvement on the mic, a testament to their prodigious work ethic. I could say more but the record is available as a free download. If you like smart hip-hop that you can play very loud in your car, chances are this will be one of your favorite records this year. Now, all Clean Guns need to do now is invent a you tube dance craze, then maybe world domination will be within their reach.
Download: Clean Guns-”World Domination EP” (left-click)
Posted in Album Reviews | 2 Comments »
October 2nd, 2007
Today is my 26th birthday. Accordingly, I plan on staying as far away from the computer as possible and enjoying a full 24 hours of sloth and indolence. Regularly scheduled programming will resume tomorrow.
Also, if you’re a blogger and still haven’t updated your blogroll to the new http:/passionweiss.com site, can you please take a second to do so. Thanks.
Download:
MP3: Modeselektor-”Happy Birthday”
MP3: Jens Lekman-”Happy Birthday Dear Friend, Lisa”
Sometimes the personals you find in the newspaper won’t serve your needs. If you’re looking through your local personals and you aren’t sure if you’ve found the kind of singles that you’re interested in then you may be interested in free California singles listings that you can find on the Internet.
Posted in Miscellany | 11 Comments »
