White Williams-Smoke
I immediately dismissed White Williams after noticing he was tabbed as the opening act on the Girl Talk/Dan Deacon Hipster Headache 07! tour (sponsored by Dewars.) Then I saw his album art, begging to be filed into the “why can’t irony finally die?” category. But upon closer examination, wading into this American Apparel infested territory looked shockingly promising, considering the album art featured two people hitting a hookah and exhaling the word, Smoke. Good enough for me.
Unlike his ex-tourmates, Williams’ music doesn’t sound like it was composed after an all-night snort-fest consisting of 4 Adderrals, two rails, and a few pixie sticks for good measure (dude, you haven’t lived until you’ve taken bumps from the green flavor). Instead, the man born Joe Williams pays homage to the archetypal hipster tropes: Bowie, Eno, Roxy Music, T. Rex, Beck. While the sound might not be that original , the 23-year old New Yorker has synthesized his influences well to produced one of the year’s best debuts. As Eric “Marathon Packs” Harvey so aptly put it in his Pitchfork review, “Smoke could be Midnite Vultures Redux: Something for the Blunted.”
So while White Williams might roll with a few too many emaciated dudes in throwback Pirates caps, ultimately Smoke deserves some burn (da-dum ching). Even if he’s a lot less cool than White Goodman (who would most certainly whip that flabby Dan Deacon into shape.).
But Seriously, I Really Do Have Shackles
ThDownload:
MP3: White Williams-”Headlines”
MP3: White Williams-”The Shadow”
Stumble It!
November 15th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
you rock, yo…
def. one of my top 5 music critics.
Backpackers UNITE!
But seriously, if I see post-SOMETHING in another one of your stories I’m gonna do a post-modern post-Diddy, post-millenial vomit on your lunch, homie.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
On the real tho, you 4got to mention something in your Freeway review. He’s a rapper who doesn’t rhyme. But overall, decent review.