2008 January » Passion of the Weiss

Jan
31

The Special Technique of 5 O’ Clock Shadowboxin’

You’d be hard-pressed to find two rappers more diametrically opposed than Zilla Rocca and the man known as Weezy F. (Scott Fitzgerald) Baby. The two practically exist in different galaxies. Wayne, an iced out, ecstasy popping maniac from the streets of New Orleans, practically extra-terrestrial in his weirdness. Zilla, an underground rapper (if such a… Continue reading »

Jan
31

LA Weekly: Discovering The Candidates Through Their Playlists

William Howard Taft. Our 27th President. Our 10th Chief Justice. A Possible Walrus. And the man behind arguably the greatest campaign theme song in history: “Get On A Raft With Taft.” Some say that you can tell a lot about a candidate based on their choice of campaign song, and maybe in some respects that’s… Continue reading »

Jan
30

The Old Testament: Fela Kuti

I haven’t wanted to listen to anything but Fela Kuti for weeks. It’s getting a little weird. In the car, Expensive Shit/He Miss Road has monopolized my stereo. and at home, rather than feebly attempt productivity, I’ve burnt countless hours scrounging around miscellaneous legally dubious corners of the web vainly attempting to acquire his entire… Continue reading »

Jan
29

Beards, Blazers & Glasses or Yeasayer, The Indie Spin Doctors

Yeasayer are a jam band, they just aren’t aware of it yet. At one point during the Brooklyn four-piece’s set Saturday night at the Echoplex, lead singer Chris Keating even paused to extemporaneously inform the crowd that “people call us hippies, but that’s just not true. We’re from Baltimore.” This is arguably the worst ever… Continue reading »

Jan
28

Sexy Results: Because One Mean-Spirited Review of the Juno Soundtrack Just Isn’t Enough (Even Though It Probably Is)

No sane, self-respecting website would publish Ian Cohen’s review of the Juno soundtrack. Luckily, this website is neither of those two things. With the possible exception of Passion Of The Christ, few recent films have been able to trigger a fight or flight response quite like Juno. It isn’t the province of religious or political… Continue reading »

Jan
27

For He’s a Jolly Good Fela

If I get my act together, I hope to have a monster post on Fela Kuti up some time this week or next. In the meantime, the disco-inflected lilt of “2000 Blacks Got to Be Free”, from Fela’s 1980 collabo with jazzman Roy Ayers, is doing me just right on this rain-slicked Sunday. Downloading is… Continue reading »

Jan
27

Aesop Rock-”Pigs”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdYU2OlvbsM Jeremy Fish is brilliant and Aesop Rock’s videos are better than your favorite rapper’s. Sorry, but this is true.

Jan
25

Pause and Rewind: The Show

I remember watching The Show for the first and only time when I was a freshman in high school. I wasn’t very impressed. This was 1995, Biggie was alive, Warren G was the biggest star in the world, Wu-Tang was in the middle of the greatest run in rap history and Snoop Dogg hadn’t yet… Continue reading »

Jan
24

How Paula Abdul’s “Opposites Attract” Explains Why (Many) Women Like Assholes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbknGnZXHUk One of the most common complaints I hear from my female friends is that they always seem to fall for “assholes.” Quite mistakenly, they ask for advice on how to remedy this situation and the ensuing conversation inevitably leads to elliptical arguments about how maybe they should stop liking guys that are assholes. However,… Continue reading »