May 21st, 2008
So I was at the gym today getting my ‘roid on. Y’know, snorting wheat grass, main-lining whey protein, lamping in the tanning bed, all that crazy stuff us bleached Cali folk do. When suddenly, the grimy nihilism of Screwball’s Y2K: The Album: burst onto my headphones. If you’re not up on Carl Hubbell’s favorite group, Sach O of Oh Word did a write-up on them last year, and Unkut interviewed Blaq Poet a few years back. I’d been meaning to revisit the record after Screwball member, KL passed earlier this year from an asthma attack (least hip-hop death ever?) but for some reason I never got around to it. Needless to say, I finished my work-out looking as massive as 50 Cent and convinced that between Mobb Deep, CNN and Screwball, no borough ever made better gym music than Queens. Just listening to it made me want to lift several cars above my head, take on a S.W.A.T. team and shoot Rudy. After all, who really likes Notre Dame anyway?
Download:
MP3: Screwball (prod. by Premier)-”Seen It All”
MP3: Screwball-”Who Shot Rudy”
Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 4 Comments »
May 21st, 2008
Regardless of what you think of their music, you’ve got to respect Wolf Parade. When Apologies to the Queen Mary dropped in late 2005 and every music journo prematurely slapped “next Arcade Fire” tags on them, they could’ve easily played the comparison to the hilt by touring relentlessly, making themselves available to everyone with a pulse and a wireless connection, and recording a follow-up as rapidly as possible, lest they not let their red-hot buzz cool off. Instead, they did the opposite.
Sure, they played the festival circuit like any young Canadian band eager to pay the heating bills, but rather than milk their newfound fame, the band took nearly three years off to chase their solo dreams, an odd move for a band so young and untested. Heading back to the lab, Spencer Krug and Wolf Parade’s other principle songwriter, Dan Boeckner seemed more eager to create and hone their craft than play the same songs night in and night out while caking off that Sub Pop “sensitive sorostitute” fan base they had partially cultivated. It was a gamble and one that paid off, with the band alloted time to mature while simultaneously letting the hype burn off as critics that once heralded their arrival angling to get their jollies from more zeitgeist-friendly material like Hercules & Love Affair and Santogold (admittedly, both solid records).
Allowed to evolve somewhat beneath the radar, Krug released two eccentric, brilliant solo turns under the atrocious Sunset Rubdown moniker. Neither drew the insane acclaim myself and a few others deemed them worthy of, but both ultimately met a favorable reception and rubber-stamped Krug’s place on the Best Young Songwriter short-list. As for Boeckner, he dropped the solid if not overly spare Handsome Furs LP which confirmed his own significance and more importantly, illustrated that Krug wasn’t the only one who couldn’t pick a band name or album title for the life of him.
Wolf Parade: Surprisingly Very Little Fun at Parades
But for all their solo projects’ merits, it’s Wolf Parade where both songwriters are at their most accessible and easily enjoyable. Both Boeckner and Krug exert a sort of push-pull on the other, with Krug’s arabesque abstraction tempering Boeckner’s more straight-forward Springsteen skew and vice-versa. Ultimately, it yields a sense of balance and clarity that both Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs often lack (though not necessarily to their detriment.) The duality appears from the on-set of At Mount Zoomer, with opening cut “Soldier’s Grin” halfway to fist-pumping anthem status before halting in its tracks for a woozy, vertiginous bridge of surprising grace and power.
Thankfully re-titled from the abominable Kissing the Beehive, Wolf Parade’s second album sounds sleeker and more forceful than Apologies to the Queen Mary, with the addition of music’s Pau Gasol, ex-Hot Hot Heat guitarist Dante DeCaro beefing up the band’s previously ramshackle, lo-fi sound. On the second track, lead single, “Call It Ritual,” Krug gives a Parkinson bleat about “swinging his sword for show, while you turn your flower petals so slow.” His vocals are taken out by a vicious guitar grind and instantly, you become aware that this is a different band, one that’s become more polished while simultaneously retaining the tensile quality to their music that made them special in the first place.
It’s reductive to call this the Krug and Boeckner show. At Mount Zoomer finds the rest of the band making strong contributions, from Arlen Thompson’s bruising drum fills and work in recording and engineering the album, to Hadji Bakara’s Close Encounters of the Third King synths to DeCaro’s pulsing guitar licks that spar with Boeckner to create an almost Television-like interplay. Reviews will inevitably note the record’s proggy stoner rock tendencies, but its greatness lies in its inability to be pinned down. At Mount Zoomer is stoner rock that would sound terrible stoned. It’s too paranoid, there’s too much movement, and too much tremulous alienation in this sepulchral world of radio waves like stone, “100,000 sad inventions rotting inside gray estates” and of course, the kissing of beehives, which I’d wager taste like honey (no Jesus & The Mary Chain). In the end, Wolf Parade trump the sophomore jinx, in the process justifying the attention they received three years ago. So long as they don’t title their third album, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” everything should turn out just fine.
Pre-Order At Mount Zoomer
Download:
MP3: Wolf Parade-”Call It A Ritual”
Posted in Album Reviews, Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 4 Comments »
May 20th, 2008
I caught the Mezzanine Owls’ Monday night Spaceland residency show yesterday. As usual, I walked away impressed. I’ve already written about them once, or twice, or thrice this year, so I’ll keep this brief. Essentially, they’re one of those bands that gets better every time I see them and have earned the right to be considered one of the best local bands in LA. Mouse from Classical Geek Theate devoted more words to the show than I could ever hope to. He also has pictures. You should see them. I also caught The Henry Clay People’s set too. They do the meat and potatoes guitar rock thing but they do it damn well and are really fun to watch live. I wish I had their enthusiasm and joie de vivre. Maybe I should just start doing meth or something.*
* Oh what, I can’t do meth humor? Lighten up people. What’s next, you’re gonna’ tell me not to do dead baby jokes?
Download:
MP3: Mezzanine Owls-”Snowglobe”
MP3: The Henry Clay People-”Somewhere on the Golden Coast”
Posted in Beards, Blazers, & Glasses | 4 Comments »
May 20th, 2008
- Maybe instead of wallowing in unchecked misery over “the girl with the fat diamond ring” (really, the fat diamond ring is the main thing that you remember about her?), you should just step to one of the mermaids swimming around the set of your music video. Granted, mermaid human/relations have always been a bumpy proposition (just ask Hans Christian Anderson), but I find it hard to believe that PM Dawn couldn’t have have at least snagged some tail. So to speak.
- Stop whispering your vocals. You will always be set adrift on memory bliss if you step into the booth and start whispering sotto voce asides that make you sound like you’re trying to scheme on 3rd graders with pigtails.
- Stop wearing pink headbands. The collabos with Boy George are one thing. You can always play the sensitive and tolerant card. But c’mon dude, you’re 300 fucking lb.s, you look more like a tuft of cotton candy than a suitable mate.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in 10 Questions Raised | 7 Comments »
May 19th, 2008
I know I already linked to this clip of Khaled playing Kanye his latest synth-crap posse cut last week, but I figure a lot of y’all missed it and it’s pure hilarity. Do any two people in music provide more unintentional comedy than Rick Ross and Khaled? Ironically, last week the NYGZ’s dropped a remix that would’ve been Fat Taped and dissected ad infinitum had it dropped a decade ago, but will inevitably receive a modicum of attention in this fractured Internet world. Forget the NYGZ’s themselves, they’re merely serviceable. Instead, listen to Bumpy Knuckles, Ms. Afro-Puffs and Nickel-Nine murder the beat, acquitting themselves for that decade they took off. Meanwhile, Premier’s drop is a vintage boom-bap symphony, scratched hooks and dirt under your fingernail grime. Had I heard this before compiling my Best Of Muxtape, rest assured, it would’ve made the cut. You’ll like it, you know, if you’re into that whole “post Illmatic New York rap” thing. Meanwhile, someone should lock Khaled up on a speedboat and force him to hear this on repeat.
Download:
MP3: NYGZ’s ft. Lady of Rage, Freddie Foxx & Royce Da’ 5′9″-”Ya Dayz R #’D”
Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 10 Comments »
May 18th, 2008
Something’s slightly skewed inside King Khan’s skull. Pause to look at his press photos, where he’s either dressed for beach season in Nice or simply in wardrobe on the set of the latest Wes Anderson jaunt. Or consider the possibility whether or not Khan swiped his name from the fabled professional wrestler and master of the Mongolian Chop, Kin Corn Karn. Or maybe you’d prefer to just listen to What Is?, the album that the Montreal-raised Khan released on the tiny Hazelwood label last year. In particular, “69 Faces of Love,” one of 2007’s finest songs, a pure cotton candy melody built on delicate electric guitars and a beautiful babble of stacked sun-kissed horns, frail strings, and rain-drop drums–a landscape so pristine you’d think it had been conjured under the influence of some sound-bombing Blue Cheer licked during a placid love-in in Golden Gate Park circa 1967.
Lyrically, it’s a different story, with the song’s subject, the fact that like Bill and Ted, “69″ is the number that Khan’s thinking of. Its hook reads, “you really blow my mind…come on wine, dine, 69,” illustrating how Khan’s Zappa-esque playfulness melds with sharp technique, as the erstwhile leader of the BBQ Show crafts a sublime hybrid of Nuggets-type garage rock and Wilson Pickett-like soul. Of course, he’s trying to fuck with you. The guy can’t keep a straight face, rifling off gorgeous melodies to disappear into and then bursting the bubble with a cackled “shout out to all the deaf girls.” I assume he means Foxy Brown?
Last month, Vice wisely snapped up Khan and his 11-piece backing band The Shrines, whose line-up includes Ron Streeter, a 60-year old Chitown native who drummed for among others, Stevie Wonder and Curtis Mayfield, plus a horn section featuring Simon Wojan (Cloudland Canyon), Ben Ra (billed as Germany’s John Coltrane) and the apparently famed French rockabilly saxophonist, Big Fred Roller Coast. Since I’m up on neither French Rockability nor Roller Coasters, I’ll have to take Vice’s word for it. The band’s about to embark on their first-ever US tour and inevitably, I’ll have more to say about them after I catch the live show. In the meantime, scoop up the MP3’s below and cop the band’s greatest hits compilation, The Supreme Genius Of, a sure-fire early contender for best album art of the year. While it might not bring world peace nor lower miniature golf scores like Wyld Stallyns’ music, both Bill S. Preston Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan would be hard-pressed to deny that it isn’t “excellent.”
Download from The Supreme Genius Of
MP3: King Khan & The Shrines-”Welfare Bread”
MP3: King Khan & The Shrines-”No Regrets”
MP3: King Khan & The Shrines-”Torture”
From What Is?
MP3: King Khan & The Shrines-”69 Faces of Love”
Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 12 Comments »
May 16th, 2008
In case you missed it, Sach O of Oh Word touched down briefly last week, taking a break from trying to find Manuel Noriega in the Philippines (He has a mansion?) to bless the blogosphere with one of his hilariously entertaining rants. If you’re too lazy to click over, the gist revolves around the assertion that Portishead and Erykah Badu have pretty much bodied all hip-hop made in 2008. Dart Adams of Poisonous Paragraphs fired back in the comments section with his claim that there have been 50 worthwhile rap records released this year and then wrote this post where he pointed out that “hip hop is far from dead, but the way we used to hear it and become exposed to it may be dead forever. If you’re not scouring the internet or the bloggerverse for that new shit then chances are you have no idea what (if any) new Hip Hop albums dropped last Tuesday.”
Personally, I’m somewhere between the two. Yeah, Badu and Portishead dropped two monster records this year that pretty much sonned nearly every hip-hop full-length. But Bun B, El-P, EMC, Elzhi, Metaform, Why? and The Kidz In the Hall have all made albums that I would’ve happily purchased had the Internet not turned the music world into a cheap all-you-can-eat buffet. Moreover, the year has produced a bonanza (yes, a bonanza) of great singles, many of which are on albums still forthcoming (in theory).
So if you’ve glossed over most of what I’ve posted this year in hopes of the rare chance that I’ll make fun of the Iron Sheik or something, the muxtapes are below. I purposely omitted songs that were on my first tape, so “Royal Flush” didn’t make it despite being easily one of the year’s best songs. Next time, I’ll do best non-hip hop stuff for the four of you into that sort of thing. In the meantime, peep the tapes below to find 24 of the finest rap songs made by rappers that contain rapping, sometimes in rhythm, occasionally on-beat, often high. In the words of William Mulholland, “There it is. Take it.”
The Passion of the Weiss Muxtape #3: The Best Hip-Hop Songs of the Year Part 1
The Passion of the Weiss Muxtape#4: The Best Hip-Hop Songs of the Year Part II
Posted in Muxtape | 9 Comments »
May 15th, 2008
I know absolutely nothing about Brazilian Samba. I do know a little about Madlib, primarily that his music sounds very good on glaucoma medication. He has a new record coming out next month called Sujinho. It is a mixture of Brazilian samba and Bossa Nova. It will be his 65th album over the last four years, I like each one in its own way. This is possibly because of our mutual connection based on having severe glaucoma.
Billed as Jackson Conti, the album is a collaboration between Madlib and Ivan Conti, the drummer for Otis Jackson Jr.’s favorite jazz fusion group, the Rio De Janeiro-based, Azymuth. The record isn’t the least bit “hip-hop.” so if you’re looking for head-nodding stoned chaos this isn’t the right place* to look. But if you’re interested in something cool and tranquil to read to, or marinate heaping slabs of Brazilian BBQ to, or even play Bossa Nova bingo to,** this might be the ideal soundtrack.
* This is exactly the right place. Knock four times. Ask for Victor. He’ll take care of you.
** Is there any other kind?
Download:
MP3: Jackson Conti-”Xbaba”
MP3: Jackson Conti-”Nao Tem Nada Nao”
Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 2 Comments »
May 15th, 2008
Photo via Genaro Molina/LA Times
It’s easy to get jaded writing about music every day. You can ask any writer or blogger. It’s the sort of thing most of them complain about behind closed doors but have the common sense not to bitch about publicly. After all, the only way you’re going to find a sweeter gig than writing about music for a living is if the Tim Floyd Fan Club procures you the sinecure. (hey, USC fans, Lil Romeo!). But every now and then you get to do something that makes you realize how lucky you are to be in this sort of position. Cue corny Reality Bites-esque moment of sincerity.
My story in this morning’s Times covers a concert that the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz put on at Washington High in South-Central. Think of it as the world’s greatest high school talent show with celebrity cameos from Doug E. Fresh, Chali 2na of Jurassic 5 and Herbie Hancock. Interspersed between the performances was a skit between a student and veteran character actor Bill Cobbs, about the ties that bind jazz, hip-hop and all 20th century African-American music. They played snippets of everyone from Duke Ellington to Charlie Parker to Miles Davis, to Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and the story of the birth of hip-hop.
The ultimate goal of the program was teach hip-hop kids an understanding of jazz, how to fuse the two genres and how to get a job in the Roots if all else fails. Watching the students freestyle over a horn section and live bass guitars reminded me a little of the brief Digable Planets/Tribe/US3/Gangstarr jazz rap trend from the early 90s; though admittedly, watching the man who provided the sample for “Cantaloop” didn’t hurt either. As I mention in the story, the best part about the whole thing was hearing Thelonious Monk Jr. deliver the news that the program’s curriculum was in the process of being exported to New York, Chicago and most importantly, Miami. Meaning…your time is numbered, Khaled, your time is numbered.
LA Times: Strutting Their Stuff In Front of Legends
Download:
MP3: Doug E Fresh & Slick Rick-”La-Di-Da-Di”
MP3: Galactic ft. Chali 2na-”Think Back”
MP3: Herbie Hancock-”The Sorcerer”
Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 3 Comments »
May 14th, 2008
The ever-edifying, Mark from Music For Robots converted me to the San Diego-based Muslims when he posted them about two months ago (Does this mean I’m no longer allowed to eat lox and bagels in good faith?). While their band name and penchant for playing conehead in the hot tub might preclude their chances for running for U.S. president, “Extinction” provided a lovely soundtrack for my walk to the eye doctor today (so so hip-hop). Easily one of my favorite rock singles of the year, the song is a two and half minute, Nuggets/Modern Lovers-type, end-to-end burner. Thing is, I could strive and strain all day long to describe the song with faux-eloquence, but really, Mark already cut to the marrow when he said, “The Muslims make rock ‘n roll music that’s catchy as fuck.” Allahu akbar.
Download:
MP3: Muslims-”Extinction”
MP3: Muslims-”Right and Wrong”
Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 5 Comments »
