November 25th, 2008
Sach O has been described as “like James Bond in an Octagon, with two razors.”
So kid, you’ve been away at Art school for a few months now. You’ve settled into your dorm and hung up your Che Guevara flag and vintage Pixies poster; you’ve tried a few new drugs and you’ve passed at least one test while totally still drunk. Isn’t it time you did something productive…like form a band? Sounds like a good idea, huh? It’ll be just like that Oliver Stone movie with Val Kilmer! You might even get laid! Well, not so fast sport, you can’t just pick up a guitar, find yourself a disgruntled poet as a lead singer, and call yourself the next Weezer, lest you want to sound like the current Weezer. With so many different bands to emulate, how would you know who to sound like? (What? You thought you’d try something original? Good luck with those reviews!) Thankfully I’m here to help: I can’t tell you what to sound like but here are 10 acts that you should definitely not try to sound like if you want any chance of your band standing out. These acts have seen their style recycled so many times that even they don’t want to sound like themselves anymore.
- David Bowie
Granted we all love Bowie: his persona was the only funny part of that Flight of the Concords TV show and the Berlin trilogy has influenced countless awesome bands…but that’s the problem. Bowie worship is to the 00’s as Beatles worship was to Britpop: a suffocating all encompassing shadow that keeps people thinking inside the box. If young Bowie were around today, he wouldn’t sound anything like an old Bowie record. So make like young Bowie, not like old young Bowie. Get it?
- The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed
Blah blah blah every band that heard their debut formed a band. Is that why there are so many terrible rock groups with pretentious lyrics and detuned guitars out there? Beloved by indie kids for eschewing pot-driven noodling in favour of heroin chic poetry, The Velvets have been so utterly cannibalized by uncreative rock disciples that most new acts don’t even realise who they’re stealing from. Combine this with the fact that both Reed and his disciples had major insecurity issues with 60’s rock and it’s no wonder contemporary indie is so boring and humorless. Bump some Frank Zappa instead: he thought they sucked balls and feuded with Lou Reed to his deathbed.
- Joy Division (or most Post-Punk for that matter)
The Velvets for the eyeliner set aren’t quite as imitated as their forebears but that’s mostly because you can’t duplicate Martin Hammet’s production in Garage Band and Robert Smith’s steelo was easier to crib than Ian Curtis’. Still, their influence persists whenever some fauxteur uses the word “angular” and in the fashion sense of millions of emo kids. Take it from New Order: if the band itself can get over Joy Division and learn how to dance, I’m sure you can too. Love for my ears will tear us apart…from your myspace page.
- Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang may very well be my favourite act ever so it’s with great sadness that I announce that you shouldn’t try to sound anything like them if you’re reading this post. Because if you are, I doubt that you grew up in Staten Island in the early 80’s, checking out Kung Fu flicks in Times Square and battling on the ferry ride back home. Instead, you probably grew up in the suburbs, really liked 36 Chambers and decided to form a rap crew. Chances are you’ll sound incredibly dorky, won’t contribute anything worthwhile to rap music and you’ll end up dropping a Neptunes sound-alike record in frustration 3 years later. Stick to spinning records at 90’s nights.
- Prince
Biting Prince has become shorthand for “artiness that record labels can sell” among black musicians. The formula is predictable: release a few dope rap records and when you run out of ideas, throw on Signs O the Times and cut a catchy single with a drum machine and a synthesizer. Except that it’s lazy, uncreative and doesn’t even sound that cool and futuristic anymore. Seriously, we need emcees to be on the ball with their next shit: if you guys don’t come up with something new who will? White people? Baby, don’t waste your time, I know what’s on your mind… and you can never take the place of that man.
- Sonic Youth (or Radiohead for that matter)
Number 6 should have been number 1 to me. Because really there’s nothing the world needs less than another experimental college rock band that’s full of its own shit. Take some anti-depressants, hire a fucking prostitute, get smashed in a club, take a walk in the park…whatever works for you. But under NO circumstances do I want to hear you cut a vaguely noisy, quasi-electronic record for douchy undergrads to slice their wrists to while they complain about how the economy is cutting into their allowance. In fact, if you even considered sounding like these guys, do the world a favour and quit music entirely.
- Anything 70’s and German
Jah, ze Germans had to vork really hard to make those records: lots of fantastic drumming and innovation to come up with those minimal grooves and some truly talented guitar playing as vell. Vhat’s dis? You vant to do ze same thing by looping up drums in ze sequencer? And you vant to recite bad poetry to it in English? And you’re from Nebraska? NEIN!!!! Das Stopen!!!!
Exception: if you plan to sample the nihilists from the big Lebowski and loop them into your motorik groove. That’d be ok.
- Biggie, Jay-Z or Nas
Who’s the best emcee? I can’t call it but if you want to be next best, stay away from the big 3. If you spend your time looking up to them like an annoying younger sibling, how am I supposed to take you seriously? Plus no one’s selling records sounding like a 90’s coke kingpin anymore: the Clipse went double wood and the kids are into dancing and non-sequiturs. By all means, if you find some dope boom-bap beats, rip them to shreds but please, do so with originality and forgo the hero worship. And that goes double for 2-Pac.
- My Bloody Valentine (or Neutral Milk Hotel for that matter)
If you sound half as good as these bands, knock yourself out. These are fantastic musicians whose influence hasn’t been properly synthesized into pop culture on account of their pre-fame disappearances. The only problem is, Kevin Shields and Jeff Mangum are geniuses and you’re not so any attempt at imitating their sound will result in an awful wall of sludge or the acoustic equivalent of a cat in a blender. I miss these guys as much as the next man… but face it: we’re just going to have to play out the originals because there’s no way that your tribute will hold a candle. On the other hand, feel free to crib notes from the new Portishead album.
- The Smiths
The this, The that…but you’re all just wick-wick wack. Tired naming convention aside, these jaded reactionaries who capitalized on the British music press’ ambivalence towards black/dance music are nothing to emulate. And yet, this decade has bred a surplus of “ironic” bands with campy vocalists, pretentious female fanbases and guitarists that don’t hold a candle to Johnny Marr. Don’t do it.
I can tell you’re still on the fence, perhaps you’ve seen Garden State one too many times? Fine, I’ll compromise, your band CAN sound like the Smiths but here’s a list within a list of reasons your singer shouldn’t sound like anything like Morrissey:
-
- Hated on Rap music from the beginning
- Essentially invented metro-sexuality years ahead of time.
- Militant Vegetarian and PETA member.
- Was not referring to Khaled when he said “hang the DJ”
- Talks shit about artists, can’t back it up then acts like a bitch.
- Histrionic political statements embarrass the left
- Ironic infatuation with racism was never funny
- Come on: the guy’s a total douche.
Bonus: 5 acts that were played out 10 years ago that sound new again…
The Stone Roses/Happy Mondays: The next big thing. Count on it.
Parliament-Funkadelic and James Brown: funk is back! Seriously!
The Beastie Boys: Hipster rap starts here.
The Beatles: Even death can’t stop these guys. You know someone’s going to sound like them sometime in the next 5 years and make a gang of money.
Posted in Sach O | 14 Comments »
November 24th, 2008
More excellent photos from Timothy Norris can be found in slide show form at Play.
Of Montreal’s career can be cleanly cleaved into three distinct categories. Emerging as part of the second-wave of Elephant 6 bands, the first incarnation of the Kevin Barnes-fronted band recorded a handful of acoustic-skewing and schizo albums, split between tiny indies Bar/None and Kindercore. Heavily inspired by the Beatles and Barnes’ own theatrical leanings, the records attracted the Athens, Ga. band a modest, cult fanbase.
2004’s Satanic Panic in the Attic found the band upgrading to mid-sized indie, Polyvinl and undergoing a significant stylistic shift. Paring giddy drum machines, a garish flirtation with electronica and a golden, psychedelic tint to Barnes’ perpetual Fab Four infatuation, Of Montreal produced its finest work yet. The follow-up, 2005’s, The Sunlandic Twins, continued to dip towards a wired disco bliss and drew mixed reviews, some that chided Barnes for being in a rut. Arriving at a time when “angular post-punk” was the operative cliche, in hindsight, The Sunlandic Twins has aged remarkably well and without it, it’s highly possible that Mgmt would never have been promoted in the first place.
Then came last year’s Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer, the album which catapulted the band to a level of popularity almost unimaginable for an indie group not on Saddle Creek, Sub Pop, Matador or Merge. Perhaps the band’s most consistently realized work, Barnes’ songwriting grew more personal and direct, particularly on the record’s centerpiece, the nearly 12 minute long, “The Past is a Grotesque Animal–” a brilliant break-up ballad so painfully emo that it ensured that it would appeal to two very important demographics: 14-year old girls (see above) and music critics. On-stage, Barnes grew almost cartoonishly outlandish, performing as his alter ego, a middle-aged black she-male named Georgie Fruit. Wearing make-up, sequined outfits, wedding dresses and constructing elaborately surreal sets, the band finally emerged. As did Barnes, who decided to famously whip it out on-stage in Febuary of last year. Yes, it.
Thus, watching an Of Montreal concert today feels like a cross between a Ted Haggerty-led revival, a wrap party for suburban kids in a 9th grade production of The Wiz, and a Queen concert, had Freddie Mercury & Co. been born 20 years later and gotten their start as a Prince cover band.
If you were a 17-year old, sexually confused kid on ecstasy, it stands within reason that Saturday night’s show at the Palladium would’ve ranked as one of the greatest moments of your entire life. And I’m sure the couple of Hello Kitty and the hipster Phantom of the Opera (see above) were pleased. In fact, most of the under-21 set didn’t stop dancing from the moment Barnes came out on-stage, garbed in purple pants, a sequined blouse and surrounded by rock people who vaguely resembled the Grecian chorus in Mighty Aphrodite.
By now, Of Montreal’s stage show has blown up to such absurd pomp that it threatens to overshadow the music. Which is sort of a shame, because only a handful of songwriters have written as many good songs over the course of this decade than Kevin Barnes. Yet most of the crowd is there for the vaudevillian camp; this is arena-rock for hipster teens. In another lifetime, its not unimaginable to think that half these kids would’ve been die-hard Kiss fans, or at least The Village People.
Barnes isn’t the only one in on the act, as you might be able to tell from Of Montreal’s drummer, clearly striving for that Coco B. Ware meets Roman Legionnaire look that’s been so hot this fall.
Yet the 34-year old frontman was clearly the show’s star, vamping for the crowd, whipping them into a statutory sexual frenzy. It’s sort of an odd combination, as prototypical objects of teenage adulation tend to skew younger and scragglier, not like the gaunt and girlish Barnes, his paper-thin hair worn in a neat side-part. But as the gremlin-like Lil Wayne has recently proved, anyone can be a sex symbol if they play the part and Barnes successfully packages it to the kids. So to speak.
The band’s set focused heavily off their latest record, Skeletal Lamping, a more scattered affair, but one not without its charms. Flitting back and forth between gaudy dance work outs, a surprisingly deep funk and occasional pyrotechnic guitar solo, Of Montreal displayed an impressive range. Deploying his Purple One-aping falsetto to the crowd’s delight, there were tiger masks, cartoons, a weird skit featuring Barnes as a priest with a sexy nun; it recalled an Amsterdam sex show as interpreted by Stephen Sondheim. The kids loved it.
Hell, even the corpse of Andy Warhol seemed to have a good time.
Download:
MP3: Of Montreal-”Disconnect the Dots”
MP3: Of Montreal-”So Begins Our Alabee”
MP3: Of Montreal-”Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse”
MP3: Of Montreal-”Id Engager”
Posted in Beards, Blazers, & Glasses | No Comments »
November 21st, 2008
No introduction necessary.
Q: So what brings you out to LA?
A: Just business brought me out here. I have an office set up out here and we’re just out here networking and keeping our minds at peace and just working on the album, staying in the studio. I’m doing a lot of things—dealing with other projects on the side. I’m working on a big documentary about Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, but basically, we just lovin’ the air.
Q: Do you find LA more conducive than NY in terms of handling industry business, networking and all that stuff?
A: Absolutely, there’s just more stuff popping out here. When you think of Hollywood, you think of land the land of opportunity. I always want to have the opportunity to do things conducive to my career. But I’ve spent a lot of time in Cali before.
Q: You guys had a Wu mansion out here for a while, right?
A: Yup, but even outside of the Wu mansion, I lived out here for a year. LA’s always been good to me.
Q: Where do you spend most of your time these days? Manhattan? Do you still have a place in Staten?
A: We spread out right now, I got a couple places in different parts of the country. As far as Staten, no I don’t have a place there anymore.
Q: So let’s talk about Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2, it’s been in the works for a long, long time now, what made you decide to come out with it now?
A: I’ve never been the type of person to jump up and throw out the album without it being what it’s supposed to be. I was doing my thing on other projects that were successful in my eyes, but we decided now to release the album because it’s finally done. I wanted to make a sequel because it’s so highly requested from the fans—and it’s a classic. I’ve assembled the best producers in the game and I felt that now was a good way to come out shining. Rza did his thing on the project, the formula’s still where it’s supposed to be. A lot of people around me are excited and I feel like I know it’s a classic.
Q: It was long slated to be released on Aftermath. What happened there?
A: Well, me and the Label, we couldn’t come to the right terms. Dre had a lot of projects he was working on and you know me, knowing how important OB4CL2 was, I needed him next to me the way I wanted. And at the end of the day, I’m still a big fan of Dre, that’s my dude. We couldn’t come to terms within the company, but we kept a mutual respect and friendship. We both big fans of each and it wasn’t a big thing. I decided to go another way with it because I figured why go somewhere if you know that you’re not going to be the key player in the situation. I can’t afford to do that with this type of record and hey, at end of the day, Dre is on the record.
Q: Did you do any recording for Detox when you were on Aftermath?
A: No, no recording for Detox, not at the moment. Dre is somebody who’s very busy and who works hard like me.
Q: Who contributed beats?
A: I’m just going to give you a brief summary: the Rza, the legendary J Dilla Dr Dre. and just those three elements there, that’s really dangerous, the heat is crazy. But there’s other cats that’s powerful: Pete Rock, Marley Marl came in to do a a crazy track that I love.
Q: When’s the release date?
A: The release date is going to be in March—definitely. We feel good about that time because it’ll give us enough time to spread the word out there globally, not just in the States.
Q: What label are you going to release it on?
A: I’m going to put it out on my Ice Water Inc. label. I’m my own biggest marketing tool. I know the history of the business and I might as well capitalize on it. We built the brand and now we become the new industry. I wanted to have full control of the project and have it be what I wanted it to be. It’s hard to deal with labels who don’t understand you—these guys is looking for ringtone artists and I’m more than a ringtone artists. I’m an icon.
Q: What made you decide to do a sequel to the original OB4CL in the first place?
A: Just based on the fans, people have so much love for that album and the fans said they know I’m one of the top guys in the game. People wanted me to go back to that formula of the drug game, rapping about the dreams that we was having before we made it. And I’m a fan of the original too, it made me who I am today.
Q: So are the themes between the two records similar? Is it a continuation of the original’s loose story line?
A: All I’m going to say is that it’s an underground record. I kept each producer in the zone. We’re going back to what we did before the commercial success, to the early years. I’m still Raekwon on the album, the tracks is so authentic, we went back to the eerie, the stuff that made you look at Wu Tang in the first place. You’d never know that the record had all these different producers if I didn’t tell you, because they came with gritty beats to make a gritty album. We came with a couple energy boosters to get the stadiums jumping but for the most part, it’s the same type of storytelling.
Q: What about guest spots? Is there a lot of Cappa and Ghost like the original?
A: When you think about the old Wu albums, you think about lyrics, strong flows, and production. I wanted to make this a well-rounded album, but not a commercial album. It’s what the people wanted, me back in the kitchen and going back in the pot, that’s what y’all, that’s what y’all gonna’ get. We don’t have no crazy features. I had a good friend come through and do his part, the Game is on the record, he’s a good friend of mine.
Q: By a good friend, did you mean Ghost?
A: Well you know, I’m not trying to copy the first one. I didn’t want to try to be identical, it’s not about me trying to replicate the same album. But yeah, Ghost is on the record, Cappa is on the record, the whole Clan is on the record. That was the first formula we came with when we marketed it the first time and we have same level of respect, they’re all doing their thing. This is the second one, you have to allow new space for new ideas. I made sure that I had my brothers there. You might hear an highlight from someone new and unexpected, someone else who might go off. At the end of the day, that’s what people gotta’ do, open their minds up to creative music. When I look at my favorites, I can’t expect them to make the same shit all the time. You gotta’ see where their head is at, see if they’re still being the same intriguing artist. It’s about staying on top of your game and I think that’s what this album shows. Being game for 15 years, it’s tough to stay coming with a breath of fresh air, but I think I did it.
Some people only may think Cuban Linx is only a classic. I think all my albums is a classic, a lot of those albums got overlooked because of marketing. I might not the be the best commercial artist or the one that’s gonna’ be on the hot remix, but when it comes to albums, I’m in a lane of my own. The crew sounds flawless on the album. I take this lyrical stuff seriously, we’ve always been high conscious, high conscious, a bunch of 007 niggas. Overall, Wu-Tang is always going to be in their own box, that’s what we created. Today’s hip hop, that’s cool but Wu-Tang is Wu-Tang.
Q: Have you gone back and listened to 8 Diagrams since it was released. Are you still disappointed with it?
8 Diagrams wasn’t one of my favorite Wu albums. It was cool, it could’ve been a little more hip-hop, more energetic in certain places. It wasn’t trash. Wu-Tang will never make anything trash. There’s just certain expectations that we all and at the time, we felt that Rza had to recognize it ain’t just you, it’s a team thing. If we weren’t recognizing it as being done, that it wasn’t fair. It did what it did and we still wound up supporting it but our hearts wasn’t in it. It’s like you wanna’ pass the test with a 100, not with a 75. If you get a 75 you pass, but if you ain’t getting a 98 or 99, what’s the point.
Q: Do the think the media blew your comments a bit out of proportion?
A: The media looks at certain things, they look for what they want to look at. They may want you to go somewhere else and wonder why you didn’t stay where you were. Or then, if you don’t chance, they’ll say you didn’t grow. But at the end of the day, it’s all constructive criticism. I know my record is very very important important to anyone who knows what Cuban Linx is.
Q: I’d say that this record and Detox are probably the two most anticipated records among hard-core hip-hop fans.
A: I agree with you on that. There’s something about those two albums—you got two powerful icons and they’re not just settling on just putting shit out. We know what it means to the fans, you can’t go off what someone else may tell you, sometimes you have to listen to yourself and dissect the situation. People sometimes look for what they want they, they might say there’s not enough Ghost or Cappadonna or Rza didn’t do all the tracks, but what does that have to do with it being a classic or not?
Q: I agree, 8 Diagrams might not have been a classic, but it was definitely a good album. I think people just had to adjust their perception of what they expected from the Wu-Tang, it was rap for the symphony hall, not grimey type shit.
A: For sure, that opera shit was cool, it wasn’t all it could be, but all I can be is the best that I can be. When you think of Rae, Rae is the chef. He’ always gonna’ serve all sorts of different dishes. All I can do when I get on the mic is be me. I don’t try to be crzay lyrical one, I’m not Rakim, I don’t try to be Rakim, Rakim’s always going to be Rakim to us. All I can do is be me on these tracks and give that to the world. And I think people is is going to definitely appreciate it.
It’s not about the sales—that’s another thing about fans nowadays. It ain’t about the music, it’s about the RBI’s with everything. That ain’t got nothing to do with hip hop. There were lots of artists back the days who made classic albums who never had a gold record. My thing is that yo man, we hard core forever, whether we on TV or not on TV, we make hardcore music. We make well-rounded music too. If we want to make you cry, we can. We might be a bit dysfunctional, but when it comes to making emotional music, no one can touch the Clan.
Q: So are you not ruling out another Clan album down the road?
A: I’m a fair dude. I’m always going to make it my business to be fair. The Clan made all of us and I’ve never been the one to say that I wouldn’t participate. We’ll see what the future holds.
Q: So are you going to make Purple Tapes of this?
A: I can’t speak on that, but I can tell people that we’re definitely making a Cuban Link bonus DVD for everyone to check out that’s worth a look. At the same time, we’re doing a book called the Purple Book, which is the memoirs of everything that I’ve been through in this game and what the significance of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx is. We definitely looking at this project as the launch of a new era. It’s important for people to go back and say, I remember that album and now he going to give us the new one. The younger generation, some may know about it and some may not. I’m doing this for the ones that believed in me from the door, this is for you and I knew I had to give 5,000 percent on this project.
Q: What do you think of the younger generation of hip-hop?
A; I like the fact that kids can make a couple of dollars to make their dreams come true, more than the actual creativity. A lot of it sounds the same, but I don’t want to hate on them. To be honest, I think the younger hip-hoppers are more hip-hop than the commercial artists we got out now. The commercial shit is about branding your name and your swagger. Everything now is about swagger, there’s not art to swagger. Swag ain’t one of my words. Swag vs. art? Stick to the art.
Q: Do you ever feel the need to keep up with the contemporary morays?
A: I don’t to prove it. I’ve always been a fly dude; I’ve influenced a lot people to be who they are. I see the resemblance, I’m one of the creators of that style. Nevertheless, I’m concentrating on giving the people a banging album so strong. I’ve got some of the hardest critics around me and everyone is really feeling it.
Q: So are you done recording?
A: When it comes to the chef, I ain’t never done cooking right until the food is served. I may make a few different changes here and there because I consider myself never. But as far as it not being done, it’s done. Who knows though. I might wake up tomorrow and write a hit Cuban linx. My mind fluctuates when it comes to making this shit. It’s a hard and colorful album.
Q: Is it hard for you to put a fresh spin on stuff that happened to show 20 years ago?
A: Not hard at all. It’s never hard when you experience something. It’s only hard when you haven’t experienced it. To me, it’s a trip down memory lane. It’s more about making sure my production can stand next to me like that.
It’s my thing that you don’t have to act hard to make a hard album and I think that my philosophy was never to make a hard album, I wanted to be Raekwon and make a good album, a tape that channels how I’m feeling, who I am and where I came from. So when it came back time to step into the zone, it took a little bit of time to get the right production. This ain’t no overnight album. I didn’t want to take nobody’s money. I wanted to give everyone a raw prestigious album. It was two and a half years of work and I looked at everything through a fine tooth comb.
Q: You’ve been rapping for 15 years now. Have you given any thought what you’d want people to remember you for?
A: I want people to know that I was a real hip hop fan…I was a real hip hop cat…he want the way he’s supposed to go, he stayed being himself, he didn’t sell his soul to be someone who he isn’t. I want my kids to know their dad was mean with it. I want the fans to remember that I wear many medals, I’m a veteran in the game and that I made good music.
Q: Are your kids thinking about following their father’s path like GZA and Ghost’s sons?
A: My daughter and son are young my to decide where they want to be. If they want to get involved, I’ll support them to the fullest.
Q: Are there any goals you feel you have left to accomplish?
A; The first is to satisfy the world with a classic album. My thing is to uplift this hip hop thing again, maybe I’ll be able to set off another trend of sound. My thing is to really just keep the dignity where it needs to be at, my goal is to make 15 more albums. I feel I’m still at the beginning stage. I’ve only made four albums and I feel I still have a whole lot to prove. I still have the energy and I want people to check out the new project and look for the new mixtape we have coming out.
Q: What’s it called and when’s it dropping?
A: Burning bags; it’s dropping shortly…to be announced. It may come out on the internet
Q: Do you follow the Internet music world pretty closely?
A: Oh definitely, it’s where the masses are it. At the end of the day, I want to reach people from all shades and colors and let them know what’s going on. I’m deeply appreciative of the people. My thing is to keep it rounded, I stay hitting up the steeets, I’m always running around, pollying and bouncing.
Download:
MP3: Chef Raekwon ft. Ghostface-”Necro”
MP3: Chef Raekwon-”Treez”
Posted in Interviews | 13 Comments »
