February 28th, 2009
Continuing “Excellent Contemporary Bands Covering Canonized Songwriters Week,” I present psychedelic drone deities, Wooden Shjips, rendering Neil Young’s “Vampire Blues” in druggy, dirt-splattered fashion. Fans of On the Beach will scarcely recognize the original within the distorted, hallucinatory coffin Wooden Shjips construct for Old Shakey’s ode to eco-conservation (no “Drill Baby Drill”). Now if they’ll only cover “Computer Age.”
From: Wooden Shjips-Vampire Blues/I Hear the Vibrations 7″
[Via Miles Raymer/Chicago Reader]
Download:
MP3: Wooden Shjips-”Vampire Blues”
MP3: Neil Young-”Vampire Blues”
Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 1 Comment »
February 27th, 2009
Originally published at Pop and Hiss
No need to paraphrase any dog-eared dogma about there being no second acts in life — reality television torpedoed that Fitzgeraldian fallacy faster than any lacerating Hemingway quip. Hell, if Flavor Flav could smoke unidentified foreign objects for the entirety of the ’90s and reinvent himself as a reality/sitcom star complete with slatternly seraglio, than it’s little surprise that Eminem could once again ascend the charts with his official comeback single, “Crack a Bottle,” a song that currently sits at the top of Power 106’s playlist, and recently broke the first-week record for digital sales with 418,000 sold.
After all, it was just 5 million years ago that Slim Shady sold 5 million copies of the execrable “Encore,” a record so bad its finer moments occurred when Eminem was impersonating a sock puppet and trying to Xerox-copy “Hailie’s Song.” Song titles included “Puke,” “Big Weenie” and “Mosh,” the latter track, an anti-Bush political diatribe so dated as to make “Austin Powers” quotes seem fresh. During the ensuing half-decade hiatus, Eminem occasionally re-emerged from hibernation: remarrying Kim, re-divorcing Kim, dealing with Proof’s death and starting Shady45, his Sirius hip-hop channel.
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Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 26 Comments »
February 26th, 2009
This is why the Internet was created: to watch the video for Joe Public’s “Live and Learn,” interspersed with old NBA blooper reels featuring Sedale Threatt, Mark Price, and Georghe “My Giant” Muresan. For those who malign hip-hop’s current cross-pollination with rock, I point to Joe Public and say, it could always be worse. Did Public Enemy sic S1W on these guys for shamelessly ripping off the beat of “Rebel Without A Pause?” I know Dart knows the answer to this.
Download:
MP3: Joe Public-”Live and Learn”
Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 4 Comments »
February 26th, 2009
Photo via Spin
Off the War Child: Heroes Compilation . Try to stifle the obvious, “b..b..but every Hold Steady song is a Springsteen cover,” cracks–the sonic breadth of Stay Positive proved they can do a lot more than replicate the E-Street shuffle. Besides, this track is from Nebraska, the Bruce album for people who don’t like Bruce, and one released without backing band. Predictably, The Hold Steady do their most salient influence justice.
Download:
MP3: The Hold Steady (Springsteen Cover)-”Atlantic City”
Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 10 Comments »
February 26th, 2009
Expect a Cypress Hill rarities post sometime soon. In the meantime, the title of this piece says it all. Getting baked with B-Real via a contraption called “The Birthday Cake.” My 14-year old-self was proud. I think the only way I can top this for him is if I record a rap song with Jay-Z. I can’t be that much worse than Amil.
LA Weekly-”B-Real of Cypress Hill: Smoking “The Birthday Cake” With a Master“
Download:
MP3: B-Real ft. Damian Marley-”Fire”
MP3: B-Real ft. Xzibit-”Don’t You Dare Laugh”
Posted in LA Weekly | 2 Comments »
February 25th, 2009
Sandro Colacicco smokes dro, chops O’s, rides dirty, and his candy paint looks purty.
I’ve been doing some strange stuff recently–reading Lolita at odd hours of the night in seedy diners, cooking ethnic food in grotesque quantities, and perusing vintage porn (don’t check out the porn re-enactment of Hair). I also grew a goatee and bought black-rimmed reading glasses. Then I stared at myself in the mirror and realized that I looked like I had just attended a Vampire Weekend festival in a Columbia dorm room. Something was wrong…very, very wrong.
Then it hit me–sports! Deprived of football and baseball, my brain and soul have no direction. February college basketball hardly gets my blood pumping. The NBA? Give me a break, the playoffs don’t start for another two months. I stripped off my Verizon Wireless-annoying-guy-from-the-commercial-look-alike shades and stared at the stars: “Jesus, Buddha, even you, Muhammad, please send me guidance in my search for limitless entertainment in these desperate times.”
These are the unfortunate results:
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Posted in Smokin' Dro, Sandro Colacicco | 3 Comments »
February 24th, 2009
Re-enacting vintage Yo MTV Raps! on a Tuesday afternoon, with “That’s When Ya’ Lost It” and “93 Til Infinity” back-to-back. In hindsight, there was really nothing occluding Hiero from developing into a West Coast Wu-Tang, rather than the upper middle class man’s Boot Camp Click. Certainly three-time all-stars (93 Til Infinity, Fear Itself, 3rd Eye Vision), but just short of the Hall. The Del-produced, “That’s When Ya’ Lost It,” should have been a propitious harbinger, not a high-water mark.
Still, “Tour Stories” and the rumors of Prince Paul producing Montezema’s Revenge, have me optimistic it won’t be shit–or at least as good as the Knott’s Berry Farm ride.
Download:
MP3: Souls of Mischief-”That’s When Ya Lost It”
MP3: Souls of Mischief-”Cab Fare”
MP3: Souls of Mischief-”Tour Stories”
Video: Souls of Mischief-”‘93 Till Infinity”
Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 7 Comments »
February 24th, 2009
The first hour of Mochilla’s “A Suite for Ma Dukes,” was solid if not soporific. But when the surprise guests started rolling out, events rapidly turned memorable. Pos and Talib Kweli performing “Stakes is High.” Bilal, AmpFiddler, and the guy in Sa-Ra who doesn’t wear leopard, singing the hook on “Runnin,” backed by an orchestra that had just segued seamlessly from the song’s sample source: Stan Getz and Luis Bonfa’s “Saudade Vem Correndo.”Common coming out…in a tuxedo to give a polite two-minute address about the divinity of J Dilla’s beats.
Lonnie takes an “L” for this one. Was he too worried about being tardy to the Oscar after-parties that he couldn’t kick a few bars over “Nag Champa?” Was the Pivster waiting in the limo? The dude’s become the kind of guy who uses the word “hob-nob,” unironically. Erykah “On and On”Badu was rumored to be making an appearance, but she skates off on the “Just Had a Baby” card. Unless, she spent last night twittering.
The full review is at the Times. See also, Oliver Wang and Randall Roberts’s color commentary, at Soul-Sides and the LA Weekly, respectively.
LA Times: Live-A Suite For Ma Dukes @ Luckman Fine Arts Complex
Download:
MP3: De La Soul-”Stakes is High”
MP3: Pharcyde-”Runnin”
MP3: Stan Getz & Luis Bonfa-”Saudade Vem Correndo”
Posted in LA Times | No Comments »
February 23rd, 2009
See also.
Stiles is due for some Jackie Earle Haley comeuppance.
There is a Free Darko post waiting to be written about the transcendent skill and swagger of teenaged werewolves. Scott Skiles modeled his entire career after Scott Howard.
And for fun, en espanol.
I guess this means Mickey Rourke should’ve totally done Wrestlemania 25.
Download:
MP3: The Wolf Sisters-”Big Bad Wolf”
Posted in Videos, Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 9 Comments »
