July 31st, 2009
Ideal prescriptions for remedying a foul mood Friday:
1. Eating: Greasy spoon breakfast–vegetarian omelette (cheese + avocado essential), fresh fruit, raisin toast, strong coffee.
2. Reading: Tom Wolfe, “The Right Stuff.” Raymond Chandler, “The Long Goodbye.”
3. Listening: Y.G.’s “I Need Weed.” Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 leak–Raekwon + Meth + Deck + Ghost + Dilla, “House of Flying Daggers.” Brand-new 14 and a half minute Dungen psych freakout with garbled unpronounceable Swedish name.
4. Goals: Realizing Y.G.’s ambition. Cotton Candy Kush recommended.
5. Activities: Pink Dollaz concert. House party.
Voila.
Download:
MP3: Y.G.-”I Need Weed”
MP3: Raekwon ft. Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck-”House of Flying Daggers”
MP3: Dungen-”Samtidigt”
Posted in Miscellany | 2 Comments »
July 31st, 2009
Even if you’re not a fan of the brothers Lindsey, it’s difficult not to respect them. Rather than damage inboxes with the umpteenth “freestyle” over “D.O.A..” they’ve laid low since dropping Remind Me in Three Days last year, opting to eschew the blog hustle for the tangible grind, building a fan base the old-fashioned way: relentless touring and an undeniable live show. They don’t do mixtapes, don’t collaborate with whoever’s hot this hour, and though they’re signed to Interscope, they’ve received a tepid corporate push in contrast to the careful calculations of the Asher Roth’s of the world. And while naysayers derided their skinny jeans and sartorial flair when they first came out 18 months ago, their style seems trend-setting after the the deluge of boa constrictor-tight jeaned rappers.
Which leaves only the music–the idea of creating value in the valueless Internet integers game. “Fuck You,” the first leak leading up to their sophomore album, is as great as the two other iconic rap songs whose title it shares. Not only does it further refine their garage-hop aesthetic, but expands its boundaries. New Orleans-raised Rah Al Milio and Krispy seem forever obsessed with finding the ideal synthesis of the Wu-Tang and Juvenile fandom of their adolescence, with the Strokes and Beatles worship of their adulthood.
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Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 11 Comments »
July 31st, 2009
Jeff Siegel and Mallory O’ Donnell are both members of the Stylus Diaspora. Passion of the Weiss is proud to serve as Babylonia.
Jeff:
For this aged club rat, chased off by cokeheads, Guidos, and Guiliani, the worst thing about summers was always the outdoor parties, or the warehouse raves devoid of air-flow. One could practically slide along the floor on one’s sweat. Gross. So my music listening over the hotter months had to remain slight, and perhaps a little chilly, certainly not dance-able. But we’re having a nice, mild summer, at least up here in the northeast (my comrade may have a different, though apparently not divergent, experience), so massive, sweaty beats are still in fashion.
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Posted in Summer Jamz | No Comments »
July 30th, 2009
Thanks to Dallas Penn for the video and GrandGood for the audio. It’s times like this that I wish the NYC rent was a little less steep, and the journalistic prospects more sound.
Download:
ZIP: Raekwon @ Noisemakers: Part 1 | Part 2
Posted in Videos | 2 Comments »
July 30th, 2009
Inspired by the last post, I’ve spent a large portion of my morning Youtrolling for old Toddy Tee videos, only to discover a treasure trove of pre-gangsta’ LA electro-rap clips posted up by German scene historians, West Coast Pioneers.
The above Ice-T clip is taken from the 1983 documentary, Breakin’ and Enterin’, set at the legendary MacArthur Park club, Radiotron. Very necessary for anyone into the roots of Los Angeles hip-hop and rhinestones. Below the jump are lots more videos featuring the likes of World Class Wreckin’ Cru, Rodney O and Joe Cooley, N.W.A. et. al. There is also a Converse commercial featuring Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kevin McHale, Bernard King and Mark Aguirre, with beats from the Egyptian Lover. You want to see it.
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July 30th, 2009
Why post the front cover when this tape is all about the tracklisting? Murs and the L.A. Leakers deserve plaudits for this essentially flawless compilation of seminal West Coast gangsta’ rap. The other Nick Carter says it best in his introduction: “when we were younger, this is what we were listening to on the West Coast…all these songs were my shit…if you don’t know, all you young uns need to get educated on how gangsta’ rap changed the world.”
Growing up in Los Angeles, these songs were inescapable on KDAY and later Power 106 and 92.3 The Beat. Consider Damn, It Feels to Be a Gangsta, the khaki-clad sibling to my G’Z Up, Prose Down Summer Jamz from last year (link still active). What’s most striking is that both tapes only share “Nuthin’ but a G Thing,” which speaks to how deep the left coast talent pool was from 88-95.
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Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 4 Comments »
July 29th, 2009
Aaron Matthews prefers this “lipgloss” to Lil Mama’s.
Pulp’s career trajectory seems distinctly quaint in the blog-bombarded, Hype Machined era. While modern times mean a disappointing sophomore effort is enough to make people forget you faster than you can say Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Pulp lingered in near total obscurity for 12 years before garnering commercial attention. Formed by 15-year old Jarvis Cocker in 1978, the Sheffield-based group didn’t release their debut, It until 1983, and it took a full decade working the pub and grub circuit to finally get themselves a deal with Island Records in 1993.
Their Island debut, His ‘N’ Hers, saw release the following year, and signaled Pulp’s coming-out-party. With Leonard Cohen the clear-cut inspiration for Cocker’s sex, love and class-obsessed narratives, and Scott Walker, David Bowie and Bryan Ferry, his obvious vocal progenitors, Cocker’s myriad influences finally coalesced into a cohesive sound and vision. Meanwhile, Pulp themselves settled into a definitive and seamless blend of glam-rock, post-punk and disco.
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Posted in Popscene, Aaron Matthews | No Comments »
July 28th, 2009
I’d tried to avoid the Elbo.ws elbowing over the proprietary rights to New Jersey maharajah’s of mystery, Memory Cassette, because well, sometimes it’s more fun to run the contrarian jerkstore (see Fire, Arcade). But reading their Pitchfork interview caused me to cave, specifically when head tape, Dayve Hawk declared, “the last thing I want to do is be willfully mysterious. I mean, if I was trying to do that I wouldn’t be online. At the same time, I don’t want to blow smoke up peoples’ asses– I don’t want any bios out there about me being some kind of reclusive genius. That stuff is always embarrassing.”
Memory Cassette make that tropical-tinted conch fritter pop that’s so hot right now. Acephale Records, home of SALEM and sometimes similarly blog-buzzed, Air France, scooped them up a while back, and released the Call and Response EP in conjunction with Sincerely Yours–presumably because the Swedish label are Socialist-leaning and thus, need a government monopoly on dreamy Balearic synth-pop. If you liked Air France, JJ, or Studio, you’ll rock Memory Cassette until your tape pops. Recommended with smoking weed and bamboo and sipping on private stock.
Buy Memory Cassette-Call and Response EP
Download: (Thank Chris GVB for the artwork)
MP3: Memory Cassette-”Listen to the Vacuum”
ZIP: Memory Cassette-”Calls and Responses Remix EP” (Left-Click)
Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | No Comments »
July 28th, 2009
Everyone compares In Living Color to Chappelle’s Show for the same reductive reason: they both featured talented African-American comedians performing topical sketch comedy to the delight of millions. But more than just the superficial racial parallel, both transcended merely skewering culture icons to wholly re-contextualizing them. Try listening to “Superfreak” without thinking of “I’m Rick James, bitch,” or Lil Jon without a trip to the doctor’s office, or Prince in a pre-pancake universe. Though it’s 15 years later, the same can be said about In Living Color, and its dated but still relevant ridicule of Vanilla Ice, Snow, and Grace Jones.
While most targets of satire opt to buck the two-dimensional depictions, Grace Jones does little to contradict the Keenan Ivory image of her as alligator wrestling, glass chewing, shark riding, killing machine. This is a good thing. While it might work in inter-personal relationships, international politics, and episodes of Lost, nuance is the last thing people want from Grace Jones–other than perhaps a sequel to Vamp.
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Posted in Beards, Blazers, & Glasses | 2 Comments »
July 27th, 2009
If you’re an ex-Rocafella super-producer doomed to work exclusively with crazy emcees, you might as well find one that goes on Tibetan pilgrimages. I’m assuming that this is what Just Blaze was thinking when he decided to get involved with Jay Electronica. Who knows what this is or where it’ll end up, but hopefully it starts a trend of rappers going to the Indian subcontinent to find enlightenment.
[Via Nahright]
Posted in Sach O, Videos | No Comments »
