June 25th, 2009
One of these days, I’ll do a lengthy sit-down interview with Spencer Krug and discover exactly why my favorite songwriter of the last decade is the exact antithesis of what I typically gravitate towards. Maybe it’s because we’re both Alex P. Keaton aficionados? I like the sometime Wolf Parader’s singing voice, but I’d be lying if he didn’t occasionally sound like a bleating billy goat. His songs are full of knotty art-rock pretensions and regularly boast patently absurd titles. If loving an album called Dragonslayer is wrong, then I want to be right.
Unfortunately, I will again reiterate that Spencer Krug is worthy of any and all attention he receives. If anything, the 8.3 BNM the Fork gave Sunset Rubdown’s new jaunt is probably a bit low for my tastes. Predictably, I rave about their recent Echoplex performance at Pop and Hiss. If you need me, I’ll be listening to Ironman to wash the indie out my ears–yes, this shit is raw.
LA Times: Live–Sunset Rubdown @ The Echoplex
MP3’s below the Jump
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June 21st, 2009
YouTube user Suprefan has graciously posted videos from both of Grizzly Bear’s sets this weekend at the Wiltern and Troubadour. Their Friday show at the former was one of the best I’ve seen this year, and despite typical Youtube graininess, the videos bear it out.
My review at the Times doesn’t come close to Derek Miller’s Vecktamist opus, but hopefully does the performance some justice. Every time I see this band it’s nothing short of amazing. More videos after the jump.
Download:
MP3: Grizzly Bear-”Cheerleader”
MP3: Grizzly Bear-”Owner of a Lonely Heart (Yes Cover)”
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June 19th, 2009
I know I say this roughly every other interview, but the unexpurgated transcript of my conversation with Quik and Kurupt ranks among my all-time favorites, with the pair waxing eloquent about everything from Quik is the Name, to Dilla and Pac, to the virtues of Italian beer. Expect it Monday or sooner.
In the interim, my piece on the BlaQKout duo is up at Pop and Hiss in advance of their show tomorrow night at the House of Blues–Sunset. Avoiding the Strip on weekends is one of the secrets to navigating Los Angeles with a modicum of sanity intact. These are two of the only people for whom I’m willing to make an exception. Well, them and Pauly Shore.
LA Times: DJ Quik & Kurupt Talk Tupac and BlaQKout
Amazon: DJ Quik & Kurupt-BlaQKout
Download:
MP3: DJ Quik & Kurupt-”Ohh”
MP3: DJ Quik & Kurupt-”Hey Playa”
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June 11th, 2009
I suspect that if Handsome Furs weren’t automatically dismissed as the graveyard shift plowed by the “Bruce Springsteen guy in Wolf Parade and his hot wife,” Face Control would wind up on a lot of year-end Best-Of’s. Instead, it’s been met with polite praise and forgotten like most February-released ephemera. Granted, it lacks both the au courant, strangled cat electro-poppiness of Passion Pit, and the more superficially interesting angles of more experimental acts, but hey, this is subjective.
Dan Boeckner (and Spencer Krug) remain on the short-list of their generation’s finest songwriters–even if their zoological fascination remains ripe for parody. A Q&A in advance of the band’s Echoplex performance tonight is up at Pop and Hiss. I consider my inability to discover what makes a fur handsome, something of a minor failure.
LA Times: The Danceable Despondency of Handsome Furs
Download:
MP3: Handsome Furs-“Radio Kalingrad”
MP3: Handsome Furs-”I’m Confused”
MP3: Handsome Furs-”Cannot Get, Started”
MP3: Handsome Furs-”What We Had”
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June 10th, 2009
It’s a shame that the executive producer scandal surrounding the Nick Riviera of rap, Charles Hamilton, has siphoned off the attention that should have been accorded Jay Stay Paid. Granted, my extreme effusiveness might be partially due to affirmative action for the deceased–I essentially say as much in my Times review–but this and Born Like This are neck and neck for the best rap records of the year.
Other than Douglas Martin’s, Jay Stay Paid day, and Nate Patrin’s outstanding Pitchfork review, I haven’t seen the raves you’d expect from something this good. Maybe the relatively muted reaction is a backlash towards carpetbag Dilla stannery, or maybe I just love it because it cured me of a migraine last week (along with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ice Cream bar). But really, Jay Stay Paid is an achievement–one that establishes a new benchmark for posthumous rap releases, and an effort worth purchasing to ensure his mom stays paid too.
LA Times: J Dilla-Jay Stay Paid
Download:
MP3: J Dilla ft. Black Thought-”Reality TV”
Jay Stay Paid Bonus Track
MP3: J Dilla ft. Bun B & Termanology-”Make It Fast”
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June 5th, 2009
I typically avoid the show recommendation route, but Dam-Funk with Gaslamp Killer at the Natural History Museum tonight, looks like a safe bet. If you don’t know Dam-Funk, he’s the former MC Eight and Westside Connection keyboardist, turned DJ deity, turned Stones Throw recording artist. You might also know him as the guy who remixed Animal Collective’s “Summertime Clothes.”
My interview with him is up now at the Times. There will have to be a wholly separate talk where we discuss the making of “The Gangsta’, The Killa, and the Dope Dealer.”
LA Times: Dam-Funk talks boogie, modern funk and working with Animal Collective
Download:
MP3: Dam-Funk-”Let’s Take Off”
MP3: Dam-Funk-Dam-Funk Mix from BBC’s Mary Anne Hobbs Experimental Show
MP3: Animal Collective-”Summertime Clothes (Dam-Funk Remix)”
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June 3rd, 2009
Remember yesterday when I made a vaguely cryptic comment about watching Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, and Mack 10 carouse with a crew of video hos on a beach in Malibu? Right. Anyhow, the story is currently up and running at the Times’ Pop and Hiss blog. There are a dozen photos below the jump, visual evidence of one of the more bizarre Mondays of my existence: Jai alai, badminton, and blunt rollers galore.
In case you were wondering, I possess video tape of the proceedings, thanks to the work of my good friend, Jeff Cowan (the man behind said photos). Should I ever emerge from the soul-crushing spate of deadline pressures, expect a Passion of the Weiss expose illuminating the wardrobe choices and innermost thoughts of the greatest rotund entertainer since Fatty Arbuckle. BAWSE.
LA Times: On the video set of Mack 10’s ‘So Dirty’: Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Dancing girls and Jai Alai
Download:
MP3: Mack 10-”Foe Life”
MP3: Mack 10-”On Them Thangs”
MP3: Mack 10 ft. Fat Joe & Big Pun-”Let the Games Begin”
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May 28th, 2009
My interview with that infamous drinker of aquariums is up at Pop and Hiss now. We talk the blues, the stubborn persistence of Southern regionalism, and juke joint drinking etiquette. I’ll be at the reading tonight. If you don’t know what I look like, I’ll be the guy in need of a haircut, drinking 60 ounces of beer out of a paper cup. If I pass out, be so kind as to offer me a cup of coffee, a cigarette, and a number for a cab company.
In honor of the festivities, today is officially, Obscure Sight-Impaired Southern Blues Day here at Passion of the Weiss.
LA Times-Justin “Aquarium Drunkard” Visits ‘The Blues,’ and Lives to Write About It
Download:
MP3: Blind Joe Taggart-”The Storm is Passing Over”
MP3: Blind Mamie Forehand-”Wouldn’t Mind Dying”
MP3: Blind Willie Johnson-”Dark was the Night”
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May 22nd, 2009
I suppose it’s own fault. “Don’t Touch Me (Throw ‘Da Water on Em) was so vintage Busta that I figured that he had another The Coming/When Disaster Strikes in him–or at least another Anarchy. Wrong. There’s nothing “bad” about “Back on My B.S”–Busta’s talented and likeable enough to carry most tepid tracks.* But his 8th studio jaunt is so compartmentalized and focus-grouped that you’d think it was conceived by the marketing gurus who brought you Poochie. Major label hip-hop albums have gotten so risk-averse that you’d think they were being produced by actuaries.
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May 21st, 2009
In an ideal world, the Maybach Music and Toyota Tercel rhymes of Rick Ross’ Deeper than Rap would’ve been exchanged with Crime Pays’, “Ross Dress for Less” Beats and Bergdorf Goodman raps. If you’re scratching your head at the clunkiness of the mixed metaphor, that’s the point–it’s Killa, the man calling out for a James Toback documentary, the man who brought you “no homo,” the man who brought you “He Tried to Play Me,” and its sequel, “Bottom of the Pussy Hole.”His albums are the auditory equivalent of The Phantom Tollboth (no Milo).
Let’s discard the Cam=Rene Magritte meme disseminated by the usual suspects. He’s a skilled if not ultimately minor rapper who thrives on excess. Sans Blaze, Kanye, Heatmakerz, and the rest of Dipset, Cam might as well rock faux mink, ersatz gators, and drive a Mitsubishi Eclipse. This is Econo-Cam–bargain bin beats salvaged by surprisingly strong rhymes. Apparently–like journalism–crime doesn’t pay enough.
LA Times: Cam’ron-Crime Pays
Download:
MP3: Cam’ron-”My Job”
MP3: Cam’ron-”Get it in Ohio”
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