May 12th, 2008
Goals for the remainder of the year: Stop writing articles for the LA Weekly involving the phrase, [Random Band] is the Best [Insert Hyperbolic Superlative Here]. That said, I get hopelessly stannish when talk turns to Arthur Lee and Love, in particular their masterpiece, Forever Changes, which was just re-issued by Rhino last month complete with a new alternate mix and a few obsessives-only outtakes.
The article makes the case for Love as Los Angeles’ greatest band based on how perfectly they capture the way the city feels (no, not over-tanned and bloated with excess, that would be Ratt). If you haven’t heard Forever Changes, I can’t recommend anything more, save for possibly yoga on weed. So the morale of the story is probably to listen to Forever Changes while smoking a blunt and stretching. I think that last sentence indicates that I may need to move. Soon.
LA Weekly: The Doors? Black Flag? The Chili Peppers? Nope, LA’s Best Band Was Love
Buy Love-Forever Changes (Collector’s Edition)
Download:
MP3: Love-”Maybe the People Would Be the Times Or Between Clark and Hilldale”
MP3: Love-”Alone Again Or”
Bonus Track:
MP3: Love-”Your Mind And We Belong Together”
Posted in LA Weekly | 11 Comments »
April 22nd, 2008
I wrote about the Mezzanine Owls here last month, and my review of their Mezzanine Owls EP appears in this LA Weekly. They’re one of my favorite local bands and they’ve got the Spaceland Monday night residency for the Month of May. I’ll let the review say the rest.
LA Weekly: Mezzanine Owls-Mezzanine Owls EP (Scroll to Bottom)
Download: from The Mezzanine Owls Digital EP
MP3: Mezzanine Owls-”Snowglobe”
Posted in LA Weekly | No Comments »
April 21st, 2008
The LA Weekly let me ramble at-length and with messianic zeal about My Morning Jacket in advance of their Coachella performance next weekend. I think it came out well, though ideally I would’ve loved to have had the chance to conduct in-person interviews with the band. That said, Jim James, bassist Two-Tone Tommy and Bo Koster spoke graciously and candidly to me over the phone and I got to the bottom of how high they were when they decided to do an Oregon Trail skit on their New Year’s Eve show 2007 (answer: not very). The performance in question is posted below, along with the lead single leaked from Evil Urges, their new and very-good album. And if you’re going to Coachella, it goes without saying…
LA Weekly: Morning in America-Why My Morning Jacket Are the Best Live Band In the World
Download:
MP3: My Morning Jacket-”Evil Urges”
ZIP: My Morning Jacket-Live 12/31/06 @ The Fillmore, San Francisco (left-click)
Posted in LA Weekly | 6 Comments »
March 27th, 2008
In honor of the Genius’ Liquid Swords performance at the El Rey this Saturday night, I have an article in the new LA Weekly, analyzing the unimpeachable brilliance of the record and why nearly 15 years after its release it’s regarded as one of the genre’s finest. It’s not really my place to say whether it’s good or not, but I had more fun writing this piece than almost anything else I’ve written. Thanks also need to be said to the infamous Barry Schwartz of Disco Vietnam for helping me decipher an album that manages to be both very accessible and completely impenetrable. Pause.
LA Weekly: Liquid Swords of Truth
Download:
MP3: Genius/Gza-”Duel of the Iron Mic”
MP3: Genius/Gza-”4th Chamber”
Posted in LA Weekly | 3 Comments »
March 24th, 2008
While even I can’t openly advocate Soulja Boy slaughter by an army of aggrieved pre-teens (somebody buy that 12-year old a beer), I can safely say that “Yahh” is the dumbest song that I have ever heard in my life. Granted, peaking at #48 on the Billboard 200 doesn’t exactly match the sterling success of Hormel Chavez’s “Ow My Balls,” but the video has gotten over 6,000,000 views on You Tube, a number any artist would dream of. Thankfully, the LA Weekly alloted me the soapbox to rant about the epic inanity of a track so stupid it makes “Crank That” looks like Beethoven’s 6th.
LA Weekly: Review of Soulja Boy’s “Yahh”
Posted in LA Weekly | 1 Comment »
March 21st, 2008
The truth is that I will use any excuse to post the above picture of Devin the Dude. However, in this instance there’s a reasonable explanation, specifically the final print version of the LA Weekly’s SXSW coverage. I had a chance to edit and I think improve on my original Devin story, which ended up in the paper as well as parts of two other entries. Additionally, editor Randall Roberts and Alec Hanley Bemis share their take on that weird week in Austin. Even if you don’t read the article, download the songs below, two of the greatest weed smoking songs in music history. Yes, even better than “The Big Yellow Joint.”
LA Weekly: The Glowing Trough of Music: 5 Days of SXSW
Download:
MP3: Devin the Dude-”Doobie Ashtray”
MP3: Devin the Dude ft. Scarface, Jugg Mugg, Killemall & Ant Live-”Like a Sweet”
Posted in LA Weekly | 2 Comments »
March 9th, 2008
This article may only have regional appeal, as Felli Fel’s celebrity is certainly strongest in LA, where he has held it down as Power 106’s version of Funkmaster Flex for the past nine years. Granted, “Get Buck In Here,” the break-out first single from Fel’s forthcoming Go DJ EP is a far cry from the best moments on those first three Funk Flex mixtapes, yet it succeeds in its modest ambitions. The track’s sole intent is to sound good played at ear-splitting levels in a club. And it does. Maybe, it’s just the Luda verse, but I’ll take “Get Buck” over “Low” or “Buy You a Drink” any day of the week. Honestly, the only thing I want to drink when I hear a T-Pain song is hemlock. Mmm…hemlock.
LA Weekly-Felli Fel Feature
Download (From Felli Fel’s Go DJ)
MP3: Felli Fel ft. Diddy, Ludacris, Akon & Lil Jon-”Get Buck in Here”
MP3: Felli Fel ft. Kanye West, Ne-Yo, Fabulous, & JD-”The Finer Things”
(From Funkmaster Flex’s Mixtape Vol. 3)
MP3: Wu-Tang Clan-”Put Your Hammer Down”
MP3: A Tribe Called Quest & Slum Village-”That Shit”
Posted in LA Weekly | 5 Comments »
February 25th, 2008
Don’t get me wrong, Pusha T and Malice are very good rappers. And I certainly don’t blame them for not wanting to be lumped into “your coke-rap genre.” Truth be told, they can rap rings around the likes of Young Jeezy and Rick Ross (though be fair, both of those heavyset clowns rap about as well as they run. Too bad Rae already named an album Immobilarity). But really, the blogosphere fellation of the Clipse that has occurred over the last two years is downright embarrassing. These guys write the same song over and over. Hell Hath No Fury and We Got It 4 Cheap Vol. 3 are the Blue Steel and Le Tigre of rap records. It’s the same look. They might be good rappers but they’re very poor artists. To quote Jacobim Mugatu: I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. The full review is in the LA Weekly. Follow the link below. It’s in the computer.
LA Weekly: We Got It 4 Cheap Vol. 3 Review (Scroll Down)
Download:
ZIP: The Clipse-”We Got it 4 Cheap Vol. 3 Mixtape (Left-Click)
Posted in LA Weekly | 15 Comments »
February 8th, 2008
I know, I know. Vampire Weekend, so last week right? But hey, my review for the LA Weekly was filed nearly three weeks ago and besides, I already wrote about them in July. I liked them then, I like them now. Yes, their eponymous debut LP that dropped on XL last week is a good record. Yes, the band are a little annoying and I fully understand the venom unleashed last week by Julianne Shepherd in the Village Voice. Trust, the album triggered my “hater instinct” (located in the hippocampus, I believe) more than a few times. Needless to say anyone who ironically drops the lyric, ‘Lil Jon is always right’ or rhymes “Louis Vuitton with reggaeton,” deserves to be drop-kicked.Yes, this includes Kanye. The review explains more. If you read it, I will buy you a cookie.
LA Weekly: Vampire Weekend Review (Scroll Down)
MP3:Vampire Weekend-”Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”
MP3: Vampire Weekend-”I Stand Corrected”
Posted in LA Weekly | 9 Comments »
February 1st, 2008
Needless to say, if you don’t like “Motownphilly,” we probably can’t be friends. Granted, Boyz II Men may have not have been relevant for a decade and change, but I’ll stand by the statement that no group got more Junior High kids tongue during the years 1991-1994 than the Illadelphian vocal quartet. Real talk. Currently, the group are back on the touring circuit minus Michael McCary (a.k.a., the guy with the really deep voice that sang the interludes) and play LA’s Crash Mansion tomorrow night. Sadly, I won’t be there for it. However, I did write a preview of the show for the LA Weekly, one that analyzes the history of the male vocal group post Cooleyhighharmony. Yes, it mentions Silk, H-Town, Jodeci and Color Me Badd. If that doesn’t entice you over there, I don’t know what will.
LA Weekly: Boyz II Men-A Philadelphia Story
MP3: Boyz II Men-”Motownphilly”
Posted in LA Weekly | 14 Comments »
