One last M.J. post–no more eulogizing in this space–just a simple re-direct to Pop and Hiss, where last week I ranked Jackson’s five greatest hip-hop samples (in no particular order). For a more comprehensive list and more MP3’s, head to T.R.O.Y. LA Times:  Break-Beat It: Kanye, Nas and the best Michael Jackson samples […]

Sasha Frere-Jones said it well: if you miss Fripp-Eno eBow guitar styles, check Citay, who foolishly did NOT call their album “Livin’ For The.” Ezra Feinberg & Co. would be also well-served with “New Jack Citay”(M.O.P. version), “Bright Lights Big Citay” (Capo cover) or “Built This Citay” (Diplomats not Jefferson Starship).  I interviewed Citay’s frontman […]

My Times review was severely truncated due to space constraints, so I’m posting the original below the jump, complete with tons of corny but apropos Back to the Future jokes. In short, Back to the Feature is blandly enjoyable. Wale’ s ambitions are minimal this go-round–a bizarre shift for someone with obviously grandiose goals. If I […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZdS3hG7tfU 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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]