Oh, Sweet Nothing

A propos of this week's events

2011-03-18T09:52:00.004-06:00

Saw this link and thought it should be shared. Given the nuclear disaster in Japan, a list of all the songs about the threat posed by Nukes (mostly from the 80s and mostly about Nuclear War). Very intense.

Well this sounds like it could be great...

2011-03-17T14:30:00.003-06:00

Apparently a split collaboration single b/w Burial, Four Tet, and Thom Yorke is set to be released on Four Tet's Text label. Unfortunately, it already sold out (in the pre-order stage!!), so good luck trying to get your hands on it at a reasonable price. Fortunately, the always great Fact Mag has provided both of the sides of the single for streaming (via YouTube)....so there's that.

Check it out HERE.

Sad Day for Dylanologists

2011-03-01T13:03:00.004-06:00

Suze Rotolo has died. For fans of early Bob Dylan, she is the very cute young woman on the cover of The Freewheeling Bob Dylan, pictured above. This is the girl Bob Dylan was dating before Joan Baez, and the inspiration behind some of his earlier, more aching love and loss songs, including "Don't Think Twice It's Alright" and "Boots of Spanish Leather."

While many attribute Dylan's political awakening to Joan Baez's influence, they are often mistakenly transposing the influence of Ms. Rotolo, the daughter of Communists and a committed civil rights supporter in her own right. The article linked below notes several facts of which I was unaware: (1) that Dylan was cheating on her with Joan Baez, and (2) that she had an illegal abortion of Dylan's unborn child after they broke up. Heavy.

The New York Times obit is here.

I'm sorry that my presence on this site of late has been to act as a pallbearer for dead icons. I promise this will change soon. Big post about the history of U.S. musical diplomacy in the Middle East to come.

Taking The High Road

2011-02-09T17:51:00.003-06:00

...because my gut reaction was to fume about that awful awful Super Bowl. It was bad enough the Packers were in it/won it/beat Chicago to get there, but then...the halftime show. I'm pretty sure I'll be having flashbacks of it anytime I hear or see anything Appetite For Destruction related for the rest of my life...and that's all I'll say about that.

On a more positive note, the first single to the new Strokes (reunion?) album is out. Right here in fact. See?

So what do you think? My first reaction is that it's not bad at all, but I'll openly admit that I'm rooting for these dudes to make a good album. I know they're not exactly underdogs, and that last album wasn't so good...but man, anyone who still won't admit that Is This It? is a classic is delusional (obligatory "in my opinion" inserted...I guess) or hates guitars.

The FINAL Word on 2010!!!

2011-01-29T17:23:00.000-06:00

Because I guarantee that this is the absolute last post concerning music from last year...heh. Apologies for the many delays, but I finally got around to posting my summary of the past year. As always, I admit that objectivity has a smaller role to play in the creation of this list than I'd like to believe. I also openly admit that I haven't heard everything I wanted to give a chance this year, blog life without access is cruel like that. If you think I missed out on something, I'd love to hear about it! In the end, hopefully I turn you on to something new...or at the very least get some sort of reaction (negative and/or positive) as a result of this list. So yeah, enjoy...and to be honest, some of the more interesting stuff from this year is probably higher up on my list...maybe it didn't have the polish of albums I thought were "better", but the ideas behind the work alone makes it something worth checking out (a la These New Puritans, Zola Jesus & LA Vampires).

Without further ado, Oh, Sweet Nothing's (Rob's) Favorite Albums of 2010:

30. Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise
29. These New Puritans - Hidden
28. Love Is All - Two Thousand And Ten Injuries
27. Guilty Simpson - OJ Simpson
26. High On Fire - Snakes of the Divine
25. Kings Go Forth - The Outsiders Are Back
24. The Dream - Love King
23. Forest Swords - Dagger Paths
22. Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
21. Ty Segall - Melted
20. Zola Jesus - Stridulum EP
I guess she is supposed to herald the "return of goth"...I dunno about all that, but this is a damn fine EP of grand, dark pop (ok fine, goth).

19. Thee Oh Sees - Warm Slime
You could complain that they've been doing the same thing for about 3 albums a year for around 3 years...but you'd be missing the point that they're doing it better than just about everyone else.

18. Yellow Swans - Going Places
So. Fucking. Loud. I'm bummed I just found about this duo after they broke up. Hell of a swan (see what I did there!!?!) song though.

17. White Car - White Car EP/No Better EP
All you get is dead serious, dark, electro pop from this Chicago duo. Saw them live and it was a great show too, probably my favorite local group right now and they definitely deserve to have a huge 2011.

16. Freddie Gibbs - Str8 Killa/St8 Killa No Filla
I consider Gary, IN local just like I consider Munster, IN local...so have no problems saying that two of my favorite rappers (the other one) out there period hail from the Chicago area. Dude is as hard as he's intelligent...in that young Ice Cube sorta way.

15. Various Artists/Scientist - Scientist Launches Dubstep Into Outer Space
A not-quite collaboration that could have probably placed on my list even without the "B" side. The dubstep contributions are winners, and several of Scientist's dub reworkings further elevate the originals or at the very least shed a different (weed cloud obscured) light on them.

14. Big Boi - Sir Lucious Leftfoot...The Son of Chico Dusty
The highest compliment that can be paid to Big Boi's latest is that despite being delayed for years and years, The Son of Chico Dusty dropped last year and STILL sounded ahead of the game. Catch up indeed.

13. LA Vampires & Zola Jesus - LA Vampires Meets Zola Jesus
I was actually waaay more into this EP than any of Zola Jesus' solo works, and that's not a slight against her individual products. This foray into psychedelic dub absolutely kills.

12. Twin Shadow - Forget
Most of what I read about Twin Shadow seemed to focus on all the 80s touchstones in his music. It's not that pointing that out isn't wrong, but it is kinda missing the point that about 83048203 bands/artists try this each year...and here's someone who's songwriting is so strong that he totally nailed it. Probably the first album on this list I'd consider a "must buy" no matter what music you're predominantly into.

11. Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner
To me, this sounds like a warmer/more organic version of the type of electronic music The Field is making at his best. And that is nothing but a good thing.

10. Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to The Sky

I'd heard tons about Swans over the years, but never really took the chance to give them a real listen until late 2010, with this album after over 10 years of lying dormant as an entity. Holy shit. I'm still blown away at the weird beauty something so brutal, minimal, and at times atonal can contain. 3 decades later, Michael Gira is still making new fanboys (me).

9. Woods - At Echo Lake

It's not supposed to sound like a diss at all, but I feel as though after Songs of Shame, Woods have really hit a groove and they're churning out these amazingly weird, pretty, catchy psych-folk tunes with little to no effort at all. A little more straightforward than Songs of Shame, but all it did was show off that they're just as talented on the songwriting end of things as they are at noisy noodling.

8. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

I actually didn't think this was as strong an album as the brilliant Sound of Silver, but still was another great work by James Murphy...who I consider one of 2 artists that can lay legitimate claim to the "Artist of a Generation" tag (for what it's worth). The other? It probably isn't a surprise, but go ahead and peek at #1 for the answer.

7. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

I was surprised at how polarizing this album was. My friends either loved it or hated it, and publications that I respect and read all the time either placed it on their "Best of" or "Worst of" lists for the year. I'm throwing my chip in the "Best of" hat. Admittedly the concept behind the album was awkward at best (it's about the Civil War, but not about the Civil War!), but man, they really swung for the fences and made one epic fucking album!! Especially during a time when trends leaned toward lo-fi, shabby, short half-tossed ideas of a song...I think 7 minute anthems with shout-alongs and multiple solos should be applauded, especially when they're this well done and this intelligent and this intense!! And also, fuck yes to straightforward American rock (puts on flag pin...calls brown person a terrorist...googles "death panel")! So yeah, mad points for ambition and effort here. They're a hell of a live show to boot.

6. Caribou - Swim

Every Caribou/Manitoba album seems to branch off into a new musical direction, and by venturing into the electronic dance/house/disco world, Swim was no different. And like all of his previous albums, Swim was awesome. All some people do is winwinwin.

5. Deerhunter - Halycon Digest

I feel safe saying this now, but I did not like Deerhunter all that much before this album. I just felt that there were lots of bands/artists out there were doing the noise/psychedelic/pop thing just as good or better than them. Halycon Digest blows that argument out of the water, and I know for a fact I'm not the only one with that sentiment. For the most part Deerhunter leaves the noise and fuzz behind, and instead creates some of the strongest, prettiest songs of the year. The fact that this one isn't my favorite album of the year says more about how great the next 4 albums are.

4. Four Tet - There Is Love In You

After his collaboration with Burial on the "Moth"/"Wolf Cub" single, I had sky high expectations for whatever Kieran Hebden was lining up next. The result was There Is Love In You, easily his most across the board consistent, complete LP. Bravo.

3. Darkstar - North

Most underrated album of 2010, easily. After their earlier "Need You" and "Aidy's Girl Is A Computer" singles, I was sure that the following LP was going to be brilliant. I was right, but not in the way I expected at all. Instead of continuing with their loose interpretations of dubstep/2-step, Darkstar added a singer to their line-up and created an album of moody, lonely, yet somehow incredibly warm synth-pop songs. A total curveball, but it works. I feel as though this album is destined to really catch on sometime in 2011...get the late passes ready.

2. Mount Kimbie - Crooks & Lovers

Can I call this post-dubstep? I embarrassingly cringe when I catch myself describing music with the lazy "toss post- before any genre and presto!" trick, but it feels appropriate here. The tempo is similiar, but whereas most dubstep goes for the cold, tough, dangerous, creepy urban vibe (Chicago in winter!) Mount Kimbie is more like the rigid yet still warm, charming, even fun, vibe that cities are just as capable of (Chicago in summer!). A total winner, and it was a runaway for my favorite album of the year until...

1. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Yeah yeah yeah I know...but goddamn, the man stole an entire season of SNL:

Yup, Kanye. Another list where his latest has landed number one. To be honest, I don't really know what to say here, as pretty much every observation about this album (good and bad) has been made by haters and lovers of not just the album, but Kanye as a human being as well. I have long-winded opinions on both, but I'll spare you (read: save it for when I need a post in the future) but I will leave you with these two thoughts:
i) I think it's just me, but Pusha T sounds absolutely frightening in his appearances throughout the album. Not in that "gangsta gangsta" sort of way, but in that "nihilistic Bishop from Juice" sort of way...he just doesn't give a fuck.
ii) If ever there was an argument against low bit rate mp3s and whatnot...it's this album. Some of the songs that are excellent on a good system/headphones/high quality music files sound AWFUL on the radio/shitty speakers/youtube rips/ipod earbuds. I'm looking at you "All of the Lights"

That's all I got...but here's a few things I'm looking forward to in 2011: NEW PANDA BEAR LP!!!, new Cut Copy LP, White Car LP, Chromatics LP, Kode 9 & Spaceape LP, Spectre Folk EP. Happy listening.

R.I.P Trish Keenan

2011-01-14T15:59:00.002-06:00

Rest assured, the Oh, Sweet Nothing (very much delayed) favorites of 2010 list is on it's way...but unfortunately 2011 seems to be continuing the same tragic trend of great musicians passing that was especially brutal in 2010. This time it's an extra sad one for me, as Trish Keenan, the singer of one of my absolute favorite groups, Broadcast, has passed away after several weeks of struggling with complications from both H1N1 and pneumonia. Condolences to her loved ones and may she rest in peace.

More details and obituary here and here.

For those of you who haven't had to absolute privilege of listening to Broadcast, here's two videos. "Until Then" from Warp's website and one of my favorites "Before We Begin" from the near flawless Haha Sound. Enjoy.

R.I.P. Teena Marie

2010-12-26T22:46:00.004-06:00

It looks as though 2010 is going to go down as one of the saddest years for the R & B stars of the early 80s. Robert Wilson, and now, Teena Marie, age 54.

The New York Times has a good obit. This probably caught them off guard, too.

Sing 'em off, Teena.

Christmas Post!

2010-12-25T23:10:00.006-06:00

So it's been a nice Jewish Christmas here for me, and a real Christmas for Rob. New posts to follow from both of us shortly.

In the interim, enjoy these links about the origin of the pop song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight/ Wimoweh," popularized first by Pete Seeger and later, the Tokens, but originally recorded by South African folk musician Solomon Linda in 1939.

First, an article by Rian Malan published in Rolling Stone in 2001, reprinted in The Best American Magazine Writing - 2001. This covers the origin story and makes the persuasive point that Linda and his family were pretty solidly screwed out of million s. (ed. note: the article unnecessarily maligns Seeger).

Next, the satisfying (but less well-written) conclusion to this saga: The Linda family gets a settlement after suing the Walt Disney Co. in a round-about way.

And finally... the original recording:

Um, People Power! Merry Christmas.

Some sad news, early in the morning

2010-08-16T10:12:00.004-06:00

Robert Wilson, one third of blacktro funk group, The Gap Band, died yesterday. Not the voice of the group (that was Charlie Wilson his brother), Robert was the bassist and man are those basslines amazing.

H/t to BlackAmericaWeb with the info.

They stole my idea . . . and did it better.

2010-08-09T09:39:00.005-06:00

So I go the AVClub this morning and almost spit out my coffee. In their weekly inventory, the AVClub had stolen my idea for a list of most-dated sounding songs, albeit limited to technology.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/my-pagers-still-blowin-up-25-songs-about-outdated,43916/

Although this list omits two awesome tracks I included, Jim Croce's "Operator" and Destiny's Child's "Bug-A-Boo," it's pretty comprehensive.

My posts -

1990s dated songs:
http://www.ohsweetnothing.com/2010/03/time-capsule-bugaboos-past-and-present.html

1970s dated songs:
http://www.ohsweetnothing.com/2010/04/time-capsule-dropping-dime.html

Another great, gone.

2010-08-04T14:45:00.005-06:00

Norman Whitfield, one of Motown's best in-house composers and producers, has died. Whitfield's name graces every third page of my Motown's Greatest Piano Book. He wrote most of the Temptations' songs after 1968 including "I'm Losing You," "Ball of Confusion," "Just My Imagination" and one of my personal favorites, "Message from a Black Man" and will probably go down in history for penning "I Heard It Through the Grapevine."

Good coverage at pitchfork, here.

Post-Punk Post Script

2010-07-28T13:08:00.003-06:00

In light of my two recent French punk/post-punk posts, I couldn't resist linking to this story. The most famous faux-punk French punk musician Plastic Bertrand now admits that he did not actually sing on "Ca Plane Pour Moi," the famously popularized re-done cover of "Jet Boy, Jet Girl." Apparently, this was proven by way of French lingual expert as Plastic Bertrand is Belgian and the accent of the singer is Picardese French. For those unfamiliar with the song and who haven't seen National Lampoon's European Vacation, here it is in FULL glory:

Le Post-Punk Francais

2010-07-10T16:50:00.017-06:00

As promised, Part II of this French punk sampleur - Post-Punk/New Wave Francais. Although I can't say that I entirely buy the distinction made by Simon Reynolds in Rip It Up and Start Again between New Wave and Post-Punk, I will say that the bands here at least thought of themselves as a continuation of the Punk spirit of '77. But where to begin?

Well, how about here.

Catchy, n'est pas? Although I'm always tempted to say that song sounds like a rip-off of "Melt With You" by English post-punk band, Modern English, that would be absurd, since "Edith Nylon" by the band Edith Nylon pre-dates that 80s gem by 3 years, having been recorded for their 1979 debut album. So it appears that here the French have the better of their English counterparts! Anyway, for those who would think of this as a simple pop trifle, I recommend checking out and translating the lyrics which deal with the bodyparts of a bionic woman with "interchangeable parts" that include chrome lips and a 'stainless vagina.'

Along the same lines, but a little more B-52s and rockabilly, Ici Paris. Their titular anthem "Allo Monde . . . Ici Paris" is pretty fantastic. They are the group pictured at the top of this post. They however didn't perform in that ridiculous get-up.

Ici Paris - Allo Monde

For those who like their music from this era to sound more like robots, I recommend Charles de Goal (a pun, you see!).

Charles de Goal along with many of these post-punk bands, owe their recorded careers to a small independent French label, New Rose Records. Apart from being the pre-eminent indie label for this kind of French music from its formation in 1982 until it was sold to super-chain FNAC in 1992, New Rose recorded some neglected English and American artists for whom the 80s was not a great time commercially while also acting as a European distributor for underground American labels. Among the artists it recorded or distributed: Alex Chilton, Roky Erickson, The Dead Kennedys (distributed), The Troggs, Bo Diddley, The Replacements (distributed), Mission of Burma (distributed), The Fugs, The Cramps (distributed), GG Allin (distributed), and Wreckless Eric. New Rose also operated a store in Paris, which from what I've read, functioned as the center of a scene, perhaps not unlike 'Sex,' Malcolm McLaren's shop that was the center of early London punk.

One band I have to mention as they are definitely THE French post-punk band: Taxi Girl. My favorite song of theirs, and their earliest hit, Cherchez le Garcon.

Taxi Girl was arguably the biggest of these New Wave bands for a number of years in the early 80s. Composed of two high-school friends, Mirwais Ahmadzaï and Daniel Darc (not his real name, which he described in 1984 as "too complicated, too Jewish, and too Russian" UPDATE: real name Daniel Rozoum), and taking its name from a pornographic book read by the head staffer in their lunchroom cafeteria, Taxi Girl was one-part Police and one-part Kraftwerk. After a few years of solid hits, the band broke up. Mirwais went on to a successful solo career in dance music, really taking off once he co-wrote and co-produced most of Madonna's "Music" record including the title song and "Don't Tell Me." Since then he's been active with the new French club scene, producing for Uffie. It should be mentioned that Air and Daft Punk name check Taxi Girl as a huge influence. While I'm talking about the nouveau French club, I have it on good authority from a friend that a young Busy P (ne Pedro Winter) got into the French electronic music scene in 1992 still inhabited by these 80s guys and the "new class" which included a young Daft Punk and Dimitri from Paris, after which he became their manager. So you can kind of trace a straight line from Taxi Girl to Justice, but you have to squint real hard while doing it.

Alright, final act on this remembrance of punk past - Les Rita Mitsouko. If you read the last post on French punk, you'll remember Gazoline, Alain Kan's punk experiment. After Gazoline broke up, the guitarist from that band, Fred Chichin, formed this group with his girlfriend Catherine Ringer, a band that I analogize to France's Talking Heads. Their biggest hit - Marcia Baila (Marcia is dancing) - despite its upbeat rhythm is actually a moving eulogy to the group's dancer, Argentine ballerina Marcia Moretto, who died of cancer in 1981. Great 80s video as well:

Of course, there is much more I could have covered here, but like some kind of internet Levar Burton on cyber-reading rainbow, I'm going to tell you to explore this music on your own. Here's a good start, a compilation list put together by a French journalist. Bonne chance!

Le Punk Francais

2010-06-20T19:24:00.011-06:00

While most of the readers of this blog are probably familiar with American and British punk music, as well as the weird amalgam of bands from 1979 on, once known as "new wave" but now called "post-punk," I suspect fewer are familiar with how these genres developed in France.

If this mid-90s French documentary (posted in four parts here on YouTube - sorry, en francais) is to be believed, French Punk's origins can be traced to 1974 in the form of stripped down retro-blues and rock-a-billy bands reacting to the wanking that had become mainstream rock. The documentary chooses to personify said wankery through clips of Pink Floyd, Genesis, the Rolling Stones, and France's own crap rock, as depicted by Joe Dassin performing his yacht-rock classic 'L'ete Indien (Indian Summer).' (Check that last link out, you won't be disappointed... I'll wait). The documentary suggests that by the time the Sex Pistols blew up in England there was a French scene waiting to embrace them, their music, and their style.

This is definitely true. Within a year of "punk music" becoming popular in the UK, France had fertile scenes based in Paris and Lyon. Why Lyon? Think Manchester. Lyon too is an industrial city which in the late 70s was suffering from a decline in employment prospects and an increased supply of restless youth. A few examples of this musical genre in its infancy. Observe Les Guilty Razors' "I Don't Wanna Be A Rich." Though this song was hugely influential in French punk, due to an error with their record company, the album it was on was never properly released in the 1970s (an error corrected in a 2006 re-issue). As a result, original vinyl pressings of this record are hyper-valuable. It is worth noting that most of this early French punk went unrecorded and some of these seminal bands name-dropped by those that came after only had a handful of singles released at all.

(Fun Fact: Two of the dudes from Guilty Razors went on to form Bandolero, the band that brought us this classic 80s euro-rap jam, Paris Latino)

Two other seminal French bands from this "Class of '77" school of punk deserve mention: Asphalt Jungle and Metal Urbain. A couple of songs from them below:

Asphalt Jungle - Polly Magoo

Metal Urbain - Paris Maquis. Fun Fact: this was the first record put out by the legendary Rough Trade label.

I would be remiss not to at least mention Alain Kan, basically France's equivalent of David Bowie, when writing about this era. Kan began his recording career in the mid-60s first as a crooner in the mold of Paul Anka. Within a few years his sound came to resemble the power-pop of his English counterparts. By 1975, he was openly gay AND openly aping Bowie's style (his bassist would actually go on to play on Iggy Pop's The Idiot, produced by Bowie, and the album Low). But damn if Kan's imitation doesn't work. On his album, Heuresement en France, on ne se drogue pas (Fortunately in France, we don't do drugs), he recorded what I consider to be a mini-masterpiece and arguably a link to the kind of ironic yet sincere music exemplified in the post-punk era, Speed My Speed, a song entirely composed of the names of drugs.

For his next project in 1977, Kan decided to create a punk band, Gazoline (later, Gasoline). Their second single - Killer Man - is, in my opinion, better than the "real" French punk that emerged more organically.

I've been somewhat picky with my selections here. French punk from this era is to a great extent very derivative of its American and English counterparts. If you have any doubt, check out Stinky Toys, a sub-Blondie punk/new wave act. Here is their performance of Birthday Party. No, you heard right, she's singing "Chinese chinese birthday party / Give me chinese birthday cake / Getting younger getting younger / Younger every da-a-ay /Gonna be a baby soon." And this was a couple of months before China announced the One Child policy. Stinky Toys was very close with Deng Xiaoping apparently.

Ok, to cleanse your musical pallette, I'll give you something with Serge Gainsbourg's fingerprints on it (oh you thought I could write a post on a hipster music blog about France and NOT mention him, au contraire mes amis). The rock-revival band Bijou had revived an old and somewhat obscure Gainsbourg tune, Les Papillons Noirs (Black Butterflies). Bijou's cover of the song became a hit and Gainsbourg, excited by the cover of what he considered a toss-off, began appearing with the band just to perform it. In the spirit of this new collaboration, Gainsbourg even wrote them a song, Betty Jane Rose, a poppy punk number. Of course, Gainsbourg was really ahead of his time even here. In an era when English punk musicians were flirting with Nazi imagery, Gainsbourg had already recorded an entire rock album about Nazi occupation.

Bijou - Betty Jane Rose

Alright, next time, I'll get into the music that came after this first wave of punk - post-punk francais!

Oh, So THAT Happened.

2010-06-15T00:34:00.004-06:00

Apologies for the lack of posting lately, and a big hats off to Zig for picking up the slack in my absence. And man did he do a hell of a job, even getting the attention of one shit hot DJ/producer who may or may not be a dinosaur enthusiast. As a result, Zig suggested this would be a prime opportunity for me to get back on track with the posts...I concur. I'll be posting some pretty cool videos I've been into lately soon as well as my favorite albums of the first half of 2010. Until then, here's some stuff that happened in my absence:

- Kanye West is back...basically shutting everyone the fuck up with his killer new single.

- Fact Magazine continues it's music publication hot streak by posting this bass heavy mix by Girl Unit...easily my favorite mix of the year. You may still be able to download it (for free!) here.

- Big Boi is tempting me to prematurely declare the upcoming Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty as album of the year with another monster single, "General Patton".

- Lono Brazil, one of Chicago's more underrated DJ's and host of one of my favorite dance parties in the city started the Disco Unusual Podcast. So yeah, get on that too.

- Aaron McGruder returned with the 3rd Season of Boondocks...which means another silly ass hip hop trend gets murdered.

- Ciara sent an entire generation of preteens through puberty in about 4 minutes.

Also, a bunch of great albums have already been released...but I'll get to that later. Be back soon. Go see Cold Cave and Chicago's own Locrian this Thursday at the Empty Bottle.

Freakoftheweekonomics Part II: From Bauxite to Biggie

2010-05-23T15:25:00.021-06:00

For Part I of this series, From Bauxite to Brixton, Click Here.

As I discussed in the last post on this subject, the discovery of mineral Bauxite in Jamaica in the wake of World War II had a definite effect on the everyday lives of Jamaicans, contributing to an inward migration to the capital, Kingston, and then, in the wake of poverty and unemployment, to an outward migration from Kingston to the UK and the U.S. It is this latter story that I will address here.

While Bauxite production actually increased in Jamaica throughout the 1960s, the newly independent nation's wealth was seen by relatively few. As in many post-colonial nations, the consolidation of wealth in the hands of a select few presented a persistent problem not corrected by independence. The companies operating the Bauxite mines were foreign, either American or Canadian. Further, the land these companies had purchased to mine was occupied previously by small-scale subsistence farmers, who in some cases received monetary compensation, but in many cases, did not as they did not necessarily own the land, held by the elites. Finally, while the Jamaican government did tax the industry, re-investment of these revenues only partly went to benefit the country's most vulnerable.

As a result of these inequities, Jamaica was a tumultuous place in the latter half of the 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Having foresightedly supported independence in 1962, the Jamaican Labour Party, the more conservative of the two dominant political parties (the Jamaican National Party was the other) won successive elections throughout the 1960s. Because these two parties fought very tough elections and needed the support of the working class citizens of slums like Trenchtown to win, 'garrison' politics reigned. The term refers to garrisons run by one of the two political parties throughout the 1960s and up through the present day. Essentially, a party would set up shop trying to drum up votes in one of the neighborhoods (West Kingston in particular), be assaulted by criminal gangs led by a "don" hired by the other party, and then in order to defend its interest, provide social welfare services and housing while also deputizing and bankrolling its own gangs to retaliate and protect its faction's turf. Although it had emerged earlier, this accelerated the rise of criminality and "rude boy" culture fantastically depicted in "The Harder They Come."

All this contributed to further emigration from Jamaica. An earlier wave of immigrants had sought opportunity in England. But in 1962, the UK passed the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, severely restricting immigration from the Crown's colonies. The Act, passed by the conservative government amid fears of rising 'coloured' districts inhabited by South Asian and Caribbean immigrants also coincided with Jamaican independence. This meant that even if Jamaicans were still part of the British Commonwealth, they were not wanted, not unless they were the lucky few to have an employment offer awaiting them in England. With the UK partially out of reach, at least until 1968 when the Act was amended, Jamaicans seeking opportunities looked to the United States. Fortunately for them, the U.S. passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 finally abolishing a national-origin quota which severely discriminated against immigrants from anywhere but Western Europe.

Alright, this is a music blog. What does that history lesson have to do with anything? Well, like in the UK, these Jamaican immigrants imported their musical culture. In 1967, Kingston natives Keith and Nettie Campbell immigrated to the Bronx with their six kids. The eldest, Clive, then 12 years old, had grown up listening to the sound systems and toasting coming out of dancehalls in Kingston, and along with his father, started throwing similar parties in the recreation room of his public housing building. Well, to paraphrase the Godfather, Part II, that boy's performing name was DJ Kool Herc, and the music he helped invent was called Hip Hop. Indeed, the massive blaring bass-heavy sound systems and toasting - talking over the breaks in songs - imported from Jamaican music of the late 1960s, proved to be fundamental building blocks of hip-hop.

Similarly, in 1975, Richard Walters and his Jamaican parents arrived in the Bronx from their home in South Wimbledon, England. Within ten years, Walters had reinvented himself as Slick Rick, going on to produce classic "Golden Age" rap tracks. Around the same time Slick Rick's family was making their way from the UK, Voletta Wallace immigrated from Kingston to Brooklyn. Her son, Christopher, as you probably have figured out was Biggie Smalls. I could go on, but suffice it to say that our culture has been enriched by the decisions to come to our shores made by the Jamaican parents of Grace Jones (immigrated to Syracuse, New York 1965) and Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr., stage name Busta Rhymes. (Also, to a much, much lesser extent, Canibus). Question: do you ever think that Biggie and Busta Rhymes bonded over their parents' shared national heritage?

Apart from these leading lights of hip-hop, I have to at least mention the birth of third-wave ska. Some trace the Boston and then West Coast ska cultures to one band, The Toasters. Toasters' lead singer Rob "Bucket" Hingley was himself from the UK, and was part of the Two-Tone ska scene in two bands there, The Klingons and I-Witness, before jumping the pond to New York. Within a couple of years of his arrival, Hingley formed The Toasters and helped solidify an emerging American ska scene, putting out an influential compilation, N.Y. Beat: Hit and Run in 1985 and gaining a ska residency at CBGB's. In 1985, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones formed in Boston, fusing their sound with some elements of the "hard-core" scene. Meanwhile, in Berkeley, California, a ska-punk band called Operation Ivy formed, the core members of whom would go on to become Rancid. Meanwhile, further downstate, in Orange County, California, No Doubt formed in 1987, as a band in the mold of Madness. I could go on and list the best and worst of third-wave ska, but for a while there in the mid-90s, there were a lot of horns in music. Also, who can deny this song?

So what am I getting at here? Well, I'll end where I began, with the transformative effect Bauxite had on the economy of Jamaica. I argue that without the discovery of this mineral in 1943, we might not have or, at the least, be aware of the musical styles we know as ska, rocksteady, reggae, dancehall, jungle, and dub. Further, given the contributions of Jamaicans in the UK to Punk and Garage, and in the U.S., to most of the hip-hop we know today, we should probably attribute at least some of the existence of these genres to this rock.

None of this is to discount the terrible situation Jamaica is in nowadays, but to shine some attention on this small island that has given the world so much culture. I wonder if a valuable mineral had been discovered in Barbados in the 1940s, whether history would have been different.

RIP Dio

2010-05-17T12:12:00.003-06:00

This really saddens and surprises me. Had I been a better Dio fan, I would have probably known of the cancer afflicting Ronnie James Dio that took his life at the age of 67. Hopefully heavens looks like the video for "Holy Diver."

Decent Obit here.

A couple of news stories and fun facts on a lazy Friday...

2010-05-07T11:29:00.008-06:00

A couple of news stories and some assorted fun facts I've always thought merited some publicity:

Ain't Not Stoppin' Us Now - Gamble and Huff receive honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music.

Minnesota Public Radio's Indie Music Station (Yes, there is a terrestrial FM indie music station that is commercial-free and available streaming!) is doing a show on Sunday night on the history and future of sampling in music. The blog site promoting the show, has a Youtube clip of Hank Shocklee (of Public Enemy's Bomb Squad fame) squaring off against George Clinton, who he sampled. I think Shocklee has the better of the argument. Check it out.

Sean Paul - After seeing Belly for the first time all the way through a few years back, I was trying to figure out the name of that song he performs (answer: Top Shotta (Here comes the Boom). This lead me to Sean Paul's Wikipedia page, which is filled with fun facts, including the fact that Sean Paul is partly of Jewish and Chinese descent, AND that he is the grandson and son of professional water polo players and actually was on the Jamaican national water polo team until age 21. Check that out.

Remember Shyne? Yes, that Shyne.

Well ever since he went down for that Puffy and J.Lo in the club business back in '01 - which for the record I always thought was a case of him being thrown under the bus by a certain Diddy - Shyne has been through 9 years of a 10 year jail sentence, and subsequently deported to Belize, his home country. Also, while in prison, he converted to Judaism after discovering that he was the descendant of an Ethiopian Jewish great-grandmother, changing his name to Moses Michael Leviy. Apparently when he got out in '09, the Immigration authorities decided to deport him, as he was not a U.S. citizen, although he had a green card. After a last-minute attempt to get N.Y. Governor David Paterson to intervene on his behalf, as he had for Slick Rick a couple of years ago, Shyne was deported to Belize in February of this year. Oh and did I mention that he is the "unwanted" son of Belize's current Prime Minister, who intervened on his behalf in the deportation proceedings but STILL couldn't keep the Feds from throwing him out of the country. So now we know. The US Government has a list that looks like this:

Pardonable Rappers
John Forte
Slick Rick

Unpardonable Rappers
Shyne

Shyne's real crime was sounding too much like Biggie. We all know that America killed Biggie and that Suge Knight is secretly running the country when not falling down in the streets and being filmed by TMZ.

Freakoftheweekanomics Part I: From Bauxite to Brixton

2010-04-24T14:45:00.033-06:00

It happened that in 1942, a wealthy landowner, attorney and businessman from the parish of St. Ann, Jamaica, Sir Alfred D'Costa, grew concerned by the failure of the corn growing on his farm as part of a wartime food production campaign. D'Costa took his concerns to the local authorities, sending them a sample from the red soil where the crops were planted. The results of these soil tests changed Jamaica, and as I will suggest here, Western music as we know it. Consider this post my entry into the world of Freakanomics.

So what was in the soil? Bauxite. Lots of it. What is Bauxite? Bauxite is the most important mineral in aluminum production. First discovered in Jamaica in 1899, the process for conversion of the ore into aluminum was far too complicated and costly at that time. Not so by 1942. Indeed, within a decade of D'Costa's discovery, the three largest aluminum producers in the Western hemisphere, Alcan, Kaiser Aluminum, and Reynolds Metals Company (of Reynolds Wrap fame!) had begun mining Jamaica's precious bauxite, a crucial element in post-War construction. Much of Jamaica's heartland was chock full of Bauxite, accounting for 12% of known worldwide reserves and by 1957, Jamaica was the number 1 Bauxite producer in the world.

So what does Bauxite have to do with music? As you can imagine, the massive influx of foreign capital dramatically changed Jamaica's economy and by the same token, its culture. An island colony that had for four hundred and fifty years been driven by a sugarcane plantation economy all of a sudden was flush with new mining money. By 1963, half of Jamaica's domestic exports consisted of bauxite-derived metals, and these metals brought in about twice as much foreign exchange as sugar and other traditional exports combined.

In 1958, Jamaica took its first steps toward independence, joining the Federation of the West Indies, a confederacy of small Caribbean island nations, including Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago. The purpose of the Federation was to create an interim political entity with the intention of ultimately breaking away from English colonial rule as an independent confederate nation, similar to Canada and its political relationship to its provinces.

By 1961, Jamaicans were displeased with the arrangement, believing that, among other things, the smaller islands in the Federation were unfairly draining Jamaica's newfound wealth. After a referendum to leave the Federation was passed, Jamaica declared its independence from Great Britain in 1962. Now, whether this turn of events can be attributed to Bauxite is debatable, but it no doubt played a part.

More importantly, Jamaica's rapid industrialization in the 1950s accelerated what had already been a trend in the 1930s, its urbanization. Farmers who sold their land to the mining companies, poorer subsistence farmers kicked off land they did not technically own, a new youthful generation attracted to perceived job opportunities in Kingston, new road and infrastructure developments funded to facilitate transport of ore but that also made travel to Kingston easier, and a higher birth rate all contributed to an explosion in Kingston's population. (link is JSTOR, so $)

But the new optimistic population of Kingston that had come there for work was in for a letdown. Bauxite production, and the strip mining work itself, was not actually labor intensive and produced proportionately fewer jobs. The growing clothing manufacturing sector was in its infancy and paid poorly. It did not help that the new migrants to the cities were largely unskilled laborers. The now-infamous Trenchtown and the government yards (aka housing projects) swelled by the mid-1960s. Finding limited options available for them in Kingston, this generation of Jamaicans sought opportunities abroad in England and then the United States.

Joining an ex-pat community of Jamaicans in London that had been growing since 1948 when British colonials were granted the right to reside in England, these new immigrants like others before them brought the culture they had known. [For a really good history of Jamaican immigration to England, replete with lots of first-person accounts, check this site out]. Ska music, popular since the late 1950s in Jamaica was imported to the immigrant community in London's Brixton neighborhood and soon caught on among the Brits, who at first called ska music "blue beat." By 1962, a poppy ska song, My Boy Lollilop by Millie Small was a Top Ten hit in the UK. The song's popularity was not just a natural outgrowth of the Jamaican's population's influence on British culture, but can be attributed to the tremendous efforts of canny Island Records owner Chris Blackwell, a Londoner who had grown up in Jamaica and moved his business from the island in the West Indies to the colder island in the Atlantic in 1962. Blackwell later helped popularize reggae and can be given some credit for making Bob Marley overseas - so yeah, blame him for your college roommate's poster. Still, the cross-pollination of Jamaican and UK culture happened more organically as well.

Jamaican sounds and Rudeboy styles were picked up by some of the English Mods, already huge fans of American Soul, resulting in the amalgam skinhead ska and reggae culture known sometimes as Trojan Skinheads (not to be confused with the racists who later co-opted this white working class look). By 1969, bands like Symarip, made up of West Indian immigrants, were writing the anthems for this sub-culture. The music was so much a part of English culture that the Beatles wrote a reggae-lite song that referenced Desmond Dekker. In the 1970s, Desmond Dekker even moved to the UK where he was arguably more popular than in Jamaica by then more enamored with roots reggae.

A few years after that, second wave ska took off, notably under the 2 Tone Label based in Coventry, a sound and a style that was in-turn closely associated with the nascent punk and post-punk scene. The whole revival scene was big enough that The Clash saw fit to tweak it in White Man in Hammersmith Palais.

I could go on, and elaborate on how the West Indian and in particular, Jamaican community in the UK helped popularize dub, which in turn influenced so many electronic musical genres that I won't bother listing them. But so much for England, the story of the influence of Jamaicans abroad was felt right here in the States equally. I will address that as well as what happened to Jamaica when the Bauxite ran out in my next post.

UPDATE: Second Post - "From Bauxite to Biggie" about the influence of Jamaican immigrants in American musical culture here.

VIDEO: The xx - "Islands"

2010-04-21T14:25:00.003-06:00

Came across this while listening to lots of new (to me) electronic music today. I know it's gonna be everywhere, but I'm posting it here anyway. It should be everywhere, the song and corresponding video are that good. Enjoy.

Side Note: Clearly The xx love Chicago...I say this not using any real shred of evidence, but judging solely on the amount of times they've been in the city this year as well as their future planned appearances here. Good enough for me!

Guru - Rest in Peace

2010-04-20T09:52:00.002-06:00

Man, this site is beginning to feel like an obituary page. Another great, gone.

Guru of Gangstarr, RIP.

The AVClub has a decent obit for now. I knew he had cancer but hadn't heard that it was terminal.

VIDEO: Ghislain Poirier - "Coco Drunk"

2010-04-16T17:39:00.004-06:00

Ghislain Poirer has been a DJ/Producer that I've long held a soft spot for, so I was quick to check out his new video for "Coco Drunk", the first (?) single off his new album Running High.

It's a fun video, and more proof that I definitely need to make plans to visit Montreal in the very near future (those that really know me can see there's another obvious reason I'm into this video too, hah). The video also immediately reminded me of a more lighthearted, cute, hipster shoe version of the video for Four Tet's "Smile Around the Face"....which is one of the more warm-hearted and adorable videos I've ever had the privilege of watching. It doesn't hurt that the song is amazing to boot (again, I have friends who'll tell you how stupid happy I got when I heard it live). If you haven't seen it before it's a MUST WATCH. Here, I'll make it easy for you.

In Honor of Thom Yorke's Awesome Taste: Rob's Addendum

2010-04-13T20:00:00.000-06:00

Well...far be it from me to make Zig a liar. The main impression I took away from an almost surreally (had to make up a word for it!) awesome night was, "Whoa, Thom Yorke is just as enamored with bass as I am!" I was pretty much expecting a night of music that would be described with words like "ambient" and "minimal" and "challenging"...you get the point. Admittedly, it's totally unfair for me to hold these prejudices, and I did know that at least one of the dudes in Radiohead has quite the interest in reggae (the dubbier end of things if I remember correctly), but imagine my surprised when I walked downstairs and immediately heard this gem (Darkstar - "Need You") followed immediately by some futuristic-post-apocalyptic ragga tune that I'm convinced was the work of some Kevin Martin project.

Things stayed in that vein until Godrich relieved Yorke of DJ'ing duties, and there were other highlights to be sure (such as a string of almost B-more club tunes that were all the rage 3-4 years ago), but the main thing I was left wondering as we were heading home is "Can this shit please start being hip here now??" "This shit" being the weirder, more experimental end of the dubstep and reggae/dancehall spectrum. I know that certain trends between Europe and the US experience a fair bit a lag (in both directions)...but damn, Hyperdub has been killing it for over 5 years now. Judging by recent Fabric mixes, the recent XX DJ set, and Thom's early setlist...I'm crossing my fingers that the day is coming sooner rather than later. C'mon America, let's get weird...I mean fuck, apparently Radiohead's doing it!!

Superbird (Ft. Singing Bird) -...

Kode 9 & Spaceape - "Curious"

Mala - "Level 9"

So yeah, Thom Yorke's awesome taste lead me down the dark dark path of an internet rant. It's cool, Zig is here to be the classy one (hah!), and I take comfort in the fact that I'm sure said path is well worn as a result of that man.

VIDEO: HEALTH - "We Are Water"

2010-04-12T01:32:00.003-06:00

Uhh...Sweet. Fucking. Hell. If there was ever a must watch music video...this is it. Also, if there was ever a time for a NSFW warning...this is it. Definitely enjoy this awesome/crazy/FUCKING GROSS gem off of the Oh, Sweet Nothing approved Get Color somewhere that won't get you fired. Man, these dudes are earning a rep for crazy ass videos with the quickness.

PS - Yeah, we saw Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich DJ tonight...more on that later.

In honor of Thom Yorke's awesome taste

2010-04-12T01:10:00.004-06:00

So Rob and I just got back from checking out a "secret" Thom Yorke DJ set at Debonair here in Chicago. Yorke and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich actually switched off. I'll let Rob discuss the fact that Yorke played a ton of Hyper Dub songs and a bunch of UK Hardcore (as well as lots of Mad Decent records). Godrich, for the record, played a lot of old school hip hop and some Donna Summer-era disco.

Anyway, this all reminded me of a formative experience for me. In 1997, right around when OK Computer came out, I was staying at my grandmother's house in Tel Aviv and watching a lot of MTV Europe. Thom Yorke had "taken over" an hour of programming and was selecting his favorite videos. Since I was (and still am) obsessed with Radiohead, I watched the whole thing. This was a welcome respite from Aqua's Barbie Girl and Backstreet Boys' "Backstreet's Back" that the channel was playing back to back. Yorke's picks - like those he played tonight - were basically all great. But I distinctly remember his "closer" and what he described as one of his all time favorite videos was this, Massive Attack's "Unfinished Sympathy." Why? Well, he obviously liked the song, but more interestingly, he liked that it was ONE take. I distinctly remember this as my introduction to Massive Attack and the whole Bristol scene that I would become aware of later that year.

Check it out (Sorry guys, embedding disabled by EMI):

Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy

The Time Capsule - Dropping a Dime

2010-04-09T12:37:00.003-06:00

Well I've given it some thought and after due consideration of such 70s Mellow Rock as "Chevy Van" and the realization that despite referencing political events of its day, the Sound of Philadelphia's politically conscious songs like "Love Train" are indeed universal (although references to the then nascent peace efforts between Israel and Egypt are less of an event today), I've settled on this gem from 1972: Jim Croce's "Operator."

I think this video does a nice job of cataloguing why this song will probably be lyrically if not sonically confusing (that melody will be pretty even when we are consuming music through infusions into our iBrains in 2050) to the future and if you're under 20, to those of the present generation.

First off, check out that un-ironic 'stache. It's probably pretty telling that 1972 was a different time because there's no way that a man as unattractive as Jim Croce could be a sensation with multiple hits in this, the 9th or 10th year of the John Mayer Age ( 9 j.m.a. as its known by biblical scholars).

The lyrics of "Operator" are simple enough that I won't post them. But suffice it to say that I haven't called an operator (dial 0 on your earth phones kids, they still exist!) in order to place a call in my entire life (including my childhood). Not to belabor the point, but this is what Croce's describing: Dialing 0 to reach the operator who was an employee of one of the local "Baby" Bells (N.Y. Bell, Illinois Bell, etc., all of whom were united under AT&T until 1984 when the Reagan administration successfully sued in antitrust and broke the company up), then once you called the operator, asking her (and back in 1972 it was almost certainly a woman, sorry to gender stereotype) to look up a phone number - like calling 411 or more commonly Googling this information - to which she would then connect you.

Further, a phone number hasn't been recorded on a matchbook since, at the latest, 1997. Also, a matchbook?!?

Finally, there's this: "Thank you for your time, you've been so much more than kind. You can keep the dime." Indeed, Jim, she can, as a phone call would have cost a dime on a pay phone in 1972. When was the last time anyone has used a pay phone and made a call for under 50 - 75 cents (depending on your area)? (Ed. Incidentally, I only recently learned - to my great embarassment - that the expression "drop a dime" on someone refers to the practice of snitching on someone by making an anonymous phone call to the police via 10 cent pay phone call. One day this expression will sound as hopelessly dated as "That's no way to run a railroad!" But I digress...)

A close runner-up in this singer-songwriter category was Harry Chapin's "Taxi" - also released in 1972 - only because giving someone $20 for cab fare doesn't seem that crazy until you realize that adjusted for wages, that's like $90. I could see being mad at a now rich and snobby ex "tipping" you almost $100 out of some weird pity for your station. I could also see "stashing that bill" in my shirt for the exact same reason. Still not sure about that "mad man wizard" though but they had better drugs back then.

Malcolm McLaren RIP

2010-04-08T12:59:00.005-06:00

I hope this gets more than just a Times Blog post and Pitchfork has a longer description, but Malcolm McLaren, "impresario" behind the Sex Pistols, and I believe later, Bow Wow Wow, died.

He also had some musical work of his own. Here's the best of it as far as I'm concerned (take that Eminem samples!)

UPDATE: Way better bio on McLaren on AVClub (natch).

UPDATE: WAAAY better bio on McLaren (at least the early years) in Slate. Also, Malcolm McLaren - JEWISH! So in the early punk canon, for those counting, that's: Joey and Tommy Ramone, Richard Hell and Malcolm McLaren!

VIDEO: BBU - "Chi Don't Dance"

2010-04-08T01:53:00.005-06:00

Pfft...like I wasn't gonna post this video. Pitchfork had the privilege of "debuting" this gem from Chicago's own BBU (Nevermind that they've been killing dance parties all over the city with this jam for over 2 years...what city is Pitchfork based out of again???). Let's play "name that local landmark/scene star" while watching this one. Also, shouts to Sultan's Market!!

Big Boi - "Shutterbugg"

2010-04-07T17:05:00.006-06:00

XXL posted another track off the upcoming Big Boi solo album. Check it out here.

Straight to the point: this shit is rad. Besides clearly being named after one of the best running comedic skits in the last 10 years (Where my Human Giant fans at!?), the production is killer...it almost sounds like Dam-Funk is behind the boards. Man, now I'm thinking about a Dam-Funk/Big Boi collabo album...mmmm. Anyway, Big Boi is great per usual and in the spirit of 3-D blockbuster remakes, whoever is pulling the strings these days at Def Jam just needs to RELEASE THE ALBUM!!

Updates coming soon(ish)...

2010-03-24T16:05:00.004-06:00

...but in the meantime, just saw this and I'm pretty sure it's going to be my favorite album art of 2010.
For those who don't get the reference, I present to you an undergraduate Rob blogging flashback (yeah, I've kept this thing going for well over 5 years. +300 Nerd XP).

And no, I've not heard a single thing off this album.....yet.

The Time Capsule: Bugaboos Past and Present

2010-03-18T22:23:00.002-06:00

Hey hey! Long time, no blog, I know. It's been a couple of months, but I finally have a few minutes to myself here and am currently enjoying a pleasant afternoon at local West Town bar/restaurant Baza. Baza is a local secret. It's an awesome place to work as there are many sockets at every table, free wireless, and NO other patrons. Anyway, last time I was here, the waitstaff decided to plug in their Ipods to the sound system and within minutes I heard these golden lyrical gems:

You Make Me Wanna Throw My Pager Out The Window
Tell MCI To Cut The Phone Calls
Break My Lease So I Can Move
'cause You A Bug A Boo A Bug A Boo
I Wanna Put Your Number On The Call Block
Have AOL Make My E Mails Stop
'cause You A Bug A Boo
You Buggin What You Buggin Who You Buggin Me
And Don't You See It Ain't Cool

That's right – Bugaboo by Destiny's Child. This song is (1) awesome; (2) ridiculously dated. It's this last aspect of the song that really caught my attention when hearing this song probably for the first time in six years. Obviously no one owns a pager anymore except the fictional drug dealers from Season 1 of The Wire, MCI, after emerging from a painful Bankruptcy, is now a part of Verizon, I don't know anyone who has put anyone on a "call block" since I can't think of anyone apart from my parents and businesses that have a landline, and I think only grandmothers and phishing Russian porn spammers are out there with an AOL email account. Oh and my friend Jesse Baltes. Treated.

This got me thinking about other songs that have hyper-dated references that immediately identify them as part of their own time. I dub these "time capsule" songs as the minute you hear them, you are aware that they come from a time "long ago." So without further ado, my favorite time capsule songs, and I am going way back on this in backwards chronological order. I plan on posting this over a number of days, so stay tuned…

First off, the 90s PAGER craze.

Besides Beyonce's aforementioned pager, the '90s was a good time for pagers in song. Two of the best pager songs: A Tribe Called Quest's 1991 song "SkyPager" and Immature's 1995 minor hit "Pager."

Basically, in the future, pop historians will learn about pagers and associate them with drug dealers and sex fiends. Which maybe isn't an entirely inaccurate description of how they were perceived in the 90s anyway.

Next, the 80s – land of large radios and nuclear panic.

As anyone from Radio Rahim to Lt. Spock will tell you, the 80s were all about carrying around "ghettoblaster" stereos and exposing the world to your musical tastes. LL Cool J documented this phenomenon in "I Can't Live Without My Radio." This song has great period details, from the fact that LL is carrying around a JVC to his apparel of "light blue Pumas," and "a whole lotta gold" – classic 1985

Well, that's all for now. I'll come back with the 70s and 60s.

Cam'ron ft. Vado - "Bring The Amber Lamps"

2010-03-10T22:22:00.003-06:00

Oh good goddamnit....I try to stay above the fray with shit like this on the internet (at least for the purposes of this blog), but my long-running and admittedly odd obsession with all things Cam'ron won't let me ignore this. I'm sure by now most everyone has seen the adventures of Epic Beard Man and all the fallout (just google it if you haven't)...surely it was only a matter of time before someone used that shit in a song. But Cam'ron?? Damn, I would've bet my last penny on "suburban white high school dudes" beating him to the punch. If anything this just is just more evidence that Cam is getting weirder (I don't wanna say "crazier") by the minute.

So yeah, without further ado..."Bring The Amber Lamps"

VIDEO: Big Boi w/Too Short & George Clinton - "Fo Yo Sorrows"

2010-03-10T02:20:00.004-06:00

Via Nah Right. Sweet fucking hell RELEASE THIS ALBUM!! This shit was a leaked single last Spring/Summer correct? Anyway, still Big Boi, still dope, and I suppose it's a good sign official looking promo videos are dropping, right? Also props to Too Short and (I guess) George Clinton for being proud members of the "Aging Gracefully Club". Seriously, I imagine that shit being hard to do.

Fo Yo Sorrows VIDEO Big Boi Ft. Too Short and George Clinton from SNORT THIS TV on Vimeo.

VIDEO: Caribou - "Odessa"

2010-02-22T14:26:00.002-06:00

In an effort to avoid calling things "The Best of" in February, I'll just say this will probably be the catchiest bummer of 2010. That's okay, right?

VIDEO: The Soft Pack - "C'mon"

2010-02-11T12:53:00.000-06:00

How obvious is it that I want these dudes to take over the world?

Also, the excellent "Extinction" from last year's The Muslims EP.

VIDEO: SNL Crisis of Conformity - "Fistfight"

2010-02-11T07:31:00.002-06:00

I resisted the temptation to post this all week, but I was listening to Born Against (huh what?!) earlier today and all I could do was laugh thinking of this pretty good send up of 80s hardcore. My favorite parts are probably the sloganeering Reagan bashing and the spot on breakdown/ranting diatribe (redundant?). So yeah, enjoy "Fistfight" by Crisis of Conformity.

For those looking for a frame of reference, here ya go (it's early 90s...but you get the drift). Oh, look who's 18 again!?

Born Against - "Born Again"

Glass Candy & The Shattered Theatre - "Nueva Version/Remodelada" (Roxy Music Cover)

2010-02-09T01:50:00.000-06:00

(More blog housecleaning) Hmmm, not sure how I missed this, especially considering my previously stated admiration for Glass Candy. Fortunately, the magic of iTunes DJ unearthed this track from the depths of my library. Another cover, this time of Roxy Music's "Re-make/Re-model". This is great for a few reasons, first and foremost because "Re-make/Re-model" is probably my favorite Roxy Music song. Roxy Music were still pretty much Eno's show at the time this song came out, so the product tended to be more of this amazingly weird art-pop. Second, I've pretty much become a Johnny Jewel fanboy (check out the Italians Do It Better Blog on the sidebar links of blogs I follow!) and Glass Candy is the band that jumpstarted it all. So I'm always gonna try and post cool shit of theirs. Enjoy

Glass Candy & The Shattered Theatre - "Nueva Version/Remodelada"

VIDEO: Clipse - "Freedom"

2010-02-09T01:30:00.000-06:00

A bit of housecleaning going on here, as this video was gonna be a jumping off point for some pro-Clipse rant that I always have saved away for the poor soul willing to talk shit about them to me IRL. That was weeks ago. I think it was gonna be something along the lines of how Till The Casket Drops is definitely their weakest album, but (and??) it smacks of an artist trying to fulfill the last album of their recording contract. So I still hold out hope that another Hell Hath No Fury or We Got It For Cheap Pt. 2 is up their sleeves. The fact that even on their weakest album they exhibited the level of emotional growth exemplified here on "Freedom" is enough to tell me that my hope is more than fanboy faith.

The Soft Pack - S/T

2010-01-29T14:59:00.003-06:00

Apologies for the lack of happenings on the page lately...at least one of us has a good excuse. Anyway, I just finished listening to LA's The Soft Pack's new LP (February 2, in case you were wondering). It's really good...really good. Find out for yourself at the Myspace page, and if you live in LA, go to one of the 100 shows they're putting on throughout the city tomorrow.

Close the door, one last time.

2010-01-14T01:39:00.005-06:00

Damn. This is going to mess up my whole day.

Teddy Pendergrass, RIP.

And two of my favorites from the Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes years:

A legend, lost.

VIDEO: Big Boi ft. Gucci Mane - "Shine Blockas"

2010-01-03T02:07:00.003-06:00

Saw this song on several Best of '09 lists. Not sure how official of a video this is, but it gives me hope that Big Boi's solo album could see the light of day in 2010.

Big Boi Ft. Gucci Mane - Shine Blockas from SNORT THIS TV on Vimeo.

Oh, Sweet Nothing’s Best of 2009

2009-12-25T14:51:00.037-06:00

Well here it is, uncharacteristically early (for this blog) and simultaneously fashionably late. I won't go into some long essay that summarizes what I think of this (my pissy previous post took care of the most inarticulate aspects of that), so I'll leave you with my typical mitigating statements. There are still a bunch of albums I want (and need) to hear that could have very well made this list (Dam Funk anyone?)…therefore comments are appreciated even more than normal on this post. Don't be bashful! Let's go.

Rob's Favorite Albums of 2009

Honorable Mention – 5 Years of Hyperdub

I generally keep compilations off the list, but if I included them this would be waaaay up the list. Basically almost 3 hours showing off how awesome bass is. Makes me feel silly thinking about the money I spent on the Warp anniversary comp.

Joker – "Stash"

31. Black Dice – Repo – "Chicken Shit"

30. Fabriclive 45: Omar S. – "Oasis One"

29. Mic Terror – King of the New School

28. Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us – "Twin of Myself"

27. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It's Blitz – "Zero"

26. R Kelly – The Demo Tape

25. Marissa Nadler – Little Hells – "Heartpaper Lover"

24. Condo Fucks – Fuckbook – "Come On Up"

23. The Fiery Furnaces – I'm Going Away – "The End Is Near"

22. Times New Viking – Born Again Revisited – "Move To California"

21. Wale – Back to the Feature

20. Wavves – Wavvves – "So Bored"

Probably still my favorite non-No Age lo-fi band. Controversies aside, good album.

19. The Dream – Love vs Money – "Take U Home 2 My Mama"

Futuresexlovesounds production quality – Timberlake/Michael Jackson + R Kelly – R Kelly's slightly creepy vibe = Something what this album sounds like. Man, I really hope this is where R&B is going. Oh, and guest rapper free!

18. Martyn – Great Lengths - "Seventy Four"

I listened to this expecting a dubstep album. Well, this isn't quite that…but a damn fine electronic album all the same.

17. Fever Ray – Fever Ray – "Triangle Walks"

Took awhile to grow on me, but ultimately more satisfying than any Knife album to date. Also, my favorite music video of the year.

16. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion – "My Girls"

What more can be said about this album? "My Girls" is great, the rest isn't so shabby either.

15. HEALTH – Get Color – "Die Slow"

I love it when young bands make as big a leap between their first and second albums.

14. No Age – Losing Feeling EP – "You're A Target"

Wow. Shit-gaze no more…this EP further established No Age as the leaders of the lo-fi movement, and possibly even beyond it.

13. A Place To Bury Strangers – Exploding Head – "Ego Death"

See my blurb for Get Color. There are parts of this album where the title is oh so appropriate.

12. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – "Contender"

Gotta admit, I wanted to hate this album…but perfect songwriting can overcome lots of things. Like stupid blogger prejudices.

11. Obits – I Blame You – "Pine On"

Rick Froberg does no wrong. Buy this if you love rock n' roll.

10. The XX – XX – "Crystallized"

Okay, so I've talked time and time again about how much I hate "hype bands" and how often this has come to my detriment. Well, here's exhibit #34021. I actually hadn't even heard anything by The XX until a month ago, and that was mostly because I was actively avoiding them. Little did I know how down my lane this shit is. Sparse, dark, and well…pretty headphone music. Yes please. Let's just not use any variation of the word "minimal" anymore to describe them…please?

9. Pontiak – Maker – "Bloodpride"

Great album of fuzzy, slow, stomping, psychedelia with enough of a southern rock vibe tossed in to not sound like the other 20 albums released like this each year. How did this slip under so many people's radar?

8. Lupe Fiasco – Enemy of the State: A Love Story

Not even a half an hour long, but I'll be damned if this didn't let me know that Lupe has banished all thoughts of retirement from his head. All of those scared off by his indulgences (oh no! you have to listen to his lyrics more than once to get them!! Thinking about rap lyrics is so 1999, I know…apologies) will find this a welcome change of pace. He sounds so intensely focused over these tracks that I'm kinda giddy about what 2010 holds for Mr. Fiasco.

7. Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…Pt.II – "10 Bricks"

Did anyone really think he could do it? Better question: Did anyone who listened to Immobilarity think he could do it? (Hell the fuck no!) Well shit…he did it. Pushed back release dates and all, Rae actually followed through and dropped a proper follow up to the classic Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, thereby accomplishing something two other NYC rap titans have yet to successfully achieve. I remember when the singles started dropping, and like a jilted lover I refused to believe that the entire album could be as good as "House of Flying Daggers", then "New Wu", then "10 Bricks". I also remember listening to the entire album, laughing out loud, transforming into a 14 year old Wu-Tang obsessive again, and listening to the entire album with a stupid grin on my face. Pretty much everything that's great about NYC rap is in this album.

6. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career – "French Navy"

In a year where variations on low-fidelity recording seem to be the flavor of choice, Camera Obscura gets an extra bonus point for swinging for the fences with an album that deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as the word "Spector". Man, some of the vocal melodies on My Maudlin Career are so soaring that you can't help but get heartsick upon listening. I've loved watching this band transform from another indie-pop band I didn't give much thought to into something I absolutely adore.

5. Major Lazer – Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do – "When You Hear The Bassline"

Dancehall hits the (hipster) dancefloor!! That seems to be the overriding sentiment about this album. Not that it's inaccurate, but simply designating this album as such isn't giving nearly enough credit toward the nods to roots and dub thrown into Guns… Singles aside, I'm always surprised at how consistent of an album this is. Diplo especially has been on what, a 4 year hot streak now…killin' it.

4. Big Business – Mind The Drift – "Cold Lunch"

When you're a two piece drum/bass band, it's a pretty big decision to add a full time guitar player. Isn't that pretty much abandoning your original aesthetic? Are you really even the same band? In the case of Big Business, the answers are respectively no and yes. Still as heavy and sludgy as ever (at points even more so) with the guitar serving not so much to lighten up their assault, but to cut through the sludge, making Big Business sound even more menacing. A risk that worked out great, well done gentlemen.

3. Micachu and The Shapes – Jewellery – "Vulture"

I think I've already done enough gushing about this one here. I guess all I can say is that I stand by everything posted there. Oh, and I'm an idiot for missing her twice in Chicago.

2. Mi Ami – Watersports – "New Guitar"

Maybe the troubles Touch N' Go experienced earlier this year partially explain how this album seemed to slip under everyone's radar this year. Whatever the reason, it's a major bummer, because no one else (not even The XX) used "negative space" and the bass guitar as well as Mi Ami this year. Formed from the ashes of the also criminally overlooked Black Eyes, the self-proclaimed "drum punk" band melded elements of dub, noise rock, and krautrock/tribal drumming to create something that sounds what I imagine an African punk band would sound like in some otherworldly void. Let's hope their upcoming 2010 album gets a little more attention, it'd be much deserved.

1. Future of the Left – Travels With Myself and Another – "Chin Music"

Super tight rhythm section. Downtuned…well downtuned everything (even keyboards). Production that sounds like someone in the studio gave a shit. Searing and simultaneously hilarious lyrics from a band that does pissed off better than any currently active band. So basically everything that would assure you would be almost completely ignored in 2009. Which kinda pisses me off. Which makes it even more appropriate that I still can't stop listening to this album. It's just a shame that a band made from the remains of another ignored-until-too-late-now-legendary band releases an album that surpasses any of their former band's material…and it's ignored as well. And I'm almost positive it's because they don't fit the current zeitgeist of the moment. No one wants to be pissed…let's be hazy and dreamy and dancey and rip off trance music (oh you didn't realize that's what that shit you're listening to really is?!? Oops!) instead. Well okay, that's all well and good, but when we're all pissed off about health care and unemployment and Swine AIDS next year, promise me you'll revisit this album. You owe it to yourself, and I'll even look the other way if you throw it on your Best of 2010 list, promise.

Favorite Songs of 2009

5. 40 Thieves w/Qzen – "Don't Turn It Off" – Don't Turn It Off EP

4. HEALTH – "Die Slow" – Get Color

3. Burial & Four Tet – "Moth" – Moth/Wolf Cub single

2. Lupe Fiasco – "Turnt Up" – Enemy of the State: A Love Story

1. Joker – "Stash" – 5 Years of Hyperdub

It's That Time Of Year Again...

2009-12-11T12:08:00.003-06:00

Year end list mania!! I actually really enjoy this, as it gives me a chance to catch up on albums that may have slipped under my radar (and there are a ton of them). I'm busy working on the 2009 version and I'll throw it up here soon enough, but after reading through the 8 or so lists I've found thus far I just had to get this off of my chest.

Only 1 list had the latest Future of the Left album.

None had the latest Big Business album.

The Blueprint 3 made 3 (!?!) lists.

I've been trying to deny this for some time now, but I think 2009 is the year I admit that indieblogospherenation is baby shit soft. Meh.

The Byproduct of Holiday Travel

2009-11-25T00:47:00.009-06:00

As it turns out, spending 8 hours in airports/airplanes en route to a suburb of an almost-city does wonders for sparking the urge to blog. So here, in no particular order, are some of the musical "revelations" I experienced while traveling.

154 > Chairs Missing

If you've had any extended contact with me over the past 3 weeks, the fact that I'm writing about Wire is probably not the least bit surprising to you (apologies to the roommate, co-workers, and the woman from last Saturday…I just can't help myself, for you see...I'm a fucking geek about this stuff). My adoration of them has been experiencing a renaissance, which not only includes repeated listens of almost their entire catalog, but also reading as much about the band as possible (the 33 1/3 book on Pink Flag is a pretty good entry in the series). I was browsing around allmusic.com one 3AM (again, geek) and decided to reread the entry on Wire, where I saw that Chairs Missing was rated higher than 154. I believe the review even went so far as to say Chairs Missing was the strongest non-Pink Flag Wire album! Granted it was by a measly half-star, and I'm probably nitpicking…but bear with me. I suppose this irked me because more so than any other site that prominently features album reviews, allmusic.com seems to focus on being as objective across all genres (and target audiences) as their point of emphasis. Like the CNN of music sites or something. It pretty much gives them an air of authority…to the point where other websites simply cut and paste info on artists and albums straight from allmusic. So it kind of matters…kind of.

Anyway, the bottom line is they're wrong (IMHO, I suppose). Chairs Missing is a pretty good album, but it's very much sounds like that traditional transitional album that plenty of young bands go through. I feel like that gets forgotten, because Wire is amazing. There are plenty of amazing tracks on Chairs Missing ("Heartbeat", "I Am the Fly", "Outdoor Miner") but there are also tracks like ahem, "Mercy". 154 on the other hand, hits the nail on the head on pretty much every branch Wire had expanded their sound up to that point: eerie electronic textures ("I Should Have Known Better"), Pink Flag-esque throwbacks ("Two People In A Room"), not quite pop sing-alongs ("The 15^th", "Map Ref. 41n 93w"), etc. It just sounds like the perfect culmination of their initial creative output…and that probably has something to do with why they broke up for almost 10 years after 154. Where else do you go from there?

That being said, you should own both albums…I'm just saying if you could only buy one (assuming you have Pink Flag already), you now know the one to own.

"Ether" is still overrated…BUT

I love that this one still gets argued over even 8 years later. "Ether" is not better than "Takeover". Shit, all things considered "Ether" is not that much better than that freestyle Jay dropped about fucking Nas' baby moms ("Super Ugly" I believe it's called). This isn't the point of this topic, so I'll just point out my two biggest reasons why that shit is overrated: It took almost 3 months after "Takeover" to drop before "Ether" responded (so yeah, it better be fucking good) and it completely validated one of the biggest digs Jay had on Nas (That he completely makes shit up to sound like he's deep. Rockefeller died of AIDS huh? Really? Really?).

BUT more importantly, and what all this rehashing is setting up is the fact that "Ether" isn't even the best battle track on the album. That honor goes to "Destroy and Rebuild", which is completely underrated. He pretty much kills three MCs from his own hood in brutally efficient fashion ("Nature moved to Marcy/Man dick ridin' Nature?/Nothin else to say man, Nature moved to Marcy" That shit still makes me laugh). Granted Prodigy got double-teamed (And pretty unfairly in hindsight. I guess we were all that much dumber in 2001. So dumb that we were shocked that people were rapping about shit that wasn't entirely true! Now that shit happens and no one gives a shit. Ask Rick Ross. It's probably for the better…we all wizened up and realized that if 50% of that gangsta gangsta shit was true, there would be even more dead and incarcerated young niggas. And that shit has already hit ridiculous numbers.) and I'm still a Cormega fan even post "Destroy and Rebuild", but none of that takes away from the fact that Nas was at his most lyrically lethal here. Bonus points for donning the Slick Rick flow over the track.

Pulp Album Ending Tracks (And the Lie I've Been Living)

I was at work a few weeks ago, talking with a buddy about how epically great the last tracks on Pulp albums tend to be. Specifically, "Like A Friend" was playing at that moment. Then a customer decided to shatter my world by telling me that "Razzamatazz", "Like A Friend", and I think even "Bar Italia" are fake last tracks…bonus tracks thrown in for the US release date of (respectively) His N' Hers, This Is Hardcore, and Different Class. This could mean one of two things: America is truly the greatest country on Earth or I've been living a terrible lie. I listened to the tracks before each of the closers I've come to know and love…and it's kind of a letdown if that's the "real" album sequence. I dunno, the dude at the bar could be full of shit too. Anyone know anything further about this? I'm too busy ranting about Wire and Nas and getting sick from eating the pork-infused everything they serve down here to do "research".

Bar Italia - Pulp

Razzmatazz - Pulp

Assuming I don't post again before Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

VIDEO: Raekwon, Xzibit, Murs - "Legacy"

2009-11-16T01:27:00.006-06:00

Hmm, it appears we have an MC Sandwich on our hands. Much like a compliment sandwich (Your blog has a lot of heart, but I'd rather go to Pitchfork, but your font is pretty!), except here it's two MCs bookending...Xzibit. I'm not trying to be a hatin' ass hater, but you know Raekwon and Murs were probably genuinely geeked to rap about ninjas and shit over some mid 90s RZAesque beat. Raekwon's been doing that for almost 20 years (!) now, while Murs is just a nerd when it comes down to it (read the liner notes to his first album if you doubt that assertion). On the other hand, X was probably thinking about how the good ol' days when he was putting fishtanks in Toyota Tercels...or the next shitty film he's got lined up (Update: Apparently this movie isn't shitty at all..but pretty good...stain on me). He doesn't ruin the song though, and Murs and Rae more than make up for any Xzibit related lag (and the tired and inexplicable inclusion of a naked woman peppered throughout the video). Damn, Rae is having a hell of an '09...it's like I'm 12 and in the Wu-Tang fan club all over again.

Leonard Cohen - IDF Entertainer

2009-11-13T16:41:00.003-06:00

So in keeping with the theme of my last post, I thought I'd continue posting about American musicians who spent significant time in Israel. This week's entry: Leonard Cohen.

Not to shock any readers, but Leonard Cohen is Jewish (although now he's also a Buddhist as I understand it). Indeed, Cohen attended the Herzliyah High School in Montreal. I mention this as a prelude to Cohen's trip to Israel in October, 1973. Cohen, apparently coming off of a bad break-up, decided to clear his mind by coming to Israel as it was beginning what it thought was a battle for its life - the Yom Kippur War. Accounts differ, as Cohen himself writes that he arrived days before the war began on October 6 - Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, literally "the day of atonement" - while Israeli folkpop singer, Oshik Levi says that Cohen came on October 7, the second day of the war. In any case, Cohen intended to work on a kibbutz but was soon convinced by Levi that he could best contribute to the Israeli cause by performing for troops in the Sinai peninsula. Per Ira Nadel's bio of Cohen, these were his reasons:

When he arrived, [Cohen]told the press that he flew to Israel to entertain troops during the conflict and “to make my atonement." He added that in the past he sided with the Arabs in their demands that Israel return territory taken by it in the 1967 war, but now he supported the Jewish state.

Cohen accepted Levi's proposition and found himself sent to ad-hoc performances in the field of battle, not USO-type events far from the frontlines. From Levi's account of his time with Cohen:

During that period of time, that artists would just wander around and each was given a place to go to and you wouldn’t have a clue who is taking you where, only the officer that approaches you and says you have to come... .You would arrive to this hole in the darkness and you see 8 soldiers around a 175 mm cannon, and you are supposed to stand there and sing and entertain. In the middle of the song the officer would say: "hold on a second.” They would lift the cannon, charge it and shoot, and then you would go on with the performance , etc.… It was a terrible war and the sites were difficult to see.
Leonard Cohen proceeded with us for 3 months, day after day, 4-5 and sometimes 8 performances a day, and in every place we arrived at, he wanted to be drafted. At one time he wanted to be a paratrooper, at another time in the marines, and another time he wanted to be a pilot. We would sleep in sleeping bags on the floor because there was no room, and Leonard, who didn’t want to feel like a star, refused when I tried to arrange a place for him at the culture room.

Cohen's own account of his time as an IDF entertainer is a bit more cynical, and includes haunting stories such as this:

They [Cohen and the other Israeli musicians] were flown by helicopter across the Suez to a former Egyptian air base, where they performed in a concrete hangar. Cohen was startled to find there a leftover Egyptian calendar and a can of mashed potatoes that had a label which read, “A Gift from the People of Canada”. A helicopter arrived with wounded men, and Cohen began to weep as he stared at the bandaged soldiers. When someone told him that the troops were Egyptian, his relief disturbed him. But when an Israeli soldier gave him some Egyptian money found on a dead soldier, he could not take it and buried it in the sand.

During the course of his time as an IDF entertainer, Cohen wrote "Lover, Lover, Lover" which I'll leave you to interpret with the context in which it was written.

Suffice it to say that Israelis have a soft spot in their heart for Leonard Cohen. Cohen came back to perform in the country a number of times, including Tel Aviv as the last stop on his 2009 tour, a concert that had to be held in a stadium because of overflow problems. My own father, a Yom Kippur War veteran, loves Leonard Cohen, even if he was not in one of the lucky units that got to see Cohen perform for them in the middle of a cold, dark desert night. Indeed, it is the rare Israeli who doesn't know some snippet of "Hallelujah" or even "First We Take Manhattan" even if they can't speak English that well.

I leave you with a clip of Cohen performing for Israelis in 1973 in what I presume is not a military base, but rather some kind of civilian gig. Perhaps this was filmed after the major operations of the war ended in the end of October. Enjoy!

(In case people are wondering what the Israeli audience is chanting before Cohen starts singing, it's "Heveynu Shalom Aleichem," a traditional hymn that means "We bring peace to all of you.")

VIDEO: Raekwon - "Catalina"

2009-11-10T00:42:00.003-06:00

The video isn't really all that great, it's not the strongest cuts from Only Built 4 Cuban Linkz II, and the song should probably be called "Criminology II" (In fact, I think it was at one point), but as far as I'm concerned this is still worthwhile for all those who are 25 and older and yet still have held some small measure of hope for hiphop (sometimes I don't know why either mane) for two reasons.

1. Rae effectively designated this album the sequel to a previous classic work of his...and it totally lived up to the hype (unlike another NYC rapper who fucked this up...twice).

2. The beat is Dr. Dre doing his best RZA impression...and doing it pretty well. Maybe a non-shitty comeback is in the cards for him as well? Haha, just kidding...can you really comeback once you start making Dr. Pepper commercials?

video platform
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Johnny Cash - Holy Land edition

2009-11-06T17:47:00.004-06:00

For those who are true Johnny Cash obsessives, I found Cash's 1972 film production "The Gospel Road" about the life of Jesus, on YouTube, in its entirety. (This clip is Part I, but keep clicking at the suggested links and you'll find the rest).

Cash made the movie, I believe, with a lot of his own money. The production is still pretty cheap. I post it because it was filmed entirely in Israel and employs local sites. Sometimes this gets kinda absurd, particularly in the scene where Jesus preaches at Capernaum, which is a real archaelogical site with a 1st century synagogue. Unfortunately, Cash and co. took this very literally, and Jesus goes ahead and preaches at a ruin of a 1st century synagogue rather than what that synagogue would have looked like in his own time, aka an intact structure. It's a bit like making a movie about gladiators and filming it in the ruins of the Colosseum rather than a recreation of what the structure would have looked like in Roman times. Also, the wedding at Qana is portrayed as a Jewish Yemeni celebration replete with a rendition of Im Nin'alu which was written in the 19th century. Finally, the movie is populated by extras straight out of Israel circa 1973 - ridiculous sideburns galore. But beside that, great great music albeit heavy-handed religious messages. The film was circulated among churches in the U.S. and played for youth groups, from what I've read. This was the same year as both Godspell and Jesus Christ, Superstar so J.C. was having a good year, I'd say.

Oh, and Mary Magdalene, played by June Carter Cash. Enjoy!

(VIDEO) Future of the Left - "Arming Eritrea" Live

2009-10-29T23:53:00.003-06:00

Fuck. Yes. Chicago, brace yourself.

One More Bandwagon to Hop On!

2009-10-13T22:20:00.003-06:00

Great news! Oh, Sweet Nothing is now on Blip.fm. What does that mean? Well, from what I gather it's like twitter for music. So even when I'm too lazy to write up a post (and I can be one lazy ass dude), there'll be tunes that I'm into at the moment for you to check out! So sign up and become a listener of Oh, Sweet Nothing!

Queens of the Stone Age - Queens of the Stone Age

2009-10-13T21:34:00.004-06:00

As far as epiphanies go, "Man, I reeeally fucking love Queens of the Stone Age!" will probably not be the most profound declaration you hear this month...or probably today. But after listening to one of their albums everyday for almost a week, I came to this realization late last week. When I actually thought upon it, there's really no mystery why...I can't really think of any band around today that does such a great job toeing the line between the heavy and the melodic (especially their first three albums). I'm not saying anything earth-shattering...I know...and given that they regularly fill arenas these days, clearly there are tons of people out there that agree with me.

So why bother with a blog post? Well, in my opinion their best work is on their self-titled first album. And the album art absolutely KILLS. And it's out of print. And guess what I hate. Collector culture in music. Fuck paying some nerd $40 (about the going rate for this album) for an album that he's (it's definitely a dude) probably never going to listen to simply because it'd "ruin the value" or some stupid shit like that. The artist doesn't make shit off of that sale anyway. So here's the entire album free of charge. Enjoy.

Queens of the Stone Age - Queens of the Stone Age

Egyptian Treasures

2009-10-10T15:19:00.006-06:00

It's been awhile since I dropped in with a new post. This week there was a good reason for the delay as I spent a few days in Cairo - a short 8-hour drive from the southernmost point in Israel. On our long drive through the Sinai, my group was accompanied by a guide who shared with us his Ipod where I was exposed for the first time to the awesome music of Mohamed Mounir, an Egyptian pop musician from Aswan. Mounir is big enough that he has become a "World Music" star over the past decade. It's not these later recordings that interested me, however, but rather the stuff from the beginning of his career in the late 1970s. In fact, his first album from 1977, Alemouny Eikiny, has one of my new jamz, the title track itself. This is seriously hard funk with a great horn section. If you want to know more about my new favorite Nubian, here's a pretty thorough bio.

For now, here's that track - Alemouny Eikiny (Your Eyes Taught Me), which unfortunately cuts off at 2:11. (If anyone can link or send me a full version, I have no idea how to get this properly) (via Z-Share).

Any blog post about Egyptian music would be remiss if it failed to include a reference to the legendary Um Kulthum, the first lady of Egypt. When I was in the Cairo bazaar this week, I was fortunate enough to pick up an old 1960s songbook of her music (the above picture). Kulthum is the musician of Egypt and can still sell records even 34 years after her death. Her material is in the Egyptian classical vein, meaning long, long songs (sometimes an hour) and dramatic singing style with the backing of full orchestra, but it's really haunting and beautiful as well. Rather than attempt to post a single, I'll link to this decent bio (ignore the mildly NSFW belly-dancing stuff) and a blog-post from DJ/Rupture which has a live 1965 album you can stream.

VIDEO: Titus TV (Episode IV)

2009-10-08T00:49:00.003-06:00

Titus Andronicus' The Airing of Grievances has been one of my favorite rock albums of the past few years (yeah really...go buy it now). Accordingly, I had long been working on a post singing their praises. Unfortunately I was...occupied...all summer and the post ended up disappearing into the netherworld of blog "drafts". So posting this makes me feel a little bit better. Life on the road with one of the best up and coming bands we've got people, so enjoy. Oh and the bonus that called my attention to the video occurs around minute 13, when long time friend and a former radio co-host of mine shows up in the video to (drunkenly) sum up my feelings towards the band perfectly. Atta boy Marco. And go New Jersey.

VIDEO: A Place To Bury Strangers - "In Your Heart"

2009-09-19T17:45:00.000-06:00

First single from their upcoming album, Exploding Head, to be released in October on Mute. Pretty straightforward APTBS here, but it has me excited for the album to drop all the same.

Popcorn!

2009-09-19T13:43:00.005-06:00

So I am currently living in Israel for the next few months, and in honor of Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year - decided to post about the greatest Israeli cultural export. No, not Natalie Portman, I'm referring to Gershon Kingsley, a former Kibbutznik and electronic-music pioneer who is probably most famous for writing Popcorn. Kingsley was born in Weimar Germany in 1922 and immigrated to then-Palestine in 1938 where he learned piano and played jazz in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In 1946, he moved to L.A., studied at Cal Arts and then migrated to New York where he made a name for himself in musical theatre. In 1966, he undertook a series of albums, first with collaborator Jean-Jacques Perrey and then with his own quartet, in early electronic music. It's these albums that I want to shine a light on.

Kingsley and Perrey's first album - The In-Sound from Way Out - is decent, but I'm most partial to their third album which better incorporated The Moog (pictured above in an early incarnation) than their first two efforts - Music to Moog By.

Two stand-out tracks. First off, "Hey Hey" which was later sampled by RJD2 for "The Horror."

And then, because I can't resist - the original Popcorn. This predates the version later recorded by Hot Butter, a band Kingsley's quartet members would form in the early 1970s. I find this to be the superior version - a more sophisticated, if less dancy, arrangement.

UPDATE: Because I thought this was kinda cool, the composer himself, Gershon Kingsley, playing a very melodic and arguably moving rendition of Popcorn on his grand piano.

Shana Tova!

Peter, Paul, and ...

2009-09-17T01:52:00.004-06:00

Mary Travers (aka Mary of Peter, Paul and Mary) died today. I hate to make this blog seem like an obituary page, but this merits mention. The New York Times has a pretty good obit which doesn't shy from noting that Peter, Paul and Mary was a manufactured band, not unlike 'NSync as imagined by Lou Pearlman, but, um... they performed at the March on Washington!

Anyway, I have my own particular association with the group, as my little sister when she was 4-years-old had their kids' album "Peter, Paul & Mommy Too" and listened to it non-stop for over a year (I think it helped her go to sleep). At the time, I hated that tape, but today I get really excited when I hear "Pastures of Plenty" and "Somagwaza" - the former more entertainingly rendered than the Woody Guthrie original. Mary really comes through on that song, singing lead. May she rest in peace.

VIDEO: Health - "Die Slow"

2009-09-08T16:08:00.001-06:00

What's everyone's favorite kind of orgy? A blood orgy of course!

Wycliffe Johnson RIP

2009-09-06T11:14:00.002-06:00

Reggae legend Wycliffe Johnson has died. The New York Times has a decent synopsis of his major accomplishments which date from his time with Studio One to his membership in Roots Radics to his work in the 80s developing dancehall.

You can hear Johnson on this classic:

RIP

RIP Ellie Greenwich

2009-08-26T14:33:00.003-06:00

Singer-songwriter Ellie Greenwich has died (via Pitchfork). The Pitchfork link gets into it in greater detail, but Greenwich wrote some of the greatest songs of the Phil Spector Wall-of-Sound style, including "Be My Baby" and "River Deep Mountain High." Rest in Peace.

Surprising Foreign Language Covers by Original Artists

2009-08-15T07:23:00.015-06:00

I've been a fan of foreign-language cover versions of popular songs ever since I was young and I heard Frank Sinatra's English-language cover "My Way." See what I did there! The original was performed in French by Claude Francois and was titled "Comme D'habitude." Its lyrics dealt not with the Chairman of the Board's lack of regrets but rather with the sad life of a man who has a series of one-night stands but is otherwise lonely (or a failing love affair but is still lonely - the French is a little confusing on this point, apparently because of multiple re-writes). Fun Fact: Though this song was translated as "My Way" for Sinatra by Paul Anka, the translation job was originally offered to a young David Bowie who in 1973 partially based "Life on Mars" on its melody.

Anyway, I mostly just want to post links to foreign language covers of pop and a couple indie rock songs covered by the original artists. I don't want to tread through the history of this trend, but suffice it to say record companies from as early as the jazz era were aware of the fact that people in other countries wanted to hear songs in their own languages and thus was born the foreign language cover. Usually an enterprising musician in a particular country would hear a song in the original (often but not necessarily in English) and then cover it in his mother tongue, resulting in radio airplay. This trend was strengthened in the post-War era when national governments (particularly Continental European ones) felt they were being colonized by American popular culture and required that radio stations play a certain percentage of songs in the vernacular of the country. Really smart record companies realized they were losing revenue to competing cover artists - who in some cases completely failed to pay royalties - and convinced musicians to record in other languages particularly in countries where the musician had a strong fan base. Thus, for example, the Beatles' "Sie Liebt Dich" (She Loves You) and "Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand (I Want to Hold Your Hand). The trend was particularly strong in the 1960s among European artists. It was almost a guaranteed thing that French or Italian artists with a popular song would re-record it in the other language. France's Johnny Hallyday owes his entire early career to re-recordings of American pop music. Alright, enough exposition...

Links - in no particular order! (and I don't mean left in German):

David Bowie - Heroes (French)
David Bowie - Heroes (German)
David Bowie - Love You 'Til Tuesday (German)
David Bowie - Space Oddity (Italian)
David Bowie - Seven Years in Tibet (Mandarin) (Don't know the song, but hey, David Bowie singing in Mandarin - also he sings a song "Girls" in Japanese)

Blondie - Sunday Girl (French)
Blondie - Call Me (Spanish)

Toni Basil - Mickey (Spanish)

Bad Religion - Punk Rock Song (German)

They Might Be Giants - Number Three (Greek)

Sheena Easton - Telephone (Spanish)

Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend (Japanese) - This song is also available in French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Portuguese and Spanish versions but you can do your own damn research on YouTube! Japanese was just the most surprising in my opinion. The most strained versions are the ones in Mandarin and Portuguese. Also, if you think Pop Punk's ex-Princess was the only one in her genre to succomb to this trend, you're wrong.

Timbaland - The Way You Are (French) - Sadly, Timbaland's part isn't in French, just the hook. Also, a pretty hilarious bad-dub Polish version is out there. Guaranteed that's not Tim.

The Beach Boys - In My Room (German)
The Beach Boys - Kokomo (Spanish)

Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire (Spanish)
Johnny Cash - Walk the Line (German)

Dusty Springfield - I Only Want to Be With You (German)
Dusty Springfield - Wishing and Hoping (German) (Italian)

Leslie Gore - You Don't Own Me (French). Also available in Italian.

Petula Clark - Downtown (Italian) (I kind of prefer this version for some reason) Also, I Will Follow Him in Italian.

The Carpenters - Sing (Japanese)

Michael Jackson - Just Can't Stop Loving You (French). Also, Spanish.

Manowar - Father (Turkish and um... Bulgarian). Not surprising their music is bigger everywhere but the U.S. so this song and others are available in like 12 languages.

Eamon - Fuck It (I Don't Want You Back) (Italian)

Kraftwerk - Pocket Calculator (Italian and French)

Paul Anka - Diana (Italian)

Scorpions - Winds of Change (Russian, natch, but also Spanish - hey why not!)

Bon Jovi - Bed of Roses (Spanish)

Abba - Dancing Queen (Spanish). I won't bother linking to all the ABBA covers, they were masters of this art form, as arguably their entire first album was re-recorded into English from Swedish for mainstream success. They had no problem doing this for Spanish, French, and German versions later. Might I also recommend Fernando in perhaps more appropriate Spanish-language form.

Spice Girls - 2 Become 1 (Spanish). I expected a lot more from them since they were clearly manufactured for maximum international cross-over appeal, but whatever.

America - Sister Golden Hair (Spanish). The video makes it seem fake, but here's proof it's real!

Christina Aguilera - What a Girl Wants (Spanish)

'N Sync - Gone (Spanish)

Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive (Spanish). Again, don't believe me? Here.

Beyonce - If I Were a Boy (Spanish)

The Police - De Do Do Do (Spanish) Oh, and in Japanese!

Beck - Jackass (Spanish and in a more Mariachi style)

Any interesting versions I'm missing? Allow me to re-iterate the rules here. These are covers in other languages by the original artist, not by cover artists from other countries. This German language cover of The Whisper Song, sadly, does not count, but this official German remix of Akon's Locked Up does.

Oh and...

2009-08-09T15:49:00.002-06:00

You can listen to the entire upcoming No Age EP here...so good.

Post-Punk Protest

2009-08-09T14:52:00.007-06:00

Good to be blog-talking at you all again! Recently, or rather two weeks ago, I was talking with Rob about my next post and how I had recently been thinking about the dearth of anti-war protest songs in the United States over the past eight years particularly when compared with the glut available for consumption here during the Vietnam era. This also got me thinking about another forgotten era of anti-war protest music - early 80s English post-punk.

I know that this era is usually not associated with anti-war music which tends to conjure up images of the Woodstock generation singing along to Country Joe McDonald & the Fish. Certainly UK post-punk, like punk before it, is protest music in the sense that it was created by disaffected youths - including many art students - angry at the election of a conservative government under Margaret Thatcher and the concurrent closing of factories and mines which had been the key to England's prosperity for generations. This period, however, was also marked by increased militarization, culminating in the Falklands War in 1982.

Not to go into it too much, but essentially the war began when Argentina's then-ruling junta at the absolute nadir of its popularity decided to reclaim the Malvinas Islands - known by everyone else in the world as the Falklands, a chain of islands off of Argentina's South Atlantic coast held by the UK since the early 19th century. The junta's leaders briefly succeeded, enjoying their greatest popularity since the state of emergency that facilitated their rule was declared in 1976. Almost instantly, however, the English government fought back and in a 10-weeks war in which 649 Argentinean and 255 Britons lost their lives, succeeded in retaking the Falklands.

Though the war was short, its influence on post-punk - or whatever you want to call the evolution of punk music at this time - was long-lasting. The Clash, which had already put out a more obvious anti-militarization/anti-war song, The Call Up, in 1980, responded by altering a line in "Career Opportunities" in a 1982 live performance to "I don't wanna die, fighting in the Falkland Strait." After the war ended, however, some of the more reflective songs dealt with it a a war of choice entered into as a cynical deflection by Thatcher from a moribund economy in an election year. To that end, Billy Bragg did a decent song from the perspective of a disenchanted soldier. But my favorite song from this era is Shipbuilding. The Robert Wyatt version was more popular, but for my money, it's all about Elvis Costello's. Costello, who wrote the song, is to some extent rehashing his main point from Oliver's Army, that the poorer English cities and their denizens were cannon fodder for the army. Shipbuilding discusses the cruel irony that the cities that benefited most from the new military spending on warships were also those that sent many of their own to fight and die in the war.

Another post-punk protest point, Gang of Four's I Love a Man in Uniform was banned from radio airplay by the BBC during the Falklands War just as it was getting popular. The song, a tongue-in-cheek criticism of the military, didn't gel with Auntie Beeb apparently.

Anyway, just a couple alternatives to Bob Dylan's Masters of War which is still, for my money, the best anti-war song out there.

VIDEO: Wavves @ Pitchfork Music Festival - "Nervous Breakdown"

2009-08-09T14:39:00.003-06:00

Ah, here we are...sound quality isn't the best, but it'll do for now.

VIDEO: Lindstrom Live @ Pitchfork Music Festival

2009-08-09T14:05:00.003-06:00

It's been pretty decently documented that I ride Lindstrom pretty hard (fishsticks), but that's not the primary reason for throwing this video up. Witness Oh Sweet Nothing's Rob in his 4 seconds of fame (3:40something). Oh, and he kills this set.

Oh, and side note...was it just me or were all the best sets at Pitchfork this year done by DJs (/rupture, TVB, Lindstrom...)? Although Wavves covering Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown" was pretty fucking funny/rad...too bad the crowd didn't quite catch it. Good shit fellas. I'll post up video of it when I come across it.

Nervous Breakdown - Black Flag

The Bug - Pressure

2009-08-03T12:16:00.003-06:00

I've been meaning to write a little something about this album for quite a while, so what the hell now is as good a time as any. Considering there is somewhat of a foil that has gripped everyone's attention this summer, even better. And that foil would be? The excellent Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do. Oh, what's this? An opportunity to put my two cents in on an album two months too late!? I oblige!

I feel as though both of these albums are opposing examples of the great places experimental dancehall can take us. Two sides of the same coin if you will. The Major Lazer super project is essentially a dancehall album with high end (I'm thinking house, rave, techno) electronic production values. I don't know how that sounds to you in print, but it works, and it works goddamn well. Several cuts on this album are going to be in any self-respecting dance party DJ's arsenal for some time to come (if there's any justice, that is. In reality, we'll probably hear it for about 3 more months before someone "dusts it off" next summer as a "throwback jam". Just a hunch).

When You Hear the Bassline (Fe...

On the other hand, when Kevin Martin's Pressure came out in 2003, I highly doubt was ever in a DJ's party arsenal to begin with. Not that I think it was ever designed to be. This is a cold, angry, abrasive take on dancehall…and at moments even borders on the industrial. I truly haven't heard anything like it before or since listening to pressure, not even the also-excellent London Zoo. Apparently, some established dancehall veterans hadn't either, and it pissed them off (a really good read). I recall reading somewhere that escapes me at the moment that Martin's goal when he created music as The Bug was to get across all the gritty/fucked up and yet simultaneously beautiful shit that really makes up cities (in his case, London)…and I think he's dead on with it. While Guns Don't Kill People… are the clubs, festivals, and cookouts in summertime Chicago, Pressure is the rail yards, empty Westside lots, and industrial districts during the middle of a Chicago winter. I'll take em both, thank you.

Politicians & Paedophiles (Ft....

Beats, Bombs, Bass, Weapons (F...

VIDEO: Major Lazer - "Pon De Floor"

2009-08-03T11:05:00.002-06:00

...aaaannnnnnd we're back. Let's start things off with some "colonization pop" (not my word, credit where credit is due Mr. Reiff). Banittles.

VIDEO: Obits - "Pine On"

2009-07-22T23:26:00.001-06:00

Hang in there readers...Lord knows Zig and I are. The light is starting to appear at the end of the tunnel. In the meantime....

The Game - "I'm So Wavy"

2009-07-14T13:45:00.003-06:00

Damn, true to form, The Game is firing maaaad shots here...Jay-Z being the main target. This shit is surprising to me for many reasons. First, I've obviously not been paying very close attention to the hiphop landscape lately...because I didn't see this one coming at all. Anyone want to fill me in on the story behind this track? Or is The Game just doing what he does well...talk shit? Secondly, I forget that every now and then dude can actually rap...and rap well at that...because I hate to admit it, but I'm feeling this shit way more than "D.O.A." Hah.

On popular song, Italian style

2009-07-12T20:57:00.006-06:00

I've been thinking recently about how we are exposed to the sound of the moment, the new "ish" so to speak. Word of mouth is always a reliable stand-by, as is what the radio tells us to like, and - of more recent vintage - the incidental music that plays in an Apple ad/movie trailer. But what if your popular music was delivered to you in the form of a yearly festival?

As should be obvious to a regular reader of this blog, I tend towards liking older music, particularly that made in the 1960s and 70s. I'm especially interested in the music made in this era that originated from outside the United States, especially (for reasons likely due to limited exposure) music made in Europe and South America. Whenever I go on a YouTube binge of the music from this time and place, I'm struck by how it seems always to be performed as part of a music festival with a live orchestra before a very polite audience (OK, the Brazilian audiences at the Festival de Música Popular Brasileira were not as staid but definitely appreciative!) In Europe, the proliferation of these festivals was due to the creation of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, a festival/contest which spawned worldwide imitators and necessitated developing some kind of method for choosing a national entry for member countries. (Fun Find: the earliest recordings of ABBA as a group come from these festivals, as this clip - sound only - from Sweden's Melodifestivalen, the qualifier for Eurovision, demonstrates). But even Eurovision wouldn't have been created but for the Sanremo Music Festival.

Begun in 1951 in an Italy still rebuilding itself after World War II, the San Remo Festival grew to become arguably the most important of these song festivals in the 1960s, introducing acts that would become huge European pop stars. Recordings of the artists, some of whom were not Italian though they had to sing in Italian (i.e. Roberto Carlos from Brazil who won in 1968) sold internationally. I know this as I recovered my parents' old San Remo records a few years back in my grandmother's attic in Tel Aviv! More interestingly, from 1956 to 1971, the songs selected for the San Remo Festival would be sung by the artist in competition, and then again, as an encore by a global superstar. Thus, you can see performances of Italian pop songs, sung in Italian, by the likes of Wilson Pickett, Eartha Kitt, The Cowsills, Shirley Bassey, Bobbie Gentry, Paul Anka, Louis Armstrong, and one of my personal favorites, Stevie Wonder:

Most of the songs introduced at San Remo (or Sanremo as it's rendered for the festival) are largely unknown in the United States with the possible exception of Volare, first performed there, then placing 3rd in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 and still later turned into a hit by Dean Martin. But here are two of my personal favorites. First, Cuore Matto, a rocking tune with some solid bass done by Little Tony which was a competitor in 1967:

Next, Ma Che Freddo Fa, from 1969, by a 16-year-old named Nada, who would later be way bigger in Italy and Europe generally:

The idea that an annual song festival would basically set the pop music landscape fascinates me. What would have happened - or what would happen NOW - if America took to this distribution method? It has something to recommend it. For one, some of the artists in these festivals came out of nowhere and hadn't even been signed to recording contracts (although a more common path was for an established national artist to release their new single through these festivals). Also, it would basically end the annual debate over what was the summer jam that year, since you'd have already voted for it in May. On the other hand, this kind of state centralization of music can lead to the creation of absolute garbage. And let's not get into the comparison to American Idol, which is actually what modern Eurovision song competitors have tended towards in recent years, Lordi notwithstanding

Sanremo is still hugely important in Italy for introducing new music but is significantly less influential throughout Europe as Italy has bowed out of Eurovision for the past couple of years, and generally failed to produce quality pop music (The Crookers excepted). Still, imagine a competition where Souljah Boy and Lady Gaga donned formalwear and performed with a full orchestra for your vote. Fuck American Idol, more of that.

Syreeta and Stevie

2009-07-07T22:51:00.005-06:00

Today, I (like many) watched the Michael Jackson memorial service. I have to say that I found the memorial, for the most part, to be a tasteful and moving affair. In particular, I was blown away by Michael's daughter and the performances by Usher (who as a friend noted lost the person who most directly influenced his career) and Stevie Wonder. For his tribute to MJ, Stevie started by playing the strains to "Can't Help It," a song he wrote and Michael performed on "Off the Wall." Then, however, he switched gears and played "I Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer" and "They Won't Go When I Go." Check it out, it's powerful:

At this point, I should note that I'm musically obsessed with Stevie Wonder. I have all of his 1970s albums and at one point, sought out songs he wrote for other people. I was planning on writing about my favorite Stevie protégé, his ex-wife, Syreeta, when I saw that performance. That cinched it.

"I Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer," off of Where I'm Coming From was recorded in 1970 when Stevie Wonder was still 20 years old. At that time, he had just married a fellow Motown singer and former secretary for the label, Rita Wright, who performed under the name Syreeta. The relationship extended beyond the romantic as the two collaborated on a number of songs including the aforementioned album, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)" and "If You Really Love Me." I don't know if the melancholy "Never Dreamed..." presaged some marital difficulties or what, but within a year and a half the two divorced. In that time, Stevie produced and wrote most of Syreeta's self-titled debut album which feature the totally amazing "Black Maybe" and "To Know You is To Love You," the latter actually featuring Stevie Wonder on vocals.

According to a Rolling Stone interview Wonder gave a couple of years later, the divorce was amicable - I mean they were both REALLY young - and the two stayed close. It must have been amicable as Syreeta's sister Yvonne actually worked with Stevie the next year, writing the lyrics to "They Won't Go When I Go" from Fulfillingness' First Finale. Then in 1974, Stevie produced Syreeta's follow-up, appropriately titled Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta. This comes from my favorite Stevie period, right before Songs in the Key of Life, and Stevie himself said in that Rolling Stone interview that this music was light years ahead of his own prior work (which includes Talking Book). The minor hit was "Your Kiss is Sweet" which I think is a little corny, but the one that does it for me is "Heavy Day" a song about the couple's divorce:

Syreeta - Heavy Day (Zshare)

A few years after that, Stevie wrote "Harmour Love" with Syreeta, a little saccharine, but the chorus with Wonder singing, is kinda great:

Apart from the musical influence, it's worth mentioning that Syreeta was with Stevie during what was arguably his most important years of musical development, a period where he became his own producer and arranger, one unparalleled in popular music to this day in my opinion. She was also four years older than Stevie and I'm guessing that their collaboration - it's my understanding from this obit that Syreeta primarily was a lyricist (yes Syreeta died of cancer in 2004) - bolstered Wonder's confidence as he came into his own as a musician no longer beholden to the Motown songwriting and producing machine. I feel kind of bad (and sexist) writing an entire post praising Syreeta only insofar as she aided her husband and then ex-husband's career, so I'll close by noting that Syreeta actually scored her biggest hit in late 1979 on her own with "With You I'm Born Again." I hate it but Stevie Wonder had nothing to do with this one!

VIDEO: Fever Ray - "Triangle Walks"

2009-07-07T01:11:00.003-06:00

Yeah it's been awhile, but we're not gone...just a busy little patch of summer. More to come real soon like. In the meantime, check out what is probably my favorite music video to be released so far this year.

Triangle Walks from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

MJ's inner life

2009-06-29T22:08:00.003-06:00

I don't mean for the title of this post to sound melodramatic, but in honor of MJ I, like many others, listened to a lot of old Michael this past weekend. A few years back I bought a special-edition of Off The Wall (my personal favorite MJ record). Along with being re-jiggered or whatever, this version contains several additional commentary tracks from Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton (of Heatwave fame) who co-wrote and co-produced much of this album (including the AWESOME title single and Rock With You). So I gave this album a listen again this weekend and it's still solid. This time, however, I noticed something different.

Besides the fantastic singles, and even a couple of "deep" tracks from this album, I've always found "She's Out of My Life" to be a particularly interesting song in the MJ pantheon. All the more unique in light of the commentary I heard this week about how despite being the biggest pop star in the world for over a decade, no one knew the real Michael Jackson. This idea that MJ was a cypher is plausible to me, because I honestly can't recall any time during my life when I thought I could understand what Michael was thinking. But then there's "She's Out of My Life."

In one of the interviews, Jones says that songwriter Tom Bahler wrote the song three years prior about his break-up with Karen Carpenter but that it hadn't been released and Jones was waiting for the right person to sing it. In studio, Jackson and Jones tried it between eight and eleven times, and each time at the very end of the song, Michael's voice would crack at the emotional coda. Well, I'll let Q lay it down for y'all:

"And, - he cried at the end of every take, you know. We recorded about, I don't know, 8-11 takes, and everyone, at the end he just cried, and I said 'hey - that's supposed to be, leave it on there."

Although the song doesn't get me like "Never Can Say Goodbye," (one of the most arresting songs about heartache performed by a 13 year old - I'm not alone) nor make me smile like "Human Nature", "She's Out of My Life" is definitely one of those songs that forces me to tell people to shut up while it's playing. Besides being beautiful, more than anything, I consider this song to be a mystery. With a career filled with great dance and maudlin political songs, this is the only time I thought I got a sense of a complex person. I guess we'll never really know now, but who was Michael crying for at the end of this song?

Lazy Sunday Links

2009-06-28T04:31:00.000-06:00

A moving tribute to Michael Jac...oh wait no, business as usual. [Cnet]

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

2009-06-26T15:58:00.001-06:00

Whoa, so that happened.

Future of The Left – Travels With Myself and Another

2009-06-25T06:53:00.000-06:00

Hmm, so what we have here is what I'd like to imagine the non-existent third McLusky album would probably have sounded like. Whereas songs that didn't blister straight through for 3 minutes on The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire and even Curses! seemed like novelties (gimmick isn't the right word…that would imply that they weren't rad), Future of the Left fucking nailed it on Travels With Myself and Another. They can still pummel and berate you 2-3 minutes of your life like none other, and there's plenty of that on this album, but then there's tracks like the first single (do these guys "do" singles? Probably not…but there's a video for the song…so close enough) "The Hope that House Built", where they slow things down with equally impressive results. There's even a track that seems oddly bouncy and poppy for anything coming out of the McLusky/Future of the Left lineage, and it works…well.

A few years ago, I wrote in this blog something along the lines that McLusky (I realize that it's kinda shitty to mention the former band just as often as the band I'm writing about...but the comparisons are abnormally appropriate here) would be forgotten until about 10 years later, where someone would "discover" them and they'd get their proper due...you know deluxe reissues and all that shit. Well, I'm happy to say that I think I was way off with that declaration. Travels With Myself and Another is pretty much a fully realized blueprint initially laid out by McLusky, and it's just too damn good for these dudes to go under everyone's radar again. Right?

Arming Eritrea - Future Of The...

PS - They're playing Schuba's on July 21^st…don't be an idiot and miss this.

VIDEO: These Are Powers - "Easy Answers"

2009-06-22T05:59:00.000-06:00

Long live the weird.

Lazy Sunday Links

2009-06-21T06:53:00.000-06:00

Uh, WHOA!! [Pitchfork]

The Field/The Juan Maclean @ Double Door

2009-06-19T14:23:00.006-06:00

I had the good fortune of a friend checking out The Juan Maclean and The Field play at the Double Door a few days ago. A bit of luck definitely played a part in me catching this show, as I had no idea either band was in town until the night before the show, when a friend asked me to check out the show with them. Given my previously mentioned appreciation of The Juan Maclean, I was already excited for the show…then I found out the day of the show that The Field was on the bill as well, and it became "can't miss" status. His abbreviated set during the Pitchfork Music Festival a few years back was one of the highlights of the entire festival in my opinion, and anyone who's followed this blog for any period of time can probably judge my level of fandom by the constant posts. On top of all of this, I'd yet to go to the Double Door once in the years I've lived in Chicago, which is a goddamn shame quite frankly. So yeah, no excuses…I basically had to go, right? Here's a summation of my thoughts of the night.

The Field

Considering that The Field's presence on the bill was what ultimately sold me on the night, it goes without saying that coming in my expectations were pretty high. By the end of his set, I was more than satisfied with their set, but not in the manner I initially expected to be wowed. In hindsight, it makes sense. I had first seen The Field at a summer music festival, and accordingly, he played a very 4/4, breezy, accessible, set made for dancing. This time, the set up was as an opening act in a rock club with some live instrumentation accompanying Axel Willner on stage. The situation was much more conducive to experimentation, and the result was indeed a more varied, experimental set from Axel...one better suited to head-nodding outright dancing. As I stated earlier, not what I was expecting…but is that such a bad thing? I was more than okay with it, and given that one of the complaints levied against The Field is the lack of versatility in the sound (bullshit in my opinion), I loved his desire to branch out even more. Good stuff, but feel free to play at Smart Bar and get us all moving anytime you feel sir.

The More That I Do - The Field

The Juan Maclean

Boy, if there ever was an example of quality pounding the shit out of quantity it was this set. Relying on my feeble memory, I don't think The Juan Maclean played more than 8 songs last night…but they nailed EVERY SINGLE ONE (save for a minor hiccup at the beginning of "Give Me Every Little Thing"). Like labelmates LCD Soundsystem, The Juan Maclean happens to be one of those electronic dance bands whose sound translates really, really well as a live band. Easily the high point of the night was the three-song climax of "Give Me Every Little Thing" into "One Day" into an absolutely epic version of "Happy House" that lasted at least 20 minutes and turned the audience in front of them into an impromptu nightclub dancefloor. If video of this event appears (they were filming the set), please believe it'll be thrown up on Oh, Sweet Nothing. It was something that had to be experienced to believe, but seeing it will probably be pretty rad too.

So yeah, nothing too deep here…I expected a great show, I got a great show. Possibly my favorite consequence of attending is that I finally have an excuse to post "Happy House" for your listening pleasure. How was this so slept on last year??

The Juan Maclean - "Happy House" (zShare)

R.I.P. Bob Bogle

2009-06-17T16:38:00.002-06:00

Bob Bogle of the awesome surf-rock group, the Ventures, died yesterday. Sad day.

VIDEO: Micachu & The Shapes - "Golden Phone"

2009-06-17T13:08:00.001-06:00

Yup, still jockin' em.

Woo-Ha!

2009-06-15T22:58:00.006-06:00

I've been obsessed with Galt MacDermot for a number of years now. MacDermot is probably most well-known for composing the music for 60s phenomenon Hair and scoring the much-sampled Cotton Comes to Harlem. In recent years, hip-hop sampling of MacDermot's music lead to a resurgent interest in his career, even prompting rapper (and Madlib brother) Oh No to put out a mediocre album consisting entirely of MacDermot samples. If you know Busta Rhymes' breakout single "Woo-Ha! (Got You All in Check)," then you know MacDermot's "Space" from his soundtrack to Woman Is Sweeter, a 1969 French film so underseen that the only thing I could figure out about it from IMDB was that the late Yves St. Laurent played himself in it. Similarly, if you heard Handsome Boy Modeling School's "The Truth," then you have also heard MacDermot's "Coffee Cold." Apparently, this close relationship between MacDermot and hip-hop is no accident. According to his website, MacDermot fielded calls from V.I.C. of The Beatnuts in the early 90s requesting clean copies of his out-of-print records, which then lead to a "mutually beneficial relationship" in which MacDermot's old records got new life and were distributed to NY collectors and distributors. Because MacDermot owned and operated his own label, Kilmarnock Records, from the 1960s on, he was free to re-release these records as he pleased. Lesson: own those master recordings!

All this is to say, here's some other MacDermot songs I really like. First, "Cleaning Me With Fire," a song off of Take This Bread: a Mass in Our Time, which as you might have been able to guess is a 1973 "funky" take on the Catholic Mass. This song is just really catchy in my opinion, and the vocals sound prêt-a-Kanye. In case you were wondering who's singing the chorus on this, well surprise, it's Nell Carter. Yes, that Nell Carter, from 80s sitcom Gimme a Break. Also, the woman with the deeper voice is Canada's First Lady of Blues Salome Bey (who also does this awesome Gospel song from a Broadway musical).

The second tune is definitely no party-starter but rather more beautifully haunting. "Anne-Marie" is a track off of Fergus MacRoy's At the Homestead Upright. Fergus MacRoy, an alter-ego for MacDermot himself, sounds like Hank Williams country but more sentimental. The whole number is poignant and eerie, all the more so because the re-issue version put out by Kilmarnock comes with the scratches from the record on it. I guess when you own some of the only copies of your recordings, even your re-masters may suffer from defects. Alternate theory: MacDermot intentionally recorded the song this way to give it an old-timey feel.

Galt MacDermot - Cleaning Me With Fire

Galt MacDermot - Anne-Marie

VIDEO: Camera Obscura - "Honey In The Sun"

2009-06-15T13:51:00.002-06:00

Have I mentioned how good this album is??

Lazy Sunday Links

2009-06-14T05:18:00.002-06:00

A not so happy birthday for Island. Truth hurts. [Guardian]

Summer Jamz!

2009-06-12T13:56:00.005-06:00

For those of you in Chicago, I'm crossing my fingers that today's weather marks a more permanent seasonal change towards summer warmth. And what better way to mark this momentous occasion than with Summer Jamz!

I've been picking up some Brazilian music recently, expanding my knowledge beyond Bossa Nova and Tropicalia. I've returned to two songs in particular so I thought I'd share them with you as they are currently screaming SUMMER to me for one reason or another. (And no, it's not because Brazil screams summer to me, although I must admit the beach scene pictured above makes me wish I was there).

First up, Roberto Carlos's "O Calhambeque." Carlos, not to be mistaken with the Brazilian soccer player who shares his name, is basically Brazilian Elvis. He came on the scene in the early 1960s with a slew of hits that marked the style known as Jovem Guarda (Young Guard). In fact, his best album from this era is entitled Jovem Guarda and sounds like a cross between the fuzz of English garage bands of the time and American rock-a-billy (including a cover of Dion's "The Wanderer") peppered with Brazilian beats recognizable to Bossa Nova fans. I've only heard his 1960s work, which got psychedelic by decade's end, but Carlos never stopped recording although his style changed in the 1970s and 80s to keep up with contemporary tastes.

The song I really dig, "O Calhambeque" is a tongue-in-cheek ode to a jalopy (Calhambeque). Based on my shitty Babelfish translation of the lyrics I gathered that the singer takes his Cadillac into the mechanic and is offered a jalopy in exchange while the repairs are being made. While initially despondent over such an inferior replacement, he soon finds that girls (or perhaps it's just one girl) want to ride in this outdated hoopty and grows to love the Calhambeque enough that he keeps it over the Cadillac!

Second, Sergio Mendes' "The Real Thing." Most people know Sergio Mendes from his late '60s covers of popular song in a Bossa Nova fashion, particularly the Look of Love (although you can't hate on his Mas Que Nada sans Black Eyed Peas, though I prefer that of the Tamba Trio). His career kind of stalled in the US in the early 1970s, but it picked up a bit with "The Real Thing," a funky number written for him by Stevie Wonder. Released in 1975 with his new group, Brasil '77 (incongruous I know), this isn't really Brazilian music, but whatever. I like to think Stevie traded "The Real Thing" for "Bird of Beauty," his own take on Brazilian musical themes sung partially in Portuguese translated for Stevie by Sergio Mendes himself. Anyway, enjoy!

Roberto Carlos - O Calhambeque (live on Portuguese television)

Sérgio Mendes - The Real Thing

Swamp Dogg

2009-06-11T10:50:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, I discussed the father of the auto-tune Roger Troutman. Today, I bring you another pioneer of sorts, the father of spelling Dog with two Gs (come to think of it, not all that different from Zapp and Big Robb) – Swamp Dogg. Snoop Doggy Dogg, Nate Dogg, the Dogg Pound, they all stole this misspelling from him, but that's about it as much as they took as far as I can tell.

I first came across Swamp Dogg's work in the bargain bin at my local Hyde Park Records. I picked up I'm Not Selling Out/ I'm Buying In for its ridiculous cover. I didn't much care for the music then, but if memory serves, I found much more of his music to like on Napster in those halcyon days of 2000. Swamp Dogg, whose real name is Jerry Williams, Jr., was an itinerant producer and song-writer for, among other labels, Atlantic Records, before striking out on his own in 1969. Beginning with 1970's Total Destruction to Your Mind – the high-point of his career as far as I'm concerned – Swamp Dogg melded soul, blues, and strangely, country, with political messages and sex jokes. To prove this point, I present the two best cuts from that record. First off, Synthetic World, a track about the artificiality of urban consumer culture. Then, Mama's Baby, Daddy's Maybe, whose title says it all - hilariously I might add - over a killer blues backing.

Swamp Dogg was probably too weird for the radio programmers of his era and from the interviews I've read and the liner notes to his albums, far too outspoken for mainstream success. As an example, witness the cover to his next album (on Elektra Records!), Rat On. Still, Swamp Dogg can claim success. He recorded all his albums on his own dime, kept the masters for himself, and then shopped them around to different labels. In that regard he was an early independent musician. However, since most of these labels have since collapsed, his records are really hard to find (I bought Total Destruction to Your Mind and Rat On as part of a double-album re-issue put out by a UK import label). Apart from these accomplishments, on the career highlights section of his website, Swamp Dogg boasts that he was the first to convince Lionel Ritchie to sing (so indirectly he's responsible for Nicole Ritchie's "fame") and to have "assembled" Kru-Cut Records, which put out the World Class Wreckin' Cru featuring a fetal Dr. Dre.

Swamp Dogg - Synthetic World

Swamp Dogg - Mama's Baby, Daddy's Maybe

B.O.A.: Birth of Auto-tune or a Robotic Snake Acronym

2009-06-10T14:40:00.003-06:00

Picking up on Rob's post (yes I'm aware of how déclassé it is to have a derivative first post but whatever), I note that Rob neglected to mention the most influential auto-tune musician, Roger Troutman. I dare not call him an auto-tune user as Troutman, of Zapp & Roger fame, employed the talk box or voice box/vocorder. Troutman is arguably the godfather of modern hip-hop's use of this effect given how often he's been shouted out for it or been sampled by hip-hop artists (see this Wikipedia entry for the number of references starting with EPMD sampling him in 1988 through to the full-on homage that is Snoop's Sexual Eruption video). He wasn't totally unsung in his lifetime (tragically cut short a few years before auto-tune went mainstream), as he collaborated with Dr. Dre and 2Pac on California Love, which Dre basically rode as a beat with little alteration. That same year he put out a greatest hits record to capitalize on the G-funk era's use of his work.

There was an article in Slate a couple years back trying to explain why T-Pain and auto-tune effects had become so popular so quickly – their answer: novelty and a new-found comfort with technology thanks to Web 2.0. I don't quite buy that, since it makes no sense and implies that we're slowly becoming cyborgs or at least cyborg-sympathizers. Far more credible to me is the notion put forward in a different Slate article around the time of Rick James' death. In that article, Tony Green suggests that Zapp was part of a group of black R & B artists that came too late to the funk/disco party of the late 70s (though it's worth noting that Zapp was a member of P-Funk during that era) and too early for G-funk and hip-hop's mainstream success in the 90s. This, Green posits, is because MTV and the other mainstream tastemakers of the era did not play R & B or most any music made by black artists until the mid-1980s when this sound had already come and gone. DJ Major Taylor has a similar theory and dubs this early-80s genre – which mixes funk and new-wave synth – Blacktro (Blaktro? Blaqtro?). Quick Blacktro short-list: Zapp, Cameo, Prince and his progeny from that period, The Gap Band. So under this theory, America has ALWAYS loved auto-tune it just didn't know it yet.

I leave you with THE classic Zapp track – Computer Love followed by the original California Love which features some dated-sounding rap. The first verse is by Bigg Robb who is still holding it down having just released a new album entitled 8 Tracks and 45's which features abundant talk-box! (Rob, I think it's time you start adding redundant letters to your name or officially adopt the moniker Young Robb.)

Computer Love:

California Love

VIDEO: Buddyhead vs. Murs

2009-06-10T09:56:00.002-06:00

Funny interview with Murs, where he actually runs the show instead of Buddyhead's correspondent. That's saying something.

I WILL FUCK YOU UP: BUDDYHEAD VS MURS from Buddyhead on Vimeo.

My "D.O.A." Commentary

2009-06-10T05:27:00.003-06:00

So for the last three people on the internet yet to hear about this, a new Jay-Z track was "leaked" late last week. Entitled "D.O.A. (Death Of Autotune...get it??)", it's been hailed as the official nail in the coffin of "pop's tackiest trend" in some corners of the internets. Well, here's my deal...first of all, the song is pretty good. Okay, got that out of the way...now here's what I really want to get at. I don't understand why this shit made made the entire internet lose its collective mind. The beat is dope, but it's far from Jay at his lyrical best, and is autotune really so bad?? Pop's tackiest trend? Ever? Ever?? Ever??? Needless to say, I beg to differ.

I mean...I get it...the whole autotune thing can be annoying, but when done right, the shit is entertaining (Snoop's "Sexual Eruption" anyone? You're gonna tell me you heard that and didn't start laughing/nodding your head? You're a liar.) and I really don't see too large of a leap between Kanye using autotune and Peter Frampton/Cameo/Chromeo using a vocoder or talkbox or what have you. It's not like any of the aforementioned artists are trying to make you believe that's their real voice, right? I have the constant suspicion that far more egregious voice processing occurs everytime a new megapopstar churns out another #1 hit for the radio.

So yeah, in summary, "D.O.A" is pretty good song and actually has me looking forward to a Jay-Z album for the first time since Bluprint 2 (boy did that turn out well), but we could all afford to get off our high horses on autotune. Oh, and unless I'm mistaken, didn't Kanye West co-produce the track? So I don't even think Jay is as serious about it as some music pundits would have us believe.

New Oneida Album!! Rated "O"

2009-06-09T12:24:00.002-06:00

Whoa, if it weren't for the always excellent 20JazzFunkGreats, I would have slept on the fact that Oneida have a new album coming out. It's going to be called Rated "O" and it will surely kick ass....oh and it will be a FUCKING TRIPLE ALBUM!! Banittles. Judging by the track "The River", it sounds as if they've taken a turn towards darker acid-fried psychedelia...like a streamlined Comets on Fire. Or it could be that I've been saying everything sounds like Comets on Fire lately. Make the call yourself, check it out here.

VIDEO: Mika Miko - "I Got A Lot (New New New)"

2009-06-08T06:00:00.001-06:00

Part of me flat out doesn't like this band and doesn't get the appeal. Another part of me is totally eating this shit up. I think this video sums up both sides of my feelings completely. Check it.

Halftime Report...The Dark Horses

2009-06-04T06:13:00.001-06:00

So the past couple of years, I've done a mid-year checkup on what my favorite albums of the year thus far are. This year, I'm instead of an outright list, I've decided to highlight some albums I've really dug this year that seemed to have flown somewhat under the radar. Bands like Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, and Wavves are considered underground to the general public…I think those of us who scour blogs tend to forget this reality from time to time…but have all the aforementioned bands have garnered a mass of opinions from the (ugh…here it is…) blogosphere, so I'm talking primarily about albums that have even escaped said buzz. Think I missed an album, or is there an album that you're specifically loving?? Preach your gospel in the comments!!

Mi Ami – Watersports

I ask the collective internet music community: Are we really going to fall asleep on this album/band?? I mean, I guess one could argue that Mi Ami should be used to being underappreciated, considering the band was born out of the remains of the also criminally underrated Black Eyes. Anyway, I'm not really saying much about this album because I declared it my favorite album of the year a few months back. I stand by that statement today.

Crocodiles – Summer of Hate

These dudes got their fair share of publicity during the run-up to the release of Summer of Hate, but I feel like all that momentum was stopped dead by a certain review from Pitchfork
a certain site that will remain unnamed on this blog. Not that a bad review particularly enrages me, and I'm still quite the admirer of said site (and the festival), but man…dude reviewing went a step beyond "I don't like this" and ventured into the land of plagiarism accusations. Summer of hate indeed (sorry, couldn't help myself). Especially considering that same standard doesn't seem to apply to a few other bands that are darlings of the site. (Example? Sure: Jesus and Mary Chain's "The Living End" + Female Vocals = 8.5. Yeah, for real…I'm talking track five, "Tell the World" if I remember correctly.)

Anyway, my friends over at Creamteam.tv had a short n' sweet summation of Summer of Hate…and I'll just add my piece by saying this: It's the best pop album that Suicide/Spacemen 3/Jesus and Mary Chain supergroup (I believe their name was In My Wettest of Dreams if I'm not mistaken) never made.

I Wanna Kill - Crocodiles

Pontiak – Maker

I'm trying to fight the urge to make southern rock comparisons when listening to Maker, because if I didn't know Pontiak was from Bumfuck, Virginia (about 20 miles west of Farmville, VA) I don't think the thought would have entered my head. So instead let me try to go this route: When they aren't blistering through noise jams, Pontiak slows down to a downtuned fuzz stomp that's somewhere between early Dead Meadow and early Neil Young. Uhhh, how's that? As much difficulty as I'm having describing Maker, I am positive that this is one of the more innovative entries in a genre that's quite prone to repetition. That's enough of a feat to deserve your ears' attention (as well as your hard earned cash).

Pontiak's Myspace

Micachu & The Shapes – Jewellery

My initial sugar rush of a review has come and gone, but the awesomeness of this album still remains. You can put good money down on the fact that there won't be another album that sounds like this in 2009…people won't catch up until 2011.

PJ Harvey & John Parish – A Woman A Man Walked By

I think people (admittedly, including myself from time to time) tend to grow weary of any iconic artist the longer they're around. And it's not the artist's fault. Frankly, it's our fault as listeners. We tend to grow complacent with their product…well, not even complacent…just cynical. We love their early releases so much that actually believe ourselves when we say stupid shit like "They can't possibly top that last album." Yeah, sometimes we're right…but then sometimes there are artists like PJ Harvey, proving you wrong with every release, including this dark, brooding gem of an album. Thank God for that huh?

"Black Hearted Love" Video

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of The Dead – The Century of Self

I threw this album on here not because I was particularly blown away by The Century of Self, but more (cynically) because I thought these dudes were a done deal. When an already polarizing band drops two straight turds and then gets dropped by their label, it's tough to see said band lasting much longer. Instead, it appears as though …AYWKUBTTD (worst. acronym. ever.) is well on their way along the road to recovery. More "word!" than "what the fuck?" while listening to this one, and it definitely has me looking forward to their future products….a welcome change.

Official Webpage

Mic Terror – King of the New School

Hiyo!! Still my favorite mixtape of the year. Side Note: I found out about the 2008 battle that went down between Mic Terror and Mazzi (sic?) a month or two ago…wow, you wanna see Mic get in someone's ass? Hit the YouTubes pronto.

Most Disappointing Release of the Year: Wale – Back to the Feature

What does a mixtape originally announced to drop in 2008 sound like in June 2009? I'll let you know when it's released in February 2010. Apparently this is supposed to be released next week….yeah, hold your breath for that one. Until then, enjoy "Chillin"….I guess.

Lazy Sunday Links

2009-05-31T02:35:00.002-06:00

R.I.P. Bummer. [Pitchfork]

If I was ever in the financial position to purchase this, I'd...well, purchase it.

Ugh...bummer. On the most personal of levels, I hope they can recover from this incident. Keep your head up Ulsh.

VIDEO: Major Lazer - "Hold The Line"

2009-05-29T14:14:00.001-06:00

More please!

VIDEO: Tortoise - "Prepare Your Coffin"

2009-05-27T06:39:00.000-06:00

HEALTH - "Die Slow"

2009-05-26T11:04:00.000-06:00

Ah, back from hurtling ass-backward into the real world. Hope you enjoyed the long weekend of cookouts and day-drinking yourself into oblivion. I actually did a few constructive things over the Memorial Day break, and purchasing this little gem was probably my best "accomplishment" of the weekend. Yeah, it's been out for awhile now, but me actually purchasing the 7" is a great excuse to bring the new HEALTH single, "Die Slow" back up for those who missed it the first time around. And goddamn, if this is a signal of what's to come from their upcoming album Get Color...we're not ready. These dudes really stepped it up from "cool sounding electronic noise montages that occasionally morph into songs" into "cool sounding electronic noise assaults that are songs." Bravo fellas, I'm officially pumped for your album. Listen and Buy HERE.

VIDEO: Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks"

2009-05-26T06:59:00.000-06:00

Just to ensure that this is in EVERY corner of the internet.

Two Weeks

Lazy Sunday Links

2009-05-24T06:28:00.000-06:00

"Ignant-ass-nigga" watch update: Amen. [XXL]

Sweet Spring Lovin'

2009-05-20T09:37:00.003-06:00

As I transition out of a 6-month winter hell into a blooming spring wonderland, pure pop love songs are the most stimulating to my senses. Those infectious songs that you catch like the swine flu, that evoke good times and good feelings. Well ladies and gentlemen, meet Dent May, your new spring pop obsession.

This gem of a video, filmed in trailer in Mississippi, brings a dirty south silliness that can only be found south of the Mason-Dixon line. I caught this good man's show in good ol' Nashville, Tennessee, and despite his cracking voice, I enjoyed every minute. He plays Schuba's in Chicago on MAy 28th, so go show this down home boy some midwest love.

Video of the Day: Mos Def - "Casa Bey"

2009-05-19T06:27:00.000-06:00

Remember in 2000 when Mos Def was going to singlehandedly save hiphop from itself like he had an S on his chest? I miss that...but at least he's rapping again. "Casa Bey" gives us a little gleam of that light that made him so special not so long ago.

Lazy Sunday Links

2009-05-17T00:41:00.001-06:00

Twitter Tracklist? Very cool. [Beatportal]

Pardon my French, but this nigga's either really funny or really ignorant. [XXL]