February 9th, 2010
Don’t blame me, I voted for Millard Fillmore.
“As We Enter” - Damian Marley & Nas
The closer Distant Relatives comes to actually seeing the light of day, the clearer it becomes that I’d rather hear a mixtape of Damian Marley spitting solo over classic soundclash and Ethiopiques instrumentals. Nothing against Nas (really). But the Bono-like levels of self-importance bound to accompany the pairing of Bob’s son and God’s son inevitably means that he’s more likely to be spewing platitudes about Hailie Selassie than wild “Esco (Let’s Go)” fantasias about getting into semantic quibbles with Elizabeth Taylor. Toeachizown. However, the experiment was clearly worth it to hear Junior Gong and Nasty Nas goofing off over a gorgeous Mulatu Astatke sample. They’re just having fun — Kelis’s ex says the “flow’s effortless” and for once, I believe him. (I realize that this is sort of like that scene in Stardust Memories, where a fan comes up to Sandy Bates (Woody Allen) and tells him they prefer his earlier funny movies, but Nas was only funny when he wasn’t trying to be — like when he told the world how much he loved watching Kathy Lee and Regis in limousines.)
“Devils” - TiRon
Stomping an old Jay instrumental is pretty much a rite of passage for any young rapper, and though TiRon doesn’t decimate “Where I’m From” with the same skill as a pre-Rutgers Symphony Hova, he only needs a 16 to remind people why he’s one of the most promising rappers in Los Angeles. Last year’s Ketchup was heavily slept-on, and one of the first leaks from its follow-up finds TiRon at the tail end of his three year-window where he’s allowed to spit didactic “I Am the Enlightened One” raps about bow bad KTLA is and why no one should keep up with the Kardashians. Then again, what else are we supposed to talk about? How bad Lamar Odom was in that Taco Bell commercial?
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Posted in The New Rap Language | No Comments »
February 8th, 2010
Alternate titles for this article included: Lo-Fi: How Well Does it Match Your Denim Jacket? The Gorilla Vs. Bear Guide To Los Angeles, and Douglas Martin’s Skit Plans for the next 5′ 0 Clock Shadowboxers album. For those of you averse to ink stains, Sunday’s LA Times included a feature on Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, Nite Jewel, and Pearl Harbor. My crack team of Thesaurus-armed Caracals contributed the words that filled up the space between the Macy’s ads. This space has been conspicuously absent of coverage of these bands, mainly because Chris GVB continually beats me to the punch and it’s no fun to nod your head and hum the chorus to “Mr. Me Too.” Well, unless pyrex stirs turn to Cavalli furs.
However, these bands make good music and what they lack in fidelity, they make up for in personality. If I wasn’t too lazy to transcribe the hours of interview transcripts, I could keep the Internet intrigued for days with discussions of esoteric drugs, abstruse philosophers, and an in-depth analysis of “The Situation.” Instead, I will write a nebulous comment alluding to allegedly “deep” conversations, post some MP3’s, and go to my basketball game. But before I do — and while I’m on the topic of always on-point blogs — allow me to point your direction towards Aquarium Drunkard, who just posted an excellent garage-psych-rock mixtape compiled by Raven Sings The Blues. OK, you get it.
Tunes below the jump.
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Posted in Pearl Harbor, Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, Nite Jewel, LA Times | 1 Comment »
February 8th, 2010
Why a winter mixtape? Because your Wu mixtape with “Winter Warz” and “Cold World” cracked in half. Because London just got through the biggest snowfall in decades. Yes, this mixtape is being posted on a website better known for summer jamz, but I’d argue that winter transcends weather. I’ve lived in Canada for most of my 21 years and you get used to the chilling winds, knee deep snow drifts and icy roads. But even if you’re walking around in shorts this season, hopefully this tape will give you the feeling of damp boots, red noses and the sharpness of January air. –Aaron Matthews, Feature Editor
ZIP: The Passion of the Weiss Winter Mixtape (Left-Click)
Soundcloud: The Passion of the Weiss Winter Mixtape
1. Boards of Canada - 1969
I don’t know if Boards of Canada specifically set out to make seasonal-sounding music. They do tend to have an undercurrent of outdoorsy atmosphere to some of their best work, hinted at in titles (”Hey Saturday Sun”; “In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country”; The Campfire Headphase) and the odd sensation of their music sort of sounding like it’s been left out in the elements to warp and wither. But to be honest, the wintry qualities of “1969″ aren’t so obvious; this could very well sound like a sun-faded, heat-damaged, borderline-dubstep summer anthem to someone else who heard it for the first time in, say, July. It just so happens that Geogaddi came out in February, and when it’s February in Minnesota and you’re listening to this new, alluring but kind of uncomfortable music during a pre-dawn 75-minute bus commute to a temp job out in the suburbs, a trip where the eventual sunrise results in an overcast winter morning with a bleached-white sky the same color as the snow-covered landscape, well, that could do something to forge a particular association. And that ending refrain — “1969, in the sunshine” — felt like it was referencing two places that were a long distance in the past. — Nate Patrin
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Posted in Winter Mixtape, Best Of | 10 Comments »
February 7th, 2010
I’m possibly this site’s least athletically inclined contributor (my physique has been described as “Snoop-esque,”) but even I’ll be getting together with the guys, a case of beer and all the food that’s fit to eat tonight, cheering on a bunch of people attempting to move a ball from one side of a field to the other– despite the best efforts of another bunch of people. That said, the pre-game festivities are a few hours away and I’m nowhere near interested enough in this “foot ball” to start caring about it first thing in the morning. Enter the good people at Fact Magazine, who despite probably being just as obsessed with an entirely different kind of football, have seen it fit to put up a fantastic mix of Afro-Pop compiled by London iconoclast and clever-name-bearer Bass Clef. Featuring all original wax and no compilation tracks, this mix rivals last night’s Dam Funk tune in terms of sheer “realness,” capturing the best moments of 15 minute rave-ups and slamming them together Madlib-style, hopefully giving labels a few new ideas for their reissue schedules.
There’s been a lot of talk about rich white people and African music recently and I for one don’t care about it one way or another. Maybe Bass Clef was born to a posh London family of biscuit-barons and travels around Africa robbing it of its original wax. Probably not. The important thing is that he doesn’t water the sound down and rob it of its vitality for a bunch of aesthetically challenged scenesters who’ll be on to the next thing faster than Jay-Z ducking questions about State Property. Or to put it in laymen’s terms: “Brah, I’m not rippin on you cuz you’re rich, I’m rippin on ya cuz you’d consider The Police, “the world’s best reggae band!” had you been born 20 years earlier.” To twist the old Hip-Hop maxim: it’s not where you’re from, it’s if you’re wack. Bass Clef is not wack. Those Balaclava kids? Yeah, pretty fucking wack. Tracklist and interview here.
Download:
MP3: Bass Clef - Fact Mix
Posted in African Music, Sach O | 1 Comment »
February 6th, 2010
Between Dam-Funk’s overwhelming love of music and his cat’s uncanny resemblance to portly striped scribe, F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Cat), he’s catapulted into the ranks of my favorite musicians. Of course, anyone making music for a living “loves it,” but barely a day can go by without Dam dropping some new funk on the masses. He describes his latest nine-minute jam, “Don’t Let the Smile Fool U,” as “Modern-Funk 2 the fullest! No off beat sh*t. No wonky sh*t. No indie BLOG sh*t!” And lest you think this file will be ever-green, he adds in the next tweet, “it ain’t gon’ be up long. U gotta move fast wit’ my Funk. My Funk ain’t desperate. Take it or leave it. The Funk will always be cool.” Arguing against this axiom is futile.
Download:
MP3: Dam-Funk - “Don’t Let the Smile Fool U” (Left-Click)
Posted in Dam-Funk | 2 Comments »
February 5th, 2010
Warp’s website has fairly elaborate details about Cosmogramma, Flying Lotus’s sophomore “space opera,” slated for release on 4/20 — along with efforts from Javelin and Caribou. Clearly, this is all some sort of insidious plot to bankrupt the weed smokers of America and England. The Internet is already abuzz over the guest appearance from Paste pin-up boy, Thom Yorke, and if “Quakes,” the excised track posted below is any indication of the album’s strength, everyone should stay off the roads that day. The label’s also giving away “Ancestors,” a Lotus-produced track from Gonjasufi, and the Gucci Mane remix “Photoshoot,” all in pristine 320 KPS and for the ideal price.
Download:
ZIP: Flying Lotus Pack - “Quakes” + “Photoshoot (Remix)” + “Ancestors” (Left-Click)
Posted in Flying Lotus | 1 Comment »
February 5th, 2010
Nick Rallo’s slang is editorial at Whale Fight.
What is this? It’s a hand sewn burlap sack jacket, with a maddeningly bright blue record inside. On the record is the blues punk of Slang Chickens, featuring the members of Wires on Fire. If the recent Avett Brothers I And Love And You record left you a little too soft and cuddly inside, than this Slang Chickens debut album will right you. “Tropics” opens like something from Grizzly Bear’s Yellow House, but kamikazes into serious punk piss & vinegar. Also, you can stream five songs from the album, here, which you should do because “Blues (Dripping Down My Leg)” is perfectly weird and sex crazy in that Zeppelin sort of way:
“I got blues dripping down my leg / I should got to the doctor but I really want to stay in bed”
And there’s a song called “Let’s Microwave.” Few things are better than that title. Oh, they’ve got lapsteel and banjos melted into a big pot that they pour over your frontal lobe. There’s no ballads or sad woodwinds or slow, weepy violin. They’re more for wave crushing, banjo sucking, and tattooing in rebellion of conservative family members. Their debut LP is out now on Pyschedelic Juadism.
Download:
MP3: Slang Chickens - “Tropics”
Posted in Nick Rallo | 1 Comment »
February 5th, 2010
Prefuse 73 deserves both props and pity. The former for taking The Gaslamp Killer out on the road with him, the latter for absorbing the psychic carnage of watching Will Bensussen steal the spotlight night in and night out. The self-described “neurotic Scorpio Jew” smashes decks and phonographs in half like Deck, unleashing zomby staggers, more flying manes than a Motley Crue show, and 1,000,000 watt energy. The type of dude who would snap necks at the first Black Eyed Peas request.
The other night, someone asked me who my favorite DJ was. A strange question, considering I usually find most DJ’s more overrated than white basketball players from Duke. GLK was the first name that came to mind. But not because he owns the stage — without taste and talent, histrionics just make you look monkey-like. He’s my pick because he doesn’t give a fuck what the crowd wants to hear, he’s the rare artist in a field crammed with playlists. He’s as likely to throw on the latest obscure dubstep banger as he is, “The Day the Niggaz Took Over.” It’s a Rocky Road Vol. 2. is a raw and uncut mix GLK made in 2007, filled with dirty dusted psychedelia and lots of soul samples you’ll recognize from your favorite rap tunes. No tracklist is available and none is necessary. Take my word on this, or just trust in the hair.
Download:
MP3: The Gaslamp Killer - It’s A Rocky Road Vol. 2 (Left-Click)
Posted in The Gaslamp Killer | 1 Comment »
February 4th, 2010
I imagine if I was willing to incinerate a entire day, an acre of cotton candy kush, and wear out my floorboards circling to “circling,” I could probably cobble some cogent thoughts about the new Four Tet album, There is Love in You. Unfortunately, though the pay scale of contemporary journalism might insist otherwise, Ms. Cohen, my gummy-bear snarfling high school economics teacher insisted that there is no such thing as a free lunch. So lamentably, you guys are going to be stuck with my undefended insistence that this is the best album of the young year.
I’ve heard little else from Four Tet (I WAS LISTENING TO RAP MUSIC, I SWEAR), so I’m the wrong person to properly contextualize this. I won’t haw about “folktronica” or free jazz modalities, or the other genres and sub-genres Kieran Hebden dabbled in. Besides, there are reviews elsewhere. You don’t need me this time (if you ever did). Pitchfork liked it a lot and if you see them as the four horsemen of the hirsute apocalypse, then take the word of my always on-point LA Weekly colleague, Chris Martins, who slapped it with an “A” at the Onion.
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February 4th, 2010
Asked to describe himself to Fact Magazine, Debruit answered “Bonjour, I’m dEbruit, synth breeder, beat baker and rhythm keeper. I make music in styles you can’t name and a genre that doesn’t exist.” Which is only partially true — were you to ascribe labels to the London by way of Paris producer, he’d fit under the ill-fitting “wonky” umbrella, which basically means funky drum breaks, wobbly bass, and the sort of exotic samples that you expected rappers to be flowing over in 2010, rather than jacking Wesleyan alumni for china-white synths and skinny jeans recommendations. (I saw Chiddy Bang last night. Has it really come down to rhyming over MGMT’s “Kids” with DJ’s who look like the son of Vampire Weekend’s accountant?)
On his Spatio-Temporal EP, the Musique Large-affiliated beatmaker stands out from the Ableton onslaught through his unique ability to take gimmicky samples and make them knock harder than a Mormon missionary. “Persian Funk” takes what’s basically Borat’s theme music and flips it into the Farsi funk version of “Hey Playa.” While “Nigeria What?” pioneers Afrobeat wonky, a subgenre described by Sach O as “the audio equivalent of a threesome between a Thai and Swedish chick.” dEbruit’s Fact mix supports his cause with cuts from Jeru the Damaja, Wu-Tang, Dam-Funk, Kurtis Blow, and Konono No. 1. Already a regular on the Mary Anne Hobbs circuit, it’s unwise to avoid deBruit even if you normally prefer Axe Body spray.
Download:
MP3: dEbruit - “Persian Funk” (Removed by Request)
dEbruit - “Nigeria What?” (Removed by Request)
MP3: dEbruit - Fact Mix 90
Posted in debruit, Wonky | 3 Comments »
