July 16th, 2009
Sach O wants YOU to listen to this album.
I’ve enjoyed more Hip-Hop music in 2009 than any other year in recent memory and yet rap has never left me less surprised. It seems that everyone from returning veterans to hotly debated newcomers are bringing their A-Game to the table, but while creativity for creativity’s sake is encouraged, there’s nothing more taboo in the rap game right now than an uncalculated risk.
Blame the medium: the Internet is pumping more content at us than we can handle, so it’s only natural that we stick to our comfort zones, visiting blogs and listening to music pre-screened for our specific tastes. The problem with this groupthink is that the dominant rappers in these virtual sub-scenes become grotesque caricatures, representing freakish extremes for a niche audience. I’m a Slaughterhouse fan but their tracks are basically battle rap-porn. Drake? A focus grouped Ma$e distilling player clichés to their illogical conclusions. As for the Atlanta’s newest trapst- -…you know what, never mind, you get the point: surprising records are hard to come by when your social-network is invested in a very specific representation of musical perfection.
Amidst all of this, The Slow Twilight by the 5’O Clock Shadowboxers is a very surprising record.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Sach O | 1 Comment »
July 15th, 2009
I informed Foreign Born about jerkin,’ but alas it was far too late. Thus, the video for “Winter Games” boasts C-Walkin’ instead. A fine consolation prize. I also appreciate the sepia 80s roller-skating rink vibe.
Posted in Videos | No Comments »
July 15th, 2009
Occasionally, you hear a song for the first time and stop whatever is you’re doing, because said song is so awesome that it demands your complete attention. I’m not sure how I lived for so long without having heard “Assembly Line,” from The Commodores debut album. Especially considering I played Little League and High School baseball with the son of Wak King, the trumpet and synth player. I suppose I associated them with the cod-piece funk of later leisure suit years–that and the name Wak. Thanks to Ivan of Hip-Hop is Read for including this in his Stankonia sample set, and of course, 3-Stacks and Sir Lucious Leadfoot for sampling it on “Humble Mumble.”
The other day I made some careless remark about how everyone needed to love the new Very Best song. I’m prone to doing stupid things when I’m sober. Because it’s songs like this that really deserve the full weight of endorsement. Plus, fun fact: it was co-written by the woman who wrote “Tainted Love.”
Download:
MP3: The Commodores-”Assembly Line”
Posted in Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 5 Comments »
July 15th, 2009
As Margaret Wappler aptly asserted, “the dirty little secret to ‘The Girls’ Guide to Rocking’ — a book by music scribe Jessica Hopper, ostensibly for teen girls — is that as a grown-up man or woman, you will learn something from every single page of this guide.” Real talk, but unsurprising to anyone familiar with Hopper’s work at the Chicago Reader, Chicago Tribune, and her blog Tinyluckygenius. If you have a sister, niece, or know anyone from 8 to 18 interested in forming a band, Jessica’s book comes highly recommended.
If you’re in Los Angeles, Jessica will be giving a reading today at the Santa Monica Public Library at 2 p.m. (with a performance from Mika Miko) and Skylight Books at 7:30.
Was there a Eureka moment that inspired you to write the book, or was this something you’d been thinking about doing for years?
I first thought about doing the book 16 years ago. I have this really specific memory of a conversation with one of my girlfriends—we were trying to start a band and had this succession of various bass players who we always looked to as some sort of authority. I’m not sure if it stemmed from that they were boys, or that they’d been in bands prior, but I remember talking to her on the phone about how I wished there was a book that explained how to do this.
When I was 16, I had all the eagerness and the passion and the energy, and the scrappy punk rock can-do, but had no idea how to put on a show, or keep a band together, or even how to write a song. It was so exciting but frustrating because all I wanted was to figure out how to sound like Drive like Jehu. I don’t know if that was a common desire in ‘92, but for me it was like, how do I play like that. I had a $90 dollar guitar, I didn’t play with a pick, I played with a dime. I had a Fender practice amp that I bought off street, that was my set up…pretty fancy shit. So I wrote the book that I needed.
It was something that I’d always thought I’d about. I’d been freelancing my ass off for the last few years and at some point, I always thought that I’d take time off to work on this book and work on my 33rd book about Billy Joel’s 40 greatest hits. Then one day I got an email from my future editor at Workman books, saying that she was looking for someone to write a How-To Rock Guide for girls. She’d asked a couple rock people at magazines who should do the book and people kept saying Jessica Hopper, so she asked her brother, who is Franz Nicolay [the supremely awesome keyboard player for the Hold Steady who looks like an 1890s French Unicyclist] and he had my phone number and that was how it got started. It was the biggest stroke of luck, if left to my own accord, I might have just started working on it now.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Interviews | 1 Comment »
July 13th, 2009
Now watch me freak it in Korean.
Bishop Lamont ft. Xzibit-”Hallelujah”
I’d bet against The Reformation ever emerging from the Aftermath morass. But it really doesn’t matter when Carson’s finest can craft Gospel Brunch bangers over Dre beats better than anything off Relapse. Bishop’s pet peeve is the cult of swagger, which makes sense, considering dude’s a no-frills, hard-head. Swagger means nothing to a guy whose favorite restaurant is Bubba Gump. And even though Xzibit might have made a small fortune in ride pimping, he’s on board too, slitting the hook with his razer-blade voice box. Lamont’s wit separates him from prematurely cantankerous reactionaries like Termanology. At heart, he’s a South Park worshipping goofball who might bitch about fake gangsters, but will at least have the decency to reproach them for attending Magnet Schools and drama nerdery. That plus un P.C. remarks about Heath Ledger and the Olson twins ensure that regardless of label politics, Bishop should get a spot at the next synod.
Wale-”Pretty Girls”
This is more like it. No one should begrudge Wale for unabashedly playing to the ladies. In ‘09 the rap game isn’t like the crack game, it’s like the food stamp line. Unless you’re Jay-Z, T.I., Kanye, Wayne, or one of the other fortunate few, rappers seeking longevity can’t afford to ignore half of the population. The problem was that everyone who came on-board pre-Mixtape About Nothing, didn’t want Lady Gaga’s glandular grossness within 100 miles of Attention Deficit. Still, it was a smart bet, with “Chillin’ cracking Top 40 playlists nationwide. Thankfully, “Pretty Girls,” is Wale’s most successful attempt at equipoise yet, admonishing the “ugly girls to be quiet,” while soft-tossing smoove rhymes to pacify the “Best I Ever Had Crowd.” At one point, he admits that he’s a Libra, which would make sense–this is balanced.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in The New Rap Language | 7 Comments »
July 13th, 2009
Cynics can cluck all they want–there’s certainly room for reactionary scorn on Esau Mwamwaya’s duet with head Weekend Vampire, Ezra Koenig, the latter of whom name-drops “Hip Hop Hooray” and Electric Light Orchestra, in a matter of seconds. Yet the titular track from the Very Best’s Warm Heart of Africa, might be the album’s stand-out. If you dislike this, there’s a chance you listen to music with your brain rather than your ears. Even if this were Graceland redux, “Warm Heart’s” hyaline melodies, elastic vocals, and baked alaska buoyancy, make this an ideal summer jam. Just be glad it’s too warm to wear scarves.
Download:
MP3: The Very Best ft. Ezra Koenig-”Warm Heart of Africa”
Posted in African Music | 5 Comments »
July 13th, 2009
Hailing from Ottawa, Aaron Matthews boasts an intimate familiarity with the meaning of the phrase, “So Icy.” On a related note, Trey Kerby once made a snowman using nothing but a half-dozen cups of shaved ice and Bill Hanzlik’s mustache.
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FTB8M6QE
Aaron M:
For a little context, I currently reside in Canada’s capital, Ottawa.
Ottawa winters are groin-grabbingly cold and they feel endless. This is balanced out by the surprisingly warm and pleasant summers. We appreciate sunshine all the more with the knowledge that we only have a few months of warm weather left to enjoy.
The first side of The Cory Matthews Mixtape is intended to accompany you on a lazy summer day, with each song perfectly suited for a specific scenario or moment in your day.
Note that these scenarios aren’t all supposed to take place within the tape’s 40 minute runtime. Keep this on loop on a hot day and good stuff will happen, trust.
First the alarm goes off. You flick it off, stretch, yawn, and get dressed. You throw on your brand new Gucci underwear and open the blinds. It’s beautiful outside, sunny without being balmy.
It’s either a) your day off, b) the weekend, or c) you don’t have a job.
Either way, the weather is nice and you have no immediate obligations. Let’s go!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Trey Kerby, Aaron Matthews, Summer Jamz | 3 Comments »
July 12th, 2009
The Hedley’s are the only analogue for the Los Feliz household of Foreign Born lead singer, Matt Popieluch and his girlfriend, Glasser’s Cameron Mesirow. In addition to fronting one of Los Angeles’ best bands, he works as a groundskeeper for Coldwater Canyon arboreal preservationists, Tree People, plays with Glasser and Fool’s Gold, and manages Frank Fairfield. The only thing he doesn’t do is weld.
The brunt of my feature in the latest LA Weekly focuses on Popieluch’s work in Foreign Born–mainly, because their album, Person to Person, was recently released on Secretly Canadian and also, because it is very good. But don’t sleep on Glasser or Fool’s Gold either, the latter of which recently signed with local label, IAMSOUND (Telepathe, Little Boots, Black Ghosts).
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in LA Weekly | No Comments »
July 10th, 2009
Sach O likes Brooklyn band! Alert the Press!
Are Chin Chin the best contemporary funk band on the circuit today? In a scene so amorphous as to run from indie darlings Hercules and Love Affair to Meters revivalists Baby Charles to Wu-Tang disciples the El Michels Affair, it’s hard to make a definitive claim, but last night Def Jux’ best kept secret made a strong run at the title over the course of their two outdoor sets at the Montreal Jazz fest.
Unleashing a wilder, rawer version of the smooth-R&B that kept their under the radar debut buzzing, the band may have done the impossible by updating post-disco funk without falling victim to cheesy jokes or bookish recreation. Opening their second set with a cacophonous psychedelic intro and proving that noisy psychedelia is no excuse for indie bands unable to play their instruments, Chin Chin progressively grabbed the ears, feet and hearts of the 1000+ outdoor mob and didn’t let them go until their time was up. To put it in perspective: it’s one thing to rock a crowd that came to see you and its another to make a few converts out of a receptive audience, but shutting down the MTL jazz fest from a small stage and inciting full on crowd participation and dancing? THAT’S showmanship.
Front-man Wilder Zoby brought his A-game, commanding the crowd with an energy and charisma belying his clean cut hairdo and pink shirt and his onstage antics from humping the stage to absolutely killing the talk-box made even the unfunkiest of festival goers take notice. By the end of the set, damn near the entire street was dancing leaving those who stayed for the late show, sweaty, satisfied and remembering their name. Two things are for sure: they’re worth every penny live and if ever I fall into some cash I’m roping these guys to play my wedding.
Chin Chin - Dontchusee
Posted in Sach O, Festivals | No Comments »
July 9th, 2009
Sach O assumes the real rap comes at halftime.
Halftime 09 Rap Mix (Z-Share download)
Rap wise, it’s hard to find fault with 2009 so far. You can spend your time complaining about what the next guy’s listening to or shouting the praises of whatever specific movement you advocate from the rooftops like a disenfranchised Iranian, but truth is we’ve all been spoiled for choice this year. A collapsing music industry means artists are getting back to honest-to-God collaborations again and whatever specific batch of emcees you think should end up on XXL’s cover, they’re dropping good music for their audience and (hopefully) proving music can survive the internet economy. This blend puts together some of my favorites from the first 6 months a year from Wale and MF Doom to Lil Boosie and Kurupt. If the next 6 are half as good, we may finally get Nas to shut the fuck up. (Tracklisting after the jump)
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Sach O | 1 Comment »
