THE LAST SHADOW PUPPETS OF MONKEYS FLING FLAMING FECES AT AMERICA

Posted on September 30th, 2008 by ekko

Preliminary note: Imagine my shock when I woke up to find out I’ve got the top 2 on Blog Machine. Go me!

The first Arctic Monkeys album was an extraordinary burst of power-pop with acidly wicked lyrics and fist-to-the-face hooks that I kept in active rotation for about a year. The second Arctic Monkeys album was a cleaner burst of power-pop with occasionally sad lyrics and fist-to-the-gut hooks that I kept in active rotation for about six months. So, when I saw a used copy of The Last Shadow Puppets at my favorite CD store, I wondered if it was worth the $8.99.

It was.

Alex (Arctic Monkeys) Turner and Miles (The Rascals, The Little Flames) Kane have teamed up to create 12 jubilant gems of classic-sounding rock and roll, far better than anything they were ever able to write before. Although it’s got the “Let’s Dance” era Bowie sound of “Standing Next To Me,” much of the record is spent showing Amy Winehouse how to write her second album, on dark soul songs like “The Time Has Come Again” and “The Chamber.” It’s great to hear Turner using his voice on this kind of music, and it’s doubly great to hear the band move the retro-soul genre forward. “Black Plant,” for example, creeps forward but turns it on its head halfway through, turning into what sounds like a James Bond theme. I love Amy, but let’s face it: Back To Black got old fast, and all you listened to were about five songs on the record. Another favorite cut here is “Only The Truth,” they’re gutsy enough to add strings to
make a 1960’s Leader of the Pack kinda oldie, with a chilling, dark sound, and a garage-band percussive chorus. It’s a complex song, with a dramatic time change for the final act, that belongs in a John Waters movie. Or a Broadway stage, backing the slaying of a virgin in white powder by an overacting transvestite.

Turner could easily have coasted on his fame here, and tossed off a genre record without much underneath it. But he didn’t. The Age Of The Understatement is easily one of the best records of the year.

In My Room-LSP

Bonus Monkeys!

You Know I’m No Good (Amy Winehouse cover)-Arctic Monkeys

Take It Or Leave It (Strokes cover)–Arctic Monkeys

And to all comic geeks: Go Get Marvel Apes! It’s Super Cool!

ZILLA ROCCA WANTS TO GET HEAD

Posted on September 29th, 2008 by ekko

I’ve written about Zilla Rocca before. His day job is Prez and co-founder of Beat Garden Entertainment (which, with Yadibox, is the home of Nico the Beast and 2ew Gunn Ciz), a hip-hop producer, and a rapper in his own right. He’s also just released his first solo mixtape. And, of course, it’s hot.

There’s some real skilled production work, like the Terminator X style track, “Flow God Zilla,” which is mostly samples and a wall of noise; and lots of skilled rhyming; Zilla and Nico team-up and kill it on “Raw to the Floor.” Zilla shows versatility, too, slowing up on “All Feast No Famine,” rapping over strings, and on the crazy funny “Sunbathing Bitches.” There’s lots of guest spots here, but every verse is tight—no filler. There’s a few tunes here I’ve heard before, on his myspace releases (which are generous and frequent).

Don’t be misled by the fact that he’s calling it a mixtape. It’s more like a street album: Tight, well-put together, no annoying DJ shout-outs, and excellent production. (It’s a mixtape because Zilla jacks beats and bytes from artists like Marvin Gaye, DJ Premier, RZA, Kanye West Dilla.) The overall quality, length, and feel of the release makes me wonder what he held back for his upcoming record, Fall Back Friday.

Oh. And it’s got great art, to. Check it:

Get it at various locations, like here and here.

Nada-Zilla with Nex Millen

Sunbathing Bitches w/Mally from the 612.

Bonus:

This is a fresh mixtape track from the best rapper out of Texas, Scarface, dissing Rick Ross.

High Power (Dissin’ Rick Ross)-Scarface

OCELOTS INFEST INDIE ROCK

Posted on September 29th, 2008 by ekko

I’d never heard of The Ocelots before they sent me their latest album, “The Cellar and the Ghost Have Let Us Down,” with an October 7th drop date. What’s it like?

Well, it’s a lot like indie rock: Lyrics about death and drama, really fast drums, and grinding guitar with hot hooks and riffs. There’s nothing that makes this band unique, but they’re very good at what they do. And I’m sure they’re great live. If you like The Dead Milkmen, indie Modest Mouse, The Walkmen, or old REM, I imagine you’ll dig this, too.

Particularly cool are “To Keep The Blood Flowing” and “Fight a Tiger,” which is hysterical. “I’m gonna finda tiger, I’m gonna fight it now, I’m gonna find a tiger, I’m gonna eat it’s heart out.” A strange, punky, careening adventure, complete with a shouted chorus. Fantastic.

This Elephant Is Not Thirsty, It’s On Fire

The Truth About Sailing

Bonus!

Fourth Time Around (Bob Dylan cover)-Calexico

CHAD VANGAALEN’S AIRPLANE IS SOFT BUT NOT LIMP

Posted on September 28th, 2008 by ekko

Somebody give Sub Pop records a cookie. They’ve discovered one of the most fascinating, promising artists I’ve ever heard.

Chad VanGaalen‘s, “Soft Airplane,” is nothing short of genius. The lyrics alone are worth the price of admission. Check out the single, the folky “Willow Tree,” on which he muses: “When I’m dead/ Is when I’ll be free.” Or the haunting “Molten Light,” a warning (“She’ll find you and she’ll kill you”) of a girl who apparently was killed and dumped in the river, where she “floated to the surface” but “did not ignite.” Returning as a demon, she seeks revenge. The perfect Halloween song. Vocally, he sounds a little like Modest Mouse about to cry—his high, wispy voice has a wavery trill that makes it sound other-wordly.

Overall, VanGaalen deserves comparison to Neil Young and Warren Zevon, both of whom successfully forayed into pop (“This Note’s For You”/”Werewolves of London”), folk-country-rock (“Helpless”/”Desperados Under the Eaves”), classic rock (“Rust Never Sleeps”/”Lawyers, Guns and Money”), and even what passed in their own times for experimental/electronic music (“Arc”/”Transverse City”). But even those immensely talented artists didn’t try to do what Mr. Vangaalen does: Jump through all those genres on one album. Nay, in one song even! “Cries of the Dead,” the most powerful song on the album, begins with a strange sound collage, moves seamlessly into a wailing folks song, gently brings in a Beatles-style acoustic line punctuated by an incredibly complex but soft percussion, and then moves into Beach Boys territory. After hearing it, you’ll wonder how the hell he did that.

This has to be one of the greatest albums of the year. It just plain has to be.

For fans of: Postal Service, Neil Young, The Shins, Modest Mouse.

Willow Tree

Cries of the Dead

Bonus:

Free Bird-Cat Power (Skynyrd cover!)

HYPE ELBOWS WHORINGS

Posted on September 27th, 2008 by ekko

Slow Night, So Long-Eddie Vedder and Kings of Leon

Mr. Brightside-Amy MacDonald

Staring at the Sun (TV On the Radio cover)-Subways

Don’t Fear the Reaper-Wilco

THE CLASH COVERS A to Z: AGAIN!

Posted on September 27th, 2008 by ekko

The Clash are the band that proved that too much money will destroy the heart and soul of an artist. Although Joe tried (at least publicly) to eschew material gain, there was simply too much riding on their success to keep him immune from the power of being a commodity. The Clash were and will always be the greatest rock and punk band ever in history. And the good bands know this. Dig the following second version of The Clash Covers, A to Z.

Before I get started: A Ben Folds cover of Lost in the Supermarket has been floating around, but I haven’t been able to get my hands on it. I’d love it if one of my readers could hook me up?

Okay: Z is for Zipfile, so anything not below as a single-song download will be in the folder. Enjoy.

A is for Armegiddeon Time. Joe doing his own song. But it’s still technically a cover because he did it on his own, on 9/28/02.

If that wasn’t okay for a cover, how about Anorak doing Somebody Got Murdered?

B is for Brand New Cadillac-Incognegro.

C is for Cracker doing White Riot.

D is for Death or Glory-Social Distortion. A particularly hot cover, I’d say.

E is for Ethan Lipton making “Corner Soul” a lot better than it was on the overindulgent Sandinista release. The sole misstep in the Clash’s career. And even that album was good enough to be better than most of the stuff released that year. This cover is from the 2007 release, “The Sandinista Project!”, which I highly recommend.

F is for the Bobby Fuller Four, who wrote I Fought The Law, which was covered by The Clash and, here, by Green Day.

G is for Guns of Brooklyn-Santogold and Diplo. One of the best blend/remixes of the year.

H is for Hateful-Tommy Stinson.

I is for I’m So Bored With The USA (Clash) / Intervention-The Arcade Fire

J is for Jesse Malin doing Death Or Glory. He also covered The Clash’s Gates of the West on his recent “On Your Sleeve” covers album. A really fun, solid release.

K is for Kirsty MacColl-Train in Vain (Live-6/26/92).

K is also for Know Your Rights-Pearl Jam (live).

L is for Lost in the Supermarket-McSleazy. An extraordinarily different use of the tune.

M is for mash up! Somebody Rock Me-The Clash Killers.

N is for Nouvelle Vague-Guns of Brixton.

O is for another mash up: The Whole World Romantically Clashed-OutKast vs. The Clash

P is for Petty Booka doing Lost in the Supermarket.

R is for Rock the Casbah by Richard Cheese.

S is for Something For Kate’s version of the Casbah tune.

T is for Train in Vain-Kealer.

U is for U2 doing Joe Strummer’s “Long Walk to Freedom.” Not technically a Clash cover, but whatever.

V is for Virginia Coalition’s take on Rock the Casbah!

W is for the Wallflowers-Brand New Cadillac (live) 7/15/94.

eXamine Your Zipfile!

Z-TRIP-“The Iller Sessions”

Posted on September 27th, 2008 by ekko

“The Iller Sessions” arrived in a plain brown envelope, with no press information. The websites printed on the album aren’t helpful either. What the hell is this? I know Z-Trip; he’s a fantastic remixer/blend DJ who did a great version of the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” several years ago. But here, he’s assembled some of the greatest under-the-bubble names of the 1990s, providing brand new cuts by the likes of Digital Underground, Jurassic 5, The Black Sheep, DMC (of Run DMC), Rasco, Supernatural . . . The list goes on.

Some key tracks are the album opener, “At the Party,” a shout-out party jam by Macklemore, an artist with a steady flow who, I confess, I’ve never of before.

Rasco spits fire, as usual, on the gangsta-gettin-money cut, “Let’s Get It.” “I get big bags, You get one gram/Your shit is off beat/I came to sweep cats right off they own street.” It’s not like
you’ve never heard Rasco drop lyrics like these before, but he does it so well. A surprise for me was “Reminisce,” by Tru Fam. I’ve never been a big fan of back-in-the-day songs, but Tru manages to make this one count in a modern way: “Losing your life for a street corner is not funny/The neighborhood I thought was mine, they came and snatched from me/Point the finger at yourself and how you act homie/They stole the love but I demand they give it back to me.”

Not every track is great. Digital Underground haven’t been very good in a very long time. But there’s more wheat than chaff here, and clocking in a 72 minutes, you can afford a few clunkers.

Buy it here.

Reminisce – TruFam

Another Friendly Game of Baseball (Remix) – Large Pro

And an old Z-Trip remix:

Motown Breakdown Part I-Z-Trip

BONUS REVIEW: THE SHAKY HANDS

Before I close this post, I thought I’d name-drop a pretty cool new release by The Shaky Hands titled “Lunglight.” It comes out on November 10, and it’s got some interesting stuff on it. I can’t say it seems fully formed to me, but there’s enough indie rocking going on to satisfy, that’s for sure.

We Are Young

THE SECRET MACHINES SPEAK LOUDLY AND CARRY A DARK GUITAR

Posted on September 26th, 2008 by ekko

Everything old is new again. Bands like Earth, Dungen, Black Mountain, and countless others are creating dark, organic, psychedelic works. And The Secret Machines is one of the bands that were ahead of the curve, pioneering the “new” sound eight years ago.

In 2000, this Dallas power trio, which then consisted of the Brandon and Benjamin Curtis brothers and Josh Garza dropped one of the best retro albums of the last ten years. Now Here Is Nowhere was simply awesome. Then Ben Curtis left at around the time the band released the disappointing Ten Silver Drops. I don’t know if the brothers had been fighting or what, but
“Drops” was . . . Boring.

But now they’re back. They’ve been dropped from Warner Brothers, who refuse to put money into a band without a proven track record, and picked up by the independent, and smart folks at World’s Fair group.

The self-titled album is kind of a relaunch. It’s easily as ambitious as their first album, but it’s
retro in a different way. If the first one recalled heavy spacerock of the 1970s, this album is closer to another band’s relaunch: Pink Floyd’s Momentary Lapse of Reason. It’s soaring, heavy, huge, and ominous, but it doesn’t have a lot of screaming at the universe. This makes it a very tough album to digest. For example, the 10+ minute long closing track, “The Fire Is Waiting,” sounds like late-era Metallica or early-ear Sabbath, only without the blazing solos,
with epic crawl and mystic, swirling percussion. The song creeps forward, in no hurry, but ultimately explodes into a six-minute noisefest of arena rock. Benjamin Curtis isn’t back, but he’s no longer missed. What an amazing record!

As I listen to the album for the second time, I’m starting to hanker for more crunchy psychedelia. Any interest out there in a big modern psych post?

After the tour dates, check out the bonus MP3s and drop a comment if the answer is yes.

Dreaming-Secret Machines

Atomic Heels-Secret Machines

Oct 16 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Oct 17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
Oct 18 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
Oct 20 – Cambridge, MA @ Middle East
Oct 21 – Montreal, QC @ Les Saints
Oct 22 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
Oct 24 – Chicago, IL @ Metro*
Oct 25 – Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre*
Oct 27 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre*
Oct 28 – Aspen, CO @ Belly Up*
Oct 30 – Los Angeles, CA @ Key Club*
Nov 01 – San Diego, CA @ Belly Up*
Nov 03 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent*
Nov 05 – Portland, OR @ Berbati’s Pan*
Nov 06 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos*
Nov 07 – Vancouver, BC @ Richards on Richards*
Nov 09 – Calgary, AB @ SAIT Polytechnic^
Nov 10 – Saskatoon, SK @ Louis’ Pub^
Nov 11 – Winnipeg, MB @ Pyramid Cabaret^
Nov 14 – London, ON @ Call the Office^
Nov 15 – Ottawa, ON @ Babylon^
*w/the Dears
^w/Small Sins

BONUS PSYCHEDELIA!

Flowers In the Rain (The Move Cover)-The Kaiser Chiefs

Breathe (Pink Floyd cover)-The Shins

THE BIGGEST NEWS OF THE WEEK: Bloodsuckers feasting on the innocent!

Posted on September 26th, 2008 by ekko

The biggest news of the week came on Wednesday. No, it wasn’t that McCain was suspending his campaign so that he could rush to D.C. to vote on the bailout bill, but only after making three fundraising stops, spending the night in New York, and, ultimately, missing any opportunity to participate in the negotiations, which failed anyway.

No, it wasn’t that a third financial giant, Washington Mutual, has failed due to unprecedented Wall Street greed, that was actually precedented but nobody in the Bush administration wants to admit it because they’d rather be prescient than scholarly. To wit: “[The current economic] crisis has been caused by past, present and future economic policies.”

It wasn’t even the general realization that investment banks, which specialize in buying companies, repackaging them, and reselling them, are risky ventures when most of their capital is leveraged on loans that were provided without documentation, and when their assets are insured by a company that also invested heavily in loans that were provided without documentation.

It was this:

The biggest news of the week was in Marvel Apes #2: They’re not just apes . . . They’re vampires!

How fucking cool is that?