The wonderful debut album by New Hampshire’s Wild Light begins with the profanity-laden “California On My Mind,” with its hilariously unexpected chorus: “Fuck San Francisco! Fuck California!” sung in beautiful indie pop style over music that’s clearly influenced by Summer of Love psychedelia. The next song, “New Hampshire,” begins with the repeated chant: “There is a fork in the road where a car crashed.” But, again, the music is happy pop with uptempo drumming, synth-driven hooks, and great harmonies. So basically, two songs in and I’m like, who the fuck are these guys?
Apparently, it’s four dudes who’ve been hanging out together since they were kids and who played with the world’s greatest indie band, The Arcade Fire, as well as The Gutter Twins, MGMT, Clinic, Ambulance LTD, and LCD Soundsystem. In fact, I’ve read that a founding member of Wild Light was also a founding member of Arcade Fire. But where that band gets gloomy and heavy, Wild Light seem irrepresible. Their lyrical content is often dark, but the music remains stubbornly optimistic. Even when they slow down on “Surf Generation,” the band bounces along in a style that would make The Beach Boys proud.
The debut album can get a little repetitive by the end, but only in the same way an AC Newman album never changes: The band makes pop and doesn’t seem to be able to help itself from sounding hopeful, even when singing about death and broken hearts. This is a superior example of how much joy indie rock can bring without being superficial. There’s not a weak song here, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up being the best debut of 2009.
And M is for Metric. Off of “Live It Out,” their original song, Poster of a Girl, has a spoken/rap break in the middle of it. Plus, Emily Haines is a hottie. Indie chick love!
And here’s what you have to do to win: Drop a comment or send me an e-mail with the name of what you think my favorite Bell X1 song is. Guess it right, you win. If you all guess wrong, I’ll pick someone at random.
Contest will close on March 12, so get bizz-ay!
And here’s your preliminary prize, from the Daytrotter session:
Bell X1 US March Dates:
w/ Harlem Shakes & Duke Special
12 Washington DC – 9:30 Club
13 Philadelphia, PA – World Café Live
14 New York, NY – Highline Ballroom
17 Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
UPDATE:
Well, out of the entries I got, “Eve” is my favorite, but that winner did not get back to me within 24 hours. So, I’m going with “Rocky.” Hopefully, Adrienne will get in touch with me ASAP and she’ll get her prize. Thanks to all who entered.
My Humps-Alanis Morrisette. Is Fergie hip hop? No, I guess not. But she studied at the knee (on her knees?) of Wyclef Jean. I’ve never figured out why he ruined a really solid rap group by adding Fergie into the mix. No, wait, I did figure it out: $$$$.
The video for this is a must-see:
H is also for Dan Black’s cover of B.I.G.’s Hypnotize. My favorite Biggie hit, this cover turns this dance anthem into . . . A real song?
I is for . . .
I Need Love-Sexton Blake. There’s something charming about this awkward cover. It sounds like nerds trying desperately to get a hot chick. It’s interesting how the same song by LL Cool J is a seduction, not a plea.
Speaking of R Kelly, this may depart from the theme, but it’s so damn funny….
J is for . . .
Jimmy (M.I.A. cover)-Of Montreal. M.I.A., like Santogold, is part hip hop, part pop, part soul. I’m not a huge M.I.A. fan, but Danny Boyle made great use of her ubiquitous “Paper Planes” tune in Slumdog Millionaire, the third best movie of 2008 (regardless of what the Oscars said).
Luka Bloom-I Need Love. Lots of rockers like to cover this tune. Not sure why. It’s a lame rap, maybe that’s why guys like this think they can do it. Doesn’t work for me.
Girls (Beastie Boys)-esl. I’ve read interviews with Ad Rock and Mike D where they express regret over this song and say they were pressured by Rick Rubin to record it. I think that’s 20/20 liberal hindsight bullshit. They were little punk kids when they made it, and they’ve grown up, but let’s not turn them into victims. I went to school with this shrewd little fuckers, and they knew exactly what they were doing.
F is for . . .
Nick Foster. Rebel Without a Banjo-Nick Foster and Public Enemy. I love this cover. It’s funny and cool at the same time.
And The Fray’s cover of Kanye West‘s new, godawful single “Heartless.” Now don’t get me wrong, I dig Kanye. But 808 sucks. I mean, it sucks squirty wet farts out of rotting goat corpses.
G is for . . .
Nuthin’ But a G Thang-Streetwize. A smooth jazz cover of the West Coast’s biggest producer, from his best album. (Dr. Dre’s The Chronic of course.)
G is for Guilt By Association Volume 2, which has a great Kanye West cover (Can’t Tell Me Nothing by Francis and the Lights), which I’m not going to post here because it’s a recent release and I strongly advised you to buy it. Since you all do exactly what I tell you to, I’m sure you already have it.
And finally, G is for the answer to this question: How can this girl . . .
. . . covering this girl not be funny? Are You That Somebody-The Gossip. An Aliyaah cover. She’s kinda hip hop. Hip hop guys dig her, anyway.
No, not actors who think they can rap . . . Although that would be cool.
Two of the most popular posts in my storied career are “Rockers Who Think They Can Rap” and “More Rockers Who Think They Can Rap.” I get a lot of requests for reposts after links die, and no posts get more requests than these. But I don’t do reposts. My view is, I’ve been around for a long time and if you’re a new fan, enjoy what I’m into now. But in this case, I’m making an exception.
The main reason for this is that I’ve gotten some new rock covers of rap songs that I’ve been eager to post, so I figured I could repost some of the stuff from the original posts (just the good stuff), and some new, and make a big production out of it.
The original idea for the post was that rockers can’t rap. That’s still true. But lots of these songs are fun to hear anyway.
Here’s the intro to the post that started all, followed by the tunes.
Sometime in the mid-1970s, Afrika Bambaataa was kicking out a brand new sound up in the Bronx, while down at CBGBs punk was being created by Richard Hell, Blondie, The Ramones, and The Talking Heads. Although they were scared, a few of the white folks were taken across to the Bronx, to see what the black and brown folks were doing. Soon after, Debbie Harry came out with Rapture. And Raprock was born. Subsequently, Aerosmith would help break black rappers to a mainstream (suburban) market theretofore accessible only by The Beastie Boys. The Brooklyn trio helped break rap into a moneymaking art form. And because one good turn deserves another, Run DMC would revive the careers of Aerosmith who had previously managed to snort up, shoot up, and dry up all their cred.
The worm then turned as Limp Bizkit, Sugar Ray, and Linkin Park all tried to write original crossover tunes. Mostly, their efforts were suckcesspool.
The art of the crossover goes hand in hand with the art of the cover, but it is even trickier. A bad cover can be cheesy (or Richard Cheesey), but bad raprock is just Crazy Town.
Then when you marry the two, covers and rap . . . You get . . . Mixed results. Dynamite Hack famously did it with Boyz in the Hood. So famously, that I’m not even gonna post it here. Instead, below, you’ll find . . .
. . . Over the course this week, an A to Z of my favorite indie rockers rapping. At the end, you’ll find a zip file with all the songs listed here, including those that have individual links. Dig it.
ROCKERS WHO (THINK THEY) CAN RAP, PART ONE: A to C
A is for . . .
Around the Way Girl-Travis Morrison. A good way to begin this post: With a cover of one of the few old schoolers who was able to successfully do New Jack Swing and modern club bangers. If you’ve ever seen Krushgoove, L.L. Cool J is great in it. At just 16 years old, he has more swagger than MC Ren, Paris and The D.O.C. combined. Even better, Travis does a great version of this by staying true to himself–not trying to sound like LL.
B is also for Jonathan Coulton’s cover of Baby Got Back (Sir Mix-A-Lot). This is one of the greatest covers of all time. It takes a crude, and kind of stupid, banger and turns into something that almost feels meaningful. It’s rare that a cover artist makes a song his own. Even rarer that this is done with rap covers.
C is for . . .
Cee Lo knows what time it is.
6 covers of Crazy!
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley)-Cat Power. Here’s what I said about this song in my “More Rockers Who Think They Can Rap” post: Maybe Gnarls isn’t rap, I dunno, but Cee-Lo is definitely a rapper, and Cat definitely isn’t. So it fits this bill.
Crazy-Poingly
Crazy-Shawn Colvin
Crazy-Ray LaMontagne
Crazy-The Kooks
Crazy-Roster McCabe
And C is also for C U Tomorrow, for more! And don’t forget, at the end of this series, there WILL be a zip file.
“Trigger Fingers” has a little bit of Elvis Costello and a little bit of Fine Young Cannibals—the sound of ‘70s punk meeting ‘90s production, tossing a ska beat with dramatic, arena rock songwriting. It’s a song that needs to be played loud, with special attention to the frantic drumming and urgent rhythm guitar. It’s a great introduction to The Devoted Few’s new album, “Baby, You’re A Vampire,” a work that earns a place on the shelf next to New Pornographers, The Head Set, and Tapes N Tapes. Ben Fletcher (former guitarist for Sarah Blasko) crafted a collection of fantastic songs and, wisely, turned them over to producer Jacquire King (Kings Of Leon, Modest Mouse), whose skills at the mixing board are evident throughout. It’s easy to review the band referentially, tossing the afore-named artists in with Bell X1, Eskimo Joe, Bloc Party . . . It’s a familiar sound, but done far better than the vast majority of bands out there
trying to make modern indie rock. The songs swell and pulse, there’s excitement behind every note, meaning in every lyric, and raw energy coursing through every muscle, every vein, and every sinew.
It’s hard to find out much about this band, and that’s a damn shame. It may be because they’re stuck in Australia with the U.S.A. blues, yet again, as this is their third album and it screams, beats and kicks the wall, and demands to be heard. They need a world tour. Now.
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WHAT THE HELL IS BERKELEY PLACE?"Berkeley Place" has been a blog since 2000.
Berkeley Place is also 6 blocks of Brooklyn real estate, emerging from Sackett St. and ending at Banana Hill, a small park that grows a foot each year from dog shit and the corpses of dead rats. Though its residents have gotten wealthier over the decades, Berkeley Place still houses folks of all backgrounds with interests in, well, everything.
WHAT THE HELL GOES ON HERE?Ekko reviews independent music, comic books, and whatever else interests him.
WHAT THE HELL IS INDIE MUSIC?An independent record label (or indie record label) is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels.
- Wikipedia.org
That means they ain't in the RIAA, dude.
And M is for Metric. Off of “Live It Out,” their original song, 
