P.S.-I’ve started making my list of candidates for best of 2009 public. Go and tell me what I’m missing, or hold your peace at the end of the year!
Tags: Boobies, Picture of the day
P.S.-I’ve started making my list of candidates for best of 2009 public. Go and tell me what I’m missing, or hold your peace at the end of the year!
Tags: Boobies, Picture of the day
War Tapes busted out a solid EP last year, showing their skills at a gloomy version of dreampop, and now they’ve released their full-length debut. The Continental Divide is a solid, very Los Angeles effort–it’s got the hip-and-coolness of Southern California, but lacks any Tex-Mex influence whatsoever. Think Joy Division/New Order. Very male, too smart to be emo, too mature to appeal to the young girlie set, and too upbeat to be Goth. Though all those constituents will likely find some things they enjoy about the album. The nice thing about the record is it doesn’t sit still. Although much of it has the afore-described deep and dreamy sound, there are other songs that show raw edges and unclean, frayed threads. This is what prevents the album from being dull, or from being overmuch like so many other bands today who use this same sound.
For fans of: Interpol, Alkaline Trio, The Cure, The Bravery, Longwave.
It’s All I Can Do (The Cars cover)-The Bravery
Save it For Later (english beat)-Harvey Danger
Mixtapes are never even affairs, but Mikkey Halstead has come pretty damn close. Eschewing filler, stupid bits, annoying DJ shout outs, and posse cuts, Halstead’s mixtape is easily one of the best I’ve heard this year.
You may know Halstead from an appearance on Rhymefest‘s “Blue Collar” album, or you may just have heard the hype about Chicago’s newest MC. If you have, you’re probably excited as hell to hear “Uncrowned King.” Believe the hype.
Beginning with a bio over a “Comin’ From Where I’m From” beat, Halstead starts right out the box letting us know he’s honest, skilled, funny, and agile. Then he cuts right into biting on Chi-town’s best known hip hopper, speaking on his career over Kanye West’s “Can’t Tell Me Nothin.” There’s two guests here, KT & Ken Rock, who appear elsewhere on the mixtape as well, and they’re not bad. But as a listener, I can’t wait to hear from Halstead again.
Most of the production is by No I.D., who should need no introduction, and most of the content is conscious without being preachy (and with plenty of profanity), and is about his attempt to rise to the top of the industry. But Halstead can also spit street rhymes (such as “G Shit”), and over the course of the tape he hits beats used by Jay-Z, Common, Mobb Deep, Memphis Bleek, and many others, and even invites Clipse posse members Ab Liva & Famous on a track. One of the best mixtapes I’ve heard in years, just about every track is pure fire.
Taste it!
The Corner (remix)-Common, Kanye, and Mikkey (YSI)
A couple other takes on “The Corner:”
P.S.-I’ve started making my list of candidates for best of 2009 public. Go and tell me what I’m missing, or hold your peace at the end of the year!
I keep meaning to post about Lucero on MTV’s ‘$5 Cover, so here I’m finally getting around to it.
Lucero Upcoming Shows
Jun 12 2009 NJ Maxwells Hoboken, New Jersey
Jun 13 2009 NY Big Apple BBQ Block Party New York, New York
Jun 18 2009 The Norva Norfolk, Virginia
Jun 19 2009 Friday Cheers at Brown’s Island Richmond, Virginia
Jun 20 2009 The Grey Eagle Asheville, North Carolina
Jun 26 2009 Center For The Arts, Eagle Rock Los Angeles, California
Aug 15 2009 Subterranean Chicago, Illinois
Aug 16 2009 Green Music Fest 2009 Chicago, Illinois
Sep 11 2009 Crossroads KC Kansas City, Missouri
The River (Bruce Springsteen cover)-Josh Ritter
Mercury-Josh Ritter and Kathleen Edwards
Chelsea Hotel (Leonard Cohen)-Josh Ritter
P.S.-I’ve started making my list of candidates for best of 2009 public. Go and tell me what I’m missing, or hold your peace at the end of the year!
Tags: Covers, Picture of the day
I’m gonna say something that will ruin my backpacker-rap cred: I don’t dig Kool Keith or Deltron 3000. I don’t hate ‘em, I just don’t feel space rap. Or, I should say, I didn’t feel it. Until now.
Fresh Daily isn’t exactly space rap, to be sure. The intro, the cover, and a few of the tunes have cosmic overtones, but for the most part it’s just straight up hot beats, skilled verses, and clear delivery. From the AOK Collective, Fresh Daily is a Brooklyn MC whose mixtape cops beats and remixes from the likes of Kaney, Gorillaz, Oddisee, Flying Lotus, and Outkast, with guest spots by Outasight and MeLa Machinko and production by a slew of underground stars. Check the tracklist:
If you’re not ready to try this out, you’re not a hip hop fan. In which case, you haven’t even read this far, probably.
But if you’ve made it to this point, you’re ready to score this: here or here.
P.S.-I’ve started making my list of candidates for best of 2009 public. Go and tell me what I’m missing, or hold your peace at the end of the year!
Tags: Hip Hop, Horror, Picture of the day
If you listen to Man of Aran and think it sounds like a soundtrack . . . You’re right. The album is built to accompany a 1934 film that you’ve probably never seen . . . And probably never will. British Sea Power has continued their Herculean efforts to be as obscure as humanly possible with their latest effort, which features several 10+ minute extended (jams?) that, at times, sound like ocean noise and whale sounds. I remember a long time ago reading a pretty positive review of a British Sea Power record that asked the question, “Does anyone really listen to British Sea Power?” It resonated with me because their albums are usually pretty out there–atmospheric and technically proficient, to be sure, but not terribly impassioned. The band’s 2008 album Do You Like Rock Music?, got a good review from me, and I’m writing up Man of Aran as well, so I must dig BSP on some level, but this album is so . . . weird. Don’t get me wrong, I like it enough that I listened all the way through. But this is not music to drive the car to, or music to play while you’re making out. It’s music to play at night, when you’re high (or at least contemplative), and looking for something to carry your thoughts along gently.
Check it out.
CAll Me (Theme From American Gigilo)-Franz Ferdinand (Blondie cover) (YSI)
Pink Panther Theme (Fischerspooner Mix)-Fischerspooner (YSI)
(theme tune for an unwritten script)-Drunk Country. (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)
