Tags: Monkeys, Video of the day
Tags: Monkeys, Video of the day
I don’t want to confuse you, but these are the facts: “Okay” is a tribute song to indie rockers Okay, and it is the first song on the EP titled “Okay,” which also features two covers of songs by Okay. Venice Is Sinking is one of those bands who always impress me, yet I don’t listen to them nearly often enough. This is a sad fact, not a point of pride. Earlier this year, the Athens, GA, band released a wonderfully intricate record, AZAR, and now they’re re-releasing one song off of it (“Okay”) as an EP with, a couple new songs and covers. And I have to say, the EP is even better than the full-length.
The Okay covers– “Compass” and “Give Up”—are great, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why these songs didn’t make it on to a record. They’re extraordinary. I think “Give Up” probably didn’t fit on the AZAR record musically; that album is a collection of moody, orchestral songs, and “Give Up” is a little low key. It’s great, it’s just not like the rest of the songs on AZAR. The EP is rounded out with alternate versions of “Okay” and another AZAR track, “Ryan’s Song.”
If you haven’t heard Venice is Sinking yet, give the EP a try and see what you’re missing. It’s a home run.
I used to regularly be in the Hype top 10, used to get tons of HM traffic. Then they switched formats and now I get barely any HM traffic. If you want to see this blog continue, I need to build hits some. Please take a few secs to go to HM and “heart” my cuts. I’d really appreciate it. And leave me a comment so I know y’all are out there!
Jacqueline/In Bloom (Nirvana Cover)-Franz Ferdinand (YSI)
Tags: Covers
Chapter 7 is an extremely good producer who has been in the game for a long time (real name: Mike Desino from Jerz), and he’s just released his latest showcase for underground East Coast rappers. As with any producer’s album, the quality depends on the featured emcees, but Chapter 7 for the most part picks extraordinarily talented unknowns to make the most of his complex, trippy sound collages–folks such as Yak Ballz, Tame One, C-Chan of Slow Suicide and Division East’s The Man From Somewhere Else.
Track by track, there are definitely a few dogs here, but the gems are exceptional. “Optimus Grime” has amazing beats and lyrics good enough to overcome the “transform and roll out” bits at the end. It’s not really about the decepticon. And other shouted bits are pretty damn funny–like at the beginning of “Live” with Tame One, where hears, in the background, “Awww shit! They done fucked up now! R Kelly is free! O.J. did it! Tom Cruise is a faggot!” It’s nonsense. It’s stupid. And it’s hilarious. This whole song is pretty funny, actually, with lines like, “Punch your grams in the grill!”, it’s one of the strongest tracks among the many strong tracks on this album. And Yak Ballz’s “Chromatics” is a perfect, slowed-down grime beat for his unique ability to sound excited while he’s spitting laid back flow.
I’m recommending the album for songs like those aforementioned, and others like the R&B track “Believer” with MELissa Seitz; the musical interlude “Behind the Wall of Color,” which is reminiscent of MF Doomz Herbal tapes; the great lyrical spin on the Beatles’s classic “A Day in the Life” with Benn Grimm (“I woke up, breath tasted sour/But the clock say 9 that’s the champion hour/You can’t be sleepin’ late when you be rhymin’ great . . . So I pushed my girl to wall/yeah she got a good fucking now she’s sleeping it off”) . . . Fuck it. If you’re a hip hop fan and you don’t find at least half the cuts here (for me, it’s two-thirds) worth having on your regular rotation then . . . You probably aren’t a real underground fan.
Michael and Michael have Issues is a great new show. Here’s some vintage Showalter.
Tags: Video of the day
Last weekend I had some heavy-duty bookshelf-rearranging to do. Had to sort and file all my comic books into new holders. Figured it would take about an hour so I put in Rob Blackledge’s new album, “Inside These Walls.” I figured I could get through several submissions, since so many are so boring that I cut ‘em off or hit skip. Well, all I got through with was this one CD. And I was never tempted to cut it off. And that’s pretty high praise from a guy who has to listen to at least six albums a week or else I’ll be buried alive in in-box submissions.
The album is soul-pop, wholesome and pure, uncomplicated and unchallenging, but a fine example of this genre, in which I would include Ben Folds, Billy Joel, James Taylor, and maybe even Belle and Sebastian. Yeah, it’s sweet and commercial, but since when does music have to be edgy or obtuse? Every rough edge needs a smooth side to compare it to. That’s the job of folks like Blackledge. And he does it well. Music like this is perfect accompaniment for getting stuff done.
And the bookshelf came out great, by the way, thanks for asking.
Two covers that are polar opposites.
All You Need is Love-Beep Seals
Tags: Covers
TWAT soda.
