Cymarshall Law and Skip Slam are a true rap duo: Everliven perform together, in collaboration, building off of each other and both speaking to the same message. This isn’t a corporate marriage–these are two artists who feel the same ways and play music that is true to their hearts. And the production–by Sweden’s Beatnikz–are perfect: A mix of drum-machine beats, scratches and samples that feels old school and new jack at the same time. I heard BDP quite a few times, which is a pretty traditional choice for a sample, but there were plenty other drops and cuts that sound familiar but I can’t name them. That’s part of the fun of hip hop.
“Get Up Stand Up (Survivalist)” is the lead track, and while it doesn’t sample from the Bob Marley song, it definitely has the same revolutionary rage. It’s a great bouncing club track, and as such, it’s the perfect way to introduce an album that is a lot more thoughtful than most rap albums these days. It eases you in. The album builds from there on a theme of a lost America–one that needs to change to meet the needs of today’s underclass. “Life is like a prepaid phone/I need minutes,” they say on “Can You Relate,” a great example of an intelligent and politically aware rap song. It’s not unusual to hear shout outs for Obama in hip hop, but, frankly (and at the risk of offending) that’s more about the symbolic victory and hope than substance. But Everliven Sound wants to see what Obama can fix–almost daring him to fix the future for America (“Can you relate? I need a new job. Can you relate? These bills keep coming.”) Conscious rappers are always being compared to Talib and Mos Def, but I have to say: I liked this album a lot more than anything either of them ever produced.
There are some guest shots here, but so many that it gets distracting. C Rayz Walz takes a few verses, along with appearances by El Da Sensei and Hakim Greene. Yet all the featured performers fit their verses in with the political awareness and overall feel and content of Freedom 2. This too is refreshing and collaborative. True hip hop is about movement not pulling in a guest spot just for the sake of it.
All in all, this is a very different, innovative album. Yeah, they’ve got a lot of gripes about America, but the album still manages to feel optimistic and hopeful, and the artists’ love of hip hop music is infectious.
Can You Relate (Feat. John Robinson)
1. If you don’t go to Fong Songs, you’re an idiot. He’s quitting the game(!) and rewarding us with his 100 favorite covers of all time. And there’s actually way more than 100. I’m gonna miss him.
2. Some Chinese website keeps spamming me with comments. Annoying.
3. Childish Gambino (Donald Glover–the black dude named from my favorite sit com, Community) has a mixtape! And it’s off the hook. I mean, where else will you hear lyrics where a guy compares to himself to a fat guy getting on a plane? And he says he raps about himself not being on a boat. Y’know, he’s trying to be serious-like. But he’s still a funny motherf*cker. He can’t help himself. Go here to get it for free.
4. Chris and his gang have a bunch of interviews up with underground indie guys. Good stuff.
5. Ryan’s got a nice piece on London’s flavor of the month, Kingsley Flood. They’re unsigned (for now). And The Blue Walrus recently named “Boy and Bear” a band to watch. Check out some new music before your friends know about it!
6. Jesse Lester McReynolds, a recognized bluegrass legend and grammy winner, will be releasing a “Songs Of The Grateful Dead” on Woodstock Records on October 5, 2010. Thought I’ve give it a shout out.
7. Zeppelin-Jen Wood (direct download).
8. And I’m loving Langford’s album more every day. Getting Used to Uselessness.
9. And, finally, Comics Reporter named Howard the Duck one of the 25 most emblematic comics of the 1970s. I love Howie. I even have him on my desk at work because he’s “trapped in a world he never made.”
Elliot Randall is a country singer-songwriter who doesn’t sound like he should be from San Francisco. His music has an authentic feel, with lyrics that recall Waylon and Willie, along with the darker Merle and even the offbeat Dwight Yoakum, all coupled with the poppier sensibilities of The Eagles. The album is crystal clear, produced to perfection, yet it still feels organic. One of the biggest problem I have with “major label” bands is that the production always seems to eclipse the artist, leaving behind only traces of personality. Randall is indie, but he’s managed to capture the purity of major-label production without losing his authenticity.
Perhaps his ability to move between the safety of the studio and the initimacy of personal songwriting comes from the variety of his experiences: He grew up in South Carolina, the son of an Assistant Dean of English and Literature at Northwestern University, and earned a golf scholarship at Arizona State. Not to many country singers are experts at golf.
His second album, Caffeine & Gasoline, has tasty harmonies and ballads, along with good roadside barnburners like the title track, and showcases his guitar-playing to the fullest. There’s not a bad song here, but there’s one in particular that I feel deserves special mention. “Chasing My Tail” is a versatile anthem, one that could be a Tom Petty, Pearl Jam, or Modest Mouse song, and it’s easy to hear the vast possibilities of this song. Not that I’m saying Randall doesn’t do it well. He does. His pitch-perfect voice and understated guitar solo are breathtaking. This is one of those songs that makes the heart climb and race. It’s inspirational. Oh, and the slow ballad Casanova is also worth mentioning–a beautiful song. Hell, the whole album is terrific. Put it on, start your engine, and lose yourself in the drive.
Wots the deal with Local Natives? Do they make catchy indie pop or are they trying to make a statement? Are they accessible weird like Of Montreal, offbeat weird like Animal Collective, pop like Fleet Foxes, good like Grizzly Bear, or great like Arcade Fire?
The answer to all these questions: Yes.
Gorilla Manor, the debut album from L.A.’s Local Natives, is one of the most interesting records I’ve had the fortune to hear this year. There are elements of a lot of indie bands you’ve heard before, but I don’t think you’ve heard them in this combination. Or with this level of versatility. This band can do wicked choruses primed for indie rock concerts or radio airplay (“Airplanes”); tribal David Byrne stuff and chant-rock (“World News”; “Sun Hands”); Beach Boys/Beach House pop (“World News”); basic rock and roll (“Camera Talk”); and far-out freakfests (“Shape Shifter”). There’s even a Talking Heads cover (“Warning Sign”) that does justice to the original. No. Dare I say it? It surpasses the original. They’ve got great lyrics, great harmonies, and the music is tightly crafted and performed with intensity and power. In fact, the harmonies and “jam sensibilities” make this album so dense and rich that it’s impossible to identify any breakout performances or bandleader here. The band is a unit–a force of music. It’s not often that one hears a group as well knit as this one.
This album gets my highest recommendation. On Frenchkiss records, home of Passion Pit, The DoDos, and The Antlers. Fast becoming one of the greatest indie labels out there.
Airplanes
Airplanes video
I like me some K-Os. Not a huge fan, mind you, but I likes him enuf 2 pass this along . . .
1. Start Me UP
2. SheClipse
3. Faith (feat. Drake)
4. Joni Mitchellin’ Peelin’ Out (feat. Saukrates)
5. Dance in YO Car
6. BlackWater (feat. Sebastien Grainger)
7. Holy Cow
8. I Wish I Could Belive
9. Beauty is a Loaded Gun
10. The Lonely Ones
11. Zambony (Remix)
12. Faith (Clean) (feat. Drake)
k-os 2010 Tour Dates:
10/08 – Seattle, WA @ Nectar Lounge
10/09 – Boise, ID @ Promenade Music Festival
10/11 – Portland, OR @ Berbati’s Pan
10/13 – San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
10/14 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
10/15 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
10/16 – Scottsdale, AZ @ Chasers
10/18 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
10/19 – Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie Theatre
10/21 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
10/22 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Ballroom
10/23 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
10/24 – Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
10/25 – Columbus, OH @ Skully’s Music Diner
10/26 – Baltimore, MD @ Sonar Club Stage
10/28 – New York, NY @ Highline Ballroom
10/29 – Philadelphia, PA @ North Star Bar
10/31 – Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Downstairs
Is. Fucking. Awesome.
Best movie of the summer (damning with faint praise).
Third best movie of the year (so far).
I don’t know why the critics are slamming the script. I thought it was witty and stylish, as well as eye-inspiring.
I should note, though, that I don’t read the comic.
Free! (Or pay what you like.) Hot big band funk from Denver.
Get it here.
Taste one song:
Finally! This week’s rapid fire news about the best super-medium: Print! Not too much to say about it all this week though . . . And mostly Superman/Batman news.
- The final issue of the D.C. title, “Superma/Batman” will be #75, and it will feature major talent including Frank Quietly, Paul Levitz, Jerry Ordway, Peter Tomasi, Gene Ha, David Finch, J.T. Krul, Francis Manapul, Brian Azzarello, etc. If you’re curious—and I am–I’d recommend you buy the single issue because this title has sucked juice out of dead baby bottoms for years, so you don’t want to waste $15 on the trade paperback.
- Jeff “Sweet Tooth” Lemire will be writing a new Superboy series.
- John “Chew” Layman’s first foray into Marvel comics was the Shadowland: Bullseye one off. It sucks. Too bad, because Chew is fantastic.
- The king of weird Batman tales, Grant Morrison, has said that after Bruce Wayne is done with his (interminable) “return” series, we’ll see him recuire new Batmen over the course of a year’s worth of “Batman, Inc.” stories. While I enjoy Morrison’s “Batman and Robin” series, the miniseries “The Return of Bruce Wayne” has been dull and, it appears, meaningless. Batman, Inc., will feature a team of Batty guys that will include Dick Grayson, Knight and Squire, and El Guacho. Morrison says that the book will be one, long Batman story. Sounds like something to buy in trade, then, as is true with most of Morrison’s work. (It usually doesn’t make sense until you’re several issues deep, and by then you can’t remember what happened earlier.) Oh, and Morrison is bringing the little yellow chest circle back, so there’s that . . .
https://sites.google.com/a/mogmusicnetwork.com/mmn-quantcast-tag/