Category — Music

I selected this little gem, Themselves performing live in Utah, because it showcases the radness that is the MPC1000, as well as the vocal talents of one Doseone. And ladies? He is easy on the eye.

Actually, if you like that, and your attention span hasn’t been destroyed by 140 character dialogue and half hours of advertising-injected television, check this out also. More Themselves, Themselves on Themselves, plus some live stuff.

Atmosphere have a new song out called To All My Friends. I’m not sure if they have an album in the works and this will be on it, but it’s a nice little track regardless.

Today I bought a physical copy of Dark Night of the Soul, a mysterious previously un-released project I first heard about last year.

Sparklehorse and Danger Mouse came together with guests including Black Francis, Vic Chesnutt, The Flaming Lips, Nina Persson and Iggy Pop.

The photos accompanying the album were taken by David Lynch.

The concept sounded very noir-ish and depressing, which, frankly, a large amount of my music collection could probably be accused of being.

There was a dispute with EMI, which seemed to stall the project and for a long time it was speculated that the album would never be released, indeed Danger Mouse obliquely suggested people find the music online and the very limited edition version of the album packaging was sold online with a blank CD-R.

Since then, tragically, both Vic Chesnutt and Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous have commited suicide. A few months ago the album was given a release date. It’s hard not to be cynical, so I’d like to think that the label realised it would be important to many fans to have access to the project as it was intended.

It’s a beautiful and moving album and incredibly cohesive for one with such an extensive list of collaborators.

It is already one of my favourite albums of the year, and one which I think I will return to for years to come.

Revenge – featuring The Flaming Lips

Man Who Played God – featuring Suzanne Vega

Angel’s Harp – featuring Black Francis

I was reading back through a really old blog which I kept from 2001 until 2005, and every entry had a song lyric for a title. One lyric in particular really struck me, and I’d obviouly picked it for a reason, but I couldn’t even remember the song it came from.

After some hunting, I realised it was Slovo’s Whisper. I’ve never owned the song or the album it’s on, but after downloading it, everything came rushing back. I know who played it for me, I know where I was when I first heard it. Everything this week has been reminding me of 2003.

When I first mentioned that I thought I might have a chance to listen to the impending Melvins release, The Bride Screamed Murder, I got a message from fellow Melvins buff and Australian photographer to the rock stars, Angelo Kehagias, which I think perfectly summed up what every Melvins fan wonders before any new release:

Is it a proper balls to the wall sludgefest … ???

Yes sir, it is. The Melvins have their balls to the wall within the first seconds of The Bride Screamed Murder, their third studio album in their current incarnation as a four piece, two parts Melvins, two parts Big Business.

What I like most about the most current Melvins lineup is the inclusion of Jared Warren, a vocalist who can more than hold his own with King Buzzo, which means Melvins fans get treated to call and response vocals, perfected here on the opening track ’The Water Glass’.

What I like second most about the lineup is how beefy everything sounds with two drummers and I’m absolutely dying to see this live. The last Melvins tour of Australia in 2009 happened as a happy by-product of the Fantômas tour, so the side shows the Melvins did were Buzz and Dale, with ring-in Trevor Dunn on bass. Excellent show, one of the best I saw that year, but I’ve been on the YouTubes and I know that I need to see this band live properly.

Witness, ‘The Bit’, the opening track from the album Stag. This is just a really poorly recorded live version, but you can just tell that it’s moved from amazing to insanely good live with two drummers:

The Bride Screamed Murder at times feel like a throwback to ’70s stadium rock, particularly the melodic guitar moments, but along come the Easter eggs, if you will, of most Melvins albums, like the last minute and a half of ‘Hospital Up’, which is filled with plunking piano and a noise that sounds like someone letting air out of a balloon, or torturing a plastic duck. Or maybe torturing a plastic duck with a balloon.

Another treat comes in the form of a cover of The Who’s famous track ‘My Generation’. The Melvins slow it right down, the intro a meandering bass line, the vocals delivered with an authentic disinterest, before the guitar and drums slowly fade to sound like a bell blowing in the wind.

Probably the biggest surprise comes in the final track, ‘P.G. x 3′, which opens with a lone harmonica, then a wistful and melodic vocal about lonesome valleys and mankind. Fear not, it goes all Laurie Anderson weird before the album suddenly ends.

To be sure there’s a formula to the Melvins, but it’s not a bad thing when it allows them to continue to produce the music fans know and love, and surprise them every single time, with little twists and unexpected interludes. The Bride Screamed Murder feels like the band are stretching their legs a little after two fairly solidly beefy albums [2006's (A) Senile Animal and 2008's Nude With Boots].

The album is out on June 1, once again through Ipecac Recordings and I for one will be snapping it up!

I made a bold statement recently on Twitter, proclaiming that I believed that I could prove anyone who didn’t like hop hop wrong.

Am I correct? Probably not, but I do believe that a lot of people may not be aware of exactly how diverse hip hop really is, and while they don’t enjoy some sub-genres of hip hop, they probably will others.

I was challenged to post a blog, explaining my bold statement, with lots of explanation and videos.

I decided early on that this project could get ridiculously large, especially given my penchant to deviate from the story, so I set myself some boundaries.

First, I’m not going to give the history of hip hop, I am vastly under-qualified to do so, instead, I am going to give my history with hip hop. Secondly, there is a ridiculous amount of hip hop out there, so I am going to limit myself mostly to my absolute favourites, and as a result, will almost exclusively be discussing artists from two record labels: the behemoth that is the independent label Rhymesayers Entertainment, and the more experimental collective label, anticon. records. As we shall see, these two labels share some interesting links. In a lot of cases, the artists I will be discussing from these labels also share links. I will try and keep it as simple as possible, while showing how all of this came together for me.

Lastly, I’m going to be linking a lot to Wiki pages and the like, because the history of each band is readily available elsewhere for anyone interested, it’d make this entry 85 years long if I try and re-write it all.

I think I’ve pretty much always liked hip hop. The first albums/singles I really got into had hip hop elements [Hello Michael Jackson's Dangerous and Prince's 'Cream'], and I also really liked Blondie from a young age [I have heard numerous times over the years that 'Rapture' was the first song featuring rapping to reach number one in the United States]. However, my seriously love of hip hop started in late high school, when Everlast released Whitey Ford Sings the Blues, which was known for the singles ‘What it’s Like’ and ‘Ends’. Although I like his hip hop/country songs the most, the rest of the album was also good, lots of old school hip hop influences.

Unfortunately, Everlast’s solo albums got progressively less interesting, and last year’s Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford was bland and disapppointing, even taking into account that his style of hip hop isn’t really what I listen to anymore anyway.

Then when I went to uni, I lived in Bathurst and there was a really cool record store, Stop’n'Rock and I was friends with a few of the dudes who worked there, and they were really good about ordering stuff in and if it sounded interesting, pumping you for info on the bands so they could stock the stuff it it sounded cool. I was heavily into Le Tigre and owned all their albums and wanted something similar, and somehow, a link was made and I got really into an all female hip hop group called Northern State. They have lots of literary and feminist references and are like old school Beastie Boys. Party music for smart ladies!

To explain how I got to where I am now, we need to discuss a little band called cLOUDDEAD, because it is from here, that almost all the links to the music I listen to today come from, which, to slap a genre on it, is progressive, or experimental hip hop.

cLOUDDEAD had three members: Doseone, Why? and Odd Nosdam. Doseone is Adam Drucker, a hip hopper, artist and poet. He is also in a band called Subtle, and another called Themselves. More on that later. When discussing cLOUDDEAD, Why? refers to Yoni Wolf, but later, the name Why? came to refer to the band, of which Yoni is a member. Confusing much? Odd Nosdam, Dave Madson, provided the music for cLOUDDEAD and has since worked on stuff including Mike Patton’s Peeping Tom project [which also featured Doseone]. He is also referenced in a Why? song, ‘A Sky for Shoeing Horses Under’, in the line ‘Rain goes perfect with a Nosdam mix tape’, which I got all arty with here.

When I first heard cLOUDDEAD, they were by far the most progressive hip hop I’d ever experienced. I find their timing patterns interesting. More traditional hip hop beats are fairly standard. From the getgo, you can bob your head to it, or throw your set in the air [which for years, I thought meant boobs, but that is a whole different story], but with cLOUDDEAD, the beats are unpredictable. The lyrics are very surreal, something I particularly enjoy, yet often there’s one or two lines that perfectly encapsulate something poignant in an everyday event and when you hear it, it’s quite mindblowing how well they describe a particular feeling. I think Yoni Wolf is a lyrical genius and perfected this in later years in Why? 

The following song is ‘pop song’, from cLOUDDEAD’s 2003 album, ten. I think it gives a pretty far indication of the many layers which characterised cLOUDDEAD in general.

So I had heard cLOUDDEAD, and I liked them very much, but then I took a detour, when I discovered a band called Atmosphere. Atmosphere are much more traditional hip hop. Atmosphere are made up of Slug, the emcee, and Ant, who does the sweet beats.

Atmosphere were the first band in a very long time which I liked enough to actively seek out as much of the back catalogue as I could. I even bought on CD the Atmosphere albums that I had also been able to download for free from the Rhymesayers website, but I’m happy I did, CDs rule.

Atmosphere are very much old school beats. It’s totally party music, but the lyrics are really interesting, Slug is a storyteller, mostly about the downtrodden, which seems to get them labelled as being emo. I know a lot of women who dig Atmosphere because the lyrics about women are definitely more of the appreciative kind, rather than the ‘All 800 million of you bitches, shake yo’ ass!’ variety. I will go out on a limb and say that each of their albums is pretty much all killer, no filler.

The link, you ask? There is indeed a link. Atmosphere are in tight with the anticon peeps, I have various tracks from different side projects, including Themselves, which I am getting to, which feature both Slug and Doseone, and both, along with several other emcees, were part of Deep Puddle Dynamics.

This first song is from their most recent album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, and the track is called ‘You’. It was such a long time ago and so many Atmosphere songs later, but I think this track was the first one I really dug. Look, I’m just going to say it, Slug is also very easy on the eye. It’s an aural and visual party here folks!

The second Atmosphere track is from an earlier album, You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having, and is called ‘Smart Went Crazy’, which contains one of my favourite Atmosphere lyrics, ‘Smart went nuts and rode a unicorn through the storm’.

After getting into Atmosphere and collecting everything I could, I decided to have a look around and see what else was on Rhymesayers, because I figured, if I liked them, I’d put some worth into someone they might be label mates with, or really appreciate.

I’m glad I did, because through Atmosphere and Rhymesayers, I discovered Stefon Alexander, or P.O.S.

P.O.S has a serious background in punk, and the way he incorporates that influence into hip hop is absolutely amazing, his most recent album, Never Better, really blew me away. It’s a live percussion sound with melodies and harmonies. It’s really unlike any other hip hop I’ve heard. The first track here is the title track, ‘Never Better’:

This next track is from the same album, and is called ‘Let it Rattle’. I think these are probably my favourite tracks from the album, but Never Better as a whole, really is incredibly tight and challenging.

So whilst I had discovered, and appreciated cLOUDDEAD, I thought of them more as an apparition. A one-of-a-kind band alone in the genre of prog hip hop. I had spent a great deal of time listening to Atmosphere, and thus much more traditional hip hop. Then one summer, a couple of years ago, two songs came along and very seriously blew my mind – one, from a group called Subtle, featuring Doseone, and another from Yoni Wolf’s band, which were now using the monkier Why?

The first song is called ‘Midas Gutz’ and comes from Subtle’s album, For Hero: For Fool. I find it hard to explain why I found this song so intriguing. I think Doseone’s delivery is really unique, and I enjoy it a lot. Lyrically the song is very strange, which is probably what attracts me to most of Dose’s projects. The imagery is quite dark, and I’m not sure even after hundred of listens, that I’m really sure what it’s about. There’s no clip for the song, but the track was on YouTube. Please enjoy. 

The second song is ‘Vowels pt. 2′ by Why? I was in a car when I first heard this and I think within seconds, my response was ‘Oh my god. Who is this?!’ From the sample of a chain dropping to the absolutely heartbreaking lyrics set to music that makes me think of summer, ‘Vowels pt. 2′ pretty much sums up why Why? fast became my favourite band. More on that later, however…

I really hope you enjoy ‘Vowels’ because it certainly made me rethink hip hop.

Because I was so ridiculously obsessed with ‘Midas Gutz’ and ‘Vowels pt. 2′, I didn’t actually hear any other music from either band for months afterwards. I’m sure if I had a last.fm account it would have looked something like:

Why? – ‘Vowels pt. 2′: 1,000,000 plays
Subtle – ‘Midas Gutz’: 950,000 plays

Then a little group called Themselves came along with a mix-tape, TheFREEhoudini. Mix-tapes are quite common in hip hop, they are released for a variety of reasons, to showcase a bunch of artists on a label, or, in this case, to give the audience a little sweetener before an album drops.

Here’s where you need to hold your hats because all the links? They’re about to collide and get a whole lotta confusing.

Ok, so…Themselves is Doseone and a producer, Jel. TheFREEhoudini features, amongst others, Slug, from our good friends Atmosphere, and a whole bunch of others including Busdriver, Buck 65, Sole and Aesop Rock. But on one particular track, wait for it, wait for it … the guests are …Yoni Wolf aka Why? and Odd Nosdam. As we have learnt today, Doseone + Why? + Odd Nosdam = cLOUDDEAD!

And it all comes together!

Basically, TheFREEhoudini mix-tape is very important, because I finally broke from listening to the same two songs over and over and in the case of Yoni, became very obsessed with hearing everything he’d done.

The first track we have here is ‘rapping4money’ which is the one featuring Yoni Wolf and Odd Nosdam. It’s my favourite track and it’s super duper catchy and quirky.

This next track is my second favourite, and it’s all nasty and features Aesop Rock and one of my favourite hip hop lines: ‘There ain’t enough water in the world/You can buy it, I’ll hunt mine’. Just you wait ’til you hear Doseone deliver his part of that line, it gives me goosebumps!

So where did this all lead me? It led me to Why? and Why? are now one of my all time favourite acts. I never really got The Beatles. People talk about the melody and the lyrics and it just didn’t ever reason resonate with me [and thus I became a music leper, because damn, you kids love you some Beatles], but I think I found that feeling with Why?

I think Yoni Wolf is without a doubt the best lyricist of any band, of any genre, of anything, that I have ever heard. He has this uncanny knack for seeing universal, yet everyday events and describing them in the strangest, yet most perfect way.

We’ve already heard ‘The Vowels pt. 2′, so I thought I’d share two more songs.

The, ‘A Sky for Shoeing Horses Under’ first is less hip hop and very beautiful. The clip is also amazing, it’s one shot and all kinds of bizarre:
 

The second track ‘Rubber Traits’ is one of my favourite Why? tracks, it has the most amazing lines leading into the chorus. Also, the clip contains man-mouthed dogs. Yes.

One thing I like about the hip hop collective, is that when they’re not making shout outs to men in submarines, they’re usually making shout outs to other artists. It’s nice to see such a supportive community, but it’s also awesome for finding new hip hop you might also like. Like even in making this, I was on the Rhymesayers YouTube channel looking for songs to include and I came across a really sweet, upbeat tune by Grieves & Budo:

And so in conclusion, hip hop isn’t about the same old boring beats and lyrics about Bacardi, it’s a very dynamic and interesting genre of music, which incorporates everything from punk to out-and-out weirdness.

</Julia’s Introduction to Hip Hop for Non-Believers>

I’m making a list of all the music I’ve dug that was released in 2010. Novel concept, no?

It is a shame that Baroness’s Blue Record was released in 2009, because it is, so far, the best thing I’ve heard in 2010.

Words that spring to mind when I listen to it, include: rollicking, horseback, vikings and eating lunch off a sword.

Favourite tracks include: Bullhead’s Psalm, Jake Leg, Ogeechee Hymnal and A Horse Called Golgotha.

I keep talking about it being shoe-gazing metal with ’70s throwback style guitar. That, perhaps means nothing. Blue Record is not nothing, it is a really, exceptionally good album and I will be forever thankful that I accidentally saw them support Isis.

I tongue my bottom teeth
and look at the sidewalk
in front of me
as my tennis shoes go in and out of the frame

- A Sky for Shoeing Horses Under, Why?

I wanted to do the ol’ end of year music blog post, but when I compiled my list of favourite music from 2009, I realised almost none of it was actually released this year and that I am almost certainly becoming certifiably insane.

Seeing as though my memory is shot, I’m going to post music I loved from 2009, as it springs to mind.

Albums

P.O.S – Never Better

Before Never Better, I’d not heard of P.O.S, but now I am really obsessed and plan in 2010 to hunt down his back catalogue.

P.O.S is a hip-hop artist from Minneapolis and is on the Rhymesayers label, where many good things reside. He used to be in a punk band called Om, and I think the influences of that style of music are still really evident in his music today. It’s hip-hop with jarring percussion and timing changes.

My favourite song from the album is the title track:

Why? – Eskimo Snow

Why? are probably one of my favourite bands, combining hip-hop and indie.

I find the lyrics the most interesting part of Why? They describe really ordinary events, in very minute detail, but somehow it’s also very absurd.

Musically, Why? is very tantalising too, I always feel at the end of each song like a peak was almost reached, but that they deliberately never quite get there.

Eskimo Snow is a really poignant album and one of my favourite tracks is A Sky for Shoeing Horses Under:

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Ah Animal Collective. Dreamy, dreamy music and lyrics I can never quite catch. Merriweather Post Pavilion provided my summer song for earlier this year, the beautiful and intoxicating My Girls. Now many more young people know about adobe slabs.

My Girls is an excellent addition to any travel mix too:

Singles

Cloud Control – Gold Canary

There was only one single [are they even called singles these days?] that mattered this year, and that was Australian band Cloud Control‘s gorgeous song Gold Canary. This is to the coming summer what My Girls was to last summer, the perfect late afternoon, cider drinking accompaniment.

Forgive me all the fantastic music I have forgotten.