Who is Blu?
Blu is a 25 year old rapper from California. XXL recently named him one of the Top 10 Freshmen of 09'. Not sure exactly how they define freshman, since to date, he has released three full-length albums, one under the name Blu, one with the group C.R.A.C. Knuckles, and one with Johnson & Johnson.
He just released a mixtape entitled HerFavoriteColo(u)r which can be found via zShare and Mediafire
HerFavoriteColo(u)r is basically a laid-back, hip-hop pastiche of Billie Holiday, Wes Anderson, Charlie Kaufman, Ella Fitzgerald, Radiohead, among other well-chosen source material.
This is definitely some of the freshest production and rhyming I've heard in a while. Also, no autotune or Lil Wayne, which is turning out to be a major plus.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Blu(e).
Friday, February 13, 2009
KRIL RADIO
Hi guys, just wanted to let everyone know that the cool dudes/dudettes from The Red River have a radio station which can be accessed via the internet, making it a podcast? What, I don't know how the internet works these days... it all seems ready to implode on itself from being too big. OH WELL.
http://shakeemloose.com/radio2009.html
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Happy Melted City
Boy, the title of this blog should be something like, Black Moth Super Rainbow stand-in for twitter. Too bad suckaz! It ain't!...Well, for now anyway... Beta Carnage, the guy responsible for the visuals in the Tobacco dvd made a video for "Happy Melted City," a "dope" track off of Bonus Drippers that is a perfect visual representation of how you should feel inside while listening to this. It's so trippy, especially the part where a father and son somehow gave the mom the idea it was okay for her to play football with them, trippin hard yo.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Rockwell, Mysto & Pizzi and... ... ... Geico?
While watching the Blazers drop some bows on the Jazz tonight, a commercial for Geico came on using a raved-out remix of Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me," done by Mysto & Pizzi. Normally this kind of thing could be pretty cool but the original has got that special something that (cough, MICHAEL JACKSON????) just makes it undeniably good. Plus the video is just all 80's horrored out and corny. Well, anyway, you be the judge.
VS
Amid Much Fanfare, Undoubtedly.
Every Saturday night from 8pm to 9pm, I'll be playing some songs on the radio. Go to KWCW.net and click the "Listen In" link (located directly below the webcam image). If you're in the Walla Walla area, tune into 90.5 fm. Hip Hop Hooray, ho.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Am I Someone Worth Loving?
(Yep, looks fun to me)
Teenagers From OuterSpace is two dudes from Cypress, Cali laying down some pretty good party jamz. The two songs on their myspace are off of their first album, Summer In Space, which comes out Feb. 17th. The synthed out booty bass and handclaps (think high-fives) seem a little early for 2009 but maybe they are on to something... Maybe in the future and in space people will realize how tight bands are that put out summer albums in the dead of winter just because they feel like it.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Vacuuuuuuuuuuum
So what do you do with 2012 looming in the not so distant future? Some may run for their lives and others may run to the nearest gun store but the Austrian-born Christian Fennesz, mostly credited as just Fennesz, seems content to just stand there and provide the somber soundtrack for everyone. Vacuum, the third song off of Fennesz's latest release, Black Sea, is like most of his other songs in that it's fuzzy and ambient but this one is just so full of emotion... okay it's corny to fall for this stuff but what's great about the song is that while it is pretty bleak the warmth and fuzz of it all counter that as little blips and zips tinker around in the background like diamonds in the rough. If you like epic stuff definitely get this album, it's like one big epic soundtrack to a life that...wait, what am I even talking about?
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Snooze News
Remember how Mum's last album Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy came out not too long ago in '08? According to some myspace rumblings they have finished a new album and plan on playing many shows this year. And in case you were wondering about their feelings on the status government in Iceland–"The Icela
Sunday, January 25, 2009
yeah, if I get to drink kool-aid and listen to this all day
One of my all time favorites, Black Moth Super Rainbow, has a new single out on the Mexican Summer label. The A-side off the single asks: "Don't You Want to be in a Cult?" Pretty standard fare as far as BMSR are concerned with wacked out vocals and a beat that's always a hair off. It's the harpsichord and super clean digital strings in this one that set it apart from their older stuff. At this point I'm amazed that a band can have so many variations on what is essentially one theme and still keep it interesting. BMSR could keep making songs like this for the next five years and I think I would gobble 'em up as fast as they could dish them out.
So Many Kinds of Evil!
That's what I thought when I listened to Mastodon's new single, Divinations... And I was going to post a link to that song... But then I remembered that we don't really post metal on this blog. So instead, I've this song called "Courage" by The Whitest Boy Alive, one of the many projects that Norwegian disco/lite rock superstar Erlend Oye finds himself in these days. This one is just real good, it starts off as though it might want to be a Kings of Convenience track with the choppy rhodes and guitar but around 1:20 a super staccato synth melody comes and everything makes sense as Erlend begs that you show some "courage, courage, courage..." New The Whitest Boy Alive album, titled Rules, drops March '09.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Show Review: Breakfast Mountain, Atole, Truckasaurus
As embarrassing as it was to get lost in a part of town you are familiar with, I also paid the price and missed most of Breakfast Mountain’s set, but that’s okay, because Zack Osterlund, the mastermind of a set that one member of Truckasaurus dubbed “filthy,” is (full disclosure) an old friend from High School and I’m sure he understood. I have a feeling though that if his last song was any indication of the rest of his set that it was indeed “filthy”–he had the whole crowd yelling, “Fuck tha police, fuck tha police, fuck!”
This was the first time I got to see Atole play live with Marius Libman a.k.a. Copy, a.k.a. DJ Copy, trudging along on bass. The addition of Marius gives Atole’s somewhat wobbly live sound a more solid foundation so that the drums can really lock in. Two things struck me that hadn’t before: their songs began to take on a soundtrack element to them as I imagined high-speed car chase scenes and shady drug deals a la Superfly. The second thing was that with the bass they now sound like a relevant version of the Chemical Brothers–breathing much needed life into a genre many now consider to be in its last throws, much in the same way lead singer Manny juices up the crowd by showcasing his signature dance moves as he slides through the audience.
Who knew that when you combine a truck and a dinosaur you get an electronic act from Seattle? It’s hard to know where to begin when all I can think about is how rad and/or gnarly their name is. What was happening visually seems like a good place because perhaps more so than any other genre, electronic music often relies on visual elements in live settings to keep the audience engaged. Enter found footage splicing/mixing bonanza featuring all of the following: the famed match between Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior, American flags flying through space, skiing, explosions, helicopters, 80’s computers, motorcycles, some questionable dancing, Jean Claude Van Damme, trucks drag racing, and the obligatory guy humping hay and a dude who poured beer on his head and vomited on himself.
As far as the sonic elements were concerned their set was perhaps one of the most legitimate electronic music live shows I’ve seen. No laptops, just synths, sequencers, drum machines–they sport a Roland 303 and 808 live, and a few Gameboys (if handheld gaming devices aren’t legit I don’t know what is) plugged in and making bleeps and bloops. It felt like I was living in a nine year-old’s dream world. The similarities to Aphex Twin and other staples of electronic music’s past were there but Truckasaurus is definitely more accessible and more importantly, fun. Their energy spilled out into the audience, who, for the most part, danced it up or at the very least, nodded along, raising their beers and cheering when Truckasaurus ended their songs with the sounds of explosives.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Merriweather Post Pavilion (Tues. Jan. 20th)
As if Animal Collective wasn’t already one of the most talked about bands existing in the realm of “indie-whatdoyacallthis?-rock,” they had to go and make what is likely to be one of the best albums of the year. This should not only prove to a big year for them (they are touring Europe for three months straight starting in January) but considering how amazing I found (am still finding) this album, I think it’s going to be a big year for everyone who hears this.
The opener “In the Flowers” comes in like a spaceship taking off. These bizarre parallels or quasi-contradictions characterize the entire album, which seems to leave only to come back louder and more bass heavy than before and with more vocals layered as well. The lack of any sort of discernable guitars on the first track also sets the rules for the rest of the album which relies oh-so-heavily on sampling, synths, drum machines and layering, layering, layering and more layering.
The layering of vocals on the third track “Also Frightened,” is especially effective in creating a sort of paranoid happy feeling as multiple voices ask repeatedly “Are you also frightened?” and minimal percussion skitters about here and there between bass beats. Considering all the electronic elements that make up this album, it sounds remarkably organic¬–as though the lab this was produced in had been entirely overgrown by vines and foliage, the result of some sort of natural catastrophe.
The icing on the cake has to be the lyrics, which often address charming existential dilemma’s such as “am I really all the things that are outside of me?” Out of context this may seem like puzzlements reminding us of “how am I not myself?” but when lines such as that are in their element it is hard to deny them.
In the wake of the Panda Bear’s immensely successful album Person Pitch, Merriweather Post Pavilion is a testament to Noah Lennox’s (as well as other vocalist Dave Portner’s and producer Ben Allen’s) ingenuity, both creatively and technically in terms of the wizardry that goes into making songs like these. Occasionally while listening to this album I asked myself questions like, “where am I?” (oh right! I’m driving, whoops...), “Is this the future of music?” (surely it must be, it sounds like the music I imagine space makes!), “ How did they do THAT?!... Is that even possible?” “Why do I feel like I am underwater and in space and in a rainforest all at the same time!?”
I think the answer to all of these questions is positively “yes!,” especially in the instances where that answer doesn’t even make sense.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Aaaaaaand were back!
EDIT Jan 18th: Kyle is alive and well! He just finished his comprehensive English exams and is going to be posting soon and perhaps working on some layout stuff. Stay tuned!
Expect posts, postings, posts about posts, post posts etc. Tell your friends and your friends mom's, ya' heard?
p.s. I don't know where Kyle is or what he is doing, hopefully he is happy and well and all of that.
