Rocking with the Shocking Pinks!

I've never been huge on Neil Young, which is why this post has nothing to do with his album Everybody's Rocking with the Shocking Pinks. It has everything to do with New Zealand's Nick Harte.

In my excitement over new LCD yesterday, I checked out a couple DFA acts I had never given a good listen to. Harte's band, Shocking Pinks, stood out as something I'll be listening to a lot more of. Check out the super new wavey video for the track "Emily".

Bonus points for the Black Flag Tattoo

I like "Emily" a lot, but my favorite track is definitely "Jealousy".

"Emily" by Shocking Pinks
"Jealousy" by Shocking Pinks

The track starts with this haunting atmospheric that's really well complemented by their grimy drum sound, then picks up with two beautiful interlocking guitar parts, one bleating and droning while the other melody dances over it. The song then jumps once more to a minimalist, percussion driven section, before returning to the lush atmospheric guitars. Like I said, it's definitely my favorite, but the rest of the album is absolutely worth your time.

I also found this video of Johnny Cash singing with Oscar the Grouch, one of several appearances he did with the muppets. It's fantastic.

It'd also be worth your while to check out Said the Gramophone for the Miracle Fortress cover of Digital Love, it's pretty awesome.

Lively Cool Dancefloor Soundsystem

A new song went up on LCD soundsystem's myspace page yesterday. Apparently it's been written for the movie "21" which is coming out sometime soon, about Kevin Spacey teaching a bunch of kids to cheat at cards or something along those lines. It doesn't really matter, that's not what's important here. What's important is how nutty this track is. Two minutes plus chug by before the vocals kick in, with the usual dominant, fuzzed out bass. Then it gets layered with a spaced out synth, before this grimy guitar lead kicks in, then BAM vocals. The song is well over five minutes, atypical from usual Hollywood soundtrack fare, but it doesn't drag for a second. The guitar really shines throughout, although I think the destructive solo at the end might be my favorite moment for it. Check it out yourself.

No Rest for the Wicked (Awesome)

"Big Ideas" by LCD Soundsystem

I also listened to "Freak Out/Starry Eyes" for the first time, today. Although "Big Ideas" is an amazing track, I could probably have identified it as an LCD song without knowing that it was one. I can't say the same is true about "Freak Out/Starry Eyes", and I mean that in the best way possible. There's a lot of cool hand drumming, and triangles, and different synth sounds. I stumbled across it over at 20jazzfunkgreats, so do yourself a favor and do the same. I'm definitely going to be picking up the "Confuse the Marketplace" EP when I get a job.

Mmmm, golden delicious

I caught an interview this weekend on NPR with former Soul Coughing frontman, Mike Doughty. Now I know Druglas has long been a fan, but he was always an artist I just sort of enjoyed in passing. I liked Soul Coughing, and I enjoyed his solo work if I happened to hear it, but I didn't find myself listening to him all that often. But since viruses attacked my computer, and a chunk of my music collection with it, I've been getting into some stuff that I hadn't spent much time listening to before. I have to say, give what I've heard so far, I'm really looking forward to hearing the rest of Doughty's newest solo record, Golden Delicious, which drops today. His lyrics are written with a very unique pacing and have almost a percussive quality to them, something he discusses in the NPR interview. I'm really enjoying "Fort Hood", a song written about the situation in Iraq that gets his message across without becoming preachy or condescending. "I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress to Keep on Dancing" is a fun song, but hasn't grown on me as much as "Fort Hood" has yet. Maybe it's because "Fort Hood" references Young Jeezy. "27 Jennifers" is an older song, but it's given a really cool new treatment on this album.

"Fort Hood" by Mike Doughty
"I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress To Keep on Dancing" by Mike Doughty
"27 Jennifers" by Mike Doughty

On a slightly more embarrassing note, once I heard the interview, I got a song stuck in my head. I knew it was a song of his that I hadn't heard in a while, but I couldn't remember what the name of the song was, or any of the words. So after searching through older albums and listening to various tracks, I realized it was actually a combination of two songs. One was "Sunken Eyed Girl" off of Haughty Melodic, a really great tune.

"Sunken Eyed Girl" by Mike Doughty

The other was a song that a character on Degrassi wrote and sang while he was in Vancouver becoming a coke addict. Sooo, I was kind of embarrassed for myself when I realized that.

New Music Pt. I

A couple times a year I’ll go on a kick to find something new (to me at least). Partially because I’m bored of what I have and because I like being able to understand what people are talking about. That happened to me a couple weeks ago and I’ve been digging up new stuff since. Couple hits, couple misses.

British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?

I’ll admit that I haven’t listened to this album enough but I’d like to think I get the appeal of this band. Unfortunately, they’re too reminiscent of an aggressive joy division which was never a sound I liked to begin with but if that’s your style I’m sure they’d be up your alley.

Menomena – Friend and Foe

From what I’ve read this came out last year but I found it after browsing a couple favorites lists. The vocals, the piano use and the layering immediately reminded me of TV on the Radio. The instrumentation makes the songs lush and have character, especially the bells and keyboard and the occasional groove from the barisax which is funky and awesome. This is one that’s growing on me and I’d definitely recommend.

Vampire Weekend – ST

Someone reincarnated Paul Simon during his tribal years and made him the lead singer and song writer for Vampire Weekend. That’s not to say this isn’t good but it feels like I’m listening to a stripped down version of “In the Jungle” all over again. As I was first listening to it my girlfriend walked in the room and without knowing what band it was automatically started dancing around which says something for the grooves on this album. It’s undoubtedly a fun album and worth a listen if post-tribal Paul Simon sounds good to you.

Lightspeed Champion – Falling Off the Lavender Bridge

I don’t know the back story of this guy but judging from the cover of this album and his myspace page this group is slightly tongue-in-cheek. Very country/Americana/folk sound he’s developed, and I read he was from the UK, which is convincing and well produced. The instrumentation on this album ranges from merely him singing and an acoustic guitar to a mini-orchestra with a string quartet and piano. I need to listen to this one more to digest it but the stand out tracks so far have been “Devil Tricks for a Bitch” (I’m obsessed with the pizzicato strings in the beginning) and “Midnight Surprise”.

I’ll continue this thread with part II after I’ve listened to a couple other releases I’m sitting on at the moment. To be continued.

Goooooooooooooooo Team!

Have you seen the video for "Doing It Right" by the Go! Team?

It looks exactly like what I picture in my head when I hear the go! team.

Conor and the Chipmunks

So I was doing some studying last night and I went to put a record on, unintentionally leaving the speed on 45 rpms instead of switching it to 33. It's not the first time I've done it, but this time I made a startling discovery.

When you play Bright Eyes at approximately 1.36x the recording speed, it becomes cheery.

I was pretty surprised myself, considering that side 1 of Digital Ash in a Digital Urn is not something I'd ever thought could be cheery, no matter what the tempo.

Yet, it was.

Side 2... eh, not so much. "I believe in Symmetry" just sort of sounded like a TV theme song and the song after that was still really mopey sounding.

Listen for yourself.

"Gold Mine Gutted" by Bright Eyes

"Gold Mine Gutted" by Conor and the Chipmunks

I've never really liked this tune. It's just such a bummer, even for a bright eyes song. But, damn, listen to it fast. It's a completely different song.

I Went Bonkers in Yonkers

Right now, I am all about "Good Love" by Sheek Louch, from his upcoming album Silverback Gorilla. I've actually been meaning to write about it for a while now. I've been a fan of the D-Block boys since the Lox, but I have to admit I always thought Sheek was overshadowed by Styles P and Jadakiss. This song has totally changed my mind. I wouldn't say he's my new favorite, but he's definitely come up in terms of my admiration. Aside from being impressed with Sheek's performance, the production on this song is untouchable. Maybe I'm just a sucker for soul beats (I am), but I think it's nice to hear Sheek rapping over something a little more interesting than the standard 808 claps.

I'm a little surprised this song hit the radio when it did. The soulful hooks, the bubbly instrumentation, even the lyrical content, this has all the makings of a summer jam. Plus, it's one of those instances where the clean version is just as enjoyable as the dirty version, so listen to it while you're driving your Grandma around Florida. Hopefully when the album drops in March, the warm weather will have kicked in and this song can enjoy a little success. This is a track that deserves it.

"Good Love" (Clean) by Sheek Louch

"Good Love" (Dirty) by Sheek Louch

b-b-b-bonus!

"Blow Your Mind"Remix feat. Swizzy, Sheek Louch, and Styles P by Jadakiss

John Legend. Because I can't let the most recent entry be about the Used for too long.

It's really hit me recently how spoiled I've been over the past few years in terms of always having a computer. Now that my only computer is completely riddled with viruses and spyware (damn you, free porno sites), I'm basically confined to on-campus computer labs. So I guess I'm still more spoiled than most. It astounds me that I once attended a school where the cost of one class was greater than the tuition for an entire semester at my current school, yet the computers at this school are much nicer (Fuck you Seton Hall, thumbs up CUNY system).

But I digress.

Anyways, a couple nights ago, a friend invited me to a free open bar. She works at z100, so she was able to snag tickets to an event at Pascha sponsored by Pepsi. I'm never one to poo-poo some free drinks, and we hadn't hung out in a while, so I said, "sure thing." Once I met her, I find out that John Legend is scheduled to perform. Awesome.

I've always liked John Legend, so that was a pretty cool thing to hear. But before I get into his performance, let's talk about how great the open bar was. It was pretty difficult getting service, but I'm no club rat, so I'm just not used to that. It's hard to complain when you're waiting to be served free shit. I'm thinking it's going to be an open bar of beers or all bottom shelf, limited selection, that sort of thing. Nope. They were popping bottles of champagne, pouring Hennessey and pepsi, grey goose, energy drinks, any kinds of beer, all sorts of things you wouldn't expect from an open bar. They weren't serving shots, but they WERE serving triple shots on the rocks. At one point I was wandering around with a highball glass completely full of patron in one hand and a corona in the other. I was living the life, let me tell you. Now, back to the music.

Before Legend went on there was a female vocalist named Estelle. She seemed to have a British accent, and she seemed pretty good, but unfortunately I have no interest in any Estelles that aren't Estelle Getty. So that's all the time I'm going to spend on her set.

When I described John Legend to my roommate who was unfamiliar with him, I said, "he's a contemporary R&B singer who works with a lot of popular acts like Kanye West, but he's a little bit more WPLG than Hot97," and it's true. For whatever reason, all the middle aged ladies at my old job loved John Legend and I feel like he's totally under appreciated by folks my age. You wouldn't have known it from being at Pascha that night, though. The crowd was wild for the man, and he delivered a hell of a show. I'd always considered "Heaven" to be my jam, but seeing everything live really brought me around on the song "Slow Dance". It didn't hurt that he brought a lady of the thicker variety up on stage to dance with him, something I tend to admire.

Here's him performing the song at Albert Hall.

I was already a fan of the man before the show, but his live presence really showed a depth to him as a musician that I was not entirely aware of. I implore anyone reading this to give him a good deep listen, and if you have the chance, to see him live. He only gets better the more you listen.

The Curse

I love to whistle, plain and simple.

The only problem with it is that sometimes I do it without realizing it. This brings about some slightly embarrassing situations, like the time I caught myself whistling Celine Dion's Titanic song while I was working construction. Usually it's not so much embarrassment, however, and more of, "why the hell am I whistling that?"

Origin Story:

A few years back (spring 2005 to be precise), I was living with a really fun group of people. I had a cool roommate and a crazy girlfriend (in the good way, at that point). We hung out a lot with another girl who lived next door and with another couple that basically lived downstairs. Things were pretty wild for that spring and it was a lot of fun. There was only one problem. That problem was a band called the used.

I didn't care much for the band one way or the other. I didn't really see them as very special or particularly offensive. Everyone else I hung out with loved them. So I was stuck listening to them a lot. Things basically came to a point when I was sleeping in the back seat of my car on the way home from a spring break trip. While I was sleeping, the Used was being played in my CD player. I'm okay with that, I'm sleeping. The only problem was that after I woke up and took over driving again, the CD player seemed to be broken and wouldn't stop playing the CD. It was awful. That's pretty much what drove me crazy with disgust for the band.

Back to Present Day:

Times change and I haven't seen any of those kids in quite some time. I did talk to my former roommate last night though. As it usually happens when I think about that group, I got the Used stuck in my head. Now, they won't leave. All day, I've been catching myself whistling their song "I Caught Fire" and it's driving me mad.

Listen to it and share my pain. I wish this chorus wasn't so catchy.

The Jack Johnson Sessions are so Good

No not that Jack Johnson, that Jack Johnson.

"The Mask" (part one) by Miles Davis

"Wow, Miles Davis invented Grindcore." - The Breetard

One Snazzy Joint

So a couple nights ago I spent some quality time with the breetard and our parents and we were lucky enough to have gotten tickets to Dizzy's Club in Manhattan as a Christmas gift (yeah Grandma). I'd never been to the place before and was pretty blown away. It's a real small place, with a slightly raised stage, and the wall behind the stage is entirely glass, looking out over the city. The tickets didn't say who was going to be performing so it was a nice surprise when we got there that it was actually someone I'm familiar with, Paquito D'Rivera. He played with an ensemble of 6, plus a bandoneon player on several songs. Although all the instrumentalists were extremely talented, the bass player stood out for me as the virtuoso of the group (outside of D'Rivera himself). During one piece he played two extremely complex counterpoint melodies at once, using each hand to hammer-on the notes. The percussion was phenomenal as well. The set player was amazingly technical in his playing and the auxillary percussionists did a great job of blending their sounds with his, playing more drums, chimes, bells, and other little noisemakers than I could count. The trumpet / trombone player had a style very similar to D'Rivera's sax playing, very fast and highly melodic, with few sweeping notes and lots of staccato. Although he was playing mostly a background role, the pianist really shone on the slower pieces and one of the later up tempo songs. There was a section where he and the bandoneon took the center stage playing off of each other that was one of the high points of the show. D'Rivera himself still blew them all away, playing swirling complex melodies as if it was the most natural thing a person could do.

Unfortunately, he was not wearing this outfit.

Not only is D'Rivera an amazing sax player, but he was completely comfortable on stage talking to the crowd. He didn't overdo it with the talking, but threw in a couple stories about Gillespie, who he worked with from a very early point in his career, and background information on the pieces they played and the different genres they crossed. Monday is D'Rivera's last night at the club, and I'd guess it was sold out, but if you can get there by any means, It comes highly reccomended from yours truly. Even if you have a chance to see him elsewhere, or see someone else at Dizzy's, I'd say both would be enjoyable experiences.

"Guataca City" (to David Amram) by Paquito D'Rivera
This song's a great example of the style of most of his set. Upbeat, complex melodies. Awesome.

In other news, I've listened to "Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes" by Paul Simon at least 5 times today. I hope everyone keeps in mind how great a song that is. How great the whole graceland album is, even.

"Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes" by Paul Simon

Heeeeee is 1-3-8

I don't think I've ever made a secret of the fact that I love the Misfits.

Even though the band was finished before I was even born, I've loved them since the first time I heard them, sometime back in Grade School. When I first started playing my guitar with bands in people's basements, we played Black Sabbath and the Misfits. If I really stop to think about it, I'll always put Glenn Danzig in my top 5 vocalists. Sometimes I even think about getting a misfits tattoo. But not this one...

I came across this today while trolling the internet for hookers and I am dumbfounded by it on so many levels. I can't even imagine what this guy is going to do for the rest of his life. He's pretty much resigned himself to being in movies like Dee Snider's "Strangeland" for the rest of his life. Or he could be one of the gang-bangers in the first Batman movie that had Chris O'Donnell. Remember those magnificient neon bastards?

Now there's a face that won't have trouble finding a job. Unless it's in a hit movie.

I feel like even the members of the various groups that have used the Misfits name would see this guy and say, "Errr, maybe a bit overboard... mmm?"

"Last Caress" by the Misfits

I don't care if this song is about killing babies and violent sex with the listener's mother. The first time I heard this song, I knew by the end of the first two bars that it was a beautiful song. It really is.

"Bullet" by the Misfits

Probably the most artful use of the phrase "Masturbate Me" to ever be used in conjunction with a historical analysis of the JFK assassination.

"Angelfuck" by the Misfits

If you can listen to this song and "Last Caress" and tell me that Danzig doesn't have ridiculous chops as a vocalist, then you can go straight to purgatory.

"We are 138" featuring Henry Rollins by the Misfits

This live track is hilarious. Take notice of how Henry doesn't seem to have a consistent handle on the lyrics and devotes himself instead to wordless screaming. In all fairness, this was recorded during a time period when Rollins was supposedly ingesting tons of Acid.

The Ghost, plus Art of the Mix

So... new Ghostface with a titty-delicious album cover. It must be good, right? Maybe. I avoided putting my commentary out right when I first heard the album, as to not jump the gun on hasty opinions, but more than a week or so later, I'm still not sure how I feel. It bears definite similarities to fishscale, but while fishscale branched out with the far out sounds on tracks like Just Blaze's "The Champ", Pete Rock's "Dogs of War", and DOOM's "Underwater", The Big Doe Rehab is relatively narrow in the scope of its sound and lacking in big gun producers.

The production is heavily dipped in a classic R&B sound. Two appearances from the Rhythm Roots All-Stars take things in the direction of latin funk and afrobeat, but both appearances are saved for skits, not songs. I'm not entirely sure what to think of Ghost's flow on the album either. Previously, he's used a slow calm voice for smoother R&B tracks. Here we see him spitting in the hype shouted style he normally reserves for more bombastic cuts. It provides an interesting dynamic between the vocals and the beat, but it also leaves the listener wondering how much time and thought went into the album as a whole. Final verdict, Ghostface on a bad day is still Ghostface. This is an album I'll definitely keep in rotation, but it's not destined to become one of the Wu Tang classics.

One of the tracks that stands out for me is "Shakey Dog Starring Lolita" feat. Raekwon. The track is a sequel of sorts to "Shakey Dog" off of Fishscale and is one of the few times on the album where it seems like Ghost's flow was well matched to the track. He goes a bit off the deep end towards the end of the track, though.

"Shakey Dog Starring Lolita" feat. the Chef by Ghostface Killah

In Other News,

I've recently gotten into the website Art of the Mix. Users post up the tracklists of their own mixes (mp3, CD, minidisc, or mix tape) and share feedback with each other. There are a TON of wack mixes on here, but I've also come across some interesting stuff, like A Danceable Solution to Teenage Revolution and Babylon's Burning Vol. 1. My first contribution to the site went up today (you can see it here) and I decided I'd share it here with you folks. The zip file contains all the tracks from side A and side B, albeit out of order. Here's the tracklisting for those of you too lazy to click over to AOTM.

Download, Cigarbox Guitars Volume 3, Riot Riot Fight
(megaupload)

Side A

1. "Start the Riot" by Atari Teenage Riot
2. "I Feel Like Dying" by Lil' Wayne
3. "Silver Rocket" by Sonic Youth
4. "Indecision Time" by Hüsker Dü
5. "Atmosphere" by Joy Division
6. "What's the Latest?" by Riff-Raff
7. "Lighters" by Plow United
8. "Never as Tired as When I'm Waking Up" by LCD Soundsystem
9. "Lightworks" by J Dilla Jay Dee
10. "Ain't the Devil Happy" by Jeru tha Damaja
11. "Dead Flowers" by the Rolling Stones
12. "Remainder" by Rites of Spring
13. "Purgatory" by Indecision
14. "Natural's Not In It" (from the Peel Sessions) by Gang of Four

Side B

1. "Bonjour Jeune Fille" by The Blow
2. "A Dream" (Blockhead Remix) by Donny Hathaway
3. "Patience" by Rites of Spring
4. "Me and You" by Egg Hunt
5. "USA" by Reagan Youth
6. "Work, Part II" feat. Big L by Gang Starr
7. "Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards" by Billy Bragg
8. "House of Cards" by Radiohead
9. "Pass This On" by the Knife
10. "Be Good" by Tokyo Police Club
11. "Las Cruces Jail" by Two Gallants
12. "Banned in D.C." by Bad Brains
13. "Donuts (outro)" by J Dilla Jay Dee
14. "Workonit" by J Dilla Jay Dee
15. "Minor Threat" by Minor Threat

I know it might not seem like it, but Atari Teenage Riot into Lil' Wayne sounds SO GOOD.

You're Not Crunk and I'm Telling Everyone

So when I saw that Lil Jon was involved with the Florida pop-punk outfit Whole Wheat Bread, then saw his use of the slogans "Crunk's Not Dead" and "Crunk Ain't Dead", I deduced he probably was into Punk in his day.

After that, I didn't think much of it. Fast forward to today, when I'm bored and trolling wikipedia. As I'm reading about Bad Brains, I see that (minus H.R.) the band joined Jon on a remix of a song he did with Ice Cube, using a new arrangement of the instrumental from "re-ignition". Fucking awesome. Then I see that not only is Lil Jon a huge Bad Brains fan, but he was into Minor Threat too.

"Roll Call Bad Brains Remix" by Lil' Jon

"Re-Ignition" by Bad Brains

"Screaming at a Wall" by Minor threat

Possible pre-cursor to "to the windoooow, to the wall!"??? Could be...

Tang-sgiving

I was going to post a happy thanksgiving post, but how can I be happy when there's sadness in Shaolin? I'm pretty out of touch with the blog world lately, so I'm a little late on this, but I came across Miss Info's interview with Raekwon today.

Dude's pretty anti-guitar and anti-Rza. Plus, stay tuned for a wu-tang album WITHOUT THE RZA. Why would they think that's a good idea? I know Ghostface has been vocal about his displeasure, and Method Man has voiced his concerns in the past, but I'm curious to hear where the others stand on this. I'm guessing U-God will go with whomever wants to put him on. I can't imagine a split between the Rza and the Gza, but even if these guys are angry at the Rza, how could they leave the Gza? He's the genius. This just doesn't sit well with me.

Iggy Pop and the Boys... or Paul's Power

Since the summer, I've been whipping a new(er) car with a big advantage over my old car. A tape deck. I'm sure there are folks out there who think a tape deck would be a step down from a mp3/CD player, but really, that's balderdash. Having a thought out mix CD is always nice, and plugging in your iPod is handy (if it hasn't been stolen yet), but there's a certain quality to a homemade tape that just can't be beat.

Recently a friend gave me a tape that I thought deserved special mention on here. Side A of the tape, Paul's Boutique by the Beastie Boys.

see the scenic LES corner, mere blocks from ABC No Rio!

Flip to side B, and it's Raw Power by Iggy and the Stooges.

pre James Mecklenberg days

Sonically, yeah, the albums are pretty different. I wouldn't have expected them to go together very well. It's such a great combination though. Even though they approach it very differently, both albums have a strong element of chaos that helps them vibe together, and the entire package makes for a great driving tape.

"B-Boy Bouillabaisse" by the Beastie Boys

The epic 9 song mega track that closes out the album. My favorite part is the third song, "Stop That Train". Not only is the beat funky as hell, but there's a great sample of Keith and Tex's song, "Stop That Train", that vocalist/DJ Scotty recorded a singjay version of for the The Harder They Come soundtrack.

"Draw Your Brakes" by Scotty

"Search and Destroy" by Iggy and the Stooges

The first Stooges track to come blistering out after the automatically tape flipping. Already a great start to an album, now an even better start to the album. It makes me drive recklessly.

Speaking of the cover of Paul's boutique, if you're in the vicinity on November 24, you should check out Street Smart Cyclist at ABC. Go to their myspace and download the songs yourself.

Pink and Blue

So, my job started consuming my life, I saw LL Cool J with the LOX and Clipse, I moved to Brooklyn, saw the Bouncing Souls at Coney, saw T.I. again and took a vacation to see Weezy upstate, I went back to college, I quit my job, etc etc. Long story short, I was not contributing anything here anymore. Now I am.

This song just recently came to my attention, I know I've heard it before, closer to when it came out, but I must have not known the title.

Pink and Blue by Outkast

Much to my chagrin, it is not a cover song.

Pink and Blue by the Mountain Goats

Free Head

Its been quite some time and I’ve been working on a couple things here and there. October was suppose to be the month to get this place back in the swing of things but alas, it hasn’t happened. Until I can post something up here’s the new Radiohead for anyone who’s having problems with the download from their site.


inrainbows

Beasties in the Pool

Pretty late with this review; oh well, gotta keep the blog alive. So this post is a little different from the rest - I figured since I was drunk at the show I might as well be drunk writing the review (excuses, excuses I know..) but I caught the BBoys earlier in the month at McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn and it was straight on point. First off any show I can have easily accessible free parking, even according to NYCPD, is a fuckin’ hit in my books right off the bat. Got there with no problems and the park was set up right next to a couple bars and bodega’s all supporting Brooklyn Brewery which was served at the pool too.

Put back a few in the park across the street while one of the chicks from Luscious Jackson was DJ’ing then made my way into the show. Opened with Hello Brooklyn and closed with No Sleep ‘til Brooklyn and as I suspected on my ride to the show this was in fact the first Beastie Boys show in Brooklyn to date. The atmosphere was more or less a block party and the boys were playful with each other on stage and even brought out Rev Run at one point.

They mixed instrumental segments with DJ set and that kept everything moving nicely and apparently played a more varied set list than what was the norm for most of the tour. Everything was on point except having to wait 30+ min for a fuckin beer but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I think by now most of the show is all over YouTube but here’s a couple clips.

Hello Brooklyn/ Root Down

Open Letter to NYC/ Rev Run On Stage


No Sleep til Brooklyn

C Ray Z MoNsterS

Sharkey and C Rayz Walz just put out their latest collaboration Monster Maker and I don’t mean to jump on the hype-wagon but this is a good one. I honestly have never heard anything from Sharkey before but he brings in a very unique soulful style and group of beats that surprisingly work well with C Rayz’s flow. It’s hard to describe the sound of this album but it’s funky as hell, even bordering on dancehall at points, and the samples are very random with the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and even John Denver making it on different tracks. There’s some female singing on it too which fits in perfectly over the more song structured beats (I could look up her name but I’m too lazy). C Rayz keeps it interesting with amusing lines and tailored flows to compliment each track although I will say he sometimes blends in almost too well and gets lost in the beats and singing which often rocks hard enough on it’s own with out him. Check out these tracks, they’ll give you a better idea of what all the fuss is about better than I can.

Forgotten

This Ol' Twisted World

My Way

MM..Seconds??

So the re-release of MF DOOM’s last album came out last Tuesday and from what I understand the original, put out in 2004, was yanked for sample clearance issues that have since been fixed. It’s basically the same release except there’s a new beat for Kookies (apparently Sesame Street wasn’t down with DOOM using their shit). Special perk this time round is they’ve got a DVD showcasing footage from his stops from the MM..FOOD Drive Tour in 2004 when he originally released the album. That was my first time seeing DOOM and the NYC BBKings footage is the best on the DVD in my opinion. I remember wondering why there were crowds of cameras surrounding DOOM during the show but looking back I’m glad they were there now. Bumping ‘the Fine Print’ on my DVD player brings back some awesome memories from that night and for the hour long performance video alone this is worth copping – I’ve got it sitting next to the original release right now. Here’s a promo clip from Rhymesayers and DOOM performing Beef Rap from the DVD.

Promo


Beef Rap

Rocking Bells

Since Druglas got his shit together and posted his two cents on Rock the Bells, I figured I should do the same. First off, I have to ask, what is wrong with white people? I like to get into a performance, and maybe I don't get as physically into rock and roll as I used to, but in my mind it just seems unnecessary to mosh your face off to Cypress Hill. If it's during "Rock Superstar" that's one thing, but during "I wanna get high"? Could you pick a mellower song to start the moshing during? Never mind that the mooks behind me decided to start moshing after they ingested a fist sized bag of coke. Cuz that's not a recipe for disaster. Anyway, other than some inappropriate moshing, way too much rain, and the perils of mass transit, it was a good day. I got there a while before Druglas, so the Breetard and I were able to catch the Grouch and Eligh's set.

I had dismissed them in the past after a few listens, but they rocked the shit out of their set on Sunday. Eligh is definitely the shining star of the duo, but that's not to say the Grouch wasn't holding his own. Since the theme of the day seemed to be everyone getting backed out of their skulls, it was appropriate that "No More Greener Grass" was the highlight of their set. After that, MURS came out to rally the crowd for Mr. Lif, who was joined by Akrobatik for most of his set. I enjoyed their performance, but I was more excited to skeedaddle to the main stage and catch Blackstar.

Talib went through his solo material first and ripped it. I've missed out on seeing him live so many times that it was really great just to be finally seeing him and it helped that he fucking killed it. Mos Def's solo set was a little bit more lackluster, with too much meandering singing. It was really cool, however, when his DJ spun Aretha Franklin's "One Step Ahead" before dropping the beat for "Ms. Fat Booty", the crowd went ape, and rightly so. That moment aside, the high point in Mos's performance was when he went into "Definition" and was joined onstage by Talib. Then Rakim was up.

To me, it felt like he was standing in front of a largely unappreciative crowd. His set was fantastic, however, despite the tepid crowd response.

Cypress Hill was kind of ruined for me by the jackoffs sniffing blow and punching people right behind me. Before those guys really got into it though, the set was really enjoyable. Especially the gigantic inflatable Buddha onstage. Public Enemy was really good too, but I didn't stick around for a complete rocking, instead making my way over to catch Doom.

As Drug already informed you, Doom was sick, even if it was a much shorter set than it should've been. It was pretty cool that once most of the crowd ran away to catch the Wu, Talib came out to rock "Old School".

Maybe I'm a little spoiled when it comes to the Wu Tang. Around this time last year when I saw them, I met Ghostface, and I spent the show within arms reach of the stage. Needless to say, it was a little different watching them perform from about a football field's length away. I was a little disappointed with the absence of Ghostface, and the apparent substitution of a portly Ghost look a like. Either way though, it's the Wu Tang, and my ever-present hip hop chubb for them was in full effect.

Seeing Rage was like a flashback to '99, the last time I saw them. I was kind of surprised at de la Rocha's relative silence in between songs, until I heard there was some backlash over things he'd said the night before about assassinating George W. I kinda thought that things of that nature were standard fare for Rage - last time I saw them, they burned an American flag - but I guess he was asked to tone it down. To be honest, it was a little disappointing to see that he acquiesced and just did the show without the political ranting.

Rock Randalls in the Rain

Rock the Bells mo’fucker. Better late than never (seems to be the theme of all my posts) but last Sunday me and the Green Hornet were at Randalls Island getting soaked checkin’ out this festival. Speakin’ for myself I thought it was dope especially considering I got cheap tix and there were a lot of groups I’ve been listenin to for years that I finally got to see. When I first got in I was at the Paid Dues Stage and caught the tail end of Mr.Lif which wasn’t as dope as I would have imagined although he’s a really nice guy and I was lucky to meet him later in the day.

Next up was Cage and Yak Ballz two of my guilty pleasures in the underground hiphop scene. Along with Cage came the rain and everyone got drenched but luckily his performance was dope and they made up for it. I dunno if it woulda been as nice for someone who wasn’t as familiar with the songs but it hit the spot for me. Brother Ali was next and he’s always been impressive live. That albino gets the crowd goin' every time and his set showcased mostly his new album, a sick acapella and a couple older favorites . Felt was up next and Slug and Murs were in good spirits getting the crowd into it. Slug and Ant pulled out godlovesugly to please the Atmosphere fans but right bout then I left for the main stage.

Erikah Badu pulled a no show so Cypress Hill set got bumped up and I ran over there to join the crowd and pull a blunt break. Seemed like it was a greatest hits set for them and I was kinda out of it (go figure) but they played Hits from the Bong, Dr. Greenthumb and I wanna get High which sounded pretty tight. After that Public Enemy came on but I wandered back to catch Living Legends and get some grub ($8 Philly Cheese Steaks – fuck that). Living Legends were on for awhile and shit kinda lagged towards the end even being familiar with most of what they played. After they got off we waited again for DOOM to turn up and the DJ bullshit over the mic. I’ve seen DOOM a few times now and he always makes the crowd wait and this time was no different. When he came on he dropped a couple Dangerdoom tracks he’s never done live and Monkey Suite which was a treat but the rest was pretty standard and he only was on stage for 30 min even though he was scheduled for a full hour. My guess is he cut it short cause over half his crowd bounced when Wu Tang was came on stage in the middle of his set.

Wu was dope and Method Man took the front man roll and held the act together. I’m not a huge Wu fan so I’ll let Green Hornet chime in on this one for a better run down on their performance. Rage came after and it sounded liked 1996 all over again. Nice to finally see them live and they were tight as could be with a trimmed down set-list hittin all the favorites to fit their time slot. Great show overall and I’d do it again if I had the chance. Here’s a couple youtube clips from the show, enjoy.

DOOM Montage



Cypress Hill - How I Could Just Kill a Man


Rage - Know Your Enemy Clip


Hot 97 Interviews/ Run Down