I Hate You, Papoose

So a while back, I posted some things to the effect of Papoose not being the worst rapper ever. Now that I've heard his new single 300 times in 2 days on hot 97, I retract all of those statements. I will now be adhering to my original assertion, that Papoose is the worst thing to ever happen to hip-hop. Snoop Dogg is doing himself no favors with this collabo. Also, Scott Storch is wack.

get it???

"Bang it Out" feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg by Papoose

It Makes Me Smile

I just got home from the bar and I sat down to read some blogs. One of the first things I saw was this Trae track featuring Styles P and Jadakiss (westchester? what?) and in my un-sober state I thought it was a Lily Allen cover, just for a minute. Then I realized how absurd that idea is. Absolutely fucking absurd.

"Smile" feat. Jadakiss & Styles P by Trae

"Smile" by Lily Allen

Up from the 36 chambers... it's the expanded... remastered... dvd...

So although I already own the movie on DVD, I'm pretty pysched to rent the re-release of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Not only has the movie been all remastered and touched up and whatnot, it's packaged with an audio commentary track from the Rza. YES!

"Ode to Oren Ishii" by the RZA

Also, I hate having a job for a lot of reasons, but lately I hate it because I'll be working this saturday, when I could be at the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival seeing Ghostface, Large Professor, and a ton of other dudes for free. weak.

wang dang, that's that MIA Slang

So it looks like M.I.A. has just signed on to perform at Sirenfest this year, making the complete lineup the New York Dolls, Elvis Perkins, Cursive, Voxtrot, White Rabbits, We Are Scientists, Matt and Kim, the Black Lips, Dr. Dog, Noisettes, Lavender Diamond, The Detroit Cobras, The Twilight Sad, and Ms. Arulpragasam herself.

I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't excited about seeing M.I.A. live. Especially on a hot summer day at the beach. It bums me out immensely that Coney Island is dying, but with this and Daft Punk, at least I know I'll have two occasions to shake my rump there before it all goes down.

"Boyz" by M.I.A.

This new track is cool. The beat reminds me more of the go! team than it does Arular. Fine by me.

Magical Dillishtery Tour

This tune "Nothing Like This" off of one of the Chrome Children comps has a vibe to it that really reminds me of the beatles' more experimental ambient stuff.

"Nothing Like This" by J Dilla Jay Dee

Coloring with Uncle Tony

While I'm on the instrumental tip heres a heads up on blockhead's new release comin up in August. It's called Uncle Tony's Coloring Book, will be all uptempo shit and limited to only a 2000 copy press I believe. He's been posting mp3's on his myspace account for awhile now, new one just came out and they're all very promising and have that classic blockhead sound. The vocals and structure are getting more intricate and blockhead's becoming better and better at weaving everything together. I think the Green Hornet might have posted some of these tracks before but here's the whole thing for you. Enjoy.

Uncle Tony Myspace Tracks

RJInstru

So it’s been awhile since my last post but I’m gonna try to stop procrastinating and put up another one. This is kinda new/ kinda throw back to a few months ago but I’ve recently revisited the latest RJD2 album The Third Hand due to the release of the instrumentals last week. I really, REALLY did not like the original, with RJ’s vocals throwing everything out of whack for me and successfully ruining the entire experience. I liked maybe a total of 3 tracks with Beyond the Beyond striking a chord and You Never Had it So Good being cheesy but endearing at the same time. The rest I thought was just pain cheesy and mediocre which stuck out like a sore-fucking-thumb considering how polished and on point his production typically is. But as I said the day I realized I hate the rest of RJ’s singing on this album, “I’ll wait ‘til the instrumentals come out to listen to this one.”

Ta-Da, the day has come and to the man’s credit there is some good production on the album. So much to the point that some of these songs are completely unrecognizable, and come across as entirely different songs. The annoyingly lame vocals are stripped down (thanks god) and once again RJ’s production is the star of the show. Do the comparison yourself, maybe someone else can make sense of these vocals for me.




RJ Full Version




RJInstrumentals



P.S. I've met RJ at his Rock's Off Cruise show with Aceyalone and he's a great guy, very personable, and will make sure he stays to sign shit and talk to everyone after a show. But please RJ, PLEASE...pay someone else to lace those tracks you got with vocals.

made in america

So Don't Stop Believing by Journey is now one of my favorite songs. This will probably only last for a few more days, but when a song like that is tied to one of the most monumental things to happen in my life up to this point (yes, i realize how sad that this was a moment in tv, but it was the Sopranos, nuff said), it has to have some special meaning. I could discuss my feelings on the Sopranos finale here, but it's easier to just say that I loved it. After 3 straight weeks (and more this season) of some of the best episodes of any television show ever, creator David Chase downplayed the importance of the last one just like I expected him to. Anyone that wanted Tony to die or go to jail or have something major happen to him wasn't watching the same show for the past 8 years. That's not how he plays things. To say that this show was a big deal to me is probably an understatement.

BTW, after initially being adamant against the idea, I am starting to become swayed towards the idea that Tony was, in fact, killed in that final scene. The fact that we have no answer is the genious of the whole thing.

I haven't written on this blog in months. Once I was out of the habit it was hard to come back to it. I also hadn't been listening to much that really excited me for a while. Recently that has changed.

How had I never listened to Jeff Buckley's album Grace before a week ago? It's among the most beautiful things I have ever heard. Buckley's voice is the best rock has to offer.

Lover, You Should've Come Over - Jeff Buckley

Mojo Pin - Jeff Buckley





Uffie finally made a good song. Fuck that, Uffie finally made something that can even be considered a song. It's really really good, too. Give it a few listens. She's also freaking adorable.

First Love - Uffie



Got the new Dizzee Rascal too. Havn't absorbed it completely yet, but so far it's full of grimetastic bangers. The song "Suck My Dick" sucks though.

Sirens - Dizzee



I'm not going to post any songs, but I also finally listened to the new Clipse album. I didn't expect much, but it's really great.

I know it's a little ridiculous now, but me and Green Hornet had discussed posting a favorites of 2006 back in January. We had decided I would do it, and I never did. But he says I should still do it. So here is a tiny version of out FAVORITE SONGS OF 2006:

1.Two Can Win - J Dilla
2.Another Sunny Day - Belle and Suckbastian
3.Silent Shout - The Knife
4.If Looks Could Kill - Camera Obscura
5.Underwater - Ghostface



As of right now, I still don't have cable in my apartment (it's been about 2 months now), and my internet is spotty. I feel pretty out of touch with the world. I think I'm digging it though. Hopefully I'm back for good. No promises.

How I Spent my Summer (Jam) Vacation...

So it's a bit late, but here's my rundown of Hot 97's 2007 Summer Jam. We rolled into Giants Stadium around 1:30, thinking that the pre-show started at 2 and the main show started at 3. Turns out the main stage wasn't scheduled to kick off until 6:30, so we ended up skipping the pre-show altogether (Does part of me regret that I still haven't seen "Lip Gloss" performed live? Maybe.) and boozed in the parking lot until it was time to head inside.

The chronology of my synopsis might be a little out of wack, given the schaefer, pbr, and nutcrackers that flowed through my bloodstream, but I do know that Mims jumped out on stage to open the show almost immediately after we made our way to the floor. I have a theory about Mims. I'm convinced that his career is one big inside joke that he's playing on the public, an Andy Kaufman-esque joke.

For a while I just thought Mims was the worst rapper of all time and nothing more. Then I noticed the line "This is why I'm hot, I don't gotta rap, I can make a mil sayin' nothin on a track." So Mims is knowingly churning out garbage, laughing himself all the way to the bank as the public eats it up. Maybe I'm giving him too much credit as an evil genius, but I think I'm right. All that being said however, I still had no interest in sitting through a whole set of him, so I could not have been more happy with what happened. He came out to his hit "This is why I'm hot" and then immediately afterwards closed the set with "This is why I'm hot (reggae remix)". Baby Cham and Junior Reid came out for the remix, which I loved, plus Mims was on stage for probably under 10 minutes. It was perfect.

Then we had T-Pain, who can ACTUALLY SING. I always assumed that since he had all those heavy vocal effects on his songs, it meant he was completely devoid of talent. Not the case, however, since he performed completely sans effects.

Ciara was pretty awesome, dancing on big white letters that spelled out her name. It kind of reminded me of something that the wonders would have appeared on TV with.

Swizz Beatz was rocking a pretty ferocious set, but I'd be a liar if I said I didn't wig out like a 12 year old girl when Kanye West walked out so they could have a "songs I've produced that are awesome" battle. The DJ spun "Takeover" first for Kanye and I don't think I would've been able to count the number of dynasty signs that got thrown up on the floor alone. Plus Lil' Wayne came out later in the set for the first of several cameos before his own set.

wheelchair rocking, like murderball

Ne-Yo was awesome, although a bit disappointing. Maybe it's just me being a Ghostface fanboy, but when Fabolous turned out to be Ne-Yo's surprise guest I was kinda let down. Fab still rocked everything rightly though, so all's well that ends well. The Ne-Yo set gradually morphed into a Fab set, then a Young Jeezy set, then a Ludacris set. All of them were enjoyable, but Ludacris really out shined the rest. I had heard from people who'd seen him in the past that he was a lackluster performer, but none of that showed last Sunday. I've never seen someone have such a strong hold on a crowd that large and Luda literally had the crowd in the palm of his hand.

Then came Chris Brown. I've always grouped "Excuse Me Miss" and "Run It" as guilty pleasures, so I was looking forward to his set, but I definitely wasn't expecting him to put on half as good a show as he ended up giving. He performed with a full live band and sang and danced his fucking balls off. I read somewhere that Ne-Yo is supposedly working on the new Michael Jackson album, so there had been some jokes about Ne-Yo maybe bringing out Michael Jackson. Well when Brown threw on his red jacket and single rhinestone glove, then did "Rock with You" and some other Jackson tunes, it might have been better than the real thing. I mean, I'll take young Michael or black Michael any day, but an appearance from current Michael probably would've just been creepy.

Chris Brown's set ended with the emergence of my personal favorite dip, Juelz (A!), and the re-emergence of Lil' Wayne for the "poppin'" remix, then things went into Weezy's set. As much fun as the show was, there was a monsoon going on, and we were not prepared for the weather. It was starting to get to the point where the dance time/shivering time ratio was shifting in a negative direction, so we headed out right as "Stuntin' Like My Daddy" started. Apparently I missed seeing T.I., which is a bit of a bummer, but I'm really okay with not seeing Diddy, Akon, or Rich Boy. I actually assumed Rich Boy didn't show up, until someone told me yesterday that he closed the show. I really wouldn't have expected that Rich Boy was the headliner. I can't wait for next year.

"Buy You a Drank" remix feat. Kanye West & UGK by T-Pain

"Promise" by Ciara

"Get Down Like That" remix featuring Ghostface by Ne-Yo

"Yo (Excuse Me Miss)" by Chris Brown

"Black Republicans" Remix feat. Juelz Santana by Lil' Wayne

"Stuntin' Like My Daddy" by Birdman & Lil' Wayne

Wind Water HEART

So I recently had the chance to see one of the biggest names in swedish black metal,

Earth Wind and Fire.


Probably the best thing about the whole experience was the vocals. They have three guys left from the original crew, the lead singer being one of them. And this man can still sing better than alot of acts out there. He was hitting Mariah Carey notes. And everything that wasnt ridiculously high was just spot on like the studio tracks.
It wasnt at all a problem, it was actually kind of awesome, but the only thing interesting or a little wierd about the show was that they compacted all the songs. They didnt do them in their entirety and fused them together so that they could cram more hits into the set. They have a whole lot of hits so it made sense and made it more of a dancey clubby kind of set. Which was also amazing because it facilitated lots and lots of absurd dancemoves from many many middle aged people. Watching this while listening to Earth Wind and Fire live made it possibly one of the best nights ever.

They opened with boogey wonderland and closed with the bigger hits like September. The entire show was just jampacked with awesome funky dancy happy elemental incredible.

September-Earth Wind and Fire
(feel good dancing amazingness)

Reasons-Earth Wind and Fire
(feel good slow jam all gettin nine kinds of sexed)

Singasong-Earth Wind and Fire
(This made middle aged white men leave the ground and get actual air as if they really were trying to ascend to a boogey wonderland)

Collective Soul

I didn't take this picture, but I spotted my white Mets fitted in the bottom left.

So I went down to South Street Seaport last night to check out Animal Collective and it was pretty boring. I don't want to say it was all their fault. I was situated to the side/rear of the stage, so I really wasn't getting the optimal acoustics and it seemed like a lot of sound was getting lost with the water so close by. Everytime things seemed like they were going to get interesting, or like the guys were catching a groove, things just dropped off. The whole experience was pretty disapointing. I can't say I'm a big Animal Collective fan, but I listen to them every now and again, and I definitely had higher hopes for the night. Even the fans who seemed to be into the set only applauded twice throughout the whole thing. I'd like to think they'd be cooler in a different time and place, but I don't really know.

"Kids on Holiday" by Animal Collective

Strummadoo

Some comp I picked up a long time ago had a Joe Strummer solo track on it that I really didn't like too much. I really love the Clash, and I didn't want anything to sour that, so I stayed away from Strummer's solo work for a while. Today, I happened to come across the (almost) titular track from the Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros album Rock, Art, and the X-Ray Style. I almost went to change it, but the hand percussion really caught my ear. The guitar is really subtle, taking a backseat to the percussion, and is very sweetly melodic. Strummer's vocals are gentle, but still keep his identifiable edge. I'm not sure if this will lead to me listening to more of Strummer's post-clash work (his cover of "Redemption Song" is just so terrible), but I'm definitely going to keep spinning this song.

"X-Ray Style" by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros

For those of you keeping score at home...

Kanye's take on "Young Folks" is not nearly as cool as his take on "Throw Some D's".

here we see him biting off the Phrenology cover...

"Young Folks Remix" by Kanye West

"Throw Some D's Remix" by Kanye West

New York, I love you but you're bringing me down

I mean it, New York. You're bringing me down. Of course I love reading your magazine, even if the trust fund smarm that saturates the real estate sections trickles out into the other articles on occasion. I really enjoyed everything you said about James Murphy and thanks to a little blurb in your magazine, I now listen to the Young Knives. Graphically, the magazine is fantastic and I always get a big kick out of the weekly approval matrix.

(click to view entire chart)

Except this week, that is. Honestly, New York, I am totally okay with you throwing the King of Queens on the lowbrow side of the charts. I mean, let's be real, Doug Heffernan is no Shakespeare. What burns me up is their location outside of the "brilliant" area, while the Gilmore Girls are placed smack dab in brilliance. Are you serious? Not cool, New York, not cool at all. Those girls could out chitchat a methfreak. Way to pick that over the hometown hero Doug Heffernan and his hilariously senile father in law.


I also noticed the other day that Jeff Tweedy strumming "I'm the man who loves you" by himself sounds a lot like Ani DiFranco's strumming "Fire Door". I'm not inferring he's jacking her song, it's just interesting how different the tune sounds without the rest of the band.

"I'm the Man who Loves You" by Jeff Tweedy

"Fire Door" by Ani DiFranco

The new Lauryn Hill track is not at all what I was expecting it to sound like. I really like it though, kind of in the same way I like the Counting Crows song from Shrek 2. Maybe I'm just saying that because they're both soundtrack songs for CGI kids' movies. Maybe I just love CGI kids' movies.

"Lose Myself" by Lauryn Hill

"Accidentally In Love" by Counting Crows

Living with the Living

The more I spin this album, the more I'm falling in love with it and the more I feel like I was a dumb dumb for saying that the album wasn't much of a departure from Leo's previous albums. There are definitely certain songs that carry that same Pharmacists aesthetic, but there's a lot of movement in different directions here. I was kind of down on it at first, since I didn't enjoy the experimentation with "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb.", but "The Lost Brigade" is proving to me that Leo can move beyond his usual formulas with success. The swells when the vocals drop in are very well placed, the guitar cuts through like a knife, and the percussion is perfect. I've missed way too many free Ted Leo shows in the past and there is no way I'm going to let myself miss him at McCarren Park this year.

"The Lost Brigade" by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

this weekend I drank 100 beers

"The Billboard Song" by Homer and Jethro

I didn't drink that kind though, I drank this kind.

Tej Leo / Pharmaceuticals

I'm having a big Ted Leo night, for no real reason in particular (maybe it has something to do with his sweet green shorts?). Not only am I finally giving his latest effort a good listen (well overdue), I've been checking out the Tej Leo album and the Mo' Living EP. I strayed away from tej Leo (?), RX / Pharmacists for a really long time because I heard it was weird and bad and the title just seemed to suggest absurd heights of pretension (pretension is only enjoyable when employed by myself or one of my cohorts). As it turns out, there are a lot of weird tape loops and effects experiments going on throughout the album, but there are some pretty cool moments tucked away in there. It's not something I'm going to throw on all the time, and it certainly doesn't have that Mellencamp-y "Timorous Me" vibe, but I'd be a liar if I said I regretted bringing it into my possession. The track "Walking Through" starts off rather discordantly, but it settles into a solid groove.

"Walking Through" by Ted Leo

The first thing I thought of listening to Mo' Living was the beasties track "Time for Livin'". Aside from the obvious coincidence of the word "livin", there's a very similar aesthetic between the beastie boys foray back into hardcore and Leo's "Living with the Living". It's nice to hear Ted drop his pants and rock out with his wiener in full effect.

"Living with the Living" by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

Moving from the song to Living with the Living, the album, there's a lot you could argue about. There's certainly not much (successful) movement away from the techniques that have made his previous albums so enjoyable. You could say that it shows a lack of imagination or creativity, but I'd have to disagree. Even if he's sticking to a style, this album still knocks it out of the park and it's really nice to see that Leo hasn't lost his touch after so many albums. I can't say that the album is perfect for me; "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb." seems to be the furthest from the "ted leo" sound (if there is one). It's maybe the best song title ever, and a real letdown of a song. That being said, there are plenty of high points to the album. "La Costa Brava" is sure to pop up on more than a few of my mixes this summer, especially with those ambling dreamy guitar lines, and "Colleen" has the perfect gait for seated car dancing. Plus "The Sons of Cain" has been one of my favorite songs since it started popping up on the internet a while ago.

"La Costa Brava" by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
"Colleen" by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
"The Sons of Cain" by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

Siren Fest

So a Sirenfest lineup was announced today and although my suggestions were completely ignored, it still looks awesome. I could do without Matt and Kim, but Elvis Perkins is my man, the New York Dolls will be a fucking blast, and the Noisettes are cool.

"Emile's Vietnam in the Sky" by Elvis Perkins

"Vietnamese Baby" by the New York Dolls

"Sister Rosetta" by the Noisettes

PLUS,
Daft Punk is playing at Coney Island, (A CONEY ISLAND) with the rapture. BEST CONEY ISLAND SUMMER EVER!

"High Fidelity" by Daft Punk

"Get Myself Into It" by the Rapture

your time is up. my time is now

The new go! team single is fucking awesome. Very reminiscent of Ladyflash, which happens to be my favorite go! team track. The trumpets on the back are also kinda reminiscent of another great tune.

"Grip like a Vice" by the Go! Team

In other top stories, Druglas passed a blockhead track my way that I wasn't familiar with. Great dialogue sample and great organ on this one.

"Hello Popartz" by Blockhead

Albert Hammond/Junior Boys at Hiro Ballroom

So, last night found the McAD and I at Hiro Ballroom to hear the Junior Boys DJ and to catch the Albert Hammond, Jr. set. The Hammond set was fun enough, but there were a couple big problems. First off, I was really enjoying dancing to some Jackson 5, when someone decided to cut it off so the band could get on stage. Wack. Then there's the issue of being all "ooh I'm gonna distance myself from the strokes and not play any strokes tunes". So instead he covers a Frank Black song (not a pixies song, but a frank black song. maybe a commentary on solo careers? who knows.). For as much as I could bash it, it was a fun set. But it was like drinking a miller lite when you're really craving an MGD.

Brett Beyer

The Junior Boys were fun, but they were kinda just rocking some house stuff, nothing that I really recognized. We did dip out during their set several times to drink cheap beers ($7 for one bottle of beer is just never okay), so maybe we missed something. I don't think so though.