I … I … I don’t even know what to say. Plastic Little cracks me up and proves that some of the best hip-hop is the stuff we don’t take so damn seriously.
All posts by Kevin
Aesop Rock coming to Tempe
Mark your calendars: October 13, Aesop Rock is hitting the Clubhouse in Tempe, the same spot fellow Definitive Jux labelmate El-P just played in May.
Aesop’s forthcoming LP, None Shall Pass, drops Aug. 28. A guest spot from John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats should be worth the price of admission alone, but you know Aesop is coming with so much more. I’ve only seen him at last year’s Pitchfork Festival, and I was about two football fields away, so this is rising on my list of concert priorities. October. Damn, that’s like still three months away.
Get a taste of the first single, None Shall Pass, if you haven’t already. Instrumental also because, well, I love you.
Aesop Rock | None Shall PassAesop Rock | None Shall Pass (instrumental)
Weekend wrap-up: City of Angels
Just got back from a weekend in Los Angeles. Two things are certain if I ever moved there: 1. My blood pressure would rise tremendously from traffic (seriously, traffic jam at 11:30 pm, WTF?); 2. I’d go broke buying vinyl at Amoeba.
Luckily, we made it in time to the Echo on Saturday night to check out the Aquarium Drunkard-sponsored Howlin’ Rain show. Not only did I get to catch up with the Drunkard, but I also finally met in person Jeff Weiss, he of the Passion of the Weiss. Both great guys, but you wouldn’t expect anything less.
To top it off, friggin’ Rick Rubin was at the show. We’re talking about the man responsible for producing some of the finest hip-hop records in my collection: Run-DMC’s Raising Hell and Tougher Than Leather and LL Cool J’s Radio. He was rockin’ out in the back, beard all bushy and what not. If I had a set, I’d have gone up and shook his hand and thanked him for Tougher Than Leather, one my favorite hip-hop albums of all-time.
Needless to say, world-famous record producers do not show up all that often at shows in Phoenix. So I was a little star-struck. Major kudos to Aquarium Drunkard. This one is to, well, Rick Rubin.
Spank Rock | Rick Rubin
As for that (somewhat rushed) trip to Amoeba, here was my haul:
Run-DMC, Tougher Than Leather on vinyl (sigh, awesome. $11.99).
… Trail of Dead, Source Tags and Codes on vinyl ($4.99).
The Roots, Game Theory on vinyl ($5.99).
Panther, Yourself on vinyl ($2.99).
Rage Against the Machine, No Shelter 7-inch (red vinyl, $2.99).
Wilco, What Light 7-inch (b/w unreleased Let’s Not Get Carried Away, $4.99).
Samples: Turtles/D-Nice
Many eons ago – OK, like a year-and-a-half ago – I started what I wanted to turn into a regular feature, posting a hip-hop song with its original sample source. Well, for whatever reason, I lost steam, maybe because the boys at Palms Out Sounds have done a great job with the same idea.
But I recently got to thinking about 1960s band the Turtles for a couple reasons: 1. Because I’m cataloging my 45 collection (it’s taking forever, pretty much) and three Turtles records are in there; 2. This kid. (Come on, everybody, “I like tuuuh-tles”.)
Turtles, the band, are responsible for the track that is the main hook in one of my all-time favorite hip-hop joints: D-Nice’s Call Me D-Nice. The original track is Buzzsaw, a fuzzed-out organ orgy that sounds like it moves slooooowly underwater after you hear the way D-Nice kicked up the tempo.
It’s hard to top D-Nice’s combination of that sped-up organ and the rumbling bass line underneath. “Takin’ out you suckas and you don’t know how I did it.”
Turtles | Buzzsaw- D-Nice | Call Me D-Nice
(via d-nice.com)
King Krash: Coke & Wet (remix)
It’s pretty inevitable that if my man Royce and I have been out tipping back a few drinks and we end up cranking some tunes, one of two albums – if not both – will undoubtedly be played: Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury or Spank Rock’s YoYoYoYoYo (not to be confused with Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga).
Why, just last week we were driving home (designated driver at the wheel, mind you) and Spank Rock’s Coke & Wet magically came on. Seriously, such a great song.
Anyway, I was pretty happy to find a remix by King Krash, who , besides having a MySpace URL (myspace.com/kingshit) that makes me laugh like Beavis and Butt-head, has done remix work for Plastic Little (read up). (EDIT: New MySpace is myspace.com/kingkrash.)
Both versions of Coke & Wet are great. Krash gives the remix a more daunting presence – think the beats/bass of West Coast G-funk – while keeping Spank Rock’s charming delivery at the forefront: “Look, Britney Spears, oops! / nutted on your dimple” … pure poetry, my friends.
Spank Rock | Coke & Wet (King Krash remix)
(Fair warning: low bit rate … so sue me.)
Edan: Sagittarius Rapp
Whenever I’m feeling like I’m lacking some quality stuff to post, it seems Stones Throw is there to save me. It was just a few weeks ago I posted about the Guilty Simpson track Man’s World.
Now, from the Stones Throw podcast, we’ve got Edan’s Sagittarius Rapp, off Now-Again Re:Sounds Vol. 1, which is due out July 17. The compilation features remixes of songs from the Now-Again catalog, an affiliate funk label under Stones Throw.
I’m sorta drooling over this box set release of the compilation, which includes seven 7-inch singles along with the CD. That’s at least a week’s worth of posts at Circa 45.
Sagittarius Rapp is a remix of Timothy McNealy’s Sagittarius Black from the album Texas Funk: 1968-1975. It’s quite possible Edan sets some sort of record here for how many times he can say “sex” in one song. (He likes it and does it a lot.)
I’ve become familiar with Edan only in the past year or so by picking up his great Beauty and the Beat, on which Sagittarius Rapp, with its loose rhymes and trippy production, wouldn’t sound out of place.
Edan | Sagittarius Rapp
This is Why I’m Hot (Literal Version)
From the guys at People Food, who brought you PaxilBack, here’s This is Why I’m Hot (Literal Version), which is fitting for this absurd run of heat we’re going through in Phoenix.
Queens of the Stone Age cover White Wedding
Thanks to my man Dusty, who posted this Queens of the Stone Age cover of Billy Idol’s White Wedding that apparently comes on the Best Buy version of Era Vulgaris.
This falls in the I-like-the-cover-better-than-the-original category. Although, it could be because of my immense man-crush on Josh Homme. If you read this story on Homme and aren’t convinced of his coolness, then I don’t know what to say.
Some samples:
With a little prodding, Homme (rhymes with “mommy”) will admit he is still on probation after pleading no contest to two counts of battery against Blag Dahlia, the lead singer of a punk outfit called the Dwarves. It happened at the Dragonfly club in Hollywood three years ago; an incident Homme regrets not one iota. “I went there to attack and humiliate him,” he said. “That’s what I did.”
But what Homme, 34, who has the imposing physique of a longshoreman, standing nearly 6 feet 7 inches in his motorcycle boots, really wants to talk about is his new hobby. “Sewing is the best thing!” he exclaimed. “I can feel my heart rate going down when I do it. I forget everything else. It’s great when you’re on the tour bus.”
About his confrontation with Dahlia: “Everyone in this world deserves to be slapped – not too hard – and I hope they are, because it’s a great teaching tool.”
Queens of the Stone Age | White Wedding
New Q-Tip: Work It Out
My early- to mid-90s self is ecstatic: Q-Tip resurfaces and offers a free download on his MySpace page. My 2007 self is wary of letting nostalgia cloud judgment.
I’ll say this: Q-Tip has done better. Much, much better. However, this track, from a forthcoming album apparently – and appropriately – called The Renaissance, isn’t terrible. According to the Billboard story, the album features a live band, which sounds fairly tight on this track. I just pray this doesn’t turn into another Amplified, reducing Q-Tip to just a dance-floor novelty to a new generation. The kids deserve to know his proper place in hip-hop history.
Q-Tip | Work It Out
New Z-Trip (feat. Chali 2na): Something Different
DJ Z-Trip, a favorite here, is the point man on the new soundtrack for the video game All-Pro Football 2K8 (Take Two/2K Sports), which comes out July 16.
Really, I couldn’t care less about the game – I’ve been sort of a Madden guy anyway – but the soundtrack has me amped: 13 original tracks, remixes and mashups, all produced by Z-Trip (formerly of this here Valley, I might add). Guests include Slug, Dead Prez, Chalia 2na and Aceyalone. And, oh, one more guest MC? Rakim for Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em 2007.
To celebrate, Z-Trip trekking out across the States, including a stop in Phoenix on Aug. 22 at the Brickhouse with Gift of Gab and Aceyalone.
Z’s return got me thinking about a Q&A I did with him a couple years back after the release of his debut LP Shifting Gears. I asked him if he was sick of the term “mashup,” a trade he helped pioneer. He made an interesting metaphor, comparing bedroom DJs to chili in a can and turntablists to chili masters.
It’s a valid point. The advent of technology has democratized the art of DJing, which is either a blessing or a curse … or both. We go to so many “DJ nights,” where the DJs are playing CDs or playlisting from an iPod. I’m not saying this to be a snob or an elitist, but what some people are doing with the help of software on a computer, guys like Z-Trip do live, with vinyl. (Witness DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist performing a set last week using solely 45s.)
I’m hoping to catch up with Z-Trip to see if he’s embraced programs like Serato, which allows for manipulation of digital files (it’s a hell of a lot lighter than crates of records).
I guess it comes down to what your definition of a DJ is. A friend who uses Serato – quite capably, too – prefers a broad definition: anyone who keeps people dancing be it with records, CDs, iPods, whatever. And I wouldn’t disagree with that. So am I being too much of a traditionalist/elitist/snob to say bedroom DJs have watered down the idea of what turntablism is? Or are turntablists and DJs two separate groups? (You’d probably not be surprised to know I oppose the designated hitter, too.) Maybe I sound like that grumpy old man character played by Dana Carvey on SNL: “I’m old and I’m not happy. Everything today is improved and I don’t like it! In my day we didn’t have these mp3s … ” Needless to say, I’d probably struggle to beat match and chew gum at the same time if a computer were doing both for me.
Please comment away. And do so while listening to this new Z-Trip cut, which contains some impressive beat juggling near the end.
Z-Trip (feat. Chali 2na) | Something Different
Check out more Z-Trip downloads at his Web site.