All posts by Kevin

hip-hop

Murs: Put Something Down On It

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While I contemplate whether I’m going to compile year-end favorite albums/songs lists, I can guarantee that Murs’ Murray’s Revenge would be on there. I’ve been lobbying for this album to anyone who will listen. No emcee sacrifices street bravado for honest and vulnerable writing like Murs.

Lucky for us, Murs has made a previously unreleased track, Put Something Down On It, available via his MySpace. Add your e-mail address and, poof!, like magic, it appears in your inbox. Or, you know, you can grab it right here. Considering Murray’s Revenge was a concise 10 tracks, I’m surprised this song didn’t make the cut. It carries the same themes of the struggles of and dedication to his craft.

Murs | Put Something Down On It

arizona

Lymbyc Systym: “Love Your Abuser”

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In my neglect of the local Phoenix/Tempe scene, a lot of great music has come or is coming out that requires my catching up.First up is the Lymbyc Systym, a duo comprised of brothers Mike (drums/electronics) and Jared Bell (keyboards). I actually had no idea they were from Tempe until someone told us when we saw them open for the Album Leaf. Turns out, I was spelling their name wrong, too. Not “System,” but “Systym.” (I’m sure there’s a deeper artistic meaning to all the “y’s” there, but it’s beyond my mental grasp.)

These guys are making headway pretty fast. They signed to Mush Records (home, at some point or another, to the likes of Aesop Rock, Clouddead and Busdriver) and are preparing to release the full-length Love Your Abuser on Jan. 23. Lymbyc is playing Modified on Dec. 16 with Asleep in the Sea and Metrognome to celebrate the release.An opening slot on the Album Leaf’s fall tour is your first clue about what to expect from Lymbyc Systym: spacey, atmospheric – and lyric-less – soundscapes. (Jimmy Lavelle makes a guest spot on the record, too.) I’ve said it before, but all-instrumental music is typically a challenge to my patience. But with Lymbyc, there’s great attention to detail, as most electronic-laptop pop requires. It isn’t senseless, sloppy jamming, but articulate, mindful translation of ones and zeroes into something a little more tangible.

Lymbyc Systym | Truth Skull
Lymbyc Systym | Astrology Days (via)

general, remix

Editors: Remixed EP

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What better way to extend the life of an album than to release a remix album (or, in this instance, an EP). Come on, everyone’s doing it (Bloc Party, Architecture in Helsinki, Of Montreal and so on).

Editors, on the heels of the U.S. release of The Back Room earlier this year, join the fray with an EP of four mixes, including a Munich remix by Ghislain Poirier (he of the excellent Dirt Off Your Shoulders remix). It’s available at the iTunes music store.

Pitchfork recently supplied a fifth mix that didn’t make the EP: All Sparks (Phones Remix). The indie kids will sweat through their ironic T-shirts dancing to this one.

Editors | All Sparks (Phones Remix) (via Pitchfork)

contests

Calexico contest winners

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Thanks to everyone who entered the contest for Calexico tickets/autographed CDs. In our most scientifically controlled selection process yet, my wife randomly drew names from a hat for the winners. First prize is tickets for two to a show in either Tempe, Flagstaff or Tucson. Second prize is an autographed Calexico CD. Without further ado, the winners:

Tucson:
1. Lindsay T wins tix for the Dec. 2 show @ Rialto Theatre.
2. Matt Anderson wins the CD.

Flagstaff:
1. Alan Schussman wins tix for the Dec. 4 show @ Orpheum Theatre.
2. Tom Brecke wins the CD.

Tempe:
1. Roberto Diaz wins tix for the Dec. 5 show @ the Clubhouse.
2. B. Persons wins the CD.

I’ll be getting in touch with all of you on how to collect your winnings just as soon as I find out myself.

As for us, I have to work on Dec. 5, so we may trek up the hill to Flagstaff to catch the Dec. 4 show. Alan, you can buy us a drink!

Calexico | All Systems Red (acoustic)

vinyl

My Morning Jacket B-side: “How Could I Know”

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This post is dedicated to Dodge, the biggest My Morning Jacket fan I know. A trip to Zia Records in Tempe, a diversion before last night’s Trail of Dead concert, was worth the while as I plucked the 45 (picture sleeve!) for Off the Record, with this B-side, How Could I Know, for a mere $1.99.

Coincidentally, My Morning Jacket is coming to Tempe on Jan. 3 (note to self: get night off of work).

If you were really curious, I also pulled the 12″ for Jibbs’ Chain Hang Low with a remix, instrumental and acapella. Oh, yeah.

My Morning Jacket | How Could I Know

hip-hop, i used to love h.e.r.

I Used to Love H.E.R.: SupremeEx

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The seventh installment of I Used to Love H.E.R. comes from Philadelphia producer SupremeEx, whose latest project was a collaboration with Hieroglpyhics/Souls of Mischief emcee Tajai on Nuntype (available on Rumble Pack Records). Instead of an album, SupremeEx gives his due to a groundbreaking hip-hop track from an unlikely source.

Grandmaster Flash
“The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash
on the Wheels of Steel”
(K-Tel Breakdance cassette)

“I guess arguably the most influential hiphop album of all time for me is this K-Tel cassette I got waaaay back in the day simply entitled, Breakdance. It was the first hiphop tape I ever bought. It came with a huge fold-out poster with breakdancing moves on it. But a defining moment for me on that tape was Grandmaster Flash’s The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel. That track alone changed my life, and certainly planted the creative seeds for my desire to tell stories through production and instrumental beats. And although I credit Herbie Hancock’s Rockit as the first hiphop song I ever heard, it was the Breakdance tape from K-Tel that set me up for the rest of my life as a hip-hopper. PS – I still have the tape.”

Grandmaster Flash | The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel

Related:
K-Tel breakdance commercial (via YouTube).
Tajai and SupremeEx: Nuntype
Nuntype: Instrumentals (free download)

Previously on I Used to Love H.E.R.:
Devastations (Ultramagnetic MCs – Funk Your Head Up) || The Gray Kid (Black Moon – Enta Da Stage) || Sarah Daly of Scanners (Run-DMC – Tougher Than Leather) || Pigeon John (De La Soul – De La Soul is Dead) || Joel Hatstat of Cinemechanica (Digital Underground – Sex Packets) || G. Love (Eric B. & Rakim – Paid In Full) || An introduction

hip-hop, remix

Blackalicious: “Rhythm Sticks” (remix)

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This year in hip-hop is making 2005 look like even more of a dud than I imagined. The one exception was Blackalicious’ The Craft (available at eMusic). But then, I never really expect anything less than the best from Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel.Browsing their MySpace, I found the duo is offering a remix of Rhythm Sticks, a hot track off The Craft that flaunts Gab’s metered and breathless delivery. The remix (with no production credit) is a jazzier take on the original – pianos, horns and wah-wah guitars fill the holes where a persistent beat holds down the original.

Regardless, it’s worth the cost of admission on either version when Gab spits a verse by spelling out “Blackalicious” by starting each sentence with every letter in the word. Alphabet aerobics is Gab’s specialty.

Blackalicious | Rhythm Sticks (original)
Blackalicious | Rhythm Sticks (remix)
(Beware: 96 kbps bitrate on remix; from their MySpace)

Also, at AOL’s Spinner, you can watch Blackalicious’ new DVD, 4/20 Live in Seattle, in its entirety. It includes a full concert from the Showbox Theatre in Seattle with Fatlip, Pigeon John and Lifesavas.

Uncategorized

The Gray Kid: “The Pilgrimage” mixtape (free)

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It’s settled: The Gray Kid wins the Hardest-Working Man of the Year award. On the heels of his hilarious PaxilBack spoof of JT’s SexyBack comes The Pilgrimage: Y’All Some Turkeys, a free (FREE!) mixtape out today that features a few new Gray Kid originals as well as the Kid takin’ on Clipse, Bjork and Jay-Z, among others, with assistance from DJ Mister Best.

Seriously. It wasn’t enough for the Kid to drop his LP … 5, 6, 7, 8 (@ iTunes), a soulful blend of hip-hop, funk and falsetto crooning, this year. No, dude must be livin’ in the studio, sweatin’ out the hits. (He blogs, too. Damn, son!)

You can download the entire mixtape (via zip) below or sample a few tracks at the Kid’s MySpace. If (nay, when) you download it, pay heed to Another Day in the Life; I’m already partial to its spaced-out keys and minimal kick-kick-snare beat.

The Gray Kid | The Pilgrimage mixtape

Related:
I Used to Love H.E.R.: The Gray Kid
The Gray Kid: PaxilBack video
The Gray Kid feat. My Brightest Diamond: Bang

contests, hip-hop

Lyrics Born’s “Callin’ Out” karaoke contest

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We’ve seen hip-hop labels/artists hold remix contests, but this idea has the potential to be really cool – and possibly funny as hell.

Lyrics Born, one-half of the Solesides/Quannum duo Latyrx, is holding a karaoke contest for his single Callin’ Out from his LP Later That Day … (2003). The contest also serves to promote his new live album, Overnite Encore: Lyrics Born Live.

LB is providing the instrumental and the lyrics; you’re providing the raps. The winner gets two tickets to any Lyrics Born show, autographed CD, T-shirt, poster and, more important, their version posted on his Web site and MySpace.

Check out his karaoke contest page for more information. LB will be selecting the winner himself. Oh, how I’d love to hear those submissions.

Lyrics Born | Callin’ Out (original)
Lyrics Born | Callin’ Out (instrumental)

Also:
Lyrics Born | Lady Don’t Tek No (live)
(From Overnight Encore, available at eMusic)

hip-hop

New Myka Nyne: “Viles”

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From Freestyle Fellowship to Haiku D’Etat to his solo work, Myka Nyne has been an integral part of a vibrant, if not criminally overlooked, underground hip-hop movement in Los Angeles.

The guys in Freestyle Fellowship (Myka Nyne, Aceyalone, Self Jupiter, P.E.A.C.E.) were (and still are) champions of avant-garde hip-hop, taking influences as much from jazz as hip-hop. They met/formed at a regular open-mic night in Los Angeles in the ’90s, so it’s easy to draw the parallels of freestyle hip-hop and improvisational jazz.

Myka Nyne’s latest LP, Citrus Cessions Vol. I (buy at eMusic), continues in that same vein, with Myka deftly maneuvering around unorthodox time signatures and live instrumentation, strengthening that bond with between hip-hop and jazz.

Myka Nyne (feat. P.E.A.C.E.) | Viles

Also, from his MySpace:
Myke Nyne | Determination
THANKS to Ben for filling in for me yesterday with that excellent post. I wasn’t as drunk as he’d have you believe … well, OK, maybe. We went with some friends on a little three-day booze cruise from LA to Ensenada, Mexico. So what if our exploration of Ensenada only involved this place? … It was a fun trip, and I gotta tell ya: Duty- and tax-free liquor is the way to roll. Two large bottles of Absolut for $21.