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

I Used to Love H.E.R.: Van Pierszalowski
(Port O’Brien)

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The 44th installment of I Used to Love H.E.R., a series in which artists/bloggers/writers discuss their most essential or favorite hip-hop albums and songs, comes from singer Van Pierszalowski of Oakland-based indie-folk band Port O’Brien, which just wrapped up a seven-week tour in support of its excellent 2009 album Threadbare. Having talked to Pierszalowski at the band’s recent Phoenix show, I can tell you his enthusiasm for Lil Wayne is absolutely sincere.

tha carter IIILil Wayne, Tha Carter III
(Cash Money, 2008)

In my view, this is quite obviously one of the finest records of any genre of the decade. I’ve listened to it non-stop since it came out, and I’m still discovering things. It’s so dense, in a good way. I first heard “A Milli” on the radio before the album came out, and I hated it. I just thought it was annoying and lacked any sort of hook. After I fell in love with the more easily accessible singles and bought the album, that song all of a sudden made sense, which is the sign of a good record. The record is just littered with amazing lyrical moments. The part that hit me first might have been “I got Summer hatin’ on me cause I’m hotter than the Sun. Got Spring hatin’ on me ’cause I ain’t never sprung. Winter hatin’ on me ’cause I’m colder than y’all. And I would never, I would never, I would never fall.” Another thing I love about this record is how Weezy can also just be hilarious as fuck.

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Mayer Hawthorne on NPR’s World Cafe

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mayer

Just a guess, but I’ve probably spilled more ink on Mayer Hawthorne than any other artist this year. I can’t help it – the modern Motown-style soul on his debut A Strange Arrangement is a refreshing change of pace, an album sure to elbow its way into my year-end favorites list.

Hawthorne and his band, the County, stopped by WXPN’s World Cafe for an interview and four-song session that included The Ills, now available on 7-inch.

Stones Throw made an mp3 available of the song from the performance.

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Modified memories: David Jensen (Art for Starters)

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modified

Modified Arts, an all-ages venue in downtown Phoenix that has been a staple of the local music scene and a vital venue for touring indie bands for nearly 11 years, will change direction and transform into a space focused mostly on art. (Read more here and here.)

As such, I am collecting thoughts and memories from the musicians who played there and the fans who attended its many shows. This is less an obituary and more a celebration of a less-than-perfect but charming venue that, as we know it now, will be missed.

First up is David Jensen, founder of local band Art for Starters (and late of Before Braille) who turned around an in-depth and genuine narration of his affection for Modified.

  • Art for Starters | Pinprick by Prick

    • Modified gave me my biggest motivation for being in a band or having a record label. The clubs and bars in most of my previous experiences were a turn off. Modified made my interests and ideologies tangible under one roof. In the beginning, that roof was not only shelter to local artists and musicians, but it was called home in a very real sense for the tenants who lived on the other side of the wall that used to separate the gallery in half. The air-conditioning was about as capable as the original PA. Hearing vocals, or feeling comfortable in Modified was nearly impossible, but it never deterred me or any of my fellow frequenters. Bands were always loud, and the PA could never keep up. If the band sounded good, it’s because they were good. It was impossible to fake anything at Modified. When I’d watch bands struggle to pull off a good set, it would feel so organic. When my band played there, it always made us focus on our playing and our sounds. Every night would be another episode of trouble-shooting, and it really made us a better band. I was constantly humbled after a night when I wasn’t prepared.

    I made at least weekly trips to see local great local bands like Half Visconte, Fightshy, Pinewood Derby, Sea of Cortez, Fivespeed, or Sound of Sirens, Reubens Accomplice … etc. Most of the “fans” watching were in bands. In the early days of Modified, it really meant a lot if you got a lot of people out to your show. And the number of local artists in the audience was a good barometer for how well your band was doing. I went to a ton of local shows, but my favorite bands in the country always made their first Arizona appearance at Modified. Conor Oberst was 19 the first time he came through. I’m pretty sure David Bazan and Damien Jurado were skinny the first time they came to Modified! Heh. Modified opened during a really exciting and early time for that genre. Bands like Death Cab For Cutie, Braid, Pinback, Bright Eyes, No Knife, Cursive couldn’t even come close to filling the place. (I don’t want to focus on bands of that type, but I do think Modified was particularly helpful for, and available to, those kinds of bands at a exciting time for that genre.)

    Of course Modified was never just bands. I also found my favorite local artist, Sergio Aguirre, at Modified and have five of his paintings in my possession now. (We used his work for two different album covers.) And let’s be honest, would First Friday even exist w/o Kimber and Modified?

    Continue reading Modified memories: David Jensen (Art for Starters) →

hip-hop

Del the Funky Homosapien: Lyrics to Go 2009

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If I were to take part in my own feature, I Used to Love H.E.R., and write a little something about my favorite hip-hop album, the choice is pretty easy: Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest. At a time when I was devouring so much hip-hop, Midnight Marauders was the pinnacle, a classic that just begged to have all its lyrics memorized (and I did).

So as far as I’m concerned, Tribe deserves any and all tributes, like the Q-Tip for President mix from J. Period. The latest will come from DJ Chong Wizard, a mixtape called Eclectic Relaxation. Thick Magazine offered up a single from the mix, an updated version of Lyrics to Go by Del the Funky Homosapien, which is only appropriate since he was one of the many to grace the Midnight Marauders album artwork (third row from bottom, second from left).

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Port O’Brien on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic

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Though I foolishly overlooked Port O’Brien’s 2007 album All We Could Do Was Sing (I’m making up for that now), I’m happy to have spent plenty of time with this year’s excellent Threadbare.

The Oakland-based band closed a tour run with Sea Wolf on Friday at a sold-out Modified in Phoenix, and Port O’Brien brought a lively energy that I’m guessing won over some of those people who were there just to hear that one song by that other band that’s on that Twilight soundtrack. (Electric Mustache has some photos of the show.)

On its way back through California, Port O’Brien played a session for KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, in which bass strings are broken and singer Van Pierszalowski discusses life as a commercial fisherman.

hip-hop, video

Blakroc: Webisode Week 7 feat. Q-Tip

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The release of Blakroc – the hip-hop collaboration project of the Black Keys – will be released Nov. 27 (that’s Black Friday), and I get the feeling it’s going to be like a modern-day Judgment Night soundtrack, which really was a trailblazer (don’t laugh … I still have it on cassette).

With a lineup that includes RZA, Pharoahe Monch (!), the late ODB and Q-Tip, it’s hard to see where this could go wrong. Check out the behind-the-scenes webisode in which Q-Tip stops in to drop a verse and the Keys’ Dan Auerbach offers some comforting words for anyone doubting the legitimacy of this project: “We’re trying to stay the fuck away from that (rap-metal).”

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Incoming: Rob Dickinson, Dec. 18

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dickinson

It’s been a little more than four years since former Catherine Wheel frontman Rob Dickinson released his solo debut, Fresh Wine for the Horses, but he’s starting to stir – perhaps a sign that some new material could be on the way.

This year, he released a cover of the Smiths’ Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want on his own Carrera Records label. And now he’s booked for a return visit to the Valley on Dec. 18 at the Rogue after he played here in January 2006 and 2007 (both at the former Anderson’s 5th Estate in Scottsdale). Tickets ($12) for the 21-and-over show at the Rogue can be purchased by e-mailing roguebartix@gmail.com.

I captured a recording of the 2006 show that was purely amateur, but I love revisiting it all the same. The 12-song concert – included as a zip file below – was, naturally, heavy on Catherine Wheel material. He can probably never escape that shadow, but I wonder if, four years later, he’ll start to distance himself more from his old band’s catalog.

ZIP: Rob Dickinson, live at Anderson’s 5th Estate (Scottsdale, AZ), 1/26/06 (84.7 MB)

TRACKLISTING:
1. Heal*
2. The Storm
3. Oceans
4. My Name is Love
5. Ma Solituda*
6. Handsome
7. Eat My Dust You Insensitive Fuck*
8. Intelligent People
9. Crank*
10. Towering and Flowering
11. Black Metallic*
12. Future Boy*

* – Catherine Wheel songs.

[Photo credit: www.jenniferbroussardphotographs.com]

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Sea Wolf: Wicked Blood (video)

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Alex Brown Church brings Sea Wolf to Modified on Friday, a day before Halloween, which makes this new video for Wicked Blood – the leadoff track on the album White Water, White Bloom – all the more timely.

Delivered in black-and-white, the visuals play out like some beauty and the beast tale, set against the backdrop of a haunted cemetery. We can only hope ABC’s band plays Friday in those skeleton suits.

Reminder: Port O’Brien is one of the openers (Sara Lov is the other), and I fully endorse the band’s new album Threadbare.

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Kurt Vile: Freak Train (video)

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Though I spent the better part of Tuesday’s Kurt Vile show at Modified lamenting my habitual inability to remember earplugs, I couldn’t help but be pulled in by the lo-fi psych-rock of Vile & the Violators.

The songs, mostly from his 2009 LP Childish Prodigy, went from loud to louder – riding a crescendo of feedback and distortion. I’m not sure I buy the comparisons to Tom Petty and Neil Young. A more apt (and modern) peer might be something along the lines of The Black Angels – mop-haired stoner jams for a new generation.

Even better, Vile takes a tune like Freak Train – “this one’s a big hit for us on the charts,” he says, jokingly, through his curtain of hair – and anchors it to a pulsating 808 beat, adding a saxophone flourish for good measure.

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DJ Shadow: Artifact (w/Zack de la Rocha vocals)

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The fine folks at Solesides.com never let me down. This time – via Twitter – they introduce us to a vocal/rough version of Artifact, a track off DJ Shadow’s 2006 LP The Outsider, an album that was unfortunately met lukewarm praise at best.

Zack de la Rocha’s highly charged political screeds were meant for this punk-rock-sounding instrumental, which makes you think Shadow concocted the tune in the first place with the former Rage Against the Machine singer’s vocals in mind. Not sure why it didn’t make the album, but glad this version found the light of day.