I’ve been crazy busy with work this week, so I’m gonna take the lazy man’s route and just embed you some video here. This is the new one from Silversun Pickups called Panic Switch, the first single from the forthcoming album Swoon (due out April 14 on Dangerbird Records).
(Thanks to Crumbler for pointing it out.)
You can’t even say that Del the Funky Homosapien is “pulling a Radiohead” with his newest release, Funk Man. He’s simply telling you to take it, guilt-free. Don’t name your price. Your price is free.
The 13-track album is available in 320 kbps mp3 and a host of other formats (including FLAC and Apple lossless). Remember: Del is at Marquee Theatre with Mike Relm on April 11 (that would be this Saturday).
Here’s the video for the first single, Get It Right Now (via Weiss):
I’ve gone on and on and on already about Neko Case’s new one, Middle Cyclone. So why stop now?
Neko took her act to The Interface over at Spinner for an interview and a few songs.
Below is the first single, People Got a Lotta Nerve. And I don’t mean to offend, but does Neko really need a backup singer/harmonizer?
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LAST WEEK, I told you I was doing a guest spot on Arizona State’s The Blaze (1260 AM). I had a blast (thanks, Becky!), but I’m still hesitant to listen to myself on radio. Maybe one day soon.
In any event, here are the songs I played … tracks I hoped would be somewhat representative of the stuff I champion around here regularly.
1. Built to Spill, “The Plan”
2. The Broken West, “On the Bubble”
3. The Gaslight Anthem, “Great Expectations”
4. Elbow, “The Bones of You”
5. The National, “Looking for Astronauts”
6. Source Victoria, “Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948”
7. Frightened Rabbit, “The Twist”
8. Q-Tip, “Gettin’ Up”
9. The Gray Kid, “Lonely Love”
10. The New Pornographers, “Myriad Harbour”
11. Travis, “Selfish Jean”
12. Gloritone, “Flying Kites”
13. Rush, “Tom Sawyer (DJ Z-Trip remix)”
Songs I brought but did not get time to play:
Her Space Holiday, “The Truth Hurts So This Should Be Painless”
Baby Dayliner, “Silent Places”
Band of Horses, “The Great Salt Lake”
I’m not holding my breath for another Latyrx album, but if Lyrics Born can keep this up, then maybe I won’t mind.
LB dropped this track, Funky Hit Records, as a free download on his Web site in mid-March, a song that is slated to appear on his upcoming album As U Were. Of the track, Lyrics Born had this to say:
“Wanted to do a little something capturing a period of 80’s rap that hasn’t
been touched yet. That early Juice Crew/Marley Marl era. THAT shit was ART.
Complete w/a Trackademicks drum track, a vid clip and all, directed by JB
and myself.”
No doubt the drum line has to be inspired, at least a little, by the bumpin’ Marley Marl Scratch.
Check the video below:
The 41st 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 Vito Roccoforte, drummer for New York-based dance-punk group The Rapture. Roccorforte recently was in town for a DJ set at Shake!, and we talked about two of my favorite topics: baseball and hip-hop. His California roots show here with a great selection of an overlooked gem.
Casual
Fear Itself (Jive, 1994)
I moved to the Bay Area in the summer of 94. I was starting to listen to a lot of hip-hop, and before I moved, one of my friends gave me list of essential Bay Area Hip-Hop Albums that he cut out of some magazine. I took the list folded it up and put it in my wallet and when I got to the Bay Area I went to some of the record stores on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley. I bought some of albums on the list that day and by the end of the summer, I had bought everything on that list and much more. There were some amazing albums that came out of the Bay Area around that time. Some of my favorite albums came from members of the Hieroglyphics crew who included Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, who released No Need for Alarm in 93, and Souls of Mischief, who released 93 til Infinity in, you guessed it, 93. One of my favorite and lesser-known albums to come out of the of the time was from another Hiero member, Casual, who put out an album called Fear Itself in 94.
My favorite thing about Fear Itself is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It is not just a collection of great songs but a great album. From the very first track, “Intro,” it’s got a strong flow and line that keeps building throughout. Casual’s got a great voice and is a strong lyricist and there are also many strong guest appearances by Del, Saafir and others. Also what really got me into hip-hop in the beginning was the production, and on a purely instrumental level this album is a classic. The production was super tight, the instrumental tracks for “Chained Minds” and “I Didn’t Mean To” are still a couple of my all time favorites. The beat for “Me-O-Mi-O” rules, and listening to the album again I realized how much it really seeped into my subconscious. The sequencing of the album in the way songs cut into one another and are ordered is also superb and by the time it hits the last four songs from “Lose in the End” to “Be Thousand” I want to hear the album all over again.
Video for Me-O-Mi-O:
As previously mentioned, Jimmy Eat World will unleash Clarity Live, a digital-only release recorded from the band’s Clarity x 10 tour finale at Marquee Theatre in Tempe. (I wondered how JEW would incorporate its home stop on the live release, but who knew it would use the Tempe show in its entirety? Pretty great if you ask me, especially considering I missed the show for a friend’s wedding.)
The album comes out April 7 at jimmyeatworld.com in multiple formats ranging from DRM-free MP3 to 24 bit/48K sample rate WAV files. And thanks to a connection here and there, I’m happy and humbled to be able to present the live-album version of A Sunday here for download. (This might be what some would call a “premiere” or “exclusive.”)
Enjoy. See below for the full tracklisting of the album (not that it’s much of a surprise if you’re at all familiar with Clarity).
Tracklisting for Clarity Live:
Table For Glasses
Lucky Denver Mint
Your New Aesthetic
Believe In What You Want
A Sunday
Crush
12.23.95
Ten
Just Watch The Fireworks
For Me This Is Heaven
Blister
Clarity
Goodbye Sky Harbor
What I Would Say To You Now *
No Sensitivity **
*Original studio version on split single with Jejune (1998)
** Original studio version on split EP with Jebediah (2000)
Related:
Jimmy Eat World: Goodbye Sky Harbor (live)
Review: Jimmy Eat World at Terminal 5 (NYC)
Guest list: Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World
If you’ve ever wanted to hear the voice behind all these inane posts, then Tuesday is your day. I’ll be sitting in for an hour at 11 a.m. PT/MT as part of Guest DJ Week at Arizona State radio station the Blaze (1260 AM), which allows you to stream from the comfort of the chair you are sitting in right now.
Day 1 already offered up a few of my favorite local people, who likely will be tough acts to follow: Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World; Jason Woodbury from Hands on Fire and Martin Cizmar, music editor of Phoenix New Times.
In preparing for this – I was told to put about an hour’s worth of music together – I’ve learned it’s impossible to cram in everything I’d want people to hear. My working list of songs comes from artists that I feel are representative of regular postings around here, though I’m 99.9 percent positive I’m leaving something worthwhile on the cutting-room floor (sorry, Radar Bros. … maybe next time).
So tune in if you can. I’ve been told only about a hundred times that I have a (deep) voice for radio. I guess we’ll find out if that’s true.
Although I’ve always preferred Vs. to Ten – am I alone in that sentiment? – Pearl Jam’s debut played a huge part in shaping my music tastes in high school (though I swear I could never hear Jeremy for as long as I live and be completely happy). I mean, I didn’t grow my hair grungy long like some people I know – *cough* my brother *cough* – Ten is an amazing album and deserving of its recent deluxe reissue.
That’s got people reminiscing about the record and reinventing its songs, thanks to an MTV2 project. Take, for example, Minnesota rapper P.O.S., who does an amazing one-man version of Why Go, showing off some singing chops in the process. Plaid flannel is a nice touch, too.
But, seriously, back to Vs. I still have the cassette with Five Against One printed on the tape when that was the original title. Can I get like five bucks for that on eBay?
Anti- is offering a free sampler at Amazon that includes the first single from the solo album by Jason Lytle, formerly of Grandaddy.
Yours Truly, the Commuter is out May 19, and Brand New Sun certainly has strains of Grandaddy, which is probably to be expected. (Yours Truly’s cover even reminds me a little of The Sophtware Slump artwork.)
Also, NPR filmed Lytle performing a few tracks acoustic style during SXSW festivities.
Touring partners Her Space Holiday and City Light (coming to Modified on May 10) have collaborated on a split EP for which they cover each other. City Light takes on Her Space Holiday’s New Kid Revival and Her Space Holiday reworks All You Demons, from City Light’s forthcoming full-length Burn Out Bright.
The EP, due out April 7 on iTunes via Banter Records, is only two songs, but the kind folks at Banter have given us the green light to post Her Space Holiday’s contribution and the City Light original. (By the way, City Light is comprised of Nick Andre from Her Space Holiday; Denver Dalley from Desaparecidos; Andy Fitts from Aqueduct and Seattle singer/songwriter Matthew Shaw.)