Once again, I’ve got No Knife on the brain after I interviewed singer/guitarist Ryan Ferguson on Friday for a story I wrote previewing the band’s quasi reunion for its opening slot on Jimmy Eat World’s “Clarity x 10” tour this Saturday in Tempe.
I’ll post the interview once the story is published and after I transcribe everything – we talked for about 40 minutes on music, baseball (poor guy, Ferguson’s a big Padres fan), fantasy sports and more, so obviously not everything made the cut for the story. Needless to say, it was one of the more engaging conversations I’ve had with a musician. Super nice guy.
If you’re headed to the show, Ferguson said the band likely will play nine or 10 songs, but the guys have 12 ready to go just in case. Don’t be surprised if JEW frontman Jim Adkins joins the band for his customary guest spot on Charming from 1999’s Fire in the City of Automatons.
In the meantime, below is a video of No Knife performing The Red Bedroom on Fox Rox, which I believe was a televised music show based out of San Diego.
And be sure to get some No Knife mp3s at the group’s site.
I had a lot of love for K-OS’ 2006 release Atlantis: Hymns for Disco, specifically for the catchy-as-hell single Sunday Morning. That was so long ago, he was spelling his name k-os … or maybe it was K-os. Hell, I can’t keep up.
The Canadian-based musician is returning with the full-length Yes!, due out March 31. The album’s first single is 4 3 2 1, a response of sorts to his friend Feist’s hit 1, 2, 3, 4. K-OS explains in the obligatory bio material: “I thought how interesting would it be to do a hip hop version of this song? It’s about the battle of the sexes, where I’m rapping ‘what are we fighting for?’ Is this gender war going to happen forever? It’s me saying I hope not.â€
The video is below (and you may recognize the loop as the same one from the Pharcyde’s Soul Flower.)
Our friend Ashley Harris, who was the local music director at Arizona State’s The Blaze 1260 AM and now lives in the Big Apple working in the music industry, was in attendance at Terminal 5 in New York for the first date of Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity x 10 tour, which winds down with a homecoming at Marquee Theatre in Tempe on March 7. Read Ashley’s review of the show after the jump and see more of her pictures here.
In honor of the one-year anniversary of its blog, Anti- is offering a free download of Middle Cyclone, the title track from Neko Case’s amazing new album (due out on Tuesday).
Previously, Neko (yep, we’re on a first-name basis) offered up People Got a Lotta Nerve, which helped benefit Best Friends Animal Society.
On Middle Cyclone, Neko sings beautifully over an acoustic guitar and the intermittent loop of what sounds like a child’s toy (a jack in the box perhaps?). “Can’t give up acting tough / it’s all that I’m made of.” Also, it’s a great excuse to run a picture of Neko eating a red rope piece of licorice.
Honestly, I’m not really sure who Sara Lov is, but she apparently is taking cover-song requests from fans and producing neat little videos of them (with an even littler piano … is “littler” a word?). For the latest, she covers Silversun Pickups’Kissing Families, which appeared on the group’s Pikul EP.
Stick around for the guest appearance … OK, it’s SSPU singer Brian Aubert, in case you didn’t recognize him.
This is also a good time to tell you that the new album from SSPU, Swoon, is due out April 14 and can be pre-ordered at Amazon.
It’s always a pleasure to hear from Chad Sundin, the frontman for local folk act The Via Maris, which actually played its last show in November, though Sundin promised then that The Via Maris is not dead, “merely the current manifestation of it.”
That said, Sundin got in touch to let me know about a show he put together, headlined by acclaimed Portland folk artist Laura Gibson, who is drawing high praise for her 2009 release Beasts of Seasons (Hush Records). NPR called it “nothing short of a masterpiece.”
To top it off, Sundin says he has assembled “a 3-piece wind ensemble to perform a set of old hymns with me and Zachary James Dodds, and maybe some others.”
The show will take place at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Parish (1735 S. College Ave., Tempe), inside of which Sundin’s studio is located. Since Gibson isn’t coming to Phoenix on the Damien Jurado tour, this is an amazing opportunity to see her at a unique venue.
The show starts at 8 p.m. Admission is $8 or $4 if you bring a non-perishable food or clothing item for humanitarian efforts at Arizona’s southern border.
Because Pigeon John is a guy who never seems to take himself too seriously, you’d sort of expect him to form a side project like Rootbeer.
From what I can tell – there are only two songs streaming on MySpace – PJ and Flynn Adam (both formerly of LA Symphony) take some shots at mainstream rap culture, perhaps in the vein of something like Plastic Little, while keeping the vibe upbeat and loose.
The Pink Limousine EP is due out March 10 and the duo is performing at Chaser’s in Scottsdale on March 17 as they head out to SXSW. (More info on this flyer.)
Bought my tickets on Tuesday for tonight’s Z-Trip outing at Bar Smith in downtown Phoenix. You can get ’em here if you haven’t already.
While we’re on the subject, Z-Trip is featured in comic-book form at BPM magazine with art by former AZ resident Jim Mahfood.
In more Z-Trip news, there’s a new video for the N.A.S.A. track The People Tree, featuring David Byrne, Chali 2na, the Gift of Gab and Z-Trip. Check it out below:
The 40th 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 producer Enoch of Gainesville, Fla., hip-hop quartet CYNE, whose excellent 2005 album Evolution Fight was followed in ’08 by Pretty Dark Things (Hometapes).
Black Sheep A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (Mercury/PolyGram, 1991)
This is the first album that I ever knew word for word from front to back. Up to this point, I had been familiar with some hip hop records such as De La Soul, Beastie Boys and Run-DMC, mostly from my brother. But when a friend played me this album in 6th grade, it was over. Hip hop officially became the only thing I would listen to for many many years.
Black Sheep is such a fitting title for these guys, because in my eyes, they were just as talented as any of the other Native Tongue artists, but completely unappreciated. To this day, they still have the song that can spontaneously cause entire crowds to chant “Engine engine number 9, on the New York transatlantic line” but you would be hard pressed to find a lot of people in that same crowd who actually know what it is that they are listening to. This album has so many classic singles, such as Similak Child, Strobelite Honey, Flavor of the Month, and of course, The Choice is Yours, but the album cuts are just as great. Flawless production and amazing lyrics from Dres and Mista Lawnge.
Tha Alkaholiks Coast II Coast (Loud/RCA Records, 1995)
So a couple years after I got hooked on hip hop, while I was more or less living at my friend’s house (the same one who turned me on to Black Sheep), we decided we were going to go see the Alkaholiks play. Now being that neither of us could drive and were not even remotely close to any sort of appropriate age for this sort of thing, his parents of course shut us down immediately. So we did what any self-involved teenagers would do: sneak out and catch a ride with an older kid. We get there and make our way to the front of the stage for the Alkaholiks set. Near the end, we look over and who do we see? My friend’s father, with steam coming out of his ears. He apparently figured out we snuck out and came to track us down. Now anyone who has seen the Alkaholiks play knows that the first few rows of the show can pretty much bank on getting covered in beer and all types of booze. So as if on cue, as soon as he starts walking toward us, all hell breaks loose and beer is being sprayed everywhere, including all over him. He drags us out, and on the way home while yelling at us, red and blue lights start flashing behind us. To make a long story short, my friend’s dad got pulled over and had to go through all kinds of sobriety tests to prove to the police that he wasn’t drinking and driving despite the fact he smelled like a keg party. Hilarious in retrospect. Oh, yeah, and this album is great.
Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the 36 Chambers (Loud/RCA, 1993)
Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx (Loud/RCA, 1995)
To me, the two best hip hop records ever, hands down. The reign of the Wu in the nineties is probably my favorite period of hip hop music, because it was just so incredible to hear what they would do next. They had so much style and substance and RZA was a machine with the production. Some of it was just so unorthodox at the time and it’s funny because 15 years later, you have producers like Just Blaze and Kanye who have used elements of the RZA formula to great success, which just goes to show how influential and timeless that style is.
Company Flow Funcrusher Plus (Rawkus, 1997)
This is the record that made me get a sampler and start making beats. The whole DIY aesthetic that Co Flow brought to the table was very innovative for the time, because without a label, it was virtually impossible for most hip hop artists to be heard unless you lived in NYC or a major city, or were selling tapes out of your trunk like Too Short. So when indie labels like Rawkus, Fondle ‘Em, ABB and others started popping up, it was almost like a complete rebirth for hip hop in a sense. There was so much talent coming from the underground at that time that it was just incredible. Company Flow really spearheaded that in my eyes and it was their “Independent as Fuck” mantra that really gave me that push to pursue production.
(Note: This album will be reissued in May. More info here.)
Black Sheep
Tha Alkaholiks
Company Flow