If my constant harping about the greatness of Elbow’s 2008 album The Seldom Seen Kid wasn’t enough to convince you, then perhaps you’ll be sold on the strength of the band’s Mercury Prize win, which singer Guy Garvey said “is the best thing that’s ever happened to us.”
The band also recently released what I believe is the third video from the album. This one’s for The Bones of You:
Someone was also kind enough to upload video of Elbow performing the song on Live from Abbey Road:
The 32nd 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 Marc Bianchi, the man behind Her Space Holiday, whose full-length XOXO, Panda and the New Kid Revival comes out Oct. 7 on Mush Records.
Be sure to hit the Mush Records YouTube page for a series of short films Bianchi is releasing as a preview to the record (which is really great, by the way).
De La Soul
De La Soul Is Dead (Tommy Boy, 1991)
there are three records in my collection that have reshaped the way i think about music, and creativity in general. i suppose it is irrelevant to mention what two out of the three are in this half baked little rant. however, the one i will talk about is De La Soul’s masterpiece “De La Soul
is Dead.”
in my opinion, this album goes far beyond its weighty banner of being hailed as a “hip hop classic.” it’s simply a classic work of art no matter what genre you apply it to you. “de la soul is dead” is a sonic collage of the light and the dark. humor mixed with horror. the political and the playful. the sublime and the shocking. all the ingredients of the human experience mixed into one rich, vibrant concoction. it’s the subtleties in this album that keeps it timeless and enduring. no matter how many times i let the needle dig into this record, I always find something new to appreciate and learn from. Choruses, that initially introduced themselves as catchy sing alongs, eventually mutate into gritty and insightful social statements. skits, that at first listen are light hearted, and child like, twist into biting and aggressive commentaries. all of it wrapped up into a familiarly sweet spoon full of sugar that helps get the medicine down. like a small kid with quick fists, it’s far tougher than it appears. to me, prince paul is more like a master painter than a super producer. dipping his brush into every
color known to man, while at the same time, keeping all of it from running into a soupy grey mess. focused and incredibly loose all in the same breath. “de la soul is dead” is a testament to originality and limitless expression.
maybe i am reading into it too deeply? or being overly sentimental? i’ve been told that i do that sometimes. So if none of the above appeals to you, let me also just include that “the beats are slamming.”
BONUS:
Hopefully, I can make up for missing Guilty Simpson on Thursday night at the Blunt Club and make it to see Camp Lo on Oct. 2 at Club Red in Tempe.
The Blunt Club guys keep bringin’ it and this is one not to be overlooked. Camp Lo made what you might call a comeback last year with the excellent full-length In Black Hollywood. But if you’re unfamiliar with the Bronx duo – now just called The Lo? – do yourself a major favor and check out 1997’s Uptown Saturday Night, a classic piece of street-wise hip-hop that really could/should be seen as the precursor to an album like the Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury.
Here’s the video for Luchini (aka This is It), off Uptown Saturday Night:
Those fantastic fellas in Elbow, whom I post so much about, are up for this year’s Mercury Prize.
In breaking down the nominees, BBC offers up a live video of Elbow performing Grounds for Divorce off this year’s nominated album, The Seldom Seen Kid.
So maybe it’s not quite as rousing as Barack Obama actually speaking in person, but DJ Z-Trip makes excellent use of technology by interspersing some political commentary – Obama meets M.I.A.? – throughout this set at Manifest Hope Gallery in Denver last week during the Democratic National Convention. Watch as Z-Trip takes an Obama clip – “We cannot wait” – and, in a clever twist, turns it into a rallying cry over the Nu Shooz song I Can’t Wait.
(Props to URB for posting this.)
UPDATE: You can download a portion of the Obama set Z-Trip has been working on at his Web site.
Ah, any movement from the Radar Bros. camp is great news. The latest is a new video for Brother Rabbit, a track off one of my 2008 favorites, Auditorium.
The video was directed by The General Assembly, which calls it “our oilfield epic.” Like the Radar Bros.’ music, there’s something sparse and vaguely depressing about this video. Though it doesn’t look like West Texas – it was shot in rural Oklahoma – the passing shots of the oil derricks make me fondly remember my two years in Lubbock, Texas. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is as lonely/frightening as driving in the empty spaces of West Texas and seeing those beasts of steel slowly crank up and down, up and down. There’s a political message in here, I’m sure, but that’s not ever really what struck me.
This video (via the Merge blog) seems to capture a day in the life of a lonely existence – an oilfield worker who comes home after a long day to get dressed up, only to spend an evening by himself again at a non-descript bar.
Seriously, I get pretty upset/sad watching this.
As Delicious Vinyl continues to open its vaults for remixes far and wide, I’m torn at how to feel about it.
On the one hand, it’s a great way to breathe new life into older material and, more important, introduce these artists/albums to a new generation. But, at the risk of sounding like curmudgeon, can’t we leave well enough (or, in the Pharcyde’s case, perfect enough) alone?
Case in point: Hot Chip’s remix of Passin’ Me By. Weiss and I had a little back-and-forth about this one. I think it’s fair to call this track a classic, an influential hip-hop love story if ever there was one. So why risk its reputation in what turned out to be (in my opinion) a remix that sucks the soul out of the original?
That said, DJ Nu-Mark (formerly of Jurassic 5) then comes around and gives me faith in the art of the remix with his reworking of 4 Better or 4 Worse.
From the opening bars of the soulful piano line to the head-nodder of a beat, it simply feels like Nu-Mark had a better grasp of what the Pharcyde was about, like he’d been waiting for years to remix one of their tracks.
One of these days, I will post a Pharcyde all-remix post, as I’ve got a few gems on vinyl. Until then, enjoy Nu-Mark’s wizardry. And you can pick up the Runnin’/4 Better or 4 Worse single – with a cappellas and instrumentals – at eMusic.
Here’s a great 27-minute interview with Q-Tip on the Juan Epstein podcast.
They ask Q-Tip basically everything you’ve ever wanted to know: “What was Jarobi’s role?” “What was the first song you recorded as Tribe?” (Answer: Tip wrote Bonita Applebum when he was 14. 14! I don’t even remember what I was doing at 14 years old, but I wasn’t writing hip-hop classics.
Q-Tip also talks about the various versions of Scenario – which became a topic of conversation on the Nets lately – and how all his recorded versions were lost in a fire at his home studio years ago. If I believed in emoticons, here is where I would put in a sad face.
Here’s the video for Common’s new single Announcement, starring Pharrell.
Remember: Common visits Marquee Theatre in Tempe on Sept. 13. Get tickets ($29) here.
A wise man once said People Under the Stairs “are the epitome of California cool – laid-back beats and verses that celebrate the mellow side of West Coast living and obsessive crate digging.” OK, that was me.
In a year that hasn’t produced too many hip-hop records I’m excited about (where are you, MURS?), the first single from PUTS’ forthcoming Fun DMC has surfaced. The track is called Step Bacc, and it seems to live up to the promise of the album title.
Says Double K for the requisite press material: “On our last album, Stepfather [
Worth noting is the duo created/produced the record themselves at Thes One’s new home studio, designed and built by the man himself.