I’m a fan of Brit punk-folkie Frank Turner, whose Campfire Punkrock EP (get at eMusic) I praised earlier this year.
Turner has returned with a full-length, Love Ire & Song, which came out in the UK in March (not sure if it has a Stateside release).
Until we get a U.S. release, we can enjoy the new video for the song Reasons Not to Be an Idiot, in which Turner looks like some papier-mache puppet.
I’m not sure how long Spoon will keep offering a bonus download every month, but I’ll keep going back until the band stops.
May’s bonus baby is a demo version of Don’t Let it Get You Down, the original of which appears on 2002’s Kill the Moonlight.
Previous bonus downloads included I Turn My Camera On (first version) and Cherry Bomb (demo).
Even better news for Spoon fans: June is just around the corner.
A few of you seemed to dislike the last DJ Z-Trip remix I posted, his reworking of Nirvana’s Lounge Act.
Well, I’m here to tell you I won’t quit posting anything he does so long as he’s making them available.
This time, Z-Trip takes on a hip-hop heavyweight – LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out – and adds a touch (OK, more than a touch) of rock to it.
Check out summer tour dates for Z-Trip.
NOT REALLY RELATED AT ALL: I’m headed to New York on Monday for a week. For those that don’t know, I’ve worked at The Arizona Republic the past five-plus years (my second time around after working there part time in college). Well, that all ended after I took a job with MLB.com, the Web site (and its team sites) of Major League Baseball. Thus, my trip to New York for training.
I’ve already got some good recommendations for record stores for whatever spare time I’ll have. I’ll take any other suggestions for music, restaurants, shopping, etc. Unfortunately, I’m working nights, so I won’t get to any shows.
Besides feeling blessed for working for the professional league of the sport I’ve loved since I could wear a hat, this also means I’ll be doing some freelancing about town here, including for, yes, The Republic. My first bit of work was a review of the Kills show last Thursday.
ALBANY, N.Y. – New York Gov. David Paterson is granting a full and unconditional pardon to rapper Ricky “Slick Rick” Walters for the attempted murders of two men in 1991.
The pardon is expected to halt efforts to deport Walters to the United Kingdom, the country he left as a child.
The eyepatch-wearing star behind the ’80s rap classic “La-Di-Da-Di” served more than five years in prison after the shooting of his cousin and another man. Both survived.
The governor says Walters is now a rap artist and landlord in the Bronx who hasn’t had any criminal problems since his release from prison in 1997. He also says Walters has volunteered to counsel youths against violence.
Slick Rick: Children’s Story video:
What’s better than my favorite song from one of my favorite albums of 2007? How about a video for it? (Thanks, Stereogum.)
And, hey, here’s Band of Horses playing an in-store session at Amoeba in Hollywood. No One’s Gonna Love You is on the set list:
It’d been awhile since I hit the Travis Web site, so I was a bit surprised to see the band is putting the wraps on a new album, this after releasing its first album in almost four years in 2007 (The Boy With No Name).
This new track, J. Smith (the album is called Ode to J. Smith), has Travis fans in a tizzy, describing it as everything from “Queen-ish” to “so rockier!”.
Singer Fran Healy and bassist Dougie Payne have been blogging about the recording/mixing. Emery Dobyns (Mobius Band, Battles) is the producer.
Healy requested the song, which debuted on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic on May 1, not be upped to YouTube so as to avoid mass compression. I assume the copy I found from the Travis message boards is a rip from the KCRW broadcast.
Elsewhere in the land of Travis, Healy discusses Sing and Driftwood on the Sky Arts series Songbook.
Lastly, the band is offering on its MySpace a muzak version of Closer, which was featured in the video. “Would make quite a cheesy ringtone.”
RELATED:
Travis: New Amsterdam (video).
Favorite albums of 2007 (The Boy With No Name was No. 10).
Travis, Marquee Theatre, 11/25/07.
Travis: Selfish Jean (video).
Travis: My Eyes (video).
Travis: Closer (video).
(I like Travis; so sue me.)
Vast Aire says at the beginning of The Crush, an unreleased track that originally was scheduled to be included on his forthcoming Deuces Wild (June 24), that this “is not a love song … naaah.”
But let’s be honest: That’s just macho posturing. Because seconds later, Vast launches into a love letter of the highest order: “She got the sweet potato, I got the corn on the cob / tuck your shirt in, she don’t date no slob.” OK, so Barry White might have put it in a subtler manner, but you get the idea.
It got me thinking about my favorite hip-hop odes to love. Without a doubt, the Pharcyde’s Passin’ Me By ranks No. 1. As I look at the list, combing for common traits in the songs, I think the best of them are heartfelt without being cheesy, humorous without being juvenile.
LL Cool J’s I Need Love is the closest you’d come to an R&B jam, and, at the time (1987), it had to be a bit of a surprise – this was, after all, the days of the I’m Bad Cool J, before he sexed us up in every song/video he put out. You could argue, though, that LL made it OK to drop a verse or three about love.
Some more of my favorites (in no particular order):
A Tribe Called Quest, Electric Relaxation.
The Pharcyde, Otha Fish.
Aceyalone, Annalillia?.
The Nonce, Bus Stops.
Atban Klann (ex-Black Eyed Peas), Focus On You.
Del the Funky Homosapien, Why You Wanna Get Funky.
J-Live, Like This Anna.
Mos Def, Ms. Fat Booty.
Murs, Silly Girl.
LL Cool J, I Need Love.
The Roots, You Got Me.
I made a Muxtape out of these. Check it out. What hip-hop love songs did I miss?
The Hold Steady is streaming Sequestered in Memphis, the first single from the forthcoming LP Stay Positive, on its MySpace page.
The track, available at iTunes, features Ben Nichols of Lucero on backup vocals.
Pretty classic Craig Finn here, with bright horns and prominent piano: “She said I know I look tired but everything is fried here in Memphis.”
[STREAM]: The Hold Steady | Sequestered in Memphis
If you grew up in the late ’80s/early ’90s, there was no avoiding Young MC’s Bust a Move. It was a hip-hop hit that crossed over to the highest degree – it might blow up and it did go pop. (Personally, I preferred Principal’s Office, but that’s neither here nor there.)
So it only seemed like a matter of time before Delicious Vinyl commissioned a little remix action on one of the biggest hits of its catalog. The label has digitally released Bust a Move RMXXS – no vowels is so cool – followed by a release on 12-inch vinyl. (Get the digitals at eMusic.)
Frenchman Don Rimini and Mad Decent’s Diplo update Bust a Move for the 21st century.
This is one of those cases where a remix isn’t really necessary, but if it draws a new generation of kids to the original, well, then I’m all for it. (Grab Marvin Young’s classic Stone Cold Rhymin’ at eMusic.)
What the hell:
About three-quarters of the way through the Cave Singers’ show on Saturday night at Modified, I realized the band was without any sort of bass instrument. That wouldn’t be such a stunning revelation if the trio’s outstanding rhythm hadn’t already held me captive for about 30 minutes.
That’s probably a credit to the guitar playing of Derek Fudesco, whose finger-picking style manages to cover both lead and rhythm roles.
If I was a casual fan of the band’s debut Invitation Songs (get it at eMusic), the live show – with its vibrant energy – has pushed me into full fan mode. (Already I’ve downloaded the Daytrotter session and two B-sides at eMusic.)
Chad Sundin of Phoenix band the Via Maris made a great observation after the show: The Cave Singers put to use simple objects in entertaining ways. Like, say, singer Pete Quirk beating a maraca on a stool for added percussion punch on Dancing on Our Graves. (Never mind Quirk’s distinct and surprisingly warm/powerful nasal-inflected vocal style.)
While modern folk-rock heads into more abstract – and sometimes complicated – territory with the Yeasayers of the world, the Cave Singers insist there be something to hold onto, usually in the form of an infectious shuffle-stomp rhythm.
It might be true of 95 percent of bands, but a live setting is the best way to appreciate the Cave Singers’ appeal, to see the multiple parts at work in unison. I’m glad to say I’ve good reason to resurrect Invitation Songs for closer examination.