Category Archives: video

hip-hop, video

Lyrics Born: Pushed Aside, Pulled Apart (w/Lateef)

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One of the great (and overlooked) hip-hop works from the ’90s was the debut from Latyrx – a record so undeniably cool it only needed to go by the name Latyrx (The Album). The duo – Lyrics Born and Lateef the Truthspeaker – created one of the first albums that really challenged my ideas of what hip-hop was (and what it could be). Coming from the inimitable Solesides/Quannum crew, that shouldn’t have been a surprise.

Sadly, we never got a proper follow-up. But maybe we have the start of something here with the new Lyrics Born single, Pushed Aside, Pulled Apart, which features his old running mate Lateef. There must be some sort of market still yearning for Latyrx because LB’s bandwidth took a hit on a free download of the mp3 (at least as of Tuesday night).

So I don’t have an mp3 to offer – keep checking back with the good peeps at Solesides.com – but there was a video released for the song, which appears on The Lyrics Born Variety Show: Season Pho mixtape (purchase here).

UPDATE: MP3 is available again.

Related:
Lyrics Born: Funky Hit Records

general, video

Bowerbirds: Northern Lights (at Pitchfork Festival)

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I didn’t get to see Bowerbirds a couple weeks back at Rhythm Room, so I’ll have to settle by living vicariously through Pitchfork, which offers up this clip of the band performing one of the great songs of 2009 at its festival this year.

Northern Lights certainly isn’t a bring-the-house-down festival-ish kind of jam, but it is big and gorgeous and probably best enjoyed under a big sky (preferably not among a swarm of sweaty/skinny hipsters, however).

general, video

Mayer Hawthorne: Maybe So, Maybe No (video)

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We all have our favorite summer songs, but if there was such a thing as a perfect video for summer, this new one for Mayer Hawthorne’s Maybe So, Maybe No is probably it. The Mayer strolls around the streets of Los Angeles, digging record crates and chillin’ with skaters and street performers (Rob Dyrdek makes a cameo).

Hawthorne’s A Strange Arrangement comes out Sept. 8 and he’s coming to town on Oct. 14.

Related:
Incoming: Mayer Hawthorne, Oct. 14
Mayer Hawthorne: Maybe So, Maybe No
Mayer Hawthorne: Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out

general, video

Julian Plenti: Games for Days (video)

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I’m still not sure if I enjoy the Julian Plenti album Julian Plenti Is … Skyscraper on its own merits or because (and I’m guessing I’m not alone here) it simply pulls on my Interpol heartstrings. For as much as I’ve listened to Interpol frontman Paul Banks’ solo album the past couple of weeks, I’ve been equally drawn back to the Interpol catalog (well, Antics, mostly … oh, how I love C’mere).

By my feeble way of thinking, it’s difficult to hear Banks’ unique voice and think anything other than Interpol. Pitchfork seemed to sum it up rather plainly and directly: “While Julian Plenti Is… Skyscraper is not as strong or as exciting as Interpol’s first two records, it is certainly a step up from their third, and makes a good case for Banks’ individual strengths within and without the band.”

The video for Games for Days, featuring Metric’s Emily Haines, is below:

hip-hop, video

5 O’Clock Shadowboxers: Weak Stomach (video)

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shadowboxers

I’m embarrassed to admit it’s been almost two months since Weiss, an A&R man disguised as one of my favorite bloggers, sent out an e-mail to promote The Slow Twilight, the new release from 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers – a collaboration between Zilla Rocca and Fresh Cherries From Yakima’s Douglas Martin. (You may remember Zilla and Douglas as past contributors to the I Used to Love H.E.R. series, both of them loyal Wu-Tang devotees.)

Why embarrassed? Because after one spin of The Slow Twilight – available as a free download at Zilla’s Clap Cowards – it’s evident I’ve slept on one of the more enticing hip-hop releases of the year (and here I’ve been complaining about what a slow year for hip-hop it’s been). As I let my thoughts fully form on the album, I point you in the direction of Zilla’s insights on the creation of The Slow Twilight, a creative and technological marvel birthed by two talented dudes who have never met. (I can tell you this: No Resolution is an absolute banger.)

Check the video for Weak Stomach below:

general, video

Elbow on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic

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On Sunday, we returned from Los Angeles, where we saw Elbow perform at the Wiltern on Wednesday night in what I don’t hesitate to call the best show I’ve seen this year. (It’s just a shame we had to leave Phoenix to do it.)

Besides dodging an equipment nightmare – singer Guy Garvey informed the crowd that the band’s gear never made it from England, forcing the crew to scramble in L.A. – Elbow showed the poise and polish of a band willing to embrace the recognition it deserves, starting with last year’s Mercury Prize victory. There are fewer frontmen more endearing and genuine than Garvey, whose Storytellers-like chatter between songs engages fans, bringing a man of immense talent down to our size – he’s just a guy you want to have a drink with.

Though the set obviously leaned heavily on the Mercury-winning The Seldom Seen Kid – I have a newfound appreciation for Weather to Fly and The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver – the band plucked some choice gems from the back catalog: Newborn and Mexican Standoff among them (a setlist is posted here).

But as isolated moments go, I’m not ashamed to admit to a serious case of chills during the pre-encore finale of One Day Like This, a song whose overpowering positivity won even me over in 2008. Garvey outdid himself at the Wiltern, pulling two youngsters on stage to help him sing and conduct the feel-good singalong, draping his arms over their shoulders like they were old pals. Nobody would have complained if the song’s enduring chorus – Throw those curtains wide / one day like this a year would see me right – rode out for another hour.

Here’s some great video of the moment:

The next day, Elbow went on KCRW to perform a session for Morning Becomes Eclectic, repeating a few tracks from the Wiltern but adding some new ones (Fugitive Motel!).

KCRW set list: 1. Mirrorball; 2. Great Expectations; 3. Grounds for Divorce; 4. Fugitive Motel; 5. Scattered Black and Whites; 6. Puncture Repair; 7. One Day Like This.

hip-hop, video

Beastie Boys feat. Nas: Too Many Rappers

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(Note: I prepared this post on Sunday night. By Monday, I think most music fans heard the news that Adam Yauch (aka MCA) has been diagnosed with cancer of a salivary gland, forcing the Beasties to cancel tour dates and push back their album release. Yauch will need surgery, but the cancer apparently is treatable. So here’s hoping for a speedy and full recovery.)

Thanks to Spine Magazine for offering up what I still contend to be one of the more unlikely collaborations – and, yet, Beastie Boys and Nas pull this off rather splendidly.

Nobody will ever crown the Beasties the best lyricists around, but MCA, especially, sounds somewhat revitalized: “I ought to charge a tax for every weak rap.” (Hey, it’s good for the Beastie Boys.)

Too Many Rappers will be on the forthcoming Beastie Boys album Hot Sauce Committee Part 1, due out Sept. 15.

Yauch’s announcement about his cancer diagnosis:

arizona, general, video

Alvin Band: Temple Pressure (video, mp3)

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Rick Shaier is the mustachioed, polyester shorts-wearing drummer of Phoenix band Miniature Tigers. He’s also the brains behind Alvin Band, a solo project he’s been working on for the past five years. On Sept. 22, his work will see a national release with the debut album Mantis Preying coming out on Intelligent Noise Records.

Part of the official press release reads thusly: “Rick holed up in a friend’s bathroom with a microphone and a Powerbook and went to town. The end result is the 9 song ‘vocal composition’ coined ‘Mantis Preying.’ … Bjork’s ‘Medulla’ served as the predominant inspiration behind Rick’s writing and layering vocals without the use of instruments.”

A more recent comparison for the work – at least from the small bits I’ve heard – would fall under the Animal Collective/Panda Bear school of vocal harmonizing. If you’ve seen Miniature Tigers in the past year or so, chances are you’ve heard an Alvin Band song. The last time I saw them they opened with Glowing Tree (stream it at MySpace).

The Mantis Preying release will include a six-song bonus EP called Lady Portrait, which Schaier had made available as a free download via MySpace a few months ago.

general, video

Phoenix: Live on The Interface

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Some friends have been posting favorite albums of the half-year, and if I had to pick, I’d say Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is floating near the top for me (along with Mos Def’s The Ecstatic, Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone and Jason Lytle’s Yours Truly, The Commuter).

Phoenix stopped by to record a session for The Interface – sans drummer, though his importance to the band cannot be overstated … for example. Sorry, a canned drum beat sucks all the vital energy out of what makes this album great. And is it just me or does singer Thomas Mars always look a little out of it while he performs?

Lisztomania:

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