I posted recently about the Peaches remix of Tone Loc’s Wild Thing. Well, a little surfin’ on YouTube turned up this live gem: Tone Loc and Peaches performing the remix together at an URB and Delicious Vinyl party on Nov. 4 in Los Angeles.
Man, how great is Tone Loc’s voice?
Original video for Wild Thing:
There’s now cover art for that new Radar Bros. album I told you about the other day. It looks like this:
Also, Bank Robber Music is streaming another new song from the record, Warm Rising Sun.
That is all.
I haven’t paid enough attention to Josh Ritter’s 2007 release The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter – an unfortunate victim of my being overwhelmed in trying to listen/enjoy so many albums. (Check Metacritic for reviews.)
Nevertheless, I grabbed one of those free Monitor This compilations that record stores can’t seem to get rid of fast enough. Luckily, this collection included a bonus Ritter track, Wildfires, not included on the album.
The song is more of a slow-burner than anything on Historical Conquests – at least from the few listens I’ve given to it. If nothing else, it’s pretty enough to make me give Conquests another go-round or two.
Best-of lists for 2007 are being compiled/posted all over the place, but I’m already looking forward to a 2008 release with some anticipation: the Radar Bros.’ Auditorium, due out Jan. 29 on Merge Records.
NPR debuted the lead single, Lake Life, on its All Songs Considered page. (Scroll down to find the stream.)
The DJ correctly calls the Radar Bros.’ style a throwback to early 1970s Pink Floyd – a “dreamy, folk sound.” Lake Life (not Pomona as NPR labeled the track) doesn’t stray far from that brand. Like most everything the Radar Bros. have done, Lake Life coasts gently on a hypnotizing guitar line and a swing-like slow-motion drum rhythm, following my belief that the best way to describe the band’s deliberate pacing is to imagine the tempo running underwater.
That said, frontman Jim Putnam does seem slightly taken with the concept of water – living on and/or near it or simply observing its mesmerizing nature (past songs include: Rock of the Lake, The River Shade and Underwater Culprits). Coupled with the band’s hazy aura, Putnam’s lyrics often sound like an idealistic vision of the simple life. On Lake Life, he sings: “Long is the day now / just swim while I lay / if I could only have you / my beautiful lake life now.”
Listen to Lake Life here.
Auditorium tracklisting:
When Cold Air Goes To Sleep
Warm Rising Sun
Happy Spirits
Hearts Of Crows
On Nautilus
Hills Of Stone
Lake Life
Watching Cows
Pomona
A Dog Named Ohio
Brother Rabbit
Morning Bird
(EDIT: This post belongs to friend/co-worker J.J., whom I have asked to contribute as his time permits. J.J., who has written music for the New Times chain, owns a vast music/pop culture knowledge so I’m pumped for regular – or even semi-regular – posts from him. That said, I’ve added code so you can see who has written what post. OK. Cool.)
The historic road through the hip hop game is littered with one-hit wonders (Tag Team!) and two-trick Pony fans who dwell in the discount bin after their sophomore efforts.
Then there’s Too $hort, who, can claim rap’s longevity title with a career that spans more than 20 years with just as many albums. He’s the George Foreman of heavyweight rappers, complete with tomato can challengers (see: Yukmouth) and plenty o’ grillz.
$hort Dog’s recipe for success is deceptively easy: his laid-back Oaktown drawl sprawled over simple beats with rhymes about the ins and outs of pimpin’.
He’s also remarkably consistent, but rarely spectacular. $hort’s latest single, “This My One,” would fit as perfectly on 1988s “Life Is..” as it would on 2006s “Blow the Whistle”. It doesn’t stray far from $hort’s standard game plan, save for a couple cameos (including E-40), which is what makes it a fitting holiday jam.
It’s comfortable, like a Christmas sweater, but, with lines like, “Ask your mother and your aunties/ smile in my face/ I’ll burn rubber in your panties†not quite cozy enough to share with the entire family.
When $hort Dog’s in the house, you’ve still gotta lock up your daughters.
Do yourself a favor and set aside 13 minutes and 36 seconds to listen to this: hygiene tips from Ghostface Killah.
This is just … unbelievably awesome.
I guess this is an audio excerpt from his book The World According to Pretty Toney. Yeah, I didn’t know he had a book either.
Highlights:
“Think of an invention, man. Make a new toilet bowl or somethin’, man.”
“Ya niggas walkin’ around with mad crust in ya eyes and shit. Make sure you clean that shit, man. Nobody wanna see your little rotten-ass face.”
“Brush your teeth and scrub your tongue, man. Scrub your lips, all that shit. … Do somethin’, man. Swallow a box of baking soda and peroxide.”
“For niggas that don’t know how to take showers, wash your face first, then wash your nuts. Don’t wash your nuts, then wash your face. You feel me? You going backwards.”
It goes on. Coupled with the Ghostface Doll, you can really make someone’s holidays special.
(Props to MC Paul Barman for the MySpace blast on this.)
I’m getting a little more than irritated at how many albums are being rereleased so soon after their original release. It’s one thing to remaster/rerelease an album 20 years old. It’s quite another to reissue an album released in 2006, baiting consumers with the “bonus” material lure.
That’s the case with Anti, which rereleased Neko Case’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (originally out March 7, 2006), which now includes a five-song bonus disc. Is it not enough to buy an album once any more? Times like this make me thankful that songs can be purchased individually. And thank God iTunes isn’t pulling the “album only” stunt on the Fox Confessor bonus material.
Even better, Neko Case is offering one of the bonus tracks, a demo version of Behind the House, a song previously released only on her live CD from Austin City Limits.
If there is a crack in my armor of cynicism, Travis always finds a way to exploit it. For the most part, I cringe – or roll my eyes or snicker or gag – at sappy attempts of sentimental fluff in music. But, as I’ve said before, Travis somehow breaks me down. Every time.
Sunday’s show at Marquee Theatre in Tempe, the first time I’d seen Travis live, was no different. From the band’s juiced-up introduction (winding their way through the crowd in boxing robes to the Rocky theme song) to the closer (Why Does it Always Rain on Me?, naturally), Travis exudes a sincerity completely lost on the lightweight imitators the band spawned (Keane, Snow Patrol, etc.) – and every other self-important band, for that matter.
These are four guys (a fifth plays keys for the shows) who seem to genuinely enjoy making music – not just for themselves, but for others, too. The band works hard to foster a, ahem, good feeling among fans. (To wit: Singer Fran Healy spotted a young girl in the audience and jumped off the stage after a song to bring her a “gift” – a set of earplugs.)
And, yet, the way some people take cheap shots at Travis, you almost feel like you have to apologize for liking the band. Ooooh, they’re not complicated enough. They’re not indie enough. Who cares? I had a better time at this show – in the I’m-just-going-to-go-ahead-and-sing-every-song-and-not-care-what-people-think way – than any I’ve been to this year … or any other year. Ah. There. I said it. I feel better.
After the first few songs, Healy said the band would play some old stuff, new stuff and “in-between” stuff. That Travis hasn’t completely abandoned material from the 2003 commercial flop 12 Memories – the band played three songs off it – shows some guts, considering at least two people said to me recently: “The last thing I heard from them was The Invisible Band.”
More power to Travis then for returning this year with The Boy With No Name, an album that could easily have been the successor to 2000’s humongous hit The Man Who (nine times platinum in the UK or 2.7 million sales). Even still, Travis kept new material to a minimum, perhaps realizing that, with four years between albums – and, according to one fan, seven years between Arizona visits, to which Healy replied: “Shit.” – it’s best to reacquaint yourselves slowly.
To that end, tucking Writing to Reach You – one of the band’s most recognizable songs – right behind the Lust for Life-esque opener Selfish Jean played perfectly to the crowd. Later, Healy even ordered fans to point and chant the piano player’s name (Klaus … he’s Swedish) during a solo. It’s OK, he said, “It’s a Travis show. This isn’t Coldplay.”
It was a joke. But you get the feeling Healy and his bandmates, all smiling and climbing amp stacks (what the hell was Andy Dunlop doing?), are more comfortable letting a group like Coldplay bear the pressure/expectations of being the next “it” band. If Sunday’s show was a sign of a rejuvenated band in a happier place, then I can’t wait to see what comes next … at least not for another four years.
Set list for Travis at Marquee Theatre in Tempe, 11/25/07:
Selfish Jean
Writing to Reach You
Love Will Come Through
Re-Offender
As You Are
My Eyes
Pipe Dreams
Beautiful Occupation
Side
Driftwood
Good Feeling
Closer
All I Want to Do is Rock
Turn
ENCORE:
Twenty (Fran solo acoustic with no amplification)
Flowers in the Window (Fran solo acoustic with the guys singing behind him)
Three Times and You Lose
Battleships
Blue Flashing Light
Slide Show
Why Does it Always Rain on Me?
Athens, Ga., singer-songwriter Daniel Hutchens, signed to the Autumn Tone label run by our good pal Justin Gage (aka Aquarium Drunkard), is offering some free downloads at his MySpace page.
Up for grabs are three songs from his 2003 record Lesser: Life in the Minor League, I Still Love the Old Dogs and Orchard. You can also download Dharma Knife from the 2006 release Love Songs for Losers.
While I form some thoughts on the fantastic Travis show we saw Sunday night, I direct your attention to the Hype Beast blogs for a mix with nostalgia written all over it.
DJ Soul put together ’90s hip-hop mix for Sirius Radio’s Shade 45, the hip-hop channel created by Slim Shady himself. One look at the tracklist for the two-part mix, and the memories are sure to come rushing back.
Download Part I here and Part II here.
On the topic of mixes for Thanksgiving, the Gray Kid is still offering the one he put together last year dubbed The Pilgrimage.
