general

David Garza opening for Fiona Apple

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Because I have a hard time shelling out $35 (plus $3 facility fee!) for any show, I’ll probably miss Austin’s David Garza opening for Fiona Apple June 20 at Dodge Theatre. Aside from Dodge Theatre’s sterile, impersonal environment, I’d be spending the dough for Garza more than anything anyway.

David Garza (accent on the “i”, as in Dav-eeed) is one of those artists in my collection I can easily overlook, but when I start listening again he’s hard to quit. His 1998 release This Euphoria might fall under one of those “desert-island discs” lists if I ever cared to put one together. He’s got the heart of a true singer/songwriter, but the playing chops that inspire big guitar riffs and pulsating drum beats.

He’s absurdly prolific, and his cameo appearance for a set by fellow Austinites Hairy Apes BMX was a highlight of our trip to the ACL festival last year.

Catch him on tour this summer. And you’d do yourself a huge favor by picking up any of his works.

David Garza | Slave (from This Euphoria)
David Garza | Keep on Crying (from Overdub)

cassette, hip-hop, samples

Kaleef “Golden Brown”

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Back in the day, you know, when Al Gore invented the Internet, I spent a hell of a lot of time on the Hieroglyphics message board. Peeps were trading tapes, mixes, CDs, records, you name it. You see, kids, this is how they did it before mp3 blogs. Mix tapes were meticulously recorded then sent out through real, actual mail.

Well, I still have a shit ton (heh, “shit ton”; that’s for Chris) of those mixes – yes, you might say I have tapes ‘n tapes. I’ve not taken the time to sort through and digitize them, though there are some gems in there. Like this track, Golden Brown by Kaleef. This was one of the greatest tracks I received on any mix, and I had (and still have) no clue who this Kaleef character is.

So I was quite thrilled to see the great Analog Giant drop a post with the original track from which Kaleef sampled. The song – also called Golden Brown – was composed by the Stranglers, yet another artist about which I admittedly know nothing.

No matter because this is one of my favorite exercises in listening to music, hip-hop especially: samples, how they’re used and finding the original source material from which the sample derived. I imagine if you’re a DJ or producer, the vast potential of sampling material must be overwhelming. This relatively unknown Kaleef track is probably indicative of the thousands of creative sample uses that go unnoticed.

Kaleef | Golden Brown
The Stranglers | Golden Brown (@ Analog Giant)

Here’s a few pics from Thursday night’s People Under the Stairs show with Psalm One and Time Machine. That was my first time seeing PUtS, and those guys bring serious energy with the good-time vibes.

Thes One and Double K are People Under the Stairs.

Double K rocks his T: “Hip-hop … is not on the radio.”

T

hes One ripped off some kid’s hat for this rap.

hip-hop

Tonight: People Under the Stairs

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To celebrate the joyous occasion of having my computer back, I thought I’d post TWICE today. Whoa, what a treat.

LA hip-hop duo People Under the Stairs (named for this Wes Craven movie?) are playing tonight at Big Fish Pub in Tempe, and I’m 96.7 percent certain I’m going.

Not familiar with PUtS? Catch up here. Thes One and Double K epitomize that laid-back, coolin’-on-your-front-porch kind of hip-hop. I just bought their new album, Stepfather, yesterday. But if you need a place to start, it doesn’t come any better than O.S.T., a souled-out homage to their hometown (The L.A. Song) and old-school lyric spittin’ (The Hang Loose).

Stepfather continues their DIY spirit – crate-diggin’ and soul-sampling freshness. Hip-hop is supposed to fun, y’all. It’s wholly obvious People Under the Stairs actually get it.

People Under the Stairs | Tuxedo Rap
(check the Michael Jackson sample)

hip-hop

The Roots: “It Don’t Feel Right”

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Thanks to Chris, Ben and Eric (um, I think; see below) who have been holding down the fort while my computer was undergoing repairs. We got it back except I think it’s in worse shape now. I can’t get to the Internet and every application I try to open takes forever. The Apple Store “geniuses” will be hearing yet again from me.

In the meantime, our new addition to the family arrived: This bad boy. In white. So we are up and running on this information superhighway once again.


On to the music … I’m pretty sure Analog Giant beat us all to the punch on posting new Roots stuff. But drummer ?uestlove is making a new track, It Don’t Feel Right, available for download at his MySpace. In fact, he’s encouraging everyone to spread the song.

From his MySpace blog:

“im letting you take this song. spread this shit like the flu. make it available on your pages for DOWNLOADING. …

“i dont believe in singles because radio and tv dont believe in us that much. so i am taking matters into my own hands. take this shit now before def jam stops me.”

An artist reaching out to the fans … that’s something we should all get behind. I don’t need to tell you how bad-ass the Roots are, right? One of the most talented and consistent hip-hop acts. If you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing them live, I suggest you do. It’s a thorough education in all things hip-hop.

Their new album, Game Theory, which will be released on Jay-Z’s Def Jam Left imprint, drops August 29.

The Roots | It Don’t Feel Right

hip-hop, poop

Hey! Come on in, he’s out of town!

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Hi, I’m marathonpacks. I’ll be filling in for Kevin today, because his chromed-out 1972 eMac is being prodded with metal things by guys with ponytails and Dr. Who t-shirts. I’m tempted to type his Blogger password here ______________ and let everyone come and post whatever they want all day, kind of like letting that dude bang that chick on your parents bed when they were in Lake Tahoe. Well, while I’m sitting here on K’s couch thumbing through the endless 1980s Sports Illustrateds he (creepily) has lying about (really though, dude has a framed picture of Kent Tekulve over his bed), I thought I’d play you some music while you stand there and try not to look me because I haven’t put any clothes on yet this morning. And I’m thinking, what about talking about rap songs about really, really having to take a dump? After you turn around and come back because you realize you forgot your keys, I’ll explain to you that rapping about having to take dumps is actually a long-practiced tradition, finding its progenitor in the form of, um, the first ever rap song, “Rapper’s Delight,” more specifically in the second half of the “going over to your friend’s house to eat” verse:

I’m just sittin here makin myself nauseous
with this ugly food that stinks
so you bust out the door while its still closed
still sick from the food you ate
and then you run to the store for quick relief
from a bottle of kaopectate

And then there was a a bit of a lull in the genre, then a return with a flourish in 1991 with Ice Cube’s “Steady Mobbin,’” with its unforgettable and unnecessarily detailed couplet “Went to mom’s house, dropped a load in the bathroom. Jumped back in the low rider, comin’ out feelin’ ’bout ten pounds lighter.” The very next year, we were treated to what was until this month the coup de grace of rappoo songs, “Looseys” (mp3) from DAS EFX’s stellar 1992 debut Dead Serious. They were essentially a one-trick pony, but it was a great, great trick that combined the best non-sequitor pop-culture references to that point in rap music history, thick, twisty and dark East Coast beats, to make one of the most singular debuts of that year. “Looseys” loops what sounds very much like a Meters or Jimmy Smith organ lick and Drazyz and Skoob wax smelly about, well, you know. The end of the first verse:

I knew I had to hush
when I felt my belly drop and the spot turned to mush
Um, shush shush, I needed me a push
I felt loosey bubblin, trouble in my tush
Then the gush came gushin, rushin, splat!
The juice hit my BVD’s quick like that
Smack, I biggity-broke my ____ from behind
Tried ta shake it, fake it
but yo I couldn’t hide from looseys.

Then another lag for a few years, then Parappa the Rapper in 1999 devoted an entire stage of its (incredibly addictive after certain combinations of inhalants) video game to getting its star into a comfortable position to make with the odorific. Then, just this past month, the latest and perhaps best participant, Cam’ron’s “I.B.S.” sat comfortably down in the middle stall that is 2006 hip-hop, documenting either Cam’s struggle with the titular affliction or something about Joe Camel or something. Somewhere, at some point in the near future, “I.B.S.,” which, when you think about it, is the opposite of “Looseys,” will have to battle with its predecessor for the all-time craprap crown. Trust me, it’s gonna get messy.*

*Kevin, I’m totally sorry.

general

Sudden Infant Dance Syndrome!

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Kevin’s computer is still in the shop, so hi. My name is Ben and I’ll be your fake-Kevin for the day.

Since Kevvy Kev is feeling helpless without his machine, I kind of feel obligated to drop something ultra-cool on y’all and I think I’ve got just the thing. This band came to me by way of the esteemed music director at Canadian radio station CJSW (who, when he isn’t being lazy also writes with me at the link above, he’s pretty lazy though.) The band is called Sudden Infant Dance Syndrome and they are awesome. Hailing from Calgary, they’re a bunch of kids, literally, hardly out of high school and are often described as “dance rock.” But calling them “dance rock” is pretty weak, because it implies a certain pretentiousness that this band replaces with sarcasm and fun. The opening of their new 7″ opens as one of the band members says “This next song. . .is about freedom” and then launches into a furious 42 second call and response explosion asking “Who ya gonna take to the prom? Sally? Cindy? Becky? Joan?” After each name comes the quick response “NO!” Other songs feature plenty of literary references for the dorks and plenty of fast-paced fun for the kids who just wanna shake it a bit. I should have the 7″ in my hands in a few short days and I can’t wait to here more from these young Canadians. You can buy the 7″ here for a mere $5. I also posted a video of the Sudden Infant Dance Syndrome covering “Love Will Tear Us Apart” over at the normal home of my sporadic writings, Hang On To Your Ego.

Sudden Infant Dance Syndrome | (Who You Gonna Take To The) Prom?
Sudden Infant Dance Syndrome | Dr. Awkward

movies

“Are you wearing mascara?”

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In a development that is, to me, as exciting as the invention of the DVD itself, Kicking and Screaming finally will see its day in digital beauty with its long-awaited DVD release on August 22 – on Criterion Collection, no less. (No, not that Kicking and Screaming.)

Written and directed by Noah Baumbach (he of The Squid and the Whale fame), Kicking and Screaming (1995) is, quite simply, my favorite movie. The story deals with a group of friends who have graduated college but remain on/near the campus in their misguided attempts to reconcile the end of their college days and the start of the so-called real world. (“What I used to be able to pass off as a bad summer could now potentially turn into a bad life.”)

It’s not a stretch to consider it a coming-of-age film, which is a major reason I attached such importance to it. Like so many great albums (Built to Spill’s Perfect from Now On and Richard Buckner’s Bloomed to name but two), Kicking and Screaming was very consoling in those awkward “What-shall-I-do-with-my-life” moments prior to and shortly after graduation.

It’s not quite as dramatic as it sounds, but nothing is so forgiving and comforting as a movie or album that seems to reflect your own place in life. For me, that meant traveling to Milwaukee (“Live in Milwaukee. Live … in … Milwaukee”) for an internship after graduation, pondering where I’d end up in a newspaper business that encourages “paying dues” (i.e., working in Smallville, USA, or, worse, Lubbock, Texas) and being miles apart from my then-girlfriend (who is now my wife; so I guess that worked out, eh?).

In Kicking and Screaming, the main character, Grover (Josh Hamilton), is job-hunting and trying to cope with losing his girlfriend, who has left to live in Prague. (“Oh, I’ve been to Prague.”) On top of that, his parents are in the middle of a divorce, a topic that Baumbach revisits in The Squid.

My patience is such that I rarely watch the same movie over and over. Yet I’ve seen Kicking and Screaming at least no less than 10 times. (That’s not including endless times citing lines from the movie ad nauseam, a habit that is reflected on the DVD cover, so I must not be the only one.) I think it was one of the first pieces of art in which I realized a movie or a song or an album can be something more than a cheap form of entertainment. It’s a movie driven by the strength of its dialogue and context. Obviously, a 16-year-old in high school won’t derive the same meaning from it as a newly graduated 20-something. That said, the writing, full of intelligent, sarcastic wit and wry humor, can be appreciated no matter the circumstance.

While in Milwaukee, I distinctly remember having very lengthy e-mail discussions with my brother, who was going through a bit of transitional period himself by moving to Boston for law school. A few days later, I got a package from him. He sent me his copy of Kicking and Screaming (on VHS, of course) with a note: “Sounds like you need this more than I do.” I still have the tape (and probably the note).

I also remember signing an online petition at a now-defunct official Web site for Baumbach (www.noahbaumbach.com, if I remember correctly) pleading for the movie’s release on DVD. This has been a topic among friends of ours literally for years. With so much garbage on DVD, how could they not release Kicking and Screaming? Perhaps it took a movie like The Squid and the Whale for someone to backtrack and appreciate Baumbach’s catalog (K&S was his directorial debut).

Whatever, I’m confident this will be worth my wait. Features include an assortment of goodies: deleted scenes, interviews, director-approved digital transfer, theatrical trailer, etc.

One final point: I absolutely resent that every time someone asks me what my favorite movie is, I have to qualify it by saying, “No, not the Will Ferrell Kicking and Screaming.” How can a movie title be so easily copped like that with no respect to the original? Anyone have answers?

Pre-order Kicking and Screaming (the good one) at Amazon.

Cue: Grover and Jane drunk at bar near end of the movie …

Jimmie Dale Gilmore | Braver Newer World

(mp3 found at Some Velvet Blog. Thanks!)

radio rips

The Walkmen on NPR’s Live Concert Series, Part II

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The Walkmen drummer Matt Barrick, ACL 2005.
My apologies for the abbreviated first part. It was a late night last night, and I’m out of sorts without my computer. Sad, really, how dependent I (we) have become. But that’s a story for another day.

To make up for that, here’s the rest of the show, from Washington D.C.’s 9:30 Club generously Webcast by NPR and offered as a full download here. I’d never thought much about this until I read NPR’s introduction to the group: “Bob Dylan meets indie rock in the music of The Walkmen.” The more I listened to this show, the more I can hear echoes of Dylan in Hamilton Leithauser’s voice, sometimes eerily so.

Anyway, if you’re concerned about the individual mp3s vs. the entire download, there really wasn’t too much chatter in between songs.

The Walkmen, on NPR’s Live Concert Series, 5/25/06:

Songs 1-4.

5. Thinking of a Dream I Had
6. Don’t Get Me Down (Come on Over Here)
7. This Job is Killing Me
8. Wake Up
9. Emma, Get Me a Lemon
10. Bows and Arrows
11. Louisiana
12. The Rat
13. Lost in Boston
ENCORE:
14. Rue the Day
15. That’s the Punchline
16. We’ve Been Had

radio rips

The Walkmen on NPR’s Live Concert Series, Part I

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The Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser, ACL 2005.
I’m running on emergency backup computer here: my brother and his wife’s laptop. Thank the God for them because NPR Webcast the Walkmen on Thursday night, and I was pretty much worried all week about whether I’d have access to this, what with my computer in the shop and all. I’ve listened to the new album A Hundred Miles Off, and, in my unprofessional opinion, it’s … well, awesome.

We were fortunate enough to be about 20 feet from these guys on the side of the stage while they played at Austin City Limits last year. Their intensity is unrivaled, and I’m eagerly anticipating their Tempe show on June 17.

Here’s the first four tracks from Thursday’s set split into individual mp3s; the rest is coming. The entire file is available from NPR here. (The eMac won’t be back until Monday … ack! This is plain torture!)

The Walkmen, on NPR’s Live Concert Series, 5/25/06:

1. All Hands and the Cook
2. Danny’s At the Wedding
3. Little House of Savages
4. Good For You’s Good For Me
Part II: Songs 5-16.

remix

this is the remix

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John Vanderslice

Kevin’s old-school computer is busted today, so he asked me to come over and take care of the place. So for today’s post, I thought I’d combine Kevin’s two greatest passions: John Vanderslice and hip-hop. Seriously, the guy’s got a total man-crush on JV. It’s embarrassing. Anyway, forgive me if Kevin’s already posted this, but here’s a track from Vanderslice’s excellent Pixel Revolt, remixed by the great Alias.

John Vanderslice Exodus Damage (Alias Remix) mp3

Listen to JV talk about this remix, his love for Anticon, and much more here