sports

Eight days to kickoff

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Chris at Gorilla vs. Bear made his obligatory Michigan football post, so I feel it only necessary to hype up my Sun Devils of Arizona State. The Devils are ranked No. 20 in the preseason AP poll after finishing last season 9-3, including an, ahem, uplifting win in the Vitalis Sun Bowl.

The Devils lose Pac-10 record-breaking quarterback Andrew Walter (now with the Raiders), but I have high hopes for Sam Keller, the Sun Bowl MVP in his first collegiate start. WR Derek Hagan (below) is set to become the school’s all-time leading receiver and he’s a preseason Playboy All-American (hey, I read it for the articles!). The ‘D’ is stellar; yes, there is SOME defense in the Pac-10.


The schedule has its hurdles: AT Louisiana State on Sept. 10; home vs. USC on Oct. 1 (Trojans embarrassed us last year 45-7). The good news is we miss Cal on the schedule, and we open with the laughably easy Temple on Sept. 1. But I swear, if U. of Arizona beats us again this year …

The Pharcyde | Devil Music
INXS | Devil Inside

general

Joan as Police Woman

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A guy I met in Los Angeles this past weekend introduced me to Joan as Police Woman (born Joan Wasser). She’s a trained violin player, and incorporates that instrument into an indie setting. More intriguing is her voice: not strained or forced and never setting out to steal the spotlight. It’s somehow complementary to the music but still stands out.

Her bio is impressive, and her work includes an opening slot for Rufus Wainright in Europe this past spring. She also was a violinist/vocalist for the Dambuilders.

Find three songs here off her solo EP, available at CD Baby.

general

The Life and Times

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I’ve been skipping around new music so much of late I can’t keep track. And I’ve stumbled on another band that deserves my (and your) attention: The Life and Times, whose new Suburban Hymns is out on DeSoto Records. I know little of the band other than what you can easily find at its bio, like the fact that singer Allen Epley once fronted Shiner. But what drew me was a production credit to J. Robbins, he of Jawbox and Burning Airlines fame.

Epley’s slightly distorted vocals certainly suggest a Burning Airlines influence, but the guitar play colors outside the lines a little more. I really like how active the drums sound, especially under some of the more soaring vocals and guitar lines.

The Life and Times My Last Hostage
The Life and Times Charlotte Street
The Life and Times Coat of Arms (via DeSoto)

Uncategorized

Ben Gibbard is right … sort of

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So, I’m back from LA. Just drove six hours right into work — even saw a big rig on fire on the side of the highway.

I have no music right now, but I will later because I scored at Amoeba. A few highlights:

  • The Jurassic 5 EP on vinyl for 3.99; the original pressing, NOT the reissue.
  • The Black Keys’ The Big Come Up on vinyl — WHITE vinyl — for 6.99.
  • Brendan Benson’s One Mississippi (finally) and a Metarie EP with a couple of different versions of that song. I thought I had the drop on Chris, president of the Brendan Benson fan club, only to find out he already had it (of course!). But I will post if anyone would like. It also includes sorta different versions of Alternative to Love and You’re Quiet.
  • Shout Out Louds CD Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, which I’m liking.
  • One 12″ vinyl single that will make for a very special Flashback Friday.

Last note, on the drive outta town, I got to listen to Nic Harcourt and Morning Becomes Eclectic for about an hour. He said that when White Stripes and Greenhornes were in town last week, they recorded a couple sessions in the studio. White Stripes will broadcast on Sept. 6, Greenhornes sometime in October.

As for LA, well, traffic is absolutely awful, even on the weekends. Which made me think of Death Cab’s Why You’d Want to Live Here. I can think of two reasons: the weather and Amoeba.

hip-hop, vinyl

Flashback Friday: Goin’ Back to Cali.

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Well, I’m headed off to LA today for the weekend and figured this would be a perfect time to bust out this vinyl 45 flashback: LL Cool J’s Goin’ Back to Cali.


When you’re talking about greatest rappers of all time, LL’s name has to come up, and I’m speaking strictly pre-Mr. Smith era (though I’d guess LL could take out any young whipper snapper … hello, Canibus). For raw beats and brash lyrics, LL’s Radio and Bigger and Deffer are hard to top. Radio stands atop my hip-hop collection with the likes of Run-DMC’s Tougher than Leather and A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory.

As for Goin’ Back to Cali. (on Walking With a Panther and the Less Than Zero soundtrack), it’s interesting to note the cultural influence the title alone has. If you google the title, you’ll find a lot of links to newspapers that used the headline “Goin’ back to Cali.” for some story relating to the state. I’ll never forget the video, all black and white with LL rollin’ in his ride when he drops the line: “Bikini small / heels tall / she said she likes the ocean.”

The B-side to the 45 single is Jack the Ripper, which I don’t believe appeared on any studio albums (but does show up on multiple Best of Def Jam compilations). It’s classic LL: in your face with a funky James Brown guitar sample and production by Rick Rubin.

LL Cool J | Goin’ Back to Cali.
LL Cool J | Jack the Ripper

(Note: Vinyl to digital conversion completed using Audio Hijack Pro.)

See y’all Tuesday, and get your captions in for the Rex Grossman photo below!

hip-hop, remix, vinyl

The Stop the Violence Movement: Self-Destruction

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Once I discovered the blog/photo journal of old-school rapper D-Nice, I couldn’t help but click through his archives. He was (is) one of my favorite rap artists. I came across one of his posts about the single Self-Destruction, a track recorded under the Stop the Violence Movement that featured some serious hip-hop heavyweights from the East Coast and was produced by D-Nice at the tender age of 18. (Read his post for more on that.)

Anyway, it got me digging into my vinyl because I own the 12″ single and I thought I’d revive it here. Recorded in 1989, it seems pretty incredible (perhaps in a sad way) that the track still carries a worthwhile message. I didn’t find a whole lot about it on the Internet, other than this one line at Wikipedia that tells how the Stop the Violence Movement originated. You might also remember the West Coast All-Stars’ similar project We’re All in the Same Gang. (If anyone has this, I’d love to hear it again.)

Besides the strong message it carries, Self-Destruction is just a great song with a singable chorus. And all proceeds of the record were donated to National Urban League “to support and develop programming dealing with Black on Black crime and youth education” (taken from record cover).


Here’s a rundown of the emcees (in order they appear):
KRS-One, M.C. Delight, Kool Moe Dee, M.C. Lyte, Daddy-O and Wise, D-Nice, Ms. Melodie, Doug E. Fresh, Just-Ice, Heavy D., Fruit-Kwan, Chuck D and Flavor Flav.

I’ve included three of the four mixes from the single (excluded the “single edit”). Still trying to decipher the difference between the “extended mix” and the “special remix.”

Stop the Violence Movement | Self-Destruction (extended mix)
Stop the Violence Movement | Self-Destruction (special remix)
Stop the Violence Movement | Self-Destruction (instrumental)

hip-hop, video

Pete Miser video

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Thanks to Mallie at South of Mainstream, I’m already a huge fan of underground hip-hopper Pete Miser now. I posted on him just about a week ago and I’ve been listening to his latest LP Camouflage is Relative non-stop.

Yesterday, I stumbled across a video for his song Scent of a Robot, courtesy of 15 Minutes to Live (another cool blog with clean design). A previous post there shows that Miser is Prince Paul-approved, which is all I needed to know.

Anyway, peep the video. The whole concept of the song is kind of intriguing: He finds out he’s a robot by accident through an e-mail at work. It almost has a Blade Runner influence to it: Pete Miser, a hip-hop replicant.

Pete Miser | Scent of a Robot (video)

Uncategorized

The future of MP3 bloggers

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A friend of mine at work brought this story to my attention, which is ironic because I was over at Can You See the Sunset and Eric wrote about music and his soon-to-be-born daughter seemingly responding to his singing to her.

The story states that four newborns in a Slovak hospital are listening to classical music as part of an experiment to see if it helps reduce stress and stay healthy. It says most of the babies lie quietly or fall asleep when tuned in. Well, duh. Clearly, they’d be better off listening to Sufjan.

Regardless, I can’t decide if I’m disturbed or amazed by this. As my friend pointed out: “You know they’re really programming killing machines that don’t feel pain.”

contests, general, sports

All-Time Quarterback / caption contest

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All our chatter on the Blogger Fantasy Football League got me thinking about the gridiron. Naturally, I turned first to All-Time Quarterback, also known as Ben Gibbard, who recorded these lo-fi tracks in 1999 as an aside to his duties in Death Cab For Cutie.

I’ve owned this album for quite some time but never really warmed up to it. Maybe I’m expecting something too similar to Death Cab. The tracks have a campy quality about them: sparse acoustic guitars strummed over inexpensive Casio keyboards. Rules Broken, which I do like quite a bit, uses one of those canned keyboard beats (“samba” or “waltz”) for the primary rhythm, which is clever and yet oh-so indie.

I have trouble telling whether this was all genuine or just some sort of vanity project, something the hip kids knew about long ago but will dismiss once the O.C. gang finds out about it. If you missed it last week, Fluxblog had a thoughtful take on Gibbard and his songwriting talents (or lack thereof?).

All-Time Quarterback | Rules Broken
All-Time Quarterback | Plans Get Complex
All-Time Quarterback | Sock Hop

CAPTION CONTEST

This picture (below) pretty much sums up the Bears’ luck for the past two seasons. Rex Grossman, incumbent starter, is out for three to four months because of a broken left ankle he suffered in a preseason game; last year, he at least made it until the third week of the season. Regardless, the Jeff Blake Era has begun.

For now, I’m challenging your creative wit for a clever caption of this most terrible photo. Leave it in the comment section. The winner, as judged by me, will receive a copy of sourceVictoria’s self-titled EP (and maybe even a T-shirt). You’ve heard about sourceVictoria recently on this site here and at Gorilla vs. Bear. Just thought I’d have some fun at the expense of the Bears’ fragile quarterbacking situation. Contest will run through the weekend.