hip-hop

k-os: Sunday Morning

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First off, I don’t even know if k-os’ new album Atlantis: Hymns for Disco is available in the U.S. I’ve looked at the usual spots and can’t find it, other than having to pay exorbitant prices to get it as an import. That means you should buddy up with a Canadian right quick and beg him to get this album and send it to you.

Born in Trinidad and raised in Toronto, k-os (stands for knowledge of self, pronounced like “chaos”) draws from so many styles it’s difficult to absorb at first. He slides in and out of hip-hop, dancehall, reggae, rock. But then, after about two listens, I found myself humming the chorus to Sunday Morning out of the blue, leading me right back to the disc.

The promotional folks want to call this the Crazy of the new year, and they might not be too far off. It’s uplifting, catchy and has a hell of a singable chorus: “Every day is Saturday night, but I can’t wait for Sunday morning.” That theme of daily renewal probably would be corny in the hands of a less talented writer. Here, it’s rewarding and contagious.

Go on. Sing it.

k-os | Sunday Morning

BONUS:
Broken Social Scene (feat. k-os) | Windsurfing Nation

hip-hop, remix

Four Tet: As Serious As Your Life (Jay Dee Remix)

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I’m guessing my man Royce – see him over there under “contributors”? (zing!) – could tell you more about Four Tet than I ever could. Royce is the electronic music brains of this operation. Me? I see Jay Dee’s name and I’ll listen. Hip-hop, y’all. So it’s a beautiful thing when it all comes together.

I’ve actually never heard this song in its original form. In a way, I sort of like that, going in reverse. Listen to the remix first, then the original. So many times I become too enamored with an original that I don’t want it to be rearranged. So here I’ll take the rearranging first and strip away the dynamics of it and absorb the original later.

Jay Dee, whose name you’ll see popping up on year-end lists for Donuts and The Shining, took a walking bass line (or maybe it’s jogging) as a foundation and layers over it with a cooled-out front-porch beat and various vocal elements, including raps from Guilty Simpson.

The Four Tet Remixes album is available through Domino Recording Company.

Four Tet | As Serious As Your Life (Jay Dee Remix)

general

awesome guest blogger post

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Hi, I’m Chris from gorilla vs. bear. So, Kevin is up in Flagstaff for some reason, probably becoming one with nature or whatever those hippies do up there. So I guess I can stop playing with my Wii (get it? ha.) long enough to take over So Much Silence and post some songs that hopefully you guys won’t hate too much.

Kevin asked that I post a photo of men in a bathtub, so here’s Menomena

2007 is almost here, and here are a couple tracks from ’07 releases that, based on these first singles, might be worth seeking out. The Menomena record, out on Barsuk on January 23, 2007, is one of my most anticipated releases of next year, and this single reinforces that. It’ll be the band’s first release on Barsuk.

Menomena Wet and Rusting mp3

**************************

This band the Ponys, however, I knew nothing about. They are Matador Records‘ newest signees, and will release Turn the Lights Out on March 20, 2007. Here’s the infectious first single: The Ponys Double Vision mp3 Edit: Matador doesn’t allow deep-linking. Go here to get the mp3 from their site.

covers, general

Bossa N’ Roses

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I can’t decide if this is going to be one of the lamest things I’ll ever have posted or, possibly, one of the more unique. (Based solely on the cover, I might be inclined to go with the former. Her fingers … they’re smoking! Guns! And there’s roses in the background. Guns and roses!)

Music Broker’s previous “Bossa N” series – Bossa N’ Stones and Bossa N’ Marley – apparently were huge in Europe. I suppose if you can’t stomach Axl in his original form, this is a little easier to digest. I was actually just out at a bar with co-workers over the weekend, and Paradise City came on. I think I’ve heard that song enough for a lifetime – and then some – so I suppose some creative interpretation of the Guns N’ Roses catalog isn’t a bad thing. I sort of feel numb anymore when old GNR songs (circa Appetite for Destruction) come on: They aren’t good, they aren’t bad. They just exist.

This version of November Rain is calm and loungy and not nearly as epic as the original (oh, how I love that video, though). This is good for background, atmosphere-type music. Probably also a good conversation piece among friends. I’m not going to argue whether it’s actually good or not. As the athletes like to say these days, “It is what it is.”

Gheto Blaster Ltd. | November Rain (B&H Version)

Stereogum has two more tracks: Welcome to the Jungle and Paradise City.

hip-hop

Murs: Put Something Down On It

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While I contemplate whether I’m going to compile year-end favorite albums/songs lists, I can guarantee that Murs’ Murray’s Revenge would be on there. I’ve been lobbying for this album to anyone who will listen. No emcee sacrifices street bravado for honest and vulnerable writing like Murs.

Lucky for us, Murs has made a previously unreleased track, Put Something Down On It, available via his MySpace. Add your e-mail address and, poof!, like magic, it appears in your inbox. Or, you know, you can grab it right here. Considering Murray’s Revenge was a concise 10 tracks, I’m surprised this song didn’t make the cut. It carries the same themes of the struggles of and dedication to his craft.

Murs | Put Something Down On It

arizona

Lymbyc Systym: “Love Your Abuser”

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In my neglect of the local Phoenix/Tempe scene, a lot of great music has come or is coming out that requires my catching up.First up is the Lymbyc Systym, a duo comprised of brothers Mike (drums/electronics) and Jared Bell (keyboards). I actually had no idea they were from Tempe until someone told us when we saw them open for the Album Leaf. Turns out, I was spelling their name wrong, too. Not “System,” but “Systym.” (I’m sure there’s a deeper artistic meaning to all the “y’s” there, but it’s beyond my mental grasp.)

These guys are making headway pretty fast. They signed to Mush Records (home, at some point or another, to the likes of Aesop Rock, Clouddead and Busdriver) and are preparing to release the full-length Love Your Abuser on Jan. 23. Lymbyc is playing Modified on Dec. 16 with Asleep in the Sea and Metrognome to celebrate the release.An opening slot on the Album Leaf’s fall tour is your first clue about what to expect from Lymbyc Systym: spacey, atmospheric – and lyric-less – soundscapes. (Jimmy Lavelle makes a guest spot on the record, too.) I’ve said it before, but all-instrumental music is typically a challenge to my patience. But with Lymbyc, there’s great attention to detail, as most electronic-laptop pop requires. It isn’t senseless, sloppy jamming, but articulate, mindful translation of ones and zeroes into something a little more tangible.

Lymbyc Systym | Truth Skull
Lymbyc Systym | Astrology Days (via)

general, remix

Editors: Remixed EP

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What better way to extend the life of an album than to release a remix album (or, in this instance, an EP). Come on, everyone’s doing it (Bloc Party, Architecture in Helsinki, Of Montreal and so on).

Editors, on the heels of the U.S. release of The Back Room earlier this year, join the fray with an EP of four mixes, including a Munich remix by Ghislain Poirier (he of the excellent Dirt Off Your Shoulders remix). It’s available at the iTunes music store.

Pitchfork recently supplied a fifth mix that didn’t make the EP: All Sparks (Phones Remix). The indie kids will sweat through their ironic T-shirts dancing to this one.

Editors | All Sparks (Phones Remix) (via Pitchfork)

contests

Calexico contest winners

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Thanks to everyone who entered the contest for Calexico tickets/autographed CDs. In our most scientifically controlled selection process yet, my wife randomly drew names from a hat for the winners. First prize is tickets for two to a show in either Tempe, Flagstaff or Tucson. Second prize is an autographed Calexico CD. Without further ado, the winners:

Tucson:
1. Lindsay T wins tix for the Dec. 2 show @ Rialto Theatre.
2. Matt Anderson wins the CD.

Flagstaff:
1. Alan Schussman wins tix for the Dec. 4 show @ Orpheum Theatre.
2. Tom Brecke wins the CD.

Tempe:
1. Roberto Diaz wins tix for the Dec. 5 show @ the Clubhouse.
2. B. Persons wins the CD.

I’ll be getting in touch with all of you on how to collect your winnings just as soon as I find out myself.

As for us, I have to work on Dec. 5, so we may trek up the hill to Flagstaff to catch the Dec. 4 show. Alan, you can buy us a drink!

Calexico | All Systems Red (acoustic)

vinyl

My Morning Jacket B-side: “How Could I Know”

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This post is dedicated to Dodge, the biggest My Morning Jacket fan I know. A trip to Zia Records in Tempe, a diversion before last night’s Trail of Dead concert, was worth the while as I plucked the 45 (picture sleeve!) for Off the Record, with this B-side, How Could I Know, for a mere $1.99.

Coincidentally, My Morning Jacket is coming to Tempe on Jan. 3 (note to self: get night off of work).

If you were really curious, I also pulled the 12″ for Jibbs’ Chain Hang Low with a remix, instrumental and acapella. Oh, yeah.

My Morning Jacket | How Could I Know

hip-hop, i used to love h.e.r.

I Used to Love H.E.R.: SupremeEx

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The seventh installment of I Used to Love H.E.R. comes from Philadelphia producer SupremeEx, whose latest project was a collaboration with Hieroglpyhics/Souls of Mischief emcee Tajai on Nuntype (available on Rumble Pack Records). Instead of an album, SupremeEx gives his due to a groundbreaking hip-hop track from an unlikely source.

Grandmaster Flash
“The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash
on the Wheels of Steel”
(K-Tel Breakdance cassette)

“I guess arguably the most influential hiphop album of all time for me is this K-Tel cassette I got waaaay back in the day simply entitled, Breakdance. It was the first hiphop tape I ever bought. It came with a huge fold-out poster with breakdancing moves on it. But a defining moment for me on that tape was Grandmaster Flash’s The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel. That track alone changed my life, and certainly planted the creative seeds for my desire to tell stories through production and instrumental beats. And although I credit Herbie Hancock’s Rockit as the first hiphop song I ever heard, it was the Breakdance tape from K-Tel that set me up for the rest of my life as a hip-hopper. PS – I still have the tape.”

Grandmaster Flash | The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel

Related:
K-Tel breakdance commercial (via YouTube).
Tajai and SupremeEx: Nuntype
Nuntype: Instrumentals (free download)

Previously on I Used to Love H.E.R.:
Devastations (Ultramagnetic MCs – Funk Your Head Up) || The Gray Kid (Black Moon – Enta Da Stage) || Sarah Daly of Scanners (Run-DMC – Tougher Than Leather) || Pigeon John (De La Soul – De La Soul is Dead) || Joel Hatstat of Cinemechanica (Digital Underground – Sex Packets) || G. Love (Eric B. & Rakim – Paid In Full) || An introduction