Archive for 2006

1 Love & Share This
Soul Position
8 Million Stories, 2003

I Need My Minutes
Soul Position
Things Go Better With RJ & Al, 2006

Live from the O-State! My favorite Ohio artists returned with their sophomore collaborative effort (Rjd2 has two solo albums) this year, which i finally picked up at Tower’s going out of business sale. Upon first listen, Things Go Better With RJ & Al delivers on their trademark punchy/quirky beats, dry humor, commentary and highly quotable lyrics but does so without delivering on some of the more epic moments of 8 Million Stories. Two of those more epic moments are “1 Love” and “Share This” which are available below.

I’ve spent more than my share of time driving down Ohio highways and “1 Love” is the perfect musical accompaniment to the sun setting over one while still having more than 100 miles still to drive.

I hate to gloss over “Share This” because it’s one of my favorite hip hop tracks ever but I wrote this post because I wanted people to hear the hilarious “I Need My Minutes” from the new album:

I understand that you want to talk to me
But verizon wireless is doggin’ me
Don’t you the weekend and nights are free?
So if it ain’t one of those don’t holler at me
That’s just reality man
So there’s really no need to be mad at me man
You runnin’ ya mouth like we family man
You need to enroll in a family plan
Cause time is money literally
And last i checked man, you live on my street
Still callin’ me cell to kick it with me?
You can walk two blocks and we can kick it for free
Before i go let me break it down
If i don’t pick up then i’m not out of town
I’m probably in the studio laying around
It just costs too much to waste time with you clowns

Chorus: (x4)

I need my minutes
I need my minutes
Back up off of my minutes, b*tch
Raise up off my minutes

Then the outro, delivered in a mild Lil’ Jon impersonation:

Ya’ll know what it is
I’m mad
verizon got me mad
Had to switch to t-mobile!
You big mouth people
Calling me all hours of the day
Wanna talk about nuthin’
Blah! Blah!
I only got 1000 minutes a month!
Ya’ll wanna call me at 5pm
Talk for three hours?
Call me at niiiinnne!
Weekends are free
Cellphone too hot!
Make me wanna yell!
Choke somebody out!
What!?
I need my minutes!

Please let me hear this one someone’s voice mail!

>> songs are available for two weeks [6.3 MB]
>> songs are available for two weeks [8.3 MB]
>> songs are available for two weeks [4.7 MB]

this was around 10:30 last week at madame x. it was decently crowded; this woman walks up and pushes the shelf that the turntables sit on (which is a little shaky):

me: please don’t touch this, it’s not that sturdy
w.w.w.h….: oh ok, any music that black people would like but for us white girls?
me: …excuse me ?
w.w.w.h…: there’s a twenty in it for you
me: they pay me not you
w.w.w.h…: huh?
me: the bar pays me
w.w.w.h…: i can’t tip you?
me: you can’t bribe me…if i play something you like and you want to give me some $, ok.

20 minutes later
w.w.w.h…: $20 for some “sexy back”? i won’t touch your stuff [then she drops a twenty dollar bill on the playing turntable, i grab it quickly before it hits the needle and throw it back in her face]
me: not touch my stuff? if that made it around the turntable it would have cut the music off.
w.w.w.h…: i respect your integrity, i actually do but can you just take the money?
me: i’m not playing “sexy back.”
w.w.w.h…: well, can you just take it to make me happy?
me : no
w.w.w.h…: as they say in italy “(insert italian phrase)”
me: and as was your intention, i have no idea what that means
w.w.w.h…: just take it! [at which point she puts the money on the mixer and walks away. i then move it to a ledge that reaches in front of the turntables where she could retrieve it at any time.]

1 hour later:
w.w.w.h…: i love your music. i know i’m an a$$ but i can make you some money. my friend has a loft downtown and he has djs and they don’t do it nearly as well as you do it.
me: thank you — do you want your $20 back? (as i point to it on the ledge)
w.w.w.h…: no, give it to the girls

???

w.w.w.h… = white woman who had no business calling herself a girl

Buddy
Musiq Soulchild
Luvan Musiq, 2007

When it comes to pop R&B, I have a weakspot for Musiq Soulchild, starting with his first album which I played more than I’d like to mention.

I got to sneak into one of his shows at SOB’s last week (which was a treat, obviously) and he performed his new single “Buddy” which is a based on the 12″ remix of De La Soul’s “Buddy” and by extension Taana Gardner’s “Heartbeat.” Now, I’m as much of a hater as the next New Yorker but for the time being, I’m just charmed by this song.

I can’t pin it down to any one thing but I think he (and whoever produced this song) did a great job using a classic in-your-face bassline but covering it in just the right amount lush keyboards and strings (and horn echo) to make it not feel like a rehashing.

>> songs are available for two weeks [7.2 MB]

Sing a Happy Song
War
Youngblood Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 1978

bio | discography

Can anyone tell me where to get an alarm clock that plays cds or mp3s? I’m serious; I think waking up to this song, instead of the torturous/grating electronic noise that I do now, would do a lot for my quality of life. This song has an ultra sunshiney vibe and the lyrics start: “wake up in the morning with a tune in your heart, grooving to the music is the only way to start.”

This is also another post in the annals of samples. This one is recognizable as “Feels So Good” from Brand Nubian’s 1990 classic, One For All.

>> songs are available for two weeks [5.6 MB]

In My Bed (Bugz in the Attic Vocal Mix)
Amy Winehouse
Got the Bug - The Bugz In The Attic Remixes Collection, 2004

Alright, I’m kinda pushing it with two Bugz-related posts in back-to-back months but I finally picked up this remix compilation on Friday and I’ve been playing this track all week.

I’m not familiar with Amy Winhouse past a few blog posts but the consensus seems to be that she’s the white, British Macy Gray. Obviously that’s a gross oversimplification but more importantly it’s not really a compliment. That said, her voice and this track really work.

I generally don’t pay much attention to lyrics but I kept catching a few funny phrases hear and there and I decided to look up the lyrics just now and Ms. Winehouse (and/or her songwriters) are gangster!

Here’s a sampling of choice phrases:

Oh, its you again, listen this isn’t a reunion
So sorry if I turn my head
Yours is a familiar face
But that don’t make your place safe
In my bed

Its something I know you cant do
Separate sex with emotion
I sleep alone, the sun comes up
Your still clinging to that notion

Now its not hard to understand
Why we just speak at night
The only time I hold your hand
Is to get the angle right

>> songs are available for two weeks [6.9 MB]

LeFox
Owusu & Hannibal
Living With…, 2006

Ubiquity strikes again! This album came out Tuesday and is shockingly consistent. The album plays like an extended dream sequence. Owusu & Hannibal are from Denmark; there isn’t very much info on the advance copy of the album about which is doing what musically but I’m intrigued to know which one of them is singing. The singing doesn’t really employ much range but the melodies and harmonies are really intuitive and compliment the sparse analog-sounding instrumentation so well that it’s hard to believe that it’s ‘a producer’ singing. (I only assume that it’s one of them because it’s the same voice throughout the entire album).

That said, the instrumentation is really what makes this album stand out. If you like LeFox, I highly recommend picking up the album, you will not be disappointed!

>> songs are available for two weeks [7.7 MB]

I got to spin the opening & closing sets of the Maceo Parker concert at SOB’s last night which was quite an honor.

But You Can’t Run
Young Blood Brass Band
Is That a Riot?
In Stores 10/17/2006

Their myspace says “Sounds Like: Riot Jazz. Post-Hype. Drum Corps Punk. Hiphop/Horn freakout. 5 brass, 3 drummers, a sousaphone and an MC making as much noise as possible” and that’s actually pretty accurate although not really a complete description because it doesn’t give any sense of how satisfying the horn harmonies are (and I have no idea what post-hype means).

I saw them last week at N6 in Williamsburg and they put on the best show I’ve seen all year. Rob Swift and Beans opened…but that didn’t go so well.

Rob Swift was beat juggling really overdone songs like “Rock The Bells” and “Cavern” but the best part was after his “do you want me to go home?” spiel between routines was met with a mixed reaction, he replied “well, there’s about 3-400 of you in here and one of you wants me to go home, I think I’ll keep doing me thing.” Only there was about 100-150 people there and of the 50 that could be bothered to respond (not me) it was probably 35/15.

Beans then performed about 8 songs to track or should I say ipod (including two he stopped halfway through because he was bored of them) . This included doing an entire new song facing the side of the stage bent over at waist with one hand on the mic stand and the other holding the mic…like he was in an alley next to a bar and feeling ill.

Then another DJ came on and played four songs as the YBBB setup. He started well, with “Talk To Me Now” by the The Good People but it got bad quick and the last song he played was “How Do You Want It” by 2pac featuring K-Ci & Jo-Jo. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s a place and time for that song (a strip club comes to mind) but that place is so clearly not the beginning of a YBBB show. I couldn’t figure out if the DJ made himself look like an a$$hole or if he made the band look like a$$holes because watching someone pickup a sousaphone doesn’t seem cool while listening to a R&B’ed-out 2pac track. Either way, two thumbs down on him.

When the band finally played it was inspiring. They have two trumpets, two trombones and a tenor sax player across the front and three percussionists and a sousaphone player across the back. The snare drum player is also the MC. MC as in he introduces the songs and band members and also MC as in he rhymes/yells smart political diatribes in the closest approximation of Zach De La Rocha (formerly of Rage Against the Machine) that I’ve seen. It took me a minute to figure exactly what sounds were coming from where because the sousaphone sounded like a bass guitar a lot of the time and the bass drum was so crisp that it sounded like a drum machine. The songs ranged from more straightforward brass band material (they covered songs from their mentors) to angry punk & hip hop to more chilled out love/loss songs all with great horns and (almost) all of it was stellar. There was one song about sexy clavicles and femurs that made me scrunch up my face a bit but there’s room for that. After the show I bought their new album and their last album for $15 each - and that’s after paying to get in so you know it was good!

It was hard to pick which song to post. For how kinetic this track is, it’s actually mid-level intensity for them. You can also hear the first single “Nuclear Summer” on their myspace page as well as a downloadable sampler for “Is That a Riot?” and a live version of “Brooklyn” which is on their 2003 album Center:Level:Roar. That album also has a crazy cover of “Human Nature.”

>> songs are available for two weeks [5.8 MB]

Don’t Stop The Music
Back In The Doghouse
Bugz In The Attic, 2006

I am a strong believer that if someone covers a song, they should do something completely different with it or noticeably outperform the original artist (if I remember correctly, Chris Robinson said something similar about the Black Crows’ cover of Otis Redding’s “Hard To Handle” although he didn’t manage to follow his own advice). I now have to add a new caveat to my rule - covers that give a song the extra punch that it needs.

The original “Don’t Stop The Music” is by Yarborough & Peoples and while not that many people know the artists by name, the song is definitely a classic (in some circles). The bridge (4:35) was used as the chorus of Common’s “All Night Long” featuring Erykah Badu and Eve’s “Gangsta Lovin’” featuring Alicia Keys. Puffy also found his “can’t stop / won’t stop / we don’t even know how to stop - uh-uh, uh-uh — uh-huh, uh-huh!” (ubiquitous in the 90’s) here.

I love the original but the energy always seems to lag as a I wait for my favorite part to happen (the bridge at 4:35). The Bugz version is like the original on steroids. It emotional range is a little narrower but the low-end and the syncopated drums more than make up for it.

>> songs are available for two weeks [7.1 MB]

The Hop
Berlin Serengeti
Radio Citizen, 2006

This album came out Tuesday so (for once) I’m actually timely in a way that exists outside of my head! This is one of the many things that I picked up on my trip to California (big shouts to DJ Cocoe). I first listened to it in my big american “Charger” rental car at night (yay, driving with music!) as I drove four people home from the wedding welcome dinner we had just attended. As you’ll hear, this song is perfect for night driving and I got to act cool and nonchalant as if I had picked the song on purpose as I answered my friend saying “Ok, who’s this? I really like their sound” from the backseat.

You can read more on his bio page on the Ubiquity site but Radio Citizen is an alias of Niko Schabel who is from Berlin. He produced the track and the vocals are by a woman named Bajka who was “born in an Indian temple and grew up in Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan and on a catamaran in South Africa.” Gotta love bio writers…can you even live on a catamaran?

I really the love the texture of the keyboard sound and my favorite part is the riff that starts at 2:31 and eventually ends the song. It’s behind the beat in that perfect way that sort of slows time down for a second.

Bajka is featured on four of five songs; the rest are instrumental and fall somewhere between jazz and a movie score - all very night-timey.

Recommended for purchase!

>> songs are available for two weeks [6.8 MB]