Dumbin' on a Rainy Day

ANDY: Raj and I had the fortune of taking in a Star Slinger live set last weekend, which as one might imagine induced a fair amount of going dumb. The UK producer is tearing shit up with his keen ear for soul samples and layered production style, and his newest single "Dumbin'" is no exception. Not quite as esoteric as Hudson Mohawke (although HudMo's Pleasure Principle EP suggests he's got time for pop remixes too, not just crazy squeaks, although that's a topic for another post), Star Slinger loves his Curtis Mayfield, and here works with Missouri crooner Reggie B, whose hook on this track just won't stop. If you listen twice, I swear you won't be able to shake it all day. The hand drum samples and cascading harp licks give this song a certain tenderness, akin to the warm layers working on Jonti's "Hornet's Nest", but Star Slinger manages to do so without ruining the track's undeniable bangerdom.

Star Slinger's previous releases, the Vol. 1 mixtape, Rogue Cho Pa EP, and Teams vs. Star Slinger mixtape have all been great listens, and with this new single, I'm excited for more material from this cat, especially as he transitions from slammin' remixes to working with vocalists directly.

Star Slinger- Dumbin' (feat. Reggie B)

Star Slinger - Dumbin' (Feat. Reggie B) (Click buy for Free Download) by Star Slinger

LiveLoveA$AP - ASAP Rocky

RAJ: The $3 million dollar deal that ASAP Rocky reportedly signed with RCA feels like as much of a throwback as the Houston-syrup sound of his debut mixtape LiveLoveA$AP. It's the kind of blind-faith corporate adoption that isn't supposed to happen anymore¹, since labels now can just wait for hustling-for-free internet rappers to distinguish themselves first before stepping in (Drake had two mixtapes out before he was signed - Rocky had two singles).

If anything can explain all this, it's that label A&R executives may have sensed a kindred spirit in Rocky, who arguably is more skilled as a talent scout than as a rapper. Rocky isn't a bad rapper by any means - he has a relaxed charisma and a dazzling ability to bounce between straightforward flows and sing-songy double-time cadences - but he is somewhat bland lyrically. ASAP's only unique lyrical ambition beyond obligatory (and here not particularly witty) drug/girl/drugged girl talk is trying to be more foppish than Kanye - his self-declared nickname is "that pretty mothafucka" and he brags that the "only thing bigger than my ego is my mirror".

But LiveLoveA$AP is front-to-back fire as a beat collection, which is remarkable considering that most of the producers here are relative unknowns (no one's going to be particularly surprised that the Clams Casino beats are great, although ASAP is the rare rapper who doesn't sound completely overwhelmed by that kind of dense backing track). Beautiful Lou's track "Trilla" is too perfect as a Dirty South UGK homage, Spaceghostpurrp's "Keep it G" manages to make a trunk-rattler out of smooth jazz, and Lyle's "Brand New Guy" is the kind of aggressive, hallucinogenic sound that would greatly please Salem. There's a polished, consistent aesthetic here that you rarely find in rap albums period, let alone on career rap debuts, and it bodes well for whatever Rocky ends up doing in the big leagues.

¹There is a case to be made that it didn't - the only person to have reported that figure is Rocky himself, and Rocky has proven to be A) a guy who is remarkably canny at knowing how to get bloggers talking and B) a guy who is pretty consistently stoned.

ANDY: I'd agree with Raj that Rocky's lyrics themselves aren't spectacular, it's his ability to deftly switch up the rhythms of his flows that are his main strength, especially when paired with such monolithic Clams Casino beats. The switch-up on tape opener "Palace" is a perfect example, where Rocky admits his syrup-influenced love for Houston micro-genre Screw Music, then issues a rapidfire verse that pairs nicely with Clams's skittering snares, right as we are tiring of his slower rhymes. "Leaf" is another spot where Rocky flaunts his ability to skip around Clams's droning background beat.

On the back half of the tape, DJ Burn One (featured in the SRS 420 Showcase) also delivers a couple slick beats, most notably on "Roll One Up", allowing for a little more lucidity than Clams's megafuzz. At the end of the day Rocky's drug-addled rhymes are paired with such undeniably strong production that this mixtape might sneak on to some 2011 best-of lists.



P.S. I am no fan of Drake, and wouldn't usually think to compare an artist like ASAP Rocky with him (internet beginnings aside). But I wonder if Rocky's syrup tinged rhymes would have made a better guest verse than Drake's on the stellar mixtape that The Weeknd dropped a few months back. Seems to me The Weeknd's penchant for drugs and sex wouldn't appeal to a squeaky clean aww-shucks-I'm famous rapper like Drake. Jussayin', Rocky should call The Weeknd up for a collabo, I'd listen to that shit.

Oldies But Goodies: The Wrens

Because all the BZNZmen live, or have lived, in NJ



ANDREW: I was walking somewhere a couple weeks back, and shuffle played me a track I hadn't heard in years. It was in the salad days of my music fandom in 2003, when I had only just discovered the thrill of digging through stacks of used CDs at Bull Moose Records when The Wrens released their third album Meadowlands. I was previously unaware of their 90s indie-cred, and their first two albums, but figured it was worth a spin. The Wrens delivered a crisp slice of indie melancholy, that sounded just right to my angsty ears. Somehow this record managed to avoid the sarcasm of previous era contemporaries like Stephen Malkmus, and the awful saccharine stylings of early 2000s dudes like Ben Gibbard. Meadowlands felt to me then as it does now to be a tremendously earnest and well-balanced record, and when I heard it for the first time in years it was refreshing. Not beholden to any microgenres or subtrends, not leaked on a blog or analyzed on Twitter, but chock-full of really solid songwritin' and guitarin' and such. Great for a fall day. Next year The Wrens are supposed to release a follow up to Meadowlands, putting them firmly on that one album every seven to eight years plan. I can only hope when I fire that album up on my subcutaneous iPod- augmented reality viewer in 2020 that it sounds just as refreshing.

The Wrens - "She Sends Kisses"


The Wrens - "This Boy Is Exhausted"

SRS TRAX: Danny Brown - "30"

Yeah, I know it came out two months ago, shut up.



RAJ: Danny Brown has been getting lumped in with Odd Future a lot as just another shock rapper, mostly by people who haven't listened to a lot of Danny Brown. It's not that Brown isn't very actively trying to shock people (on "Pac Blood": "Rhymes that'll make the Pope wanna get his dick sucked/Had Virgin Mary doing lines in the pickup"¹), but there's a purpose to his shocks that goes beyond, say, Tyler the Creator's motivation of scaring old people². Much of Brown's album XXX is a harrowing personal story about past poverty and present addiction - some anarchic, boundary-breaking glee makes for a nice counterpoint to the dour stuff. It's the reason why Trainspotting is a better movie than Requiem for a Dream - there's a human vitality (a lust for life?) that's always present instead of solely a parade of torment and degradation.

And it's kind of ground-breaking that the back half of XXX approaches a sort of rap Trainspotting, because in a genre so obsessed with the drug trade, nothing like a junkie-eye view of street life really exists. The closest thing to that might be Lil Wayne in the depths of his syrup days³, and he was never exactly lucid about it (or anything, for that matter) - usually, you just have the obligatory album track where the drug dealer half-heartedly reflects on the consequences of his actions. So it hits hard when Brown raps about stealing scrap metal from abandoned houses from drug money ("Scrap or Die").

And then we get to "30", the album closer and one of the most bizarrely brilliant rap songs of the year. The song starts out as a mess, with bleating horns and plucked bass stuttering in the general vicinity of the actual beat. But Brown seems intent on holding the song together through the force of his conviction alone - he's screaming by the time the backing track starts to fall in line. That happens just as off-color jokes start giving way to a painful personal history and the horror of drugs haunting even his current success. In the last few lines of the song/album, we find out that Brown is 30 years old, and that the album title is as layered as the album proper - a vulgar come-on masking a sober reality in Roman numerals, a rapper reflecting on the experience of age in a genre where rappers avoiding admitting being older than 22. It carries weight - it's the kind of thing that'll probably stick with you after Wolf Gang's latest rape joke has passed by.

(9)

¹ Nothing wrong with this when it's as inspired as this track is - "Pac Blood" gets the same score.

² Actual Tyler tweet: "I Want To Scare The Fuck Out Of Old White People That Live In Middle Fucking America."

³ I guess Eminem's Relapse, too? I was omitting it since it, uh, sucks. Am I forgetting anything?

BACK in BZNZ: King Krule

It's Monday, and we're back in BZNZ.

So it has been a little while, and some have even questioned if we gents had gone out of BZNZ entirely. No more! There has been such an overwhelming quantity of jams echoing around the empty cavity between my ears over the course of the last few months that I haven't taken the time to sit down and process 'em BZNZlike. BZNZmen have gone to and reported on music festivals (Raj with the reporting, Jesse and I in tow), seen album of the year contenders perform live (Shabazz Palaces, Gang Gang Dance, and Panda Bear) and even created some SRSly original works (my man TK). But none of it has transpired in this space, dominating the ever more expedient Bookface. I understand these transgressions and ask that the 10-12 people who bother to read the motley assortment of opinions on this blog forgive us. I'll probably stop using this exclusively as a place to beef with Raj.

Several months I wrote about the promising debut efforts of a couple of UK blokes, and it would appear King Krule is a continuation of the trend. He's a fucking 17-year-old who looks like Tintin but sounds like Billy Bragg got drunk with Tom Waits. It's exactly right. The alarmingly deep voice for the barely pubescent Archy Marshall is truly surprising given that he looks like this (thanks, p4k):

James Blake's EPs and albums were critical darlings some months back. Jamie Woon released an album that sort of failed to capitalize on the excitement of his advance single "Night Air". And the world awaits any new material from the much hyped and Thom Yorke-approved Jai Paul. King Krule is right on time with an EP due next week. It's still early to tell anything definitive, but the melancholy Anglo-crooning on "The Noose of Jah City" certainly piques the curiosity. Maybe he can open for Waits if he tours for the new LP, who knows. Till then, this one's on repeat.


King Krule - The Noose of Jah City by The Vinyl District

SRS JAMZ: Mayer Hawthorne - "Don't Turn The Lights On" (Chromeo Cover)

Perhaps a new feature where review tracks that qualify as jams.

What's a jam?

Jam - (n.) SLANG - often preceded by BONER, a jam is a track that enhances or encourages the human sex act





ANDY: All you need is to take a sassy disco burner and slow it the fuck down and you have the baby makin'est tune in recent memory. There are some Weeknd cuts that qualify, another recent obsession of mine, but this jam is as delightfully surprising as Mayer Hawthorne's remix of Snoop Dogg's "Gangsta Luv".

The leap is perhaps more natural from hip hop to r & b, but in both cases Hawthorne's attention to detail and crisp Motown renditions arguably outshine the original. I mean Chromeo's lyrics weren't meant for a dancefloor, they were CLEARLY made for a bedroom, and is not a crisp soul man is clearly more "gangsta" than the auto-tuned Mr. Dream? In both cases, it's as if Mayer Hawthorne gently reminds the original artists of the supremacy of his preferred genre, but with "Don't Turn The Lights On" he completely reimagines the song rather than just switching production styles. Top notch. (8.5)


Mayer Hawthorne - Don't Turn The Lights On (Chromeo Cover) by WHATZOOEVER

B.Lewis - Plug EP

Hey everyone here's an EP from this dude B.Lewis that's available for free on his bandcamp of more glitched out beats that I find very, very delightful! Not canned like soup but rather free like a man liberated from captivity in a dark, murky cell!

SNAG IT NOW, DINGUS

SRS TRAX: "Martians vs. Goblins" - Game (Feat. Lil Wayne and Tyler, the Creator)

Don't be a halloweenie


"Martians vs Goblins" - Game (feat. Lil Wayne and Tyler, the Creator) - (3.75)

ANDY: So I'll be honest, I've never really thought much of The Game. I attribute that mostly to ignorance, but after 50 cut him loose, his stock really fell, and I didn't make an effort to pay attention. But I guess when you're in Game's seat, you want to rebuild the hype by collaborating with the hypinest mc out there, OFWGKTA's Tyler the Creator.

With an appropriately spooky/cheesy beat and a Weezy hook barely long enough to qualify for a featured credit, Game embarks on the track with his usual gangster-osity, making sure to mention the Bloods and Crips (This shit is called the Red Album, after all), and threatening to kill Lil B. He then takes a prompt left turn to mention Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Sega Genesis, and fucking DC Comics. For real? Who's the gangster here and who's the adolescent rapper that tumblr fathered?

Tyler, for his part, delivers an uninspired and rhythmically lopsided verse, rehashing his threats against Bruno Mars, and mentioning running from the police on cheetah-back Harold and Kumar-style. Sigh. He gets in one last dig about the Log Cabin Republicans and leaves on a months-stale Lebron James joke.

When Game's back, it's time to compare Erykah Badu's vagina to wonton soup, make yet more Lebron jokes (although points for mentioning Delonte West), and back to the gangster ish. Ultimately, two guys who are posturing themselves as scary come off sounding more immature than actually intimidating. (4.5)

RAJ:
- Lil Wayne's "appearance" here isn't quite as bad an example of featured artist abuse as Kanye featuring actual dead people, but it's pretty close!

- It's bad enough that Tyler verses are the rap equivalent of Family Guy episodes now (empty but outra-a-a-a-geous shock value + forgettable cultural reference = genius!), but now he's got The Game pulling the same shtick? Whatever limited value this track has now is going to deflate right alongside the reputations of Lil B and Bruno Mars.

- Game apparently says that the R.E.D. of R.E.D. Album stands for Re-Dedication, which is now officially the lamest "No really, this isn't about gangs" excuse I've heard.
(3)

Listen Here

On Watch the Throne

- Watch the Throne: Starring Kanye West as himself and a luxury goods catalog as Jay-Z.

- Admittedly, Jay-Z's current "Selected Readings from My Credit Card Statement" rap style is strongly preferable to the cranky old man pathetically whinging about being "forever young" on The Blueprint 3, but it's still far from being any good. For one thing, the only people who will get half these brand-name references probably scoff at hip-hop as too bourgeois on their way to the opera anyway. It's worth noting that Jay's only good verse on the album name-checks nothing classier than Ballantine Ale and seed-heavy marijuana - "The Joy" comes from a place of heartfelt memory and actual connection to humanity, while the rest of his verses seem like tossed-off telegrams from some lonely Xanadu.

- Of course, it's not like you'd call Kanye relatable exactly, but when he goes on about his own obscene indulgence, he's always interesting - he's uniquely vivid ("Coke on her black skin make a stripe like a zebra/I call that jungle fever") or goofily clever ("Prince William ain't do it right if you ask me/Cuz if I was him I would have married Kate and Ashley") or just unpredictable in some way, which rarely happens with Jay here. Except for "New Day", Ye's verses here have him in not-trying-that-hard silly punchline mode, as opposed to Dark Twisted Fantasy's more reflective, thoughtful mode, but it mostly works in this context.

- That context is a pretty lightweight collection of beats, although a few are brilliant (the prog-rock stomp of "No Church in the Wild", RZA's shockingly successful autotuning of Nina Simone on "New Day"). A few of these suffer from that Blueprint 3 problem of wanting to be "futuristic", which translates in practice to lame retreads of last year's dance music model (dubstep samples are a bad idea as it is, but sampling Flux Pavilion only amplifies the problem). Judging from the beats Kanye actually made for himself, you can blame this one on Jay-Z entirely. When is he going to figure out that the future of hip-hop is going to be something much weirder than whatever music played at the club last night?

- This is not going to be good for Frank Ocean's career. It doesn't matter how much good will Frank gets out of his decent album-opening hook and his much-better-than-decent debut album - a large proportion of mainstream listeners will now remember him as that goofy guy who sang the insanely corny hook about the baby Jesus on "Made in America".

- "Lift Off" strikes me as one of the worst transparent stabs at a radio single I've ever heard. It's not just that Beyonce's hook is kind of bland - it's that with repetition of the hook alone she seems to sing twice as many words as the actual rappers on the track rap combined. Did they forget to finish this track? Was Bey going to make Jay sleep on the couch if anyone dared to upstage her mediocre contribution?

- Not to get all Upper East Side blue blood on him, but Jay's constant art-world namedropping (Basquiat! Rothko! A thousand goddamned mentions of the MOMA!) is so fucking nouveau-riche, isn't it?

- Andy was telling me that the terrible things about this album can be explained by thinking of the whole thing as a big old tongue-in-cheek Trapped-in-the-Closet self-parody. If you're willing to be that generous, that's not a terrible way to look at it, but if it's all a joke, I wish it was a funnier one!

SRS TRAX: Das Racist - "Michael Jackson"

Bruce Springsteen! Four Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars! MC Hammer! Twelve dollars and thirty cents!






Das Racist - "Michael Jackson" (8.5)

RAJ: #1: The few active detractors of Das Racist that I've heard take issue with the duo's hipper-than-thou bored-stoner flow, but with "Michael Jackson", that charge is even more iffy, because Heems is downright theatrical with his Jadakiss-in-two-decades raspy voice (Kool A-D even tries out this squeaky Weezy thing in the last verse).

#2: There's something pretty zen about the way that hook distills the vast majority of rap braggadocio (fame, money, and the demand that aforementioned fame and money be acknowledged) into nine words.

#3: If other rappers learn nothing from Das Racist, they should at least get back to Bollywood-sampling beats again, like the stuff Timbaland made in his golden age.

#4: The third verse here is a fun parody of rap clique circle-jerks, but it's interesting to see how straight these guys are playing their rapper roles otherwise - Heems' excellent opening shit-talk verse is as non-jokey as he's ever been. That is, until his last lines and the song's peak - screaming out "I'm fucking great at rapping!" could be the logical extension of Waka-Flocka-Flame-esque bluntness, but it also scans as giddily sincere. That really gets to the heart of what is so great about these guys - the parody is clever, but the deep love of what they're parodying is why it doesn't just seem like snotty hipsters taking shots at hip-hop.

#5: Is Janet Jackson really 10,000 times less valuable than Michael Jackson?

#6: Anyone want to take a crack at explaining that 9/11-y cover art? Because I'm at a loss.
(8.5)

August Mudmix

Posts have been few and far between these days, but here's a mix for you to sink your teeth into. This one is strictly non-electronic. Sort of a shame, because that new Hudson Mohawke EP is just waiting to be blasted, but I decided to just go back in time for these tunes. Basically all oldies, but two newer ones (one's a cover and the other sounds old). Enjoy.

Care of Cell 44 - The Zombies
You Monopolise Me - The Ogyatanaa Show Band
Eerie Body - Radiator Girls
A Song For You - Gram Parsons
Yes, My Goodness Yes - Velma Perkins
If I Stay Too Long - Thee Oh Sees
Tramp - Otis Redding & Carla Thomas
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere - Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Put Out The Fire - The Mystiques
遇 - 劉文正

download

Wayback Machine: Comets on Fire - Bong Voyage [2004]

I think I've mentioned Comets on Fire before. Every time I listen to Blue Cathedral or Field Recordings From The Sun, I simultaneously have my mind blown and get in a little slump, the latter due to the band's unofficial permanent hiatus. Ben Chasny's still going strong with Six Organs of Admittance, Ethan Miller was doing the Howlin Rain jam for a bit, but I haven't followed it much, but when these Bay Area dudes got together, the joyful noise was too good, too perfect. I remember around 2006 reading about Bong Voyage, a compilation live album, and really wanting to hear it. I've never been much of a torrent user, and mediafire wasn't as easy to access, so it wasn't until earlier today that this album finally popped back up on my radar, and is currently bringing me into a nice, blissful comfort. It's bringing me back to their show I went to during a hurricane at the Black Cat in DC the day before I left for college in 2006. The most spiritual experience I've ever had at a musical performance; I went crazy. The echoplex, the dueling guitars, the thumping bass, it's exactly what psychedelic rock should be. Noisy. Long hairy & Beardy. Indecipherable lyrics. And the lo-fi quality of the recording doesn't take away from the grandeur. And we got a Ben Chasny Eastern-influenced acoustic jam in the middle of it. Snag it if this is what you're into.

Mediafire

Punk Ain't Dead: Fucked Up's "David Comes to Life"

About a month ago, Canadian hardcore/punk band Fucked Up released their third full-length album David Comes To Life while I was too busy working crazy hours to notice or care. I mean, can you blame me? The album definitely falls into the category of hardcore, which is a genre mostly oppressively loud and repetitive, and generally I'd be down with just about anything else. But when I finally listened to the album biking home the long way to my apartment in Bed-Stuy, the music, colliding with the wind coming off the river and the potholes in the pavement finally started to make sense.

The first thing that you notice is that this album is unapologetically loud and full of raw youthful energy. Pounding drums and the lion's roar of Father Damian/Pink Eyes' voice let you know immediately what musical territory you've entered for the next 78 minutes. Simple distorted riffs and tones carry most of the album and are mostly reminiscent of The Who overlaid with Hot Water Music, but Fucked Up manages to push these trite melodies forward with the force of sheer willpower and enthusiasm (especially on tracks like "Ship of Fools" and "Running on Nothing"). Actually, the whole album feels like it's being violently shoved up a hill by a gang of grinning lunatics only to be released on free wheels all the way back down (perfect for biking over bridges).

But as I carried David with me through the streets of Williamsburg, noticing that there was not a silly moustache in sight, something else hit me: There is nothing ironic about this album. It's a four-part rock opera about a boy named David professing his tortured love for a girl named Veronica (spoiler alert: she DIES). It's a love story based on protest music. It's hardcore for chrissakes. To do all of these things at a time when even the lamest of the cool kids have turned their noses up at self-serious punk music (and let's be real here: Green Day's American Idiot pretty severely killed off most of punk's appeal as a genre while at the same time eliciting groans whenever the words "rock" and "opera" were used in the same sentence) requires the kind of raw energy that only Fucked Up seems to have these days. The result is a highly respectable album that may yet start a reawakening of heady punk within the mainstream (David Comes To Life ranked 12th a few weeks ago on the Billboard "Tastemaker Albums."). Personally, I've been sick of this New York version of standing-around-at-concerts-with-your-arms-folded bullshit for a while. I'm ready to thrash again.

Fucked Up - Turn The Season

Fucked Up - Running on Nothing

Fucked Up - Ship of Fools

"Digital Lows" Cities Aviv

Did we review this one yet? I don't even remember anymore. Here's to lazy summer postings and Mermaid Parades! Check out theis guyz and theyr almbum on bandcamp.

July Mudmix

to celebrate freedom:

download

nicolas jaar - what my last girl put me through
frank zappa - any way the wind blows
kelis - milkshake (shlohmo remix)
heRobust - grief case (star slinger wwhrd remix)
young circles - dreams
devonwho - fedoraworm (dibiase's microwave flip)
odb v. king tubby - dubbing it raw
noel davy - under me fat thing [version]
pink reason - holding on
kurt weisman - rainbow blues

Shit why did I sleep on Gayngs so long?

I'm way late on this but I'm really diggin' 2010's Relayted. One might expect a 25 member supergroup to be all over the map, but somehow the seemingly inevitable eclecticism is unpredictably reined in under the umbrella of soft-rock. I mean, at some points, one might imagine the sexy sax man making his appearance, while at others the album dips into experimental, prog, or even blues territory. So maybe there's a little something for everyone? It's mostly colored in shades that fans of Air or James Blake would like, but there are some surprises like "Faded High", or "False Bottom".

In the ultra-fast world of the internet music reviews, it is of the utmost importance to be timely and ahead of the new hotness. Us BZNZmen being an obvious exception, clearly I slept on this album for over a year, and only got around to checking it out when the dudes at My Other Computer Is A Sunset posted about it back in April. Maybe the internet isn't fast so much as it is regurgitative, but don't sleep on Gayngs.

Speaking of regurgitation, keep an eye out for a new feature 'round SRS BZNZ. We're gonna ask our BZNZmen to drop some negocios in the form of their favorite albums by genre. All the oldies but goodies, the albums we believe belong firmly in the canon. Check it out this week, maybe while you bayng some Gayngs.

Gayngs - The Gaudy Side of Town by rslblog.com

Gayngs - Cry by albums

Gayngs - Faded High by sxeseis

SRS TRAX: "Daylight" - Thundercat

Life plan: Move to Los Angeles. Feed my brain.


Thundercat - Daylight by Hypetrak

Thundercat - "Daylight" (8.5)

ANDY: BRAINFEEDER GETS IT SO WET. The Golden Age of the Apocalypse, The highly anticipated debut LP from Thundercat (who contributed to Flying Lotus's excellent Cosmogramma last year), features FlyLo's production, and jams like "Daylight". It's electronica that is oh-so-jazzy. My mind is open, hombre. Let the daylight shine in. I wonder when Brainfeeder will stop killin' the game? (8.5)

SRS TRAX: "Break Inside" - Ford & Lopatin

Take hits from the Eighties (yeah yeah) Do it sound so crazy (yeah yeah)

Ford & Lopatin - "Break Inside" (6.75)

ANDY: Back when SRS BZNZ started up last October, one of the first reviews was hyping up the Games EP That We Can Play, and by now, the group has changed their name and their sound. Channel Pressure, the debut LP from the newly renamed Ford & Lopatin, is still steeped in that 80s new wave synthyness, at times playing the Mr. Mister card heavily, and at times rocking rhythms you swear you heard New Order do better. Hell the cover is straight out of Weird Science. Overall it's a smooth listen though, with some unexpected high points. "Break Inside" makes for a smooth, shimmering, R&B-inspired jam nestled in the 80s nostalgia, that suggests Ford & Lopatin can also hang with the James Blakes of today. (7.5)

RAJ: On the one hand, it's pretty well-made chillwave. On the other hand, it's chillwave. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and continue being nostalgic about Roy Orbison. (6)

June Mudmix

hello from santa monica.

download

fLako - Shake it Harder
Samiyam - Cushion
Bardo Pond - Just Once
Tokimonsta - Moving Forward
Pavement - Box Elder
Thundercat - For Love I Come
Silver Jews - Black And Brown Blues
Long Arm - Double Bass In Love
Flying Burrito Brothers - Dark End Of The Street
John Coltrane - Say It (Over and Over Again)
Paul McCartney - Ram On
(39:06)

R.I.P. Gil Scott-Heron

One of my true heroes of music has passed away. Glad I was able to see him perform live a couple years ago. Wherever you are now, Gil, I hope you're doing well.

Gil Scott-Heron - Back Home


Gil Scott-Heron - Whitey on the Moon


Gil Scott-Heron - Lady Day and John Coltrane

SRS TRAX: "Knuckle Down" - Man Man

Honus Honus's songwriting often is serious and emotional, which contrasts with the whimsical musical stylings of bandmates Pow Pow, Chang Wang, Turkey Moth, and Jefferson.


Man Man - Knuckle Down by antirecords

(7)

ANDY: In all my excitement about taking a trip to the east coast this weekend, I forgot I am going to see MAN MAN tomorrow! MAN MAN FUCKING RULES. I haven't copped the new LP yet, just heard a couple tracks, and I hope the live show will be as zany as I hope/remember. Anyways, "Knuckle Down" is kind of like a "Banana Ghost" on steroids, with crunchy video game sounds complimented by xylophones, and Honus Honus's throaty exaltations about love, loss, and downward spirals complimented by silly backup vocals. Seriously this dude is always regretting his sexcapades, with lines like "What the hell can I do, when you whisper 'punish me'? Snapping like a tiger trap, I lost all my honey". Sounds like the theme song to a hairy circus brothel. (8.5)

RAJ: Man Man is undoubtedly one of the best live bands in the world. This single kind of seems like a retread of their best work, but screaming, face-painted men running around firing cap guns at each other and playing bottles with spoons engender a lot of residual goodwill. (7)

PAT: I always suspected Crash Bandicoot and the Wumpa mask were in this band. Why don't you people understand this reference??? (7)

JESSE: All I want to be is a shovely-bubbly-gobbly-gook, and to be listening to anything from Six Demon Bag rather than this song. It's got all the elements, but comes across as lackluster. It would probably be much better if chicken feathers were being tossed around whilst spoons are being thrown into a metal bowl. (5.5)

SRS TRAX: Zomby ft. Panda Bear - Things Fall Apart

Is this why Zomby bailed on AnCo at ATP?




(3.75)

JESSE: The beginning of this track is great. A gunshot, the warning siren, nice drum machine, a solid ascending synth groove. Then Panda Bear comes in. What happened? Nothing changes for the rest of the track. Just a lot of reverb on Panda's vocals, which repeat, repeat, repeat. This beat could have been interesting if it had just stayed as an instrumental and changed up throughout the song, but the addition of Lennox hinders any legitimate exploration. (5)

RAJ: I feel kind of bad for Zomby here. Dude clearly went all out to create a banger that's begging for a grime rapper to drop a double-time verse on it - what he gets is a bored Panda Bear half asleep on the couch after chugging too much Nyquil. Also: this never bugged me too much on Tomboy because the actual music is good enough to make it irrelevant, but why can't Panda Bear just go all Sigur Ros and sing beautiful nonsense? What he does instead is sing incredibly obvious/dumb lyrics as if they're some earth-shattering cosmic epiphany. "Things fall apart that are meant to last - no one knows why"? Look up entropy and pass the Funyuns, bro. (2)

ANDY: Definitely better in theory than in practice, this song ends up mostly repetitive, where it could have been intriguing. Thom Yorke would have knocked it out of the park. (4)

PAT: Andy, I kinda have to agree with you on that one -- at least Thomboy can legitimately change up his vocal rhythm and delivery. Lennox would benefit from some quality time learning how to spit real bubblegum with Scatman John... or maybe Zomby should just include Scatman John on his next collaboration. (4)

SRS ORGNLZ: Gucci Mane x Mother 3

An original track/video from our very own BZNZman, TK!

TK, this video makes me want to dance like an anime character. The song is also a jam. This dance move is reminiscent of one of my favorite moves, "wearing that ass like a hat" (separate demo video to follow).

SRS TRAX: Katy Perry ft. Kanye West - E.T.

Where we see how big of a Yeezy fan Raj really is.

Katy Perry ft. Kanye West - E.T. (0.25) youtube

JESSE: Remember when there was a lot of debate about Kanye West on here? Oof. Everything about the song's already painfully bad, but i think Kanye might actually make it, dare I say, worse. #theregoesyourindiecred (0)

ANDY: Gross.

(0)

RAJ: If I hadn't paid attention to the lyrics, I probably would have thrown this like a 4 or a 5 - as shallow dance-pop goes, you can do a hell of a lot worse than this. But beyond the obvious fact that Kanye's verse is phoned-in/dumb (and come on, what else would you expect from this kind of thing?), this song seems pretty actively racist to me! It's a duet where Katy Perry is fantasizing about being raped by an alien whose touch is "so foreign" or whatever, where the alien is basically just a black person (Kanye). Meanwhile, Kanye seems perfectly happy fulfilling the black-savage-out-to-ravish-white-women stereotype with his verses. Not cool! (0)

PAT: Why the pointless Matthew Barney reference in the video? Merely a confirmation that Katy Perry is trying to out art-house Lady Gaga, and failing miserably. Point for cheetah woman Aimee Mullins, though... RAWR! (1)

SRS TRAX: "KMAG YOYO" - Hayes Carll

It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Tripping)

Hayes Carll - "KMAG YOYO" (mp3)
(4.3)

RAJ: Hayes Carll has an intense Dylan fetish, and musically, this is totally just "Subterranean Homesick Blues" with more fuzz pedal. But this is one hell of a narrative, tracking a pissant kid's journey from small-town hick to Afghanistan army-man to drug dealer (the titular acronym - "Kiss my ass, guys, you're on your own") to lab rat . Drug-induced hallucinations come into play as the story progresses, but where exactly those hallucinations start and end is an open question. (8)

ANDY: Reduces the geopolitical issues of our time to a barely listenable parody/novelty song. Why should I care about this? (2)

JESSE: Better than this, but then again, what isn't? I can't really pay attention to the lyrics when it sounds like something I should be hearing performed at WMZQfest. (3)

May Mudmix

Taking a little break from the track reviews. Among those who post on this blog, I think I'm the only one who's still an undergrad in college. Kinda sucks. The year just ended though, and I'm looking forward to a nice summer of whatever. Of course summers inevitably reach that point where you get pretty tired of break and the structure of my senior year of college will seem appealing for some odd reason. That point hasn't hit yet. I finished my last final on wednesday, got thai food for dinner that night with some buds, spent the next day in New York, saw a taping of the Daily Show, headed to Chinatown to catch the very very impressive Shabazz Palaces show with some good company, packed up my belongings, and am now staying up late before I catch a Megabus from Philly to DC tomorrow afternoon. A good start to hopefully a memorable summer. So here's a summery mix - all pretty straighforward; just nice catchy tunes. so go get out your favorite tank top, call up your bros, get your backwards hat and a frisbee, don't forget the croakies for your sunglasses, and soak up some chill vibes, brah! gnarly! rad!

pavement - summer babe [winter version]
frank sinatra - summer wind
harlem - caroline
king tubby & aggrovators - summer's eve
beach fossils - golden age
shlohmo - empty pools
flying lotus - ankleboybackyard
the stanley brothers - sunny side of the mountain
ghostface killah, slick rick, raekwon & rza - the sun
bob & fred - i'll be on my way
os brazoes - espiral
34:13
it's summer, brah! chill!

SRS TRAX: "Ain't No Fun (If The Homies Can't Have None)" - Snoop Doggy Dogg Feat. Nate Dogg, Kurupt, and Warren G

Who said all the Trax had to be recent releases? Let's step back and check the mastery of 1993.

Snoop Dogg - "Ain't No Fun (If The Homies Can't Have None)" Feat. Nate Dogg, Kurupt and Warren G
(9)

ANDY: The pinnacle of G-Funk sexism. (10)

RAJ: The line "if Kurupt gave a fuck about a bitch I'd always be broke" is more revealing about the industry of 90s rap than he probably intended. But Dre certainly could make a beat back in those days, no? (8)

SRS TRAX: "Songs for Women" - Frank Ocean

Better than Danny Ocean, worse than Billy Ocean.



"Songs for Women" - Frank Ocean (mp3)
(8.25)

RAJ: It's a pretty nice break from all of Goblin's horrorcore (a label Tyler, The Creator at least now has a sense of humor about, since he at one point literally raps from the perspective of a vampire) when Frank Ocean shows up with a verse about battling a ninja who attacks him during a one-night stand. Dude can write, and his own mixtape is no exception - this track is downright smart about how little things, like what music your lady plays in the car, have a way of spiraling out into much larger consequences. This also pulls off that Hot Fuzz trick of simultaneously mocking/scoffing at contemporary R&B while also serving as an example of contemporary R&B that Drake or Trey Songz would kill for. (8)

ANDY: Love it. The line between mockery and mastery is razor thin. Since I never miss a chance to say it, FUCK DRAKE. (8.5)

SRS Trax: "Holdin on to Black Metal" - My Morning Jacket

Used the single artwork because the album cover is a just like a lame spaceship or something. (BZNZmen, add scores as you see fit.)



"Holding on to Black Metal" - My Morning Jacket (mp3)
(5.33)

RAJ: My theory about My Morning Jacket is that Jim James totally freaked out in 2007 when Fleet Foxes showed up and started doing the Appalachian folk rock thing as good/better than his own band, which prompted his own band's left turn into awesome synth-pop and whatever-the-hell-this-is on Evil Urges. And except for your occasional peanut-butter pudding surprise, this was a positive development! Because now, My Morning Jacket is the kind of band that will take a 60s Thai soul song and twist it into an exultant horn-fueled tribute to black metal. And maybe it's a little too repetitive and the vocals could have used a little more oomph, but it's still a 60s Thai soul song twisted into an exultant horn-fueled tribute to black metal! (7)

ANDY: Why not? But also, why? This song is fine, but after listening once, I'm not sure I hear anything interesting enough to make me want to listen again. Just listen to Neil fucking YOUNG. (5)

JESSE: I'd rather just listen to black metal. (5)

SRS Trax: "Mindkilla" - Gang Gang Dance

Andy gets all Walt Whitman and shit on this one.


"Mindkilla" - Gang Gang Dance (video)
(6.75)

ANDY: This song compels motion. I will move how I feel, damn the consequences, and my dancing will likely present a danger to myself and others. Might be my favorite album of this half-over 2011. (9)

PAT: A misguided anthem for your misguided night out in the Lower East Side! (4)

RAJ: #1: Why does the production here sound so tinny and cheap compared to St. Dymphna? #2: Why does Lizzie Bougatsos get all "We Share Our Mother's Health" on a track that probably should have been conventionally sung? #3: Anything that reminds me of Bollywood disco can't be all bad, but it suffers by comparison to actual Bollywood disco. (Also, the lullaby interpolation is dumb.) (6)

Additional Scores:
JESSE: (8)

SRS TRAX: "free press and curl" - Shabazz Palaces

Jesse probably picked this particular Shabazz track because all the other ones on the album have titles that are like 800 words long.



"free press and curl" - Shabazz Palaces (mp3)
(8.25)

ANDY: Spooky noises of faraway specters are quickly replaced by an edgeless wobble, and some flatly delivered verses (I say flatly, but I don't mean that negatively, the verse is energetic but unwavering). The background vocals on the hook are great, and the second half switches the beat up into something a little more open and quirky, rather than relentless and bludgeoning. The near monotony of the verse makes for lyrical inaccessibility on the first couple listens. For my money, I much prefer the album closer "Swerve..." (7)

RAJ: The fire verses here are a sort of black power autobiography - naive child confronting police at a wake (which they caused?) grows into old-soul rap star raging against a corrupt sociopolitical system. And if the playful technique (note to rappers: call and response is pretty fun when it's not just "heeey! hooo!") and the twisty dexterity of the rhymes distract from that point, the beat expresses it eloquently enough on its own. Mournful wails rise up against the mechanized clatter of surging bass (remember when the dubstep wobble was an expressive tool and not just a cliche?) and electric-spark snares, as chintzy exercise-video synths mock our protagonist at the bookends. All told, this is a high point on an album that certainly sounds like a more interesting future for rap than the Odd one. A 9 from me (and, for the record, album track #2 "an echo from the hosts that profess infinitum" is a 10). (9)

PAT: Damn! If there ever was a track that successfully navigated the territory of "YES, AND" without abusing mashed-up derivatives this would be it. Sure "Free Press and Curl" lacks the drive of a forceful bass-heavy beat, but only to make room for buzzy vocal rhythms and subtly edited transitions between complex and diverse movements. It's like this guy takes composition seriously! As a first encounter with Shabazz Palaces, I'm hoping this is the overture to a finely crafted album worthy of more classical music vocabulary. (8)

JESSE: Very rarely do you get a hip-hop track that truly successfully breaks out of the 16 bar + hook formula. The opener off Black Up (which is easily my favorite album of the year so far) sets a new standard for strange rap, in my book. The heavy beat for the first few minutes, switch off between MCs, synths and delayed electronic percussion going around, this is just sonically out there for the genre. The “I’m free” hook (if you can really call it that) and the ooh-oohs in the background, it all just works. Then the last minute just breaks out of nowhere into pretty much a new song. Sometimes parts get close to overstaying their welcome, but then they take a new turn. A few listens lets you wrap your head around the lyrics, and what you have is a well-versed critique of “dystopian gangsta philosophy,” as put in another article on the group. Legit. (9)

SRS TRAX: "Eyes Be Closed" - Washed Out

The BZNZmen inaugurate their new track review feature with a ritual paddling of the latest from Ernest Greene a.k.a. Washed Out.

Washed Out - "Eyes Be Closed" (youtube)
(4.00)

PAT: Is this one of those songs that you can't dance to but has beats that make you think you can? I dig it, but he's singing me to sleep on the top half while seriously playing with my junk at the bottom. I would have dubbed thee 6.5ish if there were saxophones on the outro, but as it stands, it's a (4).

ANDY: Long after the death of chillwave, Washed Out finally gets around to releasing an LP? Too little, too late, Ernest. He hemmed and hawed about performing live, and took his sweet time to release this one, almost two years after his genre existed, while his contemporaries are releasing superior sophomore efforts. This track is fine, but for the most part, I liked it better when it was sung by a vocalist confident enough to leave his bedroom. I think that vocalist was Bono, and the track was called "Beautiful Day". (5)

RAJ: The opening keyboard stabs kinda remind me of "Born Slippy", so point for that! But this is awfully bland beyond that - the vocal line is a retread of "Feel It All Around" with a castrated melody, those arpeggio bloops at the end rip off Cut Copy without also ripping off Cut Copy's sense of fun, and all of those synths "soar" in a particularly Moby kind of way. It all just strikes me as insincere, not unlike that stupid perfume-ad album cover. (4)

JESSE: Repetitive songs are good if they can hold your attention. The elements of this song are just too on the fence to be considered legitimately interesting. It never breaks into something more than what could be nice background music for a Nintendo game. (3)

Southern Rap, Rising Again

Big K.R.I.T. - Return of 4eva

Return of 4eva can be pretty accurately described as the kind of Kanye West album that Kanye West stopped making years ago. Yes, producer-rapper Big K.R.I.T. has a Mississippi drawl and his drum patterns owe more to stuttering Southern hi-hats than East Coast boom-bap, but the similarities are inescapable: omnipresent soul samples, the awkward but endearingly earnest flow, the humble-dreamer-turned-overnight-success narrative arc, conscious-rap leanings without getting Talib-Kweli-level-grating, songs about God (!). 4eva isn't exactly as good as The College Dropout, but then as a free mixtape it's hardly supposed to be, and the banger-to-mash ratio here is stunningly high. K.R.I.T. as a producer is pretty great with chilled-out gentle-head-nod driving rap (more often than not actually about cars - see standout "Time Machine"), but he's at his best when Cuisinarting up vocals for real trunk-rattlers - see "R4 Theme Song" and a remix of "Country Shit" aided greatly by Ludacris tearing up a guest appearance like he hasn't in years. Some are going to sneer at this album for its total lack of innovation, and K.R.I.T. is nothing if not retro, but as rap revivalists go, K.R.I.T. is up there with Freddie Gibbs as one of the best working today.

Big K.R.I.T. - Return of 4eva (Mixtape - Download/Stream)

G-Side - The ONE...COHESIVE

You'll have to leave Mississippi for Alabama to find real rap innovation. There's nothing particularly revolutionary about Huntsville rap duo of G-Side themselves, although they're ferociously talented - pairing the loud, thick voice of ST 2 Lettaz with the thin rasp of Yung Clova approaches Ghostface-Raekwon levels of rap duo synergy, and it's interesting to hear an album that gets into the particulars of label-less minor rap stardom as deeply as these guys do ("Waiting for my passport at the last minute/Next week is my first show in Toronto/And if it don't come then I don't go/But I guess you could say that's one of them good problems)". Furthermore, their Rolodex is almost as much of an asset as their flows. None of the many guests on this album have achieved any real degree of fame, and their hunger is luckily very evident - watch out in particular for the chainsaw voice of Mic Strange on "Never".

The innovation here is in the stunning, next-level production, mostly by the Block Beattaz, although Clams Casino provides a monster of a beat that is hilariously mismatched to a song about, um, sexting ("Pictures"). Draped in reverb and swelling with hyperdramatic strings and wall-of-sound synths, these beats go for a kind of cosmic drama that's usually only the province of rock music, and the result is thrilling. This is no small part due to the voracious taste of the production teams here, who seem as likely to throw in a Beach House sample (album standout "How Far") as they are an 808. It's very hard to think of another rap album that sounds quite like this, and that alone is probably reason enough to listen to this thing.

G-Side - "I'm Sorry" (prod. by Bossman) (mp3)

G-Side - "Pictures" (prod. by Clams Casino) (mp3)

G-Side - "How Far" (prod. by the Block Beataz) (mp3)

Back to BZNZ

After last week's drugged diversions, it's back to BZNZ for me, which basically means back to shit that sounds like Blade Runner looks.  That's right, my bread and butter is this amorphous genre out there in the empty space between dubstep, electro, and hip hop (with a touch of footwork), just where you'd find Clams Casino lurking. 

What's in a name? Well, Clams Casino is a cat from New Jersey (current and past home of all BZNZmen), who chose as his stage name a delicious appetizer comprised of clams on the halfshell with breadcrumbs and bacon. The name aside, this guy sounds like a more straight hip hop version of Burial, which is perhaps surprising given his collaborations with the likes of Soulja Boy and Lil B. I don't take the name of DJ Shadow lightly, but the album has a similar flavor to Endtroducing and a other Mo' Wax artists as well. Clams and his devotees would call this stuff "based" music, perhaps another microgenre in an era of far too many microgenres. Leaving the genre labeling aside, these beats are tight.

It's no small feat that these beats stand up so well without lyricists. Instrumental albums run the risk of sounding incomplete, but then again I haven't heard the other versions of almost all of these tracks. In fact, I can't imagine where an mc would even fit on most of these tracks amidst the man Clams' propulsive rhythms, let alone the mc who taught the world what it meant to "superman". Admittedly it could be done, since the overall structure is not terribly complex, but verse would break the hypnotic spell. With more Clams Casino in the pipeline in the form of an EP entitled The Rainforest, due June 27, fans of this based-chill-dub-wave-core-hop music can smile.

Just download it, already! You'll be glad you did.

Clams Casino - Numb by HUNGRYiPOD
Clams Casino - Cold War by mantequilla Motivation by JONEZ

April Mudmix/DJ Troubl

Yes, I put up a mix last week, but it was pretty last minute. Also, I should have put the link to DJ Troubl's Journey Into Fresh Diggin': Quasimoto Meets Himself. The definitive Quasimoto/Madlib mix, goes through tons of Lord Quas tracks and beautifully mixes up the tracks that Madlib sampled in making the beats. I still listen to this mix at least once a month, and it is just too perfect. Cop it here.

NOW for the April mix. Here at school it's crunch time for me. Junior year, I've got about 40 more pages to write over the next 2 weeks. Things are going well, and I'm actually interested in what I'm writing about. Nonetheless, it's always hard to pick the right music to listen to when you're stressed out of your mind but have to get words on paper (or Microsoft Word). One thing I've found is that, as much as I like 3-5 minute songs, they can be dangerously distractive. A verse, a chorus, a catchy breakdown, sometimes it's just too much. So here's a mix of my study aids. When I need something in my ears, something enjoyable, something interesting, but something that is loooong. So the theme for this mix is that the songs are all over 10 minutes long. I usually put these mixes up as one long .mp3 file, but mediafire doesn't allow files larger than 200 mb. The 11 songs here added up to 250 mb and 2.5 hours of music. Genres vary, though I tried to pick out ones that aren't tooabrasive. Tracklist as follows, arranged in order of decreasing length.

Boredoms - Seadrum - One of my biggest regrets in life is not driving up to New York on 7/7/07 for 77 Boadrum. Blasting this is the closest I’ll get. 23 minutes.
Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O – Psycho Buddha - Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 22 minutes
John Coltrane - Om, Part 2 – I would have put Ascension on this, but 40 minutes is pushing it. 14 minutes.
Keiji Haino & Tatsuya Yoshida - At the instant when one thinks – I would have put up やらないが できないことに なってゆく, but it’s 68 minutes long. There are also some really catchy parts of this one and Tatsuya’s drumming is killer too. 12 minutes.
Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Myth Science Solar Arkestra - Sleeping Beauty – A nice mellow jam. 12 minutes
Little Women - Throat IV – The most listenable on the album. 11.5 minutes.
Mount Eerie - Through The Trees – Therapeutic. 11.5 minutes.
The Unicorns – Haunted House [Live at The Earl] - Punched that gator. Storytellers. 11.5 mintues.
Jim O’Rourke - I'm Happy – Blips n’ junk. 11 minutes.
Gang Gang Dance – The Earthquake That Frees Prisoners drony then wacky. 11 minutes.
Comets on Fire - Blue Tomb – A nice burner from the band I wish was still active. Blue Cathedral is an incredible album, please go buy it. The transition at 8:01 is so good. 10 minutes.

Do you love me, Mary Jane?

"Copperhead Road" - Steve Earle
The rare marijuana song about the supply side of things, "Copperhead Road" finds a Vietnam vet continuing in the tradition of his rum-running forefathers, but switching to a new crop and ominously taunting lawmen with the fact that he may have "learned a thing or two from Charlie". Also - The Wire fans will get a kick out of seeing what Walon used to look like.



"Silver Trembling Hands" - The Flaming Lips
Off the very, very underrated Embyronic, this song finds a woman escaping the paranoia of the sober world via substances known for their paranoia-inducing effects. The cause of and solution to all of life's problems?



"Beetlebum" - Blur
Probably about heroin, but I love the half-melancholy, half-blissed out vibe of this song - angry grunge guitars going against Damon Albarn's soft falsetto.



"Julie's in the Drug Squad" - The Clash
Probably about LSD, but one of my favorite songs about po-po bust paranoia and the fundamental absurdity of drug law, mainly because it doesn't get too preachy about it.



"Sunday Morning Coming Down" - Kris Kristofferson
Loneliness, drug-induced apathy, and weed as a salve. In short - a slightly more dignified version of Afroman's "Because I Got High".

Favorite 420 Jams

Imogen Heap - "Hide And Seek"
You don't just hear this song in your ears—you can feel it ringing in your sinuses as well and some especially resonant bits go all the way down into your abdomen.

Throbbing Gristle - "Hot on the Heels of Love"
When I'm high this song seems like a musical version of those little candy buttons that come on sheets of paper.

My Bloody Valentine - "Only Shallow"
Ever notice that this song is just the same verse three times? Only each time the backing vocal (the "ooh-ooh") becomes louder. It is as though you were wandering closer and closer to the throbbing heart of Loveless. It is as though Loveless sees you wince with pain as you step into it and feel the sheets of white noise, and wants to draw you into itself, perhaps against your better judgment, so it can finally embrace you with open arms.

Autechre - "Eutow"
This song is like getting a full-body massage.

Boards of Canada - "Roygbiv"
There was a whole semester in college when all I did was get high and walk around listening to this song and this song only. "Roygbiv" might be the most perfect little song I've ever heard in my life. It takes me to places I normally only access in sleep.

Happy Holidays, Stay Jazzy

It's 4:20 pm on the East Coast. Happy holidays everyone, enjoy these tracks while remaining within the bounds of local, state, and federal laws. Or, go ahead and consume America's number 1 cash crop, your call.

The Streets - "The Irony of It All"
Before Mike Skinner graduated to true fame and rapping about "prang", he was a mild-mannered Gran Turismo champ, comparing the relative societal harms of beer and weed. Silly and caricatured as it is, he's got a point.

"My name's Tim and I'm a criminal. In the eyes of society I should be in jail. For the choice of herbs I inhale. This ain't no wholesale operation, just a few eighths and some Playstations, my vocation."



Rasputin Stash - "Hit It and Pass It"
I picked up this record based on the cover alone, and this song is a jam about the characters you might encounter around the circle, the song title being what you tell 'em.

"How do you feel, when the man next to you, HOGS the smoke?"



Dr. Dre - "Xxplosive"
The Chronic 2001 could have given several tracks to this list, but I chose this one for the soulful Nate Dogg bit. (Still in mourning- Nate R.I.P.)

"Real trees....chronic leaves....no seeds...."


Fraternity of Man - "Don't Bogart That Joint"
Good etiquette.

"Don't bogart that joint, my friend. Pass it over to me."


Devin the Dude - "Doobie Ashtray"
Man, Devin the Dude really tears at the heartstrings on this one. A hard luck story with a happy ending.

"Somebody had the nerve to take the herb up out my doobie ashtray, why they do me that way?"




Finally, this one speaks for itself:

Peter Tosh - "Legalize It"

[CHOMPS] 420 Showcase [/CHOMPS]

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

I've been MIA from the SRS BZNZ scene for a minute, but I figured there's no better time than a beautiful April day for a triumphant return. Imma give you my top 5 herbally-enhanced tracks to bump on this holiday of holidays.

Luniz - "I Got 5 on It"
"I gotta take a whiz test to my P-O / I know I failed, 'cause I done smoked major weed, bro."


Die Antwoord - "Dagga Puff"
Yes, I've got a soft spot for the South African duo, but I'll be damned if this isn't one of the best 420 anthems I've ever heard. The childish, sing-song nature of this track is sure to induce squinty-eyed giggles.


Big Boi - "Fo Yo Sorrows"
I don't know what's best: the defiant hook, Big Boi's hot fire, or George Clinton's grumbling chronic rhymes. I'll take all three.


Outkast - "SpottieOttieDopaliscious"
Dayuuum, dayuuum, dayuuum, day-day-day-day-day...


BONUS Double Feature:
The Beatles - "Got to Get You into My Life"
Released in 1966 on the album Revolver, this romantic ditty was written to Mary Jane, from Paul McCartney (yes, he admitted this fact).


Earth, Wind & Fire - "Got to Get You into My Life"
In 1978, Earth, Wind & Fire brassed it up and made it sexy. I have trouble deciding which one I like better.

420 Week: Half-Assin' It

Homies--
I'm currently too busy reveling in the remainder of my semi-anonymous viral internet movie limelight to make a proper post. But seriously, isn't this a holiday dedicated to exercising your license to chill? Imma take this one easy.

So this little bowl of Bheaties is full of some of the green party classix... plus R. Kelly and Mystikal doing what they do best with weed (i.e. singing extended metaphors about sex, and getting unnecessarily angry).

Enjoy!

--Eddie Cane



Ludacris - Blueberry Yum Yum


Bizzy Bone - Weedman


Musical Youth - Pass the Dutchie


Redman - How To Roll a Blunt


R. Kelly - Sex Weed


Mystikal - I Smell Smoke

420 Week: Madlib Megamix

Disclaimer:

I don't smoke weed. I don't do anything. But I listen to a lot of music from our good friend, Otis Jackson, Jr. I'm pretty sure the average person would get a contact high just being in the same county as the man. Anyway, here's a mix from Madlib, Quasimoto, Madvillain, Yesterday's New Quintet, Mr. Buddha, Lootpack, etc. etc., whose music I've loved for years now, not to mention the fact that listening to him and looking up samples has led my musical tastes to go in pretty unforeseen routes.

Enjoy appropriately

SRS BZNZ 420 Showcase!

Well, Monday morning is still far away, and maybe you want a relaxing herbal denouement to another wild weekend. This week, in honor of 4/20, the BZNZmen will share with you their favorite...joints. All weed, all week. Tracks inspired by or prominently featuring reefer count, as well as songs that enhance that illicit indulgence.

So to get started, here's a quick tip on a maryjane mixtape out of Atlanta. I'll post some tracks in the coming days.

It was no sooner than I gave Wiz Khalifa's Rolling Papers some excessive praise in this space last week, that I discovered the superior DJ Burn One mixtape Joints. The tape has this great combination of slow, hazy, 80s-influenced production (think Paper Route Gangstaz?) and a wide roster of rappers coming up, including the much-hyped Freddie Gibbs. Pleasantly surprising are the two jams by Rittz, this white dude with huge hair who raps at Twista speeds. "Blue Dream" might as well be a classic rock song, with a crooning hook about a hookah lounge where it's cool to blaze. The mixtape ends with this great instrumental jam "Exotica" which combines southern style snares with a fuzzed out synth loop, and could really pass for some RJD2 or DJ Shadow-caliber ish. Great stuff,  better than Wiz in both verse and beats, and you can stream or download it free over at DJbooth.net. 

Rittz - Smash Potatoes by Hypetrak
P. Watts feat. Freddie Gibbs - One Day At A Time by AsTheWorldSpins.com