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)