CUFFS

It's going to be a short post, unfortunately I'm still in school and finals are winding down. Today we've got a short 3-track demo from CUFFS, a Cambridge-based band that's 2 members ex-Pants Yell!, and then 2 dudes from other bands that I haven't heard of. More or less, Pants Yell! and now CUFFS just make it seem like putting together longing, self-depricating, 20-something white male pop songs ridiculously easy. The makeup of their music screams simplicity, never anything really technically advanced, but just so much more well done than most of the indie/twee pop you hear, which usually just bothers me. Head over to their bandcamp site and grab the recent 4-track demos, Privilege being my favorite of the three new tracks, attached below. Also attached is the now-defunct Pants Yell!'s cover of Jens Lekman's Tram #7, a nice slow take, which I'd say is better than the original. Keep on the watch for future releases from CUFFS, and go explore Pants Yell!'s discography. I recommend the album Songs For Siblings. Then go on a long trip with your friends, bring your favorite tape cassettes, roll the windows down, and roll your jeans up above your ankles. That's about the vibe they give.



Tram #7 (Jens Lekman cover) - Pants Yell!

Enjoy. Once I get through finals I plan on putting up responses to Raj's reviews of the new Ghostface, James Blake, and Deerhoof; I feel pretty differently about 2 of them. But don't expect the Andy-Raj rage that Kanye West provoked. In fact, ever since "H.A.M." dropped, it seems like we've seen some growing unity about Mr. West, unfortunately for how terrible the song was.

FYI: Considering Pants Yell! is defunct, and 2004's Songs for Siblings is 100% OOP, here's a mediafire link for it:
http://www.mediafire.com/?2mrd2hm23tj

Deerhoof Vs. Evil

Real talk, hipsters - does anyone actually enjoy the sound of Satomi Matsuzaki's voice? Any Deerhoof fan (and I loosely include myself in this category) will tell you that there's more than enough compensatory musical joy in every other element of a Deerhoof record to make up for whatever issues you have with Matsuzaki's neutered Ono wail. But is there anyone who sits there listening and thinks to themselves, "Man, I love hearing this childlike Asian woman sing!" My theory about Deerhoof has always been that the experimental-noise-rocker-bros who started the band recruited Matsuzaki because they were worried about their indie cred - Deerhoof may jam together shards of music into complex and unpredictable song structures, but those shards are pretty straightforward grabs from psychedelic rock and pop and things that aren't abrasive at all! So they throw a cra-aaaa-zy sounding Asian lady into the mix to instantly up their weird factor, which always struck me as a touch Orientalist and icky.

In any case, the rest of Deerhoof generally pulls off things that can be exhilarating, and their latest album Deerhoof vs. Evil has the explosive creativity of much of their best work (not to mention toned down weirdness in Satomi's vocals). I haven't spent too much time with this album yet, but it's already clear that this is a very, very solid piece of work that combines unclassifiable genre-melding with off-kilter time signatures and killer songwriting. Cases in point linked below: "The Merry Barracks" finds vicious riffs and guitar spasms at war while straight-up hummable melodies waft above it all. "Super Duper Rescue Heads!", on the other hand, is a relatively straight-forward synth-powered pop track with some meaty electric guitar work that helps to cut the song's overall sweetness. I'll even go as far as to classify it as chillwave, because it's basically gotten to the point where anything with a synth gets that label tacked onto it, and I'm a big fan of lazily latching on to trends.

Deerhoof - "The Merry Barracks"


Deerhoof - "Super Duper Rescue Heads"

Breakbot keeps me grindin'

So this cat Breakbot has been crankin out fun remixes for a little while, but still no full-lengths from the Frenchman. Part of the ubiquitous Ed Banger family since 2009, Breakbot first popped out with the Happy Rabbit EP in 2007, and just released the Baby I'm Yours EP in 2010, featuring both the title track (which also had a music video animated in fucking watercolors), and the ever so funky "Make You Mine" (originally released on an Ed Banger Christmas promo). The Siriusmo remix of "Baby I'm Yours" isn't too shabby either. The infectious disco of Breakbot is definitely a breath of fresh air for the Ed Banger crew, which after Justice's explosive ride to fame and popularity, had sort of been coasting. While it's derivative stuff, to be sure, Breakbot's disco jams just feel so right. I've had Breakbot on the mind because I only recently came across his 2008 remix of "What's Up, Fatlip" which goes down real smooth. I'd jump at a chance to see the guy live.

Breakbot - Baby I'm Yours (ft. Irfane)

Breakbot - Make You Mine (ft. Irfane)

Fatlip - What's Up Fatlip (Breakbot Remix)

The Return of Robert Christgau

Just making sure everyone is aware that Robert Christgau, the "dean of American rock critics," has returned. His "Consumer Guide," in which he reviews albums with letter grades and sometimes astonishingly clever capsule reviews, started in 1969 as a column for the Village Voice and has been going strong, in one place or another, more or less ever since. In the last 40 years he has reviewed nearly every album you can think of. If there's nothing important you need to do in the next few hours, visit his website and see for yourself. His opinions are often startlingly unorthodox, and he defends them passionately—see, for instance, what he has to say about the Black Eyed Peas' latest album. Although I cannot endorse his views on Radiohead, and will never forgive him for calling Kid A "dinner music" even if he deigned to give it an A-, he is still surely the toughest, most hype-resistant, most objective rock writer out there.

It looked like it would be the end of the CG when MSN, which picked Christgau up after the Voice came under new management in 2006 and liquidated their old guard, discontinued it this summer. I was very sad when I heard the news, and was then overjoyed when I learned in November that he would be carrying on after all in a twice-weekly blog entitled "Expert Witness." By now he has already thrown in his two cents on most of the key albums of the latter months of 2010. Anyone who cares enough about music to read our blog should bookmark his and check it often.

Grievous Angel

Mostly, this blog focuses on electronic, hip-hop, indie, noise, or experimental music. I'm going to take a break from that and take us back to the 70s for a true American music legend. For the past month or so, I haven’t listened to much new music. I’ve consistently listened to the new James Blake, and like it more than Raj I think, but for the most part the past few weeks have been filled with either Gram Parsons or Neil Young. Today’s mix is mostly dedicated to the first of the two, a man who died young and left quite an impression on the worlds of Country and Rock, though neither of the two labels can really accurately capture the essence of his music, which he labeled as “American Cosmic Music.” A Harvard dropout, guru to Emmylou Harris, and consumer of way too many drugs, and victim of a nasty morphine overdose, the man led a brief but dense life. Perhaps it’s that I often have the desire to give up on my Ivy League education and go pursue some sort of life out in the country, or just that I’d like to wear the suits that the Burrito Brothers wear in their music videos for Christine’s Tune, but Gram’s music has meant a lot to me. Enjoy.

Luxury Liner - Gram Parsons and the International Submarine Band (Safe At Home)
Parson’s first post-Harvard dropout band, I think.

A Song For You - Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris (G.P.)
Take me down to yerrr daaaaaaancehalllllll

Hot Burrito 1 & 2 - The Flying Burrito Brothers (The Gilded Palace of Sin)
Passion.

Return of the Grievous Angel - Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris (Grievous Angel)
My mother prefers my brother Jacob’s version of this song to Gram’s.

You’re Still On My Mind - The Byrds (Sweetheart of the Rodeo)
Great.

Wild Horses - The Flying Burrito Brothers (Burrito Deluxe)
Little known fact that this version was released before the Rolling Stones’ version. Gram convinced Mick Jagger to let them cover it, and the Burritos ended up releasing it in 1970 on Burrito Deluxe, the year previous to the Stones on Sticky Fingers. I do prefer the Burrito’s version, it’s a bit grittier, and well, Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman just kill it.

Codeine - Gram Parsons (Another Side of This Life: The Lost Recordings of Gram Parsons, 1965-1966)
A very different sound, but another testament to his storytelling skills.

She - Gram Parsons (G.P.)
Why’d you have to go, Gram? Why’d you have to go.

http://www.mediafire.com/?0yj5aua3z6953pz
(you might have to arrange the tracklisting by yourself.)

Apollo Kids

I'm not one of those "stop-rapping-about-guns-drugs-and-ladies" types - if you're going to attack familiar subject matter with the kind of wild-eyed fervor that Raekwon brought to 2009's Only Built for Cuban Linx Pt. 2, then you won't hear any complaints from me. But the thing with Ghostface Killah is that, at least on his solo albums since 2005's amazing Fishscale, he's seemed as bored with those topics as any of his subject-matter-detractors, but he insists on talking about them anyway. And so it basically doesn't matter that his latest album Apollo Kids has a pretty solid collection of nostalgic soul-sampling beats - it's Ghost on autopilot, and his lyrics have all the ingenuity suggested by song titles like these: "Ghetto", "Drama", "2getha Baby" (just as a point of reference, here's a few from Cuban Linx 2: "Pyrex Vision", "Surgical Gloves", "House of Flying Daggers"). Critics have mostly been giving this stuff a pass because Ghostface at his most listless is about on par with your average rap album, and that's not really wrong, but why should I care about an artist who has no particular interest in proving his vitality?

The only moments where Apollo Kids actually comes alive are at the points where Ghost seems to be displaying any kind of sincerity. The opening track, "Purified Thoughts", is such a tease because it finds Ghostface fed up with the seaminess of ghetto life and instead aiming his spirit higher, with mystical visions of redemption and a return to Africa (this is immediately followed by a track called "Superstar", where the most clever thing Ghost manages is the name-checking of several liquor brands). And later, on "In Tha Park", Ghostface assumes the mantle of hip-hop historian , delivering a clever reminiscence about old-school DJs with equipment jury-rigged to light-pole wires (although Black Thought then proceeds to completely out-rap Ghost with a nostalgic look back at Philadelphia rap).

It's not like Ghost can't rap effectively about the streets anymore - his Cuban Linx pt. 2 verse on "Cold Outside" is one of the most horrifyingly vivid storyteller verses he's ever done ("They found a two-year-old strangled to death/With a Love Daddy shirt on in a bag on the top of the steps"). And it's also not like he really should be urged to try something different, because then he just decides to do something like the atrocious for-the-ladies Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry. The main issue here is just that he's not really, you know, trying. At all. I'd be more forgiving about all this if he actually had just fallen off and just wasn't capable of top quality anymore, but from the evidence, it seems apparent that he's now less interested in making quality rap than he is in lazy cash grabs.

"Purified Thoughts" - Ghostface Killah ft. Killah Priest and GZA


"In tha Park" - Ghostface Killah ft. Black Thought


"Cold Outside" - Raekwon ft. Ghostface Killah

Body Language

NASTY K: So 2011 may be upon us, but I'm not quite done with some jams from 2010. Brooklyn's Body Language put out this free EP back in October, and it shows surprising variety for 4 tracks and less than 17 minutes. Social Studies has just the songs to cure any leftover New Year's hangovers. "Falling Out" is totally fun disco basslines and funky synths (almost cribbed from Daft Punk's track "Something About Us") paired with an infectious hook. But it's not all Jamiroquaian disco do-overs on Social Studies. The EP opener "You Can" spent most of the day firmly lodged in my brain, prone to such chillwavery as I am. The elementary-schoolness of the EP's title would prescribe far more bubblegum something more bubblegum for the title track and indeed "Social Studies" delivers. (more straightforward maybe than High Places, less zany than YACHT) But as Angelica Bess sings about being "under the influence" she is calling our number. "Tempoture" held my interest less than the other three tracks, being more downtempo and using the bright female vocals only sparingly, but also represents a completely unique sound from the other three. 4 tracks, and 4 very different paths of dance-poppage to choose from. I'll be curious to see which of these directions Body Language goes in 2011.

Download Social Studies from Body Language's bandcamp

Peep recent photos of Body Language at Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival 2010

Falling Out by Body Language

Social Studies by Body Language