Garage punks out of Columbus, OH, the New Bomb Turks exploded (heh!) onto the scene with their brand of aggressive rock, and they kept it rockin’ for a while. However, they did eventually fell off, and this EP (Beruhren Meiner Affe, “Touching My Monkey”) is kind of where the dividing line is. It’s a perfectly good five songs of their Stooges-esque stuff, but after this, it seemed like the were just kind of tired.
[Read More]There’s a concept of a “difficult second album”, which is mostly just a farm for confirmation bias, but hell, let’s talk about De La Soul’s difficult second album. Their first album was a huge smash, a groundbreaking album, and an artistic statement that truly came from left field. But the flower power personas that De La Soul wore during that record began to feel stifling pretty quickly. They set out to break that mold on the next album, starting with the name of the album, and proceeding with rejecting the hippie approach throughout. The results are rough in spots, a little overly laden with filler and skits, but there are also some legitimately amazing tracks on the record. This, alas, is not one of them.
[Read More]After the lackluster Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump and the uneven AOI: Bionix, I was wondering if De La Soul were done. The answer was answered definitively by the next album, The Grind Date: no, they were not done. At least part of that was the production they got on the record, with good work from folks like J Dilla, Mad Lib, and 9th Wonder (who is on this track). It’s not groundbreaking in the way their early work was, but it’s a just a solid record all the way through.
[Read More]How sweet is that Memphis sound? This is a song from late in the Atlantic run for Stax/Volt, from 1967. That’s a tasty break in this song! Jeanne and the Darlings just ended up recording four singles in their career, so there isn’t a lot of followup to this tune.
There have been times in my life when I’ve bought a record that was intimidating, when I wasn’t really sure what I was getting into. Buying this album, Strategies Against Architecture II, was one of those moments. I had heard of the band, in mostly hushed tones, and I wasn’t really sure I was up for it. So strange! So noisy! So German! I didn’t honestly know if I was up for it. And the album was, indeed, something pretty far beyond what I could have expected. But I certainly liked it!
[Read More]A repeat today, so you all know what that means. SIX SONGS BABY
Feels like we’ve had this song on here before. (looks) Yeah, we have. I have to fix all the tagging/index stuff around here.
The focus for Neutral Milk Hotel is on In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, but On Avery Island is very good as well. It’s maybe a little more predictable, a little more just pure indie pop, but Jeff Magnum knows what he’s doing here.
[Read More]One of the tremendous things about today’s music scene is that we have so many quality reissue labels that are looking through the past and finding great stuff to bring back to light. This comes from the Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump compilation which is just a delight to listen to all the way through.
De La Soul seemed pretty done after the second Art Official Intelligence record came out. However, The Grind Date turned out to be an excellent record, proving they still had plenty left in the tank. First Serve was also good (although, technically, it was only two-thirds of De La Soul), so they ended up having a bit of a late career renaissance.
[Read More]Good one today! Well, if you ignore that we have a rap skit.
The closer for De La Soul Is Dead, the final skit that imagines some bullies discovering stealing the album and deciding it blows. De La Soul was clearly reflecting on a break they were attempting from the first album, of trying to shed their image as rap’s flower children. While De La Soul Is Dead contains plenty of shimmery, bouncy, light tunes, it also features darker material like “My Brother’s a Basehead” and (especially) “Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa”, a tragic tale we’ll talk about when it comes up.
[Read More]This is a collaboration between Danger Mouse (Gorillaz, a bunch of his own work) and MF Doom. And, like basically all Doom projects, it’s a pleasure to hear him rhyming. His patterns are so fascinating, and Danger Mouse’s production is as solid as always. This is a really good album, is what I’m saying.
Speaking of great production, Prince Paul did such an amazing job with Three Feet High And Rising. The album I’m maybe most looking forward to this year is Superblack’s album, as it’s a collaboration between Prince Paul and J-Zone. I’m fired up!
[Read More]There’s something sort of Young Fresh Fellows-y about this track, particularly the drumming. Anyway, a nice little instrumental here, proving that the Mr. T Experience’s appeal isn’t all about the often goofy lyrics.
Big Fish Theory showed up on a lot of year-end lists, and for great reason. In a year without a Kendrick Lamar record, it would have been a real contender for the best rap album of the year. And, would you look at that, this track is actually a collaboration between the two. It is, of course, magnificent. One of the things to love about this album is how Staples worked with a bunch of electronic artists on the production end, adding some really interesting noises to the beats.
[Read More]Yay for year end roundups! First one I’m looking at is The AV Club’s roundup and their ballots. So far, I’ve already picked up two records, Infinite Wave by Vagabon and The Incessant by Meat Wave. Fun! Today’s music!
Oh my. With the untimely passing of Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes became probably the most important artist at Stax, writing and contributing to innumerable hits. He was also, of course, a tremendous performer in his own right, with songs like this being a great example. This appeared on the album Hot Buttered Soul, which is just tremendous.
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