A thing I admire about Frank Black is that his songs always sound so distinctly like him. Whether with the Pixies, as a solo act, with the Catholics or whatever, he always sounds like Frank Black. It’s not just the voice, either, it’s his guitar, how he constructs songs, everything. His records might vary in quality and inspiration, but they always sound like they came from him.
[Read More]Super straightforward garage rock out of Australia, the Cosmic Psychos have been banging out records since 1987. According to Discogs, they’re apparently still out there making a ruckus - they have a release in 2021. My contact with them is isolated to the early 90s, when they were releasing records on Amphetamine Reptile Records, and I enjoy those albums as the pretense-free punchers that they are. I’m not sure I need to check out their recent work, though.
[Read More]Claude Fontaine’s self-titled 2019 album is a mix of reggae and a few other musical styles, such as the bossa nova of this track. It’s a charming record, helped considerably by her hiring Jamaican musicians who are deeply familiar with the music as her backing band. It’s an album that could easily have come off as inauthentic, but ends up working quite well.
Czarface is Inspectah Deck (from the Wu-Tang Clan) and Esoteric, here teaming up for an album-length collaboration with Ghostface. As with most of Wu-related records, it’s very listenable, because the formula is so strong. Ghostface is great, of course, and the Czarface MCs are solid, so this ends up being a fun album.
[Read More]I think we’ve had a couple tracks from The Horror by now, which is kind of a companion EP/remix project to go along with Deadringer. Unlike a lot of these kinds of revists/companion pieces, it’s very much a worthy release in its own right and not just riding the coattails of another album.
Why, it seems like just the other day that I got really fired up about Vaz and Hammerhead. And here they are, back for another tune. “Tune”? Blast. Whatever! Love this stuff.
[Read More]Edan is one of my favorite hip-hop artists, even though he hasn’t released a lot of stuff. Primitive Plus was his first album, and is chock full of left-field stuff like this. Listen to that beat! That baseline is amazing, the scratching, the extra samples, and Edan is lots of fun on the mic - clever and with an excellent flow.
We just had this song! SIX SONGS TODAY
[Read More]When the Beastie Boys took the leap to playing their own instruments with Check Your Head, they also started expanding the reach of their label, Grand Royal. Lucious Jackson was one of the artists that they signed, putting out their first record, Natural Ingredients. It made a fair bit of sense, as the sensibilities of Lucious Jackson fit in well with the more funk/soul elements of the reinvented Beasties sound. Despite critical acclaim, the record never really seemed to catch on, but it still sounds pretty good.
[Read More]It’s a new thing / check out this I bring
One of my real weaknesses is horns, as faithful listener/readers of Five Songs know. Prominent horns in a hip-hop track? That is, in fact, my jam.
A danger in having written 470-whatever of these things is that it has legitimately reached the point where I have trouble remembering what I’ve said before. And, honestly, I have managed to bork my indexing system, so it’s not easy for me to look things up. So until I unbork my indexing system, you’re at risk of repeat stories. This is relevant, because I have basically two things to say about the Postal Service, and I cannot shake the feeling that I’ve said one or both of them before. So, instead, I’ll just drop this FASCINATING meta-note here. Nothin’ but fuckin’ professionalism on this here blog, my friends!
[Read More]I know that this is dumb of me, but I still find the idea of a rap album exploring the darker side of Connecticut kind of hilarious. And, you know, there’s plenty of material there! The album itself is very good, and Apathy did a bunch of the production himself, which is always fun. This song wasn’t one of the ones he did himself, though.
[Read More]Rivington Não Rio, the 2015 album from Prefuse 73, was something of a return to form for Scott Herren, his best work since Surrounded by Silence for my money. This track takes a little bit to get going, by turns downright pyrotechnic by the end, and Herren’s beats are great when he’s really going for it.
Prior to firing shuffle up for Five Songs, I had just been listen to STS x RJD2, a delightful collaboration featuring some absolutely ferocious work from RJD2. He’s still never beaten Deadringer, mind you. But I wanted to plug the fact that he’s done some cool shit otherwise.
[Read More]Waxahatchee (Katie Crutchfield’s band that started as a solo project) appeared on a bunch of best-of lists for 2015 for Ivy Tripp. To my ears, it sounds very much like many of the underground pop/rock bands of the 90s, with lots of echo and jangle all over the place. This, of course, is totally OK with me, I loved the 90s underground! I haven’t had a chance to listen to her most recent album, Out In The Storm yet, but people seemed to really like it also.
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