Zeke

Zeke, “Runnin’ Shine”

I’m not going to egghead this for you.

Lifesavas, “Soldierfied”

That beat is structural, you could build an office building on that thing and it would be bomb proof.

Czarface & Ghostface Killah, “Masked Superstars”

This beat is fine, but I’m not quite as excited about it as I was the last one. I kind of feel like Czarface is good, but doesn’t stand out particularly. It’s sort of the shelf-filler of the Wu-Tang supermarket.

Zeke, “Action”

There are times when I think we should just ban all rock songs longer than two minutes. If you can’t get your point across in two minutes, go play some jazz or something, loser!

Atmosphere, “Besos”

I typed this first as “Beos”, and then thought, huh, I wonder what a veteran hip-hop duo was doing writing a song about a near-forgotten niche operating system. You all should be thankful I’m not going to even attempt a verse here.

Melkbelly, “LCR”

LCR is also the name of maybe the worst board game that has achieved any substantial success. I don’t know how many copies it has sold, but LCR is an embarrassingly bad game design that has been successful enough to appear in stores for years and years. Just appalling shit.

Zeke, “Rid”

Around here, we have a love for pure, hard-charging garage rock that cannot ever be sated. There is no quantity of fast riffs and shouted vocals that will slake our thirst. So, add Zeke to the pile of bands that have attempted to satisfy our hunger, but we need more.

Zeke, “Action”

Fuck yeah garage rock! Spending a bunch of flowery words on this seems anthithetical to the spirit of things, so, again: fuck yeah!

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, “Black Motorcade”

Kind of a horror-themed psych band, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats mostly trade in atmosphere. When it’s effective, it’s creepy and unsettling. But they miss as often as they hit for me, and when it misses, it’s just kind of meandering. This album (The Night Creeper) doesn’t work for me as well as the other album I have (Blood Lust).

Happy 4th of July! A non-trivial percentage of my readership is probably at my house eating BBQ today. If you’re not here, next time, plan better! Your holiday playlist.

Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge, “An Unexpected Call (The Set-Up)”

Here’s one of the reasons why Ghostface is tops among the Wu MCs - projects like Twelve Reasons to Die, where he collaborated with film composer Adrian Younge on a concept album inspired by a comic book (which was published by the RZA). And the execution of the album carries it all off brilliantly with one of the most cinematic sounding rap albums around. Just a fantastic album.