lcd soundsystem [new music]

Success (or even validity) in any artistic career requires progression. Do I even have to say that? This is why I'm no longer a Weezer fanatic.
Thank God James Murphy is as smart as he is, then. His earlier music, both as LCD Soundsystem and his production/remix work under the DFA umbrella oozed tragic hipness. I'm thinking the various versions of "Yeah," the meta-electro of "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House," and climactically, the brilliant "Losing My Edge," almost a thesis for the early 00s James Murphy sound and attitude. Production-wise, his remixes and knob-twiddling for the Rapture, etc., was all about the dancepunk aesthetic: saxophones, 808s, bleeps and skronks, and more cowbell than an Amarillo ranch.
Wise up, kids. You can only drink at the Standard rooftop 6 nights a week for so long. Sound Of Silver is a hipster-hangover-comedown, seriously vibrant (and sometimes vibrantly serious). LCD Soundsystem has graduated from the self-conscious hipness we're still seeing, 5 years on. Don't get me wrong: club-bangers abound nonetheless, notably "Watch The Tapes." And the king of irony hasn't closed the book on the wink-and-nudge, either; he just shows more vulnerability with his smirking asides in "North American Scum" and especially the excellent album-closer "New York I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down." The personal revelations in that track (a thesis for this album, much like "Losing My Edge" was to an earlier era) are also heard in the melancholy of "Someone Great." Most of all, he seems to be thinking harder. Look no further, friends, than "Get Innocuous," which brings to the music the same excitement that the aforementioned "Daft Punk" only talked about.
Yes, kids, I know this album came out like months ago. That's why I'm giving you this b-side here. In 12 minutes, we move from downtempo-ish house to a jazztastic drum solo to a Kraftwerkian vamp, putting into sound the namedrop appeal of "Losing My Edge" (can you tell that I love that track?).

LCD Soundsystem - Freak Out / Starry Eyes [from the "All My Friends" 12", 2007]

spacid [dj mix]

A convergence of convergences: I was talking briefly last night with fellow Yes+er Teen Video about the recycling of club/dance culture and (specifically) that amorphous genre of "electro." It seems like every few years, as late, there's a resurgence of this style. Track the development from the late 70s purity of disco to the early 80s "electro-funk" of Afrika Bambaataa through Ibiza and rave culture to the early 00s and the "formation" of electroclash and the preponderance of weekly electro nights at clubs from Echo Park to Lawrence, KS. Seems like good ol' Fischerspooner and Miss Kittin fell off slightly, then, for a few years (as rock music "returned"), but we've happily seen the re-return of electro in the past several months from diverse areas of Europe. Ed Banger is a hero to the disaffected youth with their American Apparel jeans (I'm not a hater; I too rock the AA jeans). Fists pump once again to the boom-chick-boom-chick.
Why the convergence? A night prior, I'd been using this mix for background music while kickin' it casually. Ed Banger kids, I suggest you check out the roots of your passion: italo-disco to the max, some of it from up to 25 years ago. None of it would sound out of place at a 2007 East LA warehouse party...World Premiere, Claudja Barry, Anita Ward, Starsound...I wish there was a tracklist for these 59 minutes of glory. How we love zee Germans and their DJ skillz. Peep his myspace also for more mixes of old disco and acid house from the US and Europe. Classikz.

Spacid dj mix [from Good for Nothing]

relaunch + rolling stones [old music]

Los Angeleez has joined the Yes + iverse and on an auspicious occasion...35 years ago today was the release of the insta-classic album Exile on Main Street. Suffice it to say, this post will be a placeholder until the real "hypetastic" music criticism comes online, as I enjoy the new Sarkozy administration in a chateau in the south of France while railing lines of Keef's dad. For those of you that are new to the house of Angeleez, I post mp3 links via yousendit, broke-ass style, and my music criticism is not always uber-current. E.g., I will go buy the new Bjork album tomorrow, when it's released, but probably not post on it for a week or two so that it may properly digest in my brain and heart.
I suggest you get rip-roaringly drunk on good red wine and/or Kentucky bourbon. Then, as the sun is rising the next morning and your bender tips over into hangover, let that not-so-attractive-anymore person that you're with lead you into the bedroom and let it loose; let it all come down (so says Mick).

the Rolling Stones - Let It Loose [from Exile on Main Street, 1972]

a crepuscular massage

Sunset Rubdown - Stadiums And Shrines II [from Shut Up I Am Dreaming, 2006]

Wow, it's been quite a while, so my humblest apologize to all the fanatical Los Angeleez readers out there. I have a great deal of phenomenal music to update you on, so I will post as frequently as possible to plow through this pile. Let's start here with the excellent Sunset Rubdown, yes? This band and album have been promoted as the "new release from Wolf Parade's Spencer Krug." Well, I never listened to Wolf Parade, so that didn't do it for me. The uber-indie-rock-ness of this album, however, blew my fucking mind. I hear pieces of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, the Arcade Fire, Sufjan, Broken Social Scene, and pretty much every other indie band I love in a magnificent mashup. Remember how those "Return Of The Rock" bands in 2002 all sounded like an amalgam of the Stones, New York Dolls, and Stooges (and only a couple actually pulled that off well)? Sunset Rubdown is the indie equivalent, successfully. Though I was quite annoyed by this song's title, which should actually be "Stadia And Shrines." Fucking latinate pluralizations.

post-emo

Parts & Labor - Repair [from Stay Afraid, 2006]

Yes, that's a brand new subgenre coinage! Actually, if you look at my iTunes, the genre for this is "no wave," but only because it's noisy and I haven't found enough post-emo bands yet to warrant an entire iTunes genre category. Basically, if you stripped the noise and effects away from these Crooklyn cats, you'd be left with Saves The Day, albeit with some slightly Mars Volta-esque lyrics: the chorus to this tune is "Corroded old impatient wire wait to die this cold disposed of makeshift child has expired;" you can still feel the emo sentiment in the surrealism, though. Don't strip the noise and effects away though, because they're fucking awesome (and who wants to listen to Saves The Day, anyway, short of a nostalgic trip?). On this tune, for instance, the chorus is sung through a crappy walkie-talkie, with the effects board AC adaptors used to pick up the signal. That's some genius electronics.

[Sorry that it's been a minute since I last posted. But really, does anyone care but me?]

scratch attack

Cut Chemist [ft. Edan & Mr. Lif] - The Storm [from The Audience's Listening, 2006]

Some people are unstoppably old school: this crew fits that bill exactly. Cut Chemist is one of those classy DJs who simply hasn't given up the wild style ones-and-twos even after the DMC competitions retired his number, despite being a life-long Angeleno (I don't know if my man is actually a Grandmaster, if anyone wants to fill me in on that info). B-boyologist Edan drops rhymes that, while closer to Del than MC Shan, are still more block party than bling (this song, in fact, would have fit nicely in his recent album, 2005's Beauty & the Beat); Def Jux's Mr. Lif is similar, though he also divides his time with appropriately Co-Flow-style consciousness. The real star here is Cut Chemist's beat: modern, choppy production leaning towards an almost hyphy-like synth storm, while keeping an close ear to hip hop's storied heart. Streets is watching...out June 13.

BONUS: I love this album so much, I just have to post another track:

Wilderness - Beautiful Alarms [from Vessel States, 2006]

still sonic, not so much with the youth

Sonic Youth - Incinerate [from Rather Ripped, 2006]

Decades ago, Sonic Youth blew open the stagnant New York "new wave" / art rock / post-punk scene with complex, richly aesthetic albums of serious, though still accessible, music. Twenty years and many musical excursions later, SY returns to the form of their greatest album, the masterpiece Daydream Nation. Well, that may be a stretch, considering I haven't heard more than this track from their latest endeavor (due out June 13), but it certainly sounds like a return to that form. This version of Sonic Youth, like that mid-eighties original version, is deeply intruiging without sacrificing melodicism. Thurston Moore's guitar is again at the forefront (not that it hasn't always been), but with a simplicity lacking in the band's recent jammy albums. The purity of his licks here, though, is a departure from the double-tracked scratchiness even of the SY classics, instead recalling the tone and line of Tom Verlaine and (dare I say it) Jerry Garcia. Sonic Youth: still relevant.

how to be a music snob, lesson 9

Galaxie 500 - Blue Thunder [from On Fire, 1989]

If you dug the Wilderness track I posted here, now is the time to check out the basis for the music snob reference I made. There is a certain niche of albums tailor-made for driving through the desert late at night, by oneself, of which this stands at the very pinnacle (for me, at least). The sophomore record by the shoegaze band from Boston is unbeatable in its epic build, dramatic (and harmonic, for theorists) tension, and uplifting release. But its a melancholic uplift, and that's my favorite kind. Extra-snobby bonus points: singer and lead guitarist Dean Wareham later went on to form the preeminent slowcore band Luna. The bassist and drummer later went on to form uninspired, forgotten bands (sad).

shoegaze's not dead

Wilderness - Emergency [from Vessel States, 2006]

I had a cathartic experience at the Echo last night. After some ridiculous post-emo from Parts & Labor and thrilling Year Future post-punk, Wilderness took the stage to deliver the most dramatic, emotional performance of shoegaze (post-shoegaze?) I've heard since listening to Galaxie 500 and bemoaning the fact that I'd never get to see them live. Busting out of Baltimore on the excellent and excellently named Jagjaguwar (home also to the aforementioned Part & Labor), this comes from Wilderness's follow up to their eponymous debut, released last July. Imagine Explosions In The Sky with vocals from a bastard child of Ian Curtis and John Lydon (what ridiculously morose sex they would have had), and with said vocalist doing bizarre tai chi throughout the set. If that doesn't sound awesome to you, imagine some snobby music calculus that would make it sound awesome. Or, just download the damn mp3 and check the shit for yourself.

performance venue arson

The Theater Fire - These Tears Could Rust A Train [from Everybody Has A Dark Side, 2006]

Imagine Devendra Banhart, but more folk, less freak. Replace the occasionally annoying warble with a serious A.P. Carter tenor, and the psuedo-pedophilia subject matter with real rustic lyrics (yes, I know the title sounds slightly emo, but when would Ben Gibbard ever sing about rusted trains?). I've been fans of these Denton boys since my Lone Star L.A. days, and it's good to see that their banjo / glockenspiel / french horn tunes can still pull them in to Dan's Silverleaf. The new album is due out May 9, so support Texas music and peep this shit.

hip hop originals, part 3

Minnie Riperton - Baby, This Love I Have [from Adventures In Paradise, 1975]

As I said, the beat for Tribe's "Check The Rhime" isn't entirely original. It comes from a ten second loop off the very beginning of this track by Miss Riperton, she of the insanely high-octave vocal reach. Everybody knows "Loving You," from the Burger King commercial and/or South Park, but she was fairly well known for her mid-70s albums in general. This song is just modern enough, slightly touching cheesy new-soul, but not enough to detract from the straight up sensualness of it.

you be illin(ois)

Sufjan Stevens - The Henney Buggy Band - [from The Avalanche: Outtakes And Extras From The Illinois Album, 2006]

Somebody remind Sufjeezy that he signed on for a project called The 50 States, and he's got 48 to go. Also, that had he done his research, he would know that Illinois doesn't have avalanches, as it doesn't have mountains. But you know, I really can't argue with a song this great. Sufjan is as consistently awesome and creatively rich as very few artists are, and if this song and the title track (which I've also heard, and you should Soulseek) are any indication of this due-out-in-July album, he could continue making records solely about Illinois for the duration of his career. Though I am eagerly awaiting songs like "French Fries! Tater Tots! Ruffles! (A Song For Boise)" (from the Idaho album), "Sufjan Does Dallas, or, A Melancholy Ode to the Lone Star" (from the Texas album), and "The Ghost Of Henry David Thoreau Returns To Walden Pond By Midnight, To Find It Overtaken By Revelers And Harvard Coeds" (from Massachusetts). By the way, can I get some props for the title of this post? It's at least as good as "Come On! Feel The Illinoise!"

[big up to stereogum for the track]

how to be a music snob, lesson 8

A Tribe Called Quest - Check The Rhime [from The Low End Theory, 1991]

There's a certain "funk" band, made up of USC students, that likes to jack beats. And not just beats, it turns out; they like biting entire rhymes from hip hop songs. The unknowledgable kids go wild for that shit, but if you're going to beat-jack in front of music snobs, don't make it from something as classic as this. The originators of jazz-rap (check out the Dave Chappelle movie for their direct descendants) were one of the last hip hop groups to do all their production in-house, and, thusly, the beats perfectly back the rapping. Q-Tip and Phife Dawg are incredibly "on point" on this track, especially (all the time, Tribe). So if you're going to be unoriginal, pick a less well known song, more obscure producers, or a less identifiable MC. This was just too easy to pick out. [Of course, this beat isn't entirely original on Tribe's part, either, but stay tuned for more on that in the next couple days.]

sebastian grows some balls

Belle & Sebastian - We Are The Sleepyheads [from The Life Pursuit, 2006]

Pardon my tardiness in posting on new CDs I buy; it takes me a long time to thoroughly listen to them. Anyway, this comes from the new B&S album, universally hailed as their best since If You're Feeling Sinister. I think it's a step up, too. Though I love the latter album a bit more, that feeling is a bit more situational (related to what was going on with my life while I was really into it), while my admiration for this album is more critically informed. The Life Pursuit is no less twee than anything B&S has done previously, but their musical palette has expanded greatly, in the same progression that started with the Books EP. The fireside lo-fi-ness of their early work is replaced with super-shiny production, recalling Phil Spector and the height of the Motown sound. This tune exemplifies their new density and sheen: twee lyrics and vocals, in addition to some killer guitar work and speedy doowop harmonies.

hip hop originals, part 2

Willie Hutch - Baby Come Home [from Concert In Blues, 1976]

Part of what makes Ghostface's new "Back Like That" so great is Xtreme's incredibly classic-soul beat, most of which comes from this track. I don't know much about this album, other than that it's on Motown; in fact, this may be a 12" version instead of a version from this LP. Willie Hutch, who died last September in his hometown of Dallas (boo-yeah), was known mostly as a songwriter and producer in the Berry Gordy hit factory, especially for 5th Dimension, Smokey Robinson, and the Jackson 5 (he wrote "I'll Be There," one of my favorites). He also wrote the score for The Mack, one of the classic blaxploitation soundtracks up there with Isaac Hayes's Shaft and Curtis Mayfield's Superfly. He also was one of Motown's biggest solo artists in their mid-1970s slump, after the group-pop scene had fallen off, and continued carrying the torch for the label through the 80s and 90s, when Motown was pretty much irrelevant. This song, however, is the shit.

you haven't been hungry since supreme clientele

Ghostface Killah [ft. Ne-Yo] - Back Like That [from Fishscale, 2006]

I posted a tune off this brand new LP a while back, but let me reiterate: Ghostface hasn't sounded this great in years. Nobody raps harder or stronger than Tony Starks, and the beats provided by a multitude of New York's finest are superb, soulful pieces that sound great under his voice. Both stylistically and lyrically, Ghost is untouched by any MC who's come out with a record this year. He's eminently creative, too: though this album is as completely about the yay game as Jeezy's Let's Get It, Ghost manages to go all the way through without once saying "trap" or "trappin'" (I'm looking at you, Cam'ron). This song, specifically, is my favorite, and sort of the pinnacle of the sound that Ghostface is forging on this record. I'm going to leave words about the beat til the next post, but I will tell you that Ne-Yo is the new R. Kelly, minus of course the pissin' on chicks. Dig it.

how to be a music snob, lesson 7

Pixies - Velouria [from Bossanova, 1990]

The post on why being a music snob necessitates being a huge Pixies fan should be a foregone conclusion. The most influential band of the past twenty years, the soft verse-loud chorus thing, blah blah blah. I'm not even going to bother...if you don't know already, forget any chance you had of being a true snob. This song, from Black Francis & Co.'s penultimate album [the usual cliche here being "already showing signs of tension between Kim Deal and the rest of the band!"], is my very favorite Pixies song of all time. Also, despite their total suckage of the past six years, I still love Weezer's cover of this (and that may be the first time I've ever written that band's name without the =W=. Damnit, I just did).

centro-fanatic

Centro-matic - Take A Rake [from Fort Recovery, 2006]

At the merch booth at Centro-matic shows, they have a graphic representation of all of Will Johnson's recorded output, with axes like "Country--Rock" and "Mellow--[something else that I can't remember]." I would put this new record sonically close to South San Gabriel's recent The Carlton Chronicles: this is definitely the most musically complex album, at least under the Centro-matic nom de guerre. Though SSG will throw in a good bit of slide guitar, and Centro always has piano and an occasional violin, this is the first appearance of synth (heavily backing up the piano on this song), absent just a touch on Distance & Clime. The song structures, too, are denser than the usual verse-chorus-bridge that Will generally operates in. Lyrically, this is between Will's solo Murder Of Tides and the last Centro album, Love You Just The Same. The songs are obtuse as usual, but not enough to obscure the rural, sort of Southern Gothic melancholy pervading a good bit of the album. These are songs of departures, reflection and maturation, which has really been the progression through the Johnson oeuvre: the "twenty years stuck in my dreams, undefined."

hip hop originals, part 1

Keeping myself organized...here's another new series. Inspired by Mos Def's totally fucking awesome and, well, inspiring show Saturday night on the USC campus, I'm going to be posting about some excellent songs sampled in hip hop tracks. Shazam-blizzity:

Aretha Franklin - One Step Ahead [from Take A Look, 1967]

Appropriately, we start with the sample from Mos's hit "Ms. Fat Booty," a plaintive slice of soul from Queen Aretha herself. DJ Kool G uses quite a bit of this sample in his production, and, as was the standard in pre-Kanye days, the vocals and instrumental are pretty much untwisted. A little chopped and mixed, but essentially the same as the original. DJ Preservation, who was backing up Mos the other night, played most of this before dropping into the beat, and we had a cozy, campfire singalong with it.

happy birthday, los angeleez

This, ladies and gentlemen, is my 100th post on the blog, and so I'm gifting to you what I've recently decided is my favorite song of all time.

Ted Leo/Pharmacists - Timorous Me [from The Tyranny Of Distance, 2001]

It's that moment, halfway through the song, just after the second chorus...where the snare comes in, and if you're at a live show, everyone starts clapping rhythmically; people love this song so much, they know the right moment to start the clapping. That moment is why I love this song: it gives me chills right now just thinking of it. That, and Ted's awesome falsetto. And the great, poetic lyrics, which Ted told us (on the late great radio show) were about an Irish funeral. And the fact that this song totally sounds like "The Boys Are Back In Town," in the best possible way.
When we first discovered this song on the aforementioned radio show, we played it every week for an entire semester and never got tired of it. And I don't think (unlike "Hey Ya," which lasted a relatively long time) I ever will.