Next Friday (June 5th), go to the Ink Branding Office (230 Bull St.) and check out the opening reception for Kenny Ward's first solo show in Savannah. It will be dope. It runs from 7pm-9pm.
Only Skin Deep: Drawings by Kenny Ward
Next Friday (June 5th), go to the Ink Branding Office (230 Bull St.) and check out the opening reception for Kenny Ward's first solo show in Savannah. It will be dope. It runs from 7pm-9pm.
Song of the Week: "Tobacco Road" Brother Jack McDuff
There's is no sound more classic than the Hammond B-3 organ, Jack McDuff's musical weapon of choice. A favorite among crate diggers, McDuff made a lot of great records, and actually gave guitarist George Benson his start. His early stuff is straight-forward jazz, but by the mid-late-70s he got seriously funky.
This cut is a little dusty because it's ripped straight from a 45, which I found in a neglected stack without a sleeve, and have done my best to clean.
"Tobacco Road"
Tobacco Road - Brother Jack McDuff
Jay Reatard releases new album "Watch Me Fall" on August 18
Memphis thrasher Jay Reatard is releasing his new album, Watch Me Fall, on August 18 according to an announcement on the Matador Records blog today.
The new album will be Reatard's first studio release since 2006's Blood Visions (although he did release 2 collections of singles last year or the year before).
Follow the link to the Matador blog and you can pick up the first single off the new album. If you're familiar with dude at all, then the new material is exactly where he left off, rip-roaring punk reminiscent of the classics like the Damned crossbred with a 21st Century power pop sensibility.
Also, he'll be on tour with TV Smith from the Adverts...nice.
# Thu June 11 - San Diego @ Casbah with The Oh Sees + Earthmen and Strangers
# Fri June 12 - Los Angeles @ The Echo with Thee Oh Sees + Earthmen and Strangers
# Sat June 13 - San Francisco @ The Independent with Thee Oh Sees
# Mon June 15 - Seattle @ Crocodile Cafe with Thee Oh Sees
# Tue June 16 - Vancouver @ Biltmore
# Wed June 17 - Portland @ Dante’s with The Oh Sees + Nice Boys
# Fri June 19 - Long Beach, CA @ Alex’s Bar with Digital Leather
# Fri June 26 - Chicago @ Bottom Lounge with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Sat June 27 - Detroit @ Magic Stick with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Sun June 28 - Cleveland @ Grog Shop with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Mon June 29 - Toronto @ Mod Club with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Tue June 30 - Montreal @ La Sala Rossa with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Wed July 1 - New York City @ Stuyvesant Oval, FREE
# Thu July 2 - Brooklyn @ Music Hall of Williamsburg with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Fri July 3 - Allston, MA @ Harper’s Ferry with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Sat July 4 - Philadelphia PA @ Johnny Brenda’s with TV Smith of the Advert
# Sun July 5 - Washington DC @ Black Cat with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Tue July 7 - Asheville @ Orange Peel with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Wed July 8 - Knoxville @ Pilot Light with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Thu July 9 - Nashville @ The End with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Fri July 10 - Memphis @ Hi-Tone Café with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Sat July 11 - Oxford MS @ Proud Larry’s with TV Smith of the Adverts
The new album will be Reatard's first studio release since 2006's Blood Visions (although he did release 2 collections of singles last year or the year before).
Follow the link to the Matador blog and you can pick up the first single off the new album. If you're familiar with dude at all, then the new material is exactly where he left off, rip-roaring punk reminiscent of the classics like the Damned crossbred with a 21st Century power pop sensibility.
Also, he'll be on tour with TV Smith from the Adverts...nice.
# Thu June 11 - San Diego @ Casbah with The Oh Sees + Earthmen and Strangers
# Fri June 12 - Los Angeles @ The Echo with Thee Oh Sees + Earthmen and Strangers
# Sat June 13 - San Francisco @ The Independent with Thee Oh Sees
# Mon June 15 - Seattle @ Crocodile Cafe with Thee Oh Sees
# Tue June 16 - Vancouver @ Biltmore
# Wed June 17 - Portland @ Dante’s with The Oh Sees + Nice Boys
# Fri June 19 - Long Beach, CA @ Alex’s Bar with Digital Leather
# Fri June 26 - Chicago @ Bottom Lounge with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Sat June 27 - Detroit @ Magic Stick with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Sun June 28 - Cleveland @ Grog Shop with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Mon June 29 - Toronto @ Mod Club with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Tue June 30 - Montreal @ La Sala Rossa with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Wed July 1 - New York City @ Stuyvesant Oval, FREE
# Thu July 2 - Brooklyn @ Music Hall of Williamsburg with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Fri July 3 - Allston, MA @ Harper’s Ferry with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Sat July 4 - Philadelphia PA @ Johnny Brenda’s with TV Smith of the Advert
# Sun July 5 - Washington DC @ Black Cat with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Tue July 7 - Asheville @ Orange Peel with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Wed July 8 - Knoxville @ Pilot Light with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Thu July 9 - Nashville @ The End with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Fri July 10 - Memphis @ Hi-Tone Café with TV Smith of the Adverts
# Sat July 11 - Oxford MS @ Proud Larry’s with TV Smith of the Adverts
Open Call for Artists - Pyro Independent Music Festival - July 4, 2009
The good folks over at Dope Sandwich Productions are assembling a day long celebration of independent music called Pyro, that will happen July 4th out at Cafe Loco on Tybee. There will be stages inside and out, hosting a spectrum of genres and styles. I've heard rumor that you can see Tybee's fireworks show from there, but don't quote me on that.
If you make music in the Southeast, get at them. The Taste art show that they were part of a few months back was off the chain, so moving that energy from an old meatpacking plant to a waterside island bar should make for a good time. Contact info is on the flier.
The Musical Backlash Against Hipsters in Hip Hop
A couple weeks ago, I picked up a copy of DJ Delz and Termanology's mixtape Jackin' for Beats.
After an initial listen, this track caught my attention, and here's why: Hip hop is going through some growing pains right now, and it was this Termanology song "Tight Pants are for Girls" that really kind of brought it all together for me.
[A little background] We now officially live in the age of the Black Hipster.
One of the central aspects of hip hop identity has always been masculinity — sometimes to a fault (see Queen Latifah's "U.N.I.T.Y.") — and this is central to the Termanology track. All of these hipster rappers wearing tight pants cannot be men because they do not conform to ideal of masculinity set forth by hip hop, which has had cats in baggy gear since the early 90s. Where Termanology's attack becomes slightly muddled is that he seems to be including both the mainstream (T.Pain) and the hipsters, who I would argue, are still largely separate (except for Kanye, who bridges the gap between the two, and whose outlandish style-posse photo graces the Black Hipster article).
At it's essence, the rise of the Black Hipster draws into question the entire type-a, alpha-male persona developed by a large number of rappers over the past two+ decades. Not to say that hipsters are any less prone to misogyny or braggadocio, but they are presenting a b-type, to the stereotypical MC swagger, part of which is tight pants...
The styles of hip hop have grown from street art -> industry -> global enterprise and overwhelming club/pop phenomenon, all while maintaining an independent presence in the streets, transforming hip hop into a hydra along the way.
The beast basically has 3 heads:
1)the pop version of hip hop, a dance/club music devoid of any trace of the actual elements of the art form called hip hop
2) the street shit that really never stopped getting made, but just stopped getting served up to the mainstream as heavily (with a few exceptions)
3) the underground rap set that utilizes hip hop's form, but opens up the tradition to experimentation, both in both structure and subject matter.
Now that is an over-simplification, but for the sake of not getting lost in dissecting the various stylistic and geographical minutia of hip hop, let's say that pretty much everything fits into one of those 3 categories.
If you look at hip hop from the late-80s forward (After the releases of KRS-1's Criminal Minded (the first hip hop album with a gun on the cover) and N.W.A.'s Straight Out of Compton(the album that made record companies realize there was more money in gangster rap than other forms of hip hop)), the essential dialectic forces in hip hop were gangster vs conscious rappers and/or underground vs. mainstream. They talked about each other (mostly the underground dissing the mainstream), but they co-existed and gave their audiences a choice.
With the addition of the third branch of hip hop, which is really only hip hop in genre according to big box record stores, but which represents probably 95+% of what the average person is exposed to called rap.
The addition of the new, media-dominant form shifted the dialectic, and the new mainstream pushed both the street music and the backpack rap into the same subjugated space, which, with a dose of frustration, is pretty succinctly explained by Termanology in this track.
The growing pains of this change are resulting in a backlash against hipster style's infiltration and assimilation into hip hop. After all, the Cool Kids are doing mixtapes with Don Cannon, who has been holding down the street side of the mixtape biz for a minute.
Further evidence of the backlash against hipsters is one of ATL's next dope MCs, Gripplyaz, who dropped this banger "Fuck That Hipster Shit" earlier this year.
There is a certain irony to the attacks, like Termanology's, that the hipsters don't represent real hip hop though, because if you dig back further than the rise of the hip hop industry in the early 90s, heads in the 70s and 80s were rocking tight pants all day.
So while folks may not like how tight pants look with their brown Tims, heads certainly can't knock tight pants for not being hip hop. If anything, most of these hipsters are taking it back to where it began, at least style-wise. And while I'm not running out to cop some junk-hugging jeans, I think the more important battle should be creating a sustainable independent industry that supports artists of all kinds, not just folks who fit a certain mold. That's the only way the art form itself is going to weather this age of big business, corporate music and media saturation.
After an initial listen, this track caught my attention, and here's why: Hip hop is going through some growing pains right now, and it was this Termanology song "Tight Pants are for Girls" that really kind of brought it all together for me.
[A little background] We now officially live in the age of the Black Hipster.
One of the central aspects of hip hop identity has always been masculinity — sometimes to a fault (see Queen Latifah's "U.N.I.T.Y.") — and this is central to the Termanology track. All of these hipster rappers wearing tight pants cannot be men because they do not conform to ideal of masculinity set forth by hip hop, which has had cats in baggy gear since the early 90s. Where Termanology's attack becomes slightly muddled is that he seems to be including both the mainstream (T.Pain) and the hipsters, who I would argue, are still largely separate (except for Kanye, who bridges the gap between the two, and whose outlandish style-posse photo graces the Black Hipster article).
At it's essence, the rise of the Black Hipster draws into question the entire type-a, alpha-male persona developed by a large number of rappers over the past two+ decades. Not to say that hipsters are any less prone to misogyny or braggadocio, but they are presenting a b-type, to the stereotypical MC swagger, part of which is tight pants...
The styles of hip hop have grown from street art -> industry -> global enterprise and overwhelming club/pop phenomenon, all while maintaining an independent presence in the streets, transforming hip hop into a hydra along the way.
The beast basically has 3 heads:
1)the pop version of hip hop, a dance/club music devoid of any trace of the actual elements of the art form called hip hop
2) the street shit that really never stopped getting made, but just stopped getting served up to the mainstream as heavily (with a few exceptions)
3) the underground rap set that utilizes hip hop's form, but opens up the tradition to experimentation, both in both structure and subject matter.
Now that is an over-simplification, but for the sake of not getting lost in dissecting the various stylistic and geographical minutia of hip hop, let's say that pretty much everything fits into one of those 3 categories.
If you look at hip hop from the late-80s forward (After the releases of KRS-1's Criminal Minded (the first hip hop album with a gun on the cover) and N.W.A.'s Straight Out of Compton(the album that made record companies realize there was more money in gangster rap than other forms of hip hop)), the essential dialectic forces in hip hop were gangster vs conscious rappers and/or underground vs. mainstream. They talked about each other (mostly the underground dissing the mainstream), but they co-existed and gave their audiences a choice.
With the addition of the third branch of hip hop, which is really only hip hop in genre according to big box record stores, but which represents probably 95+% of what the average person is exposed to called rap.
The addition of the new, media-dominant form shifted the dialectic, and the new mainstream pushed both the street music and the backpack rap into the same subjugated space, which, with a dose of frustration, is pretty succinctly explained by Termanology in this track.
The growing pains of this change are resulting in a backlash against hipster style's infiltration and assimilation into hip hop. After all, the Cool Kids are doing mixtapes with Don Cannon, who has been holding down the street side of the mixtape biz for a minute.
Further evidence of the backlash against hipsters is one of ATL's next dope MCs, Gripplyaz, who dropped this banger "Fuck That Hipster Shit" earlier this year.
There is a certain irony to the attacks, like Termanology's, that the hipsters don't represent real hip hop though, because if you dig back further than the rise of the hip hop industry in the early 90s, heads in the 70s and 80s were rocking tight pants all day.
So while folks may not like how tight pants look with their brown Tims, heads certainly can't knock tight pants for not being hip hop. If anything, most of these hipsters are taking it back to where it began, at least style-wise. And while I'm not running out to cop some junk-hugging jeans, I think the more important battle should be creating a sustainable independent industry that supports artists of all kinds, not just folks who fit a certain mold. That's the only way the art form itself is going to weather this age of big business, corporate music and media saturation.
Song of the Week - 20th Century Zoo "Bullfrog"
Originally hailing from Arizona, which admittedly isn't the first place I think of when it comes to fuzzy, psychedelic blues rock, Twentieth Century Zoo (excellent band name) knew how to shred, despite the fact that they looked more like the chess club than the Rolling Stones.
It's been raining all week, and there's something about the song "Bullfrog" that seems to fit the mood.
Listen at home.
The Plymouth Duster Commercial
The Big Three never would've needed a bailout if they kept making car commercials like this gem from the 80s. Why didn't the government try to save Plymouth? When did Plymouth even stop being produced? It was like one day they were making vans and boxy sedans, and the next, they were gone. With ads like this they should've been around forever...or at least until 1990.
Brittany Bosco's Video Debut
Brittany Bosco has released her video debut, combining two tracks off her Spectrum EP that is getting re-released pretty soon.
The video is crazy. Where most artists would have dropped some big flashy track first, Brittany drops an elegant throwback video for solid jazz tracks that really highlight her amazing vocal capabilities.
If you missed her three very different sets during the week of the Savannah Urban Arts Festival, you really missed something special.
The video is crazy. Where most artists would have dropped some big flashy track first, Brittany drops an elegant throwback video for solid jazz tracks that really highlight her amazing vocal capabilities.
If you missed her three very different sets during the week of the Savannah Urban Arts Festival, you really missed something special.
Song of the Week: Audience "Waverly Stage Coach"
This week's song of the week is from genre defying British rockers Audience, "Waverly Stage Coach," off their self-titled 1969 album. I love this song. It's just so catchy.
Download.
The bonus song this week is from another little-known 60s group, Phil and the Frantics - a nice little number called "Til You Get What You Want."
Download.
Have a nice weekend.
Good Advice from Corey Smith
I interviewed singer-songwriter Corey Smith for the Savannah Morning News earlier this week because he's playing at the Shoreline Ballroom next Sunday. Smith is a solid model for independent success in the music industry. He went from playing covers in dive bars around Athens to headlining big shows with a devout following, all without sacrificing creative control.
I asked him what his advice would be to young musicians who might be where he was a few years ago, and I really liked his answer, so I'll share it with you here.
I asked him what his advice would be to young musicians who might be where he was a few years ago, and I really liked his answer, so I'll share it with you here.
“Keep your priorities straight. It shouldn’t be about ego. It shouldn’t be about getting rich and famous. Obviously that’s an element that’s extremely attractive. It’s probably why most kids pick up a guitar in the first place is because they see a celebrity on TV and there’s this attraction to being rich and famous, but we need to ask ourselves what is most important in our lives—what do we want more than anything. I have to respectfully say that if that’s what’s most important then your priorities are out of order because that’s a pipe dream, and it will suck you under. For me, what was most important was family and friends and being true to myself—integrity. And once I established those priorities my music got a lot better, and my relationships with people got a lot better. Everything else really grows from that. Success grows from how you treat people, and how honest you are with yourself and other people. It’s more about what you’re working for, and what you’re doing, and how you’re doing it, and why you’re doing it. For young musicians the most important thing for them to understand is to get their priorities straight as a person, and then see what happens. You’re never going to be guaranteed success in this business, but at least you can be a happy person.”
Lonely Island - "I'm on a Boat"
I need a late pass for this, because I guess it's been out for awhile, but I just caught wind of it...
This video manages to be both hilarious and sad at the same time...
Hilarious because Andy Samberg is looking like Chester French's older cousin in yacht attire, and sad because with T-Pain on the hook, it sounds exactly like everything on the radio, and if you didn't know it was a joke, you might just mistake it for someone's new single—which is the point. This is part of Samberg's Lonely Island project, which has an album, which also includes the hilarious "Like a Boss," featuring Seth Rogen.
This video manages to be both hilarious and sad at the same time...
Hilarious because Andy Samberg is looking like Chester French's older cousin in yacht attire, and sad because with T-Pain on the hook, it sounds exactly like everything on the radio, and if you didn't know it was a joke, you might just mistake it for someone's new single—which is the point. This is part of Samberg's Lonely Island project, which has an album, which also includes the hilarious "Like a Boss," featuring Seth Rogen.
Now Again Releases Myron & E 45
Stones Throw subsidiary Now-Again just released a nice little 45 from California duo Myron & E. Their single had been out in Europe, but Now-Again has the exclusive US release.
They leaked this track "Cold Game" via their newsletter yesterday.
Go buy it.
Beardyman is crazy
Have you ever heard of Beardyman? I just discovered him today, but apparently millions of people already know this dude, and he's on some serious next level beat boxing. This is a video of him with a mic and two kaos pads. Skip the intro, and then watch him kill a beat box DJ set where he hits some drum and bass, drops into a cover of Shimmy Shimmy Ya, and then kicks into some Busta Rhymes and some Shy FX. Insane.
Tone Tank "King of Surf Guitar Rap"
Here's a new video from NYC rapper Tone Tank:
I like the beat (I'm a sucker for surf guitar), and the video is pretty fresh too – certainly well outside the boundaries of the average hip hop video, which is points in my book. Dude's flow is a little too obvious a nod to the popularity of MF Doom among underground rappers (and lacking Doom's skill), but he does have a couple clever punchlines. I have yet to hear any of his other stuff to know whether he's on the Doom tip all the time, or just on this track, but he has a free EP out right now, which you can download here, if you want to find out.
I like the beat (I'm a sucker for surf guitar), and the video is pretty fresh too – certainly well outside the boundaries of the average hip hop video, which is points in my book. Dude's flow is a little too obvious a nod to the popularity of MF Doom among underground rappers (and lacking Doom's skill), but he does have a couple clever punchlines. I have yet to hear any of his other stuff to know whether he's on the Doom tip all the time, or just on this track, but he has a free EP out right now, which you can download here, if you want to find out.
Mr. Brown - Paper or Plastic?
During the SUAF event at Livewire last Thursday Mr. Brown was in the crowd with copies of his new album, and I'm glad I was there to get one. A member of the Dope Sandwich crew, and 1/5 of the Union of Sacred Monsters, Mr. Brown's solo project is tight. His dense lyrical stylings, paired with fresh beats from Alex Goose, DJ Trademark and DSP's Old Nick, make the final product something that requires a couple of listens to really absorb.
"Train of Thought" (Produced by Alex Goose)
Download.
These aren't easy to learn hooks over club beats, and at times Mr. Brown just spits so hard that he forgoes hooks at all in exchange for narrative raps that blend highly personal moments with outlandish fiction (like re-telling the story of brawl in a doctor's office over some medication on "Feels So Good").
What I really appreciate about this album, besides the good music contained within, was the packaging. Everyone and their mother's have albums in jewel cases, or cardboard sleeves, but Mr. Brown packaged up his joint in a brown paper bag, possibly the most hip hop packaging I've ever seen - a) it creatively cuts cost, and b) it's the same size bag they sell 40s in at the gas station. At first I thought it was just brown paper wrapping around the CD case, but once I got it home, it unfolded to reveal stickers with designs and credits, and also had a sticker inside. Kudos for originality.
Download.
Hopefully, the whole album will be for sale online soon, but until then, you'll probably have to catch Mr. Brown at the Jinx on Hip Hop Night to nab a copy. Also keep an eye out for the USM's EP that will be dropping in July.
Song of the Week - Eddie Kirk "The Hawg Pt. 1"
I don't know alot about Eddie Kirk, but I do know that I like this song. I love those drums, a pattern that I strongly associate with Stax, and which was recently rejuvenated by Dangermouse on the last Gnarls Barkley album.
Download it here.
Also, as a totally unrelated bonus song of the week, this is a slept on track from Mobb Deep's first album. It's a good song, but long since forgotten.
Download it here.
Kid Syc's 'Hold The Line RMX'
redeSIGN Art Exhibit May 15th
Jake and Miriam over at New Moon of Savannah have created another great event, switching focus from their monthly music series The Listening Room to an art exhibit that takes damaged street signs and hands them over to a diverse set of artists from throughout the city. the redeSIGN show will run from May 11-18, with a reception on Friday May 15th from 7-9pm @ 312 W. Broughton St. More info here.
(Credit: Jesse Boone)
The show is being done in partnership with the City of Savannah (they didn't steal the signs, just got a hold of some damaged ones) and the Savannah Bicycle Campaign.
(Credit: Brian MacGregor)
(Credit: Jesse Boone)
The show is being done in partnership with the City of Savannah (they didn't steal the signs, just got a hold of some damaged ones) and the Savannah Bicycle Campaign.
(Credit: Brian MacGregor)
Dare Dukes Live May 9th with Don Chambers
Dare Dukes makes literary, alt-country-flavored indie rock. His most recent album, Prettiest Transmitter of All, which he released late last Fall, has gotten a lot of critical praise from all over the place, and he's spent the last few months doing a patchwork quilt of gigs around the Southeast and in NYC.
He is a songwriter's songwriter. His lyrics are visual and paint vivid tableaus of quirky modern living, or as he describes it, "jangly pop from the off-ramp lands of ex-urbia." Either way, it's definitely going to be worth checking him out when he performs at the Sentient Bean (13 E. Park Ave) on Saturday as part of a strong triple bill that pairs him with Rose and the Rivals and Athens' Don Chambers.
Show starts at 8pm, Dare is on at 9, and Mr. Chambers steps on stage at 10.
Check out some of Dare's music here.
Song of the Week: Sly and the Family Stone "Into My Own Thing"
You cannot front on Sly and the Family Stone. No one let the freak flag fly higher than this crew. Not while making music that perfectly synthesized all the elements of the late 60s into a single cohesive style. One part psychedelia, one part soul, one part funk, a little commercial success, but never enough to change the recipe.
This cut is off the group's third album. The intro was sampled by Fatboy Slim on "Weapon of Choice," but the whole song is not to be slept on. It's an undercover anthem that sums up the spirit of individuality that is a thread running through Sly and the Fam's work. ("Thank you for talkin' to me Africa" is another fine example).
Get the track here.
Mayer Hawthorne's "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" Video
This video has been all over the place...but that's probably because it's awesome. Mayer Hawthorne is pure goodness.
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