Man Man recently did a five-song "Take Away Show" for La Blogothèque. A few are labeled as "warm-ups" -- the fragments should be recognizable to fans of the band ("Warmup 2 - The Deal" = "Doo Right," etc.). Each of these bits is enjoyable in its own way (there's a Metallica cover in Warmup 3), but the most sustained clip is the epic epilogue, "A Day at the Races and a Night at the Opera," where Honus talks about a broken heart (the dude she married has a mustache) and that the show must go on. And it does: They turn the city into their drum set. As far as the explanation for all of this Parisian vagabond rock, I can't make out all the French, but the words "Tom Waits" are in there somewhere. Whatever the case, it's definitely more spacious than when they recently crammed into the Black Cab.
Here we are again at the water's edge, though this time the splashes are not only psychedelic, they also involve crotch-level crystal balls (see Sam Jayne to the right), dayglo hula dancers, and dudes in drag and bad tans. There are also a lot of smiles. Way too many annoying smiles. So many. And so it goes with Love As Laughter's Daniel Perez-directed video for Holy single "All Parts Of Me." It's a decent song, so maybe watch it with your eyes closed over here. These are not fall colors. If you want to take another Holy dip, "Crosseyed Beautiufl Youngunz" is streaming at MySpace.
Holy is out now via Isaac Brock's Glacial Pace.
The new of Montreal record release is on the horizon (10/7), Grizzly Bear is finally playing Letterman, and those sound like great reasons for a party. If you're around the East Village tonight, come over to Hi Fi from 10PM-12:30AM and join us and the Polyvinyl folks in an exclusive listening experience: for the first and only time pre-release, of Montreal's Skeletal Lamping LP will be played publicly in its entirety. (Officially, that is -- DJing a party in a park with a leaked copy doesn't count.) After we've been sufficiently oM'd, all eyes will be on the Hi Fi screens to watch Grizzly Bear debut their new song "Two Weeks" at the Ed Sullivan Theatre (tonight featuring Doveman on piano).
Note: No members of of Monty or Grizzly Bear will be there (Kevin & Co. are in Athens, and the Grizz are going back upstate to record). But the drinks will be cheap ( on Brooklyn Beers 'til midnight) and we'll tip 'em back and be nerds together in their honor. Flyer with full details below.
The XYZ Affair found their way onto our radar with a slime-filled Nickelodeon-packed "All My Friends" video. The Brooklyn band's new Trials EP includes standout "Evening Life," a song that caught our attention before its video clip was even completed. This week's Drop featured the T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, and Minor Threat-referencing anthem. You can take a listen to it here. We asked frontman Alex Feder about the song's depiction of the poetry of youth culture. He went in depth, so we weren't able to print all of his "Evening Life" thoughts in the Drop, but check it out in full now:
You read that correctly. Country Music Hall of Famer, "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Gentle On My Mind" crooner, True Grit actor, ex-host of The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, mugshot grad, and all-around music legend Glen Campbell has himself a contemporary covers collection. It goes without saying that this feels very much like a bid for relevancy a la Johnny Cash's and Paul Anka career revivals, but it needed to be said anyway. On Meet Glen Campbell, the septuagenarian gives U2, Foo Fighters, the Replacements, John Lennon, Jackson Browne, Travis, and the Velvet Underground, among others, the Campbell treatment. Take a listen to his version of Greenday's "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" while you consult the tracklist.
Deerhoof's Offend Maggie is out this October. Adding a wrinkle to the current trend of fan-made remixes and videos, the band's released the album's first single "Fresh Born" as a score that fans (or whatever) can download and record. Once they're finished, they can upload it as an MP3 that other fans are able to then listen to on the band's site. You can download the score, upload your hit single, and get the full info here. (If you want, you're free to also click on the image on this very page to see it in larger form and start cribbing now.)
The sheet music was debuted (i.e. passed around) this past Friday at Deerhoof's show in Brooklyn. Those folks got a heard start, have already birthed some "Fresh Born"'s. Check it out. The band will release their version of the song, too. Let's hope it's better than that guy's. Just kidding that guy.
Offend Maggie is out 10/7 on Kill Rock Stars.
Another year, another shortlist for the Mercury Prize, another exciting way to tap your line of credit with the bookie. 2007 belonged to Klaxons' Myths Of The Near Future, who went on to collaborate with Rihanna, so you know this prize has clout. This year's Mercury Prize -- brought to you by Nationwide, honoring the best UK album of the year -- offers a fairly classy shortlist, with a special nod of approval from us for the inclusion of Burial's great Untrue album. And it gets even better for the anonymous DJ: Not only is he (she?) shortlisted, but according to the oddsmakers at William Tell, he (she?) is the odds-on favorite. Here's your full list of odds and noms:
Weaving through the thousands swarming the A stage to dive into the photo pit for Animal Collective's headlining set at P4K Fest this weekend was trippy; not because AC drew thousands to their set (seen it before), but because it was a reminder that a band as offbeat as Animal Collective has arrived in full on festival headlining fashion. The set was a weekend highlight for most who saw it, and the trippiness didn't end with the walk over: cue the Coldplay light towers and a still Deakin-less AC intent upon experimenting and hypnotizing rather than freaking and folking. Those who saw it also received a first listen at whooshing new tune "Lion In A Coma." Now you can join them.
Calexico's Carried To Dust, which follows 2006's Garden Ruin, is out in the fall. On it, Joey Burns and John Convertino are joined by Paul Niehaus (pedal steel), Volker Zander (bass) and multi-instrumentalists Martin Wenk and Jacob Valenzuela, along with guest spots by Sam Beam, Douglas McCombs, Pieta Brown, Spanish artists Amparo Sanchez and Jairo Zavala, and Willie Nelson band member Mickey Raphael, among others. I bring up the laundry list of characters because album track "Two Silver Trees" is a subtle, spare construction that feels as spacious as the landscape they often write about and not the work of a mini-orchestra. Speaking of landscapes, Burns's description of the idea behind the title Carried To Dust makes for intriguing listening while you listen.
Every week, we dig in the archives for videos that we find noteworthy, memorable, or just unbelievably stupid. And then, Jon McMillan breaks 'em down for you. Why Video Hangover? Because when you watch as many videos as we do, you're going to feel it afterwards.
"You Suck"
Murmurs, 1994
Have guitar, will travel around in circles.
Three songs -- "Flying," "Room To Rock," and "Byrdgirl" -- from Matthew Sweet's forthcoming Sunshine Lies are streaming at his MySpace and website. (Note: "Byrdgirl" is not a cover of Antony's "Bird Girl." It's more a Roger McGuinn byrd.) Sunshine Lies is out 8/26 on Shout! Factory.
This b-side to the "Chemtrails" 7" is born of the very same, psychy Modern Guilt sessions as its a-side, but the last minute sounds more like the '60s beloved by Black Mountain than the '60s revisited by Dan Snaith. It really needs to be at least two minutes longer and whoops there go the Black Mountain similarities. Grab "Vampire Voltage No. 6" at Covert Curiosity (via Vulture).
Modern Guilt is out now and is highly enjoyable.
While you weren't looking, Cold War Kids got adopted by the NME and took a place alongside acts like Kings Of Leon and the Killers as "bigger in Britain" (at least, anecdotally -- who knows what record sales mean anymore). And during that time, like two years now, they've been patiently plugging away on a followup to Robbers & Cowards, the debut album that seemed rushed out (to capitalize on their EP buzz and signing to Downtown) and sounded like it, too. You can hear what all that time has done to their sound (to these ears, they learned a disco rhythm -- otherwise it's still relatively twitchy and full of those soul yelps) by checking album preview track "Something Is Not Right With Me" at MySpace.
Loyalty To Loyalty is out 9/23. It's got a tracklist.
A ways back we posted the happy news that Julian Koster was dusting off the singing saw and wire recorder for a new Music Tapes record. Now you can stream it in its entirety at Merge. (Thanks for the tip, Beth.) On our initial pass it sounds like First Imaginary Symphony For Nomad: Poppy, twee, creaky, air-tunneled, a.m., a little creepy, good. Soak it up.
Take our ink-stained hands and join us at the OldStand, where Jon McMillan goes to remind everyone what an honest-to-goodness music magazine is supposed to look like.
Okay, I'll admit it: I fell for the cover trick. It's Kerrang!, right? Of course their list of "100 Coolest Rock Stars" is stupid and subjective and laughably packed with bands whose long-forgotten names elicit cringes of embarrassment among the people who admit to having spent .99 on a Limp Bizkit album back in the day. Don't be so hard on yourself, man: you were thirteen.
But despite the fact that Kerrang! was engineered in a lab to resist careful scrutiny and common sense in equal measure, it's an easy magazine to like. There's an insider-only, cultish vibe that seems to reflect those arbitrary passions of youth; the way a band like Coal Chamber (Coal Chamber? Seriously?) can dominate the imagination to the extent that three of its members end up in the top 100. Unless the list is meant to be read as "100 Coolest Rock Stars We Can Think Of Off the Top Of Our Heads," in which case I'll stand down.
Warning: You will get worked up for absolutely no reason. And yes, I'm saving the good stuff for after the jump (hint: #1 is...somewhere on the cover). It's true, however, that Kerrang!'s independence day special sets up nicely for nostalgists (namely: Scott and me and you, if you've made it this far). It's a perfect time capsule of the post-grunge, pre-nu-metal scene in 1998, which is to say: muddled and unfortunate-in-retrospect. A few goth-y, industrial types; a few electronica stars; some nods to old-school heavy metal gods, and a few ska/punk/skacore dudes to keep things well-rounded. To paraphrase Spinal Tap: "Nobody knew ... who they were ... or ... what they were doing."
Okay, I can't resist. Here's a taste:
Justin Vernon and friends recently performed "Flume," "Lump Sum," "Re Stacks," and "Creature Fear" on Daytrotter. As you might expect, the stripped-down situation played to his strengths. As you might not expect, the accompanying illustration makes him look like Craig Wedren. Take a look/listen.
Get ready to welcome TVOTR's return from Cookie Mountain -- titled Dear Science, -- to the world, out 9/23. Keep the comma, it's part of it (commas, so hott in '08). In celebration, the band's got some dates lined up with opener Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. Check 'em at tvontheradio.com.
Animal Collective's balmy, colorful headlining set was a Pitchfork Festival highlight. On Goldfrapp's "Caravan Girl" digital single, they sprinkle a thimble full of tropical fireworks onto Seventh Tree's "Little Bird." It's an interesting, pretty overlap -- Alison Goldfrapp's smeary, plaintive vocals and AC's percussive magic spiraling into an extended (and understated) coda swirl. It's the best use of Goldfrapp this year. Also, this goes without saying, but Alison appears (dramatically) on the single's cover photo.
While we were flying back from Chicago, news spread hard and fast about a spat between outspoken post-punk kid Kele Okereke and outspoken punk-punk grandaddy Johnny Rotten, occurring Saturday night in Barcelona. Honestly that would be enough to make it newsworthy in blogland, but it's Okereke's claims of what motivated the attack that make it a different kind of concerning.
I was in the slightly cooler climes of Pitchfork, Illinois this past weekend and didn't make it to Siren Festival, but NYC Taper ably recorded Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks' Real Emotional Trash-heavy set on Saturday, so I've been able to listen to that, minus extreme heat or the smell of funnel cake (though you do pickup the Cyclone). The field recording's details:
We recorded from the ground in front and left of the soundboard. The placement was problematic because of the Cyclone, but our hyper-directional microphones really proved their worth as the recording is not marred by the rumbling ride and screaming patrons. During quiet moments and in between songs, the cyclone provided "local color", during the normal volume of the songs, the noise can not be heard...
Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Dead Center
Front of Board -- Approximately 100 Feet from Stage
Neumann KM-150's (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Monster XLR cables > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge 8.0 (set fades, slight level boost, resample 16/44) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac
Also interesting: Malkmus & Co. played a new, mellow, rangy song called "Astral Facial."
"Carmensita"? More like "Bhagavad Gita," am i right? No, I am the worst. But that means DevBan and his his girlfriend are, too, for making this morning about hammy jokery at the expense of sacred and Hindu things. The track title, the sounds, and the lyrics' language don't do much to evoke Hindustan, but Devendra roots this vid -- for a track from the long gone Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon -- in older (as in ancient kali yuga) era Bollywood. Not that the cross-cultural mish mash should be surprising; this is a guy who's cultivated an image equal parts forest-dwelling Venezuelan gypsy and starlet-devouring Hollywood scenester. He's good at playing it two ways. And so to wit, here's the vid for his Spanish song featuring Kali, Shiva, Lord Ganesha, Natalie Portman, and series of silly subtitles.
By Amrit Singh & Brandon Stosuy
Aaaaand we're back. Quite a weekend in Chicago, and this is the post to put a Fork in our coverage of this year's party in Union Park. For day last, the threat of storms were nonexistent, but after that sun set, and the weekend drew to a close, it appeared that a delayed flight from Australia might be a bigger festival-buster than the promised rain -- or, at least for fans of electro '80s-inspired heartthrobs Cut Copy.
When we arrived at the B stage -- "B" stands for "best stage of the weekend," with its scruffier bands (No Age, HEALTH, High Places, Fuck Buttons, King Khan etc.) and ample shade trees -- we were told by a friend that the Aussie New Order-y quartet might not make it. The temporary replacement? Well, an ad hoc group pairing frontmen Bradford Cox and King Khan with the Ponys' Jered Gummere on drums and occasional spastic vocal intrusions by Jay Reatard. You probably saw the pics. An amusing way to stall, but the generic bluesy garage stuff really was just an amusing way to stall. As Cox put it, "We're stuck with you ... and you're stuck with us." Or so it seemed.
After about 25 minutes, King Cox stopped, Bradford offered a few safety tips then announced that Cut Copy would be on in five minutes. This is when what remained of the audience lost their shit. By the time Cut Copy started playing, the crowd had swelled closer to it's original size ... and threw flowers at the stage, screamed like they were seeing the Beatles/Timberlake, dancing in a huge undulating throng.
There are a lot of festivals. There are a lot of bands playing these festivals, but maybe not as many different bands as you'd hope considering the amount of festivals (breaking news: festivals lineups are getting really repetitious...). Now and then, though, something transcends the ho-hum everyday and simple mechanics of these events. That's what happened when Cut Copy dug into their abridged, but tight and exciting because abridged, set: All the disappointment and pent up energy that seemed like it would find no outlet was transformed into a bouncing mass. Were they good? Yes. They were good at Coachella too, but this time there was an urgency that didn't exist last time. They were obviously feeding off the amazing energy coming from the crowd and vice versa.
Earlier in the day, another act transcended expectations.
Bright Eyes' frontman's new album with The Mystic Valley Band (out 8/5 on Merge) is now streaming at conoroberst.com.
This second video from Modern Guilt doesn't add much in the way of exciting visuals. It's black and white, Beck and his rhythm section performing the heavy album opener in a lonely white room. No cameo from Miss Chan Marshall, who provides backing vocals. Still this tune is a fine choice to highlight the album's restrained psychedelica via Danger Mouse's deft production. And Beck get to wear a groovy hat.
It's only 44 minutes long, though, so something doesn't add up with that title. Paul's manager tells Billboard only Amazon.com would agree to to the price point, so that's where you can find it, as one single MP3 track. The project, which was completed just one week ago, mixes new cuts with a few old songs ("Out Of My System," "Everyone's Stupid") and a mash-up of classic rock covers. Billboard notes:
Westerberg played all the instruments on the decidedly lo-fi recordings, which often feature two songs playing at once for a few seconds and short snippets that abruptly cut off. "It's almost like you're scanning a radio dial," Hill says. "You're getting a glimpse inside of Paul's head here."
Without revealing specifics, Hill says "49" is "just the tip of a really large creative iceberg. Paul has been writing and recording at a furious pace." However, he adds that "there are no plans or talk of doing any performances at the moment."
Westerberg has only performed once since severely injuring his fretting hand in 2006 while trying to remove candle wax with a screwdriver.
Ouch. Here, from that performance last September, is the debut of "Everyone's Stupid," a song about a kid whose parents are getting divorced. It takes about 49 seconds to get going.
DJ Gillis has seen your fan-made videos and he's not gonna take it lying down. Gregg (or a hippie imposter) tells Butter Team, "People who break the law are gonna have to pay. ... I'm coming after them ... those guys are gonna go to jail." Of course he's kidding otherwise that would be like Prince calling the kettle infringing.
The latest clip from TPC debut full-length Elephant Shell ("solid, engaging..." - Stereogum) finds the Newmarket indie act rocking out in an antiques store with haunted lamps. All the customers are freezing in place (Canadian flash mobs are so much classier). You break it you buy it, Tokyo Police Club.
We know that former tour partners Santi and Maya are both Clash fans and Diplo associates, but it looked like the latter's "retirement" was going to get in the way of the inevitable collab. Turns out they did a track together last year but only now do we get to hear it. The song "Get It Up" is a Radioclit production that also features Gorilla Zoe and elephant noises. It's on Diplo's Top Ranking Santogold mixtape from Mad Decent, and here's a stream.
I couldn't make Siren Festival this year and Amrit and Brandon were at Pitchfork, so ... how was it? Based on the photographic display from Kyle Dean Reinford I guess sweaty? How was the sound? Did you shoot the freak? After the jump, pics of every act who played the festival, along with some scenery snapshots to set the mood. Stephen Malkmus and Joanna Bolme have the same haircut.
Last we heard from indie rock's most enchanting woodland creature, she was performing for douchebags and Björk in Chelsea. Fortunately the crowd was better behaved for a one-off gig at Somerset House in London last night, and Joanna rewarded them with a new song. According to the fan who uploaded this phone footage, before the song she joked that "it's not like people can put recordings of this song and place them in some sort of metaphysical forum for other people to see and comment on." It's a pretty piano waltz and while the visual couldn't be worse, it's worth a listen.
Blog chatter increased 900% after NYTimes reviewed Black Kids' CMJ show, according to this Reuters story Black Kids Are All Right With Blog Buzz. "They will certainly be able to develop an audience beyond bloggers," says their marketing manager. "They love licensing."
By Amrit Singh and Brandon Stosuy
There may have been bands with better songs or tighter chops, but the most impressive all-around performer of the weekend was King Khan ... because he never stopped performing. The Canadian/German-based garage rocker was everywhere, and everywhere dressed (or undressed) to the nines. The first time we spotted him -- early on Saturday -- he was wearing an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt (round belly exposed for all the world to see), short shorts, a million necklace baubles, and a wide-brimmed cowboy hat. It turned out to be his tamest getup.
He gave us (and dozens of others) ice cream from the Ice Cream Man's truck (awarding one person with an empty box as a "hat"). He shot kids with water guns, while wearing a mask and tight spandex-style shorts which left nothing to the imagination. He donned his cape and played with dry ice. He joked and cajoled and wore beaded headgear. At one point, he tried to peg High Places with a beach ball, but it bounced off the stage's scaffolding (he was chased away by a security guard). He also managed to tear through his own trashy soul set, with a cheerleader, horns, and less clothes than ever, splitting time between the stage, the audience, and the security divider. Les Savy Fav were on at the mainstage at the same time, but after walking over to catch the tail of that set, we're pretty sure Khan out Harrington'd Tim Harrington.
The King's weekend wound up in suitably unpredictable and memorable fashion: Cut Copy's B-stage-closing set looked to be a wash because of a hugely delayed flight in from Australia (via L.A.). Enter King Khan and Bradford Cox, along with the Ponys' Jered, and a momentary cameo from Jay Reatard, to stall with a sort of stand-up bluesy garage set. Khan stole the day, by saving it.
But the real genius of King Khan? Knowing suckers like us would pay attention to and write about some dude wandering around in a Roman-style centurion helmet/mask and banana hammock with a boundless amount of hamminess. Well done, sir.
"I know, I suck," Billy Joel told a sold-out Shea Stadium Wednesday night, apologizing for scheduling a second Last Play At Shea at the Mets ballpark two days later. I attended the first night (yes I am from Long Island) and the special guests were Tony Bennett, Don Henley, John Mellencamp, and John Mayer, who I predicted because he just seems like a Billy Joel fan. The Beatles famously played Shea's first rock concert in '65, and it surprised absolutely no one when Macca came on night two; the three Beatles covers played on Wedneday were a hint. Between songs (every album was represented), the Piano Man spritzed his throat and mopped his brow with a towel. It looked sad on the Jumbotron, but thank god for that Jumbotron because my seats were abysmal. The guy who put encore "Let It Be" on YouTube was in the front row.
There's a follow-up to Courtney's MySpace bulletin from Saturday which accused Ryan Adams of emptying Frances Bean Cobain's trust fund, leaving her with hardly enough to eat. It's titled "Dante's Inferno" and attempts to convince us that her story is not implausible it could happen to anyone yes there were 74 visa cards in addition to the 29 amexes and mark lanegan is totally underrated.
so it took 5 years YES to get all 29 amexes sorted through and an absolute time line, so WHAT?
have YOU ever willingly ever had 29 amexes? NO! me neither. and when you see a passing "Guitar Center" charge on an amex if your a musician do you double check it?
There is more of course...
Conor Oberst's self-titled LP is scheduled for release 8/5, but it was available on CD in Brazil last week. At least that's what the folky told his audience after spotting a copy at Studio SP in Sao Paulo on the opening night of his current tour. (It leaked to torrent sites over the weekend.) Backed by his Mystic Valley Band, Conor performed a handful of new songs including "Eagle On A Pole" and "Get-Well-Cards." We've got YouTube of those, along with an MP3 from the album, after the jump.
Six years. That's how much time has passed in between releases from the Wu-Tang Clan. Between Iron Flag and the recently releaseed 8 Diagrams. Half a decade. Long fuckin' time. Add in the fact that the Wu is quite possibly the greatest collection of dart throwing talent ever assembled under one moniker and it's easy to see why there was a great deal of anticipation for the Clan's fifth album among the legions of Wu-Tang's loyal and at times fanatic fan base.
Unfortunately, I have only one word to describe Wu-Tang's latest release. Disappointing. Think that may be a little too harsh? If I had written this about a week ago, my words would have been a little stronger, but I admit, after a week or so 8 Diagrams grew on me to the point where I fell back off of my first instincts. Still, with six years between albums, 8 Diagrams just doesn't live up to expectations. These muthafuckas are too damn talented to put together another album that is so fuckin'.....average.
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In the eight years since Pharoahe Monch dropped his debut solo album, Internal Affairs, you?re average hip-hop artist would have dropped four albums (an average of one every two years). Due to the sudden collapse of once home, Rawkus Records (since reborn), and Pharoahe?s own personal desire to find a label situation that met his creative needs as an artist, fans of the envelope pushing former member of Organized Konfusion have been forced to endure an agonizing wait as rumors of a second solo album and a possible deal with Eminem?s Shady Records swirled over the past few years. Finally, with a new deal with SRC records in hand, Pharoahe returns with his long awaited sophomore solo release entitled Desire.
?We will be here forever. Get what I?m saying. Forever and ever, and ever and ever. We will be here forever.?
Many will recognize those words from the immortal KRS-One from ?Hip-Hop vs. Rap?. With hip-hop still being considered by many in the mainstream as a ?fad? and with its lyrics coming under attack from conservatives and law making officials (some things never change), KRS-One was one the most prominent artists to step up and make the statement that hip-hop wasn?t going anywhere (he would continue to make this statement time and time again over the years). It was also KRS who first started making references to the fact that hip-hop isn?t something you do, it?s something you live. Therefore, when Nas dropped Hip Hop Is Dead in late 2007; it came as no surprise that KRS-One would be one of the first people to counter Nas? assertions.
The success of albums from producers almost always hinge on one thing: the quality of the guests who appear on the albums. While there are some producers who can make any emcee sound great, most beat makers need a quality performance from the emcee in order to highlight the quality of their beat. In the case of Marco Polo, who comes to us from Brooklyn by way of Toronto, his solo album, Port Authority, is chock full of solid guests who cover a wide range of hip-hop artists from the legendary to the largely unknown.
Producing on the underground circuit for a number of years, Marco Polo only recently vaunted into the public?s eye with his exceptional work with Boot Camp Clik. While Marco doesn?t have an exceptionally large catalog, he apparently made an impact as the newly rejuvenated Rawkus Records snapped him up and decided to let him drop a solo joint to showcase his production talents. In doing so, Rawkus and Marco Polo have done a service to all fans of hip-hop as Port Authority is an album that features an authentic sound and dedicated performances from all of its guests.
Even the most thorough five borough representers will be quick to admit that it?s been some time since a New York emcee has generated an industry buzz on the strength of his lyrics. Papoose aside, the once burgeoning hip-hop landscape in the Big Apple has dried up considerably, with only established artists being able to make noise in a game that has been largely dominated by other regions of the country over the last five years. It can be argued that even Papoose is a product of another time, with high profile appearances going as far back as the early part of this decade. In prolonged droughts like these, it can be hard for those of us who grew up in the boom bap era to foresee a bright future for an art form that has already been pronounced ?dead? by the likes of Nas. While there have been numerous comebacks to Nas? assertions, none of those comebacks are coming from a younger generation of emcees. Rather it is the older, more established, or in the case of KRS-One, legendary, emcees who are clinging to the hopes that their beloved music is not actually nearing the end of its creative life.
Artists disappear from the scene for many different reasons. In the case of Redman, whose last album dropped six years ago in 2001, there is no reasonable explanation for why he dropped off the face of the Earth. After his sitcom with Method Man ended up being a colossal flop, it can be assumed that Redman took an extended vacation. Whether or not this was of his doing or of his labels is another mystery. Rumors of a sixth album have been constant over the years, but nothing ever materialized. That is, until now. One of the few major label albums to drop in the first quarter of 2007, Redman?s Red Gone Wild ends a hiatus that was much, much longer than it needed to be.
After four critically acclaimed albums it was only a matter of time before the members of the Dilated Peoples branched out and released solo efforts. What else would you expect from a group that has often fashioned themselves as the Expansion Team? First up to bat, (if you don?t count DJ Babu?s earlier releases) is the one and only Evidence who steps out to drop The Weatherman on ABB Records.
While the success of the Dilated Peoples as a group is unquestioned, many often wondered how each individual would perform on the solo tip. Throughout the short history of hip-hop, there have been many groups who have either broken up or made the conscientious decision to release solo albums apart from their group moniker. In a majority of these cases, it has come to be realized, after everybody?s dropped their albums for dolo, that the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts. The group performs better as individuals who make up a group than as a group of individuals acting on their own. Prior to the release of The Weatherman, many fans probably had tempered expectations of an Evidence solo album for this very reason. As a group Dilated is very strong, but are their members talented and versatile enough to handle an entire album on their own?
Those who believe in reincarnation often state that when one member of a family passes away another child is usually born somewhere in that family within the same year. If one considers hip-hop a family then it wound stand to reason that after the passing of the great J. Dilla another extraordinarily talented producer would rise to fill his position. Of course, it would lend even more credence to the beliefs of reincarnationists if that producer just so happened to reside in the same city that Dilla once called his home. Breaking through with a distribution deal from indie powerhouse Fat Beats, producer slash emcee, Black Milk, emerges from Detroit with the release of his most ambitious album to date, Popular Demand, and seeks to fill the incredibly large shoes of his idol J. Dilla.
The self proclaimed O.D.B of the B.C.C., Sean Price (formerly known as Ruck) has emerged with the recent resurgence of the nine man strong Boot Camp Clik. Always a strong lyricist with an excellent flow, Sean was somewhat overshadowed by Rock in his early days as a member of Heltah Skeltah. Rock was a little more flamboyant and had that indistinguishable voice that was not to be denied. However, Sean P paid his dues and when the Boot Camp was putting things back together a few years ago, he was chosen to lead off their triple threat campaign with his first solo album, Monkey Bars. A solid album that received little to no recognition outside of underground circles, Monkey Bars set the triple threat campaign off correctly. Now, two years later, the Boot Camp Clik is once again securely positioned at the forefront of the underground scene.
Presenting?.The Best of 2006 - The Hip-Hop Year In Review
Finally, it is here. The long overdue Hip-Hop Co-Op first annual year in review. We worked long and hard to bring you this feature for 2005, but unfortunately some technical difficulties (and the carelessness of the author to not save his work) caused us to miss out on bringing you a recap of 2005. So?.here we are. Ready to bring you the first in what we hope will be a long line of hip-hop awards and accolades. Some will agree, some will disagree, and some will just not give a shit at all?.but that?s just the way we like it. We give you our opinions, but ultimately you decide. So now without further ado we bring you this year?s honors!
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