The Mix Up: The new Beastie Boys album, The Mix Up, should be available to the masses in June, according to a recent interview between Mike D. and NME.com. The album is said to harken back to the sound of Paul’s Boutique (1989) and Check Your Head (1992), which I find to be great news (”B-Boy Bouillabaisse”, anyone?). Could be that I’m just nostalgic for that era in hip-hop, being an increasingly alienated older fart, who knows…
I love cool song names, and this track listing has ‘em…
Be For My Name
14th St. Break
Suco De Tangerina
The Gala Event
Electric Worm
Freaky Hijiki
Off The Grid
The Rat Cage
The Melee
Dramastically Different
The Cousin Of Death
The Kangaroo Rat
Update: and then Stereogum comes out with this, completely contradicting the article above…
“This time out the trio are sticking solely to their instruments”
“Mike D told P4K that it’ll be nothing like The In Sounds From Way Out!, instead drawing on the likes of PiL, the Killing Joke, the Slits, and Gang Of Four for inspiration.”
Critical Metrics: A reader buddy of mine sent along a cool article from the Wall Street Journal profiling Critical Metrics, a brand new music aggregator site that ranks songs based on recent reviews in magazines, web sites, and yes, blogs. It’s sort of similar to Elbo and the Hype Machine, but a different look and feel. Quite cool. Go take a look. We’ll see how long it takes for Ickmusic to be added to their “Recommendation Sources” section.
This young lady isn’t going anywhere. Not if Kanye can help it. Look at that death grip he has her subjected to. It’s like he’s fed up with losing awards, and dammit, he’s taking a hostage.
Well anyway, let the Ickmusic Hormone Beacon sound, because Sports Illustrated’s annual Swimsuit Issue was released this week. I haven’t really paid attention to SI’s swimsuit issues since the early 90’s, but it did manage to catch my attention this year because it features Beyonce on the cover, as well as many pages within. You can check out the Beyonce gallery in SI right here. Go ahead, I’ll wait….
Welcome back. Insert tongue back into mouth, and let’s proceed. It’s a pretty smooth segue into a tune. Scary Kanye up there collaborated with “hip hop violinist” Miri Ben-Ari (along with Fabolous and Musiq). Miri and her violin have appeared on tons of hip hop tracks over the last few years, including Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks” and Alicia Keys’ “Fallin”. She was born in Tel Aviv, and was discovered by Wyclef Jean.
Her debut album came out in late 2005, and this one’s on it….
Miri Ben-Ari, feat. Fabolous, Kanye West, Musiq: Fly Away (mp3) - from The Hip-Hop Violinist
Miri Ben-Ari’s Official Site | MySpace - She has another track from the album available for download on her MySpace page (Miss Melody w/ Akon).
YouTube @ the Grammys: I wanted to share that performance by Corinne Bailey Rae, John Legend, and John Mayer the other night at the Grammy Awards….
A few odds and ends tonight as I help unravel the mystery of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song”, share some lesser known quality tunes that have passed through my airspace, and continue my coverage of hip-hop’s “Lil”s.
Viking Kittens: A co-worker instant messaged me today with a link: http://www.vikingkittens.com. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, and ensuring that this was not an act of NSFW sabotage, I inquired about it. “Not at all”, he replied, “you may even want to share this on Ickmusic.” How right he was. As I clicked into the link, and the vision of two sea warrior felines appeared, the mighty intro into Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” sounded. And the kittens began to sing. And the lyrics appeared. And years and years of mumbling my way through parts of the song are now a thing of the past. “Valhalla I am coming!”
The Appearance: If anyone can follow Viking Kittens, it’s this band. The Appearance are a Southern California band who grew up on SoCal skate punk and 80’s metal. Their debut album, Lost in Aurora, is scheduled for an April release. They nailed down a well known producer / engineer, Chris Fudurich, for this album. Chris has worked on albums by the likes of AFI, Jimmy Eat World, Nada Surf, and Matthew Sweet. Their debut single is the title track, and danged if I don’t have it for you right here…
Lost in Aurora (mp3) - if you dig it, support these guys by going to iTunes and buying the song.
Orange is In: These guys (and a gal) are a Houston band who caught my attention because they mentioned The Boss as an influence. Their new CD, Another Lame Semi-Tragedy, “takes Springsteen-style drama for a road trip down a dusty Texas back road.” Not too shabby of a tune. I’m a fan of Marah, and I could picture lead singer Dave Bielanko belting out this tune. The chorus though: “on and on and on”… that reminds me of another song, and I have no idea which one. Hmm.. help?
Joel Rieke: Joel came to me in the form of a MySpace friend invitation. I try to check out every one, and fail miserably, but this one I did click into, and I’m glad I did. The default tune on there is called “Talking.” It’s - how you say? - infectious, catchy, and overall quality tuneage. Joel doesn’t have an mp3 up. But I say to you people, go to his MySpace page and listen to it! I also emailed him to ask for an mp3. Maybe I’ll have one up soon.
Lil’ Scrappy: One of my resolutions for the new year is to post about any “Lil” I come across in the hip-hop world. I started a few weeks ago with Lil’ Flip, and tonight, Lil’ Scrappy takes the spotlight. He hails from Atlanta, and was discovered by and signed to Lil’ Jon’s (one more Lil) label BME Recordings, which was brought into Warner Bros. Records as a joint venture. Check out the new video. You’ll learn fast that ol’ Scrappy likes his Cartier frames.
Oh Yeah (Quicktime Video) | Oh Yeah (Windows Media Player Video)
Here are a few goodies sent my way, completely and utterly unrelated to eachother.
Lil Flip’s New Video: Yes, this man looks like he would very much like to eat your children. But that’s just Lil’ Flip. I won’t pretend to know a thing about Lil Flip. I only know him as one the many “Lil”s in the hip-hop world. And after reading about him on Wikipedia, I now know that he’s had running feuds with Paul Wall, Hump, T.I., and Slim Thug. He’s Houston bred and he was discovered by DJ Screw. You got that? ‘Cause there’s gonna be a quiz.
Lyf Jennings joins Lil’ Flip here for this new video from Flip’s forthcoming album. Oh cool, I can say this now… it drops in March. See? I still got it. Anyway, I still like to catch up with what’s going on in hip-hop these days. Of course I’m one of those mid to late thirty somethings that spent their formative years listening to the pioneers: Run DMC, Eric B. & Rakim, Whodini, Public Enemy, etc. etc., and no hip-hop will ever top that stuff for me. But yeah, it’s good to check in every now and then. And this isn’t bad. I like the message and the flow.
But I do like Paul Wall better. Sorry Flip (I’ll check more of your stuff out, I can’t judge you on one song).
PINTO! Andreas is the man. He’s in a Swedish band called Pinto, and he emails me from time to time with his latest stuff. In fact, I’m motivated to post their latest tune simply based on the subject line of his latest email: “Oh Lord Jesus Christ it is that guy from Pinto again!” And to describe Pinto’s latest, he puts it this way….
Let me put this simple. We has either made an awesome hit song or a really annoying two minute track that reminds you of Hooters (and sadly I’m talking about the band). Hopefully it is the first. I really hate Hooters (the band that is).
You can download a thousand Swedish meatballs worth of tunes over at their web site. Go Pinto go!
Grateful Dead’s Live at The Cow Palace, New Year’s Eve, 1976 On January 23rd, Rhino will be releasing a classic Dead show from New Year’s Eve 1976. I’ve got a copy on the way for a sweet upcoming giveaway, so stay tuned.
While we’re waiting for the 23rd, check out this cool e-Card to listen to some tunes. You can follow links there to order the CD.
Wordpress, the blogging software behind this blog, has a cool feature that snatches comment spam and tucks it away so I can delete it. I have a question. Who are the people that spend their days creating this stuff?? What low-life wastes of space get up in the morning and look forward to a day of carpet bombing the internet with this trash?
What the hell is hentaipowerpuff?? On second thought, I don’t wanna know. It just mystifies me that there are people that do this. Obviously $$$ is the driving force, but holy cow, what a way to make it.
Thank you. I guess I needed to get that off my chest.
So before I post another Springsteen tour update, I thought I’d spice it up a little. These songs have absolutely nothing to do with eachother. Or do they? I guess, like the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, that it wouldn’t take too many steps to connect them up. Hmm, Til Tuesday, Billy Bragg & Wilco, and Boogie Down Productions. Maybe they all played the same festival in Finland one year. Entirely possible.
In the early 90’s, X Clan exploded on the hip hop scene with two kick-ass Parliament / Funkadelic-laden, afrocentric, hard hitting albums: ‘To the East, Blackwards’, and ‘Xodus’. Now, after a long hiatus, in which member Brother J formed a new group, Dark Sun Riders, and another, Sugar Shaft, died of AIDS-related complications in 1995, X Clan is back.
The Brooklyn-based group is making a comeback, with a 2006 release - ‘Return from Mecca’ - in the works. They have an unreleased track up on their web site called “Weapon X”. It’s classic X Clan with the intense rolling beats and Brother J’s booming baritone controlling the flow.
They offer a few mp3’s on their web site, including the essential “Funkin’ Lesson”and “Grand Verbalizer What Time is It?” from their debut album. Here I have their unreleased track, along with the title track from ‘Xodus’.
X Clan: Weapon X (mp3) unreleased | Xodus (mp3) from Xodus
So I’ve been going through my boxes of old cassettes, and am starting the arduous task of converting them to mp3. The first to get the treatment was ‘Terminator X & the Valley of the Jeep Beats’. As the DJ for Public Enemy, T.X certainly made his mark as one of the most original and vibrant DJ’s in hip hop. In 1991, he released this debut solo album, bringing in a wide variety of mostly obscure guests: Bonnie & Clyde, Juvenile Delinquintz, Spacey B Experience, etc.
But he did pull in Chuck D. and Sista Soulja for “Buck Whylin”. He also goes reggae with the track “DJ is the Selector”, sung by Dubmaster. From the old school, here’s a little taste of Terminator X.
Terminator X: Vendetta…The Big Payback > Buck Whylin’ (mp3) | DJ is the Selector (mp3)
I came across Cadence Weapon last week on Fluxblog. Cadence Weapon is an 18 yr old rapper / producer from Edmonton, Alberta. Yes, Edmonton. I didn’t know they rolled so hard up there, but judging by CW’s style, I think they do. Now I’m not as plugged into the hip hop game as I was say, back in - oh - 1989. I mean I’m far more likely to listen to Eric B and Rakim or Schoolly D than Tupac, Biggie, Lil Jon, or any of the many Lils. But Cadence Weapon gives me hope. The tracks and beats that back him up are funky as hell, and make this white boy bob his head. His rapping is smooth and cool. And that name - Cadence Weapon - cool name.
Cadence Weapon, from this 34 year old white boy in the Arizona desert, you go on with yo bad self son.
And so tonight we go back to 1988, whence Stetsasonic released ‘In Full Gear’ (and just by looking at the album cover above, wouldn’t you agree that, wow, yes, they are in full gear?), and the best track on the album was (and is) entitled “Talkin’ All That Jazz”. Their DJ, Prince Paul, produced one of my favorites, De La Soul’s ‘3 Feet High and Rising’.
So anyway, the song defends the art of sampling the music of others, and includes a trumpet sample by Donald Byrd. Kudos to whoever can peg the actual song. Googling “Talkin’ All that Jazz sample” didn’t do it for me. Dang.
But, it’s the beat that’s always done it for me on this tune. Stet was one of the first rap groups to use a live drummer. Again, I wish I was musically articulate enough to expound on the technical details of this beat, but all I have is: “goldang it sounds goooood!” Maybe my drummin’ buddy Richard can help. 4-4 beat? 2-4? Hell if I know, but it sounds good.
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