After I made a mix for J.G.'s brother a few months ago, their mom heard it and liked it, "The Ice Of Boston" in particular, and to my surprise, requested that I make a CD for her too. So now pretty much that whole family has mix CDs from me. She's pretty open minded for her age, but then, my taste is pretty classic rock-oriented when it comes to even newer rock music, so it wasn't too hard for me to make it accessible for her, and I included a lot of the same artists from John's mix, although mostly different songs. I think it came out pretty well. The Michael Bublé track was one that J.G. asked me to grab off iTunes and include, but that song is actually kinda growin' on me.

1. Ted Leo/Pharmacists - "Timorous Me"
2. Apollo Sunshine - "Today Is The Day"
3. The B-52's - "Private Idaho"
4. The Dismemberment Plan - "The Ice Of Boston"
5. The Posies - "Conversations"
6. Elliott Smith - "Angeles"
7. The Who - "5'15"
8. Spymob - "Walking Under Green Leaves"
9. John Mellencamp - "Cherry Bomb"
10. Ben Folds Five - "Philosophy
11. Talking Heads - "Thank You For Sending Me An Angel"
12. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - "High Fidelity"
13. They Might Be Giants - "Don't Let's Start"
14. Rufus Wainwright - "April Fools"
15. Brendan Benson - "What I'm Looking For"
16. Chris Lee - "Lonesome Eyes"
17. Private Eleanor - "On Our Side"
18. Randy Newman - "Baltimore"
19. Michael Bublé - "Home"
20. Jeff Buckley - "Satisfied Mind"

Labels: Apollo Sunshine, Baltimore music, Brendan Benson, Chris Lee, Dismemberment Plan, Elvis Costello, mixtapes, mp3, Spymob, Ted Leo, The B-52's, The Posies, The Who, They Might Be Giants

Private Eleanor - "Photocopy of a Photocopy of a Photograph" '05 (mp3)

I've written about Private Eleanor, my friend Chris's band, a few times here before. And ever since J.G. borrowed my copy of their last album she's become a fan herself, so when they played at a club right in our neighborhood, Fletchers, on Sunday, of course we had to go check it out. They were opening for the Starlight Mints and Dios (Malos), and were the first band on the bill, so we got there good and early, around 8. We ran into Chris outside the club as he was carrying cymbals from his car, and he said they'd be starting between 8:30 and 9. So we went down the street to the record store, Sound Garden, and got some food at the Indian place next door, and chilled. When we got into the club at 8:30, they were already playing, although I guess we didn't miss too much of their set.

Fletcher's has kind of crappy sound sometimes, it's a good small room, but I think maybe the weird shape of the room and ceiling and all the rafters fuck up the acoustics. So they could've sounded better, but Private Eleanor still played a good show. They played at least one or two new songs, one of which I really liked. Chris added some tasty hi-hat action to "Seventeen," and got to rock out a bit within the constraints of the band's Simon & Garfunkel soft rock style (which I do not say disparagingly, I've been way into Simon & Garfunkel lately, shit, I drive a car named Cecilia). "Photocopy of a Photocopy of a Photograph" is definitely one of their best and most popular songs, although it's a little uncharacteristic, being so short and kind of aggressive, and they seem to end every show with it. It originally appeared on one of their earlier albums, but the version above is a re-recording from the sessions for their last album that's available on the audio section of their website.

We didn't stay for the Starlight Mints or Dios (Malos), who I've never heard, but the next act were this band from Austin, The Octopus Project , who were kind of a pleasant surprise. As they prepared for their set, they were setting up all kinds of props and decorations, like these green tarps over their amps that had ears and eyes and made their amp stacks look like crude Gumby-shaped monsters. And just before they started playing, all four members of the band donned these masks that looked like three prong electrical outlets, which, when worn on a human head, kind of look like a face with a mouth and two eyes. The weirdest part, though, was that they wore the masks on the sides of their faces, so that they could still face each other and look at their instruments, which was kind of brilliant. But the guitarists headbanged a lot and by the end of the first song they had all shook off or taken off their masks. Usually a bunch of props and schtick like this are an instant turnoff for me (see Peelander Z), but in spite of it all I actually liked these guys. They played these chugging instrumentals with big, warm keyboard melodies, nothing that hasn't been in the musical vocabulary of hundreds of indie bands over the past ten years, but still pretty enjoyable. And the girl keyboardist was maybe the greatest theremin player I've ever seen. I mean, it's not exactly a traditional instrument where it's easy to measure the talent of how one plays it, but she really had some masterful hand control and in one particular song played a solo of sorts that was pretty amazing. I don't know if I'd buy another album, but I'd definitely see them again.

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts, mp3, music babble

DJ Khaled featuring Brisco, Dirt E Red, Dela, Lunch Money, CO From Piccalo, Hennessy, and P.M. - "The Future Of Dade" (mp3)

Listennn is a pretty good all-star hip hop clusterfuck, but I think my favorite track is the one buried at the end with no mainstream stars on it, largely because of the Diaz Brothers' ridiculous production on the track. I really need to check for more stuff by them.

Note: In light of the end of Stylus in 2007, I decided to archive the text of all my reviews for the site on this blog for posterity, since I don't what the future holds for the Stylus domain, and have included both the letter grade ratting that accompanied the original review, and an adjusted rating that I would give the record now in retrospect.

DJ Khaled
Listennn...The Album
Koch Entertainment
2006
Stylus rating: B
Adjusted rating by reviewer: B

The history of official DJ compilations that rise above the for-promotional-use-only mixtape market is dicey at best. In the past, New Yorkers like DJ Clue, Funkmaster Flex, and DJ Kay Slay have issued retail albums, and even today tastemakers like DJ Drama are getting major label deals. But the days of Clue going Platinum are over, and with street mixtapes more prevalent than ever, such albums tend to wind up in a weird middle ground, like a soundtrack with no movie to cross-promote. They rarely get glowing reviews, have a short shelf life, and are put together by leak fiends who end up spilling most of the good material on the street well before the real thing hits stores.

With those factors stacked against him (not to mention being signed to Koch Records), DJ Khaled has built an impressive buzz for his first official release, Listennn...The Album. It helps that he's got connections to a respected crew (Terror Squad), has a monster single ("Holla At Me"), and represents a city on the rise (Miami). Miami may end up stealing 2006 from the Bay Area, with heavily-hyped albums from Rick Ross, Dre (of Cool & Dre), and Pitbull dropping in the next few months. All three of them have multiple appearances on Listennn and a hand in "Holla At Me," along with Lil Wayne, Paul Wall, and part-time Miami resident Fat Joe.

Although the Palestinian-American Khaled a.k.a. Beat Novacaine proved his production skills on Fat Joe's All or Nothing, he presents Listennn primarily as a DJ, and only produces three tracks, one of which is a brief intro. One of those tracks, however, "Where You At" by Freeway and the Clipse, is one of the hottest tracks on the album, all humming organs, regal brass, and watery wah-wah drama. For his part, Khaled doesn't do much to distinguish Listennn from a mixtape, shouting over tracks with a tremendously annoying voice, bizarrely reminding you of the release date of the album you're listening to, and pronouncing Listennn by stuttering the L, but not the three N's. Even the cover is by mixtape artwork king Miami Kaos.

The most consistent sound on the album comes from Cool & Dre, who produce five tracks. One of the best production teams in mainstream hip-hop at the moment, they're a welcome presence right up until "Movement" by Dre, perhaps the most dreadful producer-turned-rapper yet.

In addition to the ridiculous roster of guests, Listennn boasts a handful of interesting collabos. On "Problem" he unites the formerly beefing Beanie Sigel and Jadakiss, and "Destroy You" features the also formerly beefing Twista and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Aside from a few posse cuts, though, most of the bigger stars on the album bring their own entourages and stick to their usual sound. Young Jeezy brings Slick Pulla and Bloodraw with him on "Gangsta Shit," Young Dro and Big Kuntry tag along with T.I. on "Dip Slide Ride Out," and Kanye West shows up with Consequence and John Legend in tow. Kanye in particular stays on his A-game with "Grammy Family," an unexpectedly dark banger for a track ostensibly about all the statuettes on his mantle.

Khaled constantly represents Miami and Dade County throughout Listennn, not the least on the all-star anthem "Born N Raised" featuring Trick Daddy, Pitbull, and Rick Ross. Surprisingly, that track's thunder is stolen by the no-star album closer, "The Future of Dade," a 6-minute parade of lesser known locals Brisco, Dirt E Red, Dela, Lunch Money, Co from Piccalo, Hennessy, and P.M. Most of the track's success is owed to the amazing beat by Pitbull associates the Diaz Brothers, but several of the up-and-comers shine.

Executive produced by Khaled, Fat Joe, and "The Streets" (presumably not Mike Skinner), Listennn ultimately does little besides sum up the state of rap in June 2006 with a sizable number of its most ubiquitous artists. There are several bangers that have a good chance of becoming summer anthems, but "Holla At Me" could just as easily be the album's only hit. Or it may open the floodgates for a Miami hit parade. In an era wherein even mixtapes only have a buzz for more than a couple weeks if they're the work of a single artist or crew, a DJ compilation has to be better than just pretty good. Luckily, Listennn is.

Labels: hip hop, mp3, some shit I wrote, Stylus

Karmella's Game - "Skip The Funeral" (mp3)

Karmella's Game might be my favorite rock band in Baltimore right now, ever since I caught a show by them about a year and a half ago. I've talked about them here a little bit before, and ranked them as the 3rd best live show I saw in 2005. Their sound is a kind of super girly synth-driven power pop that, if I just heard on record, would never leap out as something I want to hear, but their live show completely won me over by virtue of them being a totally tight band that isn't afraid of showmanship.

Last Friday, they played a release party for their first full-length album, The Art of Distraction, at the Ottobar, and it was nice to see them pack in a good crowd at a slightly bigger venue after seeing them fill up the Talking Head a couple times. At shows they usually wear these kind of private school uniforms, and all look like teenagers anyway, but on Friday they dressed up more like they were going to the prom. And they went all out, starting the show by playing the album's one quiet song, "The Remains," with the band's bassist on cello and three violinists joining in for a string quartet effect. They played for an hour and probably went through every single song they have. I'd been kind of holding out on seeing them for a while, because I was really waiting for the album to come out. The only thing they'd released previously, an EP that's now almost 3 years old, really doesn't capture the greatness of their live show, so I wanted to be able to finally take home a copy of all the newer songs they'd been playing. And the album still isn't quite all I'd hoped, but it's close enough. Not so close that I won't have to keep checking out shows to get the full effect, though.

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts, mp3, music babble

Ruth Ruth - "Jerome" (mp3)

Ruth Ruth - "Julia, You Have No Heartbeat" (mp3)

My brother Zac and I used to subscribe to Alternative Press back in the mid-90's, before it went all nu-metal/emo and was a decent alt/indie rag that I thought was way better than Spin (and were way ahead of the post-Blender trend of cramming dozens of album reviews into every issue, but didn't really skimp on the wordcount in order to do so). Most of the subscription issues came with label samplers and singles attached, usually on cassette, because people still owned tape decks back then. Most of them were worthless, of course, but one that was so good that I managed to hold onto it for 10 years was the 2-song sampler for Ruth Ruth's The Little Death EP.

In '95, Ruth Ruth were one of a gazillion vaguely pop-punk bands that came out post-Green Day and had a minor alt-radio hit, in their case "Uninvited," which my brother liked and I kinda hated. After one album on American Recordings, Laughing Gallery, they jumped to Epitaph a year later for one EP, before jumping to RCA a couple years after that for their 2nd album. The Little Death, and its AP cassingle sampler, were wrapped in artwork made to look like the Catcher In The Rye paperback, and the sampler's promo hype paid a lot of lip service to influences that I was just beginning to get into in 1996, so it makes sense that those songs grew on me with time. After rocking "Jerome" and "Julia, You Have No Heartbeat" in my car deck for years and years, I finally checked out the rest of the EP recently, as well as Laughing Gallery, which have some good tunes but nothing I love as much as these two songs.

Labels: mp3, music, music babble

Randy Newman - "Baltimore" (mp3)

Nina Simone - "Baltimore" (mp3)

Mullyman - "Oh Baltimore" (mp3)

In 1977, Randy Newman released "Baltimore" on Little Criminals, incidentally the same album that featured "Short People," which it's long been rumored was banned from being played on Maryland radio stations (apparently legislation was introduced but not passed). I have no idea if Newman's ever been to Baltimore besides maybe as a tourstop, but the lyrics are about as superficial and cliched a description of a city as "I Love L.A." Still, it's kind of a nice sad song that does ring true in some ways, even if the "town by the sea" line is kind of wrong (and Journey didn't do their "city by the bay" song until a year later, so Randy has no excuse for calling the Chesapeake Bay "the sea").

In '78, Nina Simone covered the song as the title track to her album Baltimore, which, by the account of the reissue's liner notes, she didn't have much say in the song selection or arrangements of, and didn't particularly like. The album is full of traditionals and contemporary covers that range from the great (Aretha's "That's All I Want From You") to the incredibly awkward (Hall & Oates's "Rich Girl"), but her recording of "Baltimore" is really good, sounding sadder and more sincere than the original despite the slight reggae bounce.

I came upon the song in a backwards way, in 2004, when I heard Baltimore rapper Mullyman sample Simone's version for "Oh Baltimore." It was the first track I ever heard by Mully, before he collaborated with The Clipse and Freeway and his profile started to skyrocket, and "Oh Baltimore" is still probably my favorite song by him. Lyrically it says more about the town more bluntly than just a bunch of vague "hard times in the city" shit. And the fact that I own at least 6 different albums and mixtapes with that song on it is proof enough that "Oh Baltimore" is a modern classic of Bmore hip hop.

Labels: Baltimore City paper, hip hop, mp3, music babble

TV Theme Song Mix

1. The Who - "Who Are You" (C.S.I.)
2. The Blind Boys Of Alabama - "Way Down In The Hole" (The Wire, season 1)
3. The Dandy Warhols - "We Used To Be Friends" (Veronica Mars)
4. The Rembrandts - "I'll Be There For You" (Friends)
5. They Might Be Giants - "Boss Of Me" (Malcolm In The Middle)
6. Massive Attack - "Teardrop" (House, M.D.)
7. Mark Snow - "Materia Primoris" (X-Files)
8. Polaris - "Hey Sandy" (The Adventures Of Pete & Pete)
9. The Minutemen - "Corona" (Jackass)
10. The Who - "Baba O'Riley" (C.S.I.: NY)
11. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - "Bad Reputation" (Freaks And Geeks)
12. Phantom Planet - "California" (The O.C.)
13. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - "The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air" (The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air)
14. The Vogues - "Five O'Clock World" (The Drew Carey Show)
15. Frank Sinatra - "Love & Marriage" (Married... With Children)
16. Jane's Addiction - "Superhero" (Entourage)
17. A3 - "Woke Up This Morning" (The Sopranos)
18. Tom Waits - "Way Down In The Hole" (The Wire, season 2)
19. The Who - "Won't Get Fooled Again" (C.S.I.: Miami)

A while back, J.G. was saying something ot me about about all of the TV show themes she likes, and ended up commissioning me to track down some of her favorites, and the idea kind of blossomed from there, until I ended up with a whole CD of songs, some of which aren't even shows she watches (for the most part, I like every track's theme and/or the show itself, except I'm a Sopranos hater and don't care for the song either, but got carried away with the block of HBO shows). I pretty much stuck to the theme of songs that pre-existing bands had written before being appropriated for the show, although the X-Files one and maybe a couple others don't quite count. This is the final version, the Jackass and Drew Carey themes were added after the version I burned for J.G. I think the Fresh Prince theme is, along with "Baby Got Back," the rap song that every white kid of my generation can recite word for word, but I'm still working on memorizing that verse from the full version where he's on the plane.

Labels: hip hop, mixtapes, mp3, television, The Minutemen, The Who, They Might Be Giants

Jon Auer - "Sundown" (mp3)
I might've been a little rough on Songs from the Year of Our Demise, which came out this week, in my Stylus review, considering how big a fan of the guy I am. I just wish the album had more songs as good as this one.

Note: In light of the end of Stylus in 2007, I decided to archive the text of all my reviews for the site on this blog for posterity, since I don't what the future holds for the Stylus domain, and have included both the letter grade ratting that accompanied the original review, and an adjusted rating that I would give the record now in retrospect.

Jon Auer
Songs from the Year of Our Demise
Pattern 25
2006
Stylus rating: B-
Adjusted rating by reviewer: B

Songs from the Year of Our Demise is a document of a tumultuous period in Jon Auer's life that included a divorce and the beginning of another marriage. However, it would be difficult to pinpoint exactly what year the title refers to, considering how long it’s been in the works. The title has been floating around since 1999, shortly after Auer's group The Posies broke up and he and co-founder Ken Stringfellow embarked on solo careers. In the time that it's taken Auer to finish his first solo album, Stringfellow released three, and the Posies reunited and recorded a new record, last year's Every Kind of Light. Also during that period, Auer contributed to Big Star's In Space and, oddly enough, William Shatner's Has Been. So Songs from the Year of Our Demise has a lot riding on it, if only to justify its lengthy gestation period and repeated delays.

Auer has always seemed blessed with natural, almost effortless gifts as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His voice is so clean and angelic that it sometimes sounds feminine, and as the more instrumentally skilled half of the Posies' nucleus, he handled most of the guitar solos, and even played drums on the band's early material. So after several albums as only 50% of a creative team, the chance for him to step out on his own seems like the perfect opportunity to thrive. But while Demise is a deeply personal work that shows the fruits of several years of recording, it's far from Auer's greatest achievement.

Now in his late 30's, Auer's voice is still in top form, but has taken on a deeper, slightly gravelly tone, which suits the depressive tone of the material. His gift for writing big power-pop hooks is similarly subdued, as he sticks to slower tempos and quieter arrangements. In short, it's his singer-songwriter record.

But without the hooks, energy, or jaw-dropping guitar solos, an air of blandness hangs over Demise that only a handful of songs cut through. And for better or worse, most of those songs are buried at the end of the disc. "Sundown" practically erupts with a thudding bassline, poignant melody, and naggingly catchy "sha la la la" chorus. And "Wicked World" is one of only a couple songs where Auer strips the arrangement down to just his voice and an acoustic guitar to showcase a hauntingly gorgeous melody. Meanwhile, most tracks, like the dramatic opener "Six Feet Under," contribute to the overall mood of the album, but hardly stand up as songs by themselves.

Auer wrote and discarded many songs in the process of making Demise, releasing several EPs along the way. Ironically, few songs on the album have hooks as memorable as "When the Lights Go Up" or "Beautiful" from 2002's Private Sides. Luckily, the best song from 2000's The Perfect Size, "You Used to Drive Me Around," is reprised in re-recorded form on Demise. Now fleshed out to an epic seven minutes, with ornate touches like David Einmo's chorus mellotron, and live drums replacing the early version's plodding drum machine, "You Used to Drive Me Around" becomes the album's hardest rocking song, though it never rises above a brooding mid-tempo.

Songs from the Year of Our Demise initially seems underwhelming, but like the Posies' best work, its songs reveal themselves over time. Still, it's an album that has far more potential for emotional resonance than musical discovery. The arrangements contain few surprises, and the handful of simple acoustic performances quietly outshine the more elaborate productions. There's no doubt that Auer put a lot of feeling into Demise, but if he takes this long to formulate his next album, hopefully he'll spend more time honing his musical ingenuity, and throw a few of his fantastic guitar solos in as well.

Reviewed by: Al Shipley
Reviewed on: 2006-05-04

Labels: mp3, some shit I wrote, Stylus, The Posies

Producer Series Mix #1: Shondrae "Bangladesh" Crawford

1. Shawnna f/ Twista and Ludacris - "R.P.M." (mp3)
2. Ludacris f/ Shawnna - "What's Your Fantasy"
3. Ludacris f/ Trina, Shawnna, and Foxy Brown - "What's Your Fantasy" Remix (mp3)
4. Ludacris - "Ho"
5. Ludacris f/ UGK - "Stick 'Em Up"
6. Ludacris f/ Twista and Jagged Edge - "Freaky Thangs"
7. Ludacris - "Coming 2 America" (mp3)
8. Freeway f/ Lil' Jon - "Rep Yo Click" (mp3)
9. Petey Pablo f/ Rasheeda - "Vibrate"
10. Ciara - "Hotline"
11. Kelis f/ Too $hort - "Bossy"
12. Turf Talk - "Hubba Rock"
13. Young Gunz - "Same Shit, Different Day"
14. Yung Wun - "I Tried to Tell Ya" (mp3)
15. Missy Elliott - "Click Clack"
16. 8-Ball & MJG - "You Don't Want Drama"
17. 8-Ball & MJG - "Don't Make" (mp3)
18. 8-Ball & MJG f/ Lloyd - "Forever"

Shondrae, who's been putting that "Bangladesh!" soundbyte at the beginning of all his tracks lately, is one of my favorite quasi-Southern producers, from Iowa by way of Atlanta (contrary to the belief of mash-up DJ herbs who think he's from Memphis). For a while a few years ago, I lurked on a hip hop production nerd message board where Shondrae was the resident celebrity, back when he was still part of DTP. But even before that, I was checking for his beats, and even though he's got a few hits under his belt, it seems like not too many people know him by name. This is pretty much all the tracks I know of by him, except for a handful of other Luda/DTP tracks that I left off to fit it all on one disc. Also, the original version of "Rep Yo Click" with 8Ball & MJG on it from a few months ago. Let it also be said that K.W. Griff's remix of "Don't Make" is one of my favorite Baltimore club music tracks of the past 2 years.

Labels: hip hop, mp3, Producer Series Mix, R and B

Thurston Moore - "Altar Boy, Church Basement" (mp3)

Sonic Youth - "Turquoise Boy" (mp3)

I've spent probably hundreds of hours of my life listening to Thurston Moore play guitar, but I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard him play an acoustic guitar (the ones that come to mind at the moment being SY's disastrous Bridge Benefit performance in 1991, and the Experimental Jet Set session that resulted in "Winner's Blues," "Razorblade," and "Compilation Blues," but I'm probably forgetting a couple others). Around 1998 there were some murmerings of Thurston doing a few solo acoustic performances of a song or set of songs referred to as "Dream Investigations," and at one point I think it was suggested that it might be released as part of the SYR series, but that never happened. Whether related to that material or not, Thurston played a solo acoustic instrumental in between improv sets with Wally Shoup and Toshi Makihara at a show in 1999 that was released later as the album Hurricane Floyd. It's a really fantastic track and kinda makes me wish he did more acoustic stuff. There's a new item on the official SY site that says that Thurston recently performed 2 solo acoustic songs on BBC radio, I'm curious what he played.

Various riffs and melodic elements from that Hurricane Floyd track, "Altar Boy, Church Basement," have since cropped up on at least one song from each on the past three Sonic Youth albums: "Rain On Tin" from Murray Street, "New Hampshire" from Sonic Nurse, and now "Turquoise Boy" from the upcoming Rather Ripped. The first two were my favorite tracks from those respective albums, so I was pretty excited recently when someone on the ILM thread about Rather Ripped pointed out that one of the songs on the new album, which I hadn't heard any of yet, continued that thread. I still haven't heard Rather Ripped aside from a handful other tracks that popped up on websites and the band's MySpace page, but I had to track this one down, and it is pretty promising, definitely my favorite of the tracks I've heard so far. I probably won't get to hear the whole album until the June release date, though, so I'll have to make an effort not to burn myself out on this song until then.

Labels: mp3, Sonic Youth

Bruce Springsteen - "Candy's Room" (mp3)
Posting Joey O.'s mix that I put this on reminded me I wanted to post the song itself. Even though I grew up saturated in 70's classic rock, I never really got exposed to much pre-Born In The U.S.A. Bruce, and just in the past 5 years or so I've really taken an interest in him. But every time I copped one of his earlier albums expected it to be The One, it didn't quite hit the spot, until I finally got Darkness On The Edge Of Town, which is exactly what I was looking for: basically Born On The Run but a little darker and less familiar. I guess there are a lot of people that like it but it still offends me that it's the only one of Bruce's first 7 albums that AllMusic gives less than 5 stars to. To me it's like the perfect Bruce album. This song is amazing, the hi-hats, the builds, maybe uncharacteristic enough to be enjoyed even by some Bruce haters. When I start my next band I'll probably try to implement a no-covers policy, but if the other people aren't having it, I'll insist that we cover either this or "King Of The World" by Steely Dan.

Labels: Bruce Springsteen, mp3

George Jones - "Her Name Is" (mp3)
This might not even be in my top ten favorite George Jones songs, but I like the lyrical conceit. George describes the one he loves, but the actual details are filled in by musical phrases, like "her name is (ding-da-ding), her eyes are (ding-da-ding)," until he finally reveals that he can't say who she really is because she's a married woman, and her husband "will kill the man who messes with his wife." The song could really go either way as either sad and profound or kind of a silly novelty, not unlike PCD's "Beep," but what tips it in the latter direction for me is that the instrument that completes his sentences isn't a tasteful country guitar twang but a boingy electric clavinet, which I guess was kind of a new thing in 1976.

Labels: country music, mp3

B.G. f/ Gar - "Whateva U Like" (mp3)
Not my favorite song on The Heart of tha Streetz, Vol. 2 (I Am What I Am) by a long shot, but you really do have to hear the Hurricane Katrina punchline that involves vaginal secretion.

Note: In light of the end of Stylus in 2007, I decided to archive the text of all my reviews for the site on this blog for posterity, since I don't what the future holds for the Stylus domain, and have included both the letter grade ratting that accompanied the original review, and an adjusted rating that I would give the record now in retrospect.

B.G.
The Heart of tha Streetz, Vol. 2 (I Am What I Am)
Chopper City
2006
Stylus rating: B-
Adjusted rating by reviewer: B

Cash Money Records' only star left on the roster, Lil’ Wayne, may be at a career high point right now, but the long-running New Orleans rap label's disgruntled alumni is its own biggest competition. Juvenile's first post-Cash Money release, Reality Check, became his first #1 album earlier this year. And Mannie Fresh left Cash Money last year after producing 99% of its hits, and is finally becoming the superproducer-for-hire that he's always deserved to be. But B.G., one of the first Cash Money artists to fly the coop, is the most firmly established in his own world now, a respected mid-level star with his own label, Chopper City Records.

The Heart of tha Streetz, Vol. 2 (I Am What I Am) is B.G.'s tenth album since beginning his recording career at the age of 11 as Baby Gangsta. And it's his fourth in as many years on Chopper City Records, proof that his separation from the Cash Money machine hasn't slowed down his grind. But the man who titled his 2004 album Life After Cash Money isn't done fixating on the crew that he ran with for a decade and then divorced from bitterly, and songs like "Living Right" are all about how much better his life is "since I left C.M."

B.G.'s post-Cash Money output hasn't differed from his early albums in many respects, except for the absence of the label's in-house production guru. But now that Mannie Fresh is a free agent, he's hooked up with B.Gizzle once again for Heart of tha Streetz, Vol. 2's lead single, the wonderfully bouyant "Move Around." Although it rides the same boom-boom-clap rhythm as many of Fresh's productions since Young Jeezy's "And Then What," it's perhaps the best use of that formula yet, a rousing anthem about the ubiquity of fried baloney sandwiches in the hood. But the single most thrilling moment of the song is at the end when B.G. lets loose the sound that's become, like Jadakiss's cackle, his vocal calling card: a deep, creaky "WAHHHHHHHHHH." Although "Move Around" is by far the most polished song on the album, his weathered voice sounds like a raw nerve in that one moment.

B.G. has reportedly been clean and sober for three years now, but his past addiction to heroin looms over his recent albums in the form of the damage done to his voice. He's always rapped in a loose, conversational drawl, sometimes talking over the beat as much as rapping. But on The Heart of tha Streetz, Vol. 2, B.G.'s voice is nasal and faded, and perfectly suits all his talk about being a grizzled veteran, even if he frequently gets drowned out by the already subdued production.

The biggest hit from any of B.G.'s solo albums is "Bling Bling," the song that literally changed the dictionary and both defined the zeitgeist of hip hop materialism and gave the backlash a target for its hatred. But "Bling Bling" was a posse cut and Lil Wayne coined the title, and in truth B.G. now seems like a reactionary to Cash Money's extravagant flossing. Instead, he's moved onto the drug dealing raps currently in vogue in the South, frequently collaborating with T.I. "I Ain't Got Nothing" is the obligatory anti-snitching screed, and songs like "Yeah Nigga Yeah" almost gleefully detail the particulars of hustling in the trap.

The Heart of tha Streetz, Vol. 2's guest appearances are almost exclusively by obscure New Orleans MCs. And one guy named Bossman, who appears on two tracks and couldn't ride a beat to save his life, is clearly not the same Bossman from Baltimore who is currently signed to Virgin Records. But "Deuces Up" features Houston rappers Yung Redd and the increasingly tiresome Paul Wall, once again selling 16 bars of the same flow he uses on every song. But the real star of the track is Pretty Todd's barely-there production, all faint ticks and fizzes of percussion around a woozy bassline and distant organ note. The track is too layered and detailed to be described as minimalist, but it's so hypnotically slight and quiet that it stands head and shoulder's above the album's more generic 808 beats.

Most of the media attention to Juvenile and Lil Wayne's recent albums has focused on the one or two songs from each that bear any reference to last year's horrific flooding of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. By comparison, several songs on Heart of tha Streetz, Vol. 2 reference Katrina, although largely by way of passing mentions, with nothing as overt as Juve's "Get Your Hustle On." But B.G. has succeeded in making an appropriately bleak, angry post-Katrina album, whereas Juvenile filled Reality Check with some of the most tedious, monotonous strip club music ever made. Curiously, though, B.G. ends his album with the slick sex jam "Whateva U Like," which contains the single most bizarre and unexpectedly humorous reference to Katrina to date. On the topic of female ejaculation, B.G. shrugs "I ain't trippin' on that, let's sex some more / I been through Hurricane Katrina, I been wet before."

Throughout Heart of tha Streetz, Vol. 2, B.G. trumpets the same comeback he's been talking about ever since he left Cash Money. But he might be onto something, since he's become the most sought after collaborators in the South lately, and has been surrounded by rumors of signing with G-Unit. Last week, though, he signed a contract to move Chopper City Records from independent distribution on Koch to Atlantic Records, with yet another album due out this fall, to be executive produced by T.I. So if this album seems like a minor work in a long and prolific career, that may be because it's about to be outshined by a much bigger project less than six months later.

Reviewed by: Al Shipley
Reviewed on: 2006-04-10

Labels: hip hop, mp3, some shit I wrote, Stylus

2Pac f/ the Outlawz - "Pain" (mp3)
I was never that into Pac, although I heard a lot of his hits while he was still alive, and he definitely seemed more famous at the time than Biggie. But since they died, Biggie probably gets played 10x as much on the radio stations I listen to, and I dunno, it just took me a lot longer to come around to accepting Pac as one of the greats, East coast bias and all that bullshit. Last year I had Ethan make me a Pac mix CD, but still the only stuff I have besides that is All Eyez On Me. This track kinda snuck up on me, after I heard the beat used on a track by a Baltimore rapper, Bossman, and loved the beat so much that I posted it on Gov't Names, trying to find out where it's originally from. And one of my awesome readers hooked me up with the original, apparently only ever released on the cassette version of the Above The Rim soundtrack (and also remade by Ja Rule on Pain Is Love). The crazy thing about the Bossman version is it turns out that he just looped the first few bars before all the drums kick in, so his track has more of an odd low energy feel to it, but the original is great on its own, maybe one of my favorite 2Pac tracks now, and there's a sample from Star Trek V at the beginning.

Labels: Baltimore music, Government Names, hip hop, mp3

Jim Gaffigan - "Hot Pockets" (mp3)
Ever since his Comedy Central special aired a few weeks ago, J.G. and I have been obsessed with this bit, saying "hoooot pocket" and all the other variations (dead pocket, diarrhea pocket, flush pocket, caliente pocket) under our breath all day around the apartment. Completely stupid, but it never gets old.

Labels: comedy, mp3

R.E.M. - "Time After Time Etc. (Live Medley: Time After Time/Red Rain/So. Central Rain)" (mp3)
Contrary to its title, Essential R.E.M. In the Attic: Alternative Recordings 1985-1989 is completely inessential, cobbling together b-sides already collected on Dead Letter Office and a few alternate mixes that appeared on Eponymous. It's a testament to my fucked up record buying priorities as a teenager that I own this but not all of their actual studio albums from this period. But this track is the main reason I'm glad I held onto it. A real quiet performance with no drums, maybe as an encore, sounding more unsure of what song to play than doing an actual medley, delving into a quick few bars of Peter Gabriel. But I really like the vibe of it, especially on the "So. Central Rain" part, when those Mills background vox come in on the 2nd verse, and the outro, always my favorite part of the song, is super intense.

Labels: mp3

Dem Franchize Boyz f/ Bun B - "My Music" (mp3)
"I keep white, keep purp, like a crayon box." The only song on the Franchize album produced by JD (even kinda has the same wobbly synth groove that was the only thing I really liked about "Grillz") and the best song on the album that hasn't been a single, which probably means it's a future single (but still not as good as Ray Cash's "Bumpin' My Music"). My review ran in the City Paper this week. And with all due respect to my wise and powerful editor, I have to say I just about did a full-body wince when I saw that 2 references to minimalism had been added to my draft that'd originally included none. Maybe one of these days I'll rant about how I take issue with the M-word being tossed at hip hop beats (particularly all that crisp Southern 808 stuff) anytime they don't have the ambient hiss of a dusty sample or a ton of Dr. Dre/Irv Gotti windchimes and wooshing atmospherics slapped on top, when usually the word doesn't really fit at all, in my opinion. Oh, I guess I just did.

Also in CP, I finally review a good movie, Inside Man.

Labels: City Paper, hip hop, mp3, some shit I wrote

Two Dollar Guitar best-of mix, part 1:

1. Everybody's In A Band (mp3)
2. Happy Guitar
3. Kilroy
4. Song For A Dead Friend (mp3)
5. Cascade
6. Path Train Blues
7. Interlude
8. Blood On The Plow
9. Canny
10. Conversation With Myself
11. Guilt
12. Black Star
13. Star Sixty
14. T-Shirt (mp3)
15. Twilight Limited
16. Stones Vs. Zep

Yesterday, I talked a bit about my Stylus piece on Smells Like Records, and posted some tracks from the label's releases. But I only mentioned in passing my favorite Smells Like band, Two Dollar Guitar, the band led by Tim Foljahn that featured Steve Shelley on drums and (usually) Dave Motamed on bass. Ten years ago when I was a teenager obsessed with Sonic Youth, I would rummage through the SY bin at stores and snap up whatever was in there, side projects, noise improv solo albums, whatever. And I bought Two Dollar Guitar's Burned And Buried without having any idea what it sounded like or even what the SY link was. And that just ended up being one of those random indie records that I fixated on at that age, even though it didn't really sound like SY or anything else I was listening to. Tim Foljahn just sings these morbidly funny and sometimes genuinely sad songs in a low, unpolished voice, and most of the other artists that I've since realized are probably comparable (like, I don't know, probably Nick Cave) never really grabbed me in the same way.

A couple years later, my first foray into making a website was a Two Dollar Guitar fansite. You have to remember, this is back in the 90's when a lot of bands didn't even have official sites, so this was maybe less geeky thing to do than it would be today, although still really geeky. And it's a thoroughly 90's webpage from my personal AOL account with very barebones design and primitive HTML and everything. The amazing thing is that even though I started this site almost 8 years ago, and probably haven't updated it in about 6, it's still there, which I guess is the sole benefit of keeping the same AOL account going all this time. I don't think I even would know how to take down or update the site if I wanted to at this point.

In the course of running the site, I exchanged a lot of e-mails with the SLR folks. And in October '99, by complete coincidence, Two Dollar Guitar ended up playing a show opening for Mike Watt in the tiny Delaware resort town where I lived. So I set up an interview before the show, and my brother and I got to interview Tim, Steve, and their bassist at the time, Janet. I thought about editing and reprinting the interview here on Narrowcast, but ultimately decided against it, partly because it's still there, and partly because it's pretty rambling and trivial, and pertains largely to the album that they released a few months later, and goes off on tangents about the lounge singer I used to work for as a soundman and a bunch of other random stuff. It's kind of a funny read, although I wouldn't necessarily reccomend that you bother with it, unless you care at all about TDG or at least Steve Shelley. There are a few pictures of the band and me with the band, if you have any interest in seeing a 17-year-old version of me, thinner and with more hair, standing next to some of my musical heroes.

The album that Two Dollar Guitar released a few months later, Weak Beats And Lame-Ass Rhymes, has some of their best stuff, and I saw them live a couple more times after it was released. But that was about 6 years ago, and there's been barely any activity from the band since. Tim has played a few solo shows in New York since then, and in 2003 he played a show in Baltimore and I got to catch up with him a little bit and hear the new songs he was working on, including a really promising one based around the guitar line from "Cascade," from the Train Songs instrumental album. But it's been 2 and a half years since then and no other hint of a new album yet, so I'm not holding my breath, although I would be the first in line to buy it.

I just kinda threw this mix together, and I mainly call it Part 1 because I wasn't able to include a lot of stuff I'd like to have. Ideally I'd include stuff from their 7"s (the b-side "Music Don't Matter" is easily one of my all-time favorite TDG tracks), Tim's bizarre cassette-only releases on Old Gold Records, and the Weak Beats-era Insound tour support EP, which has some great covers and originals on it, but is all packed into 2 long tracks and isn't really usable for a mix CD. So someday if I can split up the tracks on that CD and digitize the other stuff, there'll be a part 2. Plus, their songs are generally pretty long, so I definitely can't fit all my favorites on one disc. This band has pretty limited appeal and I don't really expect them to cast the same spell on anyone else that they did for me, but I'm still gonna keep throwing the stuff I love out into the ether of cyberspace, like I've been doing since I was 16.

Labels: mixtapes, mp3, Two Dollar Guitar

This week in Stylus, I contributed to the Non-Definitive Guide to the Artist-Run Label feature, writing the last 2 label profiles for Roc-A-Fella Records (nothing that people don't really already know about in there) and Smells Like Records, who are close to my heart and considerably more obscure. I don't have every release on Steve Shelley's label, and I don't love all of the ones I've heard (the Mosquito album is one of the rare instances in which I took a CD back to the store after one listen for reasons other than scratches on the disc). But it's still probably my favorite tiny indie vanity label ever, and means way more to me than just any old Sonic Youth side project. Here are some of my favorite selections from their catalog:

La Lengua Asesina - "Hotel Opera" (mp3)
For anyone who's ever wondered about the origin of my AOL e-mail address, it's this, the brief slide guitar instrumental title track from Hotel Opera, the 1998 album by La Lengua Asesina, a side project of Tim Foljahn. Foljahn's main project is Two Dollar Guitar, my favorite Smells Like band, who I'll talk more about tomorrow. It kind of amazes me that I've had that e-mail address since shortly after this record came out, almost 8 years ago. Man, that makes me feel old.

Chris Lee - "Mount Venus" (mp3)
One of the most memorable introductions I've ever had to an artist via a live show would have to be when Chris Lee played a Smells Like label showcase in 2001. He opened his set with an amazing solo rendition of Tim Buckley's "Song To The Siren," and then played with the same backing band from his self-titled first album (including Andrew Barker, who I've barely heard anywhere else but might be one of the greatest drummers I've ever seen/heard). Chris Lee is a soul singer with a voice like Steve Perry from Journey with a little Southern twang added in, which might look terrible on paper, but he's made some really good, slept on records, in addition to playing with The Sands. And the best of his 3 solo albums is the one he did for Smells Like, 2001's Chris Lee Plays And Sings Torch'd Songs, Charivari Hymns & Oriki Blue-Marches. His official site has mp3's of some of my favorite songs from him, but here's another that's real quiet and pretty, and is kinda long because there's a hidden instrumental track at the end that sounds pretty awesome awesome..

Scarnella - "Release The Spring" (mp3)
Carla Bozulich's official site has mp3's from throughout her entire career, including some of my favorites by The Geraldine Fibbers ("Lilybelle," "Dragon Lady," "Butch") and Ethyl Meatplow ("Ripened Peach"), but the selection from Scarnella, the wonderfully bizarre 1998 album with Nels Cline, "Death By Northwest," is one of my least favorite tracks on that record. For a record that was made entirely by 2 people in a short span of time, it really does cover a pretty wide range of their abilities, from aggressive noise improv to torch ballads to giddy punk. I'll have to go with "Release The Spring," though, partly for the timeliness of the selection, and partly for that amazing spidery opening guitar riff, and the way Nels stomped on a bass drum to keep time during the song the one time I saw them play as Scarnella, opening for The Boredoms in '99.

Cat Power - "Rockets" (mp3)
I'm of the minority that was only really feeling Cat Power on those first 3 albums with Shelley/Foljahn backing where Chan Marshall's voice really cut through those muddy lo-fi riffs. Moon Pix, while about half really good, was the beginning of the end, as far as smoothing out her sound for a Garden Stateified fanbase that would actually put up with the bullshit she calls a live show.

Christina Rosenvinge - "Green Room" (mp3)
This tune has a somewhat convoluted history, from being penned by Tim Foljahn and originally released as "Chambre Vert" (the title translated to French, although the lyrics were always in Engligh) on the La Lengua Asesina album, and then recorded by Two Dollar Guitar for Weak Beats & Lame Ass Rhymes with Christina Rosenvinge guesting on lead vocals, and then recorded again by pretty much the same personnel (but with a slightly softer, less rock'n'roll arrangement) for Rosenvinge's Frozen Pool album. Plus there's a full band TDG version with Foljahn on vocals that they played on tour, which might be my favorite.

Note: In light of the end of Stylus in 2007, I decided to archive the text of all my reviews for the site on this blog for posterity, since I don't what the future holds for the Stylus domain:

Smells Like

Started: 1992

How It Started: Sonic Youth is an almost an indie cottage industry unto itself, with its various side projects and noise improv one-offs spreading out over countless homegrown labels. Meanwhile, drummer Steve Shelley has quietly gone about building a catalog of of rootsy, down-tempo lo-fi that owes a greater debt to Neil Young than the band's post-punk influences with his Smells Like Records label, over the course of 15 years and a few dozen releases.

Smells Like's first release was a 7-inch by Lou Barlow's Sentridoh, and true to those origins, the label's become something of a haven for side projects, including Dump (Yo La Tengo bassist James McNew), Mosquito (Half Japanese frontman Jad Fair), and Scarnella (a stunning and experimental 1998 collaboration between Carla Bozulich and Nels Cline of the Geraldine Fibbers). But Smells Like is more than just a vanity label for sidelines by estalished indie lifers, having signed a number of young unknowns including The Clears, Nod, and New York crooner Chris Lee, whose 2001 sophomore album stands out as one of Smells Like's finest moments.

Smells Like has also fought to keep cult heroes in print, including a 1994 EP by the reunited Raincoats. But perhaps the label's most ambitious project has been a 1999 campaign of reissues of solo albums by iconoclastic 70's pop songwriter Lee Hazelwood, including his first new album in decades. But Smells Like might still be best known as the home of the SYR imprint, which has issued Sonic Youth's series of experimental EPs, beginning with 1997's SYR1.

Where They Are Now: Smells Like still occasionally takes on new artists, most recently issuing debut albums by Ursa Minor and Tony Scherr. And they continue to foster long-term relationships with new albums by Christina Rosenvinge, Nod, and Fuck frontman Timothy Prudhomme, while Tim Foljahn has been hinting at a new Two Dollar Guitar album for years. The SYR series is still going strong with this year's SYR6, and Smells Like has handled the vinyl releases of Sonic Youth's more recent major label albums and its latest spate of reissues, including the long-awaited repressing of their 1981 debut EP.
[Al Shipley]

Roc-A-Fella

Started: 1995

How It Started: Hip-hop has virtually redefined the business model for artist-run labels, with nearly every up-and-coming MC now aiming for the ownership of their own company. And although Master P's No Limit Records set the standard for the independent grind in the South, no label has been more influential in popularizing the artist-run major label imprint than Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records.

Founded with business partners Damon Dash and Kareem "Biggs" Burke after they had no luck getting him signed to a major label, Roc-A-Fella issued Jay's earlier singles, including "In My Lifetime," before getting distribution from Priority Records for his debut album, the 1996 classic Reasonable Doubt. It wasn't until 1998 when Roc-A-Fella partnered with Def Jam that Jay-Z was propelled to multi-platinum status, however.

It's to the credit of Jay-Z's marketing skills that he made Roc-A-Fella a recognized brand name despite being one of its only successful artists for several years. Aside from DJ Clue's two platinum mixtape albums, no non-Jay-Z release sold a million copies until Cam'ron's Come Home With Me in 2002. By that point, Roc-A-Fella had only modest sales to show for Philly hardcore rapper Beanie Sigel, Jay's Brooklyn crony Memphis Bleek, and the flop debut by female rapper Amil. But together, they presented a unified front as one of the most feared crews in the rap game.

The 2000 album Dynasty: Roc La Familia, stuffed with posse cuts, went a long way toward establishing the brand. But what really solidified Roc-A-Fella as a sound all its own was Jay-Z's 2001 album The Blueprint, which made in-house producers Just Blaze and Kanye West the hottest beatmakers in the game overnight, and brought soul sampling back in vogue in hip-hop. And in 2004, just months after Jay-Z announced his retirement from hip hop with The Black Album, West became the label's second multi-platinum franchise with his debut as a rapper, The College Dropout.

In recent years, Roc-A-Fella haphazardly expanded its roster, signing countless artists who never ended up releasing an album, including questionable choices like ex-Spice Girl Victoria Beckham and several underutilized veteran rappers. M.O.P. was on the label for years before moving onto a new deal with G-Unit, and Ol' Dirty Bastard passed away while working on an album for the label. Meanwhile, rumors swirled of a growing rift between Jay-Z and Dame Dash, which they denied adamantly right up until their partnership was dismantled.

Where They Are Now: Def Jam were so impressed with Jay-Z's business acumen in running one of the company's most successful labels that in 2004, he was offered the job of President of Def Jam. But the terms of the deal included Jay-Z, Dash, and Burke selling their remaining 50% share of Roc-A-Fella to Def Jam, effectively ending the partnership that the label had started. Dash has moved on with the unsuccessful Damon Dash Music Group, and one of the artists he brought to Roc-A-Fella, Cam'ron, left Def Jam and dissed Jay-Z on record. Aside from Kanye West's sophomore album, the continued success of Roc-A-Fella has yet to be seen, with meager sales of recent albums by Memphis Bleek, the Young Gunz, and Teairra Mari.
[Al Shipley]

Labels: Carla Bozulich, Chris Lee, mp3, Nels Cline, some shit I wrote, Sonic Youth, Stylus, Two Dollar Guitar

Prince - "I Would Die 4 U (Extended Version)" (mp3)
I'm not really gonna get into the debate about whether 3121 is worth the hype or just another fake comeback, but on the first listen I enjoyed it. Instead, let's talk about the 2-disc Ultimate compilation of Warner-era material that Rhino was going to put out this month, until Prince made them change the tracklist, and then push it back so as not to compete with the real new album, so it now has no certain release date. The most recent announced tracklist for it, cached here, is interesting because several of the tracks are dances mixes and extended remixes from the original 12"s instead of the better known radio or album versions. I've always been intrigued by all these alternate mixes Prince put out in the 80's, which are talked about in some detail in this ILM thread, without actually having heard many of them. But my homeboy Mat, always a dependable Prince fanatic, hooked me up with a couple, including this 10-minute version of one of my favorite Prince singles of all time, which isn't even one of the extended mixes set to appear on Ultimate. It's definitely more of a loose jam with a different structure than, say, the basic song with a longer outro like I expected, but there's some really fantastic bits in there.

Labels: mp3, Prince