RSS
Archive for the ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS Category
photo credit: dongraftI’ve been bragging about the new Oasis album Dig Out Your Soul
(Ed. Note: I’m reposting this with updated information, so if it looks like you’ve read this, you have — but now you can go buy the record)
I’m so sick and tired of all the bullshit, aren’t you?
I am so tired of being force-fed the idea that clowning on a style that you used to do is supposed to be clever and cool. Weezer’s completely over-hyped and under-delivering 2008 release, aka the Red Album, is getting one mention in this column and one only: every time you see another article hyping Weezer, remember that there’s a conspiracy out there of people trying to steal a piece of your soul. With all due deference to Weezer (a band whom I have loved and admired for many years), the new record just didn’t cut it, boys. I know that next great Weezer record will be here someday.
But today is not your day.
Meanwhile, only through some modern miracle did the byline of a reformed Smoking Popes happen my way this morning along with a copy of their new album, entitled Stay Down. Now, you know something? I have always liked Smoking Popes & I’ve always felt like they were treated like redheaded stepchildren to Rivers & Co., turning out a series of records and touring incessantly, putting on energetic live shows that were consistent. Smoking Popes have finally made the jump to legendary status, and you should sit up and take notice. More after the jump.
I don’t have a lot of time this morning to give it a proper overview, but I can honestly say this: if for many a year it has seemed to you (as it has to me) like Liam and Noel have been on about nothing when calling themselves “geniuses” or “brilliant”, their luck has turned (and thankfully, so has ours). Dig Out Your Soul is by far the finest new recording by Oasis in over a decade. I have enjoyed listening to it repeatedly over the last few days & plan to spend time telling you more about it when I get to a slow-down point.
All I can say is this: with a new recording this exceptional, I think Liam & Noel may have jumped the proverbial shark on disavowing the Radiohead model. This album would have sold millions in presales from fans who, upon hearing this, would immediately recognize the lost & found sounds. Don’t steal the album, you prat! Go purchase it when it comes available. I’ll tell you more when I know more. Also, forgive my hubris as a writer: I’m calling this a comeback.
Carry on.
I just haven’t been updating lately and I don’t know why. I am listless and bored with everything (not to mention being deep in the struggle), I found myself sleeping less and writing more. Just not here. It’s the mid-summer lull before the cool of autumn prevails. I’m an autumn baby, you see, so we suddenly bloom when the leaves are turning their cool oranges and muted browns and such.
Anyways, in my sullied state, I’ve found myself returning over and over to this song all week. Inspired by a request from I’m Waking Up To…” (asking what folks wake up to in the morning), I’ve decided to let the cat out of the bag about the one track that does it for me first thing in the morning. It feels empowering and essential, like the sun itself. Over time, I’ve tried the Rotary Connection’s original version, then that of the late Minnie Riperton. As lovely as each was, it did not hold the same power for me as this version, performed by Nuyorican Soul and deeply remixed by the unmistakable loving and powerful genius of London’s 4hero. At times, I find it so beautiful I’m brought to tears. The remix’s broken beat symphony is everything I need to start my day. Maybe you’ll think so, too.
Nuyorican Soul - I Am The Black Gold of the Sun (4hero Remix)
This track is available on 4hero’s very hard to find The Remix Album, Vol. 1 from Amazon.Com.
As we mentioned back in early April, Los Angeles-based Aimee Mann has a new record worth checking out. The opening haunts of bass and tambourine on “Freeway”, the opening track on Aimee Mann’s @#%&*! Smilers have a familiarity to it that quickly pave the way for a series of welcoming new songs. After taking adventurous offshoots with the concept album The Forgotten Arm and her Christmas album, Mann has turned back to the simple introspection borne of her signature tunes. The results are magnificent: soul-searching revelations in short form that are as instantly inviting as they are memorable.
The album hearkens ghosts of 70’s soft-rock genius, peppering the landscapes of each song with Fender Rhodes keyboards, tiny drums and layered, angelic harmonies. Mann’s lyrical prowess, while depth-laden, is never too calculating or too high-brow, always giving the listener a completely relate-able glimpse into the lovelorn meanderings and life machinations of the characters her songs present. @#%&*! Smilers is an exceptional disc from beginning to end with something to entice long-time fans and new.
You can purchase @#%&*! Smilers from from Amazon [mp3|cd] by clicking here.
Back before samples had to be wait eons to be cleared, back in a day when uptown hip hop crews and downtown punks were checking out each other’s shows trying to learn a thing or two, there lived Steven Stein and Doug DiFranco — two pioneers whose adventures would transform them into the hip-hop superheroes known as Steinski and Double Dee.
Rabid music fans and hip-hop enthusiasts with day jobs on the edges of the biz, they got their “big break” in 1983 by winning a Tommy Boy Records remix contest for Play That Beat, Mr. D.J. by G.L.O.B.E. and Whiz Kid. The remix has come to be known in the annals of hip-hop as “Lesson 1 - The Payoff Mix” — an incomprehensible sampladelic jam of breaks from funk and disco records that reads (just as the name suggests) like a time capsulized history lesson. It was from works like these that, much like the graffiti kids tagging stray subway trains with spray paint cans, a cult of “illegal art” in music was born. More music and full review after the jump.
