Sadie Hawkins - Doomtree

I get annoyed when the hipsters talk about Doomtree and other local rap projects, but there is some great hip hop being produced in Minnesota. A common trait of hipsters is a tendency to be local music aficionados. What disturbs me about this is that we forcefully categorize local groups into the "local scene." I know it is meant as a compliment, like organic food or wind power, but it imprisons the group into a local mindset. Organic food is great, but shouldn't the ultimate goal of organic food be to make it prevalent across all American identities? Instead it sits in its little hipster corner, where they can pay $2 more to feel morally superior to everyone else.


I think the same logic is relevant to local music as well. Yes, the Doomtree rappers are a local group. But I don't think our local pride should get in the way of their classification. We should evaluate the music based on the music, not on the labels it is associated with. If Doomtree is forever plagued by hipster local fans who don't know any of the lyrics, then they will remain a group for hipster local fans, and scarily enough, will shape themselves to adopt to this. And I do not want the talent behind Doomtree to fall victim to the plague that alternative music has already beset upon us teenage music listeners, because I sense something special here.


Dessa is the most talented member. The rest of them are somewhat forgettable. But a little trade secret for girls: female rappers who can hold their own are oddly attractive to men with B type personalities. I'll post a video featuring Ladybug from Digable Planets later in the week to enhance on this point. In the song Sadie Hawkins, Dessa exemplifies this. Speaking in Spanish, I don't know what she says, but it doesn't really matter. It's universally accepted: her voice is hot!

So that's all great and good, she has the edge that it takes to succeed in the industry that few artists possess. But she also has some meaningful, well-written lyrics, such as in the above Sadie Hawkins:


but that's alright because a little bit a melancholy
never really did hurt anybody
even if it's a sickness I'm oddly convinced at least it's honset
when life gets so tragic, comic, a matress with no sheets on it
the, fact is you have it
the, task is to want it


So she has well-written lyrics. But she also does a good job with her speaking rhythms, mixing it up well and adding some unique rhythms to catch your attention, particularly with her voice inflections. Such as:

i need a drink, a doctor, a dj, a shrink, a locksmith, a replay
clean it up, seven second delay or I, never get any radio play
like pass on the right in shift stick
pass your mic for the lipstick
flash your smile for it
this business will kill us hope you've got other interests

Notice how it's fast, full of mood at the beginning, and then sort of peters out at the end as her voice slows and hushes?

This is art. Keep the local hipster vampires away from Doomtree.

Album: Doomtree - Doomtree (censored, but they don't swear much anyways)

Act Won (Things Fall Apart) - The Roots

Inevitably, hip-hop records... are treated as though they are disposable.
They are not maximized as product, even... ya know, not to mention, as ART.


Please listen to Things Fall Apart by the Roots before making any judgments about hip hop. And when you are listening, listen to the rhymes, preferably pulling up the lyrics.


The song I'm posting is not really a song, but it is the best introduction to an album I've ever heard.

You should be excited to hear the rest of the album after such an epic intro. If you aren't, then you must not have much feeling, and should go back to your drugs, sex, and other worldly pleasures.

Album: Things Fall Apart - The Roots (bad tags though...)

Take Back the Instant - General Elektriks

The other day I searched "top French albums of 2010" and scrolled aimlessly through a couple lists, deciding on what I was going to download purely on intuition and not reading a thing. "General Elektriks," I thought, "that's a funny name. And it tricks me up, because I type a C in Elektriks everytime (Elecktriks). Tricky tricky!"

And I will say, his album "Good City for Dreamers" is excellent. His music is alternative pop funk rock, sort of? It is hard to define. He has an annoyingly high voice, but this gives his songs a sort of ironic charm. None of his songs make me think, "I'm badass," or "this is sweet," they make you think, "haha, this guy sucks," but then you think, "well, this little funky synth pattern is really starting to get to me," and then you realize you are humming his melodies, and then you put it back on, and now you are sucked into his ironically charming high voice and cutesy funk keyboard melodies.

This is also an amusing music video. Unfortunately I got his album from I don't remember where, so you'll have to find it yourself.

Spicy Sammich - Flying Lotus

Have you heard Flying Lotus yet? He does (did?) many of the ambient trippy songs on the Adult Swim commercials. When I first started listening to him and his most famous album Los Angeles, I just kept thinking "ugh, I hear Adult Swim." But after awhile, you get used to it, and then you will start to appreciate him more.

He has really good music, at oft-forsaken tempos. Electronic music today goes so blisteringly fast, it's nice to have somebody successful out there with respect for "trip-hop" music.

Headphones on, bass turned up, and look at the stars.

Album: Reset EP - Flying Lotus

Vodka - Mike & Rich

Oh young citizens of Collegeville! As you yearn for your return to lost habits, I beg of you, to take part in a listen here to my tune of your sacred drink!

Me and you both are aware of its mystical properties. Is not your worship of the substance no different than the worship of some other abstract entity?

So now, as you proceed to turn on the music for the night, your ordinary BORING generic club music, I say this to you:

you wanna try gettin WEIRD?!

Now is your chance to impress all your friends with your weird, not-very-good music! It kind of makes everyone in the room feel odd, but.... that is what you were aiming for ANYWAY!!

So as you are partaking in your worship, oh citizens of Collegeville, do partake it with thee!

For more of this strange electronic doodad music, visit me, a link!

Bitches Brew - Miles Davis

Have you ever tried to sleep with music on? I do it all the time because it creates interesting subconscious effects that are not really explainable to the conscious mind, as me and you here reading this are currently embedded in. Last year, I would leave on my Steve Reich discography for a few hours and drift in and out of sleep to pulsating minimalistic rhythms. People have often commented on his music's ability to put you in a trance. It defies ordinary conception of time signatures and melodies/harmonies, instead focusing on patterns and variations in said patterns to create a sort of long-term melody. It's something that is not easily explainable, but anybody who has laid down in twilight to Reich's music will understand this.

But enough about Reich. The point being, he is more than a musical artist. Something that I don't have the knowledge to explain transcends from his music. Reich represents this raw feeling, but other artists refine it. Here steps in Miles Davis.

Miles Davis is a well known jazz musician. Some of it, however, I would classify it simply as "Miles Davis" music, not necessarily as the establishment "jazz."

So at around 2:30pm I put on "Bitches Brew" from his same-named album and tried to sleep at a low volume.

It didn't work, at all.

It was the opposite of Reich. Instead of the trance-like pulsations giving me a subconscious body high and melting me into the dream world, Davis's oddities clawed at my subconcious and forced me awake. I tried till 3:30, but I never descended past the first stage of conciousness. His trumpet wouldn't let me. The first song I put on, "Bitches Brew" is here in three parts:

Album: Bitches Brew - Miles Davis

Black Sheep - Metric (Scott Pilgrim Soundtrack)

I thought I would use today's space to blatantly promote a movie I saw recently. Some of you may have seen it, but I think a lot have not: Scott Pilgrim vs the World. I wouldn't call it an amazing movie, but it is a very entertaining watch. The soundtrack has a certain charm to it as well. If you are looking for a unique experience, you should check it out.

Here is a song that is in the movie that also serves as a trailer of sorts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jMruFHTwrY

Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Unfortunately, the creators of this video have decided that nobody gets to see their product. You see, youtube videos aren't as shareable as you think, and I've learned this only from 4 days of working with embedding them. Wordpress simply doesn't let you play most copyrighted music at all. This Scott Pilgrim video on youtube cannot be shared with the "share" button, does not appear in the blogger linked account favorites, and will not show up on any blogger searches!

Now, fact-free internet rant: It makes me sad to know this could be the progression of the internet. This is the people's frontier. This is where the first world masses can wallow in their consumerist filth without being disturbed. I would like it if the government/corporations stopped trying to meddle with it, regardless of what "laws" tell us to do. The world is changing, but those who have power often wish to hold it. The corporate/bureaucratic/whatever you want to call it takeover of the internet feels like this to me.

Caterpillar - Beats Antique

I have a soft spot for what I call "western world music," a blending of a foreign culture's music with traditional American techniques. It's like taking one beautiful genre and mixing it with another to create a never-before-heard baby.

And whoa! Beats Antique definitely matches that criteria. I haven't decided on their musical merit yet because I just fell upon them a couple days ago. Unfortunately, a lot of their songs sound similar, and the melodies are usually pretty simple. However, they are rhythmically superb. If you are the type of person that understands how to groove, you will appreciate Beats Antique. If you like music to uplift you in some way emotionally, then it will probably be delegated to the background. This song in particular does a great job with time signatures. To follow the groove, follow the bass. If you have "it," the ability to groove, the rest just comes naturally. I hate to sound pretentious, but that's just the truth. I also really like the handclapping in this song, but handclapping always makes me giddy.

I have high hopes as I continue to look into the rest of the album. It fills a rare niche, so I may post another one of their songs once I have a better understanding of the group.

Album: Collide - Beats Antique

Murder Mystery - Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground is a weird band. Within the depths of their distinctive altrock style are some strange creations. Yes, they may have been doing "drugs" or whatever, but there is more to their music than a night of hedonism. Murder Mystery was a song that I felt highlighted the band's oddities. This music requires headphones.

They have two speakers going on at once. Each side has a distinctive rhythm - polyrhythms in speaking parts, in 196whatever. We as listeners can't comprehend what is going on, hence the "mystery." We can assume that all the details to the murder are within the song, but it needs to be solved. These peculiarities mixed with their usual raw-sounding recordings and mind-dulling instrumentation makes for a straight up weird song. Not necessarily good, but definitely a weird push in a cool direction creatively.

Lyrics

Album: The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground

Kill Everybody (Bare Noize Remix) - Skrillex

     Dubstep has become popular with the kids nowadays. I figure that this sudden upsurge comes from live performances: drug-infused kiddies frantically running around while a crazy light show and heart-pounding bass music overwhelm their psyche, blanketing all the negative day-to-day emotions with euphoria. I don't have the money nor the courage to do what these kiddies do, but I did want to see if I could find some dubstep that I appreciate.
     The thing about dubstep is that it requires nice speakers/headphones. You need to not only have a heavy bass, but a hearty bass...if that makes any sense. You don't want the bass to usurp the classic dubstep chirping melodies, but it should pop out as the main harmony line. Once you have that, the song aligns itself. Skrillex is a classic example of some fairly generic dubstep, and I like this song because we as listeners have become desensitized to its disturbing one-line message. But since it is in the context of random techno, it ends up being a  meaningless lyric repeated over and over again.

Album: Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites - Skrillex

Verdict on Dubstep: Like action movies, it can be very entertaining and you will want to get lost in it, but at the end of the day, there is no memorable substance other than "that was sweet." It's not homework music, it's "let's fucking listen to dubstep" music. But eh it's not that great.