One album – One story: “Antics” & “Our Love To Admire” by Interpol

You should have already heard of Interpol, a four piece band from the indie New York Scene, who came to prominence in 2002 with their debut album “Turn On The Bright Lights”. That’s right, Interpol the band, not INTERPOL the ‘cloak and dagger’ government agency. Call them mod rockers, call them brit pop, call them post punk, call them what you want, but one thing’s for sure – rock was back to reign supreme.

Antics

I first came to hear about Interpol in 2004 with the release of their sophomore album “Antics”. At the time I was in film school, 21 years old with an ego that was wildly out of check due to the fact that I worked on a couple of music clips professionally, not to mention the countless short films where I was “the man” on set and was getting a small fee for it. But in reality I was ridiculously poor and couch surfing through the dodgy neighborhood of Footscray. How I love that town and all the friends I have there, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I really haven’t stopped couch surfing but the end is nigh.

So for all these films I was on the road a lot and usually with my best friend Jake, whose house I used as a crash pad in return for transport and cheap labor. This was also the first and last time I owned an Ipod, a hard lesson learned to leave all my earthly possessions in a car to get stolen (It happened more than once.). But I digress. What I’m getting to is that it was Jake who introduced me to Interpol. He had recently bought the album and we would rock out to it in our regular sojourns. Jake was obsessed with Evil

which was a big single for them and also a good example of their sound, bass driven with crisp snare-y drums, sparse riffs but a real expressive finger picked lead guitar that harmonizes with the vocals.

Jake would love to tell me he thought this song was about masturbating. Pointing out lyrics “you’re coming with me”, “it’s the smiling on the package”, “it’s that thought that moves you upwards/embracing me with two hands”, “your pleasure’s set/ upon slow release”, “you’re weightless, semi erotic” and of course he loved “why can’t we look the other way?”. I aint completely sure but I am kinda certain that this is a tale of love and heartache, not masturbating.

But there is something to Interpol that definitely lends itself to themes of sex and love. Almost all their songs seem to deal with these themes whether they come across as dark tales of heartbreak or sleazy seductive confessionals by modern day Lotharios. You only have to look at other singles from Antics like
Narc

a song that starts with the lyric “Touch your thighs I’m the lonely one”. It is a song told by a man on his knees as he begs a woman to love him. Then there is the most successful single from this album
C’mere

, it’s success may have to do with the context of this song being one of the most universal stories in existence – one where you are in love with someone and they are in love with someone else “you’re in love with someone else/ it should be me”. I could almost list every song on this album, see also
Slow Hands

Public Pervert

.

Our Love To Admire

I actually didn’t become obsessed with Interpol until the release of “Our Love to Admire”. In my aforementioned tale of rocking out to “Antics” in the car with Jake, I didn’t mention that I only really rocked out to it because I was too lazy to change the album. At the time I was probably listening to more Mars Volta and Peaches, and “Antics” got benched quite quickly as I lost the CD somewhere in the car for a couple of years.

But then came the release of their new album and continual airplay on Triple J and it stood out and stuck in my mind until I went out and bought it. I played “Our Love To Admire” to death, and it gradually became one of my favorite albums. I even took it into several of the trucks I would make runs in while I was at work. From the opening
Pioneer to The Falls

until the conclusive
The Lighthouse

I find this a captivating album and a brilliant example of the works of Interpol. Their signature sound is at its best, simple but always expressive complementing Paul Banks’ vocals and lyrics.

Yeah, Interpol is a band that you could say sound the same song to song, album to album but they do their thing brilliantly well. Good music never goes astray.

Favorite songs on this album are abundant:

No I in Threesome

The Heinrich Maneuver

and Mammoth

These were all released as singles and made the album quite popular

Rest My Chemistry

Download: 08_Rest_My_Chemistry.mp3?nvb=20090427104022&nva=20090428105022&t=00040bb2fcc0bed0a1b8f

is also a big standout – its expressiveness never fails to move me.

My favorite thing about Interpol is that there sound to me seems to display a restrained violence. Like being outwardly emotionless but inside your soul is screaming.
Wrecking Ball

is a good example. Jake and I both had a vision for a music clip for this track that would just feature someone smashing things in slow motion, think of the shot at the end of “Pirates of the Caribean 3” as the evil Lord Cutler Beckett in defeat descends the staircase of the Dutch East India Trading Co. ship as it gets blown to smithereens. See also the new music clip by Spike Jonze for U.N.K.L.E “Heaven” where skateboarders travel in slow motion and things blow up. When shot in slow motion destruction takes on an austere beauty.

That austere beauty is what Interpol is for me. If you like dark and moody music that doesn’t make you feel suicidal but strangely empowered, check Interpol out (also, I’d like to make mention of their music clips because they are also quite good. Like “Evil” displaying a car crash with a puppet singing and “The Heinrich Maneuver” which features ultra slow motion).

Read Full Post »

One album – One story: “In Rainbows” by Radiohead

You would have to have been born in a cave in Afghanistan to have never heard of Radiohead and you surely wouldn’t need me to tell you about the British rock legends that they represent. I was quite young when they released their first single in 1992 but it didn’t manage to miss my small meandering 9 year old mind, probably due to the fact that that single was
Creep

However I didn’t run out and buy “Pablo Honey” upon its release in ’93 nor did I even jump when the successful ’95 album “The Bends” got out. It wasn’t really until ’96 when I watched Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and the release of “OK Computer” in ’97 that I started really paying attention. This was also the part of my youth when I was starting to explore music, I’m not sure exactly what I was listening to but I think I was moving on from Guns n’ Roses and Metalica and wandering towards Nirvana and the grunge scene, blame an 11 year old for being ass about. The grunge scene was taking hold and looking back it seems weird, Kurt Cobain had been dead already for a couple of years.

It was my obsession with Romeo + Juliet and a tape I got from my inseparable best friend that were the real reasons why I became a fan of Radiohead. I fell in love with the hyper stylization of Romeo + Juliet – it was with this film that I realized my love for theatre, literature and film. Two Radiohead songs were featured in the movie,
Talk Show Host

almost a center peice, and
Exit Music (For a Film)

over the closing credits.

Would the film be as dramatic and modern if it was not for the inclusion of these songs? I mean the somber tone of the film the audience is left with is undeniably affected by the searing voice of Thom Yorke. So obviously the first Radiohead album I bought was “OK Computer” which was so deservedly dubbed “One of the greatest rock albums of all time”.

Unfortunately I didn’t really stay with Radiohead after “OK Computer”. Though it wasn’t because I was part of the backlash to their new sound on “Kid A” and “Amnesiac”. I actually liked everything I heard from them. It was just me moving around and listening to other music, I think Korn then Marilyn Mason and a slew of non descript metal before I moved on to hip hop, and every time I saw Radiohead records on the shelf I thought about buying them, but it was always “next time”, and that time just didn’t come. I also missed out on the 2003 release of “Hail to the Thief”.

It wasn’t actually until Thom Yorke’s debut solo “The Eraser” in 2006 that I really got into Radiohead’s musical universe. That was a fucking great album.

In 2007, when Radiohead decided to radically releases “In Rainbows” on the internet allowing punters to pay what the thought an album was worth, I was too lazy for this preferring to wait for the CD release. The cool thing was that one of my favorite radio stations, Triple J, played a copy from the internet in its entirety as soon as it was online. From that moment on I love Radiohead and everything they stand for.

How fucking expressive is that man’s voice so come 2007 and Radiohead vocally against the tired and recalcitrant “Music Industry” and
So what do I think of “In Rainbows”? Incredible. How do you go about topping albums when they are “One of the greatest”? You don’t – you keep progressing and you achieve an album like “In Rainbows” to rival the old ones. And Radiohead still sound like Radiohead on this one. They are soft and melodious, emotionally charged rock, expressive and laden with a symphony of great beats.

Recently I had been deliberating as to what songs to include – the album is just so strong as a whole. When I was chatting to a friend and mentioned I was writing about “In Rainbows”, without hesitation he asked
15th Step

or
Faust Arp?

But I was sure my highlight of the album was
Jigsaw Falling into Place

I love the intensity on this track. It’s got that raw emotion that I was attracted to since “Creep” I guess. And this is not to say that my friend’s picks weren’t equally as good.

I’d also really like to mention
Nude

a moment that really reminds me of R+J and O.K Computer but also another film I really liked at that time, “Stealing Beauty” by Bernardo Betrolucci. It had a good soundtrack that included Portishead’s “Glory Box” whom I also listened to at the time (to me these two bands definitely share some similar qualities). Such a sweetly haunting sound. Also
All I Need

yet another seductively slow emotionally charged killer tune.

Recently I watched Choke, the film adaptation of the novel by Chuck Palahniuk. It is only the second adaptation of a Palahniuk novel after Fight Club, which is quite weird when he is quite prolific putting out a novel almost every year, all of high literary caliber. While the film stayed true to the novel I felt it was not really displaying the verve of Fight Club. But it was the use of
Reckoner

another truly great moment on this album, in the closing of the film that just goes to show the influence people still find in Radiohead to stir feelings in people. If you are making a lackluster film or T.V show and you really want to pull that melodramatic punch just before the credit why not just use Radiohead to force out those tears.

One of my best friends to this day that I met through film school, whom I think is fashionably and musically backward clinging to some hay-day of who-the-fuck-knows-when, finally saw eye to eye with me on this one. Though I think the comment upon hearing “In Rainbows” was something like “There is just so much good music coming out now. I have been waiting for this” (also referring to Portishead’s “Third” and Battles’ “Mirrored”). This album’s music is clearly sumptuous, beautiful and purely breathtaking.

I can’t praise this album enough. I can’t recommend this album enough.

Enough said.

See also; “Rabbit in Your Headlight” by U.N.K.L.E feat. Thom Yorke a great track made even better by the correspondingly violent music clip.

Read Full Post »

The Matching Mole post

(The whole album can be streamed bellow)

Matching Mole by Matching Mole…how to start the eulogy I’m about to give to this masterpiece of music?

I think that for your sake I should keep this short, so here goes.

The fact that I easily place it in my top 3 list of best albums ever doesn’t really constitute a reference for you. The fact that this album is unknown to 90% of my musically-inclined entourage, and also 99% of the people who I presented it to doesn’t help either. For reasons I just cannot comprehend, Matching Mole’s self-titled release has been eclipsed from the amateurs of jazz and jazz-rock of today – barely has it even been able to reach the ears of the experts of the genre. I guess this most likely has to do with the band’s very short life-span. Robert Wyatt leaves Soft Machine in 1971 to form Matching Mole – in 1973 the project comes to a end when Wyatt fell from a window and becomes paralyzed from the waist down.

This outstanding concept album deserves recognition and an infinite number of listens, so today I decided to bring it to you. I could go on and on with Matching Mole, but instead I have decided to play it sober and just let the music speak for itself.

Behold!

[This is an extremely coherent concept album - the breaks you will have to experience switching from one song to the next in this post pays no honor to the album's beauty, and for that I am sorry.]

O Caroline

Instant Pussy

Signed Curtain

Part of the Dance

Instant Kitten

Dedicated to Hugh, But You weren’t listening

Beer as in Braindeer

Immediate Curtain

Voila, my doggy friends.

Mruff to all.

Read Full Post »

One album – One story: “Dear Science” & “Return To Cookie Mountain” By TV On The Radio

[There's often more behind the discovery of an album than just the music. Here's S. Ziggy Zagami's review of TV on the Radio's "Return to Cookie Mountain” & “Dear Science”. If you would like to share your One album - One story, we'd love to post it.]

TV On The Radio are a five piece band from Brooklyn, NY created by multi-instrumentalist David Andrew Sitek and vocalist Tunde Adebimpe. Their music is a melting pot of styles like their city of origin. What I love most about their style is that it’s all over the place. They never deliver the same thing twice – their truly original and intrinsically modern touch is quite a feat to pull-off in a time when music is so old you can’t help finding a lot of new music to be a rehash of something gone before.

So it is with great shame that what prompted me to really listen to TVotR was one of the most average and rehashed movies I have seen of late, “Never Back Down”. My insatiable appetite had led me to consume pretty much every new released film at the DVD library, and in my apprehension to really search through the rest of the stores catalog, I just picked up “Never Back Down” – a modern remake of the “Karate Kid” but with a modern take.

Now I went to film school, and at times I can be critical, but in other ways I have never really seen a film that I couldn’t sit through, I have never walked out on a film, and if you asked me what I thought of a particular movie I would probably just probably tell you it was “good”. But I am just giving you the excuses as to why I sometimes watch crap. I know its crap and I just submit to it, sometimes you just need that escape.

So in the obligatory training montage, my ears pricked up as I heard the low-fi fuzz sounds of this intense but ultimately fun grooving rock song. It was
“Wolf Like Me”

off the album “Return to Cookie Mountain”. It was not the first time I had heard it, I was already familiar with this and some other singles from TVotR courtesy of my much loved favorite radio station, Triple J. But maybe at the time I was just not ready for it musically, probably because I was obsessing over something else.

But I was instantaneously obsessed with this song and this sound as it consumed my entire being. I’d listen to it repeatedly on Youtube. I asked a friend of mine about TVotR, because on music he can be as informative as Wikipedia but with an opinion. And of course he knew this band and liked them and played me his favorite track right then and there – it was
“Staring at the Sun”

from their second album “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes”.

Well off I went to HMV to buy “Return to Cookie Mountain”. Now I don’t know if this is a done thing here or if it’s just my imagination but every time there seems to be a new release of a album or a book, the stores tend to remove the artist’s entire back-log and only display 50 or more copies of the new release. No matter where I went all I could find was “Dear Science”. So I just bought that one and I have got to say that the first time I played it I was disappointed, the album didn’t sound like “Wolf Like Me”.

“Dear Science”

But I soon fell in love with “Dear Science”. While it was a slightly different sound from “Return To Cookie Mountain”, it is not a complete departure. It’s just different like ordering beef, and getting chicken or something.
“Dancing Choose”

a dance tune that starts with only a low-fi buzz accompanying a flurry of vocals that are borderline-rap and then progresses to handclaps, a ping-pong guitar hook, a wonderful horn section and harmonized vocals in the choruses.

Their big tune
“Golden Age”

is a funkedelic-feel good dance tune – one of those tracks that reminds us that life is still good, and that we are youthful and up until recently had been living in a “Golden Age”, but the sun will shine again.

Another notable track on the album in their up-tempo repertoire is
“Crying”

. An easily likable track with its pop beat and smooth falsetto vocals, but in the same time also containing some of the darker undertones on the album.

I also like
“Shout Me Out”

for those softer moments. This track is a slow burner that gradually builds as they add more and more layers, and as Adebimpe amps up the intensity in his vocals.

The next track on the album is another TVotR classic
“DLZ”

Again this displays common themes for TVotR, low-fi in the intro that gets louder and louder as the vocals get ferocious.

“Return To Cookie Mountain”

I’m the sort of person that after a few listens embraces the whole album, always capable of finding something worth-while in every song. So it wasn’t surprising that when I saw “Return to Cookie Mountain” return to the shelves, I bought it, hungry for more TVotR. But when I first listened to the album I was again in a state of disappointment. Yeah this album had “Wolf Like Me” not to mention
“Province”

A big selling point for me, not only a fantastic track but it featured a famous TVotR fan, Mr David Bowie (I am a huge Bowie fan and this pairing was definite winner for me).

But I felt the rest of the album was a bit lackluster. Probably because I was looking to be amped up with the intensity I found on “Wolf Like Me”. However, this album is more atmospheric and introverted. Soon enough though the more I listened to it the more I adapted to its mellowness. Or maybe it was just right for my mood as I started to wallow in depression. I often wonder if I listen to music that reflects my mood or if my mood starts to reflect the music that I listen to.

Anyway I really like the way this album opens.
“I Was A Lover”

is a case in point to my theories that this is an introverted lament to love, but I like how this seemingly soft song is filled with expressive noise that seems to scream.

There is also
“Hours”

a track that seems to fuse at the end of the album in
“Tonight” through its cooing hook.

Though for all its softer points this album is still full of solid rock and I love the bounciness of vocals and music alike on tracks like
“Dirtywhirl”

.

I thoroughly recommend giving both of these albums a try, who knows, you might find something that you like. I found in the end that they are not too dissimilar, and that there are tracks from both that could be on the same album. The evolution of TVotR is only going to continue, so keep a watch out for them because even though “Dear Science” was at the top of the heap in ’08 they may soon be dominating in years to come.

Read Full Post »

One album – One story : “The Number Of The Beast” by Iron Maiden

[There's often more behind the discovery of an album than just the music.  Here's S. Ziggy Zagami's review of Iron Maiden's epic album 'The Number Of The Beast'.  If you would like to share your One album - One story, we'd love to post it.]

Review by By S. Ziggy Zagami.

You are encouraged to start reading this review by listening to the following track:

The Number Of The Beast

Yeah it’s old, “The Number of the Beast” being the third album released by Iron Maiden in early 1982. Maybe you’ve heard it, maybe you’re familiar with it, maybe it reminds you of being young and carefree, maybe it reminds you of a period in your life you’d rather forget or just maybe you’ve never heard it or even considered it. Iron Maiden’s name is synonymous with rock n’ roll, some would probably even consider them gods or pioneers of heavy metal. They were huge proponents of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal alongside the likes of Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Indeed, they are still huge, and are currently flying around the world in their private 747 jumbo-jet “Ed Force One” on their world tour “Somewhere Back in Time” which began in February 2008 and is continuing until March 2009.

“The Number of the Beast” was released in March 1982 (making it a year older than me). Although the album was critically panned, Rolling Stone remarked that this album “blusters along aimlessly, proving again that bad music is hell”. The album enjoyed commercial success, going platinum in the U.S. The famous single “The Number of the Beast” got the band wrongly accused of being satanic. While the lyrics do talk about practices of Satanism, they do not really advocate listeners to be satanic or suggest that the band themselves are satanic followers, nor is the theme a recurring one on the album. When producing this album, Iron Maiden seemed to be inspired by films, books, poems, TV and other music, and these themes are more recurrent than Satanism. Iron Maiden are definitely a theatrical band and this is evident in “The Number of the Beast”. However, if you put the corniness of the lyrics aside and just give yourself over to this show-stopping tune, most likely you will be dancing around like an idiot and screaming at the top of your register. Another big tune from this album is

Run to the Hills

which is possibly one of their biggest and is still being used to close their performances. However, my favorite song on this album at the moment is the closing track

Hallowed Be Thy Name

This song is another of their famous tracks that make this a classic album. “Hallowed Be Thy Name” is a true closing track, like they used to be done – it is the most epic, and the longest track on the album. But it’s not the length that pulls you into it. No, it’s the sheer grandiosity of the lead guitar that grips you at the very core of your emotions and keeps you engaged long after the track has finished. Other notable songs on this album are “22 Acacia Avenue”, the second part in the “Charlotte the Harlot” saga,

The Prisoner

which was inspired by the British television show of the same name and includes dialogue from the show in its intro, and which is clearly referencing the horror movie.

Iron Maiden have been releasing music since 1978, their latest release being “A Matter of Life and Death” in 2006, and are planning on releasing their 15th album some time in 2009. They have sold more than 70 million albums worldwide, and their sales are undoubtedly only going to continue to increase considering you can pretty much find any of their albums selling for only $10 at the moment, due to somewhat of a revival of old school rock music. Their achievements are too numerous to list them all.

So why did I review “The Number of the Beast”? Well, I have previously said that I suffer from somewhat of a short attention span. I flirt from one style of music to the next, my musical taste inextricably tied to my moods and I’m up and down like a yo-yo. It was in May 2008 when I found Iron Maiden. I was working night shoots on a Bollywood film in Melbourne. It was a slow night so I was cleaning lighting stands with another guy and someone put on Iron Maiden. I wasn’t familiar with the band, but when I heard them I immediately fell in love. Listening to them even made the tedious task of cleaning light stands in the cold somewhat enjoyable. Suddenly I was reminiscing about my childhood. I used to love heavy metal – it’s loud, it’s big, it’s bold, it’s brash. Most of all it’s fun – from the all out assault of drums, to the driving bass lines. From the simple riffing grooves of rhythm guitar, to the powerful emotion of the more complex lead guitar. And then of course there is the singer who is often over the top, with cheesy lyrics and falsetto squeals. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why I had never explored the genre to its fullest back when I was twelve, although it was likely because I moved on to something else pretty quickly. The next day I bought an album called “The Number of the Beast” because it had some of their most famous singles.

While some may think this music is tired and old, and I admit it is hard to describe differences between songs, I only recently discovered this album and I truly find it invigorating. I feel the best way to describe how individual songs differ on a rock album like this is by varying intensities of energy. And this album on the whole gives me a real pick me up. So if you haven’t heard give it a try, it’s a classic. If you haven’t listened to it in a while give it a fresh listen. And when you listen to it, abandon your inhibitions and give yourself over and have fun. If you have listened to this album and don’t like it, get over it, cheer up.

Don’t take life so seriously, don’t take music so seriously. Have fun.

Read Full Post »

One album – One story : “Santogold” by “Santogold”

[There's often more behind the discovery of an album than just the music.  Here's S. Ziggy Zagami's review of Santogold's eponym album 'Santogold'.  If you would like to share your One album - One story, we'd love to post it.]

Review by By S. Ziggy Zagami.

I hear her while I am at the movies, while I am watching TV and I heard her the other day while I was shopping, although admittedly I was in HMV and it shouldn’t have been surprising. The first single

“L.E.S Artistes”

presented itself with a strong beat reminiscent of 80’s pop and is indicative of the rest of the album (it was ranked #2 Best Single of the Year by Rolling Stone and the album was ranked #6 in the 50 Best Albums of 2008).

However, what really attracted me to Santogold in this song is her voice which sounds like a restrained yell. When this song was getting a lot of air time I was working on a HBO miniseries and on one particular day had stalled a truck mounted generator on a steep hill. It was a busted old truck with a shit gearbox and I just could not find a low enough gear to make it up the hill. Sitting there trying to be calm and get going again as swiftly as possible, my insides felt like they were performing their own brand of restrained screaming. And I remember later that day hearing another Santogold single,

“Lights Out”

which has a smooth jive that will just melt your worries away.

As Santogold sung “Darling/Don’t got to worry, you’re locked in tight”, my previous anxiety was dispelled. Certainly, there are a number of songs on this album which will soothe your troubles, such as:

“Say aha”

an unrelenting pop song with perhaps a tinge of punk influence and easy hook to sing along to “say aha”.

“Creator”

has also definitely picked me up while exhausted on a drive home, with its mash-up of hip-hop and dance music that combine well for this fun song.

I first heard a sound bite of her on the radio where she described how her vocals would at one instant be soft and quiet and then the next she’d be yelling at the top of her register. This difference in oft changing tone and pace appealed to me. It reminds me of a friend who once exclaimed that a particular album was “music for people with ADD”. I often find that this is the type of music I am drawn to as I posses somewhat of a very short attention span, possibly an undiagnosed ADD.

So anyways, what can I say about Santogold and her self-titled debut album – it’s a funny name that a lot of people seem to struggle with. Her real name is Santi White and Santogold was supposedly a nickname given to her by a friend. Santogold’s music  is clearly inspired by 1980’s pop trends. She admits that she “felt that a lot of pop music from the ’80s had a depth to it” and that shes hopes “to bring back some more good pop songs.” Santogold is also inspired by New Wave, Punk and Reggae music, including performers such as the Pixies, Bad Brains, Blondie, Devo, Grace Jones, Fela Kuti, James Brown and Aretha Franklin. It is surely this diverse mixture that would sum up her sound and get her compared to her contemporaries, such as M.I.A. However, while people may want to pigeonhole artists like Santogold and M.I.A as creating a certain genre of music, the words to describe this genre certainly fail me, as it seems clear their eclectic mix of tastes has led them to create music that is entirely their own.

Santogold’s hopes surely have come true, she has managed “to bring back some more good pop songs” over the past year.  You’ve most likely already heard her on commercials and films. Maybe you didn’t know it was her, maybe you’re already all over her or maybe you think she is too pop or too kitsch. But it is clear that you will be taking notice of her in the future.

Read Full Post »

Old-school gangsta femdom hip-hop paved my love for music

This is the story of my very first album, the one CD that lead to all the others, the musical masterpiece that opened my eyes and delivered my naive 8 year old self to the infinite delicacies of music. This musical chef d’oeuvre is no other than ‘$hort Dogs In The House‘ by hip-hip porn-gangsta Too $hort.

I was indeed very naive at the time but couldn’t of cared less. I have memory flashes as if it were yesterday. Me, my brother and my mom had gone shopping for clothes in some shopping mall in Walnut Creek, California. I had probably complained all morning about the whole idea of tearing me away from ‘Duck Hunt’ while I was clearly on the brink of showing those agglomerated piles of pixels who’s boss, just to buy me useless pieces of cloth that I would end up smudging in some pile of mud the same day anyways.

Leaving the GAP store, my hopes were back on track – I was freed from my daily labor and headed towards the safety of home and the pleasures of my NES. On the way out of the mall, my brother, 3 years my elder, had insisted we stop by Tower Records so he could buy the latest Bel Biv Devoe or something. I was shocked and appalled. He was making me loose precious minutes of duck slaughter just to go buy useless music. Everything besides killing ducks was useless to me that day anyways.  I resigned my screeching and screaming after a couple of minutes and entered what was to become my Alibaba’s Cavern shortly after.

Since my brother was getting something it was only natural that I too would get something. That was the price my mother had to pay to keep my wrath under control.

‘$hort Dogs In The House’ is what I chose.

Since my bro was opting for a CD where the cover portrayed three black dudes dressed like clowns from outer-space, I just had to get something more poignant, underground and aggressive. I came across Too $hort’s section (actually don’t even know if he had a complete section, probably just in the ‘T’s) and knew right away that ‘$hort Dogs In The House’ was it. You see, at the time I had a labrador named Balthazar and I absolutely loved dogs (still do as you can see with all the doggy references on this blog). This album matched my expectations perfectly as I was convinced this Too Short fellow loved dogs too.

I like to think it was jealousy, but my brother wasn’t happy about my choice. He urged my mom to get me something else, saying that the explicit lyrics weren’t suitable for an 8 year old. This obviously started a fight as I was certain my brother was yet again out to get me for no reason, like he always was when we were kids.

My mom was clearly as naive as I was.

‘$hort Dogs In The House’ is an ode to macho-gangsta-femdom kamasutra. And I loved it. My eyes were on the cover’s dog and my ears were relinquishing Todd Anthony Shaw’s (aka Too $hort) lyrical spittin’. I didn’t understand a single word but I was learning them. I didn’t get why he was wearing over sized golden necklaces but I was freestylin’ wearing my grand ma’s.

Have a listen to what paved the road to my love for music:

Invasion Of The Flat Booty Bitches by Too $hort

Invasion_of_the_flatbbottom.mp3

Dogs and brotherly controversy weren’t the only reason I got into old school rap. I loved the funk inflicted beats the Dj’s would come up with, and the steady straight forward flows the MC’s rapped to. I remember listening to NWA, Easy-E, The Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff, Grand Master Flash, D-Nice, LL Cool J and many others hours on end. At the time hip-hop wasn’t all about synthesizers and minimalistic beats, I was about groove and rhythm.

Now, do I recommend ‘$hort Dogs In The House’?. Tough one. If you want to hear what sexual debauchery sounds like, then yes, listen to this album. If you want to learn how to please  a woman in bed, you can always pick-up some pretty cool tips I suppose. If you want to cruise in a Cadillac through Oakland listening to loud music and earn respect from some 40-somethings, then yes get a hold of this album. If you just want to chill to some good honest old school back to back funk infused beats and some genuine rappin’, then yes listen to this album. If you can manage to not intently analyze the lyrics, ‘$hort Dogs In The House’ is a very pleasant rap album that deserves a limited, yet appreciated listen.

mruff!

Read Full Post »

One album – One story : “The age of understatement” by “The last Shadow Puppets”

[There's often more behind the discovery of an album than just the music.  Here's S. Ziggy Zagami's story of how he found "The age of understatement".  If you would like to share your One album - One story, we'd love to post it.]

Review by By S. Ziggy Zagami.

I have never shied away from the fact that Triple J is my favorite radio station, although within the indie music scene in Melbourne (AU) it may be seen as an almost commercial government-funded radio station, hence not as true as the fan-funded Triple R. But I think that their not-quite-commercial sound is a conscious decision to appeal to a broader audience, which is a good thing since unlike most radio stations, they do a lot in the way of finding and marketing some of the best new acts from around the world. Not to mention their dedication to the daily promotion of Australian music, their ‘Aus Music Month’ in November and their program ‘Unearthed’ where unknown bands can upload their songs and get a chance to be heard.
(You can check them out www.abc.net.au/triplej. There is also a link on the website where you can upload podcasts and stream their programs. I certainly haven’t found a station like this in Montreal where I’m currently living)

Back to the topic at hand. I was sitting in the car, which I did a lot of in Melbourne, listening to Triple J when I discovered ‘The Last Shadow Puppets’ and their debut album ‘The Age Of The Understatement’. You may have heard of this little band that hails from that dreary overcast part of the world known as England thanks to one of the founding members of the ‘Artic Monkeys’, a bloke by the name of Alex Turner. The other founding member is Miles Kane of “The Rascals”, formerly the “The Little Flames” who supported the “Arctic Monkeys” on their May/June 2005 tour of the UK. A friendship was born and consequently lead to a collaboration through which they started to share musical ideas. The band was round out by the producer James Ford of ‘Simian Mobile Disco’ who helped out with drums and arrangements for the 22-piece London Metropolitan Orchestra directed by Owen Pallett.

So sitting in that car of mine I was introduced to ‘The Last Shadow Puppets’ for the first time via the singles:

‘The Age Of The Understatement’

a song driven by galloping guitars, reminisces of an old western love story,

‘Standing Next to Me’

a fast paced lounge-esque song seemingly about heartache and love, which seems to be a resounding theme here.

‘My Mistakes Were Made for You’

a cruisey and haunting 70’s spy theme of you guessed it: love and lost love.

The album on the whole reminds me of a film noir full of tales of femme fatales making love to a haunting opera, through the simplicity of Turner and Kane’s clearly annunciated full English accent inflicted vocals, their dueling guitars and the light orchestrated music provided by the London Metropolitan Orchestra.
I think it’s a good fit because the film noir and the opera are tied with that theme of love and love lost. The subtle hint of punk rock lends a solid incisive texture without whom it might have sounded a little sappy.
This album does remind me of one that you might put on in a darkened room for the purpose of soothing an aching heart while having a moment of introspection.

It’s truly a fantastic album deserving many listens.

The first two singles definitely grabbed my attention, and I really recommend checking out the video clips of Turner and Kane in the recording studio performing “The Age Of The Understatement” and “Standing Next to Me” (www.theageoftheunderstatment.com)

In my humble opinion, this is the type of album where you become nostalgic of the song that just passed all the while anticipating the one to come next, kind of like smoking when you’re really dunk.

Read Full Post »