Freddie Gibbs
Last year Gary, Indiana rapper Freddie Gibbs released two phenomenal mixtapes: The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs and Midwestgangstaboxframecadilacmuzik and today he drops his newest tape Str8 Killa No Filla in prep for his first proper label release on August 3rd via Decon, Str8 Killa EP. This man alone gives me hope and inspires me in ways that rap hasn’t been able to for quite some time. Gibbs is the reincarnation of gangster rap without all the dishonest glorification. He comes off as the most righteously ruthless man to ever rhyme and he will not hesitate to tell it how it is. I was fortunate enough to briefly speak with Gibbs a few weeks ago after a show and he along with his show met some extremely high expectations from my end. He legitimately appreciates his fans and takes the time to listen to them. He’s a truly humble man who truly deserves your support if you love music and its further evolution.
Here is the link to XXL.com where you can get his new tape. And the pre-order page for his EP.
And below I’ve assemble a few essential tracks from Freddie… including some new ones.
mp3: In My Hood by Freddie Gibbs
mp3: Sumthin’ U Should Know by Freddie Gibbs feat. Devin the Dude
mp3: Murda On My Mind by Freddie Gibbs
mp3: How We Do (‘93 Til Freestyle #3) by Freddie Gibbs
mp3: Crushin’ Feelin’s by Freddie Gibbs
mp3: The Ghetto by Freddie Gibbs
Album Review| That’s How We Burn by Jaill (Sub-Pop)
I’m not gonna front, I may be a bit bias when it comes to Jaill, I mean after all Wisconsin’s last claim to fame (that I could associate with) was probably That 70’s Show and honestly I never have and never will find Donna attractive (via lengthy-ness). So clearly I’m rooting for these dudes, but in all honesty Jaill’s That’s How We Burn leaves very little room for dick riding. That’s How We Burn is nothing more or less than what it should be; a concise summer rock album full of booze/drug addled odes to our states lesser seasons, stoned girls; generally speaking a fast-paced lifestyle with little room for regret. Their Sub-Pop debut offers much of the same qualities that entranced us on There’s No Sky (Oh My My), which believe it or not is refreshing, considering a lot of bands nowadays throw too many bells and whistles on their major (indie) label releases. You should all thank Jaill for avoiding this pitfall, however challenging it may be, because they do what they do and do it oh so damn well.
Despite the brevity of the album Jaill manage to subtly display their surprising versatility. On “Stroller” the band teeters between being arrogantly cautious fucks and their usual humble-selves with Vincent Kircher singing “Where are the beggars when I need to look good?” while remarkably retaining the band’s neighborly charm over a fierce guitar riff; the result is bad-ass. Jaill employ various pre-discovered formulas of rock condensed into tablets of speed and lines of cocaine, most notably on “Everyone’s Hip” and “She’s My Baby” where the boys tear through familiar territory (the Strokes), leaving the origins disheveled with little remains. They are a near extinct breed of musicians who aren’t afraid of truly being themselves and whose music is rarely apologetic to where it originated. That’s How We Burn is a rare feat of originality, breathing much needed life into everything between Mason Jennings (“Summer Mess”), resentment (“Thank Us Later”) and surf rock (“Baby I”). Simply put this album is great for sweating your ass off in the summer heat, so keep it real and enjoy.
Album drops today on Sub-Pop and you WILL buy it here.
$!$!$!$You catch them at Turner Hall August 14th for the album release party!$!$!$!$
(and if you really don’t dig this you can still come and punch me in the face for making you listen!)
video: Jaill “The Stroller”
Celebrating today’s release of That’s How We Burn, Sub Pop debuted the alien beach themed video for “The Stroller”. The video was shot right here in Milwaukee by The Rock and Roller Remote Controller. I was lucky enough to be at the taping but my stoner dance moves didn’t make the cut. Perhaps the extended edition? Anywho, That’s How We Burn is officially out today. So, go buy some good music.
I’ve been corrected: stoner moves abound at the 1:58 mark.
Happy Birthday – “2 Shy”
“2 Shy”, the total stoner guitar rock track, is the next single (‘released today’) off Happy Birthday’s, self titled, Sub Pop debut. Also, we’re hosting the band for a helluva good time, this Saturday (7/31). So, come hang at the Cactus Club.
mp3 – Happy Birthday – 2 Shy
1000 bonus:
mp3 – Happy Birthday – Subliminal Message
Calm Down, Ghostface
Who's the knucklehead wantin' respect?
Ghostface Killah – Beat the Clock
Ghostface Killah – The Forest (listen to Ghost talk about incarcerated cartoon characters)
Here’s two vintage Ghostface jams and a list of things that Ghostface does to chill and calm down (we copped it from his show last night in Milwaukee…oh wait, that didn’t happen):
- sip a mug of coffee
- put a fork in a toaster
- jump over the Empire State building
- drink a bottle of gin and then drive a school bus
- delivers UPS standard ground-shipping mail in one day or less like a fucking maniac
- train for the cup-stacking championships
- wrap a rubber-band around his big finger until it gets all red and swollen
- run around pretending to be an airplane
Bradford Cox’s Poop Blog
In the interest of making up for the impressive malaise with which SeizureChicken treats new music by established indie bands, here’s a handful of new singles from established indie bands.
As usual with Deerhunter’s best work, the juxtaposition between the vibrant, warm and welcoming textures of the band’s instruments and the melancholy of Cox’s voxes is the song’s main selling point – this time, there’s the added benefit of the song’s brevity (including an awesome coda saved for the song’s final thirty seconds), which harnesses the band’s normally blissful, swooning and tentacular* energy into a super-condensed two-minute snack. This song makes me think that Bradford Cox has started listening to the Kinks, which is something that I think I dreamed of writing way back when Bradford Cox was listening to Sonic Youth and blogging about his poops, or pooping on his blogs, or whatever.
* $10 per adjective
The Books, “Chain of Missing Links”
In the most bookworm-y and eclectic way possible, “Chain of Missing Links” swings, like Ratatat’s dad who moonlights as an English professor at UCLA, or Flying Lotus’s much whiter brother or even, gasp whoa sigh, some sort of long-lost agnostic cousin of the nihilistic Richard D. James Album-era Aphex Twin. The Books manipulate the line between “weirdness” and “originality” unlike any other band today (admittedly, I’m glad that they’re back), but instead of trying to defend experimental music in general, just listen to the samples in this song – the meticulous placement and deployment of each, the staggering arsenal of samples at work, and the uniquely beautiful absurdity of the end product – and recognize The Books for being nothing if not craftsmen of an impressive degree.
“Barricade” has a pretty great bridge, an okay verse or two, and a terrible chorus – but these terms are all relative. “Pretty great,” as far as Interpol goes. “Okay,” for Interpol. It’s strange that a band that can be described entirely in self-referential terms can still sound so without identity, so reluctant to take chances – “Barricade” tries but struggles to shake the remnants of the sort-of success of Our Love to Admire, an album that cemented the band commercially but not critically (thereby totally fucking turning the tables on indie-dudes who loved this band in its developmental years). Then again, there’s no easier path to commercial success/critical disdain than the one that involves beating a dead horse.
I think it’d be really cool if Panda Bear decided to just fuck with people and release something that didn’t sound like Panda Bear – you know, a nice acoustic guitar song about fucking, or a jingle for a toothpaste commercial. “Slow Motion” is neither of these songs, but what it is is (isn’t it though) another song by Panda Bear. This one has a dub-infused two-chord loop and unintelligible vocals in full two-or-three part harmony that sound like they’re bouncing around at the bottom of a well. There are some cool melting handclaps that could be misconstrued as finger-snaps. Hypnotic like house, relaxing like reggae, relentlessly happy like sunshine pop. Not very exciting.
Album Review| The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
Growing up in the suburbs has always been a somewhat remarkably indescribable phenomenon which tends to leave people somewhere between conventional success and a feeling of mundane isolation. In the Arcade Fire’s case that isolation brings profound wisdom and retrospect upon the world of the mostly under-explored inner-turmoil of the individual, as well as putting it into a global perspective that we can all relate to (regardless of our neighborhood). While the Arcade Fire’s previous albums served as meditations on death (Funeral) and global destruction (Neon Bible) The Suburbs stands as a stunningly cohesive philosophy on life.
The aptly self-titled opener (“The Suburbs”) is an all-encompassing foreshadowing of the album’s individual sentiments all rolled into one remarkably restrained emotional overture. Win Butler reminisces on the “wasted time” of youth and young love as well as charting the swift nature of destruction and loss of identity. Following “The Suburbs” are indulgent examinations of individual facets of an existential crisis. “Ready to Start” suggests failure as a subjective point of recovery or better a starting point to life, while “Modern Man” highlights the arduous task of distinguishing yourself from the pack, as well as serving as an encouraging challenge to self-evolve. While “Suburban War” is a a haunting ode to dependency and the frailty of individuality that climaxes with Win singing “All my old friends, they don’t know me now” as he painfully accepts his self-dependence. “Month of May” re-sparks optimism in the album as a freight-train barrels down the tracks, compelling all to be hopeful. “Wasted Hours” and “Deep Blue” are heart-felt reminiscence of the origins of our current condition that leave you a tad melancholy.
The Suburbs begins to close with a stark observation on the overall lack of patience of the world on “We Used to Wait”, with Win speaking about the rubble and restructuring of life, while contrasting the times with a dueling piano and synth. “Sprawl I” leads you towards darkness but right as you become deeply saddened Régine Chassagne pulls you to the “surface” on “Sprawl II” where the darkness becomes more of a challenging obstacle over sunny synth layerings than an all consuming force. (Synths have never been more appropriately utilized in music than on “We Used to Wait” and both ends of “Sprawl”).
Rarely do albums challenge the listener outside of the confines of the band, and rarely does this quality fuse with challenging the masses. Throughout the album the Arcade Fire’s teachings astoundingly resonate due to balanced instrumental composition and Win Butler’s concealment of conviction, which place his most important warnings in a position of his and our questioning. It’s the questioning that make The Suburbs such a successful album; for the first time the Arcade Fire aren’t forcing their opinions and because of that newfound wisdom they’ve managed to penetrate into each listener on an individual level and if enough get ahold of this work, The Suburbs could transcend conventionality and isolation and potentially change music.
mp3: The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
mp3: Suburban War by Arcade Fire
July Mixtape
[right?!?!? photo credits]
mp3 – Dent May – That Feeling
mp3 – Cut Copy – Where I’m Going
mp3 – Wavves- Baseball Cards
mp3 – Ty Segall – Girlfriend
mp3 – Young Man- Fate
mp3 – Panda Bear- Slow Motion
mp3 – Francois Peglau – One minute to midnight dream [So sad]
mp3 – The Best Coast – Boyfriend
mp3 – JAILL – The Stroller
mp3 – The Lawds – Mild Honey Pie
mp3 – Department Of Eagles – While We’re Young
mp3 – Happy Birthday – Subliminal Message
mp3 – The Fatty Acids – Howl
mp3 – Deer Hunter – Revival
mp3 – CAMDEN – Summergum
mp3 – The Walkmen – Stranded
>> download the zip (if i missed a track or 2 in the zip, let me know, most of these are on the site already)
Monster Rally – “Palm Reader” EP
Ted from Monster Rally sent over their latest EP, Palm Reader. It’s a really nice and easy listen. It’s not re-inventing the wheel or anything but it’s a really great set of sample-based, beachy vibe music. Both Palm Reader and their ST are available free over at God’s answer to myspace.
mp3 -Monster Rally – Birds pt 1.
mp3 – Monster Rally – Birds pt 2.
mp3 – Monster Rally – Honey Moon
New Girls – “Oh My Love”
12 blog years ago… or yesterday, a pairing of videos from Travis Matthews debuted a new Girls song performed by front man, Christopher Owens. Owens also talked a bit about “homo happenings” and a new Girls album that is currently being mastered. Mr Matthews says we can expect the album by the end of this year. You can watch the interviews here, or a brand spanking new (country inspired) track “Oh My Love”, above. What a great fucking tune.
