Metal Lungies

I just heard about this today, but back on Tuesday Disco D was found dead from an apparent suicide. If you haven’t heard of Disco D, you probably have heard his work as his biggest was Ski Mask Way from 50 Cent‘s The Massacre. He was building up his name in the production scene while also being a DJ at the same time, which was evident through out his music which always included a very club friendly DJ flavor. At age 27, who knows what kind of hits were ahead of him, very sad.

 Rage Against The Machine is one of my favorite bands of all time. I was ecstatic when I heard they are getting back together to headline coachella. Now I’m curious who approached who or if the coachella organizers made this happen. Because that could give us a hint to see if there is a chance of a new Rage album. If it happens, it would make me very happy, its been way too long since we have heard some guerilla radio. While I like Audioslave, it simply doesn’t have the same edge as Zach De La Rocha’s rapid and full of energy singing. It’s also not like Zach is doing anything, his solo project failed to take off, so I hope 7 years have healed any issues Zach and the rest of the band had, and they show themselves to a whole new generation.

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Haunting, inviting, indifferent, and unafraid, Elizabeth Powell and the Land Of Talk invade your headphones with their debut EP Applause Cheer Boo Hiss and leave you with melodies you won’t be able to shake off for days. The album is hardly a debut effort – Lizzie is no stranger to music, having played a handful of instruments and roles, including violin and bass guitar for other projects, and now vocals and guitar for the Montreal trio.

From where Land of Talk draws inspiration for their loosely composed lyrics is uncertain; perhaps from Lizzie’s childhood spent in a one-room schoolhouse in a small Canadian town, or from being the daughter of North America’s premiere female alligator wrestler (as advertised!), whatever that really entails.

And perhaps, it is no coincidence the band mirrors the Canadian city from which it emerges, whose paradoxical nicknames include la belle ville (the beautiful city) and the more hedonistic Sin City. In this sense, the duality is reflected in Lizzie’s wonderfully approachable vocals and the band’s lack of inhibition to put the Rock back into “Indie Rock”.

Applause is almost a telephone conversation amidst the pleasant static of warm and familiar chords, but one you will have to play over and over again to fully understand. Not that you’ll mind.

-JP

http://www.landoftalk.com/
http://myspace.com/landoftalkmtl

Recent and Upcoming Albums
April 2006 – Applause Cheer Boo Hiss [EP]

I was about to turn off the TV last night when something caught my eye. It was the last few minutes of egotrip’s White Rapper Show. I decided to check out the show just because egotrip was handling the show. A little background info, Egotrip is a now-defunct magazine/set of books/TV show maker for VH1. I own all their books (Big Book of Racism & The Book of Rap Lists), I’ve seen all their previous VH1 show specials like race-o-rama, and they made some of the best hip-hop television I’ve have ever watched. If you’ve ever read any of their written product (that written product is what’s hot yo!) you can see the seamless transition from the minds that brought you the magazines/books working to transport their genius to the TV medium. Anyway, back to show, its hosted by MC Serch of 3rd Bass, who is a heavily slept on icon in hip hop (I would consider him as a link to the bridge between Beastie’s and Eminem). Serch really shines on the show, by not putting on some sugar-coated survivor TV reality host shit act. You get to see who the true Serch is, the one you’d be staring down in your A&R meeting. I kind of wish they will incorporate some white rappers outside of Serch into the show to the contestant how it is done. I’m not necessarily talking about Eminem, people like Bubba Sparxxx, Lil Wyte, or even ML favorite Hot Karl would suffice. From what I saw at the end, egotrip’s humorous touches are incorporated into the show, their dedication to hip-hop history isn’t either. I didn’t get to see much of the episode, I hope to catch the rerun, but it looks like the people involved are true hip-hop heads. They have to be, by getting people from Grandmaster Flash to Prince Paul to be a part of the show. As for the contestants they don’t seem too bad, defiantly not some rapping American Idol rejects, I look forward to see how they develop. It airs Monday nights, check out the VH1 site for the show. Maybe I should liveblog/episode recap for this series or something.

As for Tyrese thing I mentioned last week, apparently the whole incident was “distorted”, riiiight.

p.s. I did see the Snoop movie, a post should come soon.

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I promised I would, so here it is….

Most Shameful Hip-Hop Moment in 2006: Flavor of Love
This shit had me genuinely disgusted for the entire year. How could a television station that aired such an epic documentary And You Don’t Stop be responsible for this travesty. They took a man who was cemented in hip-hop legend and exposed him for the drug-addicted clown that he has become. This shit didn’t come as a complete surprise to me though, VH1 has been dragging their viewers through a cultural mud-pit for quite a while now with their recent line of celebreality bullshit. I still love that white rapper show though……crack.

Coolest Company to Get Into Hip-Hop: The Folks Over at [adult swim] With the release of that Dangerdoom album in 2005 I thought AS would continue strictly cartoon-based raps. But no! They came with the shock of the year and released a compilation called Chrome Children featuring artists on Stone’s Throw Records. The album is a heat-rock and features some supurb indy hip-hop and some fantastic beats (Dilla even shows up). This is a must cop-album for 2006 and I look forward to any future AS + Hip-Hop collabos.

Biggest Anticipation With no Pay-Off: Papoose
This dude has been dropping hot shit for a while but still no album? He has songs, he has hype, he has major label backing. So why no LP? I really hope dude drops in 2007. Probably won’t sell though……no gimmick.

Check this classic vid for Alphabetical Slaughter:
[youtube]r2kVnjKZLZo[/youtube]

More to come. Really.

Really, its for the best.

This is plain and simple, the stuff that mattered to me in rap music this year. Now, if only we had trophies………

Best DJ Premier impression of 2006: Pharell on Clipse- Ride around Shining

When I heard this one I really thought I had accidentally switched to Gangstarr. That whole cut-up groan break. Insane. Pharell killed this.

Team to watch in 2007: Ghostface and MF Doom.

These two dudes really put it down in 2006. Doom is a great producer and his style fits Ghost perfectly. I really do wanna see these guys do an album together, but I’ll be happy with some more joints like this one from More Fish.

Best Sing-a-Long Album: E-40- My Ghetto Report Card

To be exact I only mean Tracks 12-19 (in order). Starting with the hilarious getthefuckon.com (skit) all the way to Bun-B’s epic verse at the end of She Say She Loves Me, this is pure rap goodness on record. Next time your driving around aimlessly with friends, turn on those songs for instant hilarity. You’ll know what I mean when your lip synching to Bosko while your friend plays al kapone.

Weirdest Sample in the Weirdest Place: Pitbull- Hey You Girl (samples) The B-52’s- Rock Lobster

This is truly what made the new Pitbull album for me. The fact that he would sample one of my favorite songs from one of the funniest bands ever is truly a testament to his desperation genius.

Best Producer Genre Crossover: Timbaland with Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado

I have always thought Timbo is one of the best producers and I am hella-glad he’s decided to go back to making pop songs full-time. Since Aaliyah died I never thought there would be another steady stream of Timbo pop. Thank God I was Wrong. Solo album in ’07?

Part 2 and more coming…………really.

Oh yeah and check this classic vid I was re-introduced to a couple of days ago. Its the all-star freestyle from the last episode of Yo! MTV Raps. Its in two parts. Can you name them all?

Gerard Way knows what the hell he’s doing. Leave your prejudices at the doorstep and make your way through the crowds to be awe in of The Black Parade, the latest album conjured up by the punk rock quintet from New Jersey known as My Chemical Romance.

This dark and telling album revolves around the idea that impending death manifests itself as a person’s strongest memory – in this case, a black parade. Ironically the first song of the album is entitled ‘The End’, cutting the suspense and setting the scene.

But what is this scene? Through the course of the album, at least once we are likely to realize we are marionettes tugged at the heart strings in several different directions. Thus, we see the true essence of the highly regarded concept album: the ability to portray a single idea through many perspectives and facets.

Let’s face it: an album chock full of depressing ballads and sob stories of death and despair is well within the bounds of MCR’s songwriting talent – but instead they deliver Queen timbre, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy drums and maybe just a hint of Brit-Pop favourite Oasis’s chorus repetition to write a true rock album.

This album rivals and probably surpasses this decade’s other concept great, Green Day’s American Idiot, which (surprise surprise) the famed Rob Cavallo also produced. And while it’s safe to say the production quality of Black Parade easily surpasses its predecessors, the songwriting and performance accompanied by the 72 pages of original artwork in the Limited Edition speak for themselves.

As for inspiration, Way has cited Pink Floyd, the Beatles and Queen, and while whole Behind The Musics could be devoted drawing lines from Black Parade to these legends, we’ll leave the heavy number-crunching to you out there.

-JP

http://www.mychemicalromance.com/

Recent and Upcoming:

October 24, 2006 – The Black Parade

On Saturday night, if you can’t catch it, set your VCR, tivos, camcorders to record Snoop Dogg in Boss’n Up. While there isn’t too much info regarding this movie, just the part of it being a musical with Snoop Dogg has me immediately sold.

IMDB (It is right around Killa Season [Our Review] territory with a 3.0 rating, as where Killa Season has a 3.4)

Come back maybe Sunday..or next month.. because we sorta procrastinate around here for Oprah’s Book Club-level type of discussion, bring your reading glasses!

Some quick notes:

Free Busta shirts going to print very soon? Anyone else amused hearing the news refer to him as “Mr. Rhymes” when mentioning the incident?

Tyrese puts his own spin on getting publicity for an album, a rap album at that, but no guns involved, just to-be-baby-mamas being assaulted. Classy. I’m just hoping it was just a stunt, and not some reenactment of his character from ‘Baby Boy’ in real life.

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So I was flipping through the latest blender issue, which is my favorite all around music magazine. Anyway I came across too very noteworthy interviews one from Lil Wayne and one from T.I.

In his interview, for which he was probably in the same state he was in when he did the complex interview, he rambles on a whole bunch of topics. My highlights are:

• Asking about an apocalypse is gay.
• Bitches are the biggest waste of time but at least the Minnesota ones provide the best sex.
• Wayne knew a long time ago Lance Bass was ghey…hmm…
• Wayne is pro-myspace, friend him now! while you are at it friend us too!

read the rest here (I fired up the scanner for you people dammit!):

As for T.I., he didn’t say anything out of the ordinary other than, his favorite song of the year James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful”, I really pray he was being sarcastic. He also seems to be aware of the current events, like google is making that cake and the US doesn’t need any more wars.

read more here:

Which one do you prefer? By default I’m gonna go with Wayne, I just can’t get over the whole James Blunt thing.

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The good:

• Law & Order reruns out the wazoooooo.
• Papoose getting shine on BET.
• Seeing this:

The bad:

• Being sick this whole week, and still being sick on New Year’s Eve.
• Toni Braxton performance on FOX, where she sang ‘He Wasn’t Man Enough’ *nh*, and horribly at that; even a backup vocal track couldn’t help. Was it really that hard to find anything that wasn’t a generic 7 year old single? She doesn’t even have a new project on the horizon to hawk, so why her?

Happy New Year 2007 to all 3 of our readers who ironically are the same 3 people who write on here. Expect good stuff.

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