Action has a new hero.
Blood Bros (DJA and Dirty South Joe) have created the soundtrack to your next arduous challenge. They compiled the greatest moments in 80s action movie soundtrack history for a mix that will get you pumped in times of adversity. Now go chop some firewood!
via Mad Decent
Gaslamp Killer is another one of those LA producers who I should have been checking for a year and a half ago, but instead I’m going to peep his new EP Death Gate and then stumble through his discog ass backwards. “When I’m In Awe” sounds like something the Swamp Thing plays when he’s having sex. Gonjasufi’s debut album A Sufi and a Killer is just as trippy as everyone says it is.
via Pitchfork
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Mark Ronson rekindles the amazing chemistry he had with Ghostface on his 2003 debut Here Comes the Fuzz’s standout single Ooh Wee. I remember I had that track on loop for months, as well as the 2CD Here Comes the Fuzz mixtape that was a teaser to the album. This new track is off of Ronson’s 3rd album Record Collection. The track was shamelessly ripped from Ronson’s East Village Radio Show, Authentic Shit, which is a weekly must-listen.
Update: At long last, here’s the CDQ. We had that radio rip early! All those blogs murmuring about a radio rip floating around are talking about us.
via OnSMASH
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City of God and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, two of my all-time favorite movies, have one man in common: the throaty, gravelly-voiced Brazilian crooner Seu Jorge. For the latter, Jorge recorded an entire album of acoustic David Bowie covers, which I listen to whenever I’ve had my fill of obnoxious rap music. His first two albums, Samba Esporte Fino and Cru, also get regular rotation when I’m trying to shake stress. For his latest album, Mr. Jorge connected with band Almaz to record covers of American pop hits as well as famous Brazilian songs, all with a deep psychedelic slant.
Seu Jorge & Almaz drops July 27. And what better home for their mind-expanding journey than Now-Again Records? Their global psychedelia compilation Forge Your Own Chains is another must-have.
The album also contains a cover of MJ’s “Rock With You.” I’d post it, but y’all ain’t ready.
And the original:
Tour dates after the break, yo.
Read the rest of this entry »
Guilty Simpson is the underground Busta Rhymes when it comes to collaborations. In this case, Guilty lent some bars to Paul White’s “Ancient Treasure” for a 12″ that will come with the deluxe version of the album Paul White & The Purple Brain, which is some nasty neo-psych rock. Guilty’s monotone beat down never fails.
(Photo by Hannah Lipman)
View the full photo set here (Thanks Hannah & Joshua)
[Ed Note: Here is the grand recap of all the on-goings that happened this past weekend in New Orleans, as seen through the eyes of ML contributor Julie. Be sure to check out Julie’s twitter stream which had a bunch of nuggets from the festival. Also, if you would like to check out Eminem’s performance, I got word that it will be airing on Fuse as a part of the Best of Voodoo 2009 TV Special, tonight, November 6th @ 10PM EST (check the trailer here).]
Taking place during Halloween weekend in a city known as one of the greatest places in the country to don a costume, listen to music and get drunk, The Voodoo Experience 2009 inspired a lot of expectations. We’re talking Eminem, KISS on Halloween night, P. Funk, local artists that sound like nothing you’ve heard before, funky folk artists and talented craftspeople… and overall, Voodoo brought it. This festival required a stamina that most don’t because it was interrupted by some of the wildest Halloween parties in the nation. Voodoo, however, proved worthy of every ounce of effort it required to dance through each and every show.
The festival got off to a rough start with the chilliest storm New Orleans has seen all season. Mud, rain and kicking The Knux off stage didn’t make for the most promising opening day. Yet the festies got creative, borrowing trash bags from the grounds crews to make ponchos and huddling together at Justice to keep warm. With the help of a few beers and an other-worldly dance party/light show, the crowd managed to forget the cold and have a blast. Most people who lasted that long trudged through the ankle-deep mud to at least catch the first few songs from Eminem + D12 before heading out. Eminem’s decade of fame has taught him how to really wake a crowd up, showing a gory short film of a psychotic, asylum-bound, murderous Marshall Mathers. They threw in gunshot noises between songs, keeping the audience on their toes throughout Eminem’s energetic performance. When the audience finally dispersed, most people looked pumped for the next day’s shows.
Saturday’s lineup included The Black Lips, Mates of State, a cancelled K’naan show, Mutemath, Gogol Bordello, Parliament-Funkadelic and KISS. Few people showed up without a costume, and the crowd started drinking early. The festival had a friendly, frenetic vibe, people getting more and more excited as the day wore on. Strangers took pictures of and with one another, and the festival-goers traded tips on where to spend the evening between the countless after-parties, Halloween parties and Frenchmen Street. Security wasn’t too tight, and most shows smelled strongly of pot, contributing to the audience’s already relaxed, comfortable vibe. K’naan’s cancelled show changed the locations of many artists slotted to perform around the same time, making for a confusing afternoon. Yet things got back on schedule by Mutemath.
Gogol Bordello got the festies dancing harder than any other show all weekend, save Justice. P. Funk, on the other hand, played for a relatively small, chill crowd on a quiet stage between folk art vendors’ tents. As they got funky, the majority of the festival-goers rushed toward the KISS stage, dancing through art installments on their way. The crowd was packed, and KISS was, in a word, insane. Pyrotechnics, Gene Simmons flying across the stage, an infomercial between songs to buy their new album — it’s available at WalMart, apparently Simmons has seen it there. Teens and college kids were busy texting their dads, blown away that rock ‘n’ roll used to rock this hard. Older women in leather jackets and KISS-style face paint sang every word of the KISS classics (though, as Simmons reminded us, just because something is a classic doesn’t make it an oldie). People walked out of City Park that day high from the music and drunk from the spectacle, ready for an even wilder show: the New Orleans Halloween scene.
The entire festival crowd seemed at least a little bit hungover Sunday. Relatively few people showed up before The Flaming Lips, but the Voodoo producers seem to have anticipated this. With an emptier schedule than any other day, Sunday’s big shows included The Pogues, Widespread Panic, The Flaming Lips and Lenny Kravitz. Yes, Lenny Kravitz. It was almost as if they wanted to clear the park before the final performance. Yet those who did leave before Lenny walked away with a most beautiful ending to an exhausting weekend. The almost too-mellow show saved itself by concluding with the sound of “Do You Realize?” playing under the full moon, tens of thousands strips of confetti floating in the dark sky like psychedelic stars, and an entire audience singing together “to make the good things last.”
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The Voodoo Experience 2009 is only one day away, so it’s time to figure out which shows you’ll hit and which ones you’ll miss. New Orleans is home to some of the best bands and the biggest parties in the states, and if you’re going to do Halloween weekend here, you better do it right. That means the checking out the Zydepunks instead of the Black Lips on Saturday, and missing the first few Flaming Lips songs to hear all of Trombone Shorty’s set on Sunday. Here are some of this year’s Voodoo essentials, and why you’d be crazy to miss them:
Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship?
3 p.m. Friday @ Bingo! Parlor
The local nine-member ensemble has more energy and more instruments than you can imagine. An accordion, a stand-up bass and a banjo make appearances in most of their songs, and the band is known around town for their bluesy, gospel-infused, funk performances at AllWays Lounge. Yet Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship? can do more than play mellow shows with haunting vocals — they can also tear it up as well as any New Orleans band. The first time I saw them was at an abandoned warehouse with no sound system but plenty of gutter-punks and beer, and I expect the band to get the Voodoo crowd moving as hard as we all did that night.
The Black Keys
5:40 p.m. Friday @Billboard.com Stage
With a blues-rock sound unlike anything else produced in the past decade, The Black Keys play live shows with the same soul as they record their music. Watching drummer Patrick Carney play like his life depends on each and every beat is not something you want to miss. Never mind Dan Auerbach’s powerful voice, the intensity of his guitar will be enough to get you hooked on The Black Keys for good. So if you hate the superficiality of the most modern rock, stop by The Black Keys show for a refreshing reminder of what rock is supposed to feel like.
The Knux
7:30 p.m. Friday @ Soco/WWOZ Stage
Also hailing from the New Orleans, The Knux are a rap duo that work so well together that could almost guess that they’re brothers. Kentrell “Krispy Kreme” and Alvin “Rah Almillio” Lindsey got discovered in Houston, where they landed after Hurricane Katrina. They moved out to the Los Angeles area, and the self-produced pair has been playing their own music ever since. While The Knux made a name for themselves touring with Common and have worked with Eminem’s producer Paul Rosenberg, their original style and musical talent ensure that they’ll do just fine on their own.
Eminem + D12
9:30 p.m. Friday @ Voodoo Stage
Ten years since his debut release, Eminem is back with as much fire as ever. Not that you really need someone to encourage you to pick his show over the second half of Ween, but in case you do: Eminem is one of the greatest rapper-MCs of all time. Relapse may not be your favorite Eminem album, but the man’s energy and talent — plus D12’s own skills — doesn’t seem to have faded, and Friday night is your chance to find out for sure.
Saturday/Sunday highlights after the jump!
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Off the Forge Your Own Chains 45, a limited edition bonus that comes with Forge Your Own Chains Heavy Psychedelic Ballads and Dirges 1968-1974. Tell ‘em, Stones Throw:
With the same detailed, no-stone-unturned approach he used for deep funk on The Funky 16 Corners and Cold Heat, Egon’s Now-Again Records tackles beat-heavy global psychedelia with Forge Your Own Chains. Psychedelic records, long the mainstay of older, grizzled collectors, are giving up new ghosts in the hands of Egon and those of this generation.
Guilty Simpson pounds out a verse over the original (which is included separately) and then Oh No flips the beat on the second half.
I can’t say I know anything about global psychedelia. This wouldn’t be the first time a Stones Throw Record introduced me to a new genre of music.
Presumably you’ve heard of this videogame.
Everything about this clip is great, especially the cartoon renderings of the Beatles. Giant elephantmen? Walruses? Bring it on.
Sphere: Related ContentVia Exclaim!
Okay, this is a few days old, but it’s worth hearing. Not as surprising of a combo as you might expect. GZA made a few appearances on the Atlanta garage rock band’s SXSW tour, and seem to have become fast friends. As for the track itself, it’s…interesting.
The band’s playing is a bit too sloppy for GZA to ever gain a foothold, so he stumbles over the song’s reverbed haze. The verse was also clearly recorded separately from the Black Lips’s playing; GZA’s voice sounds too clear compared to the distant vocals on the backing track. The twangy, dusty vibe of the song isn’t too far removed from some of the spacier stuff on Liquid Swords. Nonetheless, I’d much rather hear GZA spitting with the El Michels Affair, or better yet, a full-length collaboration between the band and the Clan. It just makes more sense, especially in light of the Affair’s recent cover album of Wu-Tang instrumentals, Enter The 37th Chamber.
And here’s another reminder of how good El Michels and the Wu sound together:
