Author Archives: georgediab

Nerdcore is Punk Rock!

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These guys are the nicest of the nice, and rather than focusing on bitches and guns they instead rhyme about Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Halo. This journey might lack the drama of, say, a Motley Crue tour as it replaces sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll with videogames, tea and wookie rhymes, it nevertheless gives the viewer time to get under the skin of these unlikely superstars. [sic]

-Chris Tilly (IGN UK)

Have you heard of the genre Nerdcore? It is a subgenre of hip-hop that isn’t afraid to be smart. In fact, you might need to really be in-the-know to even get some of the lyrics. I recently watched the documentary Nerdcore Rising so I’m totally qualified to tell you all about it now! The documentary follows the leading star of the Nerdcore movement, MC Frontalot, on his first national tour. Beginning in South Carolina and culminating at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, Frontalot wonders if it is possible to achieve mainstream success.

MC Frontalot struggles to legitimize nerdcore as a real genre of hip-hop and to share the music with as many people as he can. The behind-the-scenes of Frontalot and his band are what really make the documentary so interesting. Frontalot and Gaby Alter, a.k.a. G Minor 7, are childhood friends, and both met bass guitarist Brandon Patton, a.k.a. Blak Lotus, in college. Strugis, the drummer, tries to fit in as the new member.

Old school trailblazers like Prince Paul and contemporary hip hop aficionados like J-Live examine the legitimacy of nerdcore as a subgenre of hip hop. Nerd king “Weird Al” Yankovic discuss the origins of nerdcore while Penny Arcade creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins expound on the digital revolution that enabled the nerdcore movement.

The segment where they interviewed people who didn’t like the performances of MC Frontalot was possibly the defining scenes of the movie. It gives it an unbiased feel and the willingness of the director to show that this wasn’t a fluff piece.

On to the music?

MC Frontalot
http://frontalot.com
After watching the documentary , I really went on a tear listening to some of the artists I became acquainted to through the movie. Of course, Frontalot being the fulcrum of the movie, it’s necessary to mention him first. MC Frontalot was born Damian Hess in San Francisco. He grew up in Berkeley and secretly recorded rap songs to tape. While working as a web designer in 1999, he resurrected his rap hobby by creating a website for MP3s of his homemade music, the beats credited to the imaginary DJ CPU. In a song of the same name he coined the phrase “nerdcore hip-hop”. Frontalot has 5 studio albums, and every single one is worthy of a purchase. Check out the track below.

Click to listen to MC Frontalot – First World Problems

MC Lars
http://mclars.bandcamp.com/

MC Lars is in the documentary, and is one of the best nerdcore artist (although he prefers to be called “post-punk laptop rapper”) I discovered as a result of watching the movie.

He’s clever and has talent. His flow has a wide range and his rhymes are clean and tight with a nice dollop of humor. He weaves some great references to popular culture that might date the tracks to some, but for me, the nostaligia makes me love it infinitely more. The man is educated at Stanford and loves mixing hip-hop beats with punk guitars. His Not sure what more you might want before checking it out…

How about some more music? Check out one of my favorite MC Lars tracks.

Click to listen to MC Lars – Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock

That band on that track is The Matches from Oakland California.

Check out the bandcamp link for a free mixtape from MC Lars that includes KRS-One, MC Frontalot, Sage Francis, and too many more to mention!

Owl City Concert Review

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June 16, 2011
Location: Orlando, Florida
By Andrew Basinski edited by Pam Basinski

Only two days after the release of the new album “All Things Bright and Beautiful”, the band Owl City came to perform in Orlando at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney.
The line wrapped its way around the building like an enormous Chinese Dragon.  All the fans were excited and anxious to enter the building.  It took about 45 minutes to finally get to the door where security cleared us and we made our way to have our tickets swiped. 
Opening band Unwed Sailor put on a great show.  With two bass players, one guitar and a drummer, their sound echoed throughout the building with the long bass lines and deep music.  They had a very unique sound and without lyrics it was easy to get lost in the music.
Mat Kearney


Next opener was Mat Kearney.  He performed and wowed the crowd with his latest hit song “Hey Mama”.  He opened it by saying he had written this song for his wife who was an anthropologist.  He even crowd surfed and serenaded the fans with his charisma.  I found myself dancing but was anxiously waiting for Owl City to come on stage.

Click to listen to Mat Kearney – Hey Mama

Adam Young

And he did!  Adam Young was accompanied by a drummer, violinist, cello player, and guitarist.  Adam himself is an accomplished musician and plays many instruments.  He showed us that by playing acoustic guitar, electric guitar and keyboard in several of his songs.  He spoke to the crowd and danced by flapping his arms to mimic an owl in flight.  I was amazed at how great his performance was.  When he played “Hello Seattle” the entire crowd sang along.  One girl was overcome and passed out and had to be carried out by Security.  

Overall a truly fantastic show for any die-hard Owl City fan!  When will you be back in Orlando please?


   

Laughing My F*ck!ng Head Off!

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LMFAO is just two dudes from Los Angeles, California that like to make music and party! These two dudes go by the name RedFoo (Stefan Kendal Gordy) and SkyBlue (Skyler Husten Gordy). They are actually related. RedFoo is SkyBlu’s uncle. RedFoo is the son of Motown founder Berry Gordy.

Like I said…just two dudes…

LMFAO made 14 songs about partying and then released those 14 songs as an album called Party Rock 2 years ago. On June 21 the duo released an apology album called Sorry for Party Rocking.

It’s a great album, and just yesterday, it became the number one album in the U.S. of A. Here’s another interesting fact about these regular dudes. By reaching No. 1, Stefan claims bragging rights over his older brother (by 11 years), Kennedy. Who is Kennedy? You know him as Rockwell, and if you remember, he peaked at No. 2 with “Somebody’s Watching Me,” in 1984.

How did this become the Number One song? Hard work? Talent? Yes, perhaps that’s true…but the truth is a bit more shocking. Check out the video below.

I’m totally visualizing you hitting the Recommend button on this post. Then I see that I am getting an award for having the best music blog in the country. I’m counting piles of cash on my dining room table. My girlfriend is rubber banding them and stacking them into a giant pyramid that I will climb and proclaim that “all I see is MINE”.

Everyday I’m shufflin’

Let’s listen to the hit single, shall we?

Click the link to start the party. LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem (featuring Lauren Bennet & GoonRock)

It’s dope. It’s catchy as shit. You might have stepped out of your cubicle to get yo Shuffle on. Right?

The official video is super cute. It’s got 110 million views on YouTube, so you have probably already seen it…but just in case.. The premise is that Redfoo and Blu Sky wake up from a party-induced coma to find out the song “Party Rock Anthem” has turned everyone into dancing zombies a-la 28 Days Later. Look out for the gold head robot and your favorite savior for memorable appearances.

  

Chilly Primates

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In an interview recently with Alex Turner (main songwriter and frontman) and Matt Helders (drummer) of the band Arctic Monkeys, they mentioned that they are not big fans of the popular folksy sound of Mumford & Sons. “Too many banjos”, I think, the exact quote. It struck me as important, since Mumford have really polarized people. People are very passionate about the love or disdain for Mumford & Sons, never simply offering a “They are OK” comment. I’ve often felt that those who HATE Mumford, do so because of the constant rotation they seem to have on just about every radio station format here in the States. I wonder what people would think of Arctic Monkeys if they were always on the radio. Would the Arctic Monkeys even get light rotation on American radio? Sadly, I think the answer is no.

Post/Psychedelic Rock doesn’t get many rotations on terrestrial radio. I, for one, wish it would. Radio isn’t made for the likes of me. That’s fine though, as the main reason I started this blog was to reach others like me. Maybe to at least convert as many people as possible, to bands NOT on the radio, is a more specific goal.

The latest Arctic Monkeys album was released on June 6th, but the band streamed the entire album from their website before the official release to allow fans to decide wether they wanted to buy it or not. The album title, Suck It And See, is not a fuck you to anyone in particular. I had thought it might be a message to the record label perhaps. The band has stated in interview that it is simply an offer, a suggestion of sorts. Try it, and you might like it.

If a band like Queens of the Stone Age is something you dig, you may find Suck It And See a nice companion album. Josh Homme is someone these chilly monkeys have worked with before. There are two main elements that stand out on Suck It And See: the guitar textures and the rich visual imagery of the lyrical content. On every one of the 12 tracks, these two aspects will leave you pretty satisfied. My favorite track, and the track the band is most excited to play while on tour, is “Brick By Brick”.

Click link to play Arctic Monkeys – Brick By Brick

If you are already a fan of the Arctic Monkeys, you will notice the continued departure from the sound that shot them to stardom. I think the change makes sense. It’s a sound that’s more accessible and sustainable. The album, overall, is well-rounded and consistent, and sure to please any rock music aficionado. It’s more tortoise than hare, to make an analogy. The band has a hard enough time even remembering the words to their old material while on tour, so continuing to evolve their craft makes the most sense!

The band will be in Vegas this year (9/24/2011), that’s not a show I will be missing. Check this link to see if they might be somewhere you are.


Check out the video below for some insights on the new album. Don’t worry, they are not stoned or drunk, that’s just how the sound in every interview I’ve ever seen. (I suppose they could ALWAYS be high…)

  

Insert witty title here. [3fer Edition]

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Wild Sweet Orange
http://www.wildsweetmusic.com/

Again I come across a band and album that I love only to discover that they have broken up already. Wild Sweet Orange, from Alabama, released We Have Cause To Be Uneasy in 2008. They announced their breakup September 2010. when did I discover them? March 30th, 2001. It’s a bummer, but that should stop you from becoming a fan. Uneasy is such a great album, that it’s worth the disappointment of knowing that there will be no other albums from this band. Who knows, the purchasing power of the fans of this bloog could resurrect the band with a reuinion tour and a new album. Stranger things have happened.

“House Of Regret” is a beautifully crafted rock song. The song starts off slow, sad and reflective. You can feel the remorse bubble over into anger through the course of the song. I play it at loud volumes, I suggest you do the same.

Click to play Wild Sweet Orange – House Of Regret

Kanye West
http://kanyewest.com/

“I ain’t going to bed no time soon / And when I do, I’m sleeping in my mama’s room!”

This is supposedly a bogus version of Kanye West’s much speculated-about song Mama’s Boyfriend. We had heard a capella versions of it when Kanye was doing rhymes at facebook and twitter headquarters. It was supposed to be on the album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Dark Fantasy, or as a Bonus Track. It was not released as either. Word was that the song meant so much to him that he wanted it to be perfect before it was released. Having it released the way it has was really fired Kanye up. Here is the note from the label about it:

The version of the Kanye West recording “Mama’s Boy” that arrived on blog sites earlier this week is entirely bogus and unsanctioned, and violates the artist’s creative intentions. As is often the unfortunate case, an unknown party or parties got a hold of Kanye West’s vocal track and added their own soundbed to it, effectively and falsely releasing it as a Kanye West track from the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sessions. The result in no way resembles the final song Kanye West intended his fans to hear, and he is deeply disappointed that one of the most personal, meaningful and special songs he has ever written would reach people in this way. Needless to say, measures are being taken to identify and prosecute the persons responsible for leaking this material.

I’m too afraid to put it on my servers. Here is the link to download it from Mediafire. Hurry! won’t be there long!

Glass Candy
http://www.myspace.com/glasscandy

Italo Disco is something I haven’t listened to for a long time. I used to throw some in my sets from time to time, back when I used to DJ regularly. Songs like this always remind me of my old buddy CB4.

Click to play Glass Candy – Feeling Without Touching

Glass Candy is from Portland, Oregon. That voice you hear is vocalist Ida No and the music is produced by Johnny Jewel. The song comes off the EP “Feeling Without Touching.”

I am defined by my failures.

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I need you to remind me to relax. I’m a work-aholic by nature. That’s not quite right. I’m super fucking lazy, but there is a guilt inside me that keeps me working. Working quiets the voices that tell me I am a failure, that I never reached my potential.

I need someone to tell me to take a vacation. That it’s time to kick back. Otherwise, I burn my vacation days working from home, or perhaps staying home sick because I burned that candle too long at both ends.

I probably just gave you some anxiety. It’s gonna be ok. I am going to give us a bit of aural vacationing in this post. Get your sunblock…

There are certain tracks that remind me of being poolside with my lady. Head full of alcohol and some great tunes isn’t a vacation, but it can help you get some sanity back. I have an album to throw on your device of choice to provide a Gretzky to your pool day. Los Angeles band, Foster the People, has a new LP out out entitled Torches that is full of perfect summer tunes. It makes sense, where everyday is like a beach day in LA. You may have heard the song I’m sharing, it trended on radio quite a bit. I don’t listen to much radio these days, so you tell me.

Click to play Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks

All the above was written a week ago. I was so busy that I couldn’t even finish my post. Here I am a week later trying to finish it. This last week has been especially tiring. Besides all my workouts and running around town to get things done, I’ve been using my brain way too much. When your body and mind are both completely spent at the end of the day, it’s important to just take one day to recharge. I decided to come to my local coffee shop to finish the post. The coffee is excellent here, the staff friendly and competent, and the vibe is good. I’m sitting here, feeling the lift of my Nutty Cow Latte and listening to song playing over the speakers. I look it up with Shazaam and find that it’s the song “Little Hell” by the band City and Colour. Loving the vibe of this song. It’s putting my mind at ease. Which is good, because while I’m at the coffee shop I’m getting phone calls that almost allow the anxiety of all the things I should/need to do. Breathe. Listen.

Click to play City and Colour – Little Hell

City and Colour is the side project of Dallas Green (Get it?) who is the singer and guitarist for a post-hardcore band that I like, Alexisonfire.

Take it from the band The Young Veins, it’s time to “Take A Vacation!” Until then, I’ll still be here hustling…

Safety In Numbers [3fer Edition]

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Rafter

Rafter has a new album out entitled Animal Feelings. It’s a pop album that you don’t have to feel dirty for liking. There will never be anyone lashing out at you for liking this album. It’s the kind of Pop album that gets you “street cred” with the hipsters. If you would rather stick a pitchfork into the lower orifice of a hipster, then at least you will seem super cutting edge to your normal friends.

Rafter Roberts grew up in Sebastopol, California, where his parents raised him in a decidedly nontraditional setting. “My parents named me Rafter,” he told LAS magazine. “I don’t know if I want to call them ‘hippies’ but they were definitely counterculture and outside the norm. When my mom was pregnant with me one of the people they lived with in this semi-commune made a joke that they should name the baby Rafter because he was conceived in a loft. And it just sorta stuck.”

There are so many great songs on this album, I’ve had a hard time picking one to share on this post. In the end I decided on “A Frame” because I think the first verse speaks to me. An A-frame is the most basic of structures to support load. I prefer to roll the opposite of deep. I roll sparse. I roll super sparse homie.

I’m doing counting but the numbers are against me
I ran out of fingers, ran out of toes
I’m doing counting cause there’s safety in numbers
Ha!Safety in numbers, we’ll see how that goes 

Click to play Rafter – A Frame

Bombay Bicycle Club

If you love this image, go buy the t-shirt from Bustedtees.com

I’m constantly battling my gianormous music libraries. Yes. Plural. Across four different computers, I struggle to consolidate to just one. Well two. One library is EVERYTHING except what’s in the smaller one. The smaller one is just dance music, mashups, and remixes. It’s the library Serato pulls from that I DJ with. It’s a messy sitch. While moving music around my home network, I come across some old gems. The gem was the album I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose by Bombay Bicycle Club from 2009.  A real oldie…I know. It’s probably something that I haven’t really listened to since 2009, and I regret that. This is a fantastic album that I hope you pick up and love. It’s going on my iPhone right now. Check out the track “Always Like This” to get a real feel for the whole album. If you like that track you will love the whole record.

Click to play Bombay Bicycle Club – Always Like This

The Devil Whale

The other thing I struggle to keep organized, besides my music library, is the blog inbox. Fucking overwhelmed. I need an intern. Or two. Not the Monica Lewinsky type either…I can barely keep up with my girlfriend as it is.

This last track will have to be from the digital mail piles. It’s from the Salt Lake City garage pop band The Devil’s Whale upcoming album Teeth. Check out the single “Standing Stones” and then head to the bands bandcamp site to order the album for $8.99. I think you will dig the surf sounds that must be inspired by some nearby saltwater source…

Click to play The Devil Whale – Standing Stones

  

Keep your eyes on the road ahead

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Tig: And we blame the angry black man. 
Clarence ‘Clay’ Morrow: It’s the American way. 

After giving up TV for weeks to get work done on an important project, I anxiously set about shutting myself in so that I could reclaim my throne (couch) and prepare the jesters (Netflix Instant Queue) for my weekend ahead of me.

I burned through a few movies I have been wanting to watch, and then set in to finally complete Season 1 of  the 2008 FX show Sons Of Anarchy.  It’s a story of an outlaw motorcycle club whose criminal headquarters is in a fictional town in Northern California called Charming. Imagine Sopranos on Motorbikes.

In fact, I made that Sopranos connection after just one episode. It seemed like I was watching a rip off of one of my favorite dramas, except this time, with the theme of Hell’s Angels instead of the mafia. I’m not into motorcycles, so I almost gave up on the show. I guess what I learned is that sex, drugs, and murder appeal to me, regardless the delivery method.

At the center of the show is Heath Ledger look-a-like Charlie Hunnam, who plays  Jackson “Jax” Teller. Jax is the Vice Prez of the club and heir-apparent to become president.

The season opens with the a rival gang stealing guns from the club as well as the birth of Jax’s son by his junkie ex-wife (Drea de Matteo…yes…the junkie’s wife in Sopranos).

The standout performance on the series is from Gemma, (Katey Segal, Married With Children) Jax’s manipulative mother who is married to the current president of the club, Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman). It should be mentioned that Jax’s dead father was the original founder of the club.

Jax finds his father’s memoir in some old boxes, and discovers that his father had a different vision for the club. A future that compares starkly with the present day gun-smuggling and gangland crime sprees. This sets the theme of the show; Jax begins to second guess his path, and the path of the club.

These television dramas have gotten really good about selecting the most fantastic music for the soundtrack to the show. Some artists have seen huge popularity bumps as a result, and now TV Soundtracks are selling just as successfully as the series DVDs.

I’ve discovered two new artists as a result of SOA, as I am sure most fans of the show have. But I write this  assuming you haven’t seen the show and haven’t heard of the two particular artists I want to mention today.

Episode 12, “The Sleep of Babies,” is bookended by a Bob Dylan song covered by Oklahoma City singer/songwriter Audra Mae. It’s actually two versions of the song “Forever Young,” notably a haunting a capella version at the end of the episode. Below is the version that appears at the beginning.

Click to play Audra Mae & The Forest Rangers – Forever Young (Bob Dylan cover) 

In the emotionally wrenching season finale “Revelator,” the closing scenes are backed by a beautiful cover of an old song by bluesman Blind Willie Johnson. It’s actually an old gospel call and response hymn, but Willie seems to be the first to record it. In the chorus, John of Patmos, the traditional author of the Book of Revelation, is writing “the book of the seven seals.” At the time of the song’s composition, John of Patmos was generally considered the same person as John the Apostle and John the Evangelist.

The events of this episode (which I don’t wanna spoil in case you are planning on watching the series) start to make clear the revelations of his father, which Jax has only been seeing in his peripheral vision. Jax is becoming his father. Jax will write the club’s new story. (That’s what I am assuming will happen in Season 2…we shall see!)

Click to play Curtis Stigers & The Forest Rangers – John the Revelator (Blind Willie Johnson cover)

Curtis Stigers is from Boise, Idaho, and has a mixed musical career of Jazz as well as soul and rock. He has been making albums since 1991, and the track “This Life” is used as the intro for every Sons of Anarchy show.

The music of these two artists are all worth being picked up, and honestly…you might enjoy this TV series too. I am looking forward to moving on to season 2.

Well Moses to Moses, watchin’ the flock
Saw the bush where they had to stop
God told Moses, “Pull off your shoes”
Out of the flock, well you I choose

   

it adds up

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 Watch the video here below…and then we can get started. Don’t worry…I’ll wait.

What if I’ve been trying to get to where I’ve always been?

That’s the title track off the album Simple Math, an album I have anxiously waited for all year. The video was directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, and was released a few weeks back to promote the May 10th release of the full length album.

It’s an amazing video that kind of reminds me of Twin Peaks, minus the backward speaking midget.  The gravity shifts, the story line, the suspense all make for a video that should win at least a handful of awards!

Manchester Orchestra

I feel like you should already know that Manchester Orchestra is required listening for all our readers. We’ve mentioned them a few times on the blog. I couldn’t just gloss over this release, even though I am sure you pre-ordered it on vinyl. Maybe you scooped it up today on iTunes or Amazon?

If you haven’t, I beg you, pick this up. It’s another brilliant album by the boys from Atlanta, Georgia. This album, like the others before it, is honest and passionate. It’s a feeling you get from hearing truth spill from lead singer Andy Hull’s lips. His lyrics are stories, about dreams, fears, pain, and loss. Simple Math has one unifying theme: relationships. We hear the story about Hull’s struggle to understand and maintain his relationship between himself and his wife and between himself and God.

The song “Virgin” comes on in the climax of ‘Act 2’ of the story. I’ll let Andy explain it: “It’s a tri-fold story that parallels three ‘firsts’ for me, the loss of my virginity, the potential loss of relationship, and the realization that our band has and will change after our first album. To all of these issues, the same lyric applies: It’s never gonna be the same.”

Click to Listen to Manchester Orchestra – Virgin

My brother, upon hearing the song for the first time felt like filming a music video for the song, “Boondock Saints” style.  It would be a short film where we watch the protagonist slaughter rapists and murderers in the name of the Lord with the song “Virgin” as the soundtrack.

The song has that feeling of anxiety and frustration that boils up to an emotional release that makes me want to leave my mortal body and shoot my soul into the sky at high velocity. Imagine a signal flare burning fast through the sky at the very moment the dam breaks below.

Wanna hear how the story all ends? Pick up the album. Right now.

Links below.