Hip Hop Tour block

Oh what? The Ironman and the Mic Fiend. The Sense and the Tip (plus the Rhyme Inspector). No Shit


Ghostface / Rakim
10-29 Los Angeles, CA - House of Blues Sunset Strip
10-30 San Diego, CA - 4th & B
10-31 Long Beach, CA - The Vault
11-01 Santa Cruz, CA - The Catalyst
11-02 San Francisco, CA - The Mezzanine
11-03 Portland, OR - Roseland Theater
11-04 Seattle, WA - Showbox
11-07 Park City, UT - Harry O's
11-08 Denver, CO - Ogden Theater
11-09 Aspen, CO - Belly Up
11-11 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
11-12 Chicago, IL - House of Blues
11-13 Bloomington, IN - Bluebird Theater
11-15 New Haven, CT - Toads Place
11-16 New York, NY - Nokia Theater
11-17 Baltimore, MD - Sonar
11-18 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
11-21 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero

Common / Q-Tip / Percee P
09-22 Milwaukee, WI - The Rave
09-24 Toronto, Ontario - Kool Haus
09-25 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
09-27 Charlotte, NC - Amos' Southend
09-28 Greensboro, NC - N Club
09-29 Myrtle Beach, SC - House of Blues
09-30 Orlando, FL - House of Blues
10-01 Atlanta, GA - Earthlink Live
10-03 Baltimore, MD - Sonar
10-05 Washington, DC - Love
10-06 Worcester, MA - The Palladium
10-07 New York, NY - Nokia Theatre
10-08 Norfolk, VA - Norva
10-10 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
10-14 Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy

In other news, fuck Dan Deacon, U-Turn is fucking dead, and Pissed Jeans are badass.

Qui at the Echo

First of all, I managed to take some photos


All of the pictures I took are posted and there is no guarantee on quality. Some are really cool, and some are really funnily bad. Leave comments if you want.

For those of you unfamiliar with Qui, they're a rock band that's been around for a few years. They used to be a two-piece (guitar and drums), but recently acquired the infamous David Yow. This is sort of weird because it could almost seem like a marketing ploy: I know I wouldn't have heard of Qui or been interested if David Yow wasn't involved. BUT, the group really does have a good chemistry and a fairly new sound. Aside from Yow's brash croon, they don't sound too much like the Jesus Lizard. The melodies are similarly angular, but Matt Cronk's guitar work is much more traditional than Duane Denison's.

Overall, the set was a blast. Yow lost his shirt about two and a half times, spilled more beer than he drank, and his shout for more whiskey was actually successful this time (apparently last time he shouted to the audience about getting more to drink, someone handed him some change, which he then threw back at the audience). I picked up the new album, Love's Miracle, which is also solid (and which I'll also write about more formally later) but doesn't really compare to their live energy. The remaining dates on the tour are listed here, and you should definitely check them out if you're into the rock.

Three beers and a shot of captain. Excellent.

compulsive Liars

It looks like the latest Liars joint (aptly titled "Liars") is a bit of a connundrum. Or at least, it's penny-farthinged the indie-critic world.

I 'picked up' the album this morning after seeing such contrasting reviews.

Ok, so I was mostly intrigued by the Liars "going pop"

As it turns out, they've remembered what song structure is! While using mostly loops and electronic techniques they no doubt honed in on for the last two albums, Liars seem to have crafted something "practical" in terms of mainstream music. You can bounce your head to this one.

In terms of sonic quality, the mixes are really dense and filled out, showing off their production skills more than anything. I doubt anything that was recorded stayed the way it was. Parts sound sampled, pieced together, chopped, and manipulated.

The lyrics and aura aren't really any less pretentious, and people certainly aren't getting as excited as they were when they heard "Mr. You're on Fire Mr." but the album definitely sounds like it's for the kids. "Houseclouds" even sounds like Radiohead at certain points and "What Would They Know" most definitely sounds like Joy Division (though very pleasantly so).

I guess I'm less stoked on this new Liars shit than I thought. They're a good group of musicians, and they make good art, it's just not the kind of thing I'm putting on all the time. Maybe the "pop" or "60's garage sound" of this one will change that, but until then, this one's about as inspired as a six-pack of Rolling Rock.

Rock the Bells 2007, San Francisco

It's 3:12AM and my eyes are watering. Maybe from the Matanuska Mist, maybe from something else.

I'm here to write about a festival that happened last weekend, and it happened like this.

My last midterm was Thursday August 16, and I had in my possession three (3) tickets to see the Metal Faced villain, vaudeville's best, at the Independent club in San Francisco. It's not like I wasn't warned. I was with my buddy Tomer, who, with Pomeranz (another buddy we met at the show), had been successfully evaded by Slick Rick at least twice. So we weren't really shocked or pissed when we received word that the show was postponed due to illness.

This turned into a Zeitgeist night. Fastforward through a day in the city, half a rack of pool, a bill plus at Amoeba, and some clubbin' at the Mezzanine and we're caught up to the important shit.

I got to AT&T parck early (11:30) and hungover [enough to spell park with a c] and excited, despite hearing iffy things about the technical and hospitality crews in LA. I heard after the fact that San Francisco does the Warped Tour in the same parking lot every year, so they must be used to these large crowds. Maybe it was just that I sprung for the VIP ticket, but I was inside and watching Immortal Technique after not much time at all. The line looked long, but my friends who didn't spring were inside in no time.

He spit some sick flows and told everyone that they were more than welcome to steal his music, with the caveat that they bump that shit on the streets. Sounds like promos to me.

Next was the highlight of the day, Pharoahe Monch. I had seen the dude in the club the night before with Supernat, and he rocked Simon Says and whatever, but this was the main event. Live band. Two soul backing singers (man, woman). And the San Francisco clear sea breeze.

The group delivered most of Desire ("Agent Orange" but not "What It Is"...) then did a little tribute thing to all of the dead rappers (fallen soldiers), closing of course, with J Dilla.

Can you guess what happened next?

If you can, we must be in love.

Yeah, they did that one too.

EPMD came on next, and the crowd was remarkably still. I don't know all of the lyrics either, but people seriously need to get up on their shit. After Erick and Parrish I went back to the VIP tent for some $10 mixed drinks and leather couches. I just barely missed Pharoahe at the Meet & Greet, but I did get a chance to say what's up to P and E. They've got a new reunion joint in the cooker, called "We Mean Business" I think.

Talib Kweli went on next and had Mos and Jean Grey guest with him. I was sortof bored by it, yet somehow managed to also miss Blackalicious on the Paid Dues stage at a similar time.

Public Enemy tore shit up and Flava Flav is ridiculous. They day got pretty hazy here. Somewhere between acts they played a Madlib instrumental from the A.G. album Get Dirty Radio (oh it's goooood.)

I think Cypress Hill went on next? I think I stood in 3 bathroom lines during that period of time.

Somewhere in the blur, the Roots played, and it was a live set (no shit live instruments, I mean the music was pumped and the vibe was upp), but the crowd was totally dead. Maybe it was cause it was like, 3:30 after two or three great acts and everyone was a little worn out. I can sympathize. They did a bunch of medley shit that I've been told is common for a Roots set (it was my first time seeing them, I'll be in touch about what happens with Big Daddy Kane and MC Lyte). They played the new shit, the good shit.

MF Doom and Nas didn't show up. Nas was dropped from the online lineup at the last minute. The programs at the show were way off, and still had him on the main stage before or after The Roots. Oops.

Doom was not a surprise. I didn't even bother to try to see him cause of what happened on Thursday. If he really is sick or whatever, he should have just canceled the shows and been up front about it.

Anyways, Wu finally came on and it was tight. They opened with Duel of the Iron Mic (or maybe played it second?), which was ridiculously awesome. Mef took the show away as always, and everyone did a little thing. Ghost did Fish, Redman came on for a song with Mef, Raekwon didn't really do much of anything (dude, where the fuck is Cuban Linx 2??!), Masta spit some shit, Streetlife and Cappa were there. Whole crew. Even the live band came out for a bit.

The Rage came on and did their rage thing. I think I would have liked them a lot more as me 10 years ago. Since many acts had live bands (Pharoahe, the Roots, Wu, Rage, maybe even Public Enemy?), there was a lot of live drumming, but the drum kits all sounded exactly the same, which was really annoying by the end of the night. Tom Morello's guitar sounds were pretty insane, and they played most of the really good shit. They closed with Killing in the Name. No shit. I wonder if anyone told them they should close with their biggest hit...

Technically, though, the festival was run very well. The layout in San Francisco was nice, and despite having to squash 10 wireless mics into a VHF system, the Wu was pretty audible most of the time.

Some qualms: no more pipe vendors. Being able to buy blunt wraps and chillums inside was awesome. I think this was gone last year too. Also, not nearly enough bathrooms in the VIP area. Maybe there were enough outside, but I had no idea where the fuck those were since I didn't see them on the way through the main entrance.

Also, when you're having huge tour events like this, don't print a huge fucking booklet a month and a half before the last show and expect it to be valid. The set times were totally inaccurate and people were totally fucked if they didn't print out the set times online that morning (ahem...)

All in all, there's room to grow, but good job.

The Cabinet of Dr. No

Everybody knows who Oh No is now, right? Sure, you missed the Disrupt, and you might have heard that little ditty he did with all of those Galt MacDermot tracks, but what has he done lately?

Oh, he's been picking through various middle eastern psychedelic rock and funk records? Oh, you wanna hear it? Oh!

Yeah, it turns out (probably coincidentally) that Stones Throw can't stop dishing out the short-track instrumental hip hop albums. This one has a little more Donuts vibe than it does, say, Beat Konducta (check out the beginning of "Hot Fire," sounds a bit like "Anti-American Graffiti" huh?), but it definitely stands out on its own.

Most of it sounds loop-based, rather than chop & paste, but that could just be some of the man's slick skills. The interesting thing (and this isn't really new since Exodus) is that it's really not surprising that every sound on the record comes from those psych records. Aside from EQ/filtering, some delay, and maybe a few other DSP techniques, the ingenuity is all in the chop block.

All in all, I would call the Oxperiment a success, even if it sounds like Daedelus sampled that flute line from "Land Mine" first. The beats are simply really enjoyable. Pitchfork shit some mortar on it. Not quite a whole brick, but mortar nonetheless. Allmusic gave it half a star more than Exodus, but Exodus has the check mark for some reason. Cokemachineglow and tinymixtapes haven't touched it. I guess that leaves me pickin up the slack and listening to the bangin' joints.

Don't make me get oldskool...

This is another one that's been a while in the making. Dizz dropped Showtime only a year after Boy In Da Corner (the same year in the US), but Maths & English took him a few more years to put in the bag, and it definitely shows. While Rasket maintains his signatures Logic synth-layered style, he is also progressing forward into new territory. Like, for instance, sampling James Brown.

In terms of his first album, the production sounds a lot more traditional-hip-hop, but there are still psychedelic nuances, wonky synths, sweeping filters and wandering delays. And it's still gangster. I'm pretty convinced that the "hi-hat" sound for the opener "World Outside" is the sharpening of a large butcher's knife. People say he's getting Americanized or whatever, but I don't see Pharrell or Kanye doing this sort of production. Sure, it doesn't quite sound like grime anymore, or whatever, but it sounds good: it sounds different enough to be a progression, yet the same enough (maybe even just in attitude) to be familiar.

If you've yet to venture into Dizzee Dizz territory, I'd probably suggest Boy In Da Corner first, but if you've been following along with things so far, Maths & English is no surprise. 4 stars from allmusic, but they tend to be off on this sort of shit. There's no review, and there's not even a state-side CD copy of the thing, you have to import it. Thankfully CDUniverse has it on the cheap (for an import).

At this point, I feel a bit redundant. Everything I've written is about music I've been digging. What's my excuse? I don't listen to music I don't like? I dunno.. maybe. Not enough radio, or promotional cds, or something. Anyways, listen to Dizzee Dizz. Summertime....

A Monarch minus the A&R

I'll admit, I've only Pharoahe Monch work I've really really listened to before Desire is The Extinction Agenda, but fucking hot damn. I just snagged that self-titled joint and Internal Affairs off of the albumbase, and will probably take a trip to the record store when I get out of this sweltering paradise called Oáhu.

Desire is the return of the heart and soul to hip-hop. It's funky, fresh, original, and damn refreshing. I didn't even know I was waiting for anything, but this is what I've been waiting for. The album is chock full of lyrical genius ("I'm the poetical pastor/ Slave to a label, but I own my masters", etc). I've been doing some reading, and dude's taken 8 years, either brainstorming or working at a steady pace (or waiting for labels to figure their shit out). Regardless, the time and effort certainly shows.

Desire is well put together, sonicly cohesive, and just generally well-produced. Only three of the joints are labeled as containing samples, and even those do well to keep the sample as just another voice in the mix (complementing original drums, bass, and other voices). Not to say that sample based composition is is any less work or less artistic, but you can almost feel the days they spent in the studio working on this shit.

I read the allmusic review, saw that Ryan Schreiber gave it a "best new fad" tag, --- ok, --- I just paused and read the review. They quoted the same line as me (except they misquoted it, adding a "still", ha) -- Anyways, Brian Howe gave the new !!! album an 8.0 and this shit a 7.9, which is so fucking arbitrary, but it still means I can't take him seriously. In a nutshell, if you're into hip hop, you'll probably dig this album. If not, it may turn you on to some new shit. I think it's the best release of the year so far.

Get commenty with the shit, allmusic and Howe aren't down with the Public Enemy cover, but I think it's pretty dope. Sure, Monch isn't Chuck D, but the instrumental is fresh, and he added a verse. So say what's on your mind... or does nobody read this shit yet?

Boot Camp Clik ain't nothin to Wu Tang. Soundcyst motherfucker, get to know how we do things

I know it came out in January, but I can't get enough of this album. The beats are a bit more relaxed and soulful than Monkey Barz, but Ruck delivers big time. Dude's flippin' shit crazy, making new words ('respecognize'), and bringing the soul choir to boot. Some production by 9th Wonder, and a lot by dude's I've never heard of (but have probably heard) before but probably should have.

My buddy maintains that it's not as gritty or street as Monkey Barz, but I only really feel that in terms of the beats, and even then, it's shakey. Jesus Price definitely doesn't sound like Monkey Barz in terms of sonic quality, but shit, doesn't everyone always say they like artists to progress? P's still the brokest rapper you know (and now he's lettin you know he slangin that crack rock after the show). Guest appearances by Rock (fuck yea), Buckshot, Steele, Sadat X (!), Skyzoo, and a bunch more.

Basically, there's not a bad track on the record, and it's full of those bomb Sean P stanzas. So fuckin' get it already.