Album Reviews: September 2014 Week 4

The Frogs - "Count Yer Blessingsz" 2012

For those who are unaware, The Frogs are a rock band from Milwaukee, founded in the 80's, and are known for their wild stage antics and unsettling/comedic material. First off, I would like to state that anyone reading this that is a fan of Ween and has not heard The Frogs, should probably correct that and get familiar with at least The Frogs first 3 albums. The group is a duo of 2 brothers, and they had stayed quiet with releases for a long period of time. They went from 2001-2012 without a new album, but then in the summer of 2012, they simultaneously released 2 new albums, this being one of them. Within that week it was reported that one of the brothers, Dennis Flemion, was reported missing, and a few days later they found his dead body in a lake in Wisconsin. Such a tragic ending, but we were left with these final 2 releases from them. Given what happened to him, it makes the melancholy nature of this album all the more depressing sounding. It's got some of the similar feels that John Frusciante's heroin influenced material has, but it's not quite so uncomfortable and unpolished sounding. Most of these songs are bare bones, acoustic guitar and vocals only. It's not a bad album, but you definitely have to be in the right mood to listen to it. It's not nearly as silly as most of their older stuff is either, but these songs all seem like they belong together. It'll be interesting to hear the other album now and see how they divided up the songs and if that one is in a different style or not. Check out "Kissed Lips = Hell" and "They Promised Me The World". The only songs I could find links to.

Chimaira - "Crown Of Phantoms" 2013

Chimaira is one of those metal bands that i'm almost ashamed to enjoy, but I can't help it. They kind of occupy the same space in music as bands like Hatebreed and Lamb Of God do for me. Very technically well done heavy metal, with singers that are somewhat corny and douchey at times, but are undeniably catchy at the same time. This is definitely not the best album i've heard from them, but this album still burns. Plenty of heavy shit to bang your head to. Check out the videos for "No Mercy" , "All That's Left Is Blood", and "Wrapped In Violence". Also check out "Plastic Wonderland", "The Machine", and "Crown Of Phantoms".

Bare - "Atlas EP" 2013

With most of the dubstep producers ditching the sub-genre altogether, it's interesting to see where they try to go. Bare is apparently trying to go all over the place, as there's a smidge of a lot of electronic sub-genres within these 4 songs, but it mostly reminds me of some fake Diplo sounding stuff. None of these 4 tracks really catch my ear, which is too bad, because I like a decent amount of his dubstep material. These songs just seem like they're missing something to me. Check out "Atlas", "Mvkers", "Finger Trvp", and "Hvm".

BitsBits: Mystery Mix September 2014

http://www.mixcloud.com/ryanbirch54/mystery-mix-september-2014/

this month's Mystery Mix features material by: Country Joe McDonald, L.A.U.S.D., U-N-I, Master P, Bone Thugs N Harmony, Silkk The Shocker, Tenacious D, The Haunted, Two, Company Flow, Grand Daddy I.U., Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Baalphegor, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Main Offenders, Sweet Valley, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eyedea.

Album Reviews: September 2014 Week 3

Hank Williams III - "Brothers Of The 4x4" 2013

I finally got the chance to really get some time with this album, and sit and digest it. This is an incredibly solid country album, clocking in at a long 90 minutes (is it a long album or a short double album?), it's pretty impressive that there's only 2 songs on here that I fast forward over, mostly due to him falling into what I would consider country music cliches (songs about pickup trucks), and me being an outsider to the genre, I have no right to judge, I just know that I don't care for those style of songs, personally. This album is full of songs that hit hard. This is not an album filled with ballads for sure. In terms of his whole career, I would rank this one near the top. This easily holds it's own with his previous best material. I really appreciate how he has no desire to make cookie cutter song structures, and there is no typical format for how these songs are laid out. Some songs are more to the point and clock in around 3-4 minutes, but there's several 6-8 minute songs, where he gives the songs time to really let the musicianship shine. I especially enjoy the fiddle playing on this album. I would recommend this album to any fans of country music in general, but also longtime fans of his, that still listen to his older albums, that have maybe been disillusioned with his last few releases being "too weird", and have kinda lost touch with what he's currently up to. Check out this crazily psychedelic video for "Loners 4 Life" and this video for "Gettin Dim". Also check out  "Farthest Away", "Outdoor Plan", "Brothers Of The 4x4", "Broken Boogie", "Overdrive", and "Dreadful Drive".

Cibo Matto - "Hotel Valentine" 2014

This is about as triumphant of a comeback album as anyone could possibly have. Having not released an album together since 1999, and neither of them have put out any solo albums since 2011, there was definitely some mystery surrounding this release. If anything, it seems like they haven't really changed that much, but rather, today's music scene as a whole is a lot more primed for what they bring to the table than it was in the 90's. This is a concept album about a fictional hotel and the employees and customers (and apparently, ghosts) within it, but as most of their previous songs were at least semi-nonsensical in nature anyways, it's easy to look at these individual songs away from the core concept of the LP, and they still function great as stand alone songs, and it's unnecessary to even know they are part of a concept album to enjoy them fully. This album clocks in at a lean 38 minutes, but there is no filler at all. I'll even go out on a limb and say this is their best album, and probably my favorite release by either of them, besides Miho Hatori's stellar solo album, "Ecdysis". Check out the videos for "MFN" and probably my favorite track from the album, "Deja Vu". (this video is superb). Also check out "Hotel Valentine", "Housekeeping", (check out comedian Reggie Watts on some surprise background vocals) "Empty Pool", "Lobby", and "Emerald Tuesday".

DJ Clent - "Hyper Feet" 2014

This is a nice little EP, released on Planet Mu, from this Teklife crew member. I would say the title track is the least representative track of what the EP sounds like as a whole, with it's slight acid techno flavor, but all 5 of these songs bang, with the bar of high quality i've come to expect from this whole crew. None of them ever seem to let me down. Check out "Don't Go Down" and "Clent's Dog Catcher", the only 2 songs I could find links for.

Milo - "Cavalcade" 2013

One of the more abstract yet comedic voices of modern underground rap, Milo's style is pretty divisive, and people tend to either love it or hate it. My girlfriend thinks he "sounds boring" with his flow that walks the line between rapping and talking, but always contains many clever multi-syllable rhymes that make me chuckle. He's probably the weirdest dude in a crew full of weirdos (Hellfyre Club), and his subject matter ventures into almost nerdcore territory, balanced with a very emotional side as well, but there's something undeniably catchy and almost comforting about the music he's released so far. This EP is available as a free download here. (i'm sure due to the illegal sampling nature of the beats) Check out the videos for "Besos, An Exploration Of Sentimentality" (this song is probably the most perfect representation of Milo that I could give in one song. he rides this re-tweaking of Shlohmo perfectly) and "Ecclesiastes". (which also appears on the Hellfyre Club compilation, "Dorner vs. Tookie"). Also check out "Geometry & Theology", "Red Oleanders" (featuring Busdriver), and "Ba Al Chiliagon Swords" (featuring YC The Cynic).

Wo Fat - "The Conjuring" 2014

This ended up being a nice blind download. Some nice, crunchy, sludgy, stoner metal. These guys come from Dallas, and as far as I know, this is their 5th album. I definitely want to hear some older stuff now. I would recommend this to fans of The Sword, Electric Wizard, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, etc. I'd love to see these guys live sometime. Nothing groundbreaking, but it's nice to discover more bands that are doing rock n roll the right way, in my mind. Check out "Dreamwalker", "Beggar's Bargain", "The Conjuring", and "Read The Omens".

Real Estate - "Atlas" 2014

This was another blind download, but upon researching them, I found out that the guitarist is from Ducktails, who I am familiar with and enjoy. This is Real Estate's 3rd album. What I notice about this album is that when I listen to it, individual songs don't really pop out at me so much and become memorable, but I find myself supremely enjoying the time I spend listening to it. It's some very laid back rock that reminds me of a lot of different things at once, without actually sounding like them. Some of which are: The Beta Band, Neil Young, Interpol, Islands, M. Ward,  Yo La Tengo, Dr. Dog,  and Ty Segall. This album is very comfortable and relaxing without being boring. Check out the videos for "Talking Backwards", "Crime" (this awesome video features a cameo from comedian Andy Daly, who you might know from being the principal on Eastbound & Down, as well as a quick cameo from Nick Kroll), and "Had To Hear". Also check out "Past Lives", "Horizon", and "How Might I Live".

Aesop Rock - "The Blob" 2014

The description on the artwork pretty much says it all. No vocals at all on this 33 minute, all in one track, mix. It reminds me a lot El-P's "Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamix3", which I loved. There's a lot of beats on here, they all come at you pretty rapid fire. I doubt anything runs longer than 2 minutes before the beat changes again. This album is available as a free download here.

Jai Paul - "Unofficial Leak" 2013

OK, so the story behind this is that British singer Jai Paul became kinda internet famous a few years ago from his debut single, "BTSTU". The success of this song led to him getting signed to XL Recordings, and he began work on his debut album. In April of last year, a mysterious self-titled, debut Jai Paul album appeared on all the download sites of the world, followed by all sorts of speculation about the record label not being satisfied with the results of his album being too experimental, and him just saying fuck it and leaking it. Later on he came out with a press release saying that he did not want anything to be leaked and this his album was still on the way, and this in no way was any form of his debut album, but rather just a collection of random songs he's worked on over the years that the public was not meant to hear. In any event, this collection of songs sounds fantastic. It reminds me of what someone like James Blake would sound like if he let someone like Shlohmo produce an album for him, with maybe a slight touch of the mojo that Neon Indian had going on with their debut album. Very adventurous pop music with a beat scene touch. This is a very cool sounding album and I can't wait to hear what his official album will actually sound like.

Knxwledge - "Kauliflowr" 2013

Knxwledge is an extremely prolific beat maker, so me catching one of his releases is pretty random at this point. This full length album seems slightly more polished and structured than his average EP releases i'm used to hearing from him. Anyone who is a fan of slightly left field instrumental hip hop, or just beats in general, should check this out. I appreciate the way on some of the songs it's like 2 songs in one, where he just flips a completely new beat, mid-song. I would recommend this to people who are fans of Madlib, 9th Wonder, or Pete Rock for sure. Check out "Wngs", "Sgndoff","Burninop", "Rekon", "Yewdidnt", and "Sewintoyew".

Album Reviews: September 2014 Week 2

DJ Q-Bert - "Extraterrestria" 2014

A couple weeks ago, I reviewed the other half of this double album, released separately, "GalaXXXian". That album was more "traditional hip hop" and rap based, whereas this one is more concentrated on turntablism and beats, and is generally more progressive sounding. I'm going to need to hear this album more to really know it's place in history, but right now this album is exactly what I wanted to hear. Mostly hard sounding beats with fast, twiddly scratches laced over them. This is one of those albums where when it's over, i'm like "that's the end?? that's it? I want more", which is the best feeling to have after hearing a new album. Just fiending for more. The beats on this album are a really good mixture of future and past sounds, and it just sounds right to me. Check out "Moth-Rah", the epic "Broken Butterflies", "Labyrinth" (featuring Dana Leong), "Nautilus", "Draconian", and "HuverKraft" (featuring Dana Leong, DJ Zeke, + Coppe).

Ty Segall - "Gemini" 2013

Gemini is a little collection of demos and unreleased stuff that clocks in just under 30 minutes, so it's a quick listen. As with the nature of most demos, it's some bare bones material, leaning on the acoustic side of things, and with an artist as talented as Ty is, this is still quite a nice little album. I don't believe there's too many artists out there that could put out an album of discarded songs like this and have it sound this great. I'm still pleasure delaying myself from listening to his new album, at least until the hype from it has died down a little, but i'm looking forward to reviewing that soon. Check out "Thank God For The Sinners (Demo)", "Ghost (Demo)", "The Hill (Demo)", "Would You Be My Love (Demo)", and "You're The Doctor (Demo)".

Tokimonsta - "Half Shadows" 2013

Tokimonsta has always seemed like one of those artists that showed a lot of promise for future releases, after hearing her earlier material. This album just really doesn't deliver on the level that I want it to, which is a shame. It starts out OK enough. A couple decent instrumental beat creations, and a not wack guest appearance from Kool Keith, but then the album takes a completely different turn into songs that feature vocalists singing (sometimes guests and sometimes Tokimonsta herself) over her production. This could have turned out great, but none of these songs seem to really ever gain any traction in my mind and become memorable. It's just kind of generic, for lack of a better way of putting it. She seems like a capable pop producer, these songs just aren't my flavor at all. A couple of these style songs from towards the end of the album fare a little bit better, like "Moon Rise" (featuring Jesse Boykins III) and "Green" (featuring Andreya Triana), so maybe it's just that I don't care for the actual guests in the middle of the album. (Gavin Turek and MNDR). In any event, this album feels a little uneven and lackluster, but is certainly not weak. She had just set a high bar of quality for herself previously, and I think maybe she's in an exploratory phase in her career, trying to figure out how to present herself and the different roles she takes on as a producer/performer, and this album is a result of that. Check out the videos for "Go With It" (featuring MNDR) and  "Soul To Seoul (Part 1)", and "Soul To Seoul (Part 2)". (These videos are really well done). Also check out"Sweet Williams" and "808".

 The Both - "The Both" 2014

The Both is the duo of Aimee Mann and Ted Leo. They are both (haha) established musicians in their own right, and it's interesting that these 2 artists decided to unite and attempt to combine their sounds.  (it also furthers my theory that Aimee Mann has a weird thing with collaborating with male musicians who have first names for last names...) I think they hit the mark exactly with this album. This is so much better than most "old people music" that gets released. They're not forging any new ground with styles or songwriting, but they're also almost perfect at what they do. Bringing some solid, singer/songwriter oriented, pop/rock, that you want to listen to again and again. As far as my personal viewpoint goes, I was already a huge Aimee Mann fan, but i'm more of a pedestrian listener of Ted Leo through friends that are big fans of him, but I never really got into him myself. There's times during this album that I wish he would take more of a backseat, instead of the equal partnership they have going on, but it's not so bad that I want to turn the songs off, like I do when I hear the Jim James songs on the Monsters Of Folk album. In fact, this album still makes me want to go back and take a 2nd look at Ted Leo's albums, to see what i'm missing. This album puts me in a good mood and is very happy-go-lucky sounding without being actually sappy or corny. A hard line to walk, for sure. Check out this short video of them explaining the band. Also check out the videos for "Milwaukee" (Ted Leo is hilarious as his fictional uncle) and "Volunteers Of America". For some reason, I can't find any good links to just audio tracks of some of the better songs of this album, but some of my favorites are "Hummingbird", "You Can't Help Me Now", and "The Prisoner".

Copywrite & DJ Scratch Johnson - "Carbon Copy's Phony Art Pub Scam" 2013

Copywrite was always one of those rappers that I felt had talent, but never really made songs that I cared for too much. He was always too reliant on punchlines for my taste, and most of his songs had a repetitive and contrived nature. All of those previous opinions made the high quality of this release all the more surprising to me. He sounds great all throughout this concept project of him flipping Beatles classics into some weird cut and paste rap collages. This album is extremely well put together on the beat side of things, and it would have been easy for him to flub this up with some crappy or boring rapping, but he kicks it into full gear, straight owns these beats, and just blows the place to smithereens with his verses. He makes lots of references to Beatles lyrics, but also keeps it interesting for a hip hop listener who doesn't give a shit about the Beatles. Some of the songs he seems to adapt a child-like sing-songy flow, similar to Das Racist on "People Are Strange" or MC Hammer when he did that Addams Family song back in the days. It works so perfectly on these Beatles melodies, it's amazing. It's rare when you see an idea so perfectly executed, but strangely I haven't heard anything about this album anywhere. I honestly can't find any links to show you guys this album at all either. I guess something that treads uncertain waters of legal territory is bound to be that way, but it's still a shame. Copywrite has this one song on his Bandcamp page, but I feel this is one of the less interesting tracks from this project.

Paul White - "Ancient Treasure" 2010

I had the album this single is from, "Paul White & The Purple Brain", right when it was new, but never knew about these versions of this song. On the album, it's just a little 2 minute instrumental beat, but for the single, Guilty Simpson comes in to turn this into a full rap song, and the regular version is probably the least interesting of the bunch. Both of these remixes done by Paul White himself are awesome, but unfortunately, possibly due to them containing samples from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, I can't find links anywhere. Here is the regular version of this song.

BitsBits: BMSR Radio #2: Scrotacular

http://www.mixcloud.com/ryanbirch54/bmsr-radio-2-scrotacular/

An hour long mix of things that are all related to Tobacco and his group, Black Moth Super Rainbow.

Album Reviews: September 2014 Week 1

Aaron Freeman - "Gener's Gone: The Final Recordings Of Gene Ween (2009-2011)" 2013

OK, I know it's weird that at this point i'm almost angry at Aaron Freeman for quitting Ween. It's not my place to decide what's best for people i'm a huge fan of. He's made his life better for himself by sobering up, I just wish he wouldn't have went about it in the way that he did. What's done is done, and what we're left with is his former partner, Mickey Melchiondo, continuing on as the lead guitarist of the awesome band Moistboyz, and with Aaron going the solo artist route, first in the form of 2012's dull collection of Rod McKuen covers- "Marvelous Clouds", and his newly formed solo band, which is just being dubbed as "Freeman", which I am still afraid to listen to at this point in time. Maybe later this month. In between those 2 albums, he released this 6 song EP of Ween demos on his Bandcamp page, presumably because he really needed the money. I really wish he would have just waited until a time in the future where he could get together with his former partner, and they could work out a way to professionally release a lot of the demos and unreleased songs they had throughout their career. I guarantee the fans would love that, and obviously appreciate it a lot more than this. These 6 demos aren't bad at all, and probably could have become decent songs, but I guess what i'm wondering is, are these the only demos he had where he did them alone without Mickey, and that's why he released this? Because i'm sure they're sitting on a plethora of unreleased material that people would pay money for, if they just took the time to package it all up correctly. Listening to these demos just makes me kinda sad. Not really what i'm looking for in a listening experience. Check out "Gener's Gone", "Baby Don't Be Afraid", and "Nature Man".

Greetings From Tuskan - "More Heart Than Brains (Instrumentals)" 2013

After hearing the new Bike For Three (the duo of Greetings From Tuskan and Buck 65) album a decent amount recently, I decided to go back and revisit the first album's instrumental version. It's interesting to me how differently these beats seem to play out when Buck is not putting his vocals on them. I had previously accused this album's beats of sounding too much like people like Jel and Alias, and her not having enough of her own style, but listening to the album with no vocals has made me retract that statement completely. I find this album to be great for putting on and getting work accomplished. It's very motivational. You can listen or download this album for free here, from her Bandcamp page.

Kutt Calhoun - "Black Gold" 2013

As big of a fan of Strange Music that I am, i've admittedly been slippin on checking out their last few releases outside of a few random songs, and I need to correct that. Unfortunately, the album I chose to jump back into it, probably wasn't the right choice. Kutt Calhoun is a capable rapper and good live performer, but he's always been the member of Strange Music that puts out the most iffy material, outside of maybe Big Scoob, who is just too basic for me to really enjoy. Kutt Calhoun has the tendency to write entire songs based around a simple phrase or idea, and i'm not a huge fan of that. It tends to make things seem too gimmicky and repetitive. The other aspect of this album that I don't like, is that a lot of the songs come off like some sort of musical version of an after school special, the way he chooses to present the problems he has in his life. Add on to that, the fact that a lot of the beats on here sound 2nd rate compared to the average Strange Music release (which is a pretty high bar of quality to meet), and this is just a disappointing album. It's not actually wack. Everything is done decently, it's just definitely nothing i'm personally looking for in an album or entertainment in general. Strange Music has a fast paced release schedule for most of their artists, and I feel like not every artist is equipped to write and release a full album and EP. and a litany of guest appearances on top of that, every single year. I think Kutt Calhoun would benefit from concentrating his efforts on making one super tight ass album every 3 years or so, instead of all these releases that show promise, but ultimately don't deliver due to too much filler. The guy has talent, I just feel like he's forcing his writing a lot of the time. Check out the videos for "Self Preservation" (featuring Krizz Kaliko), "I Been Dope" (featuring Tech N9ne), "See What Had Happened Was", "Same Thing" (featuring Ben-G), and "That's My Word". Also check out "501s & Righsides" (featuring Brotha Lynch Hung) and "I Don't Like The Look Of It".

Magnum -"All Over Me EP" 2012

I grabbed this based on the fact there was remixes by French Fries and Visionist. I think it's funny that there's already a butt rock band called Magnum that exists. This EP is alright. Good for dancing or chilling, with the highlights coming in the form of the song "Dense" and it's remix by French Fries. Nice little easy bass delights. Also check out "All Over Me".

BitsBits: Blogmix September 2014

http://www.mixcloud.com/ryanbirch54/blogmix-september-2014/

This is a monthly series I do, where I present the best songs i've come across from the past month as a 'no talking' radio style program, with minimal mixing and the songs kept at their original speeds, so that people may hear the songs for what they are, and hopefully purchase products by these artists and see them live when they come through your town. This mix is also an audio summary of this blog. This month's mix features: Zeds Dead, Four Tet, Thee Oh Sees, A$AP Rocky, Hank Williams III, Venomous Maximus, Evy Jane, Prodigy & The Alchemist, EPROM, DJ Earl, µ-Ziq, Alex Banks, Elizabeth Bernholz, Dirty Projectors, DJ Q-Bert, Bambu, Tobacco, Handbraekes, Mr. Oizo, and Caustic Window...