the ecstatic & rising down

For me, discovering a real high-quality hip hop album feels like finding a twenty dollar bill on the sidewalk. It doesn't happen nearly often enough as I wish it would, but when it does I want to throw a party. So I've been living it up lately, thoroughly enjoying both Mos Def's recent release The Ecstatic and The Roots' 2008 release Rising Down. Both are jammed with creative samples, thoughtful lyrics, and addictive beats. Ultimately, what I respect most about these guys is that they're consistently trying to convince their audience to face up to reality and initiate positive change. Of course, the origins of hip hop are themselves rooted in self-analysis of one's position and neighborhood, but since the late 80's far too much hip hop has chosen to instead promote fantasy and materialism, exploiting their audience instead of inspiring them. Sadly, hearing Mos Def or Black Thought rap about blacks killing themselves periodically sounds like a broken record - the very fact that this continues to be such a central issue in the hop hop community suggests that the problem is depressingly intractable. But at least these guys are reaching out to the youth with some kind of knowledge. If you consider the messages that young, disenfranchised black (and brown) men and women receive on a daily basis, you'd be hard pressed to hear the positive ones in the drowning miasma of advertising, debasement, and hate.

While nothing Mos Def produces from this point on will likely compare to his 1999 solo debut, Black on Both Sides, with The Ecstatic he at least shrugs off the disheartening mediocrity of The New Danger (2004) and True Magic (2006). It is a return to form. His rhyming and rapping are superlative. The album is characterized by a number of tracks that contain Middle Eastern themes and musical styles. On "Auditorium," the infamous Slick Rick joins him in a rap about life & times in the modern age, including our ongoing war in Iraq:

quiet storm vital form pen pushed it right across
mind is a vital force, high level right across
shoulders the lions raw voice is the siren
i swing round ring out and bring down the tyrant
shocked a small act could knock a giant lopsided
the world is so dangerous there's no need for fightin
suttins tryna hide like the struggle wont find em
and the sun bust through the clouds to clearly remind him
everywhere penthouse pavement and curb
cradle to the grave talk'll lead you on a shell
universal ghetto life holla black you know it well

As always, Mos Def is 100% positivity and I love him for it. The opening line of "Priority" might as well be his creed: "Top priority: peace before everything, God before anything, love before anything, real before everything, home before anyplace, shoot before anything, style and state radiate love power slay the hate."

"Quiet Dog Bite Hard" has such a slamming beat it deserves a YouTube link and a listen:



"Revelations" feels like it could have come right from Black on Both Sides, Mos Def quietly preaching black pride and humility to God on a thoroughly old-school track. And the producers and guest artists involved make an impressive list:

1. Supermagic (prod. by Oh No)
2. Twilight Speedball (prod. by Chad Hugo)
3. Auditorium (feat. Slick Rick) (prod. by Madlib)
4. Wahid (prod. by Madlib)
5. Priority (prod. by Preservation)
6. Quiet Dog (prod. by Preservation)
7. Life In Marvelous Times (prod. by Mr. Flash)
8. The Embassy (prod. by Mr. Flash)
9. No Hay Nada Mas (prod. by Preservation)
10. Pistola (prod. by Oh No)
11. Pretty Dancer (prod. by Madlib)
12. Workers Camp (prod. by Mr. Flash)
13. Revelations (prod. by Madlib)
14. Roses (feat. Georgia Anne Muldrow) (prod. by Georgia Anne Muldrow )
15. History (feat. Talib Kweli) (prod. by J Dilla)
16. Casa Bey (Arranged by Mos Def and Preservation)


Like Mos Def, The Roots have thankfully focused their prodigious talent on producing socially-conscious hip hop layered onto danceable beats. For whatever reason (most likely not enough listening), I didn't take to their 2006 release Game Theory, but look no further than Things Fall Apart (1999) and Phrenology (2002) for solid gateway albums into The Roots' universe. Rising Down is equal to the task. Feel free to ignore the somewhat disturbing, largely ironic "Birthday Girl" and indulge in the social criticism that defines the remainder of the album.

Just a sample, from "I will not apologize"

Yo, a revolution's what it's smelling like, it ain't going be televised
Governments is hellified, taking cake and selling pies
I ain't got a crust or crumb, to get some I'd be well obliged
Murder is comodified, felon for the second time
Never was I into chasing trouble I was followed by
Facing trouble with no alibi, had to swallow pride
Vilified, victimized, penalized, criticized
Ran into some people that's surprised I was still alive
Look into my daughter's eyes, wonder how can I provide
Got to get from A to B but how can I afford to drive?
Messed around, tried to get a job and wasn't qualified
Had to see a pal of mine, got to get the lightning rod
Now I'm in the black Impala looking for the dollar sign
Palms get the itching man I got to get the calamine
Before I fall behind, guess the grind will be my 9 to 5
I will not be conquered by, I will not apologize

Mos Def joins on the title track to help introduce the album, just so you know what kind of journey this thing will take you on. Not every track is a killer but The Roots are always worth a close listen.

1. The Pow Wow (Intro)
2. Rising Down
3. Get Busy
4. @ 15
5. 75 Bars (Reconstruction)
6. (Up Theme) Becoming Unwritten
7. Criminal
8. I Will Not Apologize
9. I Can’t Help It
10. Singing Man
11. (Up Theme) Unwritten
12. Lost Desire
13. The Show
14. Rising Up
15. Birthday Girl

it's blitz

I'm listening to the month-old Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs' release, It's Blitz! right now and I can't get over the transformation. This definitely isn't Fever to Tell - where's my dirgy "Rich," grungy "Date with a Night," and wailing, "I gotta man who makes me wanna kill"? Where's my New York garage rock reinvention, part XXIII?

Oh yeah, that was 2003. Like all bands with a spark of brilliance, the YYY's clearly seek to reinvent themselves on each album, delve into sounds that they enjoy without a concern for fan-boy expectations. It's Blitz! is bass guitar, rock overtones and Karen O's lovely voice, but it's also heavily synthesized, artificial, studio magic. I love it. "Heads Will Roll" really does make me want to dance. "Dragon Queen" is disco-shit, but damn it, it's good. I don't even mind the soft, oddly placed reflections like "Skeletons" and "Runaway" although they're the weakest points of the album (perhaps my opinion will change with time and further listens - one thing I've learned about the YYY's is that their albums just sound better the more I listen to them). Every song is bursting with sound, and infused with the unique YYY energy that makes me want to head-butt a dingo. Or something.

How are you not going to show your scar?
How are you not going to get high, high?

Track list:

1 Zero 4:25
2 Heads Will Roll 3:42
3 Soft Shock 3:53
4 Skeletons 5:02
5 Dull Life 4:08
6 Shame and Fortune 3:31
7 Runaway 5:13
8 Dragon Queen 4:02
9 Hysteric 3:52
10 Little Shadow 3:57

psycho-tetris

My last post referencing the synergy between Russian metal and upcoming RTS, Stalin vs. Martians, got me thinking about the role that music has played in my personal game history. I'm sure we all have that experience of particular albums becoming attached to certain periods in our lives. Whenever I think of my 2 year stint in Hawai'i, I can't help but hear Goodie Mob and Outkast playing in my head. While sound might not get encoded as deeply in our engrams as smell, it still has the capacity to evoke strong emotional memories.

In particular, I started thinking about how certain albums in my past got linked with particular video game experiences. There is no doubt that the right music can lift a mundane game experience into the stratosphere of the sublime - and there are few greater joys that having the visceral rush of a true "gaming moment" enhanced by the soundtrack of our lives. Here are a few of the pairings that I still recall with deepest joy and respect:

1991: Tetris and Psychocandy










Like hordes of other college freshmen, I got pretty addicted to Tetris. I mean, look at that awesome level back-drop! Back in '91, not everyone had a computer (weird, I know), so I used to steal time on my friend Pat's Mac whenever he was in class or napping. Pat's roommate, Moses, unknowingly exposed me to a brand new world of music. Moses had no particular interest in Tetris, as I recall, but he'd often blast obnoxious alt-rock and industrial while the rest of us gathered around Pat's computer, taking turns and competing for high scores. I'd never heard The Jesus and Mary Chain before, and at first, I hated the sound. But eventually, I discovered a profound ecstasy in matching oddly shaped blocks while listening to the droning vocals and guitar of the Reid brothers.

1998: Commando & The Stooges













I don't know exactly how this got started, but AF downloaded some emulators so that the house on Del Oro could play shit-tons of arcade classics. I know that IS got pretty obsessed with Time Pilot (hell, we all did) and BD showed amazing prowess with Donkey Kong. But nothing got us more pumped than playing Commando and listening to "1969." I mean, it felt like the two were designed for each other. Thinking about this gives me shivers.

1999: Half Life and Vegas













It's hard to talk about Half Life without getting all nostalgic. Let's just say: those were good days. It was Santa Barbara, living 2 blocks away from Leadbetter beach, and weekends were often spent moving back and forth between the ocean and AF's computer. Half Life was my first online gaming experience; it was all about Deathmatch, memorizing maps, right-clicking grenades, crowbar sneak attacks, gleeful laughter. Pop on a pair of headphones, crank up Crystal Method's Vegas, and run & kill. It sounds so juvenile, but I'd be grinning from ear to ear for hours at a time.

2000: Vigilante 8 and The Cult of Ray











This is a tough one, only because we played V8 so god damn much, listening to everything in our collection while doing so. Exile on Main Street, Los Angeles, New York Dolls, White Light/White Heat were on the hit parade. But there's a subtle synergy between shooting red missiles up Dave's ass and hearing "The Marsist" just get cranking. I won't lie to you: V8 was (is) a great game, on its own without support. But V8 + good tunes + friends = Heaven.


Well, you get the idea. Sad to say, I don't have these synergistic, orgasmic experiences much anymore. In part, I think, it's because I play a lot more PC games vs. consoles nowadays and the modern PC memory-sink makes it a bit difficult to play Itunes in the background. But that's not to say it doesn't happen still. Just recently, I started getting in deep with Dawn of War II, which is a pretty visceral experience on its own. Serendipitously, I discovered that DOWII supported by Queens of the Stone Age provides one hell of a rush. Zooming in close to watch your Dreadnaught wreak havoc on some Eldar while listening to "Better Living Through Chemistry" is pretty f'ing thrilling.

2009: Dawn of War II and Rated R

stalin vs. martians

Please watch me and bask in the glory of Russian metal band ANJ:



Thanks again to the blokes at RPS for alerting us peons to such awesomeness. Somehow, in a way that I do not fully comprehend as of yet, this video will be featured in upcoming absurdist real-time strategy game, Stalin vs. Martians. A quote (poorly translated to boot) from the "ideology" of the designers:

"Obviously, the main concept behind the game is pretty much clear if you can see its name. It just speaks for itself. The fact that such game exists is quite an event. It doesn't really matter what's behind the name or if the game is playable at all. The concept is enough. Simply makes your brain explode.

Meanwhile, we decided to move a little bit further than making up a bizarre concept and product's weird name. Stalin vs. Martians is also a good real-time strategy game. Probably one of the best in years and years. You can quote us on that."

And from the FAQ:

"Vopros: Can we play as Stalin himself?
Otvet: Yes, but not from the start. Stalin is our commander and he gives us orders. Closer to the grand finale he will appear on the battlefield as a playable unit - a huge colossus, five times higher than any other creature. Just like it was in the real life."

I desperately hope this is true.

third

Portishead's new album, Third, has appeared out of the void. Their debut, Dummy, was released in 1994, in trip-hop's birthing era - and their self-titled sophomore set came out in '97. It's been over a decade since we've heard a new siren song waver out of Beth Gibbons' mouth, and I can't say I ever expected to hear one. But this album is very very good. The lyrics remain brooding, gothic, and dark but I'm not sure if many people listen to Portishead for insight or advice.

I'd like to laugh at what you said
but I just can't find a smile
I wonder why you can't
I struggle with myself
hoping I might change a little
hoping that I might be someone I wanna be

Really? Are we reading Twilight or something? But there's clearly some musical experimentation and diversity here. "Hunter" and "Deep Water" are ghost-tracks from the 1930's, "Small" is psychadelic '60's, "The Rip" is old-school Leonard Cohen, "We Carry On" drones like the soundtrack to a Lovecraftian ritual, and "Machine Gun" is KMFDM industrial-lite - none of which are necessarily "music to make love to your old lady by." Those juvenile lyrics don't sound so silly because Portishead music is witchcraft and chaos, sensuality in the abyss. If you're curious and want to sample a single track, start with "Magic Doors," appropriately named.

Track-list:

01. Silence
02. Hunter
03. Nylon Smile
04. The Rip
05. Plastic
06. We Carry On
07. Deep Water
08. Machine Gun
09. Small
10. Magic Doors
11. Threads

(worth staring at)

a quiet death

Our blogging compatriot RL recently posted a fascinating commentary on our (collective) obsession with apocalypta. It has led me to wonder why humans as a whole, and I personally, find the concept of Armageddon so interesting and perhaps even appealing. Since my childhood, our societal visions of apocalypse have evolved from ones filled with mushroom clouds and Australian biker gangs, to diseased corpses, and now Atlantian tombs. Every now and then, an ironic cynic or cynical ironist provides us with a humorous psychological outlet: zombie apocalypse scores high on our cultural preference (e.g., Dawn of the Dead, The Walking Dead), but I also find old-fashioned monster Armageddon satisfying as well (e.g. Godzilla, Crush Crumble & Chomp!).


But in the end, our greatest tragedy may be that we don't actually go out with a bang, and with nary a whimper. More likely than death by meteor or hadron, there lies the possibility of our dissolution through inauthenticity. This has become increasingly fertile ground for bioethicists and philosophers concerned with how scientific and cultural "progress" has fundamentally eroded our very nature. It's not like we're going to wake up tomorrow and half our town is dead with some virulent flu (although I suppose it's a possibility) - but rather, our grandchildren will wake up in a town/nation/world full of metaphysical zombies (reference: first 15 minutes of Shaun of the Dead). Some examples...

Fukuyama is infamous for declaring the "end of history," but I found his treatise on the philosophical implications of biotechnology to be a tour de force. In Our Posthuman Future, he explores how genetic engineering, pharmacotherapy, and other revolutionary breakthroughts of the modern age have the potential to destroy defining aspects of our being. For example, the use of Prozac (and other anti-depressants) to treat painful mood disorders seems a great step forward in psychiatry. Certainly, these drugs have provided profound psychological relief to millions of patients, and helped prevent thousands of suicides from occurring.

However, we must consider the possibility that depression itself is periodically functional. If we eradicate the possibility of psychic pain, we lose a critical facet of our humanity. Fukuyama suggests that depression (on a societal scale) may be a reflection of a vast undercurrent of popular dissatisfaction with the status quo - and that in our historical past, such disenfranchisement led to revolution. What effect might pharmacotherapy be having on our cultural evolution? Are we feeding ourselves a version of state-sanctioned Soma that placates us proles as the elite few rape and pillage our world to stark oblivion?

When I first opened The End of Nature, by Bill McKibben, I expected something more speculative and hyperbolic. And, at times, I'll admit that it reads a little too "fruity" and unscientific for my taste. But his primary argument rang deeply true with me, as I'm sure it has with anyone even moderately concerned with how humans have affected their environment over the past several hundred years. A quote:

"...Our comforting sense of the permanence of our natural world, our confidence that it will change gradually and imperceptibly if at all, is the result of a subtly warped perspective. Changes that can affect us can happen in our lifetime in our world--not just changes like wars but bigger and more sweeping events. I believe that without recognizing it we have already stepped over the threshold of such a change; that we are at the end of nature. By the end of nature I do not mean the end of the world. The rain will still fall and the sun shine, though differently than before. When I say 'nature,' I mean a certain set of human ideas about the world and our place in it."

One of McKibben's primary arguments is that by altering our atmosphere, humans have eradicated the line between man-made and natural. Nothing in our environment, at this point, is untouched by man since we have affected the very sky we live under. This corruption of nature's "purity," if you will, can have a profound impact on our own sense of well-being and pride. In addition to being concerned with the physical damage that global warming and other environmental hazards threaten, we might also worry about the psychological toll of living in a concrete empire.


As an aside, Tolkien was well-aware of this as he wrote his Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I am convinced that Sauron (and perhaps to a more obvious degree Saruman) represent the threat of burgeoning industrialization in the post-War era. The "temptation" of the rings of power that Man falls prey to is this very notion that one can exert control over one's environment. Elves (and hobbits, and other fairie-folk) have always represented a more balanced and respectful relationship with nature. I hope that my nieces at least absorbed some of this, at a subconscious level, as they consumed the absurd Peter Jackson extravaganzas.

Perhaps my favorite piece of post-apocalyptic fiction, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake is a fascinating examination of our philosophical dissolution. I'll choose just one of the many incredible examples from the book: ChickieNobs. Atwood suggests that in our near future, we will genetically engineer animals to provide meat more efficiently. We are already doing this, by breeding chickens with a greater percentage of breast meat, for example - but taken to its extreme, one can imagine something quite horrifying.

The protagonist, Jimmy, is touring a biotech facility run by his former high-school friend, Crake:

"Next they went to NeoAgriculturals. AgriCouture was its nickname among the students. They had to put on biosuits before they entered the facility, and scrub their hands and wear nose-cone filters, because what they were about to see hadn't been bioform-proofed, or not completely. A woman with a laugh like Woody Woodpecker led them through the corridors.
'This is the latest,' said Crake. What they were looking at was a large bulblike object that seemed to be covered with stippled whitish-yellow skin. Out of it came twenty thick fleshy tubes, and at the end of each tube another bulb was growing.
'What the hell is it?' said Jimmy.
'Those are chickens,' said Crake. 'Chicken parts. Just the breasts on this one. They've got ones that specialize in drumsticks too, twelve on a growth unit.'
'But there aren't any heads,' said Jimmy...
'That's the head in the middle,' said the woman. 'There's a mouth opening at the top, they dump the nutrients in there. No eyes or beak or anything, they don't need those.'
'This is horrible,' said Jimmy. The thing was a nightmare. It was like an animal-protein tuber.
'Picture the sea-anemone body plan,' said Crake. 'That helps.'

Of course, after a couple years pass, Jimmy (and the rest of the populace) find themselves happily easting cheap, tasty fast-food chicken provided by ChickieNobs. Wouldn't our society behave in a similar manner? Aren't we already?

And finally, my favorite song by Outkast. If you ignore the forgettable gangsta opening stanzas by Big Boi, Andre 3000's astute analysis of our growing inauthenticity may give you pause.

Synthesize, microwave me
Give me a drug so I can make seven babies
Pump my breasts up, can you suck the fat up
Please make my life appear
like ain't no such thing as bad luck
My nose ain't right
Like I need a new one
Just take your pick, a yellow, red
A black or a blue on
Virtual reality, virtual BULLSHIT
Synthesizer preachers can reach you
up in the pulpit
Who a bitch?
Give me my gat so that I can smoke this nigga
Tell his momma not to cry
because they can clone him quicker
than it took his daddy to make him
Niggaz bitin verbatim
Thought provokin records radio never played dem
Instant, quick grits, new, improved
Hurry hurry, rush rush, world on the move
Marijuana illegal but cigarettes cool
I might LOOK kinda funny but I ain't no fool
Now if you wanna synthesize, I empa-thize
Now if you wanna synthesize, I empa-thize
But if you synthasize, I will understand
Your synthasizer MAN.

radiohead in montreal

Aili and I just returned from a brief jaunt to Montreal, primarily to see Radiohead play at the Parc Jean Drapeau. I admit to having steadily lost interest in live shows as I've grown older - in part because of absurd ticket costs, but mostly because the bands I am most motivated to see (Tool, Radiohead, Beck, etc.) are all big-stadium draws now. And there's only so much enjoyment I can get out of watching the silhouette of Thom Yorke, or Maynard or whomever, do something not quite discernible from a long ways away. Plus, I've always been one of those concert-goers who closes their eyes through a lot of the songs, just so that I can absorb the music a little more fully. One eventually begins to wonder why you're standing in the mud along with 30,000 idiots who, for some reason, feel it necessary to sing along with every song even though their voice makes you want to club baby seals.

But it speaks to Radiohead's brilliance that, even through the idiocy of the crowd, and the bullheaded security guys who kept trying to kick us off the stairs where we had a good view of the show, and the light drizzle that kept up for nearly 3 hours, their music sang clear and true and touched us both. Here's the set-list, in case you want to load up an identical playlist in Itunes:

01. 15 Step
02. There There
03. Morning Bell (*not sure about this one*)
04. All I Need
05. My Iron Lung
06. Nude
07. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
08. The Gloaming
09. The National Anthem
10. Fake Plastic Trees
11. Reckoner
12. Like Spinning Plates
13. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
14. Lucky
15. Optimistic
16. Idioteque
17. Bodysnatchers

Encore 1
18. Faust Arp
19. Videotape
20. Paranoid Android
21. Bangers and Mash
22. Karma Police

Encore 2
23. House of Cards
24. You And Whose Army?
25. Everything In Its Right Place

I think I'm correct in saying that all of In Rainbows was covered (but only Bangers & Mash off the "B-sides" CD). I was actually surprised at the number of old classics that were played, including Paranoid Android & Karma Police off of OK Computer, and (both highlights for me) My Iron Lung & Fake Plastic Trees from The Bends. National Anthem was fucking brilliant, of course, and The Gloaming made my skin crawl. Other surprises: You and Whose Army?, which is a great song but odd to play in a live set, and another experimental track off of Amnesiac, Like Spinning Plates.

For a large segment of the show, fireworks were going off nearby that, oddly enough, had nothing to do with the concert. This pleased both Aili and me greatly, although at one point Thom commented how he wished they would have saved them for the end. There is no doubt that Radiohead gives you a complete experience - even when I saw them in Santa Barbara back in '01, I remember being impressed by how long they entertained us peons.

The light show was exquisite, and perhaps our distance from the stage gave us a nice perspective. Here's a pic that I blatantly stole from some guy's Flickr site (thank you Maczag):

I know I'm not alone in my love of Radiohead. Every time I listen to them, I can't help but feel that they're the most thoroughly modern band out there. They are of our time. If a host of alien invasion ships appeared tomorrow, hovering over our major cities threatening absolute annihilation unless we can somehow convince them of our worth in the universe - I would send them some Radiohead CD's. There is no doubt in my mind that they'd leave us be, to wallow in our own collective fate.

While you make pretty speeches,
I'm being cut to shreds
You feed me to the lions,
a delicate balance

And this just feels like spinning plates
I'm living in cloud cuckoo land
And this just feels like spinning plates
My body is floating down the muddy river

it takes a nation of millions...

One of the first hip hop (back then, we called it "rap"!) albums I owned was Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. I still remember snipping and mending the magnetic tape of my cassette after my boombox ate it for the umpteenth time. Released in 1988, I was 15 years old and not yet ready for the knowledge that Chuck D was dropping. I listened to this album today in my car as I ran errands and was astonished, again, at the power and relevance of these tracks.

Song list:

01 Countdown to Armageddon
02 Bring the Noise
03 Don't Believe the Hype
04 Cold Lampin' with Flavor
05 Terminator X to the Edge of Panic
06 Mind Terrorist
07 Louder Than a Bomb
08 Caught, Can We Get a Witness?
09 Show 'Em Whatcha Got
10 She Watch Channel Zero?!
11 Night of the Living Baseheads
12 Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos
13 Security of the First World
14 Rebel Without a Pause
15 Prophets of Rage
16 Party for Your Right to Fight

Most music critics consider this PE's magnum opus, and I can see why. It's got everything - from thumping beats, twisted samples, and superb turntablism courtesy of Terminator X - to Chuck D's socially-conscious, charged, confrontational, and intelligent lyrics - to Flavor Flav's brilliantly absurd ab libs.

Bring the Noise starts with a quote extracted from a speech by Malcolm X: "Too black... too strong..." , although it's informative to take a look at the context of that speech:

"It's just like when you've got some coffee that's too black, which means it's too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won't even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it puts you to sleep." (Message to the Grass Roots, Nov. 1963, Detroit)

You can read and listen to the entirely of this speech by visiting this site. There is no doubt that Malcolm X preached anger and hate, prior to his conversion to traditional Islam, but I usually find his words interesting and thoughtful. This speech is a good example of old-fashioned revolutionary rhetoric - Malcolm X calling for a violent black movement for freedom and equal rights in America. In this quote, he is arguing against the involvement of white people within the revolution. Unlike Martin Luther King, Malcolm X felt that black freedom could only come from blacks working on their own. Many have interpreted this quote as an expression of the anxiety that both black and white felt over the prospect of racial mixing (either genetic or cultural). Public Enemy explore this very issue further on their next album, Fear of a Black Planet. Needless to say, as a "brown" teenager growing up in rural New York, I had never even considered these problems and fears and felt both uncomfortable and excluded from the message - I was clearly not the "target audience."

So from the outset, you're made aware that It Takes a Nation of Millions... is neither going to be gangsta (which was hitting it's heyday in the late 80's) nor mindless self-indulgence (a la, 2 Live Crew's 1989 As Nasty as They Wanna Be). Don't Believe the Hype provides one of the group's most recognizable samples, as Chuck D openly endorses the Nation of Islam and Louis Farakan. Cold Lampin' with Flavor makes an abrupt turn into the silly, but also serves as a reminder of why Flavor Flav was actually cool back then. Consider:

Shinavative ill factors by da Flavor Flav
Come an ride da Flavor wave
In any year on any givin day
What a brova know - what do Flavor say
Why do dis record play dat way
Prime time merrily in da day
Right now dis radio station is busy - brainknowledgeably wizzy
Honey drippers, you say you got it
You ain't got no flavor and I can prove it
Flavor Flav the flav all of flavors
Onion an garlic french fried potatas
Make ya breath stink, breathe fire
Makes any onion da best crier

And it goes on. MC and I used to crack up every single time we played this on the way to school. She Watch Channel Zero?! is one of my favorite tracks on the album, as PE rail against the brainwashing effect of daytime television (although I'm not sure why they exclude men from their critique):

Trouble vision for a sister
Because I know she don't know, I quote
Her brains retrained
By a 24 inch remote
Revolution a solution
For all our children
But all her children
Don't mean as much as the show, I mean
Watch her worship the screen, and fiend
For a TV ad
And it just makes me mad

It's hard not to appreciate the irony of this song, now that Flavor Flav dominates VH1 with one of the most absurd and escapist "reality" shows yet produced.

Night of the Living Bassheads is, likewise, an appeal to black dope-peddlers and gangsters to stop destroying their own communities through drugs and violence. And this right when EazyE, Dre, and Ice-T were promoting the hustler lifestyle in their own counter-culture rebellion. To his credit, from the beginning Chuck D understood the bitter irony and self-defeating nature of glamorizing criminality.

Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos begins with the following memorable verse:

I got a letter from the government
The other day
I opened and read it
It said they were suckers
They wanted me for their army or whatever
Picture me given' a damn - I said never
Here is a land that never gave a damn
About a brother like me and myself
Because they never did
I wasn't wit' it, but just that very minute...
It occurred to me
The suckers had authority

I won't deny that there are still socially-conscious hip-hop artists out there (Mos Def, The Perceptionists, Blackalicious, etc.), but their voices are usually drowned out by the self-aggrandizement and overproduced beats spouted by the likes of Jay-Z, Kayne West, et al. Oh, Chuck D, we miss you!

clinic

A regular visitor to my playlist is the 4-piece band, Clinic. Hailing from Liverpool, they're been delivering dark indie melodies since 1997 and recently released their 4th full-length album, Do It! I discovered them in 2002 when their album Walking with Thee came out. This, incidentally, was the same year that Interpol released Turn on the Bright Lights, and together these 2 albums dominated much of my musical consciousness for a period of time.

People call these bands post-punk, and I guess I've never really known what that means. But then again, I also never really paid much attention to Joy Division, who is the theoretical progenitor of this movement. But I'm looking forward to seeing the movie, Control, so maybe I'll learn something about the historical tradition here.

Song-list

01 Harmony
02 The Equaliser
03 Welcome
04 Walking with Thee
05 Pet Eunuch
06 Mr. Moonlight
07 Come Into Our Room
08 The Vulture
09 The Bridge
10 Sunlight Bathes Our Home
11 For the Wars

I hate to use hackneyed words like "brooding", "haunting", ""hypnotic", etc. but that's the sound and feel of Clinic. It's like they're recording in a giant cavern beneath the earth. I almost never understand what their lyrics are... and no wonder. Here are some, from one of my favorite tracks, Cement Mixer:

petey was the fetid son of pauline up on milk
commie ma the 2nd czar would do do for the filth
oh we know you come and go but see see sickened us
we need scores shit teeny bores that bark bark bark in crufts

be bark i know noone nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn no (x3)

joely saw the pinky core of neutered hippy homes
binky watched the babble pox and slithered off to moan
oh we know you come and go but see see what's become
peter's cold has taken hold and he bark bark bark in crufts
(repeat chorus)

so sue the shoe is slipping you don't dither from behind
may the moke our 7th bloke is peeking out the blinds
oh we know you come and go but see see what's become
peter's gone and left your mum to bark bark bark in crufts
(repeat chorus x2)

Seriously. Here's a video of them singing this one. I haven't personally seen them live, but apparently they're into wearing surgical masks while they perform (Clinic, get it?). Whatever floats your boat.



Give them a try if you like whiny along the lines of Velvet Underground, Interpol, Radiohead, and Arcade Fire.

ride that train

I was recently made aware of the fact that New Mexico is now in possession of its very own commuter train, the New Mexico Rail Runner Express. I am more than a little proud of my home state for investing in such a noble form of public transportation. My love of trains and train subculture has lain dormant recently, but this news sent me off an a train tangent. Therefore, a blog on the subject:

Perhaps my first love for trains - or, more specifically, the subculture around them - came about when in 1985 I watched the film The Journey of Natty Gan. In it, a depression era girl hops trains from Chicago to the northwest in an attempt to reunite with her father who has gone in search of work. Along the way she sees the rougher edges of life, but has the good company of both a loyal wolf dog and John Cusack. I had a crush on both Cusack and trains from that day forward.

I've thus far always bought my ticket to ride, but I can't help but romanticize the hobo lifestyle. The hobo is perceived both as a down-on-his-luck bum with a fondness for liquor, and as a noble free-spirit who can't be tied down by the mundanities of life. He was an icon of Americana; he was the depression-era working man, he was Jack Kerouac On The Road. He had his own styles of art, currency, and his own system of written communication.

More recently, the hobo is the gutter punk teenager living free from adult constraints. As an adolescent, I was pretty thrilled to see my beloved subculture of punk-rock combined with that of hoboing. Had train hopping with these sorts not necessitated total lack of sobriety, sanity, and cleanliness, I may have hopped along.

A wonderful young photographer named Mike Brodie (aka The Polaroid Kidd) has documented contemporary hobos in a series of photos titled Boys and Girls of Modern Days Railways. I think his images capture both the tragedy and freedom of young train hoppers:


One of the other appealing aspects of hobo subculture is the quantity of hobo themed songs. Musicians like Jimmie Rodgers and Boxcar Willie are famous for their hobo tunes, and folks like Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, and John Prine have penned several hobo themed songs. In fact, if anyone would care for a CD of hobo and train themed songs I've compiled, I'll happily mail you one.

Some hobo themed films worth watching are the documentaries Catching Out: A Film About Train Hopping and Living Free and Who Is Bozo Texino? as well as classic old black & whites like, Beggars of Life, Sullivan's Travels, and Wild Seed (pictured below).


Finally, as an example of the melancholy romanticism of the hobo legacy, here are the most oft heard lyrics to the song Big Rock Candy Mountain, first recorded in 1928 by Harry McClintock:

One evening as the sun went down and the jungle fire was burning

Down the track came a hobo hiking and he said boys I'm not turning

I'm headin for a land that's far away beside the crystal fountains

So come with me we'll go and see the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains there's a land that's fair and bright

Where the handouts grow on bushes and you sleep out every night

Where the boxcars are all empty and the sun shines every day

On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees

On the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains all the cops have wooden legs

And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth and the hens lay soft boiled eggs

The farmer's trees are full of fruit and the barns are full of hay

Oh, I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow

Where the rain don't fall and the wind don't blow

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains you never change your socks

And the little streams of alcohol come a-trickling down the rocks

The brakemen have to tip their hats and the railroad bulls are blind

There's a lake of stew and of whiskey too

You can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains the jails are made of tin

And you can walk right out again as soon as you are in

There ain't no short handled shovels, no axes saws or picks

I'm a goin to stay where you sleep all day

Where they hung the jerk that invented work

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

I'll see you all this coming fall in the Big Rock Candy Mountains

But perhaps a more telling depiction of the hobo lifestyle is heard in McClintock's last stanza, which was left out of the recorded version:

The punk rolled up his big blue eyes

And said to the jocker, "Sandy,

I've hiked and hiked and wandered too,

But I ain't seen any candy.

I've hiked and hiked till my feet are sore

And I'll be damned if I hike any more

To be buggered sore like a hobo's whore

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

the slip

Yesterday, Trent Reznor (NIN) introduced his new album, The Slip, on his official website by providing a download link and the following statement: "(thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one's on me)".

If you follow the links and provide your email address, you will indeed be able to download his new release (for free) in a variety of formats, including MP3, lossless (FLAC or Apple) or even "better than CD" 24/96 WAVE. The download also comes with a PDF of the album artwork and liner notes.

Song-list...

01 999,999
02 1,000,000
03 letting you
04 discipline
05 echoplex
06 head down
07 lights in the sky
08 corona radiata
09 the four of us are dying
10 demon seed


It's worth a listen. After a 6-year hiatus between releasing the mediocre "The Fragile" (1999) and the slightly better "With Teeth" (2005), Reznor seems to be undergoing some kind of creative revival. Last year's "Year Zero" is a very strong and interesting concept album, certainly his best work since "The Downward Spiral". He is also clearly embracing new distribution models, a la Radiohead. Sharing of the new album is actively encouraged:

"the slip is licensed under a creative commons attribution non-commercial share alike license.

we encourage you to remix it
share it with your friends,
post it on your blog,
play it on your podcast,
give it to strangers,
etc."

This, obviously, is pretty sweet and, dare I say, the shape of things to come.