My first (and somewhat lasting) impression of the LA edition of this year's block party is that the boys from Philly have finally 'made it' now that they've moved out to the west coast. It's gone somewhat corporate. I remember the first block party in Philly; everything was free-food, drinks, merch-all free. This time around there were serious food trucks, and giveaways were sporadic and temporary.
My second impression was that the 'block' they selected was too long and narrow, meaning a substantial amount of space went unused and another substantial amount of space around the booths and such was out of reasonable hearing distance from the music. This worked nicely when you wanted to relax, but made the experience somewhat more disjointed than the Philly editions have generally been.
My musical impressions (to the extent that I remember them) are as follows:
A live set from Major Lazer is everything it's cracked up to be. Diplo spun literally everything, mixed into that very specific electro-reggae vibe, and Skerrit Bwoy is insane.
Death Grips is an instance of some white producers getting a mediocre at best rapper to work with them because having a black front man provides street cred. They do manage to focus on sounding like the apocalypse enough to almost distract from the fact that Spank Rock, King Fantastic, and Atari Teenage Riot all do this sort of thing much, much better.
This week's It's the Common Ground was a producer showcase, which was an enjoyable night out, but not so easy to review for you. Peep tracks from the dudes showcasing their skills [here] and enjoy the above video of Speak's throwdown last week.
For those of you who don't know, I once managed Marc Seeley, who recorded and performed under the moniker Letters from the Prom. Last summer he essentially dropped off the face of the earth, depriving us all of his musical genius in the ensuing months. He is now writing a new album as Tokyo Quest, the first song of which is the above "Eloise".I had a rare opportunity to discuss music with Marc recently, and the forthcoming album is tentatively entitled Play My Tiny Tune, Big Orchestra, and will be made up of folk tunes like the one you just enjoyed above.
For anyone who was wondering, the temporary hiatus of Foxy Python's Flying Circus was due to decreased free time surrounding my graduation from Messiah College and move to Riverside, California for the summer. Several posts are already in the works, and I should be back to business on the regular for the rest of the summer. In the meantime, enjoy this wonderful track and its excellent found-footage video:
Little bit of a spelling issue on the word "hymen", but a dope track from my man CJ Luzi sampling Eisley's "Ambulance". New OnCue! Bit late cause I gotta catch up on this jawn... Cuey's "Can't Wait" coming soon! [free download]
Remember KNO Clothing? Jared, Liz and I DJed their launch party a while back, Phil Wilmot has done some modeling for them, and they are a great organization headed by some genuinely nice guys. They are involved in a contest to win $100,000 in marketing help, and need as many views as possible of this video by March 20th in order to advance to the semi-finals. Watch, tell your friends, and get involved with this wonderful organization working to end homelessness!
On November 13, I got to see a blog-hyped artist that actually was everything they were cracked up to be. Philly's own Chiddy Bang-former Drexel students Chidera "Chiddy" Anamege and Noah "Xaphoon Jones" Beresin-have been pumping out tracks sampling MGMT, Passion Pit, Ellie Goulding, and a bunch of other names likely to be found on this blog and elsewhere, eventually getting signed by a major label after exposure on Pretty Much Amazing.
Live, Chiddy raps and Xaph plays a drum kit (which they ask the venue to provide, evidently). They did a set of old and new material, focusing heavily on the recently released EP The Preview, the only collection of Chiddy Bang material actually for sale. The others, mixtapes The Swelly Expressand Air Swell, are available for free download [hint: click the titles]. "Pass Out", from the latter tape, was definitely a crowd favorite, probably because of the number of students who have spent time in England for study abroad and love Tinie Tempah. Lead single "Opposite of Adults", which samples MGMT's "Kids", got the biggest reaction, as expected. Interaction between songs was generally limited to the usual hip-hop hype-man antics, with the exception of an impressive freestyle method involving writing ideas from the crowd on paper plates and then handing them to Chiddy one after the other as he goes in.
Local stalwarts Kingsfoil opened after SAB agonized for weeks over the choice and ended up too late to do anything more in-genre (like my suggestions Brite Futures or B.Reith). They remind me for some reason of a cross between Bon Jovi and Switchfoot. The Swinging Bridge got an interview with them here (Chiddy said no interviews).
There was some controversy after the show, as memebers of Chiddy's entourage were racially profiled by local police and accused of smoking marijuana. No proof was found, but their car was impounded and the whole crew had to come back the next day to pick it up and pay a fine for smoking tobacco in a non-smoking area (i.e. Messiah campus). SAB's explanation (and lead-up article in the Bridge) can be found here.
DJ a couple of bangers for Alpha Gamma Rho at Penn State, beatbox at the Friday Freestyle cyphers at Temple, and drop some tapes from an up-and-coming white rapper and you just might end up an expert on fratrap. Fratrap is what happens when you put hip-hop music, beer, and a bunch of white guys in a house on a regular basis, like what happens in most frat houses all across America. Eventually somebody gets up and starts rhyming. Some of them are actually pretty good, usually the ones who emulate true-school hip-hop the most, and at the very least it's not just radio music playing at the parties anymore. On the spectrum of white rap, it's a lot closer to Asher Roth-who was himself part of the fratrap scene at West Chester before dropping out-than Eminem, Mike Shinoda, or Yelawolf. Guide to this video: what is wrong with fratrap, Joey AX, his producer Michael Piffington One such scion of the fratrap scene is Joey AX, who hates the radio, Jersey Shore, and the false American dream our parents bought into so much that he is denouncing it all on concept street album The Goodbye America Project. Lead singles "Swagger Thru the Speakers" and "She's Gone" feature sample-based production and what sounds like live drumming, two signs that this just might be true-school hip-hop instead of imitation "I Love College". Download the mixtape he and Mike Piff, Joey's producer and fellow MC, dropped for free here and judge for yourself.
Due to Christmas break, there were only two shows in Messiah's b-sides series this month, but lack of quantity was made up by quality. The first of these two trios was The Wiyos, a nostalgic-folk act that made me feel like I was seeing all the best bits of my grandparents' record collection performed live. Fresh off a national tour with Bob Dylan, who handpicked them to open, the tightly harmonizing multi-instrumentalists enthralled us with a ridiculously wide variety of original compositions ranging from bluegrass to polka, including a soon-to-be recorded suite based on The Wizard of Oz. Their impressive array of instrumentation included everything from upright bass to kazoo, the latter even managing not to come off kitschy; kitsch could hardly come from such impeccably dressed, consummate professionals. As John Cleese was fond of saying, "And now for something completely different..." The Andreas Kapsalis Trio is an instrumental group centered on guitarist Andreas Kapsalis, who plays a percussive fingerstyle not far removed from that of Alex Brubaker, a friend of mine who has been covered here before and was influential in bringing him to Messiah. Not content to play solo, Kapsalis spices things up with a pair of percussionists, adding propulsive polyrhythms to his original film scores and interpretations of other improvisation-oriented musicians' work. A perfect close to the semester, the trio provided excellent background music for those studying for finals while captivating those who needed a break with an intense and technical performance.
The month of November was packed with goodness here at Messiah. First up was Chicago reggae outfit The Drastics with frequent collaborator Fada Dougou. They began the set with a short instrumental set before Dougou joined them onstage to add vocals to the guitars, horns, and electronics that got the party started. The diversity of reggae-based styles the band is able to play is amazing-from dub to ska and everything in between. Fada's lyrics, both written and improvised, kept a positive vibe going throughout as we danced late into the night. The track they are performing in this video has become a regular on The Fox and the Hound Show and in our live sets: Reminding us that b-sides is not just a weekly dance party, singer-songwriter Griffin House brought his smoldering bluesy folk to us the following week. The ladies were enthralled and the gentlemen sufficiently entertained as well. Enough description from me-this tune is sure to find its way onto a mixtape for my girlfriend Ashley soon enough, and captures the atmosphere fairly well:
The party was not to be stopped, however, and Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang were the next act to charm both eyes and ears in Larsen Student Union. Complex polyrhythms kept all but the hardcore few from the dancefloor, but rewarded those of us that persisted with a virtually unstoppably energetic interactive performance from the aging patriarch of Bubu music. Janka Nabay was a star in war-torn Sierra Leone before run-ins with both rebel and government forces forced him to emigrate to the United States, where he hooked up with Ohio-by-way-of-NYC Afrobeat collective Skeletons, lending them some African street cred and appropriating their instruments into his "Bubu Gang". Attempting to replicate the sounds of an ancient Ramadan processional with Western instrumentation cannot be easy, but the Gang seems to do fairly well judging by the exuberance of their semi-traditionalist frontman. Nabay's enthusiasm is infectious, and hopefully he will continue sharing his beloved Bubu instead of my beloved Crown fried chicken as he did in Philly before finding his way into the Brooklyn music scene.
B-sides this past month was quite the mixed bag. Clare and the Reasons led off on October 6th with soothing chamber pop. To be honest, it provided a pleasant background to socializing more than anything else, mostly due to a lack of rhythm. I would highly recommend them as homework listening. I almost they would return, rather than some of the more interactive acts that have been performing when I need to get work done. Next up was local outfit Captain of Compliments, who apparently had broken up for months and chose this as their first show back. They evidently didn't think they needed much practice, and it showed. Their supposedly genre-defying sound just sounded like a disorganized collection of songs that didn't know what they were trying to be, an impression only increased by their spastic stage presence. I think it was the 5th b-sides I've walked out of in 3 years on campus. If the first two shows of October weren't my cup of tea, the final one made up for it in spades. Not one but two up-and-coming hardcore acts graced the stage in Larsen Student Union on the 27th. New Jersey openers Where the Ocean Meets the Sky were the more impressive act from my perspective, with virtually flawless vocals, even while soloing and singing clean vocal simultaneously, showing the benefits of maturity. An Early Ending was definitely the crowd favorite, however, with a much bigger group getting on their feet and moving around a little (to the extent that pacifists mosh) when they hit the stage. A more youthful group, they are supposedly poised to be the next Texas in July (who are supposed to be the next August Burns Red), and evidently the local kids agree. I spent some time talking to both bands afterward, and they all seemed like genuinely nice guys.They were much less dissatisfied than I with the stillness of the crowd, swapping horror stories about various venues out on tour. And for the record, the frontman of WTOMTS is not Zach Galifianakis.
For those who don't know, in February I became the manager for Marc Seeley, aka Letters from the Prom. We are currently on tour in southern California. Tonight is the first show at Coffee Depot, the largest coffeehouse in America. Here are the dates, click for more info:
If anyone was wondering how to release a physical album in 2010, Freeway has the answer. His latest effort, a collaboration with producer Jake One entitled "The Stimulus Package", has the best packaging I have ever seen, along with a great promotional campaign through Rhymesayers Entertainment culminating in the release party at the Troc about a month ago. Check out these videos and go pick up a copy if you want to see CD and/or vinyl packaging done properly.
My first Oxford concert experience was completely unplanned. I was out with friends one night at the Jericho Tavern (which evidently hosted Radiohead's first public show) when I realized the upstairs music venue was hosting blog-buzz magnets Vivian Girls that evening. Never one to turn down an opportunity to see the opening act from M. Ward's last tour, but a bit poor for purchasing tickets, I snuck in, got thrown out, then marked my hand with a friend's sharpie in the same way the people inside had theirs marked.
Soon after the accomplishment of this ingenious plan, the last 'local' opener came on: London's Veronica Falls. Fitting right in with the indie-rock girl-group vibe of the evening, their lineup was evenly split between males and females. Walking basslines, jangly surf-rock riffs overdriven to approximate shoegaze walls of sound, and propulsive drumming supported tight vocal harmonies that would have been reminiscent of the Beach Boys if not for the female lead. This is indie rock, but with a pop sensibility: short, catchy numbers that leave the listener wanting more rather than wondering when it will end.
Straight outta Brooklyn, Vivian Girls is one of those bands that is great because Pitchforksaid so. With the amount of blog hype around this 3-piece girl group, perhaps I just expected too much, but that is more a criticism of the hype than my judgment. Indistinguishable churning riffs, lackadaisical drumming, and "harmonies" that sounded more like drunken singalongs did not contribute to my otherwise pleasant show-going experience, so I left about halfway through the set and wandered off to find my misplaced friends. Evoking Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" is all well and good as long as it is constructed out of music, and shoegaze can lead to greatness for technically proficient musicians, but Vivian Girls accomplish neither.
I arrived at The Fillmore at Irving Plaza at about four in the evening, the sky was cloudy, the sun was going down, and the temperature was freezing - so why was there a line of people outside three hours before doors? I was about to find out. Switchfoot is a multi platinum, Grammy nominated band from San Diego, California, but despite their mainstream success, they did something very independent and risky for this tour. The gigs were titled "An Evening with Switchfoot" - no opening acts, long meet and greets with their hardcore fans, and a band playing every song in order off of their latest album before playing one hit. Although I saw a few kids, the show was a 16 plus show in a not-so-nice section of New York City on a Tuesday night. Despite these setbacks, the show was sold out, just like every other show of the tour. The Fillmore is a small concert room inside a large venue above a better known venue: Irving Plaza, which is in the basement of the building. Because of the size of the room, the bass was relatively louder than most shows. Bass can be tricky to work with in small rooms due to the fact that it easily overpowers the other instruments with more treble such as electric guitar and vocals, but that was not the case at The Fillmore. The band came out on time about an hour after doors, as stated before, the band played the entirety of their latest release "Hello Hurricane" in order. Even though the album was just released, a large part of the crowd seemed to know the words to every song. The five members of Switchfoot proved they had a great ear for blending their instruments. Guitarist Andrew Shirley played more high end parts on his vintage Fender Telecaster while singer Jon Foreman made use of his PRS guitars endorsement by playing quieter, more low end parts on songs like "Meant to Live" and "Stars", which were both played that night as a bonus after the album was played through. Bassist Tim Foreman played with what appeared to be complete accuracy with drummer Chad Foreman holding down the beat in perfect timing. Jerome Fontamillas, who was staged more towards the back of the crowd, made a wide array of sounds by use of his keyboard, which sounded excellent in contrast to everything else.
By the end of the show, I found myself saying to myself "this was the best Switchfoot show I have ever seen". That means a lot figuring that it was my 16th Switchfoot show as of then.
Back in November, I booked Alex Brubaker for a show at Messiah's Philadelphia campus. For those who don't know or don't remember, Alex plays instrumental guitar, integrating diverse techniques such as percussive fingerstyle into his various experimental pieces [see here and here]. The show in Philly was accompanied by a cooking contest, during which Alex played a long set, followed by a short break and finishing with a few fan favorites.
Imagine that you're in college. You're stereotypically broke and trying to balance your time between studying for exams, playing Halo or playing ultimate frisbee. Your college thinks it best to bring options to you, in the form of a relatively unknown singer-songwriter, whose music sounds nice on the iTunes previews and who is at the level of popularity where you can pay $5 for a ticket. If you need a study break, or if it's too dark for disc golf, you go to the show. No problem. Imagine that you're an upcoming artist, who is getting paid to play gigs at a college. You are trying to establish a fan base, you are trying to perfect your musical abilities - you want the audience to leave and go buy a CD. The stage was set for such an experience on Saturday in Brubaker Auditorium at Messiah College, who hosted Zee Avi, a fledgling musician from Malaysia who, thanks to the world wide web, garnered some attention in the United States via YouTube. The show opened with opening act "The Backroad", an entertaining act of some college dudes who are skilled at their instruments and got the crowd involved [Edit: The Backroad is Kyle Morgan's band]. After wrapping up their set, the band cleared the stage for the headliner. Avi, joined by a drummer and a comatose bass player, opened her set with an a cappella number. The audience smiled and snapped along, totally into Avi's sound. That's when the proverbial shit hit the fan.
A monitor was rumbling, causing Avi to quit mid-song and ask for a new monitor. The sounds were driving her, and a few audience members, crazy. Fine. Weird, ill-timed, a bit bitchy, but fine. Some jokes from a Malaysian audience member eased the tension, but this ice breaker, as we would soon find out, was only temporary. As Avi began to play her first single, the audience scratched their heads, trying to figure out where this single had been played. Halfway through the song, the audience was taken off guard when we were put in the spotlight and asked to sing the chorus. We fumbled, we laughed nervously, we whispered rhymes that we thought might fill in the blanks. After closing her song, Avi stared at the audience and asked, blankly, "So how many of you out here actually know my songs?" Of course, most of us hadn't, so it was silent. Some girl and some guy probably whistled or cheered, but the rest of us sat stunned. A song or two later, some more technical problems arose, but this time it was the fault of the musician, not the tech crew. Avi gave a death glare to the sound booth throughout the rest of the number, determined to win the staring contest. She played a cover song, then addressed the audience abruptly by informing us she was about to end the show. The drummer left the stage and she crooned her final number, eyes-a-rollin, and then left the stage. There was hope for humanity when we thought she apologized for being bitchy; to our dismay, though, she just apologized for being pitchy - evidently, she couldn't hear herself for the last fifteen minutes.
[evidently she's always like that]
I realize that not much has been said about Avi's music, and this noticeable omission is no oversight. It's difficult to review the music of the show, because music took a backseat to her stage antics. Technically speaking though, Avi sounds brilliant. While her songwriting and guitar-picking skills are average, her voice is smooth and smoky, compensating for any other musical deficiencies she may have. The type of performance that Avi displayed was the type you would expect from a diva, someone not having anything to lose or prove, someone who could afford to be, for lack of a better word, rude. But Avi is quite the opposite - the crowd didn't sing along with her because we don't know her songs. She isn't familiar. We are looking for a good impression. Whether we know it or not, we are looking for an artist who can sail through a technical glitch without letting it ruin her evening. Her poor showmanship and eyerolls took center stage - not her music. Such a reality turned what could have otherwise been a pleasant, enjoyable concert into a painful, awkward spectacle that simultaneously alienated any pre-existing fans and snatched the possibility of any of us wanting to go buy her music. That's a mistake no musician can really afford these days, and Avi is no exception.
Apologies for the lateness (and associated brevity) of this post.
When my friend Alejandro hooked me up with a ticket to the second night of Brand New's sold-out stay at the Electric Factory, I wasn't expecting an old-school hardcore show. The all Long Island lineup drew fans of the differing styles of each of Brand New's diverse albums, along with a huge contingent of Glassjaw fans eager to see a band coming off a long hiatus.
Openers Crime in Stereo got things started without being particularly impressive, setting the tone with a hard-hitting set delivered nonchalantly beneath dim lighting.
Glassjaw took the stage in a unique semi-circular formation occasionally completed by frontman Daryl Palumbo as he drunkenly stalked around the stage. The setup made the entire show seem as if they were practicing onstage, understandable for a band that hadn't played publicly since 2004. The crowd was slightly older than usual for a hardcore show, and the mosh pit jammed full of drinkers who rushed down from the balcony bar when Glassjaw took the stage. Technical flawlessness coupled with their bizarre formation made for a mesmerizing stage presence.
Each successive album from Brand New has evolved their style, and their latest effort "Daisy" is no exception. Far from their pop-punk roots, and even further from the indie ethos of "The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me", the new record is significantly more hardcore, filled with heavy riffs supporting Jesse Lacey's screaming vocal. Even the older material was played in this style, with a couple exceptions involving Jesse alone onstage, minus the extra drumkit and instrumentation involved in the rest of the show. The new songs were accompanied by background video clips and flashing images projected on the wall behind the band, which seemed to mollify an audience with little knowledge of the new material. Unlike other bands of similar age, Brand New hasn't lost a thing.
This year's Temple homecoming concert featured Lupe Fiasco, Asher Roth, and Dosage (the opening act I missed because of a friend's birthday mishap involving Distrito). Unlike my previous Temple concert experience, there were no djs working the crowd in between acts, just a bunch of opening shoutouts from MCPB personnel. Asher Roth took the stage fairly promptly, in contrast to the last time I saw him. Perhaps his punctuality was connected to his seeming lack of marijuana or alcohol, again in contrast to my previous experience. His performance, though slightly less enthusiastic, was otherwise unaffected by this alteration. Approximately a third of his crowd interaction was still dedicated to the promotion of marijuana and alcohol consumption, the remainder reserved for criticizing the evils of commercialism and demonstrating his love for and knowledge of Philadelphia (shouting out Harry Kalas, Jim Johnson, historical sites, and repeatedly claiming Philadelphians as the best people in the world). Despite obvious effort, it seemed much of the crowd were either dismissing him as the one-hit wonder behind the party anthem "I Love College" or drunkenly waiting for that song to justify their attendance. Bright spots included interludes from various other popular songs supposedly being played from his boombox, DJ Wreckineyez' impressive turntabulism performance using Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" leading up to the aforementioned single (the original mixtape version with the Weezer sample that he couldn't clear for the album), the addition of a live drummer to his crew, and Temple girls packing the stage to scream and dance along to dancefloor anthem "She Don't Wanna Man".
Unfortunately the glowing white ball of fun on the stage had no sooner left than the crowd's "Lupe! Lupe!" chant preempted his planned encore... which was then done anyway. Roth's excellent "A Milli" and "Roth Boys" were overshadowed by both the crowd's overwhelming desire for the next act to arrive and familiarity with the original songs using those instrumentals. The ensuing interlude between performances serves as an excellent segue in a brief mention of the venue and atmosphere more generally. This concert was held in Temple's Liacouras Center, a cavernous space the college students only filled up to the first level in most places. Security was fairly tight, but that didn't prevent many concertgoers from smoking assorted varieties of ganja, an activity discouraged only by shining flashlights at offending parties. One couple chose an activity evidently much more discouraged, and provided my friends and I with the amusement of watching security interrupt a repeat sexual encounter on the upper level, unceremoniously escorting the two lovebirds out.
When the lights came down and a DJ, guitarist, and drummer played the intro to "The Cool", the screaming fans finally got what they wanted-Lupe Fiasco. With guitar and drum solos, fans singing along, peeling off layers of clothing, coming down into the crowd, and his manic stage presence, Lupe was put on what could have almost been described as a rock show, right down to the Jimi Hendrix-sampling "Fire" (free mp3). Any attendees unsure of how hip-hop this was were immediately pacified when he began asking his DJ for various beats, freestyling and performing his "Everybody Nose" N.E.R.D. remix and Kanye collabo "Touch the Sky". Despite substantial contributions from and shoutouts to the instrumentalists and backup vocalist he brought onstage with him, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that this was Lupe's show. Mesmerizing flows from albums new and old, mixtapes, and off the cuff over a variety of beats kept the crowd's attention from start to finish. At one point he almost lost control when he went off on his new album title (L.A.S.E.R.S. which stands for love always shines everytime, remember to smile) in a way my friend Evan Scott described as "a universalistic sermon" that another reviewer complained about here. This diatribe went on just long enough to be memorable, then he got into several snippets from the new album-just enough to interest the audience without providing any bootleg-worthy moments. Clear crowd favorites included skating anthem "Kick Push", "Paris, Tokyo" (dedicated "to all my beautiful, respectable ladies"), and singalong hit "Superstar". Check out some videos taken from far enough back not to blow out the camera mic here to get an impression of what I'm talking about. It was honestly the best live hip-hop show I've ever seen, featuring one of the more versatile artists in the game right now. Apologies for the terrible sound quality, this is meant to get the vibe of the actual show right in front of a sub. If you want to listen to the music, check out the mp3 link above or buy his album.
