unpiano: music

New Radiohead anyone? I downloaded the new album In Rainbows a couple weeks ago, and have been trying it out on my bike rides lately. Sure it sounds a little like the last stuff, but does it really even matter? I think it’s a given that anything they put out will be good in some form or another. My only qualm is that in one of the songs below, he sings like Anthony Kiedis on his Californication album. Maybe Thom Yorke was trying to reclaim it? I dunno.. but it makes me feel weird.

Either way, they get my respect just for putting out this album on their own. Something like 8 bucks an album (or pay what you can), right to your computer or mailbox and the labels can go fuck themselves? I hope this is the start of something. When artists realize all the power they have, maybe someday places like Tickmaster will get theirs as well.

EDIT: In case it wasn’t clear from my casual comments, I like this album a lot..

Radiohead - Reckoner
Radiohead - 15 Step
Radiohead - Jigsaw Falling Into Place
Radiohead - Bodysnatchers

I was digging through my records again and I came across these DJ Eclipse remixes I picked up a while back. I searched for them online but couldn’t find them anywhere so I hooked up my turntable and put them up myself. Eclipse is down with Non-Phixion (who I think broke up) and Ill Bill which means he’s been around for a minute. These remixes are all from the ‘94 era of hip hop which I am forever biased towards. Just so lovely.. I should have posted these in the Summer, but just imagine it being nice out and playing that ‘Dedicated’ or ‘One Love’ remix. Wish I was on a stoop with a sweet honey blunt right now.

Nas - One Love (DJ Eclipse Remix)
Funkdoobiest - Dedicated (DJ Eclipse Remix)
O.C. - Born 2 Live (DJ Eclipse Remix)
N-Tyce - Sure Ya Right (DJ Eclipse Remix)

I feel hip hop less and less these days, but here are a couple of tracks that make me click back to the start as soon as the song is over. First off, I’ve talked about Lupe Fiasco before, but dude is the new Kanye for real. Just like Kanye supposedly surpassed Jay-Z after Jay mentored him, Lupe was Kanye’s protege and is now posed to out shine him (remember that CRS track I posted?). Check his rhymes, they are too sick. ‘Riveting is rosy, pockets full of posies’? Did he just say that? Yep. Keep an eye on this one.

The Nas track is just fire as well but I always forget that these days, they come one at a time. No more Illmatics, just Stillmatics that come in white label form and happen like a solstice. Oh well, I’ll take them where I can get ‘em. God’s son flips some Nipsey Russell, and comes up with a track about his start in the game. Watch how the beat drops too, out of nowhere and he just jumps in. Nice.

Lupe Fiasco - Dumb It Down

Nas - Surviving The Times

Bonus:
Lupe Fiasco - Dumb It Down (video)

New cold weather podcast up on Fecal Face Dot Com. You can subscribe by clicking on the link below.

http://www.fecalface.com/podcasts/dircaster.php

I have been listening to The Wipers a lot lately. Over The Edge is a really amazing album that has been borrowed from by just about everyone it seems. I got this version off the box set, so it has a bunch of demos, b-sides and instrumentals. I knew Kurt Cobain and others stole from them a bunch, but I just heard the instrumental version of the song ‘Our Past Life’ for the first time. It looks like Dave Grohl was very heavily “inspired” when he wrote that Foo Fighter’s song ‘Everlong’. Anyway, what else can you say about The Wipers.. the only band I heard of that turned down touring with Nirvana. Exactly.

The Wipers - No One Wants An Alien
The Wipers - Our Past Life (instrumental demo)
The Wipers - Over The Edge
The Wipers - So Young

I sold my MPC recently so it looks like my days of making beats are on hold for a while (not that I have been doing that lately anyway). Luckily my friend Bobby London has one, and we recently threw a quick beat together for our upcoming collaboration The Space Project. Look for more to stuff to come at some point, or if you get tired of waiting you can listen to all the old beats here. I also posted up the last mash-up beat I made as gangs before I sold everything. Remember that movie Blood Simple? So good..

The Space Project - Patterns

Bonus:
gangs - Flex Beat

I was introduced to Los Llamarada as “Mexico’s answer to Sonic Youth”, but this foursome from Monterrey Mexico have knocked out a handful of releases that have proven them to be much much more. Densely textured, lo-fi soundscapes created by organ and weirdo guitars hammered together, billyclub-fisted drumming and finished with anguished boy/girl vocals, create another great twist on damaged D.I.Y. art-punk. I’m going to go out on a limb and give this my vote for 2007’s biggest surprise. Their new 7″ on S-S Records (who also released their debut “The Exploding Now” LP) is fan-fucking-tastic, these releases are vinyl only and go fast so grab them while you can.

Los Llamarada - Break The Silence
Los Llamarada - The Discovery
Los Llamarada - Je Suis

Bonus:
Los Llamarada - Nobody Calls Me (Live at SXSW)
Los Llamarada - The Ocean I Could See (Live in Mexico)

It took me a second to like her voice, but now I can’t stop listening to this song off Scout Niblett’s new album This Fool Can Die Now. On that older song ‘Uptown Top Ranking’ she had this Australian twang in her voice that made her sound like the girl from that band Frente (remember them?). That twang is still sort of there but… I dunno. This song overpowers it and the guest vocals from Will Oldham don’t hurt either. Check out the video they made for it too.. so rad.

Scout Niblett (feat. Will Oldham) - Kiss

Bonus:
Scout Niblett - Uptown Top Ranking
Scout Niblett - Just What I Needed

Minimal art pop ala Young Marble Giants. If you traded Alison Stanton’s sweetness for a moodier, even sexier vocal delivery, Austin’s Yellow Fever could be a lost member of the 80’s Rough Trade family or obscure contemporaries of the pop deconstructionists that populated the Teen Beat label throughout the 90’s. Within the first few seconds of “Hellfire” (off their limited Cats And Rats CD E.P.) I was completely smitten with this band. A perfect soundtrack to the impending autumn cool.

Yellow Fever - Culver City
Yellow Fever - Joe Brown
Yellow Fever - Alice

Been listening to this Jim O’Rourke song a lot recently. It’s about having one night to live, bringing a girl home and then finding out you didn’t pick very well (well, that’s what it’s about on the surface anyway). Seeing as how that’s pretty much how I feel everytime I bring a girl home, I find it pretty relatable. Anyways, Jim is always great so if you haven’t ever heard his stuff before you should listen. I also threw in a song off the Halfway to a Threeway EP that is possibly one of the most well constructed songs ever (and also very beautiful).

Jim O’Rourke - Get A Room

Bonus:
Jim O’Rourke - Not Sport, Martial Art