Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
What I'm listening to
It's been an interesting summer with so much more on tap as we head into fall. On the horizon loom new albums from OutKast, The Roots, Lupe Fiasco, Mos Def, Common and others that I love. There's so few cats I'm genuinely feeling nowadays, I get excited when the ones I'm supporting actually put out new stuff. Partially thanks to a mini-CD spree I had at Best Buy lately and partially thanks to another raid of my sisters' old, left-behind LPs back at my mom's crib, this is what the kid's been on lately.
Pharrell -- In My Mind
It took me a couple spins to really appreciate but it's been getting heavy rotation in the Silver Bullet since I came back from Ohio. I've heard people saying this album isn't quite what they expected, but I think people just like to complain. I mean, he gave you the deceptively simplistic synthezied beats, he rhymed about Ice Cream, BBC and the seemingly endless parade of models who love his dirty draws. You want cameos, he gave 'em to you: Jay-Z, Nelly, Slim Thug, Snoop, Kanyeeze. So what if half the album sounds like Michael Jackson circa 1981? A lot of contemporary R&B is going in that direction. You think Beyonce's new album is gonna sound any different? You think Justin Timberlake's new album is gonna sound any different? And since when is sounding like the album that Mike woulda dropped between Off the Wall and Thriller a bad thing. A lot of Maroon 5's Songs About Jane sound like outtakes from Dangerous and that album went triple platinum!
Also gaining this album major cool points is track 13, "Our Father," the most sincere "thankyouforlovingmeJesuseventhoughI'mascrewup" song this side of Donny Hathaway's "Lord Help Me."
Corinne Bailey Rae -- Corinne Bailey Rae
I cannot stop listening to this album. I was semi-skeptical initially. Determined not to dig the first single, "Like A Star," even though VH-1 Soul kept playing it non-stop. Convinced that her whole persona was just a ploy by the government to distract me from the war in Iraq. She seemed too neatly packaged: how you gonna have a raspy voice, play the guitar and continue my unbroken string of crushes on bi-racial European chicks (from Sade on down to Zadie Smith) It seemed too good to be true. And then I bought the album.
What I like most about the album is that it sounds like a bunch of friends got together and made an album, with little deference to the grind of their daily lives. I know a lot of albums are made under those circumstances, but this album sounds like it. Rae's voice swoops, glides, and is more powerful than her wispy countenancy (or even her poetic name) would ever suggest. Her range of influences extends from Led Zeppelin to Erykah Badu and you actually hear those influences on this album. (Good, if I hear one more synthetic sounding R&B cat say their favorite singers are Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder, I'm punching them dead in the chest.) She reveals far more promise on this debut than simply being the "next Norah Jones," as some have labeled her. She sounds more like simply "the next."
Al Green -- I'm Still in Love With You
This album, like most of Al Green and Willie Mitchell's classic '70s work, is beyond reproach. In all it's southern-fried glory, this December 1972 release is simply one of the most soulful albums ever made. It sounds like heated up greens at your cool uncle's speakeasy at 2 in the morning, while the most beautiful girl in town is whispering in your right ear and the air is a vibrant shade of orange that you've never seen before. I don't have to tell you about the title track. If I do, there's something wrong with you. "Simply Beautiful" might make a Negro's eyes water up. "Oh, Pretty Woman" puts Roy Orbison's more well-known original to shame. And did I mention that "Love and Happiness" is on this album? Exactly. It's ridiculous. Go find someone you like and throw this jammie on. You won't be disappointed.
P.S. I know crate diggers might say I'm on the late freight, but at least relistening to this album solved my two year mystery of where Kanye got that sample for Consequence's "Gettin' Out the Game" that was on my voice mail for, like, four or five months.
The Jacksons -- The Essential Jacksons
As you probably already know, I have weird fascinations. About a month or two ago, I got really obsessively intrigued by the music of the Jacksons. Not the Jackson 5. The Jacksons. The group they became after they left Motown (and thanks to Berry Gordy, their name as well). The group that both preceded and weathered Michael's transition from almost washed up former child star to international phenomenon. The group that gave us so many disco era hits that Michael's success with Off the Wall seems as though it should've been less shocking in retrospect.
So I copped the CD and was floored by songs both familiar ("Blame It on the Boogie," "Can You Feel It," "Shake Your Body Down to the Ground") and unfamiliar ("Find Me A Girl," "Show You The Way To Go"). Say you will about Joe Jackson and his boot camp like relationship with his kids, but he masterminded and navigated the most talented and successful bunch of siblings in the history of recorded music. (I hear you Bee Gees fans, but Joe and Katherine had 10 kids and darnit if they didn't all have a hit song at one point. Except LaToya.)
A lot of negativity surrounds the Jacksons' name, and admittedly, a lot of it, they've brought on themselves. But if you need a reminder of how gifted the family from 2300 Jackson Street could be when they were all focused, you don't have to go further than this album.
Pharrell -- In My Mind
It took me a couple spins to really appreciate but it's been getting heavy rotation in the Silver Bullet since I came back from Ohio. I've heard people saying this album isn't quite what they expected, but I think people just like to complain. I mean, he gave you the deceptively simplistic synthezied beats, he rhymed about Ice Cream, BBC and the seemingly endless parade of models who love his dirty draws. You want cameos, he gave 'em to you: Jay-Z, Nelly, Slim Thug, Snoop, Kanyeeze. So what if half the album sounds like Michael Jackson circa 1981? A lot of contemporary R&B is going in that direction. You think Beyonce's new album is gonna sound any different? You think Justin Timberlake's new album is gonna sound any different? And since when is sounding like the album that Mike woulda dropped between Off the Wall and Thriller a bad thing. A lot of Maroon 5's Songs About Jane sound like outtakes from Dangerous and that album went triple platinum!
Also gaining this album major cool points is track 13, "Our Father," the most sincere "thankyouforlovingmeJesuseventhoughI'mascrewup" song this side of Donny Hathaway's "Lord Help Me."
Corinne Bailey Rae -- Corinne Bailey Rae
I cannot stop listening to this album. I was semi-skeptical initially. Determined not to dig the first single, "Like A Star," even though VH-1 Soul kept playing it non-stop. Convinced that her whole persona was just a ploy by the government to distract me from the war in Iraq. She seemed too neatly packaged: how you gonna have a raspy voice, play the guitar and continue my unbroken string of crushes on bi-racial European chicks (from Sade on down to Zadie Smith) It seemed too good to be true. And then I bought the album.
What I like most about the album is that it sounds like a bunch of friends got together and made an album, with little deference to the grind of their daily lives. I know a lot of albums are made under those circumstances, but this album sounds like it. Rae's voice swoops, glides, and is more powerful than her wispy countenancy (or even her poetic name) would ever suggest. Her range of influences extends from Led Zeppelin to Erykah Badu and you actually hear those influences on this album. (Good, if I hear one more synthetic sounding R&B cat say their favorite singers are Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder, I'm punching them dead in the chest.) She reveals far more promise on this debut than simply being the "next Norah Jones," as some have labeled her. She sounds more like simply "the next."
Al Green -- I'm Still in Love With You
This album, like most of Al Green and Willie Mitchell's classic '70s work, is beyond reproach. In all it's southern-fried glory, this December 1972 release is simply one of the most soulful albums ever made. It sounds like heated up greens at your cool uncle's speakeasy at 2 in the morning, while the most beautiful girl in town is whispering in your right ear and the air is a vibrant shade of orange that you've never seen before. I don't have to tell you about the title track. If I do, there's something wrong with you. "Simply Beautiful" might make a Negro's eyes water up. "Oh, Pretty Woman" puts Roy Orbison's more well-known original to shame. And did I mention that "Love and Happiness" is on this album? Exactly. It's ridiculous. Go find someone you like and throw this jammie on. You won't be disappointed.
P.S. I know crate diggers might say I'm on the late freight, but at least relistening to this album solved my two year mystery of where Kanye got that sample for Consequence's "Gettin' Out the Game" that was on my voice mail for, like, four or five months.
The Jacksons -- The Essential Jacksons
As you probably already know, I have weird fascinations. About a month or two ago, I got really obsessively intrigued by the music of the Jacksons. Not the Jackson 5. The Jacksons. The group they became after they left Motown (and thanks to Berry Gordy, their name as well). The group that both preceded and weathered Michael's transition from almost washed up former child star to international phenomenon. The group that gave us so many disco era hits that Michael's success with Off the Wall seems as though it should've been less shocking in retrospect.
So I copped the CD and was floored by songs both familiar ("Blame It on the Boogie," "Can You Feel It," "Shake Your Body Down to the Ground") and unfamiliar ("Find Me A Girl," "Show You The Way To Go"). Say you will about Joe Jackson and his boot camp like relationship with his kids, but he masterminded and navigated the most talented and successful bunch of siblings in the history of recorded music. (I hear you Bee Gees fans, but Joe and Katherine had 10 kids and darnit if they didn't all have a hit song at one point. Except LaToya.)
A lot of negativity surrounds the Jacksons' name, and admittedly, a lot of it, they've brought on themselves. But if you need a reminder of how gifted the family from 2300 Jackson Street could be when they were all focused, you don't have to go further than this album.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Home again
People who know
Say you can't go
Home again
But if you ask me
I'm happy to be
Home again.
-- New Edition
TOLEDO!!
Held me down. My first trip home in a year and a half was just the break I needed. We wrapped our final edit/mix of the film the previous Tuesday and I took a copy home to show to family and friends. They loved it. And it seemed deeper than just, "We're gonna support this because our son/nephew/cousin/uncle/childhood friend made it." There were genuine critiques, laughter, appraisal, support. The kind you can only get in the only city that's been down since day one.
I was amazed at how the city never really seems to change. Niggas swore they'd stop by and holla at me and didn't. There still aren't a lot of quality jobs for people in their 20s and 30s.
Gino's Pizza still has the best pizza in the world. And that big old crack house at the main intersection of Detroit and Bancroft is still a big old crack house.
But perhaps I protest too much: Downtown seemed livelier than ever. Malls were being built or refurbished all over the place. The weather was humid but lovely, a welcome respite from the scorching oven that was California. Kids from my church that I once coached in our 9-12 year old basketball league are now elated college students or lanky high school seniors. The suburbs are flourishing ridiculously. It was the first time, probably ever, that I wasn't running back to the airport when it was time to leave.
We drove to Pittsburgh to visit my alma mater. It was my first time there since my graduation way back in '98. It looked the same, but different. There was so much construction! But I walked wifey, my mom, and my nephew Eddie through all the old haunts: the Cathedral of Learning, the Student Union, Stephen Foster Memorial Theater, Hillman Library, the Towers, up and down Fifth Ave. and Forbes and Lothrop Street.
It was the coolest trip down memory lane. It reminded me of a time when I had nothing but time, before day jobs, before L.A. hardened me in the way that it hardens all it's residents, before I was taught to doubt the relevance of my writing. We ate an expensive Italian restaurant downtown before stopping past PNC Park and Heinz Field (boo Steelers! yay Pitt football!), then we headed back home.
The rest of the time, we were just visiting relatives and resting. I ran into my boy Stormy Dai, who told me wild tales of his days touring with Cash Money Records, about his recent tracks on Juvenile's latest album, and his pending trip to Miami, which could be monumental for blowing up his career as a hip-hop producer. You stay with it, partner. We hung out at a studio near the old DeVilbiss High School, where I watched him record and mix a promo for a local radio station.
Next thing you know, my boy Reshard takes me to this cat Henry's basement studio over on the North side and we're recording a beat and rhyming over it. Some of my bars:
J Gil on the mike, the Midnight Marauder
Knocking niggas out like I was Sgt. Slaughter
Run up on me quick, I don't think you oughta
Pillage your whole village and escape with your daughter
She tried to bolt, I caught her, sold her, then I bought her
Reenacted next Thursday on Law and Order
Reshard remains the best friend I'll ever have and the coolest person I'll ever meet. Our friendship continues to amaze me. Everyone's doing good though, for the most part. My nieces and nephews are hanging in there, the ones i saw at least. Mom is doing fine.
I just can't express how therapeutic the trip was. It gave me and the wife the kick in the pants we needed to charge ahead with our plans.
As of yesterday, I sent off applications for Shawn Parker to five film festivals: Hollywood, Santa Barbara, Ann Arbor, Cleveland and San Francisco. Down the horizon -- Sundance, Slamdance & the Pan-African Film Festivals. Also, there's a short film competition sponsored by BETJ that I'm excited about.
What? Time Warner's taking over for Comcast? Better have my VH-1 Soul.
Say you can't go
Home again
But if you ask me
I'm happy to be
Home again.
-- New Edition
TOLEDO!!
Held me down. My first trip home in a year and a half was just the break I needed. We wrapped our final edit/mix of the film the previous Tuesday and I took a copy home to show to family and friends. They loved it. And it seemed deeper than just, "We're gonna support this because our son/nephew/cousin/uncle/childhood friend made it." There were genuine critiques, laughter, appraisal, support. The kind you can only get in the only city that's been down since day one.
I was amazed at how the city never really seems to change. Niggas swore they'd stop by and holla at me and didn't. There still aren't a lot of quality jobs for people in their 20s and 30s.
Gino's Pizza still has the best pizza in the world. And that big old crack house at the main intersection of Detroit and Bancroft is still a big old crack house.
But perhaps I protest too much: Downtown seemed livelier than ever. Malls were being built or refurbished all over the place. The weather was humid but lovely, a welcome respite from the scorching oven that was California. Kids from my church that I once coached in our 9-12 year old basketball league are now elated college students or lanky high school seniors. The suburbs are flourishing ridiculously. It was the first time, probably ever, that I wasn't running back to the airport when it was time to leave.
We drove to Pittsburgh to visit my alma mater. It was my first time there since my graduation way back in '98. It looked the same, but different. There was so much construction! But I walked wifey, my mom, and my nephew Eddie through all the old haunts: the Cathedral of Learning, the Student Union, Stephen Foster Memorial Theater, Hillman Library, the Towers, up and down Fifth Ave. and Forbes and Lothrop Street.
It was the coolest trip down memory lane. It reminded me of a time when I had nothing but time, before day jobs, before L.A. hardened me in the way that it hardens all it's residents, before I was taught to doubt the relevance of my writing. We ate an expensive Italian restaurant downtown before stopping past PNC Park and Heinz Field (boo Steelers! yay Pitt football!), then we headed back home.
The rest of the time, we were just visiting relatives and resting. I ran into my boy Stormy Dai, who told me wild tales of his days touring with Cash Money Records, about his recent tracks on Juvenile's latest album, and his pending trip to Miami, which could be monumental for blowing up his career as a hip-hop producer. You stay with it, partner. We hung out at a studio near the old DeVilbiss High School, where I watched him record and mix a promo for a local radio station.
Next thing you know, my boy Reshard takes me to this cat Henry's basement studio over on the North side and we're recording a beat and rhyming over it. Some of my bars:
J Gil on the mike, the Midnight Marauder
Knocking niggas out like I was Sgt. Slaughter
Run up on me quick, I don't think you oughta
Pillage your whole village and escape with your daughter
She tried to bolt, I caught her, sold her, then I bought her
Reenacted next Thursday on Law and Order
Reshard remains the best friend I'll ever have and the coolest person I'll ever meet. Our friendship continues to amaze me. Everyone's doing good though, for the most part. My nieces and nephews are hanging in there, the ones i saw at least. Mom is doing fine.
I just can't express how therapeutic the trip was. It gave me and the wife the kick in the pants we needed to charge ahead with our plans.
As of yesterday, I sent off applications for Shawn Parker to five film festivals: Hollywood, Santa Barbara, Ann Arbor, Cleveland and San Francisco. Down the horizon -- Sundance, Slamdance & the Pan-African Film Festivals. Also, there's a short film competition sponsored by BETJ that I'm excited about.
What? Time Warner's taking over for Comcast? Better have my VH-1 Soul.
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