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Re-labelled
Nice run-down on the re-emergence of the indie record label over at The Guardian.
18th Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
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RIP David Foster Wallace
RIP David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest author
15th Sep 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
How the Soviets Drilled the Deepest Hole in the World
The title says it all.
12th Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Wi-Fly
Another barrier smashed! You can now check your email every two minutes when you are flying, thanks to onboard WIFI installation on 15 transcontinental American Airlines routes. AirCell is providing the tech for AA, beaming up signals from the ground which can apparently lead to a sometimes slow connection. The alternative system uses satellite transmission and an onboard dish for a more weather-independent system.
I'm flying AA pretty soon, I'll drop you a line mid-air and let you know that it's working.
12th Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Get Yourself On TV
An no, I'm not talking about that recent viral that was going around (above). Saysme.tv is a new service aimed at getting content distributed across cable access TV in the US, for as little as $6 for a 25 second spot. New York Times has the details.
11th Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Hong Kong World Tour 2008
Headed up to the Big Buddha on Lantau Island today - instead of a marathon bus ride, these days there's a cable car taking you up the mountain straight from the MTR train station. Pretty hairy for any vertigo-challenged passengers, but amazing view all the same, floating up higher than the enormous mega-cities that have all sprung up on Lantau; over the airport; over the harbour etc... Of course there's now a Starbucks up at the Chinese-style tourist village complex they've built with the cable car.
8th Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
RocknRollOver
The Guardian don't think much of Guy Ritchie's new movie. Ouch.
They must not have a graphic for zero stars. I know the feeling, we had to make this one up specially.
8th Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Minifigs
I remember the moment Lego evolved from being a chunky bunch of blocks (that a family friends kid had grown out of) and became a world of it's own. 1978 ties in nicely with that moment and now I see why, as the first smiling yellow face was introduced and would remain unchanged until the Pirates invaded in 1989 and I had moved on.
From Wired: "Some quick facts: Over four billion minifigs have been manufactured, or nearly four figures are sold every second, for an average of 122 million per year. The very first minifig was a police officer, and he has appeared in 41 different versions in 104 sets"
Check out gominimango.com for some more stuff, and don't miss the Flickr photo contest. The featured picture is titled "Mid-nineties: The Rise of Indie Rock" by Profound Whatever.
8th Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Skate or die: Matt Hensley
Matt Hensley in Hokus Pokus - one of the first skate movies to eschew the finesse of 16mm and get grungey with video on a low budget. This video pretty much summed up H-Street as a brand, as skating got way more street orientated. The label was one of the first rivals to the dominance of Santa Cruz and Powell - and introduced a ton of legendary skaters including Eric Koston and Danny Way.
Bonus fact: Matt Hensley is in the band Flogging Molly.
5th Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
London At Night
London At Night is the latest subject on killer photo website The Big Picture. It looks about ready to star in a Michael Mann movie.
3rd Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
New Pods
New iPods are expected to be announced next week (September 9th), as well iTunes 8.0 and rumours of a possible iTunes music subscription service which for $130 a year would allow your to listen to about half of the tracks on the iTunes store. Presumably this kind of offering would tie in with the iPhone / iPods too - allowing you to call up new music wherever you are. Apple have been resistant to this model in the past, so it'll be interesting to see if they have changed their stance.
Nokia's "Comes With Music" service makes a similar offer, and is launching in the UK shortly.
3rd Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Zack And Miri Make A Porno
Kevin Smith smoked his last cigarette a long time ago in my book, but if anyone can spark him up again it could be Seth Rogan. Check out the trailer for Zack And Miri Make A Porno here - and I'd just like to say I don't read AskMen.com on a regular basis.
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3rd Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Ladyhawk and The Dudes On Tour
2008 favourites Ladyhawk are hitting Europe this month, with London dates at the Windmill and the Borderline - where they are playing with The Dudes. A review of their album will be hitting these pages on Thursday.
September 23 London, The Windmill 8pm, £5
September 24 Leeds, Brudenell Social Club 7.30pm, £5
September 26 Glasgow, Nice N Sleazy w/The Dudes 7.30pm, £7.50
September 27 Dublin, Crawdaddy w/The Dudes 8pm, €14
September 28 Manchester, Roundhouse 8pm, £6
September 29 Bristol, St Bonaventure's Parish Club w/The Dudes
September 30 Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach w/The Dudes 8pm, £6
October 1 London, Borderline w/The Dudes 7.30pm, £10
Then The Dudes are back at The Windmill on October 2nd and are playing at the Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes on October 3rd.
2nd Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Crime Doesn't Pay
I think they might have missed the obvious suspect in this debacle, but the FBI have cracked down on blogger Kevin Cogill (aka Skwerl), after he posted 9 supposedly finished songs from Axl's long-in-the-tooth comeback Chinese Democracy on his website Antiquiet.com.
Skwerl wasn't exactly subtle about it though - and the blog still seem to think they haven't really done anything wrong. Crazy.
28th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Desk Space
Nice Flickr group up to round up contributions to Ping Magazine's desk project - providing a cross-section of desk spaces from around the world. But what is it with graphic designers and plastic toys?
27th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Obama Hope
Looks like Shepherd Fairey's on board the Obama train. Article up at Wired.
27th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Harvey Speaks
Interesting article by celebrity blogger Harvey Weinstein over at Portfolio, discussing the struggles of trying to break an indie movie in an over-crowded marketplace. It's a hard life.
25th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
In Search of Alex Holdridge
Inspriring article up on Wired behind film-maker Alex Holdridge's efforts to get In Search of a Midnight Kiss made.
22nd Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
ZomBB
Charlie Brooker's written a zombie show set in the Big Brother house - Dead Set - should be on sometime after this series finishes on sep 5. insert your own "how will anyone tell the difference?" joke here
21st Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Your New Superpowers
I can't see it myself, but invisibility just got one step closer.
21st Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
CSI: Fishburne
Laurence "Larry" Fishburne is taking over from William Petersen in CSI: Original for the new series...
19th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Guns 'n Ammo?
It's not very rock 'n roll, but Billboard is reporting that Guns 'n Roses might be following the example of AC/DC and releasing the much-delayed album Chinese Democracy exclusively through Wal-mart ...or Best-buy, they're not sure yet. Whatever the outcome, the stars do seem to be aligning for a release, with 9 'finished' tracks leaking in June.
19th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
No Age / Health / The Lovvers
Scala, London
August 11th, 2008
A triple bill from label/promoters Upset The Rhythm - purveyors of some fine DIY indie. First up are The Lovvers, Nottingham based punkers with all the right moves for UTR's energetic and studendish crowd. After a quick scout around the inter-cyber-webway I can't tell you much about the members of the band, but they have got a great frontman and there's more than a hint of Flipper about them.
Next comes Health - avant garde LA noise experimentalists with a reputation based on playing Live - and from the moment they start playing you can see why they've gained such kudos. The band seem right at home onstage - creating a seething cauldron of beautiful noise, listening to and playing off each other. Instruments are used as noise sources, effects boards and the band's infamous "zoothorn" are much in evidence, while furious tight drumming locks the whole thing together. Soft ethereal vocals find their way into the music along with captured loops of squalling guitar and sheets of pitch-shifted noise. Quite an experience.
A bit of a hard act to follow, and this is the unenvious task faced by duo No-Age , who seem genuinely psyched to be playing at the Scala tonight. They sound rather straightforward after the sonic battering of Health, and their use of looped sounds is much more submerged in the mix, but their charm and enthusiasm count for a lot here tonight, and the crowd are well up for it. I'm pretty sure no-one went home disappointed, but for me the highlight of the evening were Health - I'd just like to have seen them play for a little longer.
RATINGS: Health (4 stars) No-Age and The Lovvers (3 stars)
18th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3.5 star reviews
Kinski
Down Below It's Chaos
Sub Pop
THEN: Like a hit-man's shot to the head, silenced through a pillow, Kinski's third album hits the target with muffled ferocity. Deep, wooly guitars rumble and thunder their way through this album sometimes accompanied by minimal vocals or simple melody but often just push forward with pounding drums as their only guide. (Read our original review here)
NOW: While a year is long time in rock music, I'm happy to report that Agent Kinski still takes no prisoners.
SUB POP SAYS: "Down Below It’s Chaos sums up Kinski’s past and propels them into the ozone."
KILLER TRACK: Plan, Steal, Drive (mp3)
NEXT: 2008 - No Age - Nouns
15th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3.5 star reviewsHeroes 2.1
Hamstrung by the writer's strike, Heroes Season 2 seemed hacked up and disappointingly incomplete. With season 3 arriving soon, the season 2 boxset offers some explanations - with a bunch of alternate endings and bonus scenes.
13th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Some Photos Of That Day
Great piece up on website Some Photos Of That Day, a blog documenting daily Polaroids taken by a film student called Jamie Livingstone who shot one every day from 1979...
13th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Chimpomatic vs Sub Pop
We're all about Sub Pop this week, celebrating their 20th anniversary by revisiting 21 albums from their huge back catalogue, as well as getting the inside scoop on Seattle's finest from label insider Megan Jasper. We're starting with 1988-1991 today, with Green River, Nirvana, L7 and Mudhoney - check back all week for 1992-2008.
INTERVIEW
Sub Pop's impact on team Chimpomatic's musical background cannot be underestimated, so it was our pleasure to catch up with Sub Pop VP Megan Jasper to discuss the label's impact on music, and music's impact on Seattle. Read the full interview here.
COMPETITION
Our selected Sub Pop reviews are a hand picked list, trying to cover where the label was at down the years, but trying to avoid covering any band twice - trickier than it sounds. Think we missed something? Well, send in your 200 word review to subpop[at]chimpomatic.com by August 15th and you'll be in with a chance of winning 20 Sub Pop CDs.
11th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
TV Conversation
AMC, the channel that's brought us Mad Men, is heading for the 1970s w plans to make a TV version of Coppola's excellent 1970s surveillance classic The Conversation
8th Aug 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Ponytail
Ice Cream Spiritual
We Are Free
Ponytail are are four-piece band from Baltimore featuring two guitarists, a drummer and the individual vocal stylings of singer Molly Siegel (Yep, Harris Pilton scores a review for another band with no bass player. Must be something about 2008, because that's the third band this year that eschews the services of the lower frequencies). So, on the one hand here is a band which doesn't rumble the floor (bad), but on the other hand, they are also a band which still sound great when they throw the rule book out of the window (good).
There's nothing as straightforward as a song here, well not the sort of song you could sing the words along to, nor the sort that is served up in a verse/chorus framework, but nevertheless the sound Ponytail deliver is still very catchy, joyful and full of poppy hooks and melodies. Everything is pretty frantic - drummer Jeremy Hyman serves up solid garage rock rhythms at a furious pace while the twin guitars of Ken Seeno and Dustin Wong riff, battle, noodle, wig out and mash together in an unremitting orgy of late-60's inspired jamming. Meanwhile in the few remaining upper-mid frequency gaps, Molly Siegel vocalises her way through the entire record like a day-glo toy on happy juice. Screeching, yelling, making mouth noises and sometimes flirting with a melody, Siegel manages to swerve the band's sound away from The Allman Brothers (acknowledged in one track title) and into a land of dementedly happy ultra-neon flowers and sunshine, all racing by at a breakneck speed making your head spin from an overdose of colour saturation.
It's noisy, and it's fun, so go check it out. But it is full on from the word go and pretty much relentless. Most of the time the band sound like they've just hit the final minute of an already epic number and are pulling all their freak-out chops for the big final chord - except Ponytail start their songs that way then carry on from there. Wacky, but in a good way.
8th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3 star reviewsMy New Favourite Planet
The 300km high volcano plume might put some people off, not to mention the 300 year old storm, but the views are spectacular.
6th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
In Search Of A Midnight Kiss
(dir. Alex Holdridge)
Vertigo Films/ IFC Entertainment
Monochrome US indie romance that follows the walking and talking template of Before Sunset/Sunrise. It's New Year's Eve and wannabe scriptwriter Wilson (Scoot McNairy) finds himself stuck in LA with no job, no girl and no prospect of getting the elusive midnight kiss he's dreaming about. His roommates talk him into placing an ad on Craig's List, so he cynically types:
Misanthrope Seeks Misanthrope
and is pretty surprised when he gets a confident call a few hours later. He's even more surprised when he goes to meet her a few hours later, and finds her auditioning other prospective dates for the evening. It's not giving too much away to reveal that Vivian (Sara Simmonds) decides to pick Wilson (where would the rest of the film be?)
It's always great to see a film that's confident enough to let its characters learn about each other's lives without any great car chases or hyperactive ninjas forcing them together. It's also interesting to see the downtown side of LA - they talk about heading over to hip hotels like the W, but never actually make it. Instead we're hanging out on the streets (ie, the streets where there are actually people walking around), taking the subway, getting stuck in traffic.
It's downbeat, funny, moving and revealing in turns, as the glammed up Vivian slowly sheds her sassy hardass shell, and Wilson lets his slacker guard down. Very much in the spirit of that wave of 90s US indie, with the Craig's List internet dating MacGuffin giving it a 2008 refresh. Recommended.
6th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Mad Men 2008
what would the Mad Men look like in 2008? some kind of dotcom office party?
5th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Concrete and Glass Line-up
The line-up has been announced for the Concrete & Glass festival on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd October 2008. TV On The Radio and Port O'Brien look like the chimp highlights:
20 Jazz Funk Great/ Anni Rossi/ Apes & Androids/ Barringtone/ Bass Clef/ Beyond the Wizards Sleeve/Bjorn Torske/ Blacktape Records/ Blacktape DJs/ Bloggers Delight/ Bodies of Water/ Border Community/ Casper C/ Cats in Paris/ CMN/ David Thomas Broughton/ Dead Kids/ Eat Your Own Ears DJs/ Errors/ Euros Childs/ Ezra Bang (Hot Machine)/ Fairmont live/ Frightened Rabbit/ Greco-Roman/ Grovesnor/ James Holden/ James Yuill/ John Kennedy presents/ Kid Harpoon/ Kim Hiorthoy/ Kimmo Pohjonen/ Let's Wrestle/ Lindstrom/ Liz Green/ Lucius Works Here/ Ludovico Einaudi/ Magistrates/ Matthew Sawyer & The Ghosts/ Mechanical Bride/ Merok Records/ Micachu/ Muscleheads/ O'Death/ One Little Plane/ Oren Marshall/ Owl Project/ Pete and the Pirates/ Pilooski + Dirty Sound System/ Port O'Brien/ Primary 1/ Screaming Tea Party/ Semi Finalists/ Serious Presents/ Sky Larkin/ Small Town Super Sound/ Stolen Recordings present/ Sweet Baboo/ Swn Fest present/ Telepathe/ Ten Thousand Islands/ The Big Pink/ The! Local present/ The Oscillation/ The Real Heat/ The Stool Pigeon/ Younghearts/ Threatmantics/ Time Out Barcelona/ Time Out London/ Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs/ Truckers of Husk/ TV On The Radio/ Twisted Wheel/ Untitled Musical Project/ Vladislav Delay/ Wave Machines/ Wet Paint/ Wichita Recordings/ Zun Zun Egui
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5th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Mudhoney
The Forum, Kentish Town, London
June 31st, 2008
With a 20 year anniversary under their belt, there's a new vigor in the Mudhoney camp and renewed interest in the seminal godfathers of Grunge. Sure, there's the fans who've grown up with the band (mostly geography teachers now by the look of things), but there's also a sweaty teenage contingent at the Forum tonight. There's not much in between, but fortunately these two groups have one thing in common.
Fang cover "The Money Will Roll Right In" opens the show, before we move on to "I'm Now" and "The Lucky Ones" from the recent album of the same name. While Mudhoney's recent releases have been far from disappointing, it seems clear that most of us are here for one thing. Mudhoney's recent re-release of "Superfuzz-Bigmuff" seems to have re-ignited the flame of nostalgia for the band, and while the crowd is rowdy from the start it explodes when the big hitters like "Touch Me I'm Sick" and "In 'n' Out Of Grace" come out. The mosh pit expands to fill most of the ground floor and - perhaps feeling a little nostalgic themselves - even the security guards relapse on their post-grunge clampdown, letting a free flowing barrage of crowd-surfing go relatively unpunished.
The 20 years haven't been bad to Mudhoney, with Mark Arm still throwing down Iggy Pop moves like a disgruntled teenager, while the band preside over the immense energy of the show like seasoned veterans. It's a set-list packed with early classics, and with the relentless pace making no attempt to hold back the 'hits,' it's left to Black Flag cover "Fix Me" to make up the encore and bring the show to an end. This dose of 80's punk serves as a potent reminder of where this band came from - let's hope their own legacy fuels the aspirations of a generation to come. Brilliant.
Lots more photos by chimp photographer Rachel Poulton over on our Flickr page.
5th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3.5 star reviewsLost in Space
After selling his company Paypal to eBay in 2002, entrepreneur Elon Musk set up his own low-cost space-delivery system for launching satellites and other payloads into space (don't any of these dot-comers have their own ideas?). Unfortunately three rockets in a row have now been lost, with the most recent carrying a distinct payload. Besides the three satellites on board, the most recent rocket was loaded with the ashes of 208 people - including Mr Scott himself (aka James Doohan).
4th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Hold On To Your Hat
Damn, I thought they'd turned this thing on already - and we'd survived. Turns out the first planned particle collisions won't be until "before the end of the world year."
Monster snaps via The Big Picture.
1st Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Eclipse
No, it's not a stunt to promote the new series of Heroes - there's an eclipse scheduled for today - should be around 10.16 in the UK. that's just enough time to get in a perilous scrape with some natives up a volcano and impress them with your awesome command over nature.
1st Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Birth of Cable TV
Cable TV is 59 years old today - more or less. In the 40's, Ed Parsons of Astoria, Oregon was having trouble receiving the TV signal from far-away Seattle, so he rigged up an antenna on a tall building in town and cabled it over the street to his house. Pretty soon everybody wanted a piece of the action...
1st Aug 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: The Rocker 'n' Rolla
Early word on Guy Ritchie's new movie Rock 'n' Rolla has been surprisingly positive, after his last chimp hq related effort sunk slowly and painfully. Doesn't look that different to his previous movies to me (not a diss), with Jeremy Piven, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, Gerard Butler and new Bond girl Gemma Arterton amongst the cast this time. HD trailers on the website.
After this, Ritchie's moving on to a gangland Sherlock Holmes re-working, with RDJ wearing the new-era deerstalker.
Full Monty man Peter Cattaneo also has a new movie involving the 'R' word - The Rocker tells the story of a 'Fish" (no, not that one) drumming his way into a comeback, 20 years after being booted out of his band.
Released in the UK 17th October 2008.
31st Jul 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Tunecore
The tide seems to be turning with internet music sales, as bands take control of their assets and start making the descisions themselves. Following on from our article about distribution platform Top Spin, check out Tunecore, which offers artists the opportunity to get their music onto all the major platforms (iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, Amazon etc).
They charge incredibly reasonable fees per track/album, leading the the astounding fact that Trent Reznor must have paid Tunecore $56.61 to distribute his Ghosts I - IV album via Amazon.
Meanwhile, Amazon's MP3 store hits the UK soon, while Yahoo Music has gone the way of the dodo - potentially leaving music fans with a ton of unplayable, DRM 'protected' music.
30th Jul 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Jetpack To The Future!
that's more like it: Glenn Martin has lifted off a whole 3ft in his new jetpack. been waiting for these to come online by now
30th Jul 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Brand: New
I'm pretty sure I've covered the Brand: New website over the years somewhere - educated examinations of minor and major tweaks that big name brands make to their identites.
The Minnesota Timberwolves and Phillips make for pretty good pretty good examples.
Anyways, today they're linking to a homage, drafted by blog Adventures In Urban Living, which covers the re-branding of the Dharma Initiative in the coming months (or years, or the past - who nows?).
29th Jul 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Get Your War Back On
Get Your War On has been running for about the same length of time as Chimpomatic itself, kicking off as a backlash to the fast evolving War On Terror. To keep the strip alive, it's now been commissioned as a weekly animated skit on 23 / 6, which should starting soon.
25th Jul 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Let The Dogs Out
The UK seems to be mooting the ridiculous idea of a 'tax' for downloaders, to cover the rampant piracy that is apparently killing the music (when they aren't using it to their advantage that is) and movie (record opening day anyone?) industries.
Sounds like another mis-step from the dinosaurs that misses the point yet again. Why not just train more anti-piracy hounds?
25th Jul 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Don't Eat The Yellowcake
The WMDs might have never turned up, but the US has just completed a mission to ship 550 tonnes of Yellowcake concentrated Uranium out of Iraq for re-processing in Canada. The Canadians will be reprocessing it into nuclear fuel, but the possibility was always there for the material to head in a more sinister direction. The Tuwaitha facility where it was shipped from was one of the hubs of the old regime's nuclear ambition, resulting in an Israeli bombing raid in 1981.
Shipping the Yellowcake out by sea was looking risky - either trekking it through the less stable south, or risking an excursion out through the Hormuz Strait and risking a run-in with the Iranians - so it was eventually shipped out in a monster airlift to Diego Garcia.
24th Jul 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Lil Wayne
Tha Carter III
Cash Money
Hailed as the "most anticipated release of 2007", Lil Wayne's first full album since Tha Carter II in 2005 saw such an unprecedented leak rate that it got pushed back for a 2008 release and has since sold more than a million copies in it's first week. All this acclaim and expectation could spell the demise of a hip hop act such as Wayne but Tha Carter III is a piece of work that more than lives up to its hype and sees this truly unique MC occupying even weirder and bolder territory than ever.
On one of the stand out tracks, Dr. Carter, Wayne assumes the role of doctor and the patient is hip hop. Various symptoms present themselves at the start like lack of confidence, bad concepts, weak flow and no style and by the end he claims to have "saved hip hop." This arrogance is justified as he takes us step by step through just why he is more than qualified to be the self proclaimed saviour. And hip hop has never sounded healthier than on Carter III.
With his grizzly delivery and slow, erratic flow Lil Wayne fills every album with an overflowing quantity of ideas. He has experimented so much with his voice and can swing from a deep menacing growl (Phone Home) to weazle-like ragga-monotone rapid fire (A Milli). Each track demonstrates his lyrical prowess as he changes subject faster than a cornered politician. The production is tight with multi layered beats and deep soulful melodies. There is some great samples, most notably the David Axelrod melody on Dr. Carter and Nina Simone on the overlong Don't Get It. Wayne seems so at ease with the music, as he takes his time delivering vivid metaphors it's as if the beats have to keep up with him. Let The Beat Build demonstrates hip hop's unique freedom to allow songs that are about nothing but hip hop itself. The song is centered around Wayne's grasp of beat timing and that's about it, but it works tremendously. Mid-way through the song everything goes quiet until Wayne whispers, "As I hit the kill switch / Now that's how you let the beat build bitch." Songs like Shoot Me Down show the MC soul-searching with dark, brooding atmospherics that build to his end statement "watch me soar, where the fuck is my guitar?" and a screeching chord brings the whole thing to a close. It's followed by it's antithesis, Lollipop. The first official single, this is a made-for-radio song that is centered round a shameless confectionary-based sexual innuendo. It's good but it's nothing 50 Cent didn't already tell us in Candy Shop.
Lollipop, while a solid tune, does contain elements of where this album, for me, strays from its focus and that'll be in its R n B tendencies. I rarely venture into mainstream hip hop such as this, for this very reason. Hip hop is the biggest selling genre in the US and can't do too bad over here either, but I can't help feeling that this statistic comes about largely due to the genre boundaries being heavily blurred and when hip hop strays into RnB territory the market expands. R Kelly isn't hip hop and Kanye West isn't RnB. Songs like Got Money and Comfortable seem to dilute this MC's dazzling writing skills not to mention Mrs Officer, a song who's principle theme is a female cop sexual fantasy.
So that's the bitching out the way and now down to business. This guy can turn a phrase better than most and that's the sole reason to listen to this album. Unlike many of his contemporaries Wayne doesn't lace every rhyme with the same concepts and themes and so in that respect he is hard to pin down. He isn't a thug rapper, a smut rapper or an indie-poet, he's all that and more. He covers many topics with impressive eloquence. Here's a few.
Excretion: You're like a bitch with no ass, you aint got shit. (A Milli)
Grammar: "I don't owe you like two vowels." (A Milli)
Will Smith movies: "I got so many bitches like I was Mike Lowry."(A Milli)
Ailments: "I Got Swagger tighter than a yeast infection" (Dr Carter)
Cooking: "Don't I treat you like soufflé?" ( Comfortable)
Confectionary: "So I let her lick the (w)rapper" - (Lollipop)
French: "I'm all about oui like Paris / Hilton presidential suite already." (La La)
Finance: "You better pay me cos you don't want my problems / I'll be wiling like Capital One, what is in your wallet" (You Aint Got Nuthin.)
24th Jul 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3.5 star reviewsAd Nauseum: Cactus Kid
Not quite sure what untouchable, reclusive director Terrence Malick would make of the current 'homage' to his film Badlands - which is designed to make Coca-Cola-owned juice brand Oasis 'famous'. By 'irreverent' humour, I assume the article means the current glut of off-hand, sarcastic, post Vic-and-Bob stupidity that seems to grace T4 on a weekly basis. Grrr.
22nd Jul 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet