look at my pelvis blushing!

So, I just heard Jayne Cortez speak for the first time. I've always had a bad reaction to spoken-word/poetry ever since an ex-girlfriend played me The Last Poets' "Gashman". I know, it's sacrilege to say this shit but goodness, that kinda stuff really annoys me. Jayne Cortez is cool though, and you will learn this by listening to "I am New York City" here.

You will also hear said track on the latest podcast (image above) by Jazzfreeka/Blackclassical, which you can download HERE. If you've never heard of Jazzfreeka, don't worry about it - I only found out about him the other day. And you guys must like hearing some jazz you've never heard of in your life, especially when it's a mix of "very spacey, Middle Eastern, modal chilled out jazz, not as hard as the others and as you can see mainly Strata East so I guess you know what to expect... "

If you're like me, you don't know what to expect at all. So jump into the unknown already.

This is my jam at the moment. Droney, moody, dope as anything. I don't dig that kinda stuff, but I'm pretty sure that Beautiful Swimmers will smoke a bowl with you while you dance in slow motion to this song...

Beautiful Swimmers - O Yea

yeesh

Sums up the FOB live experience JUST RIGHT

So, I played a one hour set as part of Air3's 24 hour broadcast, as well as sitting in on two other shows. It was fun. But I'm shattered, because I only slept two hours before heading through to Glasgow to cover the recent Daily Record/Sunday Mail strike action (more about that HERE). Wow, I'm tired, and Hell's Kitchen is coming on and it really sucks hard, so I'm going to post about Fall Out Boy. Ah, Fall Out Boy - I've defended them many times to people who hate them, even posting up a fairly-praising review of their recent Folie á Deux on Punknews.org, but goodness, their fans suck. (Sample comment exchange from Livejournal FOB community icecreamheadaches: oh golly.) And as catchy as their songs can be, they still lack an actual personality on stage beyond shuffling around while playing songs.

But this review of the pop-punkers' recent Believers Never Die 2 tour raises some interesting questions. Amanda DePaul's review isn't very well written in my opinion, but the troubling thing is the following point: "After the opening song, Pete Wentz launched into some rambling diatribe about how they were given a stage and they will use it to educate the world about the corruption of the government. Then we had to watch a stupid video about politics while they changed into their rockstar outfits. Seriously? Cut the political crap and just play your music. In case you didn’t notice, the majority of your listeners can’t even vote."

Now, while these shows sound somewhat ridiculously over the top even for FOB, is it really fair that a band with a young audience can't express political views? Politics is synonymous with our everyday lives, and I remember being probably more involved with it as a teenager than as the young adult that I am right now. That time in your life is when activism makes more sense than pretty much anything (at least that's what I think) and while FOB's stage set (they come out dressed as greedy businessman in wigs for the first half of their set) sounds clunky and misguided, the heart is in the right place. Pete Wentz has responded to the review on his blog in Kanye-aping ALL CAPS FURY. Tourmate 50 Cent hasn't said shit, but that would've made all of this a hell of a lot funnier and probably more worthwhile. Pimpin' Curly could've solved all of this blog chatter in ten, maybe fifteen minutes.

Let me know what you guys think about the issue, and rock out to the best song off Folie - which is also the most explicitly "political" song on the record, being all about the Bush years and meaningless activism sapping your hope. Apart from that "Girls used to follow me around" lyric. P. Wentz = not exactly poet laureate of making sense.

Fall Out Boy - (Coffee's For Closers)

update on lil wayne ridiculousness

"Shawty, we can kick it like my name Chuck Norris."

Lil Wayne - Thinking to Myself

(via Nah Right?)

ps. If you've just accidentally stumbled upon this blog and happen to support Glenn Beck: kill yourself.

pps. Wow.

clearance day (possible part one of two even though I don't want to promise anything)

So last week I cleared some random music off my computer that I thought was awesome. This week I'm just throwing up some of the random mp3s on my university hard drive. Begin:

Rick Ross - Maybach Music, Pt 2 (feat. Kanye West, Lil' Wayne & T-Pain)

If you've not heard this yet, fast-forward to 3:23 and let your jaw drop. To quote Lil Wayne: "All black Maybach, I'm sitting in the asshole". IN THE ASSHOLE. How this hasn't ended up on long-running FLFD obsession Snacks and Shit yet is inexcusable.

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Liger - Smapples

"Smapples" reminds me of a song I wrote when I was 12. It was called "Prizes and Presents", was nothing more than me spazzing out on my friend's drumkit yelling "PRIZES PRIZES PRIZES AND PRESENTS" and it sounds like the first twenty-five seconds of this song. Minus the other instruments, of course. It's probably dumb to say that if you like Xiu Xiu you'll like these guys, but hey, if you like Xiu Xiu give this a try. Not really my thing, to be honest. Liger do not sit in the asshole.

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Cryptonites - Hands of God

Working in a library, I kill time by flicking through the odd book here and there (despite never getting to read them, grumble grumble), which led me to the comic book collection DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore. Now, I dig Watchmen and everything, so I had a flick through the death-of-Superman tale (oh yeah, spoiler) "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" I hate to say that I couldn't get into the tone... the bad guys in Supe's universe were all a bit too comical-seeming to do trademark Moore things like erratically murder people. Anyway, this is a detour. It took me this song's entire length to type that out and get the links above sorted, which is probably bad. Or good. Or something. Anyway, this does the job, to say the least. Dancey dance stuff. Cryptonites are lounging - not in the asshole but quite possibly close to it.

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The Shanghai Restoration Project - Babylon of the Orient

I usually don't subscribe to the theory of "guilty pleasures" (iPod on shuffle: Clipse, Utada Hikaru, Paul Wall's "Internet Goin' Nutz") but I think that The Shanghai Restoration Project definitely count by allowing "Babylon of the Orient" to start with a bamboo flute over a synth line out of a Runners beat. The lyrics are pretty much as follows: "Let me holla at youuuu. C'mon and holla back. Na na na na na na na na naaahhh." And let's not forget that the song is called "Babylon of the Orient". Now, I wouldn't argue that this is good per se, but I've just listened to it three times in a row. Na na na na na na na na naaahhh: not sitting in the asshole.

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Andrew W.K. - Big Party

Now, I'm lucky I found this - "Big Party" sounds like Paisley Park-era Prince on his fifth Blue Ribbon and is, wouldn't you believe it, awesome. This is a good time to bring up that AWK has announced plans on his blog to finally release his off-the-wall career turnaround Close Calls With Brick Walls in Europe through his record label Skyscraper Music Maker. "Big Party" was a bonus track at some point for the Japan/Korea-only release, so it'll be sweet to hold all twenty-fucking-seven songs previously released. If he brings out vinyl that looks like this I'll be happy, but if he seriously decides to change the oddly terrifying cover sleeve I'll be gutted. I hope "Party Party Party" is on this release. Despite his last album being a collection of covers of Japanese rock songs, Andrew W.K. has not -as you may think - disappeared up his own asshole.

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BONUS DOWNLOAD: Andrew W.K. - Party Party Party

Well then. On second thought, is "all black Maybach, I'm sitting in the asshole" really that much more ridiculous than:

• "You said you wanna do it to the new Enrique."
• "When you're really rich, then asparagus is yummy."
• "Fly, go hard like geese erection."
• "Weezy F Baby and the F is for phenomenal!"
• "I am agriculture."
• "Can I stick my pencil in your sharpener? Beat it up like it's a drum, call me Travis Barker. Tat tat tat, boom boom, tat tat, boom boom, tat tat brrrrrrrr, pshhh."

Think about it. Consider this music folder (half) emptied.

catbus is grind... bus

If you've ever watched Hayao Miyazaki's classic My Neighbour Totoro and wondered to yourself how the music of seminal grindcore outfit Discordance Axis would work as its soundtrack, WONDER NO MORE!

Right guys, no FLFD this week - we'll be back next week with some of that good stuff. Also, a 24 hour broadcast from Air3 next week that I really have to go do some practising for! Until then, some music that I've been digging - some of which was salvaged from my old PC, which is/was the slowest computer in the world. Yeesh, wasn't used to going back to that thing after so long in smoothness. Ah, this comfortable speed!

Kid Cudi feat. Kanye West, Common & DJ A-Trak "I Poke Her Face"
This is just filthy. Filthy, filthy, filthy sex raps that just work so well with that kind of super-chill beat that Kanyeezy doesn't pull out often enough for his own solo material - plus, a Lady Gaga sample that DOESN'T SOUND LIKE ASS. Common wins man of the match honours on this joint, which is amazing seeing how he always steals tracks and I can't ever get into his own solo stuff. More like this, please.
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Fox Gut Daata "On My Mind"
The ever-glitchy Fox Gut hit me up with some new songs this week, including this new banger. He also hit me up with the next track...
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Gajah "Harry Shoeman (Fox Gut Daata RMX)"
I hadn't heard the original until five minutes ago, but damn if Fox doesn't go totally in the different direction from it. Nice job, dude.
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Stux "Phone Song"
My friend Carl may just kill me for this - he recorded a bunch of demos under the name of Stux (Reuben reference, if you didn't guess) when he was 18 years old and this was always my favourite of his. We never got round to fleshing out this song, but I'm definitely going to put it forward as an idea to cover in a band I'm joining. So obscure only I know about it! And now you guys. :D
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Apologies, I Have None "Deconstructing Jim's Shoulder"
If you've been listening to FLFD lately, you'll notice I've been playing the shit out of these guys, who I only just got into after they'd come up to Glasgow for some shows. (Typical me, really.) If you like that nice mix of acoustically-minded punk rock that's big with folk at the moments (I loathe to say Against Me! but, hey, Against Me! fans) then you'll likely dig these guys. This track is from their 2007 demo "Done", which is available HERE and is totally worth it. There's a newie by the name of "100 Club" up at their myspace but I can't afford to get the new EP yet, so I'm sticking with the free stuff for now...
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The Hunting Party "Hold Your Breath and Cross Your Fingers"
Back when Myspace used to allow you to download songs, I used to go on binges just finding random bands' mp3s for... well, archiving purposes, maybe? Anyhoo, I found this kicking about the other day and was this close to deleting it when I heard the riff to "Hold Your Breath...". Kinda glammy, kinda rockabilly, kinda cool. The Hunting Party's website and myspace haven't been updated for a long, long time so this is kinda obscure. Internet obscure, yes, but pshaww.
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After School Knife Party "Dear Daddy"
And finally... this is my friend Lauren's old band. Those pipes!
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More randomstuff later on this week. Yessur.