Hip Hop Attack!

I am blown away this week. It’s been a little bit since I appeared here. Been inundated with new tunes, and this week has been no exception. If you’ve been spinning these albums, you’ve been offline, too:
First off, I got the second release from Gnarls Barkley, “The Odd Couple.” If you’ve seen “Austin Powers” you’ll remember those little goofy musical interludes (with the Posies’ frontman/part-time R.E.M. member Ken Stringfellow, don’tcha know?) with those goofy little early 60’s pop riffs. Producer/DJ Dangermouse appears to have been diving into those crates for inspiration. Fantastic album. And no “Crazy”-like song to be overplayed on every damned station. “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” is on KEXP and I don’t think I’ll get sick of it anytime soon. “Odd Couple” is in heavy rotation but it’s outshined by….

Lyrics Born’s “Everywhere at Once”. I tend to think the “where” in this case is the Eighties. And that’s no dig. He’s not chillin’ with Ronnie or Max Headroom or Spuds Mackenzie. I think he’s been tippin’ back cold ones with the Sugar Hill Gang and got Kool and the Gang or maybe Nu Shooz as his backing band. Give “Differences” a test spin at your fave music store. Longtime collaborator Joya Velarde (duh, she’s his wife) is there anchoring the song with the backing vox and keeping it sounding familiar, but there’s another vocalist (male) there. (Haven’t found his name yet - damned iTunes. -ed.) Tons o’ handclaps, funky deep background guitar riffs, snare hits, synth fills, all dope Casio keyboard stuff. ‘Cept in way higher fidelity than anything your older sister was rockin’ in ‘84. Spoiler Alert: Almost NO scratching. D-Sharp and DJ Shadow have LEFT THE BUILDING. Just like LB left Quannum.
This album is a natural, but totally unexpected, progression since LB started to implement the live-band show in the past few years. If I had been in town Sunday night, I would have been at the show. I really want to know how this new recording is performed live. If you’ve got his Quannum releases stuck on REPEAT, prepare for your mental CD to start skipping, because this is not “Send Them” or “I Changed My Mind”. His trademark rhyme delivery is here and just as fresh as when the first Latyrx came out, but it’s this new instrumentation. Totally unlike anything I’ve heard in the hip hop world. “Cakewalk” is spinning now, and I get the distinct visual of that last fade out shot in “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo” as the street’s full of dancers… Dunno, can’t shake that.

HowEVER, another live-band-backed hip hop outfit is rockin’ in my earphones now:
The Roots‘ RISING DOWN just dropped. I am working my way through it. Stomping my left foot as I type. Goosebumps. This is the freshest, and not by virtue of being newest. It’s tight. I’ll save you the played out metaphors. I am gotta listen really close a few times through before I can say anymore than _go_get_this_album. Talib Kweli is here. Peedi Peedi is here. Mos Def is here. (I hear white people LOVE Mos.)

Popularity: 22%

The Dollyrots punk El Corazón

Last Tuesday was an interesting night to say the least. I ventured out to review the band The Dollyrots at El Corazón and woke up the next day with a flat tire, a screaming headache, and a Dollyrot’s t-shirt I’m sure I didn’t pay for. And thats how I guess I can describe The Dollyrot’s show, it kicked my ass. On tour to support their latest album “Because I’m Awesome” the band was amazingly receptive and humble, and the Jäger at El Corazón is friggn tainted I swear…

Currently signed to Joan Jett’s label Blackheart Records, “Because I’m Awesome” is super punk-pop with catchy verses and solid hooking choruses. And at first listen (and I’m sure the band is gonna love me for this) it reminds me of Avril Levine meets The Sounds. But that’s because of the high production quality of the album, once you see the band live it all comes together. I talk with my peers all the time about how to capture on recording the ‘live” feel so the listener can “get it” in their car as well as they do at the show. But with The Dollyrots that wouldn’t work, the album is only one-up’d by the live show. The polished poppy recordings are great, and help you get the jist of the songs, but when you see them live, Kelly Ogden’s raw badass vocals with Luis Cabezas guitar and Chris Blacks drumming punch you right in the face and let you know the band is for real, and punk as fuck. It’s a great combination to help them break through the hard-crusted lining that is the major label scene. And along with playing SXSW the last two years in a row, and sharing labels with bands like Green Day, Rancid, Ted Leo/Pharmacists, and Pretty Girls Make Graves the band seems to be on the high road to success.

With all that in mind you’d think they’d be on a tour bus with a ryder like as thick as The Odyssey. But no, they travel in a van with a trailer, eat pink malt balls (sorry Kelly I forgot which brand), stick to the per diem and drink tickets, and keep a level head (unlike me at their show). I was highly impressed with how grateful and humble the band is about being fortunate enough to make a living playing music. I’m not sure how I ended up with a free T (like i said the Jäger at El Corazón is tainted) but I hope they can forgive me cuz I’m gonna have to mail them $15. If you get a chance to see them live, DO IT… compared to the album it’s totally not what you’d expect, proving once again, you can’t judge a Dollyrot by its album cover.

Popularity: 23%

A Deeper Dive into Cloud Cult

About 6 months ago I was listening to a mix cd my friend had made. I had no artist or track information at the time, and remember being stuck on the 8th song, a catchy, upbeat and down right rocking track. Who are these guys, I wondered, singing along to this ‘Cannonballs Collide’ song? A couple of days later, band and track list in hand, and humbling correction that it is actually ‘Chemicals’ Collide, (duh), I am officially introduced to Cloud Cult. I loaded their 2007 release The Meaning of 8 onto my ipod and became instantly dazzled and infatuated by this band. I hadn’t heard anything like them before, lyrically or sonically, and I was hungry to get my hands on more.

Turns out I am a late-bloomer to these guys. They’ve been around for roughly 10 years, and have 7 albums out at this point, the most recent, Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying through Tornadoes) of which is being released tomorrow. I have not yet had the chance to meander my way through their entire collection, but from the 5 albums I have (They Live on the Sun, 2003; Aurora Borealis, 2004; Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus, 2005; the Meaning of 8, 2007, and the most recent, Feel Good Ghosts), there’s clearly something that sets this band apart from the norm, and which is so curiously engaging, powerful and addictive. I am just as excited for their 2008 release as I am to go back in time and uncover each of their previous albums in addition to those I already have. Here’s my attempt to analyze and summarize Cloud Cult, as well as provide a sample ‘feel’ for this band by means of reviewing two of their albums, The Meaning of 8, and They Live on the Sun.

Popularity: 29%

HELLO TOKYO - Sell The Stars

I receive Hello Tokyo’s disc in the mail and pop it in. Don’t even look at the bio sheet and at once I hear Gwen Stefani-esque vocals reaching past a loud and dense backdrop of catchy keys, guitar riffs, and heavy drum and bass on the first track ‘Alert the Authority’. I’m paying attention, I like this song. A few more songs pass, I am listening. I reach track 4, ‘Steady the Gun’, which causes me to raise my head again. At this point, Kat (lead singer/songwriter) has evolved well past Stefani influences, into a sweet, yet edgy, voice of her own.

Hello Tokyo is a rock-indie-electro-power-pop group with appeal. Kat Kihler, appropriately, has a killer voice. It’s captivating and versatile, ranging from sweet to blunt to flat back up to sweet– striking various moods on queue.

The vocals are backed by an equally powerful sound of intense and poppy hooks. Think of Metric, and perhaps a hint of Sleater-Kinney. All three band members (Kat, John on guitar/bass, and Sam on drums) collectively shine in the production of Hello Tokyo. Guitar, bass, kit, keys and vocals combine in a way that, if one were to strip any one of the band members, you’d feel as if you’d lose the entire essence of their sound. They collectively produce a fine balance of sonic stimulation, each cumulatively propelling one another’s sound, a solid attestation of a good musical team. The guitars are simple and captivating at times, yet heavy and dense at others, hooks entering and exiting at all the right moments, and continually surprising me when I least expect it. The drummer rips a powerful beat and rhythmic edge, contributing to the intensity of the band’s sound and holding it all together.

Hello Tokyo is pleasurably catchy. Upon first listen, I found myself for the most part happy, though at times slightly unsatisfied, impatiently awaiting the next song with hope of a surprise similar to which I felt when I initially loaded the disc. However, the more and more I tune in - which is becoming an effortless process as I return to this album again and again - I find myself pleasantly absorbed by the many diversions and different directions many songs veer, which have a way of calming this sense of impatience and holding me captivated throughout the entire length of the album. Hello Tokyo’s ‘Sell the Stars’ delivers.

Top tracks: Alert the Authority, Run To You, Hands to Hold, and Your Majesty.

Hello Tokyo plan on a west-coast tour in the near future, we’ll keep you posted.

Check out the Alert the Authority Video

Popularity: 28%

20Q with Jack White of The Raconteurs

The phone rang down here at NWMB World HQ this morning, and a strange voice was on the other line. “Hang on, I’ll get him for you. He’s just stepping out of the studio.”
“Huh? Who’s stepping out of the studio? It’s 7:30 in the morning!”
“Hang on… here he is.”
Clueless, I asked the caller again, “Hello?”
A new voice: “This is Jack. Go ahead.”
Wha?
After an awkward minute of getting acquainted, we were on our way. It was Mr. White, taking a break from some rehearsing in an undisclosed location.
Me: “So the new album sounds great. Where was it recorded?”
JW: “In my secret basement studio.”
Me. “How long did it take?”
JW: “Takes? It took two takes. About three hours. We really gel, we like to bang it out, you know?”
Me: “Wow! Three hours? Did you even have enough time to get a caterer over there?”
JW: “We subsisted on tater tots and beer. My mom brought brownies.”
Me: “What sound were you going for here? It sounds like you were listening to a lot of Bad Company/Paul Rodgers or something.”
JW: “How’d you figure that out?”
Me: “Title track, dead-on Rodgers vocal sound. Real throwback stuff. Nice…. So is ‘Rich Boy’s Blues’ autobiographical?”
JW: “Come on. That’s totally about Warren Beatty.”
Me: “Go figure. My next guess was Pete Townshend.”
JW: “Whomever you like.”
Me: “I guess I had a lot of Who and Queen on the brain, listening to ‘Consoler of the Lonely’. What’s going on there?”
JW: “Yeah, that was Brendan’s input. The harmonies on ‘Stones’ and ‘Top Yourself.’ Yeah, that’s what we were after.”
Me: “Can you elaborate a bit more on the other influences you had in the recording of this album?”
JW: “Uh, the Stones, Los Lobos, Meatloaf… Ravi Shankar.”
Me: “Shankar?”
JW: “I totally stalked him for a week in February. Had my ear pressed to the wall of Abbey Road while he rehearsed.”
Me: “Did you go to London just to do that?”
JW: “Nah, I ran into him while shopping for tapestries for our tour van. Followed him around. Had to change out of my red pantsuit just to absorb his genius. I bought a Utilikilt off a guy on the street, borrrowed an Oxford hoodie from a student in the square.”
Me: “Did you keep the Utilikilt?”
JW: “It was seized at Kennedy on the way back home.”
Me: “Hmph. What do you think of the new Dirtbombs?”
JW: “Sucks. No. Kidding. It’s outstanding.”
Me: “PBR or Milwaukee’s Best?”
JW: “The Beast.”
Me: “Barack or Hillary?”
JW: “Who? Next question.”
Me: “What else are you listening to?”
JW: “‘In Step’ by SRV [Stevie Ray Vaughan], Stones’ Brussels Affair bootleg. 1973? Awesome. And I pledged to PBS so they sent me the entire Monterey Pop Festival on DVD. Amazing!”
Me: “Last questions: will there be another Raconteurs album?”
JW: “Before you know it.”
Me: “Any last thoughts?”
JW: “April Fool’s, readers. I didn’t really call NWMB.”

Popularity: 22%

Seattle’s Best Hip Hop Group is…

Its the P-H-Y-S-I-C-S…aka The Physics

Get Familiar

Their debut album “Future Talk” was one of my favorite releases last year (any genre, any town) and stays in heavy rotation. Spring/summertime will bring more spins of this record for its cool-out, crack a brew, holler at the ladies, backyard cookout vibe.

MC Thig Natural possesses such a great combination of infectious flow, intricate wordplay and effortless delivery that “rewind that” will become a regular part of your vocabulary. Producer/MC Just D’amato builds some seriously soulful beats that put you in a good mood all by themselves, and holds it down on the mic as well.

This record should be available at local retailers and I highly recommend you go buy yourself a copy. If they don’t have it, tell them to get it. Do it for yourself. Do it for the kids. Do it for the town.

Popularity: 100%

This is what you came up with, Portishead?

Last week, I got an advance copy of Portishead’s upcoming release, “Third” and have been struggling to get through the album. Due for a 29 April release in the US, this 11-track showcase of darkness leaves me wanting more. Where the hell are the hooks in these songs? Beth Gibbons’ unmistakable sound is there, but the instrumentation has moved on in a new direction since their previous two studio recordings. “Silence”, the lead-off track, makes promises for the rest of the album but it never quite delivers. It’s followed by a very Mazzy Star-esque “Hunter”… it’s all very somber and chilling as we’d expect, but given the decade that the group has had to (potentially) create these songs, I am disappointed and frustrated.

I haven’t seen writing or musicians’ credits for “Third”, but I cannot help but think of Pink Floyd’s last studio offering, “The Division Bell”, which required some 409 writers to collaborate to “create the ‘Pink Floyd’ sound”. Yeah, that’s meant as some damning praise. (OK, it wasn’t 409… but there were a lot of people involved.) More recently, there was Massive Attack’s 2003 album “100th Window”, which had fallen on ears accustomed to the dark sounds of “Mezzanine” and Tracey Thorns’ unforgettable contributions to “Protection.” It was a fairly significant departure, perhaps due to the absence of long-time member of Grantley Marshall.

To this listener, the difference between Portishead’s sophomore effort and this one is just as significant. (The distinction is in the instruments and not the singers as Sinead O’Connor hasn’t replaced Gibbons.)
I’ll see if I can follow this up with something further and more encouraging. In the meantime, spin “Roseland NYC Live”, their last release, for a proper visit with P’head.

Popularity: 92%

“No, YOU Listen!” — ¡Gross! by Pleasureboaters

Popping in a copy of ¡Gross!, the searing, thrash-punk debut record from Seattle’s Pleasureboaters, one immediately feels the hissing sense of urgency spewing forth from the throat of vocalist/guitarist Ricky Claudon. The bass guitar of Erik Baldwin chimes in with a chugging line befitting a fast-paced horror movie scene, while Tim Cady clamors his way to a crash-induced drum beat. The chaos found in “State of the Union”, while taking a few breathers here and there, will not conclude until the album is over. The guitar, often busting loose like shattered glass, will persist until the listener has been fully engulfed in audio anarchy. The bass regularly leads the cluster into a foray of hardcore guitar splatter. The drums will fastidiously attempt to corral the pandemonium with a delicious attack on the snare, only to succumb to a commotion atop the crash cymbals.

So I guess I’m saying it’s rowdy. But at the same time, it’s undeniable catchy. I don’t mean ‘catchy’ in the “Young Folks” kind of way—there’s certainly no whistling like on that ubiquitous single from Peter, Bjorn and John (there’s some wailing, though). But Baldwin provides enough funky slaps to reel the rest of the characters in before they go careening of a cliff. For example, on standout song “Andalou”, a good 30-second preamble introduces a creepy bass riff the song will lean on for its entirety, while Claudon maniacally professes his love to Andalou in terms of razor blades to the face. During the latter half, just when you think the song can’t get any more tangled, the guitar and drum kit discharging a scathing squall, back around the bass comes to keep the ruffians in check.

“Deckhand Paterson” is a rapid, 2-minute affair that might be the album’s single if these guys gave two shits about singles (Editor’s note: LB has no idea if they would welcome the single format or not—it just makes them sound more badass this way). It’s certainly more straightforward than most of the other cuts, but still has enough bite to stay true to the threesome’s piercing sound. Another album highlight, “Scramble” makes use of its title in the most obvious way: muffled lyrics, intermittent caterwauling guitar, and a tight bass line to fulfill the musical task at hand. As for the rest of the LP, released in 2007 by Don’t Stop Believin’ Records, there really isn’t a clunker among them, save for maybe the final track. But, hey, 11 out of 12 ain’t too bad for a first go-around.

Fans of Murder City Devils, These Arms Are Snakes, the Blood Brothers, and Mclusky will find much to applaud while listening to this impressive record from a trio of young South Seattleites. Similarities in the shrieking vocals, in the sardonic song titles (“Leopard Print Babyware”, “Cockhair”), and in the song structure point to their influences from the local hardcore scene. Their live show, as well, is rife with physical antics and old school punk sensibility (wait, punks? sensibility? huh?). Make it your duty, friend, to enable their madness.

Popularity: 90%