Change of Guard

I am moving the blog to (http://gradspin-kln.blogspot.com/) due to e-mail conflicts. ok.

Ice Cream Spiritual

I hear summer's old fireworks, my blaring alarm, and single rotating fan. Jumping off the couch, I scourer for my keys, and slam off the alarm. It’s 2 p.m. on a Saturday and I am late for a date with peanut butter ice cream.

I havn't eaten anything for the past three days, (it's the price you pay as captain of the Spiced rum polo team), so I swipe up half a jug of Gatorade and the whole box of Fruity Pebbles before sprinting out the front door, and stumbling down the stairs. The July heat reminds me that I forgot to change out of my soggy Fugazi t-shirt and lime Puma's, as I down the last bit of power juice and another mouth full pebbles. After a couple minutes, or maybe more, my course drifts towards the sun. I go flying, straight past the ice cream parlor, and head for the river.

*check out the new Ponytail

The Long and Short

I want to say a little something about the new Iron Lung, Sexless // No Sex. They are easily one of my first power violence bands, and it’s great to see them still breathing life into the scene.

I first heard of them when they were playing Reno, before they moved to their current location in Seattle. A friend from school hooked me up with an Iron Lung/Lana Dagales split (2002), and it caved in my chest. They were just a two-piece (guitar/drum) band, but produced some of most horrific Punk I had ever heard.

Sexless reveals just how much the band has grown up. It runs three times longer than the split, and closes with the almost three minute long “Cancer,” moving along at a sludge pace. Don’t get me wrong, songs like “Contested” and “Liars” taste like steel-toed boots, and the album never comes close to sounding compromised. The guitar work is more diverse, from the complex and abrasive riffs on “Autojector,” to the spiraling melodies on “Lumbar Puncture Test," the attack takes new shapes, and with solid drums and vocals filling out the weight, Iron Lung take their songs to greater lengths.

A part of me misses the lo-fi "basement" production and industrial samples, but the core of the sound here is unmistakably Iron Lung. Is it really possible for a power violence band to sell out anyway? I don’t know how much longer Sexless // No Sex will be in print, so get to it.

A Guilty Pleasure

It's been a nasty good time over the past week, though when I try to my friends about it, they either cringe in disgust, or smile out of shock. My omission, the new Cliteater album is great, not to mention finger-licking fun.

Extreme genres like gore/porno-grind gorge not only on controversial topics like death and murder, but also sexual violence. While this pushes against my musical limitations, I have to admit there is a part of me that believes these guys are joking around, especially with songs titles like “Bruce-Dick-In-Son?” It would seem obvious on one hand to take the genre as seriously as the Braindead flims that influence them.

At the same time, it’s not really hard to believe that people would be up in arms about an album titled Scream Bloody Clit. If the genre's intentions are real, I feel that the themes are justified, in the sense that they aren’t advocating sexual violence, but showing it’s horrible realities from a brutally uncompromising perspective. Though this might be an uncomfortable conversation topic, it's dismissal is what the genre is challenging. It reveals crimes committed in daily life, and silently tolerated, in the workplace, home, school, and church. The themes and imagery of extreme metal are essentially radical protest, reflecting these horrible acts as an opposition to the solidarity between violent sexual deviance and social control.

Back to the lecture at hand…

Cliteater stick to their guns on Scream, blending gore tropes with early grind/punk inspired riffs. They choose not to blast along the entire way, which by comparative standards makes for a more accessible listening experience. They have added a new guitarist, Susan Gerl to beef up the guitar tone. It’s great to see women on the music side of Metal, especially in gore-grind, a sub-genre where men dominate gender identity. If you don’t know the name Joost Silvrants (Inhume), you don’t know guttural vocals. He possesses an obscene range, and I was blown away when I first heard that he doesn’t use any pitch shifting. On “Impulse to Destruct” Joost takes the opportunity during the bridge to just go schizophrenic at the helm, spitting and screaming in every direction. There are some pitch-shifting vocals, used by the guitarist (Ivan Cuijpers), and are placed as dynamic punches before the band plunges into sonic oblivion. The comedic series “Positive Aspects Of Collective Chaos,” is kept alive with "Part III," ending to the sound of an accordion. Cliteater also has done a consummate job at borrowing from other Metal genres to diversify the album, like thrash metal (“Your Mouth, My Seed”), death metal (“Obese Obsession”), and death n’ roll (“Pedophiliac Cult”). While Cliteater's themes might be hard to swallow and their sound might turn your stomach over, Scream Bloody Clit is a bloody good time.

I also wanted to briefly give some love to the new Prostitute Disfigurement album, Descedents of Depravity. The high point of the album are the guitars; the songwriting has great flow between the riffs and solos, each holding their own and while playing off each other. The drum performance provided by Michiel van der Plicht is relentless, and while the vocals, exercised by Niels Adams, are more in the mid-range, I think iit's an overall improvement for the band. Descendents also rocks one of the my favorite song titles so far this year, with “Killing for Company.” Check these out.

Flag Bearers

Stones Throw has to be one of the hottest labels in Hip-Hop. I have been listening to Guilty Simpson’s Ode to the Ghetto*, and while the album studio team is lead by the legendary Jaylib (Madlib, J.Dilla), it should be said that some of the albums best moments come courtesy of Black Milk.

It’s not to say that he is better by any standard, but his three tracks contain the Jaylib "sound" that his legendary predecessors can claim rites to. Each track is distinct from the other, which makes the juxtaposition of “My Moment” and “Run" wild since their respective synth use is almost alien. “Moment” is a slumped ride down to cruise, while “Run” is a fiendish riff looking for trouble. My favorite of the three is “The Real Me,” probably because it reminds me of Dilla (R.I.P.) almost instantly. The beat doesn’t sound like he wants be the man, but like their fingerprints have traced the same studio boards if you know what I mean. Black Milk is carrying on their tradition in the present, so remember the name and look for it in the future.

No matter if you are a fan of the past, present, or future when it comes to Hip-Hop 2008, the Roots have to be central to the conversation. There has been plenty of great stuff written about the Roots's Rising Down so I won’t try to repeat established ideas in print, but I will put my money down on this, they are the essential Hip-Hop artist/crew of my generation.

Rising in the mid-nineties, the Roots not only took a completely individual slant on the genre, but also immersed themselves in understanding their place in musical history. They ushered in the “Organic” thing as much as anyone without demonizing their notorious past. They sought to inform an audience off stage, as much as they unapologetically attacked their opposition while on it. ?uestlove has become an icon, and ambassador, for Hip-Hop music and culture. They tour probably better than anyone, always play an irreplaceable set, and continue to grow in audience despite their uncompromising musical direction and politics. They have played with Jay-Z, Fall Out Boy, Erykah Badu, and Stephen Colbert. The Roots are contradictory by nature, and singular in comparison. Rising Down is a great album, from one of the truly undeniable bands of my time.

*Guilty Simpson can get away with his lyrics/delivery, but Ode lacks dramatic content and memorable hooks. Not bad, but I'm there for the production.

Misnomer

I was initially going to write about the new Crystal Castles, which I have been digging on and is probably my favorite Electronica album so far this year, but when trying to choose my early favorites of 08’, I find myself digressing into Times New Viking’s Rip It Off.

Times New Viking is really a noise/garage band by obvious standards, but I get the same kind of feeling when listening to Fuck Buttons Street Horrrsing. They both really stress the high end of their sound, and allow the subtle white noises to carry the melody. While most songs stay under two minutes, there is still something there. Confident vocals and keys are blanketed but audible, and songs like “Teen Drama” and “Relevant: Now” ride a wave underneath it all. Fuck Buttons Horrrsing is far more eccentric and grand in composition, but the cerebral distortion sticks around.

For me, there has always been something sterile about Electronica; I think it has something to do with programmed drums. While the songs structures relatively don’t really stray too far from conventional pop, they come off sounding recycled instead of repeated. I don’t want to sound out of touch, but I never have been much into the tech world, and what makes the Times New Viking's Rip It Off interesting for me, is that I feel the same kind of distance and intrigue with Fuck Buttons as I do a supposed garage band. It’s as much of a pitfall as it is a bridge.

Just check out the new Crystal Castles. eh...

Mighty, Mighty Joseph

I can’t stop listening to Mighty Joseph. Vast Aire and Karniege throw down together on Empire State, and have created my favorite Hip-Hop album so far this year.

There has been plenty written about Vaste Aire’s chunky chew delivery and talent for double take rhymes, while Karniege brings his own flar to a more traditional bark. The lyrics are straight up bananas, no joke*. Ranging from the home front, “Kidz (N.Y.C.),” to the party scene, “Night Life,” to gangland on “Anything Can Happen?,” these two MC’s rule the scene from behind the wheel, while keeping respected friends in the back seat throughout, with the likes of M.U.R.S, Genesis, and Vordul Mega.

As ridiculous as the lyrics are, the production is what keeps pulling me back. The synth drenched beat on “Legend” opens with a country sample and comes courtesy of master producer Madlib. The vocal samples on “Out the Gate” and “The Dark Ages” light up the place, while creeping piano keys on “Criminal Tales,” lurk in the shadows. On Empire, the sun never sets, and there is nowhere to hide.

It doesn’t really matter which reason you choose to listen to Empire State, just listen to it now! It has not left my rotation since I got a hold of it and I hope more people start to recognize the Mighty Joseph. Bananas.

*My favorite verse is Vast’s closer on “The Dark Ages.”