What's Up Tommy?

Defies rating

Jay O’Donnell covers a certain high school principal.

Tommy Boy.

Black Royalty

(4.0/5.0)
Just soak your soul in this shit yo. Bronze Nazereth is as close to HOLY as any mc will ever hope to be. Like, he just preached some really obscure truth about the universe and i loved it. The trumpets are ushering the new millenium of enlightment, while Nazereth tells you to give him your guns and you he will give you these scriptures. Seriously, they should get the bloods and the crips in one room and have this guy just rap this song in like a huge white robe with like mad bitches grinding up on him and shit. Whos that wu-tang poet so graphic?

What A Wonderful Man

*4.7 out of 5*

The most victorious, fuck-yeah song off of My Morning Jacket's 2005 Z is "What A Wonderful Man", written in celebration of the band's dear friend and former band member Aaron Todovich, who took his own life. Lead singer Jim James told "Velocity Weekly" in an interview about his frustration with bands writing sad songs about dead people. He was like fuck it, I loved this guy, let's celebrate. This live version off of MMJ's powerfully full-sounding live album Okonokos is the song's best released recording.

There is no way better to honor your friend like the solo that kills at 1:16.

Walrus

4.1 / 5 Not for everybody
Boris: Sludge/Stoner/Doom/Japanese Metal
Merzbow: Japanese Feedback Whitenoise Legend
I am the Walrus: One of the Beatles most surreal songs
All together you get one hell of a cover. With Boris making the song as heavy as the possibly can and Merzbow throwing in his static edge. Sure, many may hear it and react like my sister did apon overhearing it ("it sounds like you're trying to listen to a crappy song on a broken radio), but for the few who enjoy that face melting psychedelic fuzz it's a thing of beauty. One of the highlights is at 4:14 when Takeshi takes the singing.
It's also amusing just because the guys have Japanese accents.

The Trees

4.7/5.0: i'm biased as hell, but this song is amazing.

Rush. Being a total Rush fan-boy, I was bound to mention them in an article sometime, and well, here we are. From their initial major label debut in 1974, Rush, to this year’s release more than three decades later, they have run the complete gamut in terms of popular progressive rock. Starting off as nothing more than a Zeppelin spin-off group, Rush dropped drummer John Rutsey from the lineup after their first release and added soon-to-be famous percussion virtuoso Neil Peart for their second, Caress of Steel. By the time their sixth album, Hemispheres, hit shelves in 1978, the Canadian power trio was in full rocking form, fascinating musicians and nerds everywhere with their quirky mix of fantastic musicianship and powerful lyrics (and Geddy Lee’s love-it-or-hate-it falsetto shriek).

“The Trees” is the third of four tracks on the disc. Entering with a beautifully simple acoustic introduction by guitarist Alex Lifeson followed by a brief verse softly spoken by Geddy, “The Trees” quickly turns into a rocker when Neil Peart joins the fray and Lifeson’s acoustic morphs into a characteristic electric (if you can’t tell an Alex Lifeson chord you haven’t listened to classic rock), following the vocal melody over a simple chord progression. Don’t let the absurd opening line, “There is trouble in the forest,” fool you. Lyricist Peart is onto a serious topic, here. The maples, trees in a forest, feel oppressed by the height of their oppressors, the oaks, who are stealing all of the sun’s light for themselves. Intriguing, no? After the scene is fully set, an atmospheric instrumental is lead by Lifeson’s soft guitar picking and then trades off lead to Geddy Lee’s melodic bass. This respite naturally morphs into a guitar solo and then into a strong climactic chord progression, after which the final verse is sung:

"So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
'The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light'
Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe and saw."

Blood Of The Sunworm

Blood of the Sunworm - Giant Skyflower Band (2007, Soft Abuse)

KJ_
8.8/10
Trippppy.

H_
7.4/10: a little too amorphous for me, but it's all about feeling

I can’t claim to have even seen the words Giant-Skyflower-Band in concurrence before Tony brought up this psychedelic progressive pop band. After a cursory inspection of merely the album art, one can tell that this album, Blood of the Sunworm, is the definition of low-publicity casual music. But, they say not to judge a book by its cover, and so should not the same be applicable to music?

After a few quick listens (the album doesn’t even break the half hour mark), Blood of the Sunworm feels like the set list that an American folk/pop band would play in an opium den in India. The general mood and primordial palpation of the closing instrumental track, “Meditations on Christ and the Magi,” is an excellent example. Listening to that track makes me feel like I’m lying down on a couch in someone’s obfuscated basement, while light sneaks through soupy windows and I pass a hookah around with people I don’t even know.

The rest of the album isn’t quite so specifically atmospheric, distinguished by an almost perpetual primitively played guitar and acid-afflicted drums. For me, the disc’s highlight is the brief instrumental “All of Us (You and Me)”. The undeniable inebriated vocals of Glenn Donaldson vacate the premises for a while, and the group sits down to compose, an aspect evidently exigent on the rest of the album. The result really is beautiful, ineffably so.

In summation, Blood of the Sunworm presents nothing more than an exceptionally trippy jam session from the brainchild of strange pop. It’s immediately intangible, but equally infectious at times; I think it will warrant a few summer listens. Don’t expect Pink Floyd just because I mentioned psychedelic and progressive in the opening paragraph; this one’s peregrine in every sense of the word.

_Schantz
6.7 / 10

It has all the right components: a laid back lo-fi sound, a vocalist with a really interesting voice, some acoustic guitars and drums with exotic instruments mixed in, and a name like “Giant Skyflower Band”. The opening track starts out very solid. Distant strumming slowly comes together into a twanging echoing sitar soaked backdrop to Glenn Donaldson’s lovable crooning. But then the next track comes on and it’s the same pieces used in the exact same way. And again. And again.

Sure there have been several great bands where every song sounded the exact same (Galaxie 500, the Strokes, Guitar Wolf), but this album just didn’t strike me that way. All of the songs drift along slowly propelled by some soft acoustic guitar and sitar strumming.

Don’t get me wrong, it has it’s moments of glory, and they’re pretty glorious. The opening track is a perfectly crafted piece of psych-folk-pop that sounds like Donovan just rolled out of bed. The closing track Meditations on Christ and the Magi drifts along for several minuets of lush sitar drone with just the right touch of ambient noise thrown in. Feast of Blood finally brings an organ into the mix and the result is that variety that is greatly needed and the chorus “don’t be afraid of the feast of blood” happily juxtaposed against a lazy sunshine brigade of music.

Blood of the Sunworm has a great vibe to it, but so many of the tracks sound recycled versions of one another. Perhaps I’m just spoiled by the great variety of the Elephant 6 bands in the same vein that used three times as many instruments, but I was really expecting more (think Olivia Tremor Control). The band was created when “ Donaldson quickly invited multi-instrumentalist Shayde Sartin to ‘smoke marijuana & make up strange pop songs,’ and thus the band was born.”, and it’s a bummer when that’s all the band sounds like. The album has its gems, but those nuggets of bliss are sewn together with sadly forgettable psych-pop songs that are one step away from being great.

Deerhunter - Fluorescent Grey

(4.4/5.0)
Yo this song creeps me out, and so does the band. The singer is like 65 pounds and seven feet tall, he isn't even on herione or anything, but you wouldn't deny it after listening to his band's new EP. This song, same name as the EP, is fucking scary. It starts with this pensive piano loop, adds some bass drum, and then that 7 foot tall guy...Jesus these lyrics are fucking weird. I wouldn't be suprised if people would be turned off by them, i mean he is talking about a kid he knew in high school (a dude, yeah i know, homosexual references omg!) and about how he dreams alot about the kids body, a body that will, in his words "will be fluorescent grey". So the band is obsessed with Sex and Death, pretty cool. The song is aight, ?acoustic? guitars scurry over the piano loop, and then they talk about the kid being a god, oh FUCK, Then it hits 2:06: An insane psychedelic MBV-ish drone-ish something-ish things just ejaculates all over the track and it sounds oh so pretty. The vocals do that whole shoegazer thing, the drums play the same simple rhythm and it just rocks out for the rest of the track until it cools back down into the piano loop at about 4:15. Alright, so we have a song about kid's body decaying, and the singer says patiently alot, and there is that amazing psych break down that kind of sounds like what heaven should feel like. Anyway, this song is ill and i can't wait to see these dudes in NYC, they better play this song, and when that break down hits im prolly gonna be crying peacefully or banging my head against an amp. Whatever, Deerhunter have mad potential to be the next MBV/Sonic Youth/...fuck it they could be great.

The Passenger

5/5.

Sitting aboard Berlin's S-Bahn, Iggy Pop first penned the lyrics to "The Passenger". The instantly recognizable opening riff written by Ricky Gardiner is one of nostalgia. The feel of the song, both sound and word, is evocative of the things you've been through during your life. It's that perfect slideshow song without the oozing sap between each note. It taps into that sound and quality that's felt when you hear an acoustic version of a song that you used to rock out to - like damn this thing's got words to it? this sounds meaningful as shit? A lot of songs could be categorized as having that "great" lifelong quality to them - like they've got a certain experience to them - but most fall short of greatness, giving into that urge to make it too beautiful and perfect that there's no spirit to the thing - no room for interpretation - no imperfection. Perfection comes through in those cracks of a song that make them geniune - the production of it, the soul. The charm of Iggy's best and worst stuff (and there's been plenty of both) is that it really seems he doesn't know right from wrong. He can't tell if what he's making is shit or gold. Sometimes his spirit's work is ugly and sometimes its beautiful - but its always in its rawest form.

"The Passenger" came out in '77 on Iggy's solo work Lust for Life and it tells the despondent and nomadic tale of a punk outcast - the kid in the back of the car staring out the window watching everything pass him by - maybe he's speaking about himself. Historically 27 is the age to die a rock star, and Iggy was 30 when he put this out. He had survived the long haul and was around to tell everyone what it's like - especially for him, his punked and drugged lifestyle truly makes him an anomaly.

David Bowie originally sang back up on the now famous "la la la la la la la la" chorus which bleeds in melody with the hopefulness that maybe life does mean something. The song seems to be in a daze as it watches the quick minute of human life; it's searching for answers and all that anybody ever comes up with is the complacency of no answer, an idea and feeling only best put to song with "la la la la la la la la" - a fuck it, there is no answer. It's the satisfaction of living for living and that's it.

The beauty of the song is best seen and appreciated when you dig into some of Iggy's other work, whether it be horrendous recent effort The Weirdness with what was once the greatest punk outfit to ever leave Detroit - The Stooges with their just as close to perfect Fun House, or the perfectly raw and raunchy "Lust for Life", a song brought back to popularity by a recent Carvel cruise commercial - he is truely an artist, always true to what he feels.

"The Passenger" live is a mess of electric guitar and Iggy's terrible voice, but inevitably breaking through is the honesty and beauty of the song - it cant be put down. This song is his soul and art's moment of clarity. All of that punk ugliness finally realized and articulated in the most geniune and beautiful work he ever put to record.

Lonely Day

0.5/5 because it might make you laugh, and that'll make your day a little less lonely.
System of a Down really should have stuck to screaming, screeching, and throwing in that occasional Armenian flourish. When Daron Malakain decided he would write and sing his very own sensitive ballad the product was one of the most laughably bad songs of all time. It opens with some brooding electric guitar, can't be all that bad, and then it hits you: the nasally whine of Daron Malakian. It's okay System, you can try and cover your mistake by doing some anthem rocking in the choruses, you can throw in that fancy guitar work at the end, but nothing can save you from the unintentionally funny pits of those verses. Daron gets so worked up during the course of the song that he goes so far as to say that this day, which he assures us is "the most loneliest day of [his] life", "shouldn't exist", and that it is surely a day "[he will] never miss". "The most loneliest day of my life" has to be one of the most awkward choruses I've ever heard. But I think the real gold is in the second verse when Malakin tells us, in his own special nasal ways, that this day "Should be banned/ This day that I can't stand". We get it, you had a bad day, now go buy a thesaurus.

Half the hilarity is how serious these guys take this song, so for added kicks watch the music video which features the band in slow motion, and random crap on fire for no reason. What a lonely day.

Stereo

4.1/5.0: a fun song to listen to, but don’t expect any musical virtuosity

Pavement’s album Brighten the Corners begins with this opening track, dubbed “Stereo.” A guitar introduces itself over the first two measures, then carries over into a third before being interrupted by a interjection from the bass. Their sparse banter fuses together into an atmospheric dim as light drums fill out the rhythm section. Just under half a minute into the song, singer Stephen Malkmus (whom you may recognize from David Berman’s Silver Jews) starts his frolicking conversational verse. Malkmus rambles on about nonsensical whims and thoughts, happily speaking over fun melodies stolen from children’s songs until the second half of the chorus erupts in an explosion of distorted guitars; then the ephemeral ecstasy blends right back into a second verse, as the electric strings wail briefly about being cut short. “What about the voice of Geddy Lee? How did it get so high?” pontificates a pensive Malkmus; such are the thoughts of a person in the self-proclaimed limelight of your own stereo. A fun little instrumental bridge carries over to a third verse of more rhymed, alliterative rambling; then the chorus repeats, closing the song reminiscent of the high it gave the first time around. It’s Cake plus Jet, with some Danielson thrown in for kicks.

Street Waves

This song, by post-punk pioneers Pere Ubu is my favorite find of this year. Off of their classic debut The Modern Dance, this song literally enters my brain and throws molotov cocktails around and just pretty much shits on everything. The opening riff is just so classic, so simple, so evil. The drumming is the real highlight though, the cymbals tap out morse code for the insane while sparse toms add a whole other dimension to the rampage. The solo that comes in at 1:10 is awesome, its pure fire, with the bass flowing over the top of it like lava and the drums banging out that signature rhythm. And then its quiet..the bass keeps playing, some light picks from the guitar, the drummer slowly punching his way through, and that synth player making creepy halloween sounds. And then- BAM, Pere Ubu have come back and they are riding a 40 foot street wave into your house to make love to the weakest member of your family.
5.0/5.0
A classic.

Hold Up

4.9/5

My fav girl talk track currently. Startin off with a cluttered blend of james taylor and mariah carey samples it quickly becomes one of the most genius concotions greg gillis as put out to date since.. well ever. tracks ripped from and sampled include:

* 0:00 (4:48) Mariah Carey - "It's Like That"
* 0:00 (4:48) James Taylor - "Your Smiling Face"
* 0:12 (5:00) Ludacris - "Number One Spot"
* 0:21 (5:09) 50 Cent - "In Da Club"
* 0:21 (5:09) Timbaland - "Indian Flute"
* 0:32 (5:20) Pixies - "Where Is My Mind?"
* 0:40 (5:28) Young Gunz - "Can't Stop, Won't Stop"
* 0:43 (5:31) Nas, Puff Daddy - "Hate Me Now"
* 1:25 (6:13) Girl Talk - "Unnamed Original Track"
* 1:46 (6:34) D4L - "Laffy Taffy"
* 2:08 (6:56) Buckwheat Boys - "Peanut Butter Jelly Time"
* 2:28 (7:16) Weezer - "Say It Ain't So"

ever before Night Ripper he was experimental as shit, and hilarious at times ("the right stuff" off of secret diary). but here he becomes listenable at last, making him what i believe to be the future of music. everything is just recycled music anyway. he meddles in popular rap for a moment and then gets real. the "where is my mind" fluency followed by chopped up presentation of the same lick is triumphant especially when nas and sean combs come in and rip shit apart rapping underneath the fight club closer. the track really starts to kick the shit out of anybody trying to categorize his music when "laffy taffy" busts out over his almost recognizable original riff which then is chimed in by the track closer - one of the most instantly recognizable solos in indie rock (at least to me) - the best use weezer has been put to since.. just a reall fucken long time: say it ain't so. this is the track that legitimized girl talk for me. a thorough mind fuck.

Walkin' With Jesus

4.7/5

Anything about Jesus and written by the aptly named Spacemen 3, kings of psychedelic space rock, is sure to be great. With the floating organ that seems like it might just float off into space if it wasn't held down by a jaunty guitar riff. The two groove on while Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember appropriately talks of his walking with Jesus. Sure he was probably on heroin, but that doesen't mean you can't enjoy the finished product, and as Kember says "Long, long time between now and my death/ And I gotta have my fun so I've chosen what's best".

Madvillainy (9.1)

Madvillainy - Madvillain (2004, Stones Throw Records)
Average Score: 9.1 / 10

Schantz_
9.7 / 10

Madvillainy is the brainchild of MF DOOM and Madlib, two of today's hip-hop's finest. Madlib makes the beats, blending eerie samples of accordions, old superhero cartoons, fuzzy slow drums, and god knows what to make a captivating smoky den of sounds. This smoky sound perfectly complements MF DOOM's smoky voice. The rhymes are bizarre but flow with the same strange magic that Madlib's beats do.

It would be one thing if the rhymes and rhythms were just great, but on top of that the duo never falls into the trap of convention. There is never a predictable chorus/verse/chorus, or predictable moment at all. The end of songs will often flow into clips of old television programs, giving the album a thematic flow, but this technique is never overused. In one case Sun Ra is even sampled. The album could easily take itself too seriously, but they run the entire gamut from the serious, Curls, to the bizarre, Shadows of Tomorrow, to pure sound collage, The Illiest Villains, to flat-out novelty, America's Most Blunted. This is one of the few albums where each track seems to have something new to discover on each repeated listening. With tracks averaging only 2 minuets and there being 21, the album never has a stale moment. Many of the lyrics are playful, my favorite being: "Last wish, I wish I had two more wishes/ I wish they fixed the matrix's mad fridges/ spit so many rhymes sometimes my jaw twitches, one thing this party could use is more.../ booze"

All in all Madvillainy creates a damp basement of sounds, a slow moving flow that never gets old, an incredibly successful collaboration of two of today's finest.


KJ_
9.2 / 10

gave the album a couple of legit listens. after having been blown out the past few weeks from the intensity of P.O.S., i felt underwhelmed by this album in particular upon first exposure

however

upon melting myself into the choppy, never overplayed samples on Madvillainy i said to myself this is sick as SHIT. the collaboration of MF Doom and Madlib doesn't mean much to me at face value, but i can appreciate and respect this for what it is. the clash and their mixture works unbelievably well, especially on "raid" and "america's most blunted" - the antithesis of N.W.A.'s "express yourself".

it's got kind of a robert pollard feel to it given that for hip hop tracks, most of these end off in about 2 minutes tops. i also think it just adds to the power of the hooks within the 21 tracks on the record. most hiphop milks a sample/hook for all its worth, and on top of that it gets overplayed like SHIT on the radio (see "yeah" by Usher). Madvillainy is humble as shit with it's assets, and is compounded upon constantly - these tracks never see the light of radio am/fm.

except for "america's most blunted". its just too fucking clever.


H_
8.6 / 10

Madvillainy opens in what has come to be known as classic MF DOOM style: nostalgic commentary given over a smooth beat mixed in with distorted sound clips of movies, tasteful screaming, and light disc-jockeying. As always, DOOM’s lyrics are heavily influenced by the comic book universe, at least at first. The spoken introductory track provides a general foundation of evil characters and super (mad) villains in comic books. It’s all irrelevant, really, pertaining only to the name of the combination of MF DOOM and Madlib: Madvillain.

This 2004 release marked the true mainstream emergence of both DOOM and Madlib’s careers. Not to be caught up in the passé patented and formulaic structure of hip-hop that emerged as a result of the trend-heavy 1990’s and first decade of the new millennium, Madvillainy’s songs are mostly short, rambling compositions featuring DOOM’s quirky rhymes over beats that seem to be more background music than anything trying to steal the listener’s attention. The result is an utterly spiritual experience.

To you fans of the standardized rap form (see Jay-Z, Jedi Mind Tricks, etc) Madvillainy is not for you. You won’t hear DOOM spit pure fire or get down and dirty with Vinnie Paz, but you will get to hear something new. DOOM’s style isn’t hard hitting at all; in fact, it seems almost overwhelmingly evident after a few runs of the album that he and Madlib, in all likeliness, met stoned one day and decided, “Hey, lets record an album.” Scene: Madlib plays around with some beats, MF DOOM freestyles about nothing in particular for two minutes. Next track. Rinse and repeat. Add some random sound clips as an afterthought and mix in the unused beats as instrumentals, and boom: album.

Fortunately for far-reaching fans of music, the duo is remarkably good at what they do. DOOM’s rhymes seem frighteningly simple at first (and really, they are) but listening again only increases the meaning and connection of each track exponentially. DOOM connects with your soul, but you can’t explain why. Madlib’s beats aren’t extraordinarily special, at first; they won’t grab your attention. But as you’re listening, they don’t stand out as bad either. Each beat fits the mood and atmosphere of the overlaying vocals perfectly, and while listening to the album in its entirety may result in a feeling of bland and blasé, one can’t deny its minimally undulating and incapacitating flow. Halfway through the album, right about when “Operation Lifesaver” hits, one is decidedly compelled to inaction.

Maybe Madvillainy is what politicians are talking about when they say music is destroying America’s youth. Maybe that’s just Slipknot. Who knows? What I know Madvillainy to be is an album for the free-spirited. If you can get by DOOM’s downright plebeian singing ability on tracks like “Rainbows,” and just relax into the music, you will be overwhelmed by its ensnaring lull. But don’t expect any wicked guitar solos.

Tony_
9.0 / 10

Madvillain is a mind-fuck of an album. Try following Dooms lyrics while Madlib's blunted production drags you into the lower depths of insanity. Meat Grinder for example, does just what it promises, it grinds your brain into meat with some of the funkiest procussion to ever appear on a hip hop record, the song sports shakers, musical triangle? and congos and it doesn't even sound like an african tribal love song, it just bangs. On Meat Grinder Doom spits about China, and Midgets, and this one chick who is insane but still fine, then he talks about Alligators and then goes on to detail some sort of criminal exchange (in all quad flavors?). Anyway, the lyrics are almost impossible to understand-but thats the point. To judge the lyrics on their ability to make sense isn't an option with this album, becuae that would assume that Madlib and Doom even want to make sense, and they obviously dont. They just want to grind your brain into meat, and they do with a certain charm and soul that is pretty much unseen in the undie hip hop world. This album recieved countless nods for best indie rap, fuck it, indie anything record in 2004.
Doom is amazing, not just becuase of his actual rapping, which is a combination of obscure urban references about the color of NY license plates, to comic book characters, to weed, and pretty much everything and anything else. If you want to write about an MC, you need to give a good portrait of their persona, becuase that is such a huge part of being a rapper, you have to give the listener a clear understanding of who you are. Most rap records contain multiple little facts about the MC, for example, in a DMX or Jay-Z record it wouldn't be suprising to have like 4-5 songs that are strictly about specefic events that happened in either of their lives. Doom is the complete opposite, and the record fares much better for it. Doom comes across as a...well...Masked Villain, he is completely impossible to understand and speaks in some sort of code. Another way you could describe his persona is some sort of homeless wizard that takes you on a journey through the streets showing you all the little ins and outs of being completly insane and on drugs, and still ill as fuck on the mic.
'Lib's production is fantastic as always, but he really comes into his own on this album. He drops some straight up indie classics such as the heartbreaking/surreal as fuck Accordion. Strange Ways sounds like a hip hop banger filtered through about 40 feet of weed smoke. How do i even describe the genius of Curls? Figaro is one of the more menacing beats i've heard, along with Rainbows which sports some awesome singing from Doom warning one of his homeless mafia pals to watch his back in the streets, and then switches over to talking about why he drinks Drain-O. WTF! The little break down at 55 seconds is just sweet, Madlib sampled some crazy stuff for this record and every beat sounds nothing else.
The album ends on its jazziest note, with Doom talking about...fuck it, and Madlib laying down the illness as always and each beat sounds unlike anything else ever produced by lesser beat conductors. These Villains fucked shit up on this one.