Crib Notes

(Photo by Alexander Wagner)

Yeasayer, who is playing tonight at the Earl, is the first indie-rock band I’ve gotten excited about in a long time. (OK, the first one in a few months.) I’ve been down on indie-rock recently — like many music fans, I’ve gotten sick of the “emperor’s new clothes” mentality that seems to elevate mediocre bands to unparalleled heights of blog buzz. Yeasayer’s All Hour Cymbals isn’t stunningly original, and when you hear it you’ll immediately think of Animal Collective’s avant-folk-pop cataclysm. But Yeasayer has a strong sense of melody and songwriting that its peers often lack.

There are a handful of songs on All Hour Cymbals that I’ve played over and over again, like “Sunrise” and “2080.” You can download MP3s for both from Yeasayer’s website, and then try to cram into the Earl tonight before the show sells out (if it hasn’t already).

Bookmark to:

As the snowflakes flutter upon the city, my thoughts turn to a favorite documentary from recent months: Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who.

Imaginatively, the two-and-a-half-hour Amazing Journey splits the Who’s entire career into a double LP, from its origins as a rhythm-and-blues cover band in early ’60s England to its never-ending reunion tours in the ’90s and today, with each track on the vinyl marking a separate section of its history. I’ve heard many of the band’s classics — who doesn’t own a copy of Who’s Next and Live at Leeds? But I never realized how many great songs the group had until seeing the film, which is impressively directed by Murray Lerner (best-known for Festival, a 1967 Oscar-nominated documentary about the Newport Folk Festival).

VH-1 Classic showed Amazing Journey commercial-free last November, just before it was released on DVD. It has continued to show it occasionally, and I’ve watched it several times since. I tried to find out when the channel would show it again, but the site was too difficult to navigate. So you’ll just have to look out for it, I guess. In the meantime, you can view a trailer on the Amazing Journey website.

Bookmark to:

When word got out that Rodney “Rocko Da Don” Hill, R&B singer Monica’s ornery boyfriend, snagged a deal with Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def imprint, most people laughed at him. And when Rocko dropped a none-too-subtle ode to his fabulousness, “Umma Do Me,” most people laughed at him again.

But it looks like Rocko’s getting the last laugh. “Umma Do Me” has been in heavy rotation on Atlanta’s radio stations and in its hip-hop clubs since last fall. DJs like spinning it because its mock-epic track, produced by Drumma Boy, blends nicely with Balis’ beat for Shawty Lo’s “Dey Know.” Its repetitive hook — “Hey, umma do me” — manages to stick in your brain without getting on your nerves.

Next up: Rocko’s debut album, Self Made, which is tentatively scheduled to drop in March on Def Jam. I’m not expecting much — these out-of-the-blue new jacks have proven to be more one-hit wonders than career artists with great debut albums. Perhaps he’ll surprise us.

Bookmark to:

If Van Hunt’s e-mail interview with Rodney Carmichael last year was any indication, it seems like there’s no love lost when Van Hunt moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles a few years ago. But many of his fans in the city still have love for him. We were eagerly anticipating the release of his third album, Popular, on Blue Note/EMI today.

It looks like we might have to wait indefinitely. According to a post on Van Hunt’s MySpace page, the album has been shelved. Since he doesn’t currently have rights to the masters, it could potentially never see a legitimate release. It looks like Van Hunt might have to pull a Killer Mike and offer it as a free download — which is a shame, since his work deserves more consideration and respect than an Internet free-for-all bootleg.

Unfortunately, it’s not hard to see why Popular isn’t coming out. EMI just got bought by a private equity firm and is about to lay off 2,000 employees, and it’s suffering defections from its biggest stars. The company increasingly looks like a liquidation/bankruptcy candidate, and isn’t going to waste money on a guy who has never had a hit record. But if anyone deserves Meshell Ndegeocello “favored nation” status — i.e., someone who gets to drop albums despite never going gold or platinum — it’s Van Hunt.

Below is an excerpt from Van Hunt’s MySpace post.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

Of all the albums mentioned on CL’s list of the best Atlanta albums of 2007, Nerd Parade’s A Delicate Bashing is probably the least known. But, as I wrote in CL’s May 9, 2007, issue, it’s a delightful indie-pop affair worth seeking out. And if you listen to the album and like it, then maybe you can join the band.

Earlier today, Nerd Parade sent out a MySpace bulletin announcing that it’s looking for a fifth member. Hipsters need not apply; nerds are more than welcome. Below you’ll find an excerpt from the bulletin; contact the band for more details. For the rest of us non-musicians, there’s the band’s upcoming gig on Tuesday, Jan. 22, at Smith’s Olde Bar to look forward to.

Seriously, we are looking for a 5th member.

 

Us: Well traveled, album in the bag, another in progress, signed, merchandise, videos, the whole deal. Serious about music but never taking ourselves too seriously. We’ve played at every club in town. We tour, we gig local, we hang out as friends.

 

You: Play guitar, keys, or both, have all your sh*t together, no bad habits, no bad attitude, smart, not a mercenary, not a ball hog, good gear, passable health, not fundamentalist or conservative in any way, don’t look like a piece of trash littering the music scene, can laugh at that, can play your f*cking ass off.

Bookmark to:

While you’re listening to the podcast Supreeme recorded with Music Editor Rodney Carmichael, download Cruz Control Vol. 1. It’s a mix from Tom Cruz that previews his upcoming Sloppy Seconds appearance Saturday, Jan. 12, at MJQ, and blends Birdman’s “1,000,000 Ones,” Shawty Lo’s “Dey Know” and random esoterica. You can download the mix here.

Bookmark to:

Dem Franchize Boyz, the Bankhead crew that helped turn “snap-trap rap” into an epithet, is coming back. How could a group both celebrated and derided as a one-hit wonder (actually, two-hit wonder) get a second shot at pop omniscience? “I Think They Like Me,” its breakthrough single, is certified platinum, and “Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It” is certified gold. Its debut album, On Top of Our Game, went gold, too.

So here comes Dem Franchize again with Da Point of No Return, which drops March 25 on Capitol Records. I like a decent “snap-trap” song as much as the next guy, but the album’s first single, “Talkin’ Out Da Side of Ya Neck!” is really annoying. You can hear it on the group’s MySpace page.

Bookmark to:

THEY DON’T CALL HIM A VILLAIN FOR NOTHING: The real MF Doom…maybe

(Photo by Dwayne C. Bass)

If you haven’t read it yet, check out Ben Westoff’s solid piece in this week’s issue of CL on the “Doom-bot” controversy. He recounts the MF Doom concert disaster at MJQ last December, which drew a lot of Internet attention. And Atlanta fans shouldn’t feel alone in their anger. According to several entries on the Stones Throw bulletin board, it appears that MF Doom pulled the same stunt during a New Year’s Eve show in Los Angeles. The super-villain strikes again.

Bookmark to:

Today, rock ‘n’ roll sacred cow Radiohead cryptically announced the cities that will be blessed by its presence on its upcoming In Rainbows tour. And one of those towns includes Atlanta. There were no dates or venues mentioned, just the names of the cities. How lovely.

As you can tell by my sarcastic tone, I’ve never been a huge Radiohead fan. I think the band’s albums are OK, but it’s just never been my type of critical fruitcake, I guess. But the band puts on a mind-blowing live concert. I saw the band back in 2004 on its Hail to the Thief tour, and it was utterly amazing, one of the best arena shows I have ever seen. In fact, I had sworn off arena shows for many years, writing them off as impersonal and alienating, but Radiohead reconverted me to the experience of hearing great music amid a sea of thousands.

So yeah, when Radiohead finally announces a show date and venue, and if you can get yourself a ticket, then you should definitely go.

Bookmark to:

Remember Ghetto Extraordinary, that Killer Mike album that was supposed to come out on Columbia Records in 2005? (This was before Purple Ribbon, beef with Big Boi, etc.) Well, hip-hop site HipHopDX.com is offering the album as a free download. It features beats from Andre 3000 and Three 6 Mafia, and guest shots from 8Ball & MJG, Big Boi and Jagged Edge, among others.

Ghetto Extraordinary serves as an appetizer for the new Killer Mike album, I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind Part. 2, which is due in March. The Southern version of Ice Cube (the Amerikkka’s Most Wanted Cube, not the suburban klutz from Are We There Yet?) signed a deal with SMC last fall, a West Coast label best-known for launching California rappers such as Keak da Sneak and Mistah F.A.B. But for now, thanks to the ever-increasing lawlessness of the Internet, what once would have either sat on EMI’s archive shelves for eternity or sold for $80 at record-collectors conventions is available for everyone to enjoy.

You can download Ghetto Extraordinary here.

Bookmark to:

Remember last year when the Athens-based jokesters at Chunklet magazine sponsored a concert featuring the Selmanaires, Deerhunter, Carbonas and the Coathangers at Whirlyball Atlanta — and sold tickets in the form of a 7-inch single featuring said artists? It was a genius idea so good that they’re doing it all over again. On Saturday, Jan. 19, the Black Lips, Gentleman Jesse & His Men, the Baby Shakes and Coffin Bound will congregate at Whirlyball. And yes, the only way you can get in is by purchasing a 7-inch vinyl disc showcasing these great bands.

You can only buy a ticket/record at Criminal Records for $10. That might be a bit expensive for a 7-inch single, but not if you consider how much you’ll be able to sell the soon-to-be collector’s item on eBay.com years from now.

Bookmark to:

YEAR OF THE RINGTONE RAPPER: Yes, it’s Soulja Boy again.

(Photo by D. Hill)

SoundScan, the technology that tracks music sales, released its final numbers for 2007. The good news is, contrary to popular belief, the recording industry sold more units — CDs, vinyl, digital downloads, ringtones, etc. — than ever before. Consumers made 1.4 billion music purchases, an increase from 1.2 billion in 2006. The bad news is that fewer of those purchases include full-length CDs: Album sales plummeted 15 percent.

As previously noted, 2007 was something of an off-year for Atlanta’s music industry. No local artist landed an album in the year-end top 10, not even T.I. with his platinum-certified T.I. vs. T.I.P. Teenage pop-rap phenom Soulja Boy’s “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” was the year’s best-selling digital song, however. Plus, “Crank That,” Shop Boyz’s “Party Like a Rock Star” and Akon’s “Don’t Matter” all landed on the top 10 mastertone ringtones list. (To learn more about mastertone ringtones, check out the Wikipedia entry on Truetone.)

Here are the lists for 2007’s best-selling albums, digital songs and mastertone ringtones.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

\

(Photo taken from IGN.com)

Next month, Andre 3000 will issue … a new OutKast album? No, it’s another Hollywood confection. If you thought Four Brothers was frothy, check out Semi-Pro, a Will Farrell movie that parodies the American Basketball Association league of the ’70s. Andre Benjamin plays Clarence Coffee Black, a baller of Julius Erving proportions. The screenplay comes from Scot Armstrong, who wrote the popcorn classic Old School. Semi-Pro hits theaters on Feb. 29. Check out the trailer below.

Bookmark to:

(Illustration taken from Klever’s MySpace page)

Turntablist extraordinaire DJ Klever has just unveiled a fresh 30-minute workout, “The Ski Mask Way.” Living up to its title, Klever takes a Serato-strength hacksaw to dance floor favorites such as Lil Jon’s “Snap Yo Fingers,” Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” — yikes — and sundry electro-house beats. You can download it at www.myspace.com/kleverbeats.

Bookmark to:

A few days ago, R.E.M. announced its new album, Accelerate. It’s the band’s first disc of original material in more than three years and is scheduled to hit shelves April 1.

For a while, the big news surrounding its release was that founding drummer Bill Berry would return for R.E.M.’s tour. Paste magazine reported that rumor; but then it subsequently retracted it. However, fans can look forward to music that is considerably more lively than the sonorous sound of past efforts. Here’s what Michael Stipe told British culture magazine Uncut — which was excerpted on a Billboard.com news item:

“I feel like there’s a confidence in the material, and a communication between the three of us that hasn’t been there for some time,” frontman Michael Stipe told Uncut. “We didn’t talk to each other for a couple of records — as friends or as bandmates. And we reached a point before this LP where we just sat down at a table and hashed it out.”

Bookmark to:

The music industry is going ape shit over Keri Hilson, the young songwriter who absolutely set off Timbaland’s electro-urban “The Way I Are” hit. This month, she’s featured on the cover of the Fader. (She’s the woman on the left; the lady on the right is the equally awesome Brooklyn artist Santogold.) And although no one has heard her upcoming album, In a Perfect World, many expect it to be as fabulous as “The Way I Are.”

The 25-year-old Hilson got her start as a member of Atlanta songwriting crew the Clutch (more on the Clutch very soon). Here’s what MTV.com wrote about her in a news story July 2, 2007:

While on deck for her solo turn, Hilson has been writing prolifically. Either on her own or as part of the five-person songwriting/production team the Clutch, Hilson has penned tunes for Britney Spears, the Pussycat Dolls, Diddy, Ciara, Usher, Chris Brown, Mary J. Blige, Ruben Studdard, Ludacris (”Runaway Love”) and Omarion (”Ice Box”).

“The Clutch is a new thing, it’s still a baby,” she said. “We are responsible for some major hits: ‘Ice Box,’ ‘Take Me as I Am,’ ‘The Way I Are,’ so many. ‘Anonymous’ by Bobby Valentino, a whole bunch of new artists. Beyoncé … the Clutch is everywhere. Co-writing makes it a lot faster, and you’re more open to other ideas. It opens you up creatively. Everyone brings more color to a certain situation, to a certain song, [which] makes it a lot easier. Sometimes we take it section by section or line by line — it’s fun either way. Work is play for us.”

Meanwhile, the Fader story calls Hilson part of Timbaland’s “Black Pop 2.0″ movement — with 1.0 being the Missy Elliott/Aaliyah/Ginuwine explosion of the late ’90s.

Hilson is a black princess from the upwardly mobile mindstate of Atlanta, and her dad is a real estate mogul who happens to own the subdivision where Akon lives. By her own description, a straight R&B chick more likely to be listening to Groove Theory or Babyface than anything current, her soul nevertheless has a futurist musical and emotional timbre; that computer love thing that connects her with Danja and makes her sound like a logical progression of Timbaland’s urban new wave.

You can download a free PDF copy of the Fader at TheFader.com.

Bookmark to:

Happy New Year! I just got back from a much-needed vacation, so I didn’t get a chance to share my favorite albums of 2007. So here’s my very rough list of several standouts. It’s a small sampling of the 200-300 albums I listened to — and that might be a conservative estimate. See you in ’08.

• Paul Weller, Hit Parade (Yep Roc)
• Lily Allen, Alright, Still (Capitol)
• Deerhunter, Cryptograms (Kranky)
• Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Fill the Heart Shaped Cup (Alpha Pup)
• El-P, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead (Definitive Jux)
• Lifesavas, Gutterfly: The Original Soundtrack (Quannum)
• Apples in Stereo, New Magnetic Wonder (Yep Roc)
• Battles, Mirrored (Warp)
• Feist, The Reminder (Cherry Tree/Interscope)
• The Cat Empire (Velour)
• Von Sudenfed, Tromatic Reflexxions (Domino)
• Simian Mobile Disco, Attack Decay Sustain Release (Interscope)
• Yesterdays Universe, Prepare for a New Yesterday (Volume One) (Stones Throw)
• Panda Bear, Person Pitch (Paw Tracks)
• Lavender Diamond, Imagine Our Love (Matador)
• Anthony Hamilton, Southern Comfort (Merovingian)
• Lawrence, Lowlights from the Past and Future (Mule)
• Amy Winehouse, Back to Black (Universal Republic)
• Digitalism, Idealism (Astralwerks)
• Rob Crow, Living Well (Temporary Residence)
• Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation (reissue) (Geffen)
• The Good, the Bad & the Queen (Virgin)
• Caribou, Andorra (Merge)
• The Rurals, The Grass Is Always Greener (Peng!)
• Booka Shade, DJ-Kicks (!K7)
• Prefuse 73, Preparations (Warp)
• Little Brother, Getback (ABB)
• PJ Harvey, White Chalk (Island)
• Shape of Broad Minds, Craft of the Lost Art (Lex)
• Henrik Schwarz, Live (!K7)
• M.I.A., Kala (Interscope)
• Dimlite, This Is Embracing (Sonar Kollektiv)
• Beans, Thorns (Adored & Exploited)
• Black Lips, Good Bad Not Evil (Vice)
• The Field, From Here We Go Sublime (Kompakt)
• Panacea, The Scenic Route (Glow-in-the-Dark)
• Habersham, Outside the Box EP (Audio Therapy)
• Saul Williams, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust! (self-released)
• Supermayer, Save the World (Kompakt)
• Talib Kweli and Madlib, Liberation (Blacksmith)
• Ellen Allien, Time Out Presents the Other Side Berlin (Deaf Dumb & Blind)
• Meshell Ndegeocello, The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams (Universal)
• Prodigy, Return of the Mac (Koch)
• Pattie Blingh and the Akebulan 5, Sagala (Ramp)

Bookmark to:

While the world waits for Lil Jon’s long-delayed Crunk Rock, the dreadlocked producer/barker has seemingly embarked on a career as a comedian. Several days ago, I told you about a claymation cartoon that featured his distinctively crusty voice. Now he has a cartoon series, “Lil Jon’s A’Town,” that debuts New Year’s Eve on Funnyordie.com, a comedy site produced by Gary Sanchez Productions, a company owned by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy. “Lil Jon’s A’Town”? I’m laughing already.

According to a post on Wooohah.com, the show will be posted on both Funnyordie.com and, in case you don’t feel like wading through dozens of skits featuring Judd Apatow and Ted Danson, Lil Jon’s MySpace page. For a preview, check out “Terminal Bling,” a skit he recently made for the site.

Bookmark to:

Well, it’s the day after Christmas, and I hope you got all the presents you wanted. Certainly everyone got one nice surprise yesterday — a new video missive from T.I.

As the world knows, T.I.’s first public statements after his arrest came in the form of a video message posted Nov. 13 on Streetcred.com, an Atlanta-based multimedia and social-networking site he reportedly owns, according to an MTV.com story. In the new message, which was posted Monday, Dec. 24, he thanks his fans for their support as he stands by a massive Christmas tree. “Stay focused on what you got to do. Don’t worry about me, man. Find something else to worry about, Holmes. God got me covered.” He also talks about his kids, the new album Paper Trail – which he says is 30 percent done — and rumors surrounding his Grand Hustle family.

T.I. ends by saying, “Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Have a safe New Year’s, on behalf of the king himself and Grand Hustle. Keep it pimpin’.”

Bookmark to:

CAFÉ TACUBA LAST THURSDAY AT MASQUERADE: One of the band’s less-enthusiastic fans

(photo by Joeff Davis)

Even by the Masquerade’s high standards, the audience at Mexican quartet Café Tacuba’s one-night stand last Thursday was wildly enthusiastic. From dancing and cheering loudly for more than two hours, to rushing the stage, grabbing the microphone and shouting out lyrics while lead singer Ruben Ortega smiled approvingly, the band’s audience proved its devotion for all things Tacuba.

The Mexican quartet didn’t disappoint, either, offering up a poptastic mash embracing alternative rock, ska and punk, while referencing Depeche Mode’s “Policy of Truth” and the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.” The band’s only misstep: not setting up a merchandise table so fans could buy T-shirts and copies of its new CD, Sino. It would have made a killing that night.

Bookmark to: