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May
17th

Thu

Pharcyde
“Otha Fish”

SlimKid3’s performance on “Otha Fish” is one of the best I’ve ever heard on a hip-hop record; virtuoso in its technique, original in its style, and overflowing with raw emotion and bitter wit. He delivers all three verses with a cadence that slips gracefully between rapping and singing, the intricate lines twisting and twirling around a fluid beat, but never winding itself too tight. The third verse is perfection, a stream of brilliant lines - “Now, if there ain’t no mountain high enough, why ain’t you climbin up?,” “I slipped and I tripped into a shoe that didn’t fit” - that tumble out with increasing urgency. There’s something particularly compelling about the way he utters the phrase “Elizabeth, this is it,” as though it marks the song’s precise breaking point. Through the whole track, he’s right on the edge of falling out of love, but with that line, the feelings are turned off like a light switch.

(Originally posted on 8/24/2011. Check out Eric Harvey’s review of the new Pharcyde box set on Pitchfork.)

(Source: youtube.com)

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Hannibal Buress imagines Young Jeezy as a real estate agent.

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May
16th

Wed

Owen Pallett
“Midnight Directives”
Live on CBC Radio 2, 2011

I love the way loop pedals in the hands of a skilled musician can make a solo performance seem like an elaborate magic trick. It’s a whole new sort of showmanship, you know? This song never stops blowing me away - this is a pretty mellow, low key version of it, but that “a man can be bought and a man can be sold and the price of a thousand unwatered souls” never fails to resonate deeply in me in ways I’m not sure I really understand.

(Source: youtube.com)

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Electric Six
“Psychic Visions”

“Psychic Visions,” the opening track on the Heartwaves and Brainwaves, is delightfully seedy – it’s like “Nightclubbing” cut with “Personal Jesus,” with Valentine’s hyper-masculine voice taking on a weathered, resigned tone. He sounds defeated but bemused by the world around him, and when he sings about psychics and tarot cards, you can hear the pessimism in his voice, but also a willingness to play along with other people’s banal eccentricities, if just for a brief distraction. (Originally posted 10/5/2011)

(Source: youtube.com)

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May
15th

Tue

I interviewed the German cartoonist Arne Bellestorf about his new book Baby’s in Black, which tells the story of the courtship of Astrid Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe in the Beatles’ Hamburg period. Also, there is an 8 page excerpt. Bellestorf’s art is amazing.

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Hot Chip Ease Into Joyful New Album

I interviewed three out of the five guys from Hot Chip a while back, and the article went up yesterday. It’s maybe a little dry at the start, but I liked the bit where they were talking about what people ask for when they DJ.

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May
14th

Mon

Pavement
“We Dance”

I got a pretty bad shock to the system today, and I’ve been trying to process it. I think I’m starting to weed out all the most negative responses and fears that come with being forced to change and face a new challenge with optimism and faith that things will turn out great if I work hard. But still, I am left thinking of the way Stephen Malkmus sings “I don’t have a clue anymore” in this song. Right now, at this point in this often painfully emotional day, that’s exactly how I feel.

(Source: youtube.com)

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May
11th

Fri

Michael Stipe talks to Tumblr’s storyboard about life after R.E.M., his sculpture work and his eccentric and interesting personal Tumblr. Um, and my name happens to pop up in this thing!

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May
10th

Thu

Owen Pallett
“Odessa”
Live in Paris, 2011

Pallett’s arrangement for this Caribou song sacrifices some of the deep bass feeling from the original recording, but is far more exciting and evocative in its discordant string parts and general atmosphere. Also, this is a great showcase for Pallett’s voice, which is a remarkable and underrated aspect of his music.

(Source: youtube.com)

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Owen Pallett made a string arrangement for Sloan’s classic song “People of the Sky.” This has been up for a solid year now, but I’m only just getting to it today because I woke up with the song in my head.

(Source: youtube.com)

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May
9th

Wed

Florence and the Machine Stumble at Radio City Music Hall

I reviewed last night’s Florence show. I like this band a lot and was pretty much blown away when I saw their MTV Unplugged taping, but this set was messed up by weird pacing, terrible lighting and a drummer who cluttered their best songs with plodding beats. I think I was more into the Unplugged show because they toned down the arrangements and carved out more space in the music for her voice, which is pretty amazing.

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I’m not sure why [Tom Gabel] wanted to do it in exactly this way, but I think she wanted to not have a thousand conversations with people. This was a way to push herself a little. She said that so many times she’d make a goal to tell her wife Heather or the band, and she’d make excuses and put it off. This was setting up a deadline for herself. She knew this would come out at the beginning of May. Also, she just wanted to have something she could point people towards. Instead of having people e-mail and call over and over, she could just say, “This article explains everything and after that we can talk.” It was a good way to get the news out all at once.

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Inside Transgender Singer Tom Gabel’s Rolling Stone Interview | Music News | Rolling Stone

Josh Eells talks about interviewing Tom Gabel, and why she chose to come out in this article before speaking to friends, family and collaborators. Eells did an amazing job with this article – between this and his recent Jack White story in the New York Times Magazine, I’d say he’s probably the best pop culture feature writer in the business at this moment.

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This is the only Kitty Pryde that matters. (Illustration by Bryan Lee O’Malley)

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I wrote about Felix’s very good new album Oh Holy Molar for Pitchfork. Coincidentally, my review also deals with issues of assumed autobiography in music. This live video session only includes one song from the new record, but it’s a very good song.

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Against Me!
“The Ocean”
Live for Spinner, 2008

Against Me! singer Tom Gabel has come out as transgender in a fascinating and moving article by Josh Eells in the new issue of Rolling Stone. I wrote a piece on Fluxblog about this song, in which Gabel plainly sings about her feelings of gender dysphoria. Up until this news came out last night, virtually no one in Gabel’s life or audience thought much of it. My post is about how we sometimes have no idea when an artist is telling you their truth in a song.

(Source: youtube.com)

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