This week’s music releases were refreshingly eclectic… or maybe I just chose to be very liberal with my music listening. Google “rap releases February 2013” and you will be pleasantly surprised is something I learned this week. To find out what rap release I’m talking about check out Czarface below! As always, click on the album covers to listen on Spotify. Trust me, you don’t want to sleep on this week’s releases.
Listen:
Album of the week definitely goes to Lady Lamb the Beekeeper’s folk-inspired Ripely Pine. Whenever I was getting comfortable with a song, Aly Spaltro would almost start yelling lyrics or very obviously get lost in her own songs. It was very cool to listen to a nearly unhinged perfomance on a recording. I can only imagine what her live shows are like. Definitely check out “Hair to the Ferris Wheel” and “Florence Berlin” but this whole album is a keeper.
As I said before, I simply googled “rap releases February 2013” and stumbled across Czarface. Czarface’s Inspectah Deck + 7L & Esoteric = CZARFACE is a collaborative effort between (who else) Inspectah Deck from Wu-Tang Clan and some dudes from Boston named 7L and Esoteric. Maybe I should know who they are but I don’t. I’m not going to pretend to be a rap genius here. Anyway, the beats, the rhymes, and the weird superhero samples all point to something that I would enjoy. Basically, they point to something anyway who loves 90s rap would enjoy. Also, “Hazmat Rap” is so fucking boom bap it almost hurts that its not 1999.
Iceage’s You’re Nothing arrived to much fanfare. I love “Ecstasy” and “Morals” among other tracks. As a fan of No Age, another noise punk band, I really enjoyed most of the album. It just doesn’t seem like something I’ll listen to often. Something about You’re Nothing makes it less cohesive for me than I’d want it to be. I’ll also admit that I’d probably enjoy listening to this live more than in my bedroom or riding on the train. The album just screams for a session of thrashing and moshing with no abandon.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ Push the Sky Away shows Nick Cave is aging well. It’s almost like he’s becoming Leonard Cohen, especially on “Wide Lovely Eyes” and “Higgs Boson Blues”. Also, he talks about Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus? If I were Miley Cyrus, I’d be peeing my pants in joy that Nick Cave knows I exist, just saying.
Miracles of Modern Science released their EP Meems this week. It’s pretty great, these dudes know how to play some strings!
The Men released another single from their upcoming Twilight. They keep exploring different genres, which is really exciting for a punk band to do. The Crazy Horse-ish “I Saw Her Face” is available to listen to here.
Watch:
HAIM’s video for “Falling” is straight out of the 70s. I mostly just want to know where it was recorded because that place looks beautiful.
Gucci Mane is the TRUE TRAP GOD y’all.
I didn’t know what the “Harlem Shake” meme was about (I knew it existed) until someone emailed me a video so I went ahead and opened it. I wish I could go back to my life pre-watching that. Colorlines has an interesting take on what the meme means to hip hop and the real Harlem Shake. Also the “Harlem Shake” done by the Totally Biased crew is definitely the best I’ve seen. Check it out at the end of the article.
Did you watch Life Is But A Dream? What’d you think? I thought it was kind of boring to be honest. Totally worth it to watch Jay-Z and Beyonce sing Coldplay’s “Yellow” to each other, though! Here’s a thing on it.
Random Nostalgia:
Never forget!
