Crate Digging
In an awesome super cool, damn you wish you were me, Friday night; I decided to dig through the ol’ record crates and come up with some albums that were criminally overlooked, or have been lost to history and should probably be rediscovered. Here is the list:
Modey Lemon - Season of Sweets: prior to the release of this record, the band released the “Birth of Jazz EP,” which featured a few 10+ minute psych rock epics. It was a difficult listen the first couple times through (although I grew to appreciated it over time), and I worried that the album would stear itself down the same path, which may make it pretentious and unlistenable. What I was pleasantly surprised to find was that the band managed to strike a balance between their garage rock roots, and their new psych rock leanings, further expanding the sound that they began to explore in their last full-length The Curious City.
Songs you need to know: “It Made You Dumb”; “Milk Mustache”; “Live Like Kids”
Here is a totally rad B side from their “Bucket of Butterflies” single - “We Move In Waves”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEsvrFj-GfQ&eurl=http://themodeylemon.com/news/[/youtube]
Cheap Time – S/T: An application of the mathematical transitive property to explain why I love this record.
Devon = In the Red Records
In the Red Records = Cheap Time
Therefore
Cheap Time = Devon
So yes, another stellar release by In the Red means that we have another 28 minutes of garage punk, this time with a snottier tinge to it. The secret about this record is that consecutive listens reveals more and more subtleties that make the record so gripping and engaging, rather than just another version of The Sonics run through whatever is hippest at the moment.
Songs you need to know: “People Talk”; “Push Your Luck”; “Trip to the Zoo”
El-P – I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead: as far as I am concerned, this man is hip-hop royalty on par with Run DMC, Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, Pete Rock, Native Tongues, etc. The fact is that Rawkus would not have had its success in the late 90’s were it not for Company Flow’s The Cold Vein. What made the Company Flow record so great? Probably El-P’s apocalyptic sounding production. So Co-Flow went their separate ways, and a few years later, El-P released an album with the even more celebrated Cannibal Ox. So from there, the much hyped and celebrated Fantastic Damage. Then, nothing, years and years of nothing. It was painful. Finally I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead Drops and NOTHING. This should have been treated as the second coming of Christ. It is really an amazing record, because if you can manage to put Cat Power and Trent Reznor on a hip-hop record and not have it sound miserable, then the only thing left for it to be is amazing. El-P is offering us another slice of his dystopian view of the future/present, and it is brilliant.
Songs to know: “Tasmanian Pain Coaster”; “The Overly Dramatic Truth”; “Smithereens” (let’s be honest they are all crucial).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNJFq6VjHJI[/youtube]
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