Can you squeeze me into an empty page of your diary?
Well hello again, everybody. Welcome to Flatbasset Radio: Episode #118!
That's right, folks, it's Flatbasset Friday and oh boy to I have a show lined up for you. It's been a crazy week here in snowy Minneapolis, but it's Friday and I was dead set on getting this show to all my loyal listeners (hi, Mom!).
This week's episode is stuffed to the gills with jams and banter. Lots of things to say about the stuff (or, conversely, stuff to say about the things). Along the way I tell a story about my terrible apartment building, build a bridge between Flatbasset Radio & Disney (finally!), spotlight an artist who spent some time in the margins of a past episode, find the Twin Cities answer to The Dandy Warhols, spend some time with angry Canadians, spend some time with handsome Canadians, take a peek under the hood of one of my local groups, and spotlight a bunch of great upcoming shows. Along the way we take a dive into Nate's Archives, check out the Cover Of The Week, take a trip in the Minnesota Way-Back Machine, and, as always, revisit an absolutely stellar Flatbasset Flatclassic.
As always, Flatbasset Radio is completely free. I've finally set up a
decent downloading site, so if you'd like to download Flatbasset Radio:
Episode #118 (with all the appropriate iTunes tagging), just click here.
Here's how Episode #118 plays out:
01. Porcupine - Witness To A Chase Scene
02. Why? - One Mississippi
03. Aby Wolf - Movin In
04. Ryan Adams - Karma Police
05. Propagandhi - Less Talk, More Rock
06. MMYYKK - Nala
07. Double Grave - Nü
08. Faux Jean - Hey!
09. Caribou - Sinuses
10. A Grave With No Name - Hot Blood
11. Early Eyes - Sunrise
12. Morrissey - Hairdresser On Fire
Beats by Phatnumber
Flatbasset Radio Artwork by Ross Auger
Thanks for listening!
For more of my rantings you can give me a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma). Previous episodes of Flatbasset Radio are
archived on my Mixcloud page. Stop by Flatbasset Radio's Facebook Page & give it a "Like" if you have the time.
Well hello again, podcast fans! Welcome to a very special episode of Flatbasset Radio!
Folks, it's a big day here in beautiful Minneapolis. Rhymesayers Entertainment, pillar of the local music community and the national hip-hop world, is celebrating their 20th anniversary with a big ass show down at the Target Center. It's a celebration, bitches!
As a tribute to all the hard work the label's done over the years, I decided to put together a show celebrating some of my absolute favorites RSE artists. It was a tough show to do, many great songs were left off, but that's a testament to the job they've done over the years. RSE keeps their quality control on point.
So, in this week's show I talk a lot about the importance of the label for all kinds of reasons. Rhymesayers isn't just about the music. In addition to playing the jams I discuss the importance of Rhymesayers as a part of the community, an example of the spirit of independence that runs throughout the midwest, and a testament to the fact that hard work & a belief in the goal can go a long way. Even if you're not a hip-hop fan, it's indisputable that the label's success has provided a blueprint for independent businesses throughout the Twin Cities. It's provided a beacon in a city that prides itself on an independent streak that was burning before RSE existed and will continue to burn after it's gone. Rhymesayers Entertainment is both an institution itself an inextricable link in the chain of the Twin Cities history.
Of course, at its core, it's built on the jams. Kick back and enjoy!
As always, Flatbasset Radio is completely free. Just click the Mixcloud player below and you're good to go.
For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma). Previous episodes of Flatbasset Radio are
archived on his Mixcloud page. Stop by Flatbasset Radio's Facebook Page & give it a "Like" if you have the time.
(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)
Night Beds, Adam Green & Binki
Shapiro, Thao With The Get Down, Stay Down, Eels, & Aby Wolf...
Well hello again, MP3 junkies!
Welcome to Songs Of The Week #27!
For those of you who remain
unfamiliar with the column, here's how it works. Each week we ask
two of our regular contributors to download the songs given away via
The Current's Song Of The Day podcast. They spend a few days with
the songs and then give us their takes. Each song is then given a
score from 0-5.
As always, we strongly recommend
that you click here and subscribe to the podcast yourself. It's free
music and playing along at home is fun for the whole family!
To that end, we've posted a poll to
the right side of the page. Please vote for whichever was your
favorite song. At the end of the week we tally up the votes and the
winner is rewarded with the sense of validation that can only come
from anonymous internet polls, which his the highest civilian honor
America can give out.
As has been the case for the last
few weeks (and remains the case this week), TCDroogsma will be
tackling these songs solo dolo. Unfortunately we still haven't been
able to find a cohort. If only their were more judgmental music fans
who like seeing their name on the internet out there...
So, now that that's out of the way,
let's get into it. Droogsy, thoughts?
01. Night
Beds – Ramona (from the album Country Sleep)
TCDroogsma:
Remember that Ryan Adams album Gold?Night Beds sure do!
"Ramona" isn't a bad song, but there is absolutely nothing new going on here. If you enjoy alt-country, you will like this song. If you don't, "Ramona" is background music. As someone who likes Ryan Adams and is on speaking terms with alt-country, I can't say this song does anything for me.
Final Score: 2/5
02. Adam Green &
Binki Shapiro – Just To Make Me Feel Good (from the album Adam
Green & Binki Shapiro)
TCDroogsma:
While I'm not (and never was) a Moldy Peaches fan, it was pretty clear with that group that their appeal was rooted in Kimya Dawson's charm and their ramshackle performance/recording style. I don't say that to diminish Adam Green's contributions to the group. For all know he was the brains behind the whole operation. Frankly, I never cared enough to dig deeper.
With "Just To Make Me Feel Good," we find Adam Green returning to the boy/girl format of The Moldy Peaches, but without either of those two calling cards. Green does a pretty fine job of channeling his inner Stephen Merritt, remaining mostly deadpan while Binki Shapiro gives the song color. Still, much like Night Beds up above, the song lacks any trait that stands out.
"Just To Make Me Feel Good" does redeem itself with its lyrics. Green's come a long way from the nursey-rhymed ridiculousness of the Peaches albums, asking Shapiro (or the significant other she represents) to, "Ask me things with no warning." The song lives in the the little moments of relationships that make them worthwhile, not an easy terrain to navigate. They do it admirably here.
Final Score: 3/5
03. Thao With The
Get Down, Stay Down – We The Common (For Valerie Bolden (from the
album We The Common)
TCDroogsma:
Two questions:
Have you ever been sitting at the bar chatting with an oppressively foxy woman and feeling good about your chances, but, as the night presses on, she keeps saying more and more ridiculous and/or insane things that eventually you just say, "Fuck it, she's hot, but I can't do this any longer?"
Remember back in December when I reviewed Thao's "Holy Roller?" I tried to explain that I couldn't accurately judge any Thao & The Get Down, Stay Down song because I was blindingly smitten with Thao herself? It's not that I only liked the songs because Thao is so damn sexy, it's that I couldn't separate the songs from the sexy.
(In case you forgot why I feel that way, watch this video. That song is classic.)
I think you can see where I'm going here. "We The Common" if finally the last call vodka tonic that pushes Thao from the, "OK, she's a little loopy, but she's still sexy" to, "That's enough, I can't do this." It wouldn't matter if the Get Down, Stay Down consisted of Lucy Liu, Natalie Portman, & Ryan Gosling backing Thao, "We The Common" is bad enough that it overwhelms all the charm exuded by the frontwoman.
If I had never heard a song with that stupid guitar style, pointless strings, boot-stomping percussion, and a brutally quirky wordless-hook then maybe this would be tolerable, but The Current's been shoving shit like this down our throat for years. I'm drawing the line right here.
Final Score: 0.5/5
04. Eels – New
Alphabet (from the album Wonderful, Glorious)
TCDroogsma:
"New Alphabet" is not necessarily new ground for Eels. It lives in the same, "I don't feel so good, what the fuck's going on?" world that has made Eels famous. Most of those songs, however, are either living in the moment of not feeling good or looking back on that moment from a time well into the future.
It may just be me, but I really like "New Alphabet" because it lives in that moment between those two points. "I'm in a good mood today, I'm so glad that it's not yesterday" implies that E is still coping with whatever happened and "New Alphabet" finds him squarely in the "Lashing out" phase of coping. As someone who's been know to lash a bit, this song really speaks to me.
What E's done here, is give us his take on the pop music narrative of "I did it my way." Obviously, that's coming from Sinatra, but the line runs through all strains of music. The first time I listened to this song, the fist song that came to mind was P.O.S. "Purexed" (one of the the great songs of my lifetime). There's very little difference, "Yeah, we do our own damn thing, we don't blink at what tomorrow might bring at all," and "When the world stops making sense, I make a new alphabet."
Final Score: 4/5
05. Aby Wolf –
Brave Boy (from the album Wolf Lords)
TCDroogsma:
I'll be honest, I'm kind of losing the plot with Aby Wolf. The first time I saw her she was playing at the 331 Club and had a coffeehouse hippy vibe going. Next I heard from her was the still-brilliant single "What U Waitin' 4?" which was in the hip-hop world, but sported a earworm hook that sound like it was flown over from the world of indie rock. Her contribution to BK-One's Radio Do Canibal album was a low-key highlight, wrapping her pretty voice around some sampled Brazilian guitar work. Outside of her work with Dessa, the last thing I heard was a SOTD track from the A Wolf & Her Claws project, "All This Time," which was a fine song, but found Wolf venturing further from the hooks and leaning on her voice/glitchy noise to prop the song up.
Which brings me to "Brave Boy," a collaboration with Grant Cutler, the man who provided the music for Lookbook. "Brave Boy" features the same warped-instrumentation of A Wolf And Her Claws and Lookbook with one exception: it doesn't go anywhere. Where those projects had the ability get hips shaking, the music of "Brave Boy" doesn't make me want to do anything. That would be OK if Wolf were able to find a hook to propel the song forward. Unfortunately, the progression I detailed above has reached it's obvious end: Wolf relying solely on her voice to carry the song. Frankly, it just doesn't work.
Final Score: 1.5/5
There you have
it, folks! Another week's worth of songs downloaded, pondered upon,
reviewed, and filed away.
As always,
please remember that neither Newest Industry nor its contributors is
in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR.
We're just music fans with word processors and little bit too much
time on our hands.
For more
TCDroogsma, be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).
He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our weekly
podcast, Flatbasset Radio, or ranting like a lunatic on his personal
blog Flatbasset.
For more Newest
Industry, be sure to follow us on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay
up on the work being done by all of our contributors. More
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