Flatbasset Radio: Episode #104 (American Album Hall Of Fame - Class Of 2017)

Never had to knock on wood...

Well hello again, everybody! Welcome to Flatbasset Radio: Episode #104!

Folks, on Saturday we celebrated some of the finest work coming from our brothers & sisters in the Great White North. Now, I may be a few days late, however, it was just America's birthday which means it's time for my favorite episode of the year. That's right, it's time to induct six new albums into the Flatbasset Radio American Album Hall Of Fame.

Before we get to this year's inductees, let me bombard you with some links to the previous induction ceremonies:

Class Of 2015 (Part I)
Class Of 2015 (Part II)
Class Of 2016 (Part I)
Class Of 2016 (Part II)

Unlike last year's class, which skewed a bit toward Minnesota, this year's class is a celebration of the East Coast. In fact, with the exception of a nod to Boston, the majority of these artists are as ingrained in New York City culture & history as Central Park, Madison Square Garden, criminally underrated bagels, & brutally-overrated pizza.

Before we get to the albums, though, here's a quick reminder of the FRAAHOF's criteria:

01. An album must be at least 10 years old to be inducted into the FRAAHOF

02. Only 6 albums per year may be inducted

03. Only 2 of those 6 albums may have been released over 30 years ago

04. No artist can appear in consecutive years 

So, with those criteria in mind, here's a look at this year's inductees:

Hell of a class, no? As per usual, I'll be playing three songs off each of the albums being inducted and talk for far too long about each of them. Sound good? Well, too bad, you get what you pay for.

So, now that you know, here's what the Flatbasset Radio American Album Hall Of Fame looks like as of today:

Alright, let's get to the show.

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 #104 (with all the appropriate iTunes tagging), click here for Part 1 & here for Part 2.

Now, let's get to it:

01. Party Pit
02. First Night
03. Stuck Between Stations

04. The Rascal King
05. Another Drinkin' Song
06. The Impression That I Get

07. Peg
08. Deacon Blues
09. Josie









And Part 2 of the Class Of 2017:

01. Someone Great
02. North American Scum
03. All My Friends

04. Tasmanian Pain Coaster (w/The Mars Volta)
05. EMG
06. Poisenville Kids No Wins (w/Cat Power)

07. Waiting For The Man
08. Femme Fatale
09. Sunday Morning










There you have it, folks. Congratulations to this year's inductees. Thanks for stopping by!




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.

Album Of The Week: "Run The Jewels 2" by Run The Jewels

Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of November 3rd-9th:

Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 2

01. Jeopardy
02. Oh My Darling Don't Cry
03. Blockbuster Night Part 1
04. Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck) (w/Zack De La Rocha)
05. All My Life
06. Lie Cheat Steal
07. Early (w/Boots)
08. All Due Respect (w/Travis Barker)
09. Love Again (Akinyele Back) (w/Gangsta Boo)
10. Crown (w/Diane Coffee)
11. Angel Duster

So I guess I'll throw my hat into the ring on this one.

Look, there's nothing I can say about Run The Jewels 2 that hasn't been covered by, almost literally, every other music website on the internet.  Stereogum had their profile of Killer Mike & El-P.  Pitchfork had theirs too.  Rave reviews have been written from the largest websites to the smallest blogs.  It's all been covered.

If, incredibly, this is the first you've read about Run The Jewels 2, here's the skinny.  El-P and Killer Mike teamed up a couple years ago for Run The Jewels and it was fucking legendary.  On the backs of two of their best solo albums (El-P's Cancer For Cure & Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music), the two teamed up for a tour, bonded, and decided it would be fun to release a shit-talking album together.  It worked out so well that, suddenly, Mike & El are having the peak years of their respective careers at the age of 39, certainly a first in the youth-oriented world of hip-hop.

RTJ2 picks up where RTJ left off.  The shit talking is still epic, however, the act has grown both lyrically and personnel-wise.  El-P & Killer Mike spend time on this album exploring their own troubled pasts, the state of the union, and the state of hip-hop with both smirks and fists firmly in tow.  As you can see form the track listing above, they weren't short on talented musicians eager to contribute to the group.

All things considered, RTJ & RTJ2 have been wild successes.

Now, let me digress just a bit.  I'd like to present you with a little anecdote from the other day.

I got to work the other day and a co-worker of mine says, "Hey man, have you heard that new Run The Jewels yet?"

"I have," I replied.  "It's my Album Of The Week on my blog."

"Nice."

A few hours later, we're chatting again.  I ask him, "Hey, didn't I try to get you to listen to El-P's stuff a while back?"

"I don't know.  Obviously it didn't really work.  Isn't he more of a producer?"

SCENE

Now, here's why I bring this little anecdote up.  I came to Run The Jewels (and R.A.P. Music) as an El-P junkie.  As such I've thoroughly enjoyed the Run The Jewels album and the subsequent widespread success El-P has found.

(And please, make no mistake, I don't wish El-P would stay an underground secret forever.  I'm genuinely thrilled that one of the most uniquely talented rapper/producers ever is finally getting his due.)

What concerns me is that a whole new audience of people is just finding out about El-P via Run The Jewels and, perhaps much like my co-worker, view him as "more of a producer."  Will those people go back through the catalog and discover Cancer For Cure, I'll Sleep When You're Dead, Fantastic Damage, & Funcrusher Plus?  Undoubtedly, yes, some of them will.  And that will be awesome.

But part of what made those albums so special (and make no mistake, they are some of the best albums of my lifetime, with ISWYD easily in the top five regardless of genre) is that they seemed to be singuluar, long-gestating dispatches from a man out of step with the world.  El-P obsessed over those records like a conspiracy theorist poring over newspaper clippings.  They stand as invaluable snapshots of the bizarre post-9/11/pre-Snowden days that we're just now emerging from. Now that he's finally getting the success he deserves, is that artist gone?  I mean, honestly, could El-P ever afford to take five years off between LP's again?  It seems unlikely and, more importantly, like a bad idea from both a relevancy & financial standpoint.  All of which is a shame since everything that's happened post-Snowden has proven that El-P wasn't crazy, but that he was actually the most sane man in the room.

I guess what I'm getting at is that it seems like that second act of El-P's career has come to an end and, from a very, very selfish perspective, that's a shame.  I'm know that El would much rather spend his forties making music with his friends and making money than hunkered down in Brooklyn sending out rattled, coded, 75 minute manifestos every five years, but those manifestos were fantastic, special albums.  Sad to see that chapter close.

If you'd like to check out Run The Jewels 2 it's available as a free download from the Run The Jewels website. Be sure to pick that up.  And be sure to listen to I'll Sleep When You're Dead.  The second half is mind-blowing.

Newest Industry Presents - Flatbasset Radio: Episode #25

(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

Me & Garrison Keillor on the four-wheeler sippin' tequila...

Hello again, free music fans! Welcome to Flatbasset Radio: Episode #25!
 
For those of you who are unaware of the Flatbasset Radio format, here's what you're looking at: TCDroogsma is our resident MP3 junkie. As you've probably noticed in his Songs Of The Week column, he's not always the most positive music fan. In an effort to prove that he is, in fact, a fan of music, we give him an hour each week to play the songs he's digging and talk a little bit about them. Once he's recorded his podcast we put it right here on the website for free to stream!

In this week's episode Droogsy eschews Christmas songs for "secular music," uses the term "dream-poppy-prog-rocky...," celebrates a young rapper who passed too soon, concedes that he's let his laser noise game lapse, ranks Santa's reindeer in this week's Power Rankings, indulges his love of dopey love songs, and, at least for this week, puts down his axe in his fight against an indie rock icon.

You can download the podcast for free by clicking the episode's title or stream the episode by clicking on the Mixcloud player below.

Flatbasset Radio: Episode #25

Flatbasset Radio: Episode #25 by Tcdroogsma on Mixcloud

01. Atmosphere (w/Dem Atlas, Joe Horton, & Toki Wright) - Color In The Snow
02. King Tuff - Bad Thing
03. Homeless & The Van Gobots - Math Automatic
04. The Henry Clay People - Clean Sheets
05. Capital Steez - Cab Fare
06. Jamie XX - Untitled
07. Run The Jewels (w/DJ Q-Bert) - Pew Pew Pew
08. Mason Jennings - Raindrops On The Kitchen Floor
09. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Some Trees
10. FINS - Transatlantic Tryst
11. Tom Waits - Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis

There you have it, music fans! Enjoy!

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.

For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.

Newest Industry Presents: Flatbasset Radio - Episode #18

(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

My family knows I only iron once a year...

Hello again, free music fans! Welcome to Flatbasset Radio: Episode #18!

For those of you who are unaware of the Flatbasset Radio format, here's what you're looking at: TCDroogsma is our resident MP3 junkie. As you've probably noticed in his Songs Of The Week column, he's not always the most positive music fan. In an effort to prove that he is, in fact, a fan of music, we give him an hour each week to play the songs he's digging and talk a little bit about them. Once he's recorded his podcast we put it right here on the website for free to stream!

In this week's edition Droogsy gets sweaty, explains why Liam Gallagher is a "Capital 'R,' Capital 'S'" Rock Star, puts an alt-rock icon on blast, admits that an appliance is his best friend, celebrates an album's twenty-year anniversary by struggling with the concept of time, plays Tom Gilbert's theme song, implores us all to embrace the big, stupid, cornball single and much, much more !

Flatbasset Radio: Episode #18 by Tcdroogsma on Mixcloud

Here's how Episode #18 plays out:

01. Beady Eye - Flick Of The Finger
02. Run The Jewels - Sea Legs
03. Edison - My Modesty, Your Venn Diagram
04. Open Mike Eagle (w/Busdriver) - Degrassi Picture Day (Hellfyre Jackets)
05. Pixies - Bagboy
06. Loudman - Ghana
07. Sage Francis - Zero (Update)
08. Down By Law - Air Conditioner
09. Bad Religion - American Jesus
10. Dessa - Icing Burns
11. Treetop Flyers - Things Will Change
12. Sugar Ray - Someday

For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  He can also be found right here on Newest Industry reviewing new tracks in our weekly Songs Of The Week column. Previous episodes of Flatbasset Radio can be found at TCDroogsma's MixCloud page.

 



For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legit way to support the blog.

Album Of The Week: July 8-July 13, 2013

My Album Of The Week for the week of July 8th-July 13th, 2013:

Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels

For those who have somehow escaped this album, Run The Jewels is a collaborative album between El-P and Killer Mike.  It was released on Fool's Gold Records and is free to download at their site.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't mildly obsessed with El-P's music.  Nobody does the paranoia/fear of the modern world thing better than him, harnessing equal parts fear, anger, and, in his darkest moments, resignation.  I've been on the bandwagon ever since 2007's I'll Sleep When You're Dead, a modern masterpiece of post-9/11 America.  When he returned for a proper follow-up in 2012 with Cancer 4 Cure I joked that even though it had been five years I was still busy traveling down the wormholes of ISWYD.

(Sidenote: Super props to El-P for repping for the ginger set all these years!)

Arriving the same week as Cancer 4 Cure was Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music, which was produced entirely by El-P.  Now, like most 30-something white dudes, my knowledge of Killer Mike was pretty much limited to his verse on Outkast's "The Whole World" and nothing more.  Still, if El-P was behind the boards I couldn't help but give the record some time.

Now, obviously, we can probably all agree that R.A.P. Music is one of the great hip-hop records of the last 5 years.  The collision of El-P's dense, jittery, NYC beats and Mike's Atlanta-bred, righteous southern flow turned out to be a perfect match.

I remember playing the title track "R.A.P. Music" on the podcast near the end of 2012 and I came to the conclusion that, while a fantastic album, it would be difficult to replicate due to the surprise factor of the unlikely pairing.  Turns out I didn't have to wait too long to find out, as last week Run The Jewels turned up.  While it's difficult to consider this a proper album since, even by their own admission, the idea was for El & Mike to get together and make music that they wanted to make without any sort of commercial agenda.  Still, these guys are pros about their craft and even a tossed-off, free album is going to be worth digging into with both hands.  Should be a fun week.

Newest Industry Presents: Flatbasset Radio - Episode #9 (Best Of 2012 Countdown!)

(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

(ALSO, I FIXED THE LINKS.  YOU CAN ACTUALLY LISTEN TO THE PODCAST NOW.) 

Threat Level: Orange Juice...

Well hello again, music fans! Welcome to Episode #9 of our weekly Flatbasset Podcast!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the podcast, here's the story. Each week TCDroogsma participates in our Songs Of The Week column. Since he's typically kind of a jerk in that column we asked him if he'd like to put together a weekly podcast to prove that he actually does like music and, on occasion, has interesting things to say about it. Foolishly, we also asked him to wish our readers a Happy New Year. So now this exists:

Since this is the first week of the New Year we asked TCDroogsma to put together a Top 10 list of his favorite 2012 albums. Not only did he do that, but he also scolds children, explains a theory about British discographies, explains why Chris Martin put Coldplay on hiatus, actually says, “Nobody does Bloc Party quite like Bloc Party,” (which is arguably the dumbest sentence this blog has been affiliated with), and wishes everybody a happy new year!

Click the player above to listen to the podcast. Click the title below to download it for your very own.  Here's how the show breaks down:

Flatbasset Radio – Episode #9 (Best Of 2012 Countdown!)

10. Why? - Thirteen On High (from the album Mumps, Etc.)

09. Illogic & Blockhead – Heartless (from the album Preparing For Capture 2)

08. The Vaccines - Teenage Icon (from the album The Vaccines Come Of Age)

07. Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music (from the album R.A.P. Music)

06. Bloc Party - Real Talk (from the album Four)

05. P.O.S. - All Of It (from the album We Don't Even Live Here)

04. Aesop Rock – Leisureforce (from the album Skelethon)

03. The Cribs - Jaded Youth (from the album In The Belly Of The Brazen Bell) 

02. El-P - The Full Retard (from the album Cancer 4 Cure) 

01. Blur - Under The Westway (from the single Under The Westway)

So there you have it, everybody. That's the last 2012 list we'll be publishing here on Newest Industry. Bye by, 2012. Thanks for everything.

For more TCDroogmsa he can be found on Twitter (@TCDroogsma) or rambling away on his personal Flatbasset blog. Don't be surprised if that yellow hat makes its way into his day to day wardrobe.

 





For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors. More importantly, we have a Facebook page here. Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a “Like” is a legitimate way to support the blog. Start 2013 off right by supporting your local neighborhood bloggers.

Newest Industry Presents: Flatbasset Radio - Episode #6

(IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT, THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY.  HENCE THE TITLE.  PRETTY STRAIGHT FORWARD...)

Ain't got no milk, no mothafuckin' cereal...

Well hello again, free music fans!  Welcome to the sixth episode of Flatbasset Radio!

As you may or may not know by now, Flatbasset Radio is a weekly podcast put together by regular contributor TCDroogsma.  He spends so much time on this blog being a snarky asshole that we almost feel obligated to have him put together a podcast to prove that yes, he does actually like music.

This week TCDroogsma reveals his personal theme song, reluctantly plays Neil Young, coldly uses his friends heartache for his own selfish means, laments the breakup of the internet's favorite rap group, ponders a world in which Interpol died in a tire fire, and celebrates Phatnumber's birthday!



Click the embedded player above to give it a listen or click the title below to download the podcast for your very own.

Flatbasset Radio - Episode #6

01. Pavement - Summer Babe (Winter Version)
02. Wu-Tang Clan - Da Mystery Of Chessboxin'
03. Fiona Apple - Hot Knife (Blockhead Remix)
04. Eels - Last Stop: This Town
05. Das Racist - Puerto Rican Cousins
06. The Damned - Fan Club
07. Pet Shop Boys - It's A Sin
08. Suga Free - Let Me Pimp Or Let Me Die
09. Phatnumber - The Fastest Cowboy Out There
10. Neil Young - Harvest Moon
11. Jay-Z - 99 Problems (El-P Remix)
12. Down By Law - Radio Ragga
13. Interpol - The New

Boom!  Free music!  Tell a friend!  Tell two friends!

If, for some reason, this is not enough TCDroogsma he can be found on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  Give him a follow if you like inside jokes between him and his idiot friends.  He can also be found rambling away on his own Flatbasset blog.  You were warned.

Of course Newest Industry also maintains a Twitter home (@NewestIndustry1).  Give us a follow to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Though it seems trivial, stopping by and giving us a "like" is actually the best way to support Newest Industry short of buying us each a new pair of gloves.