New Music Day

The Andi & George Band

It's not exactly 'new' as they've been getting some attention recently with their debut album from September (maybe?) but The Andi & George Band are an incredibly talented group of Canberra-based musicians who, to put it bluntly, make some cool shit. The singers/songwriters (surprisingly enough, Andi & George) are blessed with astoundingly unique singing voices and shitloads of talent. Songs like Soon It Will Be Green Again sound just as good with a flute and two guitars as they do on record and lyrically you can't go past a song about eggs and bacon for breakfast - one I unfortunately can't find a studio recording of. Their sound fits somewhere between folk, jazz and dub with a lot of Latin music influences floating about. The self-titled debut is music to chill out to. It's sunny-day-fuck-off-to-the-beach stuff and I can imagine some people finding it boring but there's an abundance of style on the record that's kept me listening. And I can't say enough good things about them live.

If you're not convinced go ahead and snag the first song from their album. I hope they don't mind me putting it out there.

The Andi & George Band - Soon It Will Be Green Again

Sidenote - Good Vibrations sucked. Kanye West was great, loved the theatrics. The sound was awful in the Roots tent so I could barely hear Cypress, but Thievery Corporation & Pharoahe Monch made it worthwhile enough. If the organizers don't work out the problems with the size of the venue (too small) and the sound I'll just be hitting the sideshows next year. Apparently Cypress & Monch were much better on Wednesday night.

Post-sidenote - I was also gonna talk about Me And The Grownups, the band that launched their album at the Basement in Sydney last night (who Andi & George (and Lina)) were supporting but I haven't been able to get a hold of their album to give it a closer listen. As soon as I do I'll write them up.

Pre-Good Vibes One-off Rant

Forget the last idea. It sucked.

"Still not great album, but its getting bumped.."

"Am I the only one who thinks Finding Forever and Be are Comm's MOST/Best Solid Albums!"

Hip-Hop fans (and to a certain extent music fans in general) are susceptible to severe cases of idol worship. One only needs to look at the now legendary poster Galvatron and his SOHH (by no means a site indicative of most Hip-Hop fans.. I hope) posts solely supporting, endorsing and defending 50 Cent and whoever happens to be on G-Unit at that specific time. There's no telling whether the poster is a hoax getting his kicks from seeing a plethora of angry arguments to every post or if he's actually a 30+ year old black man with a child who worships a celebrity 5 years his junior but one aspect of this situation that is certain is the growth of like-minded defensive fans in the genre. Reading through a couple of the posts I linked regarding 50 Cent's last (critically and commercially panned) LP Curtis I'm surprised by the willingness of these fans to give it a chance despite dismissing it out of hand upon its release. Is it really an album worth a second listen if, as the thread-starter admits, it's still only mildly entertaining? Maybe it's 50 Cent's image as a hit-maker and sex symbol that entices people to go back to such a disappointing record as this one.

By no means am I immune to this double standard in judging music, and I think most music listeners are probably more willing to give their preferred musicians the benefit of the doubt when they make a disappointing album. I've given the Wu-Tang Clan a lot of chances over the past few years, and while they've consistently met my expectations - No Said Date, Fishscale, 8 Diagrams & the Afro Samurai Soundtrack constitute one of the top tiers of Hip-Hop in the last 5 years, after all - a lot of the solos have frankly sucked and I've argued for most of them at one time or another. Why is it that the image of Hip-Hop acts is so intricately tied to our enjoyment of their art?

In the end, it's this image that is probably holding Hip-Hop back. Creative artists like Ghostface make records secure in the knowledge that their in-built fanbase will keep them afloat, yet - if I'm to understand a couple of Ghost's interview statements correctly - they're hindered by the expectations of that fanbase for them to remain stagnant and therefore their music can't grow with them. Back to 50 Cent though. He didn't really do anything differently on Curtis, except strip his music down to the bare essentials of what he thought his fanbase wanted - sex, guns and hood stories. It obviously didn't resonate with audiences or critics, who flocked to Kanye West last year. So why do some people insist on defending his record? I could understand if they genuinely liked it but if a record "isn't great", why not just go back to the music that made them fans in the first place? Unfortunately that doesn't seem like a possibility in a music genre that shuns its elders and gorges on one hit wonders and ringtone rappers that will be forgotten in a year.

I'm still unsure as to what to do with this blog. I might just use it to practice my writing and rant, maybe a couple of reviews here and there.

Also, Erykah's new video is awesome. New Amerykah comes out in 10 days. Get it.

Pre-Good Vibes post, part 1

Good Vibrations Sydney is happening on Saturday so in honour of what was my first festival ever the next 2 days will be full of Good Vibes-ish fun.

Good Vibrations 2007 was my first festival and sealed my chronic festival-related money shortages throughout the rest of the year. We cut costs the traditional Australian way (pre-drinks on the bus and the cheapest beer imaginable - Victoria Bitter) and spent the day catching as many acts as possible (Snoop Dogg's surprise performance, The Beasties & Mix Master Mike fucking up their sound equipment and Jurassic 5's farewell performance) and trying not to succumb to the stupidly hot temperature. In retrospect it wasn't the best festival of the year - that honour goes to Splendour In The Grass - but it was still memorable. This year Kanye West & Cypress Hill headline with Lyrics Born playing the role of host. While he won't be performing, LB has a new album coming out this year under Epitaph/Anti-/Quannum Records. First single Hott 2 Deff recently leaked and as expected it's a corker.

Lyrics Born ft. Chali2na - Hott 2 Deff

Mixtape Tuesday

The new G-Unit and Re-Up Gang mixtapes leaked today. Both are pretty good, but obviously I'm giving the nod to Clipse here. Still, the G-Unit one isn't bad considering Tony Yayo is a part of it. Looks like the rumours about a rift between G-Unit & Young Buck was true, the latter's verse is cut out of Feel Good (probably one of the more boring parts of the mixtape). 50 Cent is a surprise, he's bounced back well after Curtis. Lloyd Banks is close behind, he's definitely more interesting these days.

50 Cent & Tony Yayo - The Mechanic
Re-Up Gang - Rainy Dayz

Hot Chip - Made In The Dark

Thank you, all-inclusive press promo courtesy of teh internets.

Another winner from Hot Chip. First single Shake A Fist had me thinking that the crew would be moving further away from the space pop of Coming On Strong but the sound of Made In The Dark is just as much a departure from The Warning. The reverb guitar at the start of One Pure Thought threw me off until the keyboard melody kicked in. Their sense of humour is still there, but Hot Chip are slightly more serious this go round. My favourite part about the group is that they use a wide range of instruments and drumkits in their music. Their songs are rarely similar to each other, and as evidenced by the electric/acoustic versions of Boy From School they could probably play the songs 5 different ways and they'd still be great.

Anyway, what happened to that Fannypack group? I had a vague interest in them back in 2004 but they haven't really made waves since then. I might have to find that second album they released in 2005. One of the chicks is apparently in a band called Holy Hail.

Holy Hail - Born Of A Star

I don't hate it. In fact, I may even grow to love it.