Author: Jake
I felt like it was time to swing back over to the hip-hop side of things. If you are an Adele fan then you are probably just coming down off of the “21″ release. I have a lot of respect for the girl. I really liked her first album, and thought she was amazing on SNL. A couple of weeks ago, Gilbere Forte’s manager flowed me this track that GF did together with Adele. I had the opportunity to shoot with Gilbere in the winter for and Edwin editorial. He is a super chill guy and I have a lot of respect for what he is doing. So, needless to say, I was pretty excited to see Adele and Gilbere collaborating on this track. It’s called “Set Fire to the Rain.” Give it a listen.
[photo: artwork from the cover of the featured track]
Author: Jake
Since this is the 50th post of La Musica Coolica, I decided to do sort of a double feature. The artist for this week is Velvet Underground. I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of Velvet Underground, generally. I feel like Lou Reed kind of rips off Bob Dylan a lot, stylistically. More than anything, I just kind of have to respect what the group did for experimental Rock. I sort of see them as the Sonic Youth, of the late 60’s, early 70’s.
Another reason that I have to respect them, is because I’m am so intrigued and interested in that whole nexus that they had going with Andy Warhol. To me, it is kind of cool that two huge New York, art icons of that era had meaningful interaction. I know that Jim Morrison hung out with Andy Warhol, too. But, I think that the thing with Velvet Underground was different. Partly because VU lived in NY, and was really in touch with the scene here, at the time. Basically, I’m just bleeding from the mouth about the way that I imagine things, though. Because in reality, I wasn’t there, nor do I have any concrete evidence to support any of my hypotheses.
I was first exposed to the group through covers of Velvet Underground songs performed by some of my favorite groups, growing up. Cowboy Junkies does a cover of “Sweet Jane,” that I listened to back in the day. Another one is “Here she comes now,” covered by Nirvana on “Outcestiside.” It is a really gritty recording, that barely passes for more than a jam session that just happened to get recorded. In fact, the first time it breaks into the chorus, Kris plays the first couple of bars in the wrong key. I personally think that it is one of the coolest tracks that I have every heard, primarily because of its raw quality. I love the way that Kurt starts really getting into it, vocally, toward the end of the track. So, the double feature that I mentioned earlier, is both the Velvet Underground version, and the Nirvana version of “Here she comes now.” You can check them out back to back.
Click here for the Velvet Underground version.
Click here for Nirvana’s version.
Author: Jake
Peanut Butter Wolf, AKA Chris Manak, is a California based DJ, who produces and mixes Hip-hop fusion tracks. Hip-hop fusion sounds like kind of a lame term. But I’m not feeling very creative at the moment, and that was the best that I could come up with.
I throw “fusion” in there, because the stuff he puts out is more than just a Timbaland-style beat with some rappers going back and forth over the top of it. A lot of tracks have a strong jazz flow to them. Other’s, have an overt disco flavor. Anyway, the track that I’m sharing today is instrumental. It is from the album “Peanut Butter Breaks.”
The song is called “Summer’s end.” I feel like this is fitting, because, although winter solstice is already almost upon us, winter just showed up in NY last weekend. It is a really mellow groove with some horns and a solid bass line. Give it a spin.
Author: Jake
More Bay-area organic hip-hop for you, this week. Brought together by Del tha Funky Homosapien, “Hieroglyphics” first appeared on the scene in the early 1990’s. Though Del is heavily credited as bringing the group together, his vocals are probably not the most prominent in Hiero’s tracks. Del shares the mic well with the whole lot of the Hiero crew. In case you don’t already know, all of the guys from “Souls of Mischief,” (Tajai, Opio, etc..), can be found in the mix.
As far as I know (feel free to set me straight) “Hieroglyphics” have have only produced two studio albums on a major label. One was released in 1998 called “Third Eye Vision.” The title may sound dirty (and I guess maybe it is), but primarily it refers to the ubiquitous graphic of the three-eyed straight lipped “smiley face” that serves at the group’s logo. The other studio album “Full Circle” was published in ‘03. In addition, there were a handful of discs put out on Hiero’s own label after “Full Circle” was released.
The song that I’m sharing today is from the “Full Circle” album. It samples Bjork’s “Army of me.” It has some swearin’. So, if you are opposed to that sort of thing, then it is probably best to pass up this track. The title is “Let it Roll.” Check it out.
Author: Jake
Ok, for the year anniversary (at least the first LMC post since the 1 year mark, Hehe.), here is Beck. I have been a little bit lackadaisical with the music writing lately because of the whole Brazil thing. Back in the saddle, though. So I figured that I would make it a good one.
Beck is a pretty amazing musician. It seems like most people have an opinion of his work. It is one of those hate it, or love it situations. I personally love it. I was first exposed to Beck, when the singles from “Mellow Gold” were in rotation. So, songs like “Beer Can” and “Loser” were my introduction. At first, I was really confused about the seeming lack of continuity in the ideas expressed by his lyrics. It took a little bit of digging deeper for me to finally understand that the stream of conscious-style-flow was one of earmarks of Beck’s M.O..
One great thing I really like about Beck, is that he has been a very prolific artist, over the years. I have a lot of respect for musicians who work hard. I can’t say that I have loved all of his records, with equal enthusiasm. Just the same, I appreciate that he is getting it done. The song that I’m sharing is from Midnight Vultures. To me, this is one of those albums that I could start from track No. 1 and just let it play the entire way through without skipping a song. Even though a lot of the songs are kind of experimental sounding, I’m sure that I’m not alone in my opinion on this one. Anyway, the song is “Nicotine and Gravy.” I really like the title for a couple of reasons. First, my friend Joel, who I used to play music with in high school, had a song called “Nicotine and Caffeine.” I feel like this song is probably Beck’s version of that same song. Here it is: Press Play.
Author: Jake
This week musica coolica is kind of a big deal for two reasons. First, it is the year anniversary since I started doing musica coolica. Hahahahah, ok, that really isn’t that big of a deal. The other thing is that Reagan and I will be headed to Brazil, on Friday. So, in anticipation of our trip, I thought that I would share a bit of Brazilian music. The group is called “Bonde do Rolê.” They are from Curitiba, which is in the very southern part of the country.
I first discovered them on a Diplo remix album called “Decent Work For Decent Pay, Collected Works Volume One.” As it turns out, Diplo actually produces these guys. They have a kind of interesting sound. The Brazilians call it Baile funk, which means dance funk. The song I’m sharing today has a really bouncy sound to it. Some may find it absolutely annoying. I think it is great. The name of the track is “Solta O Frango,” which translated literally means “set the chicken free.” It is slang for “let loose.” Give it a listen, if you need a pick-me-up.
Author: Jake
Chico Science & Nação Zumbi, is a Brazilian rock/funk/hip-hop-outfit. Chico Science was the point man of Nação Zumbi until he was killed in the late 90’s by a drunk driver. He was the creative force behind the music. Even the album artwork was heavily influence by Chico. The image of a crap appears on almost all of CSNZ’s albums. The significance of the crustacean, is that as a boy, Chico subsisted from the sales of crabs that he harvested from the mangroves near his home in northern Brazil.
During the time that I spent living in Brazil, I didn’t have many occasions to really take in the music, the way I would have liked to. I had a pretty strict list of do’s and dont’s while I lived there. So, the majority of the exposure that I had to music, was just by hearing it in the streets. When I heard something that I thought was hot, I would try to figure out where it was coming from and ask whoever was playing it, what it was called, who the artist was, etc., then try to track down a copy in the record store.
With Chico Science, I bought up pretty much everything that I saw, including rarities (to the extent that they existed). Some of them turned out to just be crappy bootlegs from someone’s mono channel cassette recorded sneaked into a show. Others, like the one that I’m sharing today, are golden (in my opinion). The song that I’m sharing is a remix of a song called “Corpo de Lama,” which means “body of mud.” It comes from one of Chico’s post-mortem releases, a self-titled double disc. Both discs are full of live tracks and remixes by the likes of Mario Caldato (B. Boys keys), Apollo 9, David Byrne, and others. Anyway, I am still a big fan, and I will frequently still include some of these tracks on workout playlists, etc.. Here is “Corpo de Lama.” Escutem.
Author: Jake
7L and Esoteric are a hip hop group out of Boston. They rhyme about Jamie Lee Curtis and Wookies. I like them. Here is Feudal Lords (feat. Nejel Mongrel) (be forewarned, it has the “s” word).
Author: Jake
As with probably half, or even more than half of my generation, one of my all-time favorite rock bands is Nirvana. There is nothing that I can write about them that hasn’t already been written 1000 times over. The song that I’m sharing from them, is not actually a Nirvana, song. It was actually written by a group called the Wipers, out of Portland OR. Kurt was a big fan of theirs, and actually covered a few of their songs. This one is called “D7.” To my knowledge it was only available on the “Outcesticide” imports. I love it. If you like Nirvana, you probably love it too. Turn it up and press play.
Author: Jake
I had kind of forgotten about these guys, until one of my old homies from HS brought them up on FB. So, thanks, Mike! I first heard of Digable Planets on a compilation album that I picked up for free at this record shop I used to work out. The compilation is called “Jazzafunkapyschadelic.” It’s a mouthful. At the time I had no clue about organic New York hip hop. I thought the song was so great though. It was called “Time and Space.” I went straight out and bought “Blowout Comb” (1994). For me, it is one of those mellow albums that I can play straight through from track #1 to the end w/o skipping anything.
One of the many things that make this group unique, is the Lady Bug-factor. Black Eyed Peas weren’t the first ones to come up with the great idea adding some female vocals to spice things up. Only, in my opinion, Fergie ruined BEP, whereas, Lady Bug totally makes Digable Planets. She doesn’t even sing, but she doesn’t need to, because her voice has such a buttery sound, even when she is just reciting rhymes. The track that I’m sharing today is called “Where I’m from.” It was released on the “Reachin’” album, in 1993. Plug in the lava lamp, take a Valium, and press play.
