Album review: Hollywood Undead's 'American Tragedy'
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April 5, 2011 | 11:54 am
Longtime Linkin Park fans disappointed by that band’s turn toward introspective art rock on last year’s “A Thousand Suns” might do well to check out “American Tragedy,” the defiantly shallow — yet undeniably bracing — new studio disc from L.A.’s Hollywood Undead. Here we find six young men (and their various studio-pro collaborators) in single-minded pursuit of a straightforward goal: synthesizing the aural equivalent of uncut testosterone. Complicating agents? They’re simply not here.The upside of the group’s purity of purpose is that it sounds as energetic as any band of rapping rockers ever has: On “Apologize,” HU rides a booming groove out of prime Rick Rubin, while “Levitate” throbs with disco-metal urgency. (Kevin Rudolf, the dependably dunderheaded party-starter responsible for “Let It Rock” a few years ago, produced the latter cut.) The downside is that along with heart and brains, Hollywood Undead has filtered out any sense of humor from its music, which makes “American Tragedy” virtually impossible to listen to for longer than a few songs at a time. Try it at your own peril.
— Mikael Wood
Hollywood Undead
“American Tragedy”
(A&M/Octone)
Two stars
“American Tragedy”
(A&M/Octone)
Two stars
Dave Alvin receives pardon from Davis mayor, Blasters no longer banned from playing there
April 5, 2011 | 12:01 pm
Dave Alvin has been a member of two seminal bands, the Blasters and X, penned a rock anthem, "4th of July," traveled the world as an ambassador for the folk-blues-country amalgam known as roots music, and, over nearly three decades, crafted one of the great California songbooks.But until early Wednesday, he suffered a more dubious distinction: banned in Davis.
In 1982, Alvin and the Blasters were performing at a small venue in the college town near the California capital when, out in the sardine-packed crowd, push literally came to shove. Next thing, a riot: police, helicopters and, in the days that followed, a civic ban on all things Blaster. (Which apparently extended to its members, emeritus).
"We were innocent," Alvin protested, recalling that fated night. "We were just doing our job."
Late Tuesday, Davis Mayor Joe Krovoza -- a serious Alvin afficionado -- set out to rectify the long-ago injustice. Shortly before midnight, just outside Berkeley, he boarded a Portland, Ore.-bound train and presented Alvin a formal proclamation -- calligraphy, gold seal, much "whereas" -- absolving him of any wrongdoing and welcoming (no, practically begging) him to play again in Davis.
Twenty or so beery passengers, joining Alvin on his Kings of California Roots on the Rails tour, attended the ceremony and offered all the solemnity they could muster. (A few even offered to riot, for old-time sake.)
Krovoza rode along as far as Davis, and used the 40 minutes to coax Alvin into a discussion of several of the mayor's favorite songs. ("Abilene" was about a girl, it turns out, not the Texas city.)
A bemused Alvin declined the chance to give a speech, though he thanked the mayor several times and took time to thumb through the lengthy resolution. Despite the late hour, he whipped out his cellphone and rang his brother and Blasters cofounder, Phil, suggesting he'd never guess what just happened.
"He says, 'Oh, wow, that's great,' " a grinning Alvin related to Krovoza, who smiled in turn. "Scot free!"
-- Mark Z. Barabak, aboard the Coast Starlight
Credit: Issa Sharp/Yep Roc records
Today: J. Rocc drops long-awaited debut album 'Some Cold Rock Stuf' on Stones Throw Records
April 5, 2011 | 12:37 pm
There's one thing to keep in mind about J. Rocc's new double disc offering, "Some Cold Rock Stuf," released Tuesday on Stones Throw Records. According to the label, "It's not a DJ album. Not a beat album. Not a mixtape." Call it what you want, but this bass-wielding collage of multipurpose hip-hop swagger is an apt representation of the storied career of L.A.'s most recognizable crate digger.
After beginning his turntable career in the mid-'80s, J. Rocc's contributions to the local scene skyrocketed as the co-founder of the DJ collective Beat Junkies in the '90s alongside Rhettmatic, Melo-D, DJ Babu and Shortkut. There was also his run as the host of the Fantastic Four Radio show on L.A.'s Power 106 and a role as the third member in the seminal Jaylib project, featuring hip-hop head heroes Madlib and J-Dilla.
Adding to a track list full of jazz-slathered breakbeats, stoner soundtracks and party jams, "Some Cold Rock Stuf" contains a mystery disc -- one of three floating around with no track listing or title -- for you to blindly enjoy. Released as a double disc CD and three-LP set, J. Rocc -- currently on tour in Japan -- has offered plenty of rhythms to digest while awaiting his turntable wizardry to come back stateside. As to exactly how you'll categorize this in the pantheon of J. Rocc tracks on your iPod, well, that's up to you.
-- Nate Jackson
Photo: J. Rocc. Credit: Matthew Scott
Album review: Ray Davies' 'See My Friends'
April 5, 2011 | 1:20 pm
This all-star collaboration constitutes something of a victory lap for the Kinks' esteemed frontman and chief songwriter. His catalog is as revered among his peers as those of Lennon-McCartney or Jagger-Richards, even though Davies never garnered the same degree of popular acclaim.That's likely because he's often been more interested in exploring the dimensions of ordinary lives rather than the exploits of the extraordinary.
He teams with Bruce Springsteen on the disarmingly touching “Better Days,” and adroitly merges “Days” and “This Time Tomorrow” with England's energetically rootsy Mumford & Sons. Davies' role as proto-hard rocker comes to the fore in his pairings with Metallica for a surprisingly compact rendition of “You Really Got Me,” and with Billy Corgan on thrashers “All Day and All Of the Night” and “Destroyer.”
The most soulful results arise in his duets with women: an exquisitely bluesy “Long Way From Home” with Lucinda Williams, a great bit of lead vocal role-swapping with Paloma Faith in “Lola” and “Dead End Street” with the brassy Amy McDonald.
The valedictory nature of this project is a mixed blessing, representing as it does Davies’ second retrospective effort in a row, after 2009's “The Kinks Choral Collection.”
The performers on this one likely count it among their career highlights, but those who have kept up with the quality of Davies' output in recent years may well be more interested in what he has yet to say rather than revisiting what he's already said so beautifully.
— Randy Lewis
— Randy Lewis
Ray Davies
“See My Friends”
(Decca)
Three stars
“See My Friends”
(Decca)
Three stars
Mystery solved: "Bronco" settles Mobb Deep sampling question that's remained hidden since '95
April 5, 2011 | 1:48 pm
A couple of weeks back, “Bronco,” a member of the hip-hop forum the-breaks.com, helped solve a musical mystery dating back to 1995: From where did Mobb Deep sample the bass line for “Shook Ones Part II”? This may seem like insider hip-hop baseball — and it is — but within the subculture of sample sleuths who care about such things, this was a Really Big Deal.“Shook Ones Part II,” from “The Infamous” album, is Mobb Deep's most-cherished hit, so iconic that when Eminem needed a draught of sonic courage in “8 Mile,” he turned to it, with its distinctive tick-tock drums and dark, minor-key bass line.
Except, it turns out, the source of that bass line wasn't a bass line at all, one reason the sample eluded discovery. The longer “Shook Ones Part II” kept its secrets, the more it became a holy grail for sample seekers, complete with debated theories and false leads. In solving this cold case, Bronco (born Timon Heinke) and his revelation harkens to a seemingly bygone era of competitive sampling and sourcing.
In the late 1980s, as affordable digital samplers such as E-mu's SP-1200 and Akai's MPC-60 entered the market, beatmakers discovered the creative potential of looping and manipulating bits and pieces of music from other artists' recordings, called “samples,” to build new songs. They sought out unused sounds on increasingly obscure records to stay ahead of their peers — and possibly copyright attorneys — and sample hounds followed just as intensely. The adage that “knowledge is power” gave samples cultural capital — DJs could build sets using “originals” while vinyl sellers could mint small fortunes by selling records sporting “known” samples.
This quest for knowledge inspired self-described “professional computer geek,” Blaine Armsterd to create the Sample FAQ in 1994. It was a database of original samples sourced from his record collection, album-liner notes and user contributions culled from the pre-www “newsgroups” of the early Internet frontier. In an ironic case of intellectual property theft, the FAQ eventually became so definitive that someone began selling bound bootleg copies of it, retitled “The Holy Book of Hip-Hop.”
By the time Armsterd turned the FAQ into the-breaks.com in 2003, it had documented almost every major rap sample of the '80s and '90s, save for a handful of famous holdouts, including “Shook Ones Part II,” Raekwon's “Ice Cream” and Nas' “Nas Is Like.” Armsterd had ceased doing much sourcing but his forums' users stayed vigilant and one by one knocked most of these mysteries down.
However, what the Internet giveth, the Internet can taketh away. The cultural capital that came with mastering sample knowledge was premised on scarcity, both of the records themselves and simply knowing about them. The social media revolution of the last 10 years has made scarcity irrelevant; you can download a file containing every sample Mobb Deep used on “The Infamous” in less time than it takes to listen to “Shook Ones Part II.”
Ethnomusicologist Joseph Schloss, author of “Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop,” suggests that the Internet-powered ubiquity of sample information has diminished its value. “You can find both the information and the recording online, so you can satisfy that urge without buying the record or even working very hard,” says Schloss, adding, “ironically, it almost seems that what we miss in retrospect is the work itself, rather than the rewards.”
Sometimes “the work” comes through chance. Heinke cracked the code of “Shook Ones Part II” while listening to “Jessica,” a 1969 recording by Herbie Hancock. It turns out that Mobb Deep rapper-producer Havoc took a piano melody from the song and slowed it down at two different pitches to create a two-bar loop more reminiscent of a bass guitar than keyboard. After Heinke announced his discovery, another Internet denizen, “Hawkeye,” created a sound file (now on YouTube, natch) that re-creates that transformation process.
Is this unveiling the end of an era? Sample-based production — though hardly dead — no longer dominates hip-hop's aesthetics, and artists still known for extensive sampling, such as Kanye West, do so with full credits listed in the liners. There's little mystery left when a video playing all the samples used on West's “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” can appear on YouTube the day after the album's release.
At least with “Shook Ones Part II,” Schloss suggests that this “residual case” finally has some closure, “like an antique collector finally completing a set.”
Appropriately, Heinke — who hails from Germany — was asked via email why he remains passionate about sourcing, and he compared it to “collecting stamps. It's like finding a Blue Mauritius [a prize amongst philatelists]. We're all nerds in here.”
Surely, sample sourcers have always been minutiae-obsessed, and whether the pursuit is more or less arcane today than it was 15 years ago, for Heinke and his ilk, as long as producers continue to sample, they'll continue sleuthing.
-- Oliver Wang
Photo: Mobb Deep. Credit: Sony Music
Lady Gaga puts a country spin on 'Born This Way' for charity
April 5, 2011 | 3:29 pm
Lady Gaga has gone country –- for a good cause.
She's stripped her thumping electro single “Born This Way” to a twangy groove for a country remix.
Produced by the singer and Fernando Garibay, the “Born This Way (Country Road Version)” remix of the hit single is infused with harmonica blues riffs and the mandolin.
She's stripped her thumping electro single “Born This Way” to a twangy groove for a country remix.
Produced by the singer and Fernando Garibay, the “Born This Way (Country Road Version)” remix of the hit single is infused with harmonica blues riffs and the mandolin.
She initially released the track on her Twitter account in late March, but after it got more than 1 million hits on YouTube within its first few days of release, Gaga announced plans to put out the track officially.
A portion of the proceeds from downloads of the single will benefit the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) -- an organization that strives to curb bullying in schools. Gaga has long championed the organization and gay rights.
“If I wanna make it country, baby, it's OK/ 'Cause I was born, I was born, I was born this way/ From London, Paris, Japan back to USA/ Yeah, I was born on the road, I was born to be brave," she sings in the new lyrics on the countrified version of the track.
“Born This Way” spent six consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was the fastest song in history to reach sales of 1 million.
-- Gerrick D. Kennedy
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