Hasidic Emcee Y-Love!

Just got turned on to this cat Y-Love out of Brooklyn. Born in Baltimore, dude converted to Orthodox Judaism at a young age, grew up listening to punk rock and metal but got turned on to hip-hop while studying the Talmud in Israel of all places. Getting mad love all over the planet, Y-Love garners comparisons to great politically minded emcees like Immortal Technique, Mos Def and Talib Kweli and rhymes in English, Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin. Born Yitzchak Jordan, Y-Love won the 2006 Jewish Music Award for Best Hip-Hop, receiving more votes than Matisyahu. Shit!

Three tracks below. "New Disease" has a beat that reminds me of Anti-Pop Consortium, rhyme style is pretty raw but shows promise. "Bring it on Down" is straight electro jam, dance-party ready for sure. "State of the Nation" rocks a dope, noodling keyboard melody.

Read more about Y-Love in this great interview at Broowaha.com. Really interesting interview, especially where he talks about the significance of rhyming in Aramaic. He breaks it down and says Aramaic was the street lingo of Jews living in exile, the first non-holy language essentially.

mp3: "New Disease"
mp3: "Bring it on Down"
mp3: "State of the Nation"
myspace: http://www.myspace.com/ylove
video:

Spring Heel Jack Best Yet

Songs and Themes is a visionary fusion of jazz, electronica and chamber music. With its eighth contribution to the Thirsty Ear Records catalog, the production team of Ashley Wales and multi-instrumentalist John Coxon has truly outdone itself. Songs and Themes is ambient and atmospheric while still maintaining a link to the avant-garde.

Songs and Themes is as much trumpeter Roy Campbell's record as it is Coxon and Wales.' Beginning with “Church Music,” which marries the psychedlia of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1969) with the symphonia of the trumpeter's Sketches of Spain (Columbia, 1959), it's abundantly clear that Campbell will be the featured player throughout. “Dereks” recalls Albert Ayler in a church in Sweden or somewhere, if only in metaphor as much as in memory. “Clara” is a ballad unlike any other—Campbell sings the voice of the tormented lover telling his partner everything she wants to hear, while the backdrop of tortured strings and wandering bass lines tell a much different story.

Finish reading about Spring Heel Jack's Songs and Themes here

mp3: "Church Music"
video: Spring Heel Jack with J Spaceman

One Dull Sword

Austin, TX isn’t home to just hippies and country boys. There are more exciting and innovative metal bands popping up in this town each week – Pack of Wolves, The Roller, and Baron Grod are but a few. And of course there is The Sword, every hipster’s favorite metal band. The Sword is one of those uber-cool buzz bands everyone is talking about post-Coachella, with a buzz made louder by the recent announcement of a string of dates opening for Metallica overseas. Oh and having a song on Guitar Hero II certainly helps!

Gods of the Earth is The Sword’s second full length, again released on every stoner rock fans favorite label, Kemado Records (Saviours, VietNam). Littered with the themes of sci-fi and fantasy novels, driven by pounds of the good stuff, with riffs that shred and breakdowns that are nothing short of brutal, Gods of the Earth is… well, it’s pretty fucking typical and exactly what I expected.

Now excuse me while I ask but one question: what the fuck is all the fuss about? I want to love this band, not because everyone else seems to but more because they are from Austin; I’ve seen the dudes around town plenty and I want to be down with what they are doing. I just don’t get it. Yes they can shred (“The Frost-Giants Daughter,” “How Heavy This Ax”) and there are certainly some gems buried in this record (“Maiden, Mother and Crone,” “The White Sea”), but in all it’s just typical stoner rock, doom metal, 70's shit.

All the references are obvious – clearly there is a fair share of Black Sabbath-isms in there, a little bit of slowed down Motorhead, Kyuss of course, and nods to contemporaries like High on Fire and Mastodon. “Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians” is a jam and a half but nothing to cream your pants over. The acoustic guitars on “To Take the Black” are nice, but DUH every stoner metal album HAS to have one acoustic guitar jam.

Throughout Gods, Cronise’s voice sounds strained – shit is just painful to listen to honestly. The worst part is I know for a fact that it’s the way Cronise is choosing to sing these songs, in a baroque and grandiose fashion, and not necessarily his voice in and of itself, that sucks. This past SXSW, Cronise led an all-star Faith No More cover band and fucking wailed in place of Mike Patton – what a rad show! Dude can sing, without a doubt.

The Sword’s best piece is buried ten songs in. “The White Sea” is largely instrumental and epic as fuck – I mean, come on, listening to this you can’t help but imagine you’re some ancient Norwegian warrior, covered in furs and armed with, well, a big fucking sword, ready to do battle with the Grendel or some shit…

That’s another thing that bugs me about this record – I mean, I guess I just never really got into J.R.R. Tolkein and George R. R. Martin or whatever. I'm just not into Norse mythology, anything about dragons, dwarfs, or swords for that matter. Maybe I am missing some grand metaphor, but if this shit is literal, grow up. Sing about girls. That’s way more awesome.

Gods of the Earth is the sort of record you’re gonna get into because either a) you are already an avid fan of stoner rock or b) every other cool kid is listening so you should be too. This sword is, frankly, dull.

myspace: www.myspace.com/thesword
mp3: "Mother, Maiden and Crone"

Jim Ward's new Sleepercar Project

Jesus I don't know what it is about this band but I am digging the hell out of Jim Ward's new project Sleepercar. The former At the Drive-in guitarist and Sparta frontman returns to his West Texas roots with the appropriately titled West Texas. Ward's voice isn't as worn as Ben Nichols, but there's definitely a Lucero feel to some of these songs. Other songs are more like Bright Eyes at it's most country moments. "Wasting my Time" sounds like The Replacements with pedal steel guitar.

The album hits stores Tuesday and is currently streaming over at the bands myspace (link below). Ward played Red7 a couple months back and I have to admit I wasn't really feeling it. It was Jim Ward solo and not Sleepercar, but still, Ward's post-Sparta career didn't seem promising. I remember he did play a bunch of Sparta songs, which obviously had a much different feel sans band. That was cool. Check out a video for "Air" below.

Maura Davis is absolutely perfect alongside Ward on "You Should Run." Huge Denali fan - such an amazing band and The Instinct, an amazing record. That record came out when Jade Tree was really wrecking shop in the indie world, putting out a ton of dope shit. Sharing an mp3 below - "Hold Your Breath" off The Instinct (Jade Tree 2003).



Seriously, grab some Miller High Life and a pack of smokes and just sit on the porch and listen to this Sleepercar record. Tap your foot and fucking enjoy life. Do it.

mp3: Denali - "Hold Your Breath"
myspace: Sleepercar West Texas
video: Jim Ward (solo) - "Air" (Red7 Austin, TX)


video: At the Drive-in - "One Armed Scissor" (Live from Jools Holland show)

Broadcast Sea - Pluto Records

Pluto Records seems to pride itself on having as eclectic a roster as possible. No band on the Texas-based indie-core upstart approaches rock ‘n’ roll the same way – not recent signees Sparks is a Diamond, not fellow Texans The JonBenet and The Dead See, and especially not HORSE the Band. When so many other labels are signing bands that are no more than cookie cutter copies of bands they’ve already signed, a label that actually makes a point to sign an eclectic force is more than refreshing.

Broadcast Sea call Dallas and Austin home but their sound is something far more industrialized than the wide-open country roads that connect these two Texas towns. And now I’m not talking about Ministry / NIN / God Lives Underwater “industrial” but the actual rusted wheels, broken windows, grey skies and cold concrete of an industry town. Wounded Soldier isn’t garage rock – it’s factory rock. It’s metal and concrete, coffee and cigarettes; it’s the sound of hard work and hard liquor. This wounded soldier isn’t a boy home from battle, it’s a broken down man who has given his life to the toil of labor.

“We’re a Dying Breed” is the wounded soldier’s ‘Dead or Alive’ anthem. “I’ve Seen Better” is These Arms Are Snakes on downers, a Sabbath-esque riff blasted from a Seattle basement. “Black Waves” – now stay with me here – sounds like The Bends era Radiohead, but, you know, like, pissed off at shit – hauntingly beautiful and jarring in the most perfect of ways.

“Heavy Heavy” is something like The Stooges at the end of a long day, a slow dance with hard drugs. “The News Came This Morning” is slow to unfold but eventually reveals itself to be the most developed tune on Wounded Soldier. A truly great album would have been loaded with gems like this one. Instead it is buried seven songs deep, which is why Wounded Soldier, though full of promise, is mediocre at best.

I feel the same way about this record as I do any of Quicksand’s seminal output – in the right frame of mind, the slow, prodding rhythms, steady swing and constant drive can be soothing (“One Day We’ll Find You”). Or it can bore you to tears (the stuck-in-the-mud “As The Story Continues”). Broadcast Sea are blessed to have been signed by a label that seems committed to exploring that proverbial ‘something different.’ Wounded Soldier is a solid listen, but I’ll be waiting for the sophomore session to make my final judgment on this band.

myspace: www.myspace.com/broadcastsea
mp3: "One Day We Will Find You"
video:

A New Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

Jacob Free Jazz Odyssey's Lil Tae Rides Again unfolds more like an eclectic indie-rock album than the jam band romps they've been known to fashion. A marriage of instrumental post-rock-infused jazz in the vein of Tortoise's brilliant TNT (Thrill Jockey, 1998) and hyperactive avant-funk and digital illbient a la DJ Spooky, Lil Tae is the ultimate in accomplishments, a near perfect reinvention of direction and sound.



And perhaps that has more to do with the way this record was fashioned: with electronics fanatic Tae Meyulks locked away in a century-old warehouse in the oldest part of Tulsa to deconstruct and remix the tunes Brian Haas, Reed Mathis and Josh Raymer created. Lil Tae is eclectic and adventurous. Chicago-esque post-rock jams (”Autumnal”) give way to electronic soundscapes (”Winter Clothes”) only to be followed by Mike Ladd-like futurist hip hop (”Tether Ball Triumph”).

JFJO begin to lose some of their muster with “Tae Parade,” settling in too much and sounding too much like another out-there trio—the genre-less Medeski Martin and Wood. “Santiago Lends a Hand” is joyfully quirky and haunting at once. Likewise with “Scuffle in the Hallways,” a disorienting fog of handclaps, fragmented conversations and static-laden drum beats. “Recovering the Time Capsule” cries out for a lost New Orleans while “Goodnight Ollie,” the bands longest offering, is a soothing lullaby on digital playback broadcasting future dreams. JFJO put Lil Tae to rest perfectly to say the least; few bands learn how to end an album this strong.

JFJO go digital with Lil Tae Rides Again but they don't end up sounding like they belong on the Thirsty Ear roster, as this isn't Anti-Pop Consortium or Matthew Shipp in the least, though both seem to reference a post-modern marriage of digital and acoustic sonic realities.

It's rare that a band undergoes such a perfect reinvention and are then able to document that reinvention on wax but Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey prove on Lil Tae Rides Again that evolution is scientific fact. Reed Mathis' time with Marco Benevento and The Greyboy All-stars, Brian Haas' seeming break from the madness of music altogether and the addition of new blood in Josh Raymer, all seems to have been what the band needed.

myspace: www.myspace.com/jacobfredjazzodyssey
mp3: "Autumnal"
mp3: "Recovering the Time Capsule"