Happy Friday fam. The Back In The Day Remix video is done. I am rendering that shit now. Then I gotta upload it. So, you know, coupla hours or somesuch.
In the meanwhile, I gotta let you know I saw Son Of King Rebel’s first gig last night, at The Windmill. Were you there? I know for a fact there was about 50 people there, and this time next year 5000 of you will be telling the tale. Go figure. Some of you cats is lower than rat-balls. Anyway. I gotta give props where props be due. Shit was awesome. Son Of King Rebel got hits! Mad hits! Hits for days! Well, about 24 minutes. 24 minutes of hits is a good ratio.
Hearing these songs with a full band at a decent hour, rather than at 4 am banged out pissed on a cheap fake piano was something of a revelation. I Don’t Love Jesus No More is so a hit! I’m a produce the EP and take all the credit.
Anyway. That New Music I was on about. It’s some Mood Music. Mood Music 3rd, in fact. Ill Poetic‘s done a really surprisingly ill mash up of Joe Budden’s Mood Music 3 and a load of Portishead joints. This shit really works - the music perfectly matches Budden’s borderline-physcotic, paranoid, wretched flow. The thing reeks of misery.
Hot off the heels of the Sean Bell verdict, here’s some footage of a fuckwad of coppers beating the crap out of some people. News quote:
More than a dozen police officers will be taken off the street as authorities investigate a video showing three suspects being kicked, punched and beaten after they were pulled out of a car during a traffic stop.
Moral of these stories, ala Mendez, The Empire Does What The Fuck It Likes. Now Shut The Fuck Up.
In ‘94, I was 13 going on 14, and I was into Oasis. I’d just come out of my grunge period - Soundgarden had gone, Nirvana were all but over and, hard as it seems to imagine at the time, Oasis were the most hardbody outfit out. They spat, sneered, and swaggered their way into my affections with one hot 12″ called Supersonic, and I was hooked. For an album and two albums worth of B-Sides they were awesome, but they peaked with the Whatever interim-single, and it’s been downhill ever since.
But my interest was piqued by an article on Stereogum about some new Oasis demos that have leaked into Youtube. Hell, I thought, maybe, after a decade of shit, they’ve got that ole magic back.
The songs are I Wanna Live A Dream (In My Record Machine), Stop The Clocks, and Nothin’ On Me. Nothin’ On Me is definitely the worst, and also bears the distinction of being the only one sung by Liam. Now, Liam still has a much better voice than Noel (even as cartoonish as it has become), so it is kind of mean and selfish and lame of Noel to keep the (relatively) better songs for himself. Like Kanye with his beats. Give some of them shits to Method Man, fool!
Anyway. Those other two are both winsome Noely ballads. They’re better than most of the winsome Noely ballads I’ve heard over the past decade of not liking Oasis that much, but they’re hardly Talk Tonight or The Masterplan. Best of the pair is Stop The Clocks, which improves significantly on repeated listen, and is notable for its uncharacteristic dabbles in existentialism. “What if I’m already dead?” beseeches Noel, “how would I know?”
Stream: Oasis - Stop The Clocks (Demo)
Stream: Oasis - Talk Tonight
Back in the early nineties, Oasis were banging out a single and three awesome B-sides every three months. It could be argued that they went shit around the time that hectic pace let up. Perhaps with that in mind, after a sample-bullshit-hampered ‘07, ‘08 is proving to be a productive year for our pal Marvin.
Hot on the heels of Superhero comes That One Time EP, out in June. Explains Marv’s manager Tego:
“It’s an EP of 6 songs for the summer months. A street summer, a young summer, an Ibiza summer, a cold summer, a London summer. We’re basically looking at an EP every 2 months now. Singles are dead. We want to put out proper releases every time we drop.”
Track two of said collection is a joint called Boyspot. This track caught me completely off guard - I was so not expecting some ish like this from Marvin right now! It’s some really ill d ‘n’ b inspired post-grime sickness from producer Jack Nimble, all sub bass, stuttering hi hats and off key high-end snare slaps, with a frantic rap from Marvin about the ills of wastemen. “That zone you’re in, that’s a Boyzone,” notes Marvin, doing his best Newman and Baddiel impression, “that life you live that’s a Westlife.” Say word!
Marvin’s getting mad conceptual on his new shit, and for Jack - suddenly free of samples and emboldened with a new outlook on production following the lessons learned making Marvin’s album - the future is wide open. Hype shit ahead!
Stream: Marvin - Boyspot
Finally, some sexy new shit from Blueprint. Props to Silent Bob69 who put me onto this dude a month back via the comments section (what did we do before that shit?). The kid is definitely interesting, creative, and most importantly, dope. His new EP, which you can get for free here, and on CD here, features BP rapping over collages of music made from Funkadelic songs. Blueprint explains:
“I started making beats out of as much of their music as I could and putting lyrics to them, some stuff i wrote on the spot, other stuff was ideas that I had played with before but never finished. I had the record pretty much done for a couple of years but I felt like I didn’t have any audio of them speaking that really explained what they were about, so I put it on hold until I could find some interviews. Once i found them i finished it up, and here it is.”
Musically, this stuff smashes like Hulk. It’s especially refreshing that dude avoided the obvious loops and sounds - he’s gone for a lot of the more raw, rock and psyche infused stuff. Lyrically he is totally taking the piss out of all your favourite rappers for the most part. “It’s quite ironic what I say these days / you got an oversized hat but you workin’ with a peabrain,” he spits on Dont’ Make Me Laugh. “Cats that never seen a turntable got the nerve to make a record and call it Go DJ.” Owch!
When cleaning out my inbox I wondered why I’d left a ‘news story’ with ‘Morrissey‘ and ‘racism‘ in the title undeleted.
Well, now I remember: The NME withdrew £75,000 in funding for the Love Music Hate Racism event in London in late April, and Morrissey stepped in, rallying his “management, booking agency, and promoters” to help make up most of the huge funding defecit.
The NME’s reasons for pulling out are unclear. Morrissey’s press seemed to suggest his own asociation with the event made things difficult for the magazine, what with ongoing court proceedings concerning the NME’s botched and blunt hatchet job on Morrissey earlier this year. (Morrissey: “Love Music Hate Racism got in touch and explained that the NME had pulled support, possibly as a result of their association with me.”)
However, most sources presume that it was simply a case of dwindling sales and lack of cash.
As far as I can see, the story failed to pique the interest of anybody except left wing bloggers. (Though please feel free to correct me.)
The NME has long maintained a naïve and annoyingly-vague left-wing stance on political issues, but perhaps this just doesn’t cut it anymore? Given the recent election of naïve and annoyingly-vague right-wing mayor, Boris Johnson, not to mention the relatively huge success of the BNP candidate, Richard Barnbrook (now one of the 25 members of the London Assembly), when compared with Left List’s Lindsay German, perhaps the NME could re-invent itself as a far right rock rag? If that’s where the money is…
The LMHR Carnival took place as planned on Sunday 27th April 2008 in Victoria Park, East London, and was a huge success.
Incidentally, I attended the event, was offered (yes, offered) a fight by one person, was refused entry due to possession of non-branded alcohol which wasn’t bought in the sponsors’ expensive booze tents, and was amused to witness a topless reveler dusting his hands on the way out and proclaiming, “Well, that’s racism dealt with.”
The rain fell hard throughout.
I didn’t go myself, even though I only live five minutes away, as I was editing videos. Anyway. As if NME has £75,000 to pay wages, let alone found festivals where - spit - colored folk who don’t play White Man’s Indie are appearing! Lolinger!
As Londoners debate the results of their recent mayoral election, spare a thought for the inhabitants of Rugby: 14.6% of the local vote at their recent election went to this guy!
Not only does dude look like he dines on newborns and wears too-tight frilly knickers, he supports a white on white breeding policy that ensures a bright-white future of freaks just like him! An island full of them! Forever!
Not only that, but, as mentioned, 14.6% of Rugby’s voting electorate want that too! More Rugbiers than want a Green future. Or a Liberal future. Fuck that shit! A massive 313 people in Rugby say this freak of nature represents them!
Wanna see the brilliant literature that tempted them away from the already far-right mainstream?
Ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out!
I know this cos my ole man sent me the Octopus album, and included this with it. He also included an explanitory note, after worrying that snooping postmen might take me, or him, for a Nazi. Sad times indeed!
Don’t forget, Akira The Don and The Women are playing in Birmingham tonight. Onstage about 1 I think. Tell your friends! Details at www.dropbeatsnotbombs.co.uk.
Last night was dope by the way! Big up all the Lady In Red slow dancers.
Hey gang! Don’t forget, I’m DJing at Dogstar in Brixton tonight. Get down before 10 for free entry. Leave any requests in the comments, it is best not to distract me while I’m playing cos I might mess up. And if I mess up then we’ve both messed up. AHAW!
There are a small box of Akira The Don & The Women shirts left, in Small and Medium sizes (both womens and mens), so the royal we are offering them to you today at the bargain price of £10 including postage and packing. Whoo!
