I Hate Winnipeg

This past weekend I was in Kingston and managed to go to the Wolfe Island Music Festival. It’s an annual festival on the island, which is a twenty or so minute ferry ride from downtown Kingston, and although I only managed to catch the last two acts I am quite happy I went.

I got there during SHAD, and he was actually a lot of fun. I’m not sure what else to say about him. He seems to be heavily influenced by Jay-Z, and he put on a really good show. His DJ was also pretty sick for what it’s worth. The headliners for the night were The Weakerthans and I was totally impressed. So much fun! Seriously, these dudes are so Canadian (bass player looks like Spenny haha) and so cute. The lead singer (John K Samson) is absolutely adorable. He told this pretty wicked story about this goalie for the Canadiens that was pretty hilarious. I just wish I remember the goalie’s name because he sounded pretty badass. They played a good mix of mellow and fast(er) songs and everyone seemed to be really into it, which was good.

The only thing that I didn’t like was that the place was full of absolutely shit-wasted tweens. I’m pretty sure that these kids had never drank before and they were totally obnoxious. I really admired the resolution of the performers – no one even batted an eyelash. I guess you get pretty used to it after a while.

Anyway, here are a couple pictures I took. Not the greatest, but oh well.

This was actually really cute - he brought out this special pedal so he could be all uber and play this solo.

You can't really tell, but Greg (bass - red shirt) was doing a funky dance. It was pretty cool.

It didn't seem like I was this far back at the time. My apologies.

M.I.A. – /\/\/\Y/\

I am really excited about M.I.A.’s new album, /\/\/\Y/\ (MAYA for those of us who can’t read the dashes). I found there was a lot of filler but the majority was amazing. I can’t say enough about this album. And much to my relief, it does not appear that we have another “Paper Planes” situation on our hands.

Anyway, this album was very electro-heavy with a couple songs that are totally capitalizing on the rise of dub-step. I know I keep saying this, but really, dub-step is gradually increasing in popularity and we can totally expect to see it in the mainstream soon. Although there weren’t any songs that I would call straight up dub-step, the lady did have a couple dirty dirty beats here and there. “Story to be Told” seems to be the heaviest of them, and you can probably expect to see some dub-step mixes of “Teqkilla” coming up on Hype Machine soon. Speaking of “Tekqilla”, I love the name. But more importantly, she cusses quite frequently in this track and it kind of weirded me out. Maybe I should have been paying more attention, but I don’t think M.I.A. has really dropped f-bombs before. Still a good song.

Something else I noticed about the album overall is that it was much darker sounding than her previous work. There are no “Sunshowers” or “Bird Flu” on /\/\/\Y/\. It is all really heavy with very little light hearted material. I think part of the darkness comes from her reliance on electronic sounds versus world music as well as the way she’s got her vocals mixed. It sounds totally spacey and bleak – it almost has an apocalyptic feel to it. It’s cool but just so much darker than what she’s put out in the past. Except for “Internet Connection” which is this album’s answer to “U.R.A.Q.T.” and totally awesome and hilarious. And fully relate-able.

I think some attention has to be paid to “Born Free” – not because of the song itself but because of the video. I love the song (hell0, Suicide sampling) and I think it’s noteworthy in itself but the video totally trumps the song. I think it’s important on a couple levels, the first being the depiction of the police state of L.A. Some people have thought it to be a commentary on genocide, the new law in Arizona or just persecution in general. I’d like to think it comments on genocide (and how stupid it is to discriminate against redheads, seriously guys wtf, the ginger hating needs to stop) and totalitarian practices the best, but each to their own. If you haven’t watched the video yet, you really need to. I could write a full essay on it, but I’ll spare you.

I’m not going to go any longer, and instead I’ll just suggest everyone download this album and hear it for themselves. It’s pretty heavy though, so if that’s not your thing you might want to watch out.

Here’s the video for “Born Free” (very very NSFW). To those of you who haven’t heard about this yet, it is very graphic. So much so that it was actually banned from Youtube. It’s a great video though.

Shake That Thing (Riverside) – Sydney Samson ft Twista

Thought I’d post this for all y’all who are enjoying that “Riverside” track that’s floating around the airways. It’s just Twista rapping over the “Riverside” beat without all the funky mixing it seems to have on the radio. Probably one of my favourite dance tracks right now.

Q-Tip – The Renaissance

Right, so. The Renaissance is Q-tip’s third solo album, and quite frankly I think that it is inherently boring. It sounds nice and all that business but it’s nothing more than background music. The only time I’d ever listen to this is while writing an essay or something. It’s good homework music. Other than that, there isn’t much value to this album. The lyrics are deep, poetic, and have an element of activism to them, but are in no way shape or form intriguing. There is nothing about this album that makes me want to listen to it. It’s too bloody bland. It has a very old school East Coast feel, and is quite musical, which are two very good things, but they cannot redeem an uninteresting collection of songs. Maybe I am too young to enjoy this – I could see a 30 something really liking this album, but no one under 25. None of this could ever be played at a club or even a lounge really; it’s not dancey or laid back enough. I’m sure someone out there is stoked on Q-Tip, but I really can’t get into this album.

Kanye West – 808′s and Heartbreak

808’s and Heartbreak is the lastest album from the self-proclaimed Louis Vuitton Don, and I’m not entirely sure what to think about it. The vocals are incredibly monotonic and one dimensional, this due in part to Kanye’s following the trend of heavily using the Auto-Tune machine. There are some awesome percussion lines in this album, but those are also mechanically created, using a drum machine (the Roland TR-808, which is where that half of the album name comes from, as it were) which is relatively disappointing, although a cool sound was produced none the less. The songs are all quite same-y, with similar instrumentals and absolutely not change in vocal style or tone whatsoever. However, the instrumentals are pretty, with some nice orchestral parts and one or two intriguing piano lines. The overall tone of the album is wistful and distant, even becoming reclusive or sorrowful at times, which I must say is very different from Kanye’s usual “I’m the best” banter.  As for the tracks, “Amazing” is probably my favorite, with its older Kanye feel, and Young Jeezy’s Auto-Tuneless part. It is more standard hip hop than the other tracks, and stands out because of this. “Love Lockdown” is another strong one, and is incredibly sorrowful. It likely has the strongest instrumentals of all the tracks, with some cool sounding tribal drums thrown in here and there. Unfortunately, Lil Wayne’s part in “See You In My Knightmares” is positively annoying. I generally like Lil Wayne, but this was too much for me – the dude pushed things a bit far. As well, “Pinocchio Story” is kind of cool for what it is, with an interesting metaphor, but its not the best i the way of quality. I don’t think it would have been much worse if someone had recorded it on their cell phone. This isn’t the sort of thing that belongs in a studio album – keep the lesser quality recordings for a b-sides and rarities album. I like this album far better than anything else I have heard from Kanye West, and it has, for the most part, made me like him far more than I did before I listened to it. However, it is not a particularily exciting album, but I suppose he can do something like this. God knows he has the money for it.

Here’s the video for the first single, “Love Lockdown”

Bliss N Eso – Flying Colors

I recently discovered a rather stunning hip hop trio from Australia known as Bliss N Eso. Based out of Sydney, Bliss N Eso is probably one of my favourite acts right now. The membership includes, MC Bliss, an American born MC, MC Eso and the Morroccan DJ Izm, a combination that induces politically and socially aware music lyrically reminsicent of M.I.A. Their sound, however, maintains a very old school feel similar to that of the Beastie Boys, but is much edgier. Their message is also very old school – it focusses more on establishing oneself as a musician and having your voice heard than being a pimp, hustler or a gangster in general. The partying is still there, but it is not the core of the music.

Their latest album, Flying Colors, is absolutely stunning. The intro is sampled from an unidentifiablw movie that questions why anyone would want to see anything that they have already seen before (why paint a flower if you can see one outside?), which leads one to expect a completely different sound. And I can assure you that these boys deliver. Their openning track is absurdly dancey and intelligent. Politically active lyrics ripe with allusions and sincerely lacking in bitches and ho’s make for a righteously awesome song. One song inparticular, “Bullet and a Target” is incredibly powerful, with strong antiwar lyrics which speak out against government corruption and violence in third world countries, and features the Zulu Connection choir. Very rarely has a hip hop, or even pop, song had the potential to move me to tears, and this one got close. Maybe I just have too much sentimentality for citizens of third world countries, but this song is amazing. The other songs are all socially aware as well, ignoring the tendency of many artists to discuss gangsterism  and instead dealing with social issues and questioning why humanity is so destructive. Despite this heaviness, the album is distinctly dancey. It has an old school feel, without the over-produced, overdone sound of most of the mainstream hip hop we hear today. Their lyrics are incredibly smart (allusions to Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels), and talk about women with respect, both incredibly unheard of in the vast majority of mainstream hip hop songs.

I am absolutely enamoured with Bliss N Eso, and will likely go to their Vancouver show on the tenth of this month. This is the sort of music I would love to play at a house party. As soon as I get home I am going to shove these dudes down the throats of my friends. They could very well be the next Beastie Boys.