I am currently in Los Angeles for the first time in a few years. It’s a quick trip, but I have put in the effort to eat a French dip. Tonight I go see F.G.S. play her first show ever. It’s both in support of Chanel Beads—also on the bill is former John’s Music Blog interviewee Mary Jane Dunphe—and in celebration of Tinker Bell’s Cough, the debut F.G.S. album that came out earlier in the week. Here is the final song. Blast it loud as you drive to go get an order of one dollar “Groovy Fries” at Sonic.
Boldy James, Antt Beatz “Super Mario”
Boldy James over a Helluva Beats track is the perfect synthesis of multiple streams of Michigan rap. Unlike, say, Nas rapping over a beat with “skittering hi-hats,” it actually sounds natural. It’s a tune that will only make more sense once the temp goes below 40. It’s also a tune that would’ve fully slipped past me if it wasn’t for a weeks old post by the great Mitten rap chronicler raygarraty.
I haven’t been able to fully process the 39-track 909 Worldwide compilation that dropped a few weeks ago. I slept on ordering a copy of the double cassette edition, which is the rare piece of physical media I have felt compelled to buy in the year 2024. (I did pay exorbitant international shipping fees to order Rapstar* by New York on tape.) Now before I can even catch my breath, there is another massive new rave comp, this time from a label out of Salt Lake City. It might be cheating for me to pick a Jersey club song that samples Mos Def, but that’s how we are rocking today.
Jangle heads are eating good this autumn: Galaxie 500 dropped a rarities and outtakes comp. It’s their first new archival material in damn near 30 years. “I Wanna Live” is not a Ramones cover, but it does have that classic-style Galaxie bassline, high and melodic, the type that has fluttered the hearts of a million bowlcut kids.
Whenever I hear Papo2oo4, my brain forms a perfectly rendered CGI image of a burned Lloyd Banks CD-R spinning in a blacked-out void space. There is a minor glint coming off of the disc’s silver coating. The sharpie lettering offers no clue to the record or mixtape contained within. It simply says Lloyd Banks.
MIX OF THE WEEK: Dog City Sessions: Soup Activists
A lot of online music sessions sound like the band is playing in a vacuum-sealed environment, devoid of both vibe and precision, a combination of the most unforgiving elements of both the live music experience and the record-making process. There is one easy way around this: Record the audio to VHS. Here, post-egg pop band Soup Activists sound good and crunchy through the sonic lens of Hampton Martin’s camera mic. And that’s not even to mention the expert cable access dissolve work and the MTV-by-way-of NJP screen setup.
I wish you were coming to our show but next summer we'll do more!
See you at the show, John!