Quick note: My “Underdog Pop” project RUSTBELT covered The Promise Ring’s emo standard “Nothing Feels Good.” Yeah, I went crazy with the breakbeats and the autotune. Listen to it right here and watch the music video right here.
Afroman “Will You Help Me Repair My Door”
Better and more powerful than every piece of political art in the past two New Museum Triennials combined. To be fair, I can’t really remember so much about either of those exhibitions at the current moment. So take that for whatever it’s worth…
Death By Sheep continue to wreak havoc inside of the NYC punk rave thunderdome. They even flew in Flapjack The Kandi Kid for a holiday throwdown. How about that? This is the label’s most recent release: Japanese ragga breakcore supreme, total Amen chaos, real headbanger shit.
In the era of RXK Nephew’s conversational, fucked-style rhyming, it might be helpful to step back and take notice of the contemporary output of the legendary Kool Keith. In this interesting song, Keith talks about wanting to quit the rap game and become an exterminator. Or maybe work at a laundromat. Or maybe move to Nebraska and change his name to Alvin Kelly. Speaking of Keith: this is one of my favorite live rap radio freestyles. He calls Xzibit Everlast and then counts to 25.
I like the first song on the newest Smut record. Groovy and jangling, it’s perfect for driving around a mid-sized American city at night with your friends, hotboxing the Corolla. Maybe hitting a diner. Maybe talking a little bit of shit about that one local band who just signed a deal with a mid-tier indie and stopped playing shows at the DIY space.
BigXthaplug (Feat. Sauce Walka) “I Know"
Two Houston rappers and John’s Music Blog favorites come together and make a song. The energy was already pretty high, but when Sauce Walka enters the picture? Let’s go!
MIX OF THE WEEK: Scott Henry “The Gift”
In honor of this week’s interview with Mixtape Magic, here is a selection from that archive. It starts with a track that samples a rave “investigation” done on the television show 20/20 (Barabra Walters RIP) and it just keeps going from there. Not unlike Terry Mullen, Scott Henry was one of those regional party heroes known more for their expert mixing than any sort of production credits. These are often the best DJs, period. They play from a range of genres and they know what makes the kids in their town really go nuts. A good amount of the best sets I have witnessed have been from local legends.