THE REPORT: 12/13/24
A SINGLE CHRISTMAS SONG
Quick Note: No Tuesday blog next week. On Friday, John’s Music Blog will be presenting the Best Of the “Best Of 2024” lists, which will be the final post of the year. Also… I’m thinking about doing another “Reader Mailbag” series in January. If anyone has any questions, my email is jchiaverina at gmail. Alright, here comes The Report…
Beach Boys “Merry Christmas, Baby”
Somehow I had never heard this Beach Boys Christmas tune until a few weeks ago. The fuck? I’m not a Beach Boys superfan, but I’ve done my time, or at least enough to think that I would know “Merry Christmas, Baby,” a song that is about as good as a Beach Boys Christmas song could be. All Christmas music sounds kind of sad to me, but that’s something to talk about with a licensed professional in private.
Trick Daddy (Feat. Trina) “NANN (27angels Flip)”
Discovered on the reliable drip of contemporary music and culture that is the Madjestic Kasual YouTube account, here is an electro bass flip of a Trick Daddy and Trina back-to-back classic that is actually two years old. But if it gets re-aggregated by a YouTube page, does that mean the song is new again? It will be good to take a break from The Report for a few weeks.
Last Friday, I went to go see LUCY perform in the basement of an Italian restaurant on Mulberry Street. The gig was so packed that I couldn’t even get down there—not that I tried all that hard—and I ended up leaving before Cooper’s set started, which was sad, because it was his record release show. I’ve been going to claustrophobic basement shows for 25 years. Sometimes I have it in me, sometimes I do not. But now I’m bummed I missed it. Anyway, “Strange As Can Be” is the first song off of the 9th volume of his Cooper B. Handy’s Album series, and it’s one of the strongest album openers I have heard in a minute. My favorite LUCY song seems to change on a month-by-month basis; right now, this is it.
So Drove (Feat. B. Ames & Kevin Jz Prodigy) “Freak”
Before he was So Drove, he was Schwarz. Whatever the name, the producer has been making high-test ballroom and East Coast club for well over a decade now… Among a million other styles. Back to ballroom: “Freak” shows his mastery of the form. Alongside two certified legends, he weaves cutty electro and nü-metal moments into a vicious tune that would be the perfect soundtrack to duckwalking in tripp pants.
Kaitlin Simotics “Sync Button”
Well, my NEW YORK tape came in the mail a few days ago. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the electronica release of the year. The tape’s arrival made me curious to see what Relaxin’ Records is up to, and I found “Sync Button,” a woozy text-to-speech electro stumbler that shmacks in a crevice between styles. One for the late-night college radio crew, no doubt.
Roc Marciano, The Alchemist “Chopstick”
“Necklace with the big stones, huh / It's like a cold plunge / Everything below the throat go numb.” You think Roc’s been spending some time at the Russian and Turkish Baths? Maybe he’s been taking “meetings with founders.” As far as I can tell, 2024 hasn’t been a banner year for neo-classicist New York rap, but these two seemingly get the best out of each other. Say it in a British accent: Pleasantly dreary.
FREE JAZZ CLIP OF THE WEEK: Albert Ayler Quintet “Munich 1966”
It’s a slow slog out of 2024, and it’s an archival week at John’s Music Blog. Not unlike that Trick Daddy and Trina remix, this clip is a new arrival to YouTube; not unlike that Beach Boys song, it’s new to me. Like any great live performance, either witnessed in person or on a screen, watching Ayler and company here has the ability to temporarily convince me that what I am scoping is “as good as it gets.” And maybe it is. It’s a rush of American energy music that traces the twisted past while surging to the future. If I close my eyes, I picture prayer beads overlaid at a half opacity on top of video of Ian MacKaye’s bald head moving in slow motion at the 9:30 Club.