Sage Introspect “Ur A Jerk (Vocal Dub)”
Over the past year or so, the term jerk music has been creeping back into the ultra-online rap space. As far as I can tell, it’s often used to describe XavierSoBased-style melodic distorto chaos—see this playlist—but you can all sound off in the comments if I’m wrong about that. Since I’m an Aging Millennial Hipster, though, I have to turn it back to jerkin’ music 1.0, which was a 2000s-era So-Cal lifestyle choice based around skinny jeans, minimalist beats, and bouncy dancing. Heard on The Large’s NTS show, Sage Introspect’s garage-ish flip of the 2009 classic “You’re a Jerk” by New Boyz is both jerkin’ and jacking. It’s Jonathan’s Pick of the Week.
The latest “viral smash” out of Milwaukee’s fertile rap scene is “Bad Bitty.” The song has been picking up steam over the past month, and rightly so. It provides the pop payoff that a lot of similar cuts from the city only dance around. It’s one of those tunes that feels like it’s been there with me all my life, from the middle school dance to my friend’s flip phone ringtone. “I say DJ / Can you put this on?”
Love Child was a rickety early-‘90s indie pop band that slipped past me until this week, when I dug into an anthology of their music recently reissued by 12XU. Judging from the release blurb, it seems as if they had a little motion: It claims Kurt Cobain predicted the band would be the 1990s version of Fleetwood Mac, but that did not happen. “Greedy” is my pick of the disc. It sounds like The Vaselines posted up at a Manhattan diner after dark, eating pancakes. I would like to hear Voyeur cover it.
Most days, it’s hard to get out of bed, and it’s not like things get any easier after that. Waves of panic course through my body as I march to Dunkin’ Donuts to pick up my daily nourishment. But when that Dunkin’ hits? That’s when it’s time for me to listen to some happy hardcore. On “HELLO!,” two contemporary rave ragers go into euphoria overload mode, and I am reminded why I blog in the first place.
Daya1k (Feat. Kiki Tha Prize) "Good"
When I think about Denver music, I think about Pictureplane, dubstep, and Christie Front Drive. Rap is not front of mind. So it makes some sense that it took a British head—fedora tip to The Martoralist—to put “Good” on my radar, which schmacks like it could come from Wisconsin or Michigan but is actually from the land of mountains and craft breweries. And it even has a good hook. That’s a bonus.
MIX OF THE WEEK: Flyvee “HARD 3L3CTRO MIXXX”
Now this is what I’m talking about, people. Finally, a mix that has it all, and by that, I mean that it includes both a flip of “Get the Party Started” by P!nk and a flip of “Stilettos (Pumps)” by Crime Mob. The mix lives up to its name: it’s filled to the brim with electro bass, club, and techno; it’s deftly mixed, and ready for all sorts of real life applications. See you at the Dunking.