Remember when I said no more ska on the Music Blog? Well, when Jesse and Lint from Op Ivy start a new band together for the first time in damn near 35 years, I gotta make an exception to the rule. Up until hours ago, this band was called Bad Optix. Some breaking news: they have changed their name to Doom Regulator. Alright… Whatever the case, “Raid” is a punky rocksteady number with a nice goon chant chorus. At least I showed some restraint and didn’t post that BLP Kosher/BabyTron song.
Last month, I attended a taping of Drew Barrymore’s talk show. Not to brag or anything, but as I was exiting the soundstage, the show’s warm-up person shouted me out for being an exceptionally high energy member of the crowd. I was clapping my ass off! I mean, it would’ve been hard not to be siked: On that day’s show, John Legend surprised a super fan. She was in a massage chair with cucumbers over her eyes when John popped into the mix and freaked the living shit out of her. It was simply classic daytime TV damage… A true pleasure to witness that chaos in the room. Also: Legend sang a song for Drew’s bearded dragon? What a show. Later that day, as I was reflecting on it all, I was reminded of this classic “Ordinary People” Baltimore club flip.
One of the better Atlanta rap songs I’ve heard in a second. The way BabyDrill adlibs his own name is even more catchy than the chorus, which is already fairly catchy.
L.O.T.I.O.N. Multinational Corporation “Electric Meat Slicer”
Was sleeping on the most recent L.O.T.I.O.N. record. It’s the project’s most “produced” output to date and it’s better for it. Sounds like a punk person whipping up a variant of EBM/digital hardcore that actually improves on some of the shortcomings of those genres. It’s also got all the hard-boiled cyberpunk imagery anyone could ever ask for. In a just world, Lloyd Kaufman would create an entire Troma movie around the album.
Another thing I’ve been sleeping on? BigWalkDog. The Mississippi MC makes the kind of Deep South Small Town Reality Rap that always sounds sick. He’s signed to Gucci Mane’s New 1017 imprint. This one reminds me a little bit of “Elm Street” by Jimmy Wapo (RIP) and all of the music that song was inspired by.
“Fables” contains both a breakbeat and a Beck feature. With that said, it feels more like post-chillwave indie than anything the Dust Brothers might’ve cranked out back in the day. Some will say I’m “posting mid,” but I’m fucking with it. And XXXChange is on co-production duties? Oh, hell yeah. Curious to see where Beck goes next. Would love for him and Alex to make Odelay 2.0: No samples for maximum sync carnage.
Feeling the breakdown here: If I happened to be the kind of person who went to hardcore shows, I would probably look forward to “going off” to it during a Buggin’ set. But I’m not that kind of person. I’m something far more pathetic.
MIX OF THE WEEK: DJ Chuck Wren “This Is SKA on WNUR 89.5 FM, 1989”
As long as we are breaking the “no more ska” rule… Might as well go all the way. Hat tip to Leor Galil for dropping a mix link into his recent article about Chicago ska legend Chuck Wren. I guess this was one of the first American ska radio shows? Very interesting block of music. It’s 1989, so pretty much zero ska-punk or skacore. A lot of 2-Tone, and the modern stuff sounds closer to that than Less Than Jake. The most interesting track, though, is what the DJ refers to as “experimental acid ska coming out of Europe.” It’s by a group called Children Of The Night and it features both Ranking Roger from The English Beat and Lynval Golding from The Specials. It really does sound like acid house meets ska and it samples all sorts of shit. Going to probably need to interview Chuck Wren at some point.