Before we get to that, it's standard disclaimer time: This blog is really not meant for public consumption, although I appreciate every random reader from across the globe. The intended audience for this, which informs the way I write and describe/compare the music, is composed of the friends I’ve accumulated in my life with whom I’ve shared mutual enjoyment of music in the past. My purpose here is to attempt to foster or rekindle that facet of those relationships. Still, thanks for reading, whoever and wherever you are. Also, it doesn't matter whether it came out in 1997 or 2015. If I found out about it recently and I like it, I'll include it here.
Breaking Tradition - Vanity
Listen
Great Lakes USA - Stumbling Distance
Listen
Knuckle Puck - Copacetic
For my tastes, this young group on the quick come-up has been a slightly above average pop-punk band prior to this, but nothing they did really got me "into it". This, their debut full-length following a few EPs and 7"s, shows a more developed approach and a greater range of influences, which still mostly stay under the umbrella of bands/sounds I like (check the unmistakable ode to Jimmy Eat World's "Goodbye Sky Harbor" on the last track, "Untitled"). Catchiness and energy abound without too much cheese or color-by-numbers pop elements, and the end result is a damn good album (some of my friends would call that a gross understatement) which has me paying attention much closer than before to these whippersnappers. "True Contrite" (see the first video link) is probably my favorite track. Also, I recently found out I'm not the only one who thinks the backup singer guy sounds exactly like former Transit/Sleepsick/The Weeds guitarist Joe Lacy on Keep This To Yourself. The resemblance is uncanny.
Video
Video
Choke Up - Black Coffee, Bad Habits
Listen
Gatherers - Quiet World
Listen
Video
Video
Wince - Media Prayer
This one came to me via a Facebook recommendation post from Such Gold, and their bandcamp page accurately describes them as "an amalgamation of all things under the 'punk rock' umbrella". So if you like most things under said umbrella like I do, then you should find something to dig in this 3-song, 11-minute EP.
Listen
First Division - Overworked and Underpaid
Want to hear a couple Canadian crackers do justice to one of DJ Premier's best beats of the last 5 years? Of course you do. Click the video link below. Naturally it's the best song on the album, but the rest of it is solid to really good. "Stand Down" is quite funky thanks to Marco Polo production, and "Grind State" features Kev Brown on both the hook and beat. They really pay homage to their influences, the same artists who shaped my tastes, and otherwise generally embody what I think of when I hear the phrase "how hip-hop should be". See how many historical hip-hop references you can pick out when they pay respect to the "greatest rap duos to date" on "Like This".
Listen
Video
Illah Dayz - The Illahstrator
When I was a teenager forming my tastes in hip-hop there wasn't much coming out of the Detroit scene until Slum Village came along. Thinking back to that period, it's cool to know that 20 years later, I'm able to feature one quality hip-hop record after another from Detroit artists in this blog. I won't tell you that this dude breaks any new ground with the rhymes, but he has a solid style and comes off with a very enjoyable album thanks to plenty of help from his buddy, my favorite Wu-Tang fam producer of the new millenium, Bronze Nazareth. Bronze's protege Kevlaar 7 (R.I.P.) also provides some killer production. Especially good tracks include "Brother In Law" and "Obvious Destiny". As with most hip-hop records, skip the intro. Also, if you're a fan of Bronze or Killarmy, you'll probably want to give Dom Pachino's latest a listen, as it was entirely produced by Bronze, though the results are not as good as this.
Listen
Video
Sean Price - Songs In The Key of Price
Video
Finale - Odds & Ends
Listen
L'Orange & Kool Keith - Time? Astonishing!
Listen
Here's one of my favorite Detroit artists with an album produced entirely by Mello Music Group's best producer, Oddisee. (An argument could certainly be made for Kev Brown, who makes less stuff I don't like than Oddisee, but the latter's ceiling is higher than the former's.) Accordingly, it's almost wall-to-wall enjoyable. My highlight here is "Perseverance".
Listen
L'Orange & Kool Keith - Time? Astonishing!
If you haven't heard the two records that define Keith's solo career in my opinion, the wonderfully odd, perversely clever Dr. Octagon project Dr. Octangonecolygist and the Dr. Dooom album First Come, First Served (featuring the greatest cover art known to man), please do yourself a favor and jump on that. His group Masters of Illusion and the Black Elvis album were a distant third and fourth to those, and pretty much everything else has ranged from a mixed bag all the way down to complete and utter garbage. Thanks to Mello Music Group and Nashville-based (whaaa??) boom-bap producer L'Orange, we can now hear Keith and a bevy of his guests over straight kicks and snares again. The results are probably not quite what you'd hope, as Keith doesn't get as disturbingly/entertainingly weird as he did 20 years ago, but nonetheless it's good to hear him over production that doesn't make you want to shove a screwdriver in your ear to make it stop. It's a pretty even album throughout, so give it a spin already.
Listen
Beyond that, here's a quick rundown of other stuff I checked out, in no particular order. Kalamazoo has been holding a quality hip-hop secret for a while in the form of the group Dezert Eez, whose newest album is pretty uneven but also has some real high points, like tracks "Gravity" and "Winter Fresh (Snow)". Timing Is Everything is another uneven hip-hop album with some real high points thanks to production from the likes of DJ Premier, 9th Wonder, and Amp despite King Magnetic being a total dirtbag drain on society (judging by his skits especially). Check "Status" (Premo), "Believe" (9th), and "Up & Down" (don't mind the stupid corny low-voice chorus...leave that to those A$AP douchebags, dude). Big Awesome, makers of my #2 favorite EP of 2013, finally put out a full length that's pretty good but sadly not spectacular called "Party On". It's got an emo/punk base but has a straight-ahead rock feel to it at times. If you liked their other stuff, definitely check it out. Pentimento put out a decent 7" teaser as a prelude to their new LP (will it make the year-end list? I haven't listened yet). Apollo Brown did a full-length album featuring a slew of great guest MCs, but his production is just SO monotonous sometimes. It's like he has some hang-up with the melodic notes having to be right on repeating 1/4 or 1/8 notes relative to the snare beat, and the tempos and drum beats are the exact same way too often. That said, it's all boom-bap, and there are definitely some good tracks like "Radio (ft. Evidence)" and "Money (ft. Masta Ace & Wordsworth)". I just wish he'd change it up like he had to for Ghostface's Twelve Reasons To Die remix, where he was given the a capellas and had to construct instrumentals around them. I think that forced him out of the box he likes to stay in and is by far my favorite project of his. And finally, Erick Sermon put out his first album in 11 years, and guess what? He still doesn't care how shitty his lyrics are, and he'll still follow any awful trend to try to be relevant to the lemmings, but his new E.S.P. album is noteworthy for featuring Redman & Method Man over the best production either has had in years on "Clutch".
Well, that's all she wrote for this time around, kids. Come back in early January for my year-end list. And as always, thanks for reading, and let me know if you like any of this stuff. Take care, brush ya hair.
Well, that's all she wrote for this time around, kids. Come back in early January for my year-end list. And as always, thanks for reading, and let me know if you like any of this stuff. Take care, brush ya hair.