An excellent hip hop beef, a tribute to Ween and how can Ty Segall be getting any better?
Hello all. I hate winter so I'm not exactly pumped about the next three months, here's hoping some good records come out to dull the pain. Anyway, enough weather talk (I really like talking about the weather), onto some music.
Melbourne's Iowa have been the subject of a bit of chatter among indie-rock chin strokers in recent months, following on from the release of their debut LP Never Saw It Coming. It's pretty derivative which could attract some criticism, but fact is they're drawing influence from the right kind of places. They're channeling the noisy yet melodic '90s indie rock that never really went away, but isn't heard nearly enough anymore, and on this recording it sounds glorious. Try getting the guitar riff to Panic Attack out of your head. Do it. Try. Seriously.
I think Ty Segall might be getting better. His Goodbye Bread breakthrough of last year deserved all of the plaudits it received, showcasing Segall's intense talent for penning gritty-but-sweet ballads alongside noisy garage rock'n'roll. This is a man who release a lot of material. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty_Segall He just issued a record (Hair) with White Fence which was really a lot better than I had expected and he'll have a record with Ty Segall Band (a band featuring the also excellent Mikal Cronin) called Slaughterhouse out in the next couple of weeks and this is a scorching song from it called I Bought My Eyes, available for download, courtesy of Rolling Stone, by clicking here.
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If you're not into hip hop beef then just skip this part of the blog. Even though it's kinda ridiculous how much these dudes fight each other through their songs, I still get a bit of a kick out of it and it's even better when it brings out some genuinely good rapping. Personally, I've pretty much given up on Lil Wayne these days, but this diss against Pusha T which he dropped during the week sees him in pretty fine form. It's believed Pusha was dissing Drake on his Don't Fuck With Me track from late last year – his line “the swag don't match the sweaters” – was pretty excellent. This week, after Pusha released another track, Weezy decided he had to hit back.
Fact is, Pusha T is producing some seriously good hip hop right now. His Fear of God II: Let Us Pray record of last year (it is an EP, apparently, but I don't know why…) was pretty excellent and Exodus 23:1, the latest track he's dropped – which is what fired Weezy up to drop that verse against Pusha – is a dark and powerful four minutes of almost flawless hip hop.
He doesn't mention any names, but it seems pointed at the deal Drake has signed with Lil Wayne's Cash Money Records, which means he's also signed to Young Money Entertainment, which also means he is signed with the Universal Music Group.
“Contact all fucked up, I guess that means you all fucked up/ You signed to one n---a, that's signed to another n---a, that's signed to three n---as, now that's bad luck.”
Ouch. Great line though.
Okay I can't write a blog this week without mentioning one of my favourite bands ever (they're probably second behind The Beatles) Ween, who broke up this week. Okay, so it wasn't exactly surprising, but it still fucking sucks and I'm really bummed about it. Their inclusion on the 2009 Bonnaroo line up was the final catalyst for my “run away to America for a couple of weeks to forget about all the horrible shit that's happening at home” journey that year, I saw as many shows as I could afford on their final Australian tour back in 2008 and I even went fishing and drinking with Deaner once.
There are hundreds of Ween songs I could gush about, but I figure I might leave you with a well-worn anecdote from when they were probably at the height of their powers. They had a surprise hit with Push Th' Little Daisies in the early '90s, which meant that the mainstream began to realise that they existed and their attempts to embrace the band were weird as hell. Check out this bizarre clip, for example.
Anyway, in 2002 Pizza Hut needed a new jingle for a new range of grease laden carb-bombs they were going to be forcing down the throats of puffy Americans in the ensuing months and commissioned Dean and Gene Ween to write a jingle to help them do so. One would imagine there was some money involved, so the guys took it pretty seriously and came up with what I still believe to be a great piece to help them advertise it.
Pizza Hut didn't like it and asked for a rewrite. Ween delivered.
So utterly stupid and so very funny; it's not Ween's greatest musical moment, of course, but it goes some way to explaining how endearing this band was with their purely fun approach to making music. So, I guess, if the fun is over for Aaron Freeman (aka Gene Ween) then it's best that things draw to a close. I do look forward to a reunion tour, should it ever happen.