February 7, 2010
Bizarre Follow-ups
Sometimes musicians return to the studio after big hit albums by trying to top that album commercially. However, here are 4 albums where the artists instead went in a memorably weirder, less-commercial direction.
Todd Rundgren | A Wizard, A True Star
After the seeming fluke success of his 1972 double-album Something/Anything? — which was full of soft-rock staples yo
u’re sure to hear now and again in your friendly neighborhood grocery or at the dentist’s office — Todd Rundgren responded by making his weirdest, least accessible album to that point. To call this album “schizo” is an understatement. The first half is dominated by oddball 60-to-90-second songs, typified by the track “Dogfight Giggle,” where the sounds of dogs barking and someone giggling are sped-up and played over and over. Even when the album relaxes into more conventional songs, the choices are odd: Rundgren (who, it should be pointed out, is one of the whitest people in the world) does a 10-minute medley of R&B hits including “Ooh Baby Baby” and “La La Means I Love You.” If you have the right sense of humor or sense of adventure, you will find this album greatly rewarding.
Mary Travers, Known For Her Work in Classic Folk Group Peter, Paul, and Mary, Passes Away at 72 [Brooklyn Vegan]
Billy Corgan Announces 44-Track Smashing Pumpkins Album Called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope; I Set Fire to a Copy of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness In Attempt to Feel Something [Spin]
Stream Animal Collective’s “Banshee Beat” vs. Beach Boys’ “I’m Waiting for the Day” – If Animal Collective Won That Fight, They Would Still Lose, As They Would Cease To Exist In That Back To The Future Paradox Way [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Kermit the Frog Tells People That He Is Not Dating Lady Gaga; People Fails at Differentiating Between “People” and Fuzzy, Marionette Puppets (Due to Deteriorating Eyesight of Journalism? Eh?!) [Idolator]
Ever Increasingly Irrelevant College Rockers Weezer Announce Ratitude Tracklist; Includes Song Title “In the Mall,” Which Pretty Aptly Describes Why They Ought Go Back to Garage [Spin]
Watch Chicago’s Andrew Bird and Brooklyn’s St. Vincent Collaborate in La Blogotheque; Experience Long Performance of Pure, Unadulterated Pleasantness; Feel Kind of Sick Afterward [Pitchfork]
The Clash’s Mick Jones and Topper Headon Rerecord The Clash’s “Jail Guitar Doors” With Billy Bragg and Prison Inmates – Headline Gets Progressively More Awesome Every Word Added [NME]
Activision Claims That Kurt Cobain Guitar Hero Avatar Sound and Legal; Real Nirvana Fans Still Feel That Problem Not Cobain’s Appearance, But Rather Features Cobain Smiling On Stage [Pitchfork]
Grizzly Bear Joins Bon Iver, Thom Yorke, and Death Cab for Cutie on Twilight Sequel New Moon’s Soundtrack; “Cool” Listeners Finally Forced to Admit That The Bands Are Listened to By Shit Tons of People (Note Again: Distinction Between People And Puppets) [Prefix]
compiled by Max Sebela
April 17, 2009
Green Day: Know Your Place
TOP DOG
Things are looking shitty for America right now – war, domestic strife, global hate, a disastrous economy, Hannah Montana: The Movie being the highest grossing movie, Fast & Furious being the second, etc. But as bad as things are, I’m sure the real question on everyone’s mind is: “do we really need another social-political album from Green Day, the band that got its name from weed and garnered its fame from a song about masturbation?” Though Rolling Stone may be screaming “oh god yes,” others may be feeling a bit more wary about the preaching from American Idiot having bloomed into 21st Century Break Down, a full-fledged rock opera of half-backed, extreme-leftist idealism.
Already, its first single “Know Your Enemy” – a rally against the Man, making sure you know who the Man is, and not becoming the Man – is hard to take seriously. Even if Billie Joe is a good songwriter, what the hell does a pampered rock-star living in Cali know about social upheaval? Having him spout revolutionary ideals at you is like getting bar-b-que tips from a vegetarian. Maybe if the song was called “Know Your Eye Liner” it would actually have some cred.
More on Green Day: Know Your Place
Despite being originally rock in nature, some of the tracks below have in many ways become more important to hip hop than rock, while others are all time classics in both. Some have been sampled to death, while others date back to the infancy of hip hop with the original DJs cutting up their classic drum breaks for block parties and b-boys - in some cases even before rappers ever started rapping. This is by no means an exhaustive list either; this is just to give you a taste.
Rush - “Tom Sawyer”
My best personal example of this can be summed up from a card game I was playing with some friends a couple years back. This track came on (via a DJ mix cd) and the guys in the room who could be deemed as the most hip-hop were like “ahh yeah” and the guys in the room who had more rock tendencies were like “eww, I hate this track!” While there are certainly many rockers who love it, its funny to see how people can have such different experiences of the same song.
Jefferson Starship - “Rock Music”
There’s no explanation needed here beyond its inclusion in the Ultimate Breaks and Beats Series, which is essentially a collection of all the original jams played in the parks and clubs by founding hip hop DJs in NYC (i.e. the South Bronx and Uptown) in the 70s and 80s.
AC/DC - “Back in Black”
Sampled by the likes of Boogie Down Productions, the Beastie Boys, and others, as well as being playable to hip hop crowds on its own, this track is definitely classic status. That simple guitar riff and those drums make it both mixable and palettable to hip hop’s 4/4 beat and sample/looping sound.
More on Some Hip Hop Tracks Literally Rock…Whether You Like It Or Not
