The Work

I remember trying to convince Shidoshi to dress up like Kraftwerk the first time we played the last day of classes at the university. I don't seem to recall it going over well.


I like the ad-hoc subtitles on this documentary from '82. It seems very utilitarian, and thus fitting:


Part 2: I can't tell which quote I like better - "We are 'music worker'" or "We live in exile in Dusseldorf"


Bonus: Music workers from the Bronx satellite office

Mo'

You know who's friggin' old? Ornette Coleman. It's true - dude's still alive: think he was on the Grammys or the American Music Awards or some such, and he turned 77 a week and a half ago.

While I was looking for an Ornette video to post, I came across this snippet. Did you know someone did a Vandermark documentary? Now you do:


Anyway, Ornette Coleman (I think what Roland Kirk says midway through is "if you let the beat and the spirit get to you, let it explode!")(oh, and crazy cat John Cage is thrown in there for good measure):


While we're on this more-bang-for-yr-buck tangent, I'm a street-walkin' cheetah with a heart full of MP3s for you to rock yr lady to:

the Visioneers "Ike's Mood": I totally slept on this until I heard the Marc Mac podcast, and had no idea this album existed until Marco pointed me in the right direction. Still hate the name of the album though.


Radio Citizen "Everything": now, I thought 2006 wasn't a bad year for hip hop, despite a host of opinions to the contrary, and Ubiquity helped us all out with Ohmega Watts and this release. It's not Ornette Coleman/Roland Kirk earth-shattering, but bejeezus, give the guy a few more decades.


Tracy Thorn "It's All True": as crazy career arcs go, Ben Watt/Tracy Thorn's are up there. Not everyone goes from lite-FM acoustic pop to dancefloor power couple, but I suppose everyone's a multi-tasker these days. This is from Thorn's recent solo album, and one of the better 80s throwbacks I've heard in awhile.


Junior "Mama Used To Say": I've been digging on the mixes posted on Mass Corporation, and came across this mix from DJ Pump (I'm not overly certain it's the DJ Pump from Calgary - maybe it is, maybe it ain't), which had me all nostalgic for old school jams that I wasn't quite old enough to have ever listened to in their first run. It's an odd phenomenon, being nostalgic for faux-memories and never-experienced-experiences, and it's fair to say I wasted a whole chunk of time on it. But that sort of mumbo jumbo shouldn't keep one from enjoying this Junior song.


(btw: I've noticed the Divshare player doesn't always work, but you can still download the file)

Eric B and Rakim "Follow the Leader": With the plethora of MP3 blogs that do a fantastic job of posting the rarest of the rare and the newest of the new, I've been wondering if anyone just posts the plain old obvious. Eric B and Rakim's kind of a no-brainer. I prefer other tracks on this album more, but from what I recall Shidoshi always preferred this one.


Jody Watley and Rakim "Friends": For whatever reason, not a lot of people tend to remember this one. I seem to remember it being a big hit, but my memory's not the best. One of the original Vogue (as in the dance, not the magazine) guys is in this video, released in 89, which (I think) means it would've pre-dated Madonna's song.

I've Been Busy, What's Your Excuse?

(via Palms Out)

It's true: I was back in Calgary for an extremely short visit (read: a few hours, before any of you get overly offended), mostly spent in a corporate boardroom. Had dinner at my folks, went down to my old bedroom, saw a few crates of records left behind. Only these weren't MY records.

I went through at least four crates of records a family friend had my parents store for him. It was an odd assortment of singles/albums from the 70s, covering Chinese diva Teresa Teng to Lou Reed's Metal Music Machine. "Borrowed" a few Mizell Brothers singles, a Stevie Wonder Tamla 7", rare groove 7"s, etc.

Then proceeded to watch School of Rock with my mom. Days later, have since finished watching Tenacious D and have decided the latter isn't that bad if you follow it up with the former immediately after. Y'know, for context:

Thin Lizzy "Cowboy Song" - never have heard the Supersuckers version. Will get around to it when I get around to it. Am sucker for the double guitars.


Love - "A House is Not a Motel (Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve edit)". Not sure when they started calling remixes 'edits' again, but whatev. Am glad they didn't just do a house mix of this and actually gave the original a bit more groove.


Bad Wizard "Champagne Boogie" - got super, mindblowing drunk on champagne when I was 16 or 17 and still can't drink the stuff.


Julian Cope - "Hanging Out and Hung Up to Dry": Mike Bell played this on air the first time I met him. It was kinda like watching Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Lester Bangs in Almost Famous, in hindsight. In honor of Mr. Bell, I do point out that Neil Hamburger has a cameo in Tenacious D.


More later.

Ai Yah!: A Generally Bad Week in Asian Affairs

I've been apprehensive about blogging this week, mostly because I've been so crazy busy, but also because it's been a ridiculously bad week in all things Asian-N.American related. I'll start with the easy and work my way up:

I.Asian-American, brand: (courtesy Angry Asian Man) SnapDragon Consultants, a market research firm of some sort, recently released a Top Ten list of things every brand should know about Asian-American Youth. Here's the list:

1. Many Asian-American youth feel excluded and misunderstood by most brands. It's made worse by the fact that they see advertisers actively wooing the African-American and Hispanic markets.
I find this true in a general sense. I still get sort of excited when I see an Asian male on television (or Asian females if they're not in some sort of weird over-sexualized dragon lady role) outside of some sort of newscaster role, but I get weirded out by things as overt as MTV Chi. I don't need another crappy MTV product in general, much less one specialized for my ethnic group.

This commercial is a good case on point. Is Tim Horton's Angry Chinese Dad character supposed to appeal to my sensibilities? Don't they know their Honey Cruller and Boston Cream donuts are enough? Shizz is like crack.


2. Mixed race kids are proudly identifying as Hapa, a once derogatory word in Hawaiian to mean "half." Hapa is also slang for marijuana in Japanese (spelled Happa). Hapa is supplanting terms like Amerasian, biracial, and blasian.
I generally call my mixed-race friends terms like "Jay" and "Marco."

3. Asian-American youth are secret fans of "easy listening" adult contemporary music. Lite FM is a hidden passion.
Well, duh, but I would hardly make this an ethnically specific phenomenon. Quite basically, I grew up listening to lite FM because my mom listened to it alot (when Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" came on, I knew I had roughly ten minutes to finish my breakfast, and when the Bangles' "Eternal Flame" came on, I knew I had to rush out to meet the bus). I scanned through my iTunes, and this was the best example I could find:


4. There's a "hero gap" among Asian-American kids, which is being filled for many by activists from other cultures. Martin Luther King is a role model and hero to many young Asian-Americans.
Not true. There's a lack of Asian figures in the mainstream media in general, activist or not, but that's not to say they don't exist. And - surprise! - MLK is a good hero, lack of Asian choices or not.

5. Most Asian-American kids refer to white people as "white people" the same way African-Americans do.
Sure, whitey. OR: I have no idea what this means.

6. Underage gambling is huge. The "new" American poker obsession is nothing new to Asian-American kids. Gambling has a long history in Asian culture.
Couldn't say, UNO is my fave card game. Once I volunteered in the count room of a casino, and one of the other volunteers asked the supervisor what Pai Gow was. The supervisor looked at me and said "you must know." I still don't know what Pai Gow really is.

7. Asian-American kids want an end to the hyper-nerdy images of themselves on TV and want to see more punked-out skater and graffiti DJ images which reflect a different energy. Asian-American kids crave street credibility -- not just academic accolades.
Oh, Christ - the last thing I want is more 'punked-out skater and graffiti DJ images,' regardless of colour. Another example of how off-target market research can be.

8. Asian-American kids universally hate the question: Where are you from - especially since the answers are usually something like "Westchester" or "Boston."
This was probably true when I was 10, but gradually grows untrue when you realize "Westchester" is a more boring answer than not.

9. All things Korean are hot and getting hotter. Fashion. Foods. DJs. Online communities. Korea is the new Japan.
I noticed this change a few years back in Hong Kong, a year or two after the Asian market collapse, and I don't have a single complaint about it.

10. The 15 minutes of seemingly benign American Idol fame for William Hung had a surprisingly negative effect on Asian-American students. There's a feeling that Hung perpetuated the worst stereotypes about Asian people and gave non-Asians permission to indulge in two years of racial stereotyping and mocking.
Y'know, I've never actually felt much shame over the William Hung thing, though I do note that Angry Asian Man has voiced his beef with it. I never felt Hung was being used a stereotype of Asians so much as a nut that loved Ricky Martin, and I've never heard it as anything other than such. If anything, I was more embarrassed to find that the HK studios felt a need to give Hung an extra fifteen minutes in Where's Mama's Boy?

II.Asian-American, playa-hater: It's utterly shocking that Asian Week didn't kybosh Kenneth Eng's article, "Why I Hate Blacks." The article (avail in the comments from this Hyphen post) was generally a weakly connected point form list of Eng's various life experiences, which included this:

"Blacks hate us. Every Asian who has ever come across them knows that they take almost every opportunity to hurl racist remarks at us. In my experience, I would say about 90 percent of blacks I have met, regardless of age or environment, poke fun at the very sight of an Asian. Furthermore, their activity in the media proves their hatred: Rush Hour, Exit Wounds, Hot 97, etc."

That type of sentiment is echoed in many of Eng's blog posts (links avail courtesy Poplicks), which generally paint Eng as an intolerant, angry dude with little in way of social tact (that's putting it lightly). Eng does a large disservice to those of us that also take issue (albeit in a much more well-measured way) with some of the same issues that peeve Eng off, and threaten to draw attention away from those problems to focus on Eng's colossal dumb-ass-ness and misconceived as some sort of group belief. What's equally hard to watch were the inevitable eye-for-an-eye, "Why I Hate Asians" type responses, the whole thing being a spiraling, eye-for-an-eye intolerant mess.

III.Asian-Canadian, misunderstood: I've harped on the comments people leave at the Globe and Mail before, but the ones on this Michael Jackson story made me cringe that much more, in light of the above. The story, a simple "Mike's charging Japanese fans $3500 a pop for face time," brought a slew of 'those wacky Japs' comments, including this gem:

"Terry H from Moncton, Canada writes: Waste of good yen. Of course it's the Japanese we are talking about here. They pay craploads of big bucks for anything weird. Can we say sushi and monkey brains? Japan is the only country who still wants the freak I guess. They live in the past, way far in the past. I bet they think Elvis is still alive."

Wow - "Monkey brains." My only response: see Roberta Flack/Donny Hathaway song, above.

Dream Team? Not Quite.

By the time the Dana Carvey Show first aired, the Kids in the Hall had pretty much wrapped up and I really couldn't see how a SNL alum could top it. Thus, I never saw any of the 6 episodes that aired, and by the time my curiosity piqued, the show was canceled.

When the Dana Carvey Show topped the Onion's list of the Top "14 neglected TV shows that deserve a DVD release," nostalgia rang anew. With a crew of writers that boasted Steve Carrell, Steven Colbert, Charlie Kaufman, Robert Smigel AND Dave Chappelle, I thought it'd be an undiscovered goldmine. How could this show not be great?

After watching an episode, the answer to that question is obvious: Dana Carvey. The show's largely composed of his various impressions, which, even when they originally aired, would've been a little dated already. Carvey had already finished his tenure at SNL, but still opted to ape the Ross Perot jokes. 2/3 of the gags were of the 'old folks' variety, timid at best, weak even for SNL standards. By the end, the only amusing points were picking out young Steve Carrell and Steven Colbert, a novelty that might get you through 2 episodes, but certainly not 6.

Don't believe me? Here's the worst of the skits (featuring both Carrell and Colbert), which can be easily summed as Carrell doing brown face and Carvey doing ching-chong jokes:

Belated Weekly Post: a Compendium

I've been slow to update this on a more frequent basis, with no valid excuse other than being lazy. Thus, I'll try a bit harder to make each post a little more involved so as to make up for the huge gaps in-between them. After reading O-Dub's tip to DivShare, I figured it was an easy way to appease without turning this into a more full-fledged MP3 blog (which I clearly don't have either the (i) time or (ii) taste for). This RJD2 song seemed like a good start:



Which leads easily into posting the second of the reject record reviews that the local paper didn't run (would probably help if I could remember if it was the Sun or the Province), of RJD2's Third Hand. This also coincides nicely with the fact that the album comes out in the near future (March 6), and to counter, in my opinion, the wave of unfair reviews that have already been posted about it. The only fair review I've seen thus far was in Exclaim, which went along the lines of "RJD2 is a great hip hop producer, but only a good pop musician." Fair enough. I probably gushed a bit more than I should've, but here you go:

RJD2 spent much of his first album being accused of being DJ Shadow-lite, and, much like Shadow, spent his second album chasing after rock over hip hop. With Third Hand, the pattern repeats itself, as the album will undoubtedly stun many, much as DJ Shadow’s recent hyphy album The Outsider was panned as the worst of his career.

Third Hand sees RJD2 largely abandon the beats for indie-pop, and it fortunately works. A producer that’s proven so adept with constructing songs from samples has clearly got an ear for composition, and the short little pop songs that comprise Third Hand are unsurprisingly succinct. The most successful of the songs build on his past catalog, marrying samples with 60s British pop know-how, both rewarding in its immediacy and in its subtleties. While Third Hand will assuredly turn away many (people, it’s been 11 years since Endtroducing!), those with a open mind should find Third Hand more than appealing.
_____________________________________
The one thing I have been busy is noticing the ever-increasing amount of unkempt beards that seem to populate Main Street here in Vancouver. If little dogs are a trademark accessory amongst the various suburbanite ladies that populate our city, uncontrolled facial hair are a suitable analogy for the urban hipster set (Colin Meloy second-hand suits being a close second). In honor of said gents, I would've posted a new track off the LCD Soundsystem album, but as their label seems particularly vigilant in going after the various MP3 blogs that have already done so, here's a Giorgio Moroder track instead ("If You Weren't Afraid"):

W-O-W

My friend Denise was telling me how, when she was in her very early 20s, she and her friends picked songs that represented themselves. Not favorite songs, but songs that fit their lives thematically. She picked Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again."

Wow.

It's funny what gets dumped from Youtube nowadays. I can understand the various concerns of having someone post a new episode of "The Office" or something, but not entirely sure why Viacom would demand all the Whitesnake videos be removed. You'd think Whitesnake would do well to have a little more publicity.

What's more odd are the various homages to "Here I Go Again." I'm all for recognizing the subjectivity in musical tastes, but I think we can all objectively say it's one of the worst songs of all time. Apparently there's differing opinions on the matter.

(1) From what I can tell, this cover band is playing (i) "Here I Go Again" (ii) on a flat bed truck (iii) in a parking lot, at (iv) a show sponsored by a bank or credit union of some sort. There's 4 things already somewhat curious about that observation.


(2)There seems to be alot of self-recorded guitar solos on Youtube, but I wouldn't have chosen this song as a likely candidate. There's infinitely more that I haven't posted, but this guy seems the most personable, but in that I-don't-necessarily-ever-want-to-meet-you-but-I'm-sure-you're-nice kind of way. I can understand the Guitar Player magazine fans that this sort of thing would attract, but the comments hint at a niche-community I never knew existed: "You rock that was almost perfect. very impressed. but i do agree that you need some bending vibrato: my suggestion is just practice bending and just wiggle it up and down slowly and then gradually speed it up. bending vibratos are hard, but they are essential to help express emotion. btw can I get the tab for this?"
Rock is a pretty sexless thing nowadays, I guess.


(3)Given the rest of this band, it's odd that the drummer should choose to play without a shirt.


(4)You combine two odd fascinations - (1) Whitesnake, (2) Final Fantasy - and it becomes a third one.


(5)Perhaps the most minimalist of the bunch, this is just the song with an email address to reply to. Who is Jack Private? Not sure I want to know.

__________________________________________

Complete aside: how awesomely self-conscious was this video?

Lazy Sunday Posting

1. Have always been a huge fan of Eddie Harris and Les McCann's version of Eugene McDaniel's "Compared to What".
2. Saw Les McCann at the Calgary Jazz Fest with Marco (who has a new Dilla tribute posted) two or three years back, a quiet smooth-jazz affair. Didn't think too much of it.
3. Partner at work lent me a copy of the re-issued Invitation to Openness, from around 1971. Features, amongst other tracks, "The Lovers". Interest in Les McCann revived.

Reject Reviews

(Context: I originally wrote a variety of record reviews for the local paper because one of their staff wanted 'hipper' music picks, but they didn't have the budget to bring in another freelancer. On Tuesday, they reviewed the new Belinda Carlisle and Jann Arden albums, and a wire piece on Fall Out Boy. In any case, I didn't figure I should let this LCD Soundsystem review go to waste, but remember the audience I was pitching it for.)

As one-half of the production duo DFA, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy is one of the most influential producers of the past five years, firmly entrenched in the NYC-hip and popularizing dance music for all those blazer boys with tongues-in-cheek. Murphy’s output under both DFA and LCD is fashionably cold without being overly bloodless, and has done more to usher in the current New Wave nostalgia than any other, misguided or not.

With that said, “it” trends are necessarily short-lived, particularly when they lack any evolution. It’s surprising, then, that Sound of Silver is so firmly entrenched in a sound so, ugh, 2004, when any indie-hipster worth his salt would have moved onto something newer and shinier. While, in recent months, LCD Soundsystem’s Nike-commissioned piece 45:33 piqued interest in terms of its audacious duration (the piece is named after its length, forty-five minutes and thirty-three seconds, and patterned against one’s heartbeat during a workout of same length), Sound of Silver backs away completely from anything quite so different. That’s not necessarily a problem – Murphy has cemented the sound with little in way of competition (the Rapture’s weak follow-up gives proof) – but for a man that trades so heavily in currency, it may prove to be disappointing.

The Roots, Live and Direct

Both of us having come down with a cold, it was a little dubious as to whether we'd make it to see the Roots. It took me forever to wake up from the Nyquil, but I'd been waiting for this show for months, having always heard that the Roots are one of the best live shows around, hands down.

From reading Questo's blog, it sounded a little dubious as to whether they'd make it too: "i just took these chlorzoxazon pills and its like cliff huxtable telling claire about when he was training for his relay race that a bear was behind the bleechers and made him carry a big ass ice box."

Thus, I was a little trepidatious about the show. I've seen shitty live shows of artists I love before, and it can ruin a good thing. When the lights dimmed and the Roots did their marching band entrance, it was clear it wouldn't be the case.

I'll spare you from reading a live review - I always thought it sucked to read live reviews of great shows I missed out on. But I will say that Questlove, Kirk Franklin and the tuba player do this incredible, 20 minute version of "Masters of War" that's very powerful to watch, and Black Thought came into his own during the Motown-extended version of "The Seed v2.0" and covered (I think) the Commodores' "Sweet Love."

(It's quite odd watching a group wherein the drummer is the de facto leader, particularly for hip hop acts. For the most part, Black Thought doesn't stick out as a clear front man, mostly because there's so much going on to watch. But he did capture it during this encore, hinting at how soulful he could be, as a rapper or as a singer, if he'd cut loose even more - probably the most widespread criticism I've read of the man or of the Roots.)

There's an interesting phenomena of people recording live shows on their cellphones. I can't imagine it would end up being anything more than noisy audio and shaky-cam. That said, I've never been too into watching live shows recorded. To counter, here's Questo's vid-blog wherein he recounts his Tokyo purchases (how many live shows of Chicago could one possibly watch?):