v e e c a m: 2011

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Otis

Here's Jay-Z on the "Otis" intro: "It sounds so soulful! Don't you agree?" Well, yeah. If you're willing to plunk down enough money to sample "Try a Little Tenderness", that'll happen. But even if the sample works as a sort of audio money-flaunt, it's also a tough and hard chop from Kanye-- Otis Redding's magnificent voice mostly limited to a couple of hellfire grunts, the song itself held to a sharp guitar stab. And where Jay and Kanye's previous collab "H.A.M." was all event-rap bluster, this one is exactly the sort of fun, relaxed shit-talk these guys should be doing. Jay and Kanye trade off verses and never pause for a chorus, each one building on whatever the last guy said-- an old-school rap-collab style you almost never hear anymore. And since these guys are working loose and casual, it gives them chances to show how funny and clever they are without telegraphing their own importance.
Of course, when Jay and Kanye get enough room to drop offhand comments and conversational punchlines, that's when they actually say revealing things. So here's Jay's entire persona in one line: "Photo shoot fresh, lookin' like wealth; I'm 'bout to call the paparazzi on myself." And here's Kanye's: "Sophisticated ignorance, write my curses in cursive." Lines as sharp as those are the type of things these two come up with when they aren't trying too hard. Last week, a few photos from the Watch the Throne sessions circulated, and the best one showed Jay and Kanye simultaneously busting up laughing. I'd like to thing that one was taken while they were writing this song.

— Tom Breihan, July 21, 2011

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Come on Over, I got new music on the way

Veronica Falls: Come On Over

"Come on Over" is a rollicking track from UK "noir-pop" outfit Veronica Falls' forthcoming Slumberland debut, due September 20. Check it out.

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Fungi Girls: Velvet Days

Rambos Rainbos produced this trippy-as-balls clip for "Velvet Days", a delicious cut from teenaged, Texas-bred garage-rockers Fungi Girls' forthcoming LP, Some Easy Magic. That record is scheduled to arrive in local/digital record shops July 26 by way of Hozac.

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Exitmusic: The Sea

Last month we shared "The Sea", a bruising post-punk number from New York duo (and recent Secretly Canadian signees) Exitmusic. Below you'll find an equally stark clip for the song that the band cut together itself using footage from Andrei Tarkvosky's The Mirror.

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Mister Heavenly:Bronx Sniper

"Bronx Sniper" is the raucous, teeth-kicking opener from Out of Love, forthcoming debut full-length from Mister Heavenly, an indie rock

supergroup featuring Man Man's Honus Honus, Islands' Nick Thorburn, and Modest Mouse's Joe Plummer. Sub Pop is set to release said debut next month, on August 16.

>EVERYTHING ABOVE WAS POSTED BY DAVID BEVAN<

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NAZ: Nasty

Nas can do this. It's easy to forget sometimes. For the past decade and a half, few rappers have had more frustrating careers, and the Queensbridge legend's predilections for zero-character beats, nonsensical collaborations, half-baked concepts, and empty-calorie sloganeering have worked, time and again, to undermine his vast reserves of pure rap talent. But every once in a while, he crackles back to life in a very serious way, his stone-faced tough-talk speeding through rock-hard beats with a Rutger-Hauer-in-The-Hitcher intensity. Think "Thief's Theme", or "Nazareth Savage".
Or think this new one, an out-of-nowhere blast of hurtling vocabulary that never pauses long enough for a chorus to find its way in. Nas starts out in monster form: "Late-night candlelight fiend with diesel in his needle/ Queensbridge leader, no equal/ I come from the will of Ezekiel/ To pop thousand-dollar bottles of Scotch, smoke pot, and heal the people." Then, for the next three minutes, he stays there, proudly displaying how he can still handle just about any rapper on earth bar-for-bar. Salaam Remi's beat is fast and minimal, and it keeps him sticking and moving. For a few bars, it drops out entirely, and Nas keeps going like he doesn't notice. It makes sense; he's in a zone. Imagine if it was always this way.
[self-released]

— Tom Breihan

RadioHead: Little By Little ( Caribou Remix )/ Lotus Flower (Jacques Greene Remix)

On July 4 (July 5 in North America), Radiohead will kick off a series of limited edition 12" releases featuring remixes from their latest album The King of Limbs. The first release, featuring Caribou's remix of "Little by Little" backed by Jacques Greene's take on "Lotus Flower", will be put out on Ticker Tape. Radiohead have made the 12" available for streaming. (via Dead Air Space)

Posted by Larry Fitzmaurice on July 1, 2011 at 11:25 a.m.

ALL CREIT GOES TO PT FOR THUS SUMMARY.