hip hop for white people

meowymix 6.0

and when i say "white people" i mean, non-black.  i think these MCs bring something more to the table than self-aggrandizing, sexualized lyrics, which is something lots of (white) people can't get over when it comes to hip hop these days.  and on top of that, there's nothing white people appreciate more than a guy being ghetto AND intelligent.  i mean... who wasn't cheering for Omar when he bested the then-untouchable Levy during the Gant murder trial?  

but after living in atlanta for four years, i just can't help but make a case for dirty south hip hop.  sometimes you just gotta admit that a song is tyte, no matter what the dude is saying over the track.  i hope the transition from classic east coast hip hop (gza, ghostface) into more recent atl work (jeezy, t.i.) runs smoothly for you folk at home.  i snuck in some oldschool outkast just to ease the flow.  

leading off the set is mostly east bay hip hop from the early 90s.  retro + underground music + semi-intelligent hip hop = super indie street cred.  

so enjoy the new meowymix in all of its intelligent, non-sexual hip hop goodness, but lock the doors before you do!

MM 5.0

throwback pop!

my last mix, MM4, was a bit of a letdown because muxtape wouldn't let me upload one of the songs.  so after battling with the website, i got kind of disheartened and i didn't feel like writing about it.  oh well...

so lately i've been watching a few episodes of scrubs on ninjavideo before i sleep to kinda wind down the day.  i think it's a pretty good mindless show, except for the fact that sometimes the videos are messed up and they loop halfway through the show, so i don't know how any of the episodes end.  anyway, in one of the episodes the surgeons are arguing about what song to put on during surgery, and the asian doctor demands to listen to erasure, much to the black doctor's dismay.  but the next day the black guy can't stop singing the erasure song, "a little respect", because it's so darn catchy.

so that's how the mix started out, with that really stupid inspiration.  but alas it is an awesome catchy song.  as for the rest of the mix, most of it comes from me desperately searching my music library for anything that resembles 80s tunes.  when i realized i didn't have enough 80s music to make an entire mix, i renamed the mix "throwback pop".... and then i IMed my brother to ask for his 80s music library for when he comes home later.

so a few notable songs - the sinead o'connor song, i heard on the radio today and decided it had to go on the mix.  it's edgy and angsty and all about love, which is what almost all 80s music is about.  i threw on some junior bizzles cuz they're pretty much the night club/lounge-y version of new order if bernard sumner wasn't fat and drunk all the time.

blood of eden is an epic song (read: many words) like the theme song from Say Anything, "in your eyes".  but here, peter gabriel tackles the theme of original sin with sexually charged biblical allusions.  people don't really write songs of this ambition anymore.  in fact i'd say a lot of music has gone in the opposite direction from blood of eden.  think about a band like postal service, what with its inorganic sounds and cutesy, meaningless lyrics.  compare these lyrics:

"Is that a dagger or a crucifix I see
You hold so tightly in your hand
And all the while the distance grows between you and me
I do not understand"

and

"I feel must interject here you're getting carried away feeling sorry for yourself
With these revisions and gaps in history
So let me help you remember.
I've made charts and graphs that should finally make it clear.
I've prepared a lecture on why i have to leave"

ok putting up these lyrics is admittedly pointless given that there's no basis for comparison to begin with.  but the greater point i'm trying to make is that in the past, artists used lyrics to try to say something with pop music, whereas now the songs are statements in and of themselves.  blood of eden would be a boring, ethereal track if it wasn't for the powerful story gabriel is telling.  but now, when people want to "feel" something in their music instantly without having to actually listen, words no longer add meaning to songs but instead add to the aesthetic or greater context of the song.  

this postal service song is the perfect example... when i hear it, i don't stop and say "these lyrics are dumb" even though they are.  it's more like... "these lyrics are supposed to be dumb, and if they were anything but dumb, this song would suck."  i guess the song is saying, sometimes people sound ridiculous, especially when it comes to relationships, so let's all lighten up.

back to the mix... kind of a curveball for non-rues is the band "out of the grey".  i also tried to put some susan ashton on the mix but muxtape didn't let me.  they are cmm/country artists from back in the day.  but before u knock it, just know that they were doin alt-country before such a term existed....  at least susan ashton and along the road and all that good stuff.  anyway, this out of the grey song is from the early 90s, but it definitely sounds like it could be from the 80s, back when pop songs were 5 minutes long.

the kate bush and m83 tracks are recycled from old mixes... i don't have enough throwback pop.  i could definitely use some suggestions on this one.

fin

rites of spring

springtime in davis welcomes a celebration of life, pollen and hot girls.  moments of springtime abound and i am here to capture them for you.  so here we go:

- at once, in a study lounge, a barbie doll punishes her laptop with index-finger typing and annoys everyone with her loud clickity-clacks.  students curl up on tiny couches like kittens, basking under sunlight pouring through the windows.  

- orangutans on bikes make their way through campus.  i call them that because they do not grip the handles, but to balance themselves they stiffen their arms and hold them straight down like an orangutan.  there's no need to bike handle-less except to look cool, and towards this end they fail miserably.  

- a particular religious fanatic wears a harness to support his massive "God hates sinners" sign.  though his evocation of curses aren't necessary given the extensive list of sinners on the sign (witches, lazy christians, fags, effeminate academics(?)), he curses on-lookers nonetheless.  a few brave and equally annoying individuals defend themselves against his accusations, but he is louder and more shameless than the rest.  

- remnants of the annual hippie-fest persist, long after the aroma of marijuana and hemp-wearing vendors has past.  a woman's long-flowing skirt flails in the air as she twirls a hula-hoop over her head.  smelly homeless guys ask for change before tooting their alpenhorn (the long instrument from the ricola commercials).  the weekly farmers market attracts the hippie crowd as they sway to the mellow bluegrass band.

- pages of the california aggie, the newspaper to which i am employed, strew about like tumbleweed, especially in the narrow tunnels between buildings.  the wind picks them up, and a more artistic person would find beauty in their mid-air suspension (a la the paper bag in American Beauty).  it makes me sad though, because usually the pages left strewn about are from the arts section for which i write.

i have a meeting with my professor now so the moments of springtime will be cut short for now.  and thus ends the lamest post in the world.

meowymix 3.0

for those of you not in the know, muxtape is all the rave as the best new-music-finding site... better than pandora, lastfm and imeem...  it's clean, simple and best of all it plays high quality tunes.  

anyway, i'm going to try to update my meowymix  consistently, and when i do i'm going to write a little blurb about the songs i chose and why.  since i'm still like a teenage boy who overthinks each song, song placement, song transitions, etc., these meowymixes mean a lot more to me than they should.  and since they matter to me they should mean a lot to you too.

aside:  this is my third mix i've made on muxtape.  maybe i'll resurrect the first and second mixes in weeks to come.

meowymix 3.0: when folk and electronic music meet, sometimes they have illegitimate children.

this mix is a half-hearted attempt to marry folk and electronic music.  it starts the way most failed relationships start - with a third party.  the mutual friend invites the unlikely pair to the bars and conveniently leaves to watch the awkward conversations and forced laughter.  or, like gilbert arenas, the he'll round up some homeless people and invite himself over to his buddy's house, where his family is having dinner.  then in the middle of dinner, he'll get up and go, leaving the homeless guys at his friend's house.

here, the third party is the first two tracks, and they initiate a cascade of experimental folk and electronic music with an incredible track from The Books.  this might be my new favorite band of the moment.  they're a duo from new york that combines voice clips, natural sounds and acoustic rhythms to create a disjointed, primitive sound.  enjoy your worries, the track is titled. you may never have them again.  an atlas sound track slips in next.  the natural transition into this song, titled "Cold as Ice" contradicts the warmth of of the previous three.  the idea of cold separation pervades in the electro-pop song "take it easy (love nothing)" by bright eyes.

the next song was a problem.  i really wanted to put in "ms jackson" by outkast, but for some reason i chickened out.  instead i put in some filler song that sounds nice but really makes no sense - shift by grizzly bizzle.  the next track, 2 sisters drunk on each other by califone, reminds me of the books i've been reading.  in 100 years in solitude, incest is repeated after each generation forgets the mistakes (and incest) of the previous generation.  this chance meeting of folk and electronica is in the same vein...  something's just a little off in their meeting, and it's as awkward and taboo as incest.  ok maybe it's not that awkward.  anyway...

 the two have an illegitimate child that they leave in a train to be cared for by a scary man, which is all taken as a bad dream by the folkster who, of course, is the one to sit back and recount her tales in song.  and so the story ends.  enjoy!

the man crush

i'm pretty comfortable with my sexuality... some may say too comfortable. especially after this post. but i think it's time for me to reveal to the world certain individuals who i find admirable in one way or another. it's not even that i'd crush on these guys if i was a girl.... i don't take my mancrushes that far. i just think these guys are cool. so back off.

Mike Mussina aka The Moose

there's just something about the moose that makes me think, this is one good looking dude. maybe it's his intense stare-down right before he launches a devastating knuckle curve. or maybe it's the fact that he looks like jack from lost (though i've had my platonic eye on mussina since he pitched for the orioles). whatever it is, he has it. i am not gay.

Martin Keamy from Lost

Keamy is a renegade mercenary who wants nothing more than to blow up lots of stuff on the island in Lost.  he looks a quarter asian, which qualifies him as one of the few cool asians in television.  but as badass as he is, keamy had me when he delivered that fateful but overlooked line, the imperative phrase that sums up his cool and dangerous demeanor:

"gas up the chopper, frank"

fans of lost know how cool he sounded when he said it.  this is the equivalent of saying "get off my back" or "you're not important enough to even argue with."  and this is how i'm going to talk from now on.

Marty Sampson

back when i was melting congregational faces with my cherry red fender strat, i had what one could perceive as a man crush on a certain worship leader.  my faux-affection (often mistaken for real affection) wasn't as strong as other korean american worship band members, i'm sure... but what college christian can resist marty sampson's spiritual crooning and rock-star outfits?  not me.

Ernie Johnson

is he black?  is he white?  i'm not the only one wondering.  as the smooth host of TNT's inside the NBA, ernie doesn't get overshadowed by barkley's big personality or kenny's insight.  when things get out of hand, ernie brings it back.  when barkley doesn't feel like talking, ernie fills in the void.  the guy's got a brother's swagger.  what can i say?

Nicholas Kristof

you may think you've met a kristof sometime in your life.  maybe that guy in high school who everyone liked, who quietly got straight As while founding a new volunteer organization.  maybe the girl that raised half a million dollars in relief aid in darfur by selling ridiculously adorned paperclips.  but lets make things clear - you haven't met a kristof.  

magna cum laude graduate from harvard, law degree from oxford, fluent in mandarin and arabic.  kristof is a journalist for the new york times.  he isn't some do-gooder liberal who preaches the evils of the world from a soap box.  he travels the world, gets on the ground and tells us what's going on.  whether its in china, darfur or even our own back yard, kristof gives a fair and balanced opinion when discussing nuanced issues.  and he's got a cute asian wife.  

anyway. each of these guys is admirable in his own right.  i know some will inevitably question my sexual preference but to them all i gotta say is.... gas up the chopper, frank.  

space cowboys

space cowboys - no, not the clint eastwood movie.  instead... my millionth attempt at trying to convey this theory i have about music.  (dont worry.. there will be a 1,000,001 attempt coming)

two american frontiers occupied our imaginations since our inception.  one, the west, was the promised land, promised to us by God in some manifest destiny that entitled white americans to keep pushing west and claiming land.  the west was california, a land of milk and honey, of gold even, and vast lands warmed by constant sunshine.  that's the gist of that.

space came a bit later, after the west was won of course.  the idea was the same though, at least at the time.  the russians launched their satellite, not to stake claim to space itself, but to be pioneers in science and ingenuity.  we put a man on the moon.  that was a milestone, but the frontiers were found to be expanding, accelerating out far beyond human scope.  and likewise, our ingenuity and imagination have chased those frontiers out, beyond the gravity of deductive reasoning and finite equations, through black holes that stretch and rip light and sound and spit us out through worm holes that maybe a few have imagined traveling...

well anyway.  there is music that reflects the values and stories of those two frontiers.  both frontiers achieve a certain destiny, but they are ultimately empty.  it's as if there was some unforeseen leak that let that destiny drip out, leaving the music incomplete.  the western commemorated the stories of people and places, they ascribed meaning to values and value to meaning...  but they were insular, circular, incested and eventually marketed to become crappy country music that makes mere reference to the "good old days".  once they hit the coast and settled their lands, they began to leak imagination from their heartfelt honesty, and they leaked it until they were dry like the riverbeds in late summer, or dry like their repetitive, cursory conversations they had with their neighbors.  dry like the promise of the western frontier, leaving a thirst for imagination and expansiveness.

with that thirst, they launched themselves into space.  they looked back on our small blue earth and saw things in a different light.  they asked questions that challenged meaning and values and stories in our music, deconstructing that which they did not themselves build.  sound became waveforms, words were just sounds, music was sound on sound.  as for light, it became waves and particles, scientifically proven, but methodically detached from previous connotations of good, and dark stripped of evil.  and with just waveforms and sounds and particles and waves, we achieved something primal and raw, more real than any story, universal as the consciousness of the living, and empty as the vastness of space.  even as we breathe, space is become more vast and more empty.  galaxies are just too few and far between for this space experiment to gather the beauty of light and sound in a way that can be appreciated in a song.

so where the west failed in that we reached its end, space failed in reaching no end.  so somewhere in between is where we are, but not where we will be.  like folding two ends of a string, music will bring together the western frontier to converge with the expansion of space, and in their joining will make something perfect, i believe.  

in other words:  folk music + experimental music = omg

the grime of bananas

sometimes, doing the right thing hurts

like peeling a banana

the right way -

you're left with grime under your nail

and still a peel left over.