Jingle Fever: July 2007

Saturday, July 21, 2007

From Castles to Highways

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Remy Martyr

(Let's just take a second and admire the above photo.)

Let's make it clear that there is much more at stake here than the baby fat of Remy Ma's bff/bag holder. If the former Ms. Terror Squad goes upstate for more than one year, declare rap as an art form produced by females officially dead, or at least on permanent hiatus. Which isn't to say that Remy is the 3000 of this female rap shit, but that she is the only female rapper left who's actively trying push things forward, or if we're getting gully, the last female rapper left who's actively trying to get that guap; the last female rapper who's actively respecting her hustle.

Lost in the whole hoopla over her Shesus Khryst mixtape was that REMY MA(RTIN) WAS ACTUALLY PUTTING OUT A MIXTAPE. In case you missed it, Foxy is more concerned with manicures, Trina with Wayne, Shawnna with getting some head and Kim with God knows who what. Whether or not Remy can outrap those aforementioned is irrelevant (she can, obvs), but right now she outcares them to the BK and back. And with all due respect to Makeda Barnes-Joesph, that's the worst part of this shit.

Labels: greasy, gully, plz don't steal two grand from me kthx

Jump into My Mouth and Breathe

No rap since this has made me literally buzz half as much.

Young Dro->Clipse->Ja grand finale= game's still over.

Labels: fat joe, rappers who aren't fat joe

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Follow the Lead-or

Albums of the half-year of my life where growing up finally got really fucking scary.

1. LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver
It would be easiest for me to say that SoS is my favorite album of the year because it has the most hooks and the funniest/best/heart-wrenchingest lyrics (which is all true), but I guess I finally realized that I love this so much because it runs through roughly the same gamut of scattershot emotions that this last semester and summer have been for me. There's basically a line or two in every song that I could have gotten tattooed on me at some point this year in the right situation— "When once you had believed it/ Now you see its sucking you in" from "Get Innocuous!" the "time to get away" refrain in "Time to Get Away" and obviously the list goes on. It makes sense I guess that James Murphy sequenced a perfect album, where the second half is the meta-obvious comedown from the first half's ultra-Zeitgeist, and though it's been maligned as fuck, "New York I Love You" sounds to me like that point of composure/realization/epiphany after you get really worked up about something. Also didn't hurt that "All My Friends" came out at a time when all I wanted to do was see my friends.

2. Battles Mirrored
This made no sense to me until I saw Battles live and stared at them and watched them give each other non-verbal cues before they turned a song on its head and watched their guitarist/keyboardist (not the one with the afro) buckle his knees in relief when everything went down as planned even though they had probably done the same break like 150 times before that and watched them all go out into their own worlds for like four minutes only to return to the same headspace at the same exact time right on a dime. Pre-show it sounded like Mirrored had all of its humanity purposefully removed and post-show nothing feels more cohesive and delicate to me, which is about as much a reversal as I could imagine happening.

3. Justice †
This is easily the surprise of the year for me both because I like it so much more than I thought I would and because I don't get why Justice are so love/hate. I'm pretty ignorant about the canon of dance/house or whatever, but this sounds pretty forward-thinking and accessible and lovable and technically sound to me. Their constant splicing and dicing of their music sounds to me along the same lines of what Girl Talk does, which is why I think these songs sound so fresh, but I guess is also why people dislike them so.

4. Simian Mobile Disco Attack Decay Sustain Release
I finally realized that this is basically all I ever wanted in "dance" music after unsuccessful forays with more acclaimed stuff along the lines of the Knife and Dan Deacon, etc. SMD's stuff is obviously much more poppy and "accessible" which is obviously why I like it, but this also grabbed me because its the best most digestible album I've heard in a year where I've been trying to push my music interests outward.

5. Animal Collective Strawberry Jam
I'm for one happy these guys finally turned into the best pop band in the world. SJ is what I've always wanted avant-pop to sound like: pushed but not over the ledge, chaotic but controlled, wanky but realized, Brian Wilson but not blanketed nor flaunty.

6. Lil Wayne Da Drought 3
Yeah this is a mess (and the perfect time for the bandwagon to empty), but I love hearing the unfocused weed-fried side of Wayne's brain. Tha Carter II is really fucking focused and realized, and I don't really mind having to filter through massive slogs like this because it's the reason I feel closer to Wayne than any other musician in the world right now. DD3 is kinda like how we know all of our friends, how we know all the stuff they love to talk about even though it may annoy us and how we know all of their faults but don't care because it only magnifies everything that's great about them. Plus, he's a really great rapper.

7. Of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
This is what Super Mario would sound like if it was fully-formed music and not 8-bit synth stuff. It sounds like bouncing off clouds and going down tunnels and bopping things to kill them and eating mushrooms (to grow) and running around while being invincible, which isn't to demean the lyrics and actually shitty backstory behind this, but this album above all sounds really fucking hopeful and optimistic to me, which makes me think of being a kid, which makes me think of Super Mario, so yeah.

8. Lucky Soul The Great Unwanted
I had convinced myself that I was sick of music like this, but this is so much better than the Pipettes. Really beefy as this type of pop goes, but also slinky and flirty and grounded. I'm not sure who the girl singer of this group is, but she's up there with Karen O. and Jemina from BYOP in terms of sounding like the best girls to me: at times riot grrl but also at times needy but always never scared.

9. Bloc Party A Weekend in the City
I dont mind that Kele is making sweeping world observations and sounding really clunky doing so, because I feel clunky when I try and make sweeping statements about the world or politics or whatever. This album is Bloc Party finally coming into their own, moving away from the twitchiness and paranoia of Silent Alarm and into the grandiosity and maturity they hinted at on "Pioneers" or "Like Eating Glass." The songs are pretty fantastic, but I'm happy that these guys realized how, for better or worse, they could become a Band.

10. The Field From Here We Go Sublime
The warmest blanket.

11. Rihanna: Good Girl Gone Bad, 12. Arctic Monkeys: Favourite Worst Nightmare, 13. Fall Out Boy: Infinity on High, 14. Dizzee Rascal: Maths and English, 15. T-Pain: Epiphany

Labels: halfsies

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Actual music criticism coming soon, but for now...

Labels: google ads true double true

Monday, July 02, 2007

Dance tonight, and the next night, and the next night, and the next night, and the next night, and the next night, and the next night, and the next ni

British tabloid reporter Missy Frock guests on this week's Jingle!

Everywhere I've seen Paul McCartney, be it a television interview, commercial, or print advertisement, he has pulled a mandolin from his ex-wife's spare leg and played "Dance Tonight." Move over Gnarls Barkley, this song isn't just ubiquitous but also performable.
Honestly though it's possible Paul forgot all of his other songs. "Memory Almost Full," indeed.

Labels: larry king, mandolins, paul mccartney

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