Addendum to Review: Twin Shadow - Confess

Usually after posting a review I change my Spotify song to my favorite track off the album. However, this time I am doing things a bit differently. Twin Shadow's Confess made me feel like dancing so much that I decided to post the song I enjoy dancing to the most, LCD Soundsystesm "All My Friends"
*Now this is not public dancing and this writing is the only evidence that such a thing occurs.

Also how about those 80s, I mean seriously. Things were so much simpler back then. I mean take the film Teen Wolf staring Michael J. Fox. As the title suggest, Mr. Fox is a teenage werewolf who makes his first change in the middle of a basketball game. Now at first the crowd is aghast but soon they begin clapping and of course they win the game they were losing and make it all the way to the finals where  the teen wolf has to decide to be himself or the wolf and chooses to be himself in a game against his arch nemesis with perfect hair and wins the games and there is a girl who is his best friend and he has never looked at her romantically...and well you get the point. But back to the initial change into a werewolf. In 1985, a teenager could change into a werewolf without being chased out of town with flaming pitchforks. The good old days indeed.

Review: Twin Shadow - Confess

Preface: Much of current Indie music, and Popular Culture, is an act of self-referentialism, mining the crates and stacks of the past to create a modern product. Simon Reynolds in his 2011 book gives this phenomenon a name, Retromania which also serves as the title of the book. This practice, however, is nothing new to music. In 1963 The Kingsmen released a cover of Richard Barry’s 1955 “Louie Louie”; the song was a #1 hit for the band and arguably started the Garage Rock movement. Garage Rock as a genre is dedicated to a lo-fi recreation of 1950s Rock n’ Roll, Doo-Wop, Soul and Blues. Modern progenitors of the genre, like Jay Reatard, lean a bit more towards early Punk, which itself is an offspring of Garage Rock or Proto-Punk.

Popular culture revisiting the past comes in waves; in the early 00s it was a revitalization of Classic Rock complete with reissues of classic albums, reunion tours and a slew of new artists, like Wolfmother and Kings of Leon, who grew up on the staples of Classic Rock radio: Hard, Arena and Southern Rock. And of course there was the invasion of the The bands, like The White Stripes and The Walkmen, who mined the annals of Rock n’ Roll and Garage Rock. Newer acts, like Girls and Wavves, continue this building backwards, adding Surf Rock to the repertoire; while groups, like Best Coast and Dum Dum Girls, call to mind girl groups of the 50s and 60s.

This discussion brings us to the present landscape of Indie music and its fascination with the 80s supported by acts, like Twin Shadow and Wild Nothing; a decade just 30 years removed, but one that was vastly over mined earlier in the 00s with the popularity of VH1’s I Love the 80’s and 80’s theme parties becoming a mode du jour. The internet of course plays a large role in retromania as it allows people to forgo physical artifacts of the past and easily visit decades gone by digitally through television and cartoon shows, movies and music. This leads to a growing number being without a generation as the sign posts of one are absorbed and appropriated by another. This could lead to a black hole in Popular Culture wherein the gravity of the past pulls at the edges of the current fabric leading to what Reynolds views as a “death knell for any originality”.

Twin Shadow’s sophomore album Confess, much like its predecessor Forget, could unarguably have been released in the 80s, sitting alongside Synthpop forefathers and New Wavers. The bands sole member, George Lewis Jr., displays a genuineness in his presentation and production, gathering equal parts of Gary Numan in a dedication to the simplicity of a pop song and the synthesizer, dance inducing beats via Soft Cell, a deep emotionalism akin to Depeche Mode and at times the tone of his voice and phrasing is reminiscent of Morrissey. The finished product, again much like his debut, is a rich ode to the time period for which Lewis grew up.

Review: Curren$y - The Stoned Immaculate

Curren$y’s The Stoned Immaculate is being prefaced as Spitta Andretti’s first major label release, and the sheen of a major’s money can be gleaned from the diversity of producers and featured artists. Previous releases have found him working with two producers at the most, typically Monsta Beatz and Ski Beatz, but The Stoned Immaculate boasts 13 producers for the Deluxe Edition’s 16 tracks, including production juggernauts The Neptunes and J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League as well as contributions from regulars like Monsta Beatz. As for the features, there is the usual cast (Wiz Khalifa and Big K.R.I.T., as well as Jet Life Recording artists Smoke DZA, Corner Boy P, Trademark da Skydiver and Young Roddy), but also major label signifiers like Estelle, Pharrell, Wale and the ever featuring 2 Chainz. Despite these changes in the supporting cast, Curren$y has produced an album that both lives up to the major label expectations of accessibility while remaining true to the laid back grind he started in 2008 with mixtapes like Higher than 30,000 Feet.

In the past four years Spitta has released roughly 20 projects, be it mixtapes, EPs or independently released albums. His prolific pace alone has made him a point of contention, an argument of flooding the market but also perfect utilization of internet social marketing that caters to listeners short attention spans. What these releases represent though is a singular vision, coined “life style rap” by Curren$y: a laid back, smoked out and jazzy world informed by weed, women and cars with the occasional sports reference. All of this amounts to a monument of an independent man using independent money to make independent money. The Stoned Immaculate in a way represents a compromise; the signs of major influence are present on the album but the record also represents an artist indulging in the privileges of major label money rather than conceding.

A Sad and Disappointing Fact

Warren Beatty only plays one role in the 1990 film adaptation of Dick Tracy. Watching it late last night, I had convinced myself that he had to be playing more than one role because for some reason when a person directs, produces, and stars in a film I see it as a complete ego trip. This of course does not apply to Woody Allen because he is self deprecating and therefore avoids this rule.

I came to this sad realization this morning. Last night I didn't feel like putting forth the effort to check this fact and instead set a reminder on my phone's calender (this was also the first time I have ever used my phone's calender which is apparently a wondrous application) as "Check to see if Warren Beatty played more than one role in Dick Tracy?" for 8:20AM and continued watching the film under the assumption that at any given time there were at least two Warren Beatty's on the screen or more. Now the fact that he didn't is just ludicrous, I mean he could have saved so much money if he would have played say Blank who has no face.

But on a lighter note CC now understands when I make fun of people and say they could be a Dick Tracy villain. Like if I see someone with say a limp, a cane, an eye patch, a hat, glasses, earrings, mutiple necklaces, a watch, fancy belt buckle, jacket with patches and some sort of animal on their shoulder I would call them...Paraphernalia (I have yet to come upon such a being but after writing this I am feeling the vapors of anticipation). After almost 3 years of marriage we still learn new things about each other.

Review: Big K.R.I.T. - Live from the Underground

Preface: I have, as a listener of rap music, never been much for Southern Rap. My Hip Hop experience and exposure has been dedicated mostly to lyricism which I found lacking in a majority of Southern artists. Also as a Midwesterner I have no real reference point for the regional archetypes of Southern Rap. This is not to say I am ig’nant of Southern rap but have only focused on a select few artists, namely Outkast, Goodie Mob and Scarface. Despite this Meridian, MS’s Justin, Big K.R.I.T., Scott has delivered an album steeped in Southern Rap idioms (old school candy coated slabs with the wood grain and featuring Southern stalwarts like 8Ball & MJG and Bun B) but with a level of developed lyricism and personality that has sparked an interest in the artists that have influenced him, leading me musically backward.

Regionalism has always played an important role in the development and progression of Hip Hop. The impact of the internet has changed not only the marketing and consumption of music but has also begun to blur regional lines. A$AP Rocky represents the singularity at the center of regional collapse, an East Coast rapper who is largely influenced by Houston and Cincinnati. 

As an artist Big K.R.I.T. could easily be dismissed as a rehash of nearly two decades worth of Third Coast Rap, his inflection even at times sounding eerily similar to Pimp C. But instead of allowing this history to overshadow his efforts he has focused them into what amounts to a primer in Southern Rap. Given Southern music regionally brewed for roughly ten years before reaching the populace in the early Aughts, K.R.I.T. stands in the perfect position to become an historian for a movement, giving Southern Rap both a future while also remaining firmly rooted in the past.