January 28th, 2009 10:45am

Video: N.A.S.A. – “Hip Hop”

N.A.S.A. – “Hip-Hop”

- Ryan Catbird

January 28th, 2009 10:04am

That Red In Your Eyes

It’s easy to forgive the mind-blowing awfulness of Lil’ Wayne’s experimentation with rock music when he’s still tossing out incredible hip hop gems like “Yes.”

At this point in time, Wayne seems like the kind of guy who will put his voice on just about any piece of music in proximity of his microphone, so it is increasingly important who is producing his beats. Much of the success on this song comes down to Pharrell Williams, who turns in a churning, menacing track that sounds a bit like an undead version of his arrangement for the Clipse’s hit “Grindin’.” Wayne responds to the evil vibe of the music by cackling demonically and indulging in a slightly creepier variation on his usual puckish persona. Even with Wayne on a roll, Williams holds his own on the mic, subtly autotuning his usually amiable voice into a harsh, cold tone that recalls the dead-eyed, aloof cruelty of Marlo Stanfield from The Wire.

So many artists, including Wayne and Williams, spend a disproportionate amount of their time attempting to create escapist monuments to ego and success, but it’s a very special and potent thing when they are executed as well as “Yes.” The song is incredibly efficient in drawing out the feeling of vicarious thrill that is so essential to a huge number of hip hop classics — it’s hard to imagine anyone listening to this without getting caught up in a fantasy of ultimate confidence and ruthless perfection.

This song may or may not be officially released in the future. Let’s face it, there’s no logic to this guy, so enjoy it now.

- Matthew Perpetua

Fluxblog

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January 28th, 2009 10:03am

LHB’s Shorties (Jason Molina, Andrew Bird, and More)

Drowned in Sound interviews Magnolia Electric Co.'s Jason Molina.

DiS: Can you tell us more about the collaboration with Will Johnson [of Texan bands Centro-matic, and Dan’s Silverleaf]? I.e. what did you each bring to the table, and how the project came about?

Molina: That project was wonderful top to bottom. It was beautiful to be out under the Texas sky watching the season change. Writing was very seriously taken by Will and I. We wrote all the time and everyone involved put their back into it. There was no real plan for how the record had to be in the end. Will is a wonderful songwriter and musician and that was a starting point. The most important thing is that not a single record label was involved. He and I paid for everything and then sent the recordings out as if we were starting from scratch. We did the recordings in secret and sent out the first recordings to our friends and then to labels. Secretly Canadian records were on the phone the day they had it on their desk and I am proud that even outside of the formula of Magnolia/Ohia/Molina/Pyramid record-making this is a group that backs my projects. The songs on the Molina/Johnson record are some of Will's finest of all time.

Chordstrike lists the 100 greatest debut albums.

Daytrotter's Wednesday session features in-studio mp3s from DM Stith.

Fingertips offers a "free and legal mp3 manifesto" for the music industry.

The Village Voice profiles Matt and Kim.

Matt and Kim, the people, are Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino, two New England natives who studied at Pratt and met at a party. Matt and Kim, the band, are a party, an immensely likable clap-punk blast universally known for their boisterous live shows.

Preview the new Muxtape.

At Drowned in Sound Andrew Bird breaks down his new album, Noble Beast, track-by-track.

NPR's Mountain Stage features streaming performances by Nellie McKay and Mia Doi Todd.

- David Gutowski

Large Hearted Boy

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January 27th, 2009 5:51pm

U & I

photo by Davida Nemeroff ~~Heartless Bastards - “Sway”~~ Today is a day of real emotion. If you see me today, we'll probably fall in love. If you cross me today, I might get in my first fist fight. If you even look at me today, we'll have words. I have calm-faced and straight-backed and completely nutritional cabin fever and I'm ready to explode. I can see my house from a satellite, I can see people from my window, I see no one, not a single person from my window, I see memory graveyards online and all the cgi extras in procession. You're going to see me sing and cry and humiliate myself because I haven't said a word in weeks. You're going to see it because I said so, and I might be drunk, but this is a party I wasn't invited to. Today is a day of misplaced swagger and fortune tattle-taling. Of purple nurples and frozen park footprints. Of tapping on windows with the head of a guitar. Wrest slurping from the bottle of classic rock, come Heartless Bastards, clear and clean and high in the mix. Sing it. [Buy!] Alan Price - “O Lucky Man!” New to the game of "parachute", you might think you were going to be saved. But "parachute" is the game where you try to live under a parachute. You have to lift an arm's length ahead of you every time you take a step, you look like you're swinging on monkey bars the way it takes to walk around. If it's light, you see white, and what's in front of you, if it's dark, you don't see anything. I don't know why I thought up "parachute", and I don't have to. [music] [movie]