The Tape

You all heard the Black Kids months ago when they were simply a band with a free 4 song ep on their myspace backed by a lot of blog buzz including Pitchfork. Now they are a band with a “debut” single coming out and no free ep on their myspace backed by less blog buzz but with a really cool video. I don’t use the adverb “really” lightly, it’s damn good. It brings to mind the word frolic but maybe that’s just me. I dig.

and on the myspaces: http://www.myspace.com/blackkidsrock

Okay. Here goes a new segment. I’m gonna take a shot at predicting future top 40 hits. For this week, my prediction is…

Lil Mama ft Chris Brown and T-Pain - Shawty Get Loose

Chris Brown and T-Pain seem to be instant hitmakers right now. Anything by or featuring these guys makes it into the top ten. Lil Mama should parlay the success of “Lip Gloss” into this single. I’ve also heard this song on recent adverts for the Dancing With the Stars premiere.

% Chance of Top 40 Hit: 99.9% - this is as close as you can get to a guaranteed hit.

ELECTRONICA.

First we have that Chemical Brothers song that everyone knows. Most people don’t know the name of it, or that The Chemical Brothers rock, so therefore when I play it because I love The Chemical Brothers, I feel guilty.

The Chemical Brothers- Galvanize  (mediafire)

Next we have a Moby song. What about Moby isn’t guilty? He is a bald white guy who makes catchy electronica. Of course he is guilty.

Moby- Porcelain

Last we have a Fatboy Slim song. I loved Fatboy Slim when I was 8 years old. Now they are playing at Coachella, and people love them.

Fatboy Slim- Praise You

One of Daniel Johnston’s many drawings

Daniel Johnston grew up in West Virginia and started recording on a 59$ Sanyo boom box, which gives a lot of his early recordings a really cool aesthetic: you can still here all the scratchiness from the tapes. He was inspired by the likes of John Lennon and The Beatles, although he has really evolved to create his own style of folk rock. He began his career in the late 70’s and continues to work today. His music is inspiring and straight to the point. In his early recordings he has a very high pitched voice, while in his recording during the mid to late nineties he exhibits a very different angle in his voice. Often times he would draw comic books characters to accompany his songs. Recently he has worked on a rock opera called Speeding Motorcycle.

When Johnston was young he was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder and now lives in a house adjacent from his parents. This is what may have shaped and inspired his strange and interesting music style. His songs have been praised many times over and been covered by the likes of Bright Eyes, Capitol Years, and The Eels. Here are a few of the covers, and some of my favorite songs from this artist.

Daniel Johnston-Devil Town

Daniel’s original version of this song is much more airy than Bright Eyes, their are no instruments so it gives off a feeling of solitude and emptiness.

Bright Eyes-Devil Town cover(Daniel Johnston)

This Takes Daniel’s song and makes it some what more up beat. It’s not my favorite cover, but it’s not bad.

Mary Lou Lord-Speeding Motorcycle cover (Daniel Johnston)

This is one of the worst covers I have ever heard compared to the original song.

Daniel Johnston-Speeding Motorcycle

also if you have a chance check out my favorite song by him which i was unable to upload today, but will soon called Pothead. It’s one of his early recordings and is amazing.

Daniels Website

Straight from Columbus, Ohio, home of Our Cat Philip and Erin Studer, come Blastronauts, an up and coming indie-pop-rock act. They look like this:

They sound good, they sound funky, and they sound like this:

Blastronauts - In a Fire

half rapped vocals play over a tight cymbal, riffy guitar, and intermittent “woo, woo hoo!’s”

slightly cheesy, funfunfun, look for their debut coming out soon, which should look something like this:

Bronx rapper Mickey Factz was kind enough to lend us a bit of time for an interview. Mickey is a very talented rapper who has a very interesting insight on hip-hop. Located below are three of my favorites by him.

Tape: You were born in the Bronx, what kind of influence has that had on your music
and career in general? 

Mickey: Being from the birthplace of Hip Hop the influence is in my DNA. My father used
to rap to me and that led me to doing it on my own. Career wise, when I say I'm
from the bronx, people don't believe it because the talent level is so high and
diverse. They respect it after one listen though. 

T: What musicians if any, have most influenced your style of writing? 

M: I would have to say Big Daddy Kane, Jay-Z, Big L, Pun. Real lyrcists. I get my
lyrical style from them. Flow wise I try to attack every track differently to
bring a new experience to the listener everytime I speak.

T: When writing a song, do you start with lyrics or the beat? 

M: I start writing my songs with the beat. I sit with the beat for a couple days
and then come back with something crazy. I don't like writing on the spot too
much. My mind needs some time to analyze each song.

T: A few of you're songs have beats from other songs. Do you use samples from songs
that you enjoy, or songs that will make hits? 

M: I use whatever is hot to me. I have a very good ear for music. By me taking
songs that people don't generally know about and rapping to it, makes it
completely new. Some of em I enjoy, some of em I try to make a hit out of it.  

T: Can you tell us about some of your favorite up and coming musicians? Either from
gfcny, or in general. 

M: Kid Cudi, The Cool Kids, Kids in the Hall, Nakim, Precize, Illfonics, Theophilus
London, Curtains etc  

T: You are often referred to as more of a "hipster" than most hip-hop artists, do
you get annoyed by that or are you a hipster? 

M: There's no such thing as a hipster. People classify something they think is
"different" from the norm. I'm probably more hip hop then a lot of these people
making these claims. I've been in ciphers, I've been in battles, I've performed
at open mics. I'm creating music that is progressive and in no way, shape or
form should it or I be viewed as a hipster.

T: Last but most importantly, are you coming to Los Angeles any time soon? Any
plans on a new album/mixtape? 

M: Ill be in LA before the summer hits. Ill have 3 mixtapes dropping this year. Its
called the leak series. I'm currently putting the finishing touches on my album
now.

Mickey Factz- Something About Us

Mickey Factz- I’m Sean (50 Shots More)

Mickey Factz- Heart Break (Feat. Annie And Jesse Boykins III)

From the label that brought you Danger and DatA comes a tale of food and noise. This summer/March one dough will become CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. And it really does sound great too. Oh yes the new Pepites EP available at your local iTunes and Beatport is a delicious blend of almost hilarious vocal snippets and banging choruses all wrapped up in a nice little 5 song package.

Okay so you all know we here at the tape love our man Wale. His 100 Miles and Running mixtape is gold, so is his release “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.” where he raps over the hit Justice single. We are highly anticipating his “Mixtape About Nothing” - inspired by my favorite show, Seinfeld. Featured here today we have a Nike ad featuring the Wale song Nike Boots. Check this shit, its fly(er than the rest of ‘em).
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xLtq56ksaAQ

Okay so you all know we here at the tape love our man Wale. His 100 Miles and Running mixtape is gold, so is his release “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.” where he raps over the hit Justice single. We are highly anticipating his “Mixtape About Nothing” - inspired by my favorite show, Seinfeld. Featured here today we have a Nike ad featuring the Wale song Nike Boots. Check this shit, its fly(er than the rest of ‘em).
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xLtq56ksaAQ

I recently had a chance to chat a little bit with Phil Dickey, (second from left) drummer, singer, and songwriter of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. His comments about their new album, Pershing, available from Polyvinyl on April 8th:

“i’d suggest listening to it on a warm day…i think it’s more of a spring/summer cd.”

well said, Phil. well said.

here’s where the standard band interview is condensed to 30-seconds of essential questions.

how do you write songs?

“i don’t know. some days i don’t feel like playing guitar. i just feel like doing other things and moving around. usually, something happens, or i get an idea and i really want to write a song about it. i like when a guitar part sounds like an idea, a person, or a place. i like making them match up. i’m not a great guitar player, so i try to rely on simple sounds and layering parts. the other guys in the band come up with way different ideas, so that really makes the songs way more interesting.”

how did you come up with your name?

“we were in high school and we wanted a really stupid name to counteract all the high school bands who had serious names.”

BONUS

ashkap: we call our website “The Tape” because of a club we founded where pass around a usb stick of music. “The Tape Club” is so named because we thought that mixtapes were cool. when i opened my broom lp and saw “tape club” in the the thanks section got really excited until i realized that you couldn’t mean us because you’ve never met us. oh well. it was still exciting.

phil: tape club 4ever.

Thanks to Phil and the band.