More Sides Than KFC

Today, a dude that I would say has a plethora of side projects if A) he had an actual main project and B) I knew what "plethora" meant...



Yohimbe Brothers was a project teaming up Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid, a guy who seemingly never met a one-off collaboration he wouldn't fuck, and Philly's DJ Logic, a fine turntablist who has unfortunately become a fixture on the jam band circuit as of late... so he seemingly has never meant a mushroom-gobbling white girl with hairy ampits that he wouldn't fuck. But that's neither here nor there. What is relevant is that I'm going to see yet another Reid one-off, something called Spectrum Road, at the Playboy Jazz Fest this weekend. And that's obviously why the shuffle chose this track, so suck on it...

Yohimbe Brothers - Tenemental (ysi)

I got Vernon Reid (and the rest of the band for that matter) to autograph my ticket after a Living Colour show quite a few years back. True story. You wanna be me, don't you?

Post #902 or "I can't think of a good title for Post #902"

I don't really have much in the way of a witty intro today either, so let's just get on with it...



Rob Swift was an original member of the legendary scratch crew The X-Ecutioners. I'm not sure why he's still not with them, so let's just say that there was a falling out involving a giant pile of cocaine and a horny octopus and let our imaginations run wild. Also, I remember him having some good parts in the Turntablist documentary Scratch, which if you haven't seen... seriously, what the hell's wrong with you? You haven't seen Scratch? Netflix that shit. I'll wait...

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Sorry you had to bump Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too? down in your queue, but trust me, you'll thank me later (it really drags in the third act). Anyhoo, if there's anyone qualified to make an anthem for turntablists, it's this guy... even if this jam is a little laid back for an "anthem", it displays mad skillz... and Pharaohe Monch, who we love...

Rob Swift - Turtablist Anthem (ft. Pharoahe Monch & Kia Jeffries) (ysi)

And here's a random display of said mad skillz in video form...



Just for the record, I cannot do that...

Blog-achella X: In which I do, in fact, go there.

Time to start another week of hilarity, and awaaaaaay we go...

First off we have Gossip who used to be called "The" Gossip... which I thought was better. So screw those guys...

Dirty Projectors... well, they have one really good song, these Brooklyn-ites... and damn there are a lot of Brooklyn bands this year... and here it is...

Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move (ysi)

That is quite good indeed. So, checking out the album you'd expect more of the same... and you'd be wrong. This stuff is borderline unlistenable. Most of the singing is done by this dude with a high-pitched voice that I think I'd like to strangle and songwriting is super sloppy in the way that Indie Kids find so precious. Interestingly enough, just now looking at the first customer review for Bitte Orca on Amazon, that person likes every song on the record BUT this one. Because that person is retarded like their mom was Sarah Palin. You bet your ass I went there...

Major Lazer gets no love from me because Diplo is part of it, and I've pretty much never liked anything Diplo's ever done except for the first M.I.A. record... that whole Baltimore booty bass/Baile Funk business... guh. This one he does with Switch, who used to be okay before he went all Fidget House... and the result is... a Dancehall Reggae record, because of course it is... miss it. But DO NOT miss...

2 Many DJs



Who they are: Two brothers who are also in the band Soulwax, but you probably knew that.

What they sound like: Along with our last post, Z-Trip, some of the real founders of the whole mash-up thing. But they've certainly taken it to the next level of lunacy... peep this ridiculous mix they did for BBC Radio 1 last year. The first hour is 420 intros of songs all mixed together... peep the tracklist here... and then the second hour, is, well... they'll explain, just listen...

2 Many DJs "Introversy" Set - BBC Radio 1 - 2/2/09

What I think: Crazy shit. And the live show looks off the hook. Check particularly the video portion where the album covers come to life...



I think if you miss that, you're even more retarded than if you liked the Dirty Projectors record. ZANG!

Blog-achella X: 2 Birds + 1 Stone = FATALITY!

One of my all-time faves today (and a good guy to boot)... but first...

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes are a bit too much on the folk-y and jangly side for me, so I will walk on past...

The Raveonettes and their Punk/Pop thing are kind of the definition of "meh" for me. Don't love 'em, don't hate 'em...

I have no idea what Les Claypool is up to these days, and quite frankly I don't care. That said, I would be lying, however, if I didn't say that I loved Primus back in the day and got my mosh on to them live on more than one occasion. So in celebration of that, here's some super-old school steez...

Primus - John The Fisherman (ysi)

I also have no idea exactly what famed director John Waters is doing at Coachella. Anyone have a clue? DJ? Spoken Word? Big Gay Cabaret Revue? I would be lying, however, if I didn't say that I loved Serial Mom...

Now, The XX is a super-hot-shit blog darling band these days, and if I was trolling for Hype Machine hits, I would post them... but honestly after listening to a half dozen songs on their Myspace, I have no idea what the hype is about. I find their Electro-Pop to be quite pedestrian, especially compared to some of the acts we have already covered... which brings us to...

Z-Trip



Who he is: In my opinion, the most fun DJ in the world. Oft-imitated... poorly. Seriously, any joker with a copy of Serato and a collection of Now That's What I Call Music hits thinks he can rock it like Z-Trip, but I've seen some of these A.D.DJs and they can all fuck right off. "Look at me! I played 8 bars of 50 Cent and went right into Barry Manilow! I'm so fucking ironic and clever!" Fuck you. Fuck you right in the laptop, dude. Firstly, you're doing it wrong, and secondly fuck your Ed Hardy hoodie and your stupid haircut and the weak-ass hipter standing next to you while you play making vaguely gang-related hand signs every time you change songs. Did I mention fuck you?

What he sounds like: See the video for a short bit of the Z-Trip experience... but here I've got for you a new remix he did for another Coachella act, The Dead Weather. They're the new group featuring Jack White and VV from The Kills and now I've covered them, too. Two birds/one stone, bitches! Also, the remix features a verse from acclaimed white rapper Slug from Atmosphere...

The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother (Z-Trip Remix ft. Slug) (ysi)

What I think: Miss it at your own peril...



Plus, he's quite famous for bringing fun guest stars onto the stage with him at the 'Chella... I've seen Beck, Chester from Linkin Park and Busdriver join in the fun, and I only saw him a couple of the times he played there. So keep that in mind... and have a great weekend...

Blog-achella 09: The Big Bad Wolf

You know what's good for a laugh? Letting the Indie Rock faithful on the Coachella message boards know about this blog. I've documented the hilarity before... and this Friday the results were even more delightful. Those folks really need to lighten up. I'm suggesting a marathon Weird Al sing-along for starters. "Because I'm fat! I'm fat! You know it! Woo!" I'll even bring punch and pie... anyhoo, I'm sure they'll love this post, too...

White Lies are another one of those British bands who want very badly to be Echo & The Bunnymen. Which is fine. Actually I'd say it's worth a listen... I like Ian Mc-- I mean the whatshisname-the-singer-of-White-Lies' voice... but not a full blog post worth of like...

Also British are Noah & The Whale who play some mildly dreadful Folk-y kinda stuff. But here's the thing about quiet little bands at Coachella... all them mandolins and pretty whistling parts are gonna sound just fantastic with the Sahara Tent bumping away in the background. Anyone for the Unintended Club Remix? Pass...

So who we got today?

Peanut Butter Wolf



Who he is: A quite dandy L.A. DJ who gets large amounts of extra props for being the founder of the excellent Stone's Throw Records.

What he sounds like: Expect lots of good Hip-Hop and Funk. He has only released one album of original material that I know of, My Vinyl Weighs A Ton, which was your typical Hip-Hop "producer" album... meaning he did the beats and a whole bunch of different cats showed up to rap. It was quite good, actually. Here's a track...

Peanut Butter Wolf - Styles Crew Flows Beats (ft. Lootpack) (ysi)

What I think: Much like Craze & Klever, expect PBW to get the party started... with video! Yep, he's doing the V-DJ thing now, which is always good for a larf. Check it out...



BTW, I promise that very soon, there will be a Blog-achella video of something other than a white guy standing behind turntables or a laptop. Seriously, promise...

Blog-achella 09: Scratch Nerds

Today's skippable band is Molotov, from Mexico, who play Rock En Espanol. Tonegent is not down with the Rock En Espanol. It's not so much the Espanol that bothers me, it's the sucky Rock being Espanoled...

Which brings us to these two knuckleheads...

Craze & Klever



Who they are: The black dude is Craze, from Miami, and the white dude is Klever, from the A.T.L... they are both DMC Champions (which is a contest for playing the turntable records).

What they sound like: From what I read, these are a couple of guys who, like Z-Trip, will throw anything and everything into the mix at any time, which is usually a good bet for fun. But the only thing they've recorded together is this mix, which is pretty much beats and scratching... for 50 minutes... which is perfectly fine if you're into that sorta thing...

Craze & Klever - Scratch Nerds

What I think: I think the show itself will be much more like this YouTubes...



... and hey, that looked kinda fun. So check 'em out...

A maelstrom of wankery?

Today I got a piece of Turtablism for you (I can't really classify this as a "song", ya know) from one of the greatest such albums EVAR!!!!



The Future Primitive Sound Sessions, like most good things, came from San Francisco, and their first CD release featured Cut Chemist of Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli fame and Shorkut of Invisbl Skratch Piklz. Now, I don't know much about Shortkut, but I can tell you that Mr. Chemist is a very cool guy. Met him once at a crazy Black Diamond afterhours in SF and had a nice chat. This, of course has nothing to do with anything, except for the fact that you know how I love to name-drop. Anyhoo, the crazy thing about this set is that, according to legend, these guys had never met before that night... so this is all purely off the top of their heads, just like the Jazz cats do it...

Cut Chemist & Shortkut - King Kumoniwanaleia (ysi)

Wowzers... because there's 70 minutes of that madness, and it's all just as bumpin' and just as fun. Actually that's another thing I always liked about Cut Chemist... at his shows, he remembers he's there to rock a party and make people dance and not just disappear up his own arse in a maelstrom of scratch-happy wankery. I can take a little bit of wankery, but not a maelstrom! To wit...



See what I mean there? Go see this guy. That is all.

The Tonegents World Tour: Australia

As this blog just hit a milestone 10,000 pageviews according to my Google Analytics report, it's time to completely steal an idea from another, far more impressive blog, namely Loronix. So, over the next two weeks, I'm going to go to the top 10 countries from where peepz visit Tonegents, and spotlight an artist I like from each nation. Blowin' your mind, huh?

So let's begin The Tonegents World Tour with #10:



Australia!


Ah yes, the land down under, where women glow and men plunder. Sorry. Had to do it. Anyhoo, here's 5 random things I like about Australia...

1) Foster's TV Ads - Australian for savvy marketing!
2) The movie Chopper - 5 stars, and will even help you forgive Eric Bana for Hulk, which is no small feat.
3) Australian Rules Football - easily the manliest sport on the planet.
4) Koalas - who doesn't like koalas? The terrorists, that's who!
5) Lauren Jackson - 'nuff said.

And for our Aussie music selection, I'm going to go with the wacky yet not terribly prolific DJ crew, The Avalanches...



These guys dropped a sample-tastic bomb on the world in 2001 with their debut album Since I Left You, and we've been waiting ever since for a damn follow up. Seriously dudes, just back away from the barbie long enough to get some work done for once! Focus, people! But hey... there wouldn't be so much fuss if the first record wasn't so genius, though, would there, mate?

The Avalanches - Since I Left You

So get that new record done, or you'll get a bootin'!



Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi!

Blog-achella '07 - Red Hot Chili Peppers (Sat.) / Mike Relm (Sat.)

Something (very very very) very old, Something quite rather new...

Red Hot Chili Peppers

***UPDATE: Ha! Check it out! I included the photo of the Peppers w/ their socks on their cocks from the cover of their "Abbey Road" E.P., but apparently Photobucket took offense at that. Prudes!***

Who they are: A group I never would have expected to still be around, relevant, and for cryin' out loud more popular than ever when I first started listening to them like 20 years ago... seriously... like 1987! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck me, I'm fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckin' oooooooooooooold...

What they sound like: I guess it's both a compliment and a criticism that they don't really sound all that different than they did, well, when Blood Sugar Sex Magik came out, which, as we have already determined, is quite some time ago... and just to prove my old skool steez, here's a b-side from the import CD single of "Taste the Pain" from the "Mother's Milk" album that I went out and bought at the CD store when I was in college, fuck me!

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Show Me Your Soul

What I think: Ya know, I'll never hate on the Chili Peppers, although to be honest they lost me at "Under The Bridge". I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Last time they played Coachella, we passed by them right after Underworld had pretty much unscrewed our skulls and blended our brains into frothy neuron smoothies... and they didn't seem to be all that interesting at the time :P

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Mike Relm

Who he is: Another nerdy Asian turntablist from the bay area... who knew?

What he sounds like: The music, well, it's just some turntablist stuff, ya know... ok, but not mindblowing...

Mike Relm - Body Rock

What I think: ... but I've never seen a DJ rock it quite like this... guy uses the Pioneer DVD mixers in a hip-hop scratch fashion... pretty dang cool, especially for us geeks who like to geek out on geek stuff...



So this dude is definitely rad.