The Animal Show » Fucking Long

I feel like a kid in a crystal meth shop

marquismeowmersiv — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:53:51 +0000

This dude wants to own a gun. He creates bangers. He is blowing my mind. IS THE METAPHOR CLEAR?

I have something for you. Something you might want. Something that, if you are Marquis Meowmers IV, you have wanted for almost a year now. I have E-603’s sophomore effort. I am listening to it RIGHT NOW. It is called Torn Up and it is on my speakers. Like, now. And if you want to get at some sick TRACKS as well as my initial thoughts you should click the link and MAKE THE FUCKING JUMP.

Previous E-603 coverage on The Show was nothing but absolute praise, and with good reason. Something For Everyone was simply fantastic, a mash-up album that got all the fundamentals right. Its beauty lay in its simplicity, as E-603 (real name Ethan Ward) had simply mastered the ability to start and stop samples in all the right spots. Instead of creating a seamless Girl Talk clone in which generic samples flowed in and out of each other fading into nothingness, his simplistic start and stop method made for an interesting style which was noticeably different from his contemporaries. The peak of the album, a mind blowing combination of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and alt-rapper Spank Rock’s ‘Coke and Wet’ nearly made me rip the steering column from my poor Subaru Forester almost every time I heard it while driving. I don’t think I’ve listened to any mash-up album as much as Something.

Simply put, Torn Up is a grown up version of Something For Everyone.

Opening with Eminem laid over Nirvana’s ‘Territorial Pissings’, the album takes a path much more technically proficient than its predecessor without losing any of the artist’s signature sound. Samples flow a little more naturally and are stacked a little deeper into the track, meaning less a+b+c and more a+b+c+d+e+z+x+HowardStern. However, early Blink 182 and Lenny Kravitz samples keep the album from taking on too much of GT’s Night Ripper’s overly artsy glitch sound. The album really takes stride by the second track, reaching its first “peak moment” on ‘Lights Out’ with the combination of Lil Jon, and about 4 other samples I can’t quite name. Ultimately, while Lit might be laid behind Ying Yang Twins (’Hey Shorty’), E-603 knows when to pull his punches and create a slower jam, which makes the highlights even more lovable. This is not to suggest that the album is ‘boring’ at any moment, as the sheer technical ability will leave the listener in awe during the moments of rising action or denouement. The word that keeps popping into my head is “smart.” Torn Up is a very smart mash-up album.

I don’t want to go over the entire album step by step because I am lazy and I need to get up to work my manual labor job, but I can tell you that you will not be disappointed when this album is dropped later this week. Be you a casual GT fan, a hardcore mash-head, or a technical nerd who wants to know what program E-603 uses to chop, screw, slop, mash, crunch, and generally create, you WILL find a reason to like this album. And to prove this to you, below are some kick-ass sample tracks. Animal Show exclusive. We love you too.

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E-603 – Lights Out (YSI) (Mediafire)

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E-603 – If You Wanna (YSI) (Mediafire)

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E-603 – Hey Shorty (YSI) (Mediafire)

The album is set to be released later this week — keep your cursors pointing to E-603’s website.

Cooler than Cornell, Hipper Than Brown, Less Fratty Than Dartmouth: The Ivy League's "The North Star" In Review

Edward — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:34:52 +0000

Aw, dudes! Remember how much fun being in high school was? Parents are totally lame.

Once upon a time, I told you about the Ivy League. They were a high-school band, scorching a hot little corner of Facebook with a fan page that got updated more frequently than Kanye West’s Twitter and which was frequented by someteen-year-old girls with arm’s-length self-portrait glamor shots for profile pictures who would write their love messages like, “I WANT UR MUSIC ON MY IPOD!” or “HEyyyyyy, rEmembeR me?!? IT’s kATie! fROM FRenCH WoODS! I LUUUUUVVVVV YOOOOUUUU!” It was a scary place. But I braved the stench of Axe and post-Goldschlager Coke chasers into that Teenage Dungeon (Teengeon?) to bring you back the Gorgon head of the Ivy League’s jams, guaranteed to turn you to stone with their white-hot rock.

Well, since then every member of the band has grown at least three inches. At least one member of the quartet has gotten his driver’s license (or so I’ve been told), so they no longer have to ask Dad to drive them to their gigs (as long as they’re back before curfew). And they’ve released an album. That’s where I come back in. I’m about to review its brains out. Brace yourself, kids: this band’s about to get the Animal Show bump.

The Ivy League’s music plays like a Will Ferrel movie: although you can see the jokes coming a mile away, you still laugh until you’re Lizzing. Yes, I’d probably name Weezer, Jock Jams, and American Hi-Fi as their biggest influences (347 blogpoints to the person who can name an American Hi-Fi song that isn’t “Flavor of the Week), but I like all of those things. These kids deliver feel-good jams, sing-along songs to make the drive to the East Village from Bronxville all the more bearable. Amirite, dudes?

Overdriven, power-chorded guitars and slamming cymbals accompany Adrian Simon’s vocals, the timbre of which runs the middle ground somewhere between Brian Wilson’s melodic falsetto, Freddie Mercury’s melodic falsetto, and Brad Delp’s melodic falsetto. But he’s not falsettoing. All chest voice. It’s damn high, and pretty damn good. Inimitable, to say the least. It’s perhaps strongest, though, when accompanied by bassist Dan Hockstein’s startlingly strong vox in “Irony (Without the Iron)” (a song he co-penned with Simon, the only collab on the album), which provides much-needed tonic, the Kool-aid Blast to accompany Simon’s Zebra Cake down your gullet. (Why isn’t this kid appearing more, vocally? If that Kool-aid comment doesn’t win this band over, I don’t know what will.)

The songs go down as easy as the first can of Sprite after three weeks at camp: they’re contraband, sweet and cool, as sugary as your teeth can take. They’re familiar, and yet with a twist of citrus. Their caloric intake is so great that your mom will only let you have one listen a day. But I’m in college, Mom, and you can’t reach me here. I’ll listen all night, and wake up tomorrow morning with a sugar-hangover reminiscent of Bar Mitzvah nights. Because I can. This is air-guitaring, squinch-faced squealing, foot-stomping music. This is the sound of Kevin getting his first kiss with Winnie. This is everything on Nick in 1995, with extra slime on the side. It’s the Legends of the Hidden Temple grand prize of brand-new Hushpuppies, and maybe a lifetime supply of Nerds. It’s everything I keep getting told I should have outgrown years ago, but haven’t.

I do have a few caveats, however. For example, the lyrics are downright Third Eye Blindian in their cookie-cutter patterns and repeated themes. And there are a couple duds on the album. “Travellin’ Song” is completely and totally unremarkable, lacking even the Ivy League’s customary melodicity. “Burn It Up Baby” is the obligatory self-aware recognition of PARTY LIFE WOO (albeit with some nasty synth). But seriously kids, the next song I hear with “let’s get this party started” in the lyrics will force me to put my fist into my own ear canal, most likely ending my life in the process. And that wouldn’t be pretty.

Also, this may be the lamest name for a band ever. I can think of about a dozen in 30 seconds which would be a million times better: Captain Jif and the Fluffernutters, Juicicle, Orca Orgasm, Knock Hockey, Sparklebug, Sworditar, Uncle Fumerous and the Frosted Miniguns, Adrian Simon’s Band With Some Other Kids Who Play Instruments (I’ve heard this was a serious contender for the title), or Greasewhistle. Maybe you should consider these for the future.

And then there’s the issue of “Irony (Without the Iron).” This was the first Ivy League song I ever heard, and I was sent it by a friend whose accompanying note was something to the extent of, “this is really good, as long as you ignore the fact that the chorus is note-for-note the same as Spoon’s ‘The Underdog.’” It’s true; it is. Like laughably close. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the song. It may be my favorite on the album. But every time I hear “The Underdog” these days, I can’t help but laugh thinking of the defenses I’ve heard second- and third-hand, things like, “the guys swear they wrote ‘Irony’ before ‘Underdog’ ever came out” or “sources close to the band vehemently deny any connection.” Fess up, dudes — I caught you.

Ultimately, though, all the faults I can find with these kids I’m willing to write off. Every album has a couple duds. And “Irony” is packaged so nicely, its potential plagiarism has never drawn away from my enjoyment of the song. As for the Third Eye Blind, Weezer, Jock Jams, and American Hi-Fi comparisons, who’s to say those are insults? What I love about the Ivy League is that they sound just like everything I loved in 7th grade, and are exactly what I wanted my attic-jam-sessions bands to sound like. They’ve pulled it off with musical grace and elegance, and for that I can’t help but love them. Even if I could never, ever get my voice to attain the heights of Simon’s Gene Simmons yowl.

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Out of this Town – The Ivy League

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Whoa – The Ivy League

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Irony (Without the Iron) – The Ivy League

Download the album for free here, and, for those about to rock, the Show salutes you.

PS: It is my sad duty to inform you that this debut album will be the Ivy League’s only, as the band plans to break up by the end of the summer. An ephemeral glimmer. Grab ‘em on tour while you can, and before they grow beards and try to be Williamsburg hipsters instead of UES chipsters.

The Grammy Awards (an overly long guide by Marquis Meowers)

marquismeowmersiv — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 01:37:17 +0000

Fuck.

Well, here were are again. Another year, another black president, another round of Grammy Awards… the sad cycle of life continues. The 51st annual (really semi-annual, go look at the Wikipedia page) were filled with really shitty awards (surprise surprise) and some truly awesome performances. Below the jump is my recap and commentary on this year’s Grammy Awards… but be forewarned. The path is filled with overly pretentious opinions, stupid jokes, spelling errors, grammar errors, and hobgoblins of the worst variety.

Please note, there are NO MP3’s below the jump. Videos only! With that said…

Let’s start with a little recap:

When I first read the nominations, I was filled with quite a bit of joy. While Fucked Up had (unfortunately) not been recognized for The Chemistry of Common Life, a number of great artists were recognized for their 2008 creations. M.I.A’s Paper Planes was up for “Best Song That Was Overplayed and Then Became The Official Anthem of Sorority Sisters Trying To Be ‘independent’ Or Something”. Uffie wannabe ‘Duffy’ was nominated 3 times for something or other, and The Academy seemed to love that ‘wacky’ Sgt. Pepper cover group Coldplay:

Hey Coldplay, Paul McCartney called. He told me to tell you to stop making references to him whenever you receive awards.

Additionally, several really good artists were nominated for various awards, like Lupe Fiasco (The Cool, Best Rap Album), Estelle and Kanye (American Boy, best duo rap performance, Song of the Year), Béla Fleck & The Flecktones (Jingle All The Way, Best Pop Instrumental Album), Beck (That new album that everyone keeps telling me to listen to but I haven’t yet sorry Carl, Best Alternative Rock Album), and Radiohead (OMG Thom Yorke, Best Alternative Rock Album)

Finally, there were a few independent artists who were given niche nominations just so The Academy can say “look, we’re hip too” like No Age (Nouns, Best Type Face or something), Justice/MGMT (Eletric Feel (Justice Remix), There Is A Best Remix Category???), and essentially Kimya Dawson (Juno Soundtrack, Best album that made me HATE The Moldy Peaches).

To say the least, I liked the outlook of this years awards. Maybe the deserving will be rewarded this year…

So, Marquis, how were the results???

Frankly… pretty fucking poor. As predicted, the results heavily favored sales and ‘ass kissery’ over talent or artistic integrity. For instance, Hot Chip lost “Best Dance Track” (’track’ was the 420th word of this post… lol) to Daft Punk, Lil Wayne beat out Lupe for “Best Rap Album”, and Metallica won “Best Metal Performance”, despite the fact that Dragonforce was nominated.

The biggest winners of the night were probably Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, who won the “major awards” despite the fact that their album had lukewarm reception from all the critics who actually critique music rather than giving an album a write-up and slapping an ‘x out of 5′ score to it (I’m looking at you Allmusic, Rolling Stone, Blender, etc.). I’ve only heard a few songs from the album, all of which are forgettable. I thought its overall merit was based on the fact that Plant had finally made something post-Zep that wasn’t horrendous, which is an assumption I garnered from all the positive reviews focused mostly on that aspect of the album, (in addition to Krauss’s voice [which is, admittedly, beautiful]). (EDITOR’S NOTE: I found Raising Sand pretty solid, though definitely not “album-of-the-year-good.” Still, definitely worth a spin. — Edw.)

Even the cool awards went to the profitable rather than the creative, with No Age losing “Best Packaging” to Metallica (are you fucking kidding me?) and best “non-Classical Producer” going to Rick Rubin (album listed: Red Album by Weezer, Death Magnetic by Metallica, and Seeing Things by Jakob Dylan [lol]) instead of Will.i.Am (American Boy, Pick It Up amongst other great pop songs) or Danger Mouse (Modern Guilt by Beck [sorry Carl], The Odd Couple by Gnarls, and Attack and Release by The Black Keys. Essentially, a really well known guy who produced a bunch of super mediocre albums (except for The Red Album, but I didn’t see Rivers Cuomo getting an award so…) beat out several people who produced at least one really good album/song. Additionally, Rick Rubin sits at a console adjusting levels, while both Danger Mouse and Will.i.Am ACTUALLY produce (lay down backing beats) songs. You decide who actually deserves an award…

But you knew that was going to happen, dumbass. Why did you bother watching?

Not gonna lie, I was excited about the performances. And, boy, did they deliver. I was a tad worried after U2 (they’re still a group?) and that weird ensemble of Al Greene, Boyz 2 Men, Keith Urban, and JT both gave pretty forgettable performances, but my faith in the power of an awards show was revitalized after Coldplay teamed up with Jay Z to give a spectacular duet before hitting the crowd with the all-too-catchy ‘Viva La Vida’. Kid Rock’s performance is worth watching just for the humorous sampling of Sweet Home Alabama in All Summer Long, and Jenifer Hudson delivered her single “You Pulled Me Through” with force… she has a seriously beautiful voice:

However, shit never takes off unless Kanye is involved, and the live Grammy performances are no exception. Though the mixing might have been off for Estelle and Kanye’s duet on American Boy, both Kanye’s energy and Estelle’s vocal talents were totally on. Not to forget ‘Kanye West’s Multi-directional-light-reflecting Coat of Dreams”:

(a higher quality video can be found here)

Seriously, could it get any better?

Yes.

Yes, it most definitely can. The introduction of the “Rap Pack” had me obsessed with this performance of ‘Swagga Like Us’ before the music even began. But the group managed to one-up their own introduction by appearance alone. Not only was M.I.A deep in the throws of full-on pregnancy, but T.I, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and lil’ fucking Wayne were all wearing tuxedos and amazing sunglasses. Lil’ Wanye’s name is high-lighted because his tux was custom tailored to have baggy slacks. AWESOME. I can’t use words to describe how high energy the performance was, so I’ll just roll the video:

(a much much higher quality rip can be found here)

I really hope that this group keeps making music together. In addition to having a nickname already picked out for them, they make some amazing music. Can you really go wrong with the 4 biggest names in rap? Well, probably yes, but they’ve easily got at least one GREAT album that would appeal to both the “indie Pitchfork” and “frat house Rolling Stone” crowds. KANYE IF YOU ARE READING THIS MAKE IT HAPPEN.

I guess Radiohead performed (OMG Thom Yorke):

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Lastly (and I am skipping quite a few performances here, because most of them were boring except for Dave Grohl ROCKING THE FUCK OUT with Paul McCartney) I found Weezy’s solo performance to be mentionable. I thought the arrangement was well planned, though the amount of political commentary was a little over the top. Robin Thicke can still sing (holy crap…).

So, what was the best part of the night?

BLINK 182 REUNION

I’m not sure if I can explain just how happy this makes me. Granted, their new album will probably sound like a combination of +44 and Angels and Airwaves (re: horseshit) but that’s okay. That fact that there is a remote chance of Tom DeLonge singing about “M.I.L.F’s”, dog crap, and hand jobs again makes me SO HAPPY. Not to mention the fact that there is now a remote chance of my ultimate 8th grade fantasy coming true: a Blink 182 and Weezer tour (maybe Tenacious D will open). Seriously.

Any last words, Marquis?

No. Why did I do this instead of my homework. I hope you didn’t actually read all of that.