There is hilarity everywhere.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Does this "Queen" have a King? What is the population of this "Cum Land"? #yyj #BC #BCFerries
Friday, August 20, 2010
Music Post #10: Don't Give Up - Serengeti Appreciation Summer #music #hiphop
If You Can Feel What I'm Feeling Then It's A Musical Masterpiece
If You Can Hear What I'm Dealing With Then That's Cool At Least
- MCA (From the song Pass the Mic by the Beastie Boys)
Serengeti and Polyphonic's first album, Don't Give Up, takes time to love. Impose Magazine said, "Serengeti & Polyphonic have created an album that will likely get better with age". The combination of Polyphonic's intense sounds with the unenthusiastic rhymes of Serengeti needs experiencing to be enjoyed. Listen to Eleven on headphones next time you are on a long boring drive. You're life will get instantly more interesting.
"Anyone who thinks they are avant garde is probably too stuck in intellect; music that lasts is usually not an experiment, but an experience" - Chris Dedrick
My initial impression of Don't Give Up was unfavorable. There were a few a enduring songs mixed with a bunch of weirdo music that I would always skip. However, each of these songs has come to find a moment where they fit. Sunrise, accompanying me on an early morning practice; Puppy Dog Love, when a relationship was good; and A Slew of Things Differently, when things weren't so good.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUmXcrZDfXA]
Serengeti & Polyphonic try to find all of the usuals of rap music on Don't Give Up, and purposefully go against them in varying degrees, from many different angles, turning more rap into music, and more music into rap - Audio 8
My roommate Rusto, the only person I know who listens to Geti (and reads these posts), told me about listening to Praha while walking through Prague finally getting it. To this day I still don't know what Waste of Time or Don't Fear the Mimes is about, but these songs make you feel the way the composer intends. I'll admit, you will feel like a bit of a weirdo listening to Don't Give Up, but normal is boring.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0JkbFWlQqs&feature=related]
Probably the most anti-commercial rap album since Fear Of A Black Planet. It’s about time - Tangible SoundsBuy Don't Give Up from Audio 8 or on iTunes
Thanks for reading & sharing,
Jordan
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Music Post #9: What if the Minimum Wage was $19 an Hour - Serengeti Appreciation Summer #music #hiphop
I read a review when Serengeti's Noticeably Negro came out in 2007, and I can't find who wrote it or where I found it; regardless, the woman who wrote about the album called it "sophomoric", "misogynistic", and panned N.N. as nothing special or just another rap album. Regarding a line on the title track about liking girls with "big mountains", I agree with her. This is somewhat immature, but anyone familiar with Serengeti's whimsical work knows he has plenty of rhymes but follows little reason. These guys kick unadulterated raps, thoughts of whatever interests them. Young men think about beautiful women. Build a bridge: get over it.
Noticeably Neeg offers more insight on life than most music on the charts today. The song: Bubble Bath, talks about raising the minimum wage to nineteen dollars an hour, and what life would be like if so: "Maybe the Wellington's couldn't get that porcelain table" , and "Folks couldn't build a water skiing lake/ if the minimum wage was...", and the end of "peasant squabbling".
Constance Burris, from BlogCritics.org, has a great review of N.N., and the song T.R.I.U.M.P.H., not to be confused with the Wu-Tang hit single of the same name. Burris notices how Noticeably Negro features gun shots, describes strip clubs, and buying porches, yet "doesn't glorify violence, sex or money". Burris points to some meaningful lines from the song T.R.I.U.M.P.H., but I take more meaning from these:
These words inspire me to fulfill more commitments, and enjoy myself when it's at all possible in the process. For example, embarking on my last trip to California when I could have brushed it off after hitting numerous roadblocks, and finishing this Serengeti Appreciation Summer project. Like Geti says about having a hit record, in this interview, I wish I could afford to write and teach tai chi full time too:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI7PGl4RYIQ&feature=related]
Other tracks you might like:
South
Bubbles Place
Cauc's Remix
Very Ill
Platinum Chains
Outpostcommunication.com
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Music Post #8: Always Reading Us - Serengeti Appreciation Summer #music #hiphop
When I started Serengeti Appreciation Month it was as a distraction from planning my sister's wedding, and after the wedding I took an impromptu trip to California to teach tai chi and visit friends. The hardest part of blogging is not having a deadline, as well as not getting paid to do it; so, Serengeti Appreciation Month is turning into Serengeti Appreciation Summer.
The flexibility of this project suites the release of Serengeti and Hi-Fidel's album: Saturday Night. Which is expected to ship out "mid-summer". This gives me enough time to explain the rest of Geti's albums, and finish with a review of Saturday Night. Geti released five albums in 2006: Dennehy, Gasoline Rainbows, Thunder Valley, Race Trading, and Noticeably Negro. Three of these I have already covered in past weeks. This post I'll focus on Race Trading, and next week: Noticeably Negro.
The theme of Race Trading, and Noticeably Negro, are both about issues dealing with race. From the first track of Race Trading, Afro, Geti raps about having a "fro" so big he can hide a can of mace inside. The title track, Race Trading, deals with interracial relationships, with such lines as "I want to be with someone from the same ape", and how his friends won't date outside their race.
The skit: We've Been Dating for 112 Months, has a girl telling her boyfriend how her mom doesn't think "black people have emotions", when he asks to meet her parents. The final song on this album is Mexican Hands, with rhymes like "towels are folded by Mexican hands/ Los Lobos is a Mexican band", it addresses the contradiction in how Americans view the value immigrants bring to their country. This album's theme isn't race, it's about the contradictions in our actions, and our desire to define the world around us.
"I've got too many thoughts, moods, views, and stories/ and they change everyday so fuck a category" - Nico B, from the song Hiccova.
Race Trading is available free from Audio 8 Records: http://www.audio8.com/releases/A8014.html
Tracks from this album you might like:Jim Duggin
Teenager
Race Trading Remix
America
Bees
Girlfriend
Thanks for helping me spread the word. Word.
JordanKeats.comOutpostCommunication.com
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