With “Swag” seemingly chosen as the buzz word for 2011 it was appropriate that Jay-Z and KanyeWest‘s long rumored collaboration had tons of it. . Having set the bar very high with last year’s ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy‘ it seems anything Kanye touches turns to gold and Jay-Z also has the midas touch again reminding us how much better than everyone else he is. ‘Watch The Throne‘ gives the rap megastars an opportunity to make as many outlandish and likely true boasts as they possible can over a tight production.
Cougar scribe Olivia said: “Take Jay Z and Kanye West, you expect something epic, huge and over the top ( just like the massive promotion around the album ), a mix of Kanye‘s creativity and Jay‘s flow , so something perfect basically. Indeed it is a great album. Considering the amount of talent in this twosome have that’s not too surprising“.
It has been a while since we featured a good mashup and even longer since The White Panda graced these pages. In this time the boys have been keeping busy plugging their third album ‘Pandamonium‘ and filling dancefloors across North America.
I’ve argued before that in my mind what makes an ideal mashup is when I am familiar, and preferably love, the tracks involved. The Chicago based duo have a knack for doing just that.
For details on how to get their releases as well as live shows check The White Panda.
California Wives are a four piece from Chicago offering hope filled and shoe-gazey indie pop that we’re actually quite enjoying.
Title track ‘Tokyo’, nodding to its namesake, taps into an undeniable Eastern feel. It’s light, clean and feathery. Simple vocals provide an 80s synth pop sound that isn’t burdened with a heavy emotional weight. Likewise ‘Photolights’ maintains that same oriental style but is far grungier having been beefed out with some lo-fi reverb guitars.
Elsewhere ‘Blood Red Youth’, despite suggesting a testosterone and adrenaline induced rush, is instead decidedly placid with a nice symmetry to the chorus and verse. The result is a hazy summer glow as opposed to a sweat covered solstice.
The defining feature of this band is their earnest sound and old fashioned charm and we can’t get enough. With the obligatory South By Southwest performance under their belts ‘California Wives‘ are certainly making a name for themselves.
You’ll be hard push to catch them in concert on British shores just yet but you can happily purchase their LP ‘Affair‘ which is out now.
The Smashing Pumkins kicked off their ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness‘ properly with ‘Tonight, Tonight’ and its glorious 30 piece string orchestra accompaniment.
The video inspired by the silent movie ‘A Trip To the Moon’ is no less impressive. Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris vintage aesthetic and dramatic visuals won several awards back in 96.
I’m not a huge fan of singles from most bands–especially bands I really like, oddly enough. I’m always waiting for the rest of the album, because the real creativity, to me, rears its head in those songs that aren’t being played on repeat by various music channels. So against my better judgement—The new single holds its own.
Frontman Tim McIlrath has always had a gritty rawness in his vocals that carry the songs to near perfect emotion. “Help Is On The Way” is no exception—the heat of the single comes not from any ingenious guitar hook, but from Tim’s sensitive delivery.
Surprisingly, I had to listen to “Help Is On The Way” roughly four times before I got caught up enough to started bopping along with the use of my gammy leg. Usually a Rise Against song has enough hook and energy to grab me on the first spin, but not so here. The reason is pretty easy to spot: the song is massively over-produced compared to their records of past. There is slight counterpoint in the song however, but that amounts to nothing really as the song still has enough energy and excitement even with a producer’s heavy hand to add some great modern punk rock to Rise Against’s discography.
The lyrics obviously mean something to the band or its frontman, unsurprising as a number of their songs are either about socioeconomic decline or environmental disasters. The band are heavily involved with PETA and so have a plethora of material for songs pointing out mankind’s faults.
Rise Against have undoubtedly been at their best when playing and singing about the gut-wrenching realisation of failed love (see: “The Good Left Undone”) or the fear of failed dreams and failed lives (“Rumours of my Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated”). Check out their albums ‘Siren Song of the Counter Culture‘ and the outstanding ‘Suffer and Witness’. None of the songs there will disappoint.
And if you want the stripped-down, explosive Rise Against of years past, you only have to see them live and away from the studio. I just hope that the hidden gems are yet to come on the rest of Endgame.
Now go skate.
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Post by Henry ’29yrs and 364days’
—– TRACKS:
Somewhere in between starting his own “Yo, Ima let you finish BUT…” meme, endless twitter rants and outlandish extended music videos Kanye West found time to record his best album to date. Following the auto-tune obsessed meanderings of ‘808s & Heartbreak’ you would have been right to wonder if Mr West had relinquished his rapper ambitions. That claim is soon laid to rest.
The superstar had already begun hinting at what he was about to cook up with his ‘G.O.O.D Fridays’ project but when ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ dropped in late november so did a few jaws. Has Kanye finally released an album to match the size of his ego?
The album states its intentions early by kicking off proceedings with the track ‘Dark Fantasy’ with its outlandish faux BritishAlice In Wonderland-esque introduction. This is followed by a bombastic gospel choir and some head bang demanding verses which make this the perfect prologue to this album acting as a vindication of his state of mind.
Having kicked off in such impressive fashion he keeps delivering upon this stellar standard throughout. As can be expected there is a multitude of gueststars on display but it is interesting to note that only 5 tracks actually feature rappers. West has always been more of a producer than a rapper in my mind so it notable that two of my standout tracks, the bass lead and ego fueled ‘Power’ and ‘Hell Of A Life’, see him largely going it solo whilst delivering some of his most memorable lines.
Still, when you consider that tracks such as ‘Monster’ and ‘So Appalled’ feature an array superheroes including Jay-Z, Pusha T, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, CyHi Da Prynce, Swizz Beatz & The RZA and that ‘All Of The Lights’ samples the voices of the likes of John Legend, La Roux, Alicia Keys, Rihanna and Elton John (!) and it starts to become clear that Kanye’s Blackberry is the ultimate musical wet dream.
Fortunately these inspired guest performances, with notable mention for Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj, don’t bloat the album but rather play another small part in the larger picture in Kanye’s vision. ‘Fantasy’ suggests total control over music and image and this album is intentionally, and somewhat surprisingly, light on skits and interludes. However it is not lightweight as a result of it. In fact its “meager” 13 tracks come in at 70 minutes without ever outliving its welcome guaranteeing value for money.
Few artists polarize opinion as much as Mr Kanye West. A few weeks ago I was at a house party where the conversation naturally turned to music and the best albums of 2010. My admission that I thought very highly of ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ was met with slight bewilderment. When I asked if my interrogator had actually heard the album he responded that he had no real interest because he disliked the artist. .
Think what you will of Kanye West the man but in ‘Fantasy’ he has not only released a timeless hip-hop album but possibly one of the best albums of the past ten years.
Maps & Atlases set aside their early math-rock tendencies for what an undoubtedly more accessible set of songs in 2010. The resulting album ‘Perch Patchwork‘ proved that the wild percussions and breakneck instrumental interchanges were not being entirely forgone by the band but instead were balanced with a knack for atmospherics and dynamics.
The shift from playing a thousand notes a minute to only revving it up at key segments is surprisingly smooth and frontman Dave Davison booming voice benefits most from the new found spotlight. Imagine Kings Of Leon’s Caleb Followill fronting a more daring Vampire Weekend and you may just begin to scratch the surface.
There is a lot going on on this album and it took me a few listens to digest it all but it is on the live stage that these songs truly begin to soar. With the band seemingly intent on recreating every note they recorded there is genuine tension and excitement in the air.
Add that to the fact they 4-pice are stand up guys and you have yourself a must hear album.
Cougar Microbes caught up with the members of Maps & Atlases munching on a vegetarian platter hours before they were due on stage at Cargo. We discussed sweaty clothes, Cee Lo Green and scary songs:
- Cougar Microbes – So to start off; what time did you guys get out of bed this morning?
- Maps & Atlases – We got up at 8:30.
- CM - 8:30? Was that out of choice or where you dragged out of bed?
- M&A – Well we had to get down to London from Manchester so it was kind of like we dragged ourselves out of bed.
- CM – How do you guys kill time on the road? Do you play games?
- M&A – We had a couple of fun games. We used to have games, now we just don’t talk (laughs). Fortunately there’s lots of scenery to take in.
- CM - And the great weather?
M&A – Of course your great weather!
CM – What have been your favourite venues on this UK tour?
M&A – We really liked the venue from last night, Manchester Deaf Institute was really cool, and Glasgow just looked awesome as a city.
CM – Any absolutely shocking venues?
M&A- Actually, kind of funny you bring that up… they were mostly good.
CM – We like to name and shame
M&A – All our shows have been good experiences…. but it got so packed at our Brighton show and it got extremely hot, the air conditioning wasn’t working… people were passing out, literally. We nearly passed out. It was pretty bad.
The clothes we have from that show are still wet.
CM – Are there any tracks in the set you are sick of playing?
M&A – Not yet but probably by the end of this tour (laughs).
CM – And what’s your favourite?
M&A – You know, I think ‘Pigeon’ is a fun one to play it’s got all these things that could go wrong so it is just scary enough to be exciting every time. Its high energy but it has a good root to it. It’s pretty easy to mess it up but it is so great to play.
CM – Are you guys able to write on the road?
M&A – I guess writing lyrics can happen any time, but we don’t necessarily as you would imagine. I guess sometimes we will have a 2 minute jam on the side of the soundcheck but for the most part when you are playing live you don’t wanna be pissing off the sound guys.
CM – Whats more important for you, the lyrics or the melody?
M&A – Hopefully there is a balance between both. I think the lyrics are important to give a sense to the songs you are singing but without the melody tying it together its not really worth anything. I guess if i had to chose one Lyrics would be slightly more important.
I mean look at Cake, who are a fantastic band, and notice how they emphasise the lyrics whilst he almost talks over it.
CM – and says ‘Oh no’ a lot of times…
M&A – Exactly!
CM – You guys have toured with Ra Ra Riot, mewithoutyou and Minus the Bear, who would you like to tour with again
M&A – We did a few shows with Rar Ra Riot and those were fun and we did some with Foals which we also enjoyed. Really any of those tours we’d love to do again.
I’d like to do Frightened Rabbit again. There aren’t too many bands that we’ve toured with that we disliked.
CM – What is the most flattering thing you’ve read or heard about yourselves?
M&A – I really like some of the comparisons we get all the time. we are one of these bands that always gets oddball comparisons. People are like “yeah you sound like Talking Heads and… Prince” and I’m just thinking yeah, I guess thats pretty awesome. We’ll take that.
The other day Dave was compared to Cee Lo which made us laugh.
CM – Which other bands are doing stuff that you like at the moment?
M&A – I like Phantogram a lot, Wild Beasts came out a while ago but that was an awesome album, a band that is coming out soon called Gypsyblood will be pretty awesome.
CM – When was the last time you queued up and paid for a show?
M&A - I just got tickets to Dismemberment Plan in Chicago, hopefully I wont have to queue. I got tickets for a Thermals show last year and didn’t really have to wait in line for very long. Not because I’m a rockstar or anything, just that I got there at the right time.
CM – Are there any covers you are planning to record or have recorded?
M&A – We are always trying to think of an awesome cover we could play.
CM – You could do Cee Lo?
M&A – Now that’s an awesome idea… We were actually working on a couple of songs earlier in the tour like an Echo & The Bunnymen track.
CM – Final question, if you have to bring an artist back from the dead and swap them with a living artist who would it be and why?
M&A – We’d probably wanna bring someone back whose career has been cut short like Buddy Holly or someone like that. Someone who was unfortunate to die but fortunate for their career to go that way.
I say we bring back Buddy Holly. Swap them with someone like Puddle of Mudd. In fact you don’t even have to bring anyone back, just take that band away.
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If there are any issues with the tracks featured do not hesitate to contact: "team (AT) Cougar Microbes (DOT) com and we will happily oblige.
With “Swag” seemingly chosen as the buzz word for 2011 it was appropriate that Jay-Z and Kanye West‘s long rumored collaboration had tons of it. . Having set the bar very high with last year’s ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy‘ it seems anything Kanye touches turns to gold and Jay-Z also has the midas touch again reminding us how much better than everyone else he is. ‘Watch The Throne‘ gives the rap megastars an opportunity to make as many outlandish and likely true boasts as they possible can over a tight production.
