poison to the mind

For some reason, big hip-hop acts have trouble with promoters in Australia. OK, perhaps in a lot of cases it’s dudes like Busta blowing out two tours then sitting backstage once they finally come to the country and refusing to go on stage unless they’re delivered an extra 10k in cash (dude! you can’t even spend it at home!) making it not worth the effort of dealing with them, but it always seems to be fly-by-night desperadoes with no rep trying to bring them out. And then putting them on in 12,000 seat arenas that have to be curtained off when the tickets don’t sell…

I mean, this goes way back, right? It’s why the Mystik Journeymen were able to tour twice a year in the ’90s when no-one in America had even heard of them. (Hey, there are probably guys who were in the Mystik Journeymen who don’t even remember the group anymore.) But there’ll be the odd one who comes out with a rock promoter, plays established live venues (as opposed to sports venues or dodgy nightclubs), and builds a tourable rep. Jurassic Five, the Oasis of rap, may have done better here on tours than they did on sales.

But even Jay-Z couldn’t sell the Entertainment Centre. Ice Cube did it right last year - returning after playing a beer barn 12 years before (officially named as the most violent pub in Sydney by police recently!) - put on one night in a thousand-seater theatre, sold it out. Put on the next night, sold it out. Added a third, sold that. [The promoters probably could have gotten away with not calling it “The Straight Outta Compton Tour.”

So it was ludicrous to see LL Cool J last month having to move his show from a sports arena out at the Olympic complex, on three days notice, to that same theatre (near the city and public transport). And it not being sold out; they had to put seats in downstairs, and not even open the balcony. Maybe 600 tickets sold for what was meant to be a 6000-seater? The promoters resume is a list of shit that never actually happened - did Mobb Deep blow them off, or did they not have the money, or…? - but can’t they take a cue from a tour that actually worked?

Anyway, what the fuck - it meant I got excited and bought a ticket that morning because dancefloor 5m from performer > hard plastic seats 300m from stage, you know? To LL’s credit, he didn’t pout about it in the least, as far as the audience could see - big “I’ve waited a long time to come down here…” build ups from offstage, lots of “I appreciate you coming out”s in the set, and a fully-engaged performance. Probably brought about 100 more girls and dudes up for their four minutes of dancing than he would have at the other venue. And dig this for a band: Cut Creator AND Bobcat! The latter mainly on cuts, it seemed, and the former running backing tracks - but they were definitely both doing shit live and able to switch up on notice, no DAT with occasional wicky-wicky over the top; a couple of times LL had them swap a beat, or bust them for fucking up a cue, or go back and do a few false starts.

But again the promoters’ inexperience hit - the sound was just shit and muddy throughout. LL’s mic was about the same volume of his tracked vocals on choruses, there were no highs, bass drums sounded like wood being slapped with an enormous wet sock instead of, you know, a drum head or 808 echo. And the number of actual classics he tore through (in a 90-odd minute set - Missy did 15 on $120 tix back in 2003ish) was totally VFM, but almost all of them finished on “Say yeah…. now SCREAM!” You’ve had actual hits in more voices than almost any other rapper ever tries even using in skits, change up the schtick a bit too, Todd?

Carping though - I knew what I was getting myself in for. Here’s a real thrill moment, however: LL coming out with Erick and Parrish late last year to bust Rampage (the first time I’ve ever heard “rhymes up the ass” in the song!).

EPMD & LL Cool J - Rampage (live)

Buy: I ganked this from Outside Broadcast - Eli’s out here in a couple of weeks too, so maybe go spend to get in for that? It’s $20 for some guy with a blog, though. Hey, maybe if he plays the backing track from So Fucking Disco for an hour….

this blog is not actually dead. I’ve got weeks worth of files up, just waiting for me to have the time to write posts a couple of times a week. See you in summer?

…or any other pre-teen kids you’ve got about the place:

Frenzal Rhomb on Hey Hey It’s Saturday

Buy:
The song they’re doing is You Are Not My Friend. The single’s still in print.

Speaking of underwhelming gigs, this was possibly the most ludicrously well-appointed-for-choice New Year’s ever in Sydney, with somewhat unsatisfying results. Ostensibly the biggest event was Basement Jaxx at Bondi Beach, but with Bob Sinclar as an ill-matched headliner for $150 or so. And reports from the night suggest that not only did Sinclar in fact suck, but the sound was appalling and kept cutting out, not to mention the whole locked-in-a-concrete-forecourt thing.

In the city, one nightclub packed four international headliners into three rooms, with Hybrid, Z-Trip, Freq Nasty and Trentemøller all for $80. Good value, and while they apparently didn’t overpack the venue, word is that Trentemøller chucked something of a hissy fit over not having enough water when he started, or something. Enjoy his tantrum-free Essential Mix from last year instead:

Trentemøller - Essential Mix

I was out in the inner suburbs, enjoying the unpretentious surrounds of a lawn bowls club with local DJs and one live act, and Jamie Lidell headlining. Good music, good vibe, but Lidell didn’t go on until 1, there’ was no new year countdown, and instead of jamming for three hours like last time he did NYE there, it was a straight one-hour set. Half of that was pretty straight album versions with a pick-up band, and hardly any of his wild jamming. Good, but not good. Dude just seemed tired and not into it. That’s what we get for him having played two shows in different states already in the previous 30 hours. OH WELL. Heard good things about his next festival set a few hours later. Here’s a good one from earlier in the endless album-flogging round:

Jamie Lidell live at Khauspassage 2005

Buy:
Get the double-disc edition of Trentemøller’s Last Resort locally, and a free live Lidell mp3 from Bleep.

Early contender for dud gig of the year came in the last week of January, at what should have been a killer - Spank Rock and Diplo co-headline. Except: MC Spank Rock himself didn’t actually make it out of the US, Armani XXXchange wasn’t on the tour, and Diplo was only doing a 45 minute set. Apparently Naeem had some knuckledusters in his luggage, or a knuckleduster-shaped belt buckle, or some dust on his knuckles or something, and got turned back at JFK.

After doing early BDO shows as DJ sets, the two Spank Rock tour DJs apparently flew Pase Rock out to sub, but he basically did hypeman duties over a couple of songs, covered Rick Rubin, played Lindsay Lohan (which was GREAT) and DJed a bit himself. The rest of the show was just a DJ set, bar the encore where they did Put That Pussy On Me, and Pase delivered his best estimation of the lyrics, to wit: “Sump’n sump’n sump’n sump’n / sump’n sump’n sump’n”. Cheers. Nice work. Diplo came back and b2b’d a bit at the end, and people were dancing and having fun throughout, but then the whole thing shut down at midnight. Come the fuck on! Fifty bucks! Could still have been a great night if it had gone for more than three hours.

Anyway, here’s a sorta-unreleased Spank Rock track done last year with Disco D, RIP:

Spank Rock - Get It On The Floor

And speaking of people who haven’t played a proper show in five years but still do DJ sets: The Avalanches had a new/rare track included to much fanfare on Modular’s NME cover-mount last year. Helpfully, the CD was pressed as a bunch of wavs in a folder, rather than an audio disc. Not great for playing, but handy for making an mp3 from:

The Avalanches - A Different Feeling (the Av’s new sped-up re-edit of the Paperclip People mix)

beep bang bang

bleep bleep boop

seriously

No uploading this week, so here’s a lengthy YSI to tide over.

For a decade or so, I’ve repped Will Smith hard to sneering non-popists of my acquaintance. Yes, his film career is a bit hollow, yes his “solo” records are complete clownshoes, and I never really watched his sitcom, but those early singles were ace! I would urge. He made great pop records about being a kid! They cleverly did what they said on the tin, ie titles like Parents Just Don’t Undersand and Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble start as they mean to go on.

All this was based pretty much on four records I heard on the radio in the ’80s*, though. Recently I discovered that a mate actually owned their second and third albums, and borrowed them to EXPLORE THE OEUVRE. This, I can report, is an inessential cultural move - the records are chockers with beat showcases, shout-outs to crew (there is a whole song about their bodyguard and the fact that he gets out of the limo to protect them) and such, while being short on witty extensions of concept. The Prince’s boundless charisma totally carries them, as it does so well for him in Hollywood, but there’s not much to reward repeated listening.

One of the most blatant examples of padding on He’s The DJ, I’m The Rapper (remember, this is the first double album in hip-hop ever - and this was in the mezozoic era before Prince Paul invented the skit) is an excerpt from a live set at some package tour showcase situation. And in a reverse-ironic bloat move, here’s the entire set! Check the crowd-pleasing queerfear, years before Smith moved into films by playing a rentboy:

DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince - Live At Union Square

Buy:
As usual, the only thing in print here is a greatest hits by a Sony imprint designed for cut-outs. You can still get the original album in America though.

*I really loved “Boom! Shake The Room!” too, and probably bought the CD single for 50c years later.

In the mid-’80s, a future KLF art terrorist teamed up with a former Killing Joke bassist, got a bird in to sing, and attempted to take over the pop charts with inoffensive electro-soul waffling. THEY DID NOT SUCCEED, despite being an early production job for the Stock/Aitekn/Waterman team (indeed, Waterman funded PWL from his hefty fee for this work. TRUFAX!), because they were in fact pretty rubbish.

Today’s MP3 is not exactly an exception to this, but it does stand out for being a) being produced by Jimmy Cauty and Youth themselves, and b) prefiguring the pioneering work in the field of stoned-pissing-about-in-the-studio each would do a few years later . A collage of samples, dinky keyboards and “cold rock stuff!”, it’s the b-side to the 7″ shown above.

Brilliant - The Red Red Groovy