Pretty ill
Monday, January 08, 2007

RJD2, talking to HipHopSite circa. 2002 after the release of Dead Ringer:

HHS: Speaking of movies, "The Horror" sounds like it could be the theme music for any potential secret agent in waiting; would you ever consider scoring for motion pictures in the future?

RJD2: If it was dope, but I’ve been compared to Moby enough in the last two weeks. I would do a score for some shit that was hot and Indy, like Donnie Darko or an ill Jim Jarmusch flick.

Um, ill, right? And RJ's plans for the future at this particular juncture?

More video games, more touring, more records, more lawsuits, and I intend to hone my pimp game this year. Thanks.
Ah, the ever elusive "pimp game." Fast forward 4 years to Oh Six, and RJ's chatting with PitchforkMedia:
"Rhythmically, I feel like there's a continuous thread that would run throughout everything that I've done, and I'd like to think the new stuff still has that kind of emphasis on the rhythm section and groove. [But] there are a lot more songs in major keys. There are a lot more vocal harmonizations. I think it's a lot prettier than anything I've ever done. And it's all live. There's, like, one or two samples on there."
Prettier? Is that part of the pimp game? Later in the interview he claims to be a "folk musician." And what does Mr. D2 of ought-six see in his future now? Hopefully...
to do an integrated Nelly Furtado/Timbaland kind of thing.
ILL! DOPE! Not really, no.

Stuff like this makes my day for some reason. Funny how the RJD2 of 2002, hot DJ complete with obligatory ill shit rapper speak, manages to sound less disingenuous (and certainly less self-important) than the multi-instrumentalist musician of '06. He's changed up an irritating way of speaking for irritating speech. Don't misunderstand, I hope that his new record is wonderful. I hope he's not just another overreaching artist believing his own hype. I hope he has much success with the new direction.

I'm just not going to bet on it.

posted by josefek @ 8:00 PM, ,


First Meanderings
Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Of Music, Technology and Random Meanderings I've certainly covered Music to death. Time for a little meandering.

This afternoon, thanks to reddit, I came across the Psychology Today article Friendship: The Laws of Attraction. I run about 50/50 on the PT articles I've come across. As a child my parents subscribed to the dead-tree version of the mag, and as far as I'm concerned there's just as much evidence to prove that the existence of it in our household hurt my upbringing as much as helped it.
Regardless I found this article particularly resonant. I keep a close circle of true friends... so close I can count them all on one hand with fingers to spare. I'm extremely particular when it comes to who I spend my meager free time with and prior experience has taught me that it pays to be forthright about this. Occasionally I ruffle feathers in the process. As such, this particular passage, wherein the author outlines the evolution of a relationship with a onetime coworker moved on, hit home:
In lieu of complaining about our bosses, I told her about my concerns that I wasn't ready to move in with my boyfriend. She listened politely, but she never divulged anything personal about her own life. Eventually our lunches petered out to once a month, before she drifted out of my life for good. I was eager to tell her my problems, but she wasn't eager to tell me hers. The necessary reciprocity was missing, so our acquaintanceship never tipped over into friendship.
That necessary reciprocity she's referring to is effectively outlined earlier in the article here:
...Self-disclosure characterizes the moment when a pair leaves the realm of buddyhood for the rarefied zone of true friendship. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" may well be the very words you say to someone who is about to become a friend.
Indeed. There is the rare occasion (less and less so as I age) where I find myself opening up to someone who hasn't positioned themselves appropriately. More often I find that people are all too willing to open up and share intimate personal information with me. While this article didn't explain why this tends to occur it did shed a bit of light on why I subconsciously react the way I do. It's a short, worthwhile read.

posted by josefek @ 6:22 PM, ,


New Years Tunes

Happy New Years. Next up MLK and Valentines in Febuugly. Enjoy.

The Shins - Wincing the Night Away - Advance

I couldn't get enough of Oh, Inverted World and Chutes too Narrow from the Shins. Then I downloaded a copy of vocalist/guitarist James Mercer performing solo and acoustic on some radio station in Portland. Afterwards, because of his rougher, more traditional delivery of the songs, the aforementioned records seem to pale in comparison. Certainly it isn't that Inverted and Chutes aren't good records; nay, they're great pop albums. It's simply that there was something more honest, less fluffy, more forthright about Mercer's solo reinterpretations.
I was excited upon reading about Wincing the Night Away. Early reviews claimed it to be "heavier," and its first single, Phantom Limb, seemed to bear this out. Now that I have my hands on what appears to be a full advance, of all the things Wincing is heavier is not one of them. If you're the sort who thought that the Shins previous albums suffered from delusions of pop grandeur Wincing will undoubtedly stand as pure edification, as it's far and away the most produced album of their limited catalog.
It will be interesting to see how this album is received. I can't imagine that the school of XTC pop (which has until now embraced the Shins) will appreciate this release given its relative dearth of guitar. My vote is still out on where Wincing stands with the bands other releases. On thing that's particularly unsettling is that some of the songs where the band is obviously "stretching" invariably invoke whispers of The Fixx in my mind. Don't misunderstand; I've been a closet devotee of The Fixx for decades now (listen to Reach the Beach, Shuttered Room or Phantoms and tell me that they weren't an early "indie" band that just happened to be good enough to hit mainstream radio), but I never thought I'd align them with the Shins... or any other band circa 2007, for that matter.
Wincing the Night Away will require revisiting.
Read more about the Shins on Wikipedia.
http://www.theshins.com/

posted by josefek @ 5:55 PM, ,