Wanted: One Fawning Assistant

Here's a mix I've been wanting to put together for a while.  By "for a while" I mean since at least early October, 2011.  Why the wait, you say? 

For one, I am a very, very important and very, very busy person. 

Well.  I'm a very, very busy person.  And this mix is culled from a project that a talented rapper with fresh DIY beats and smart lyrics named Father Abraham put together over the course of 52 weeks in 2009, called 52PickUp.  52 tracks in 52 weeks.  52.  If you've learned anything about me thus far, it's that I can't just listen to something once and make up my mind;  I have to sit there and listen over and over and over again like a person suffering from some weird cross between OCD and autism before I can form an opinion about the music I'm listening to.  So, if you're me, 52 tracks very quickly becomes 4606100252 tracks and before you know it, it's 2012 and you need to get the mix out before the world ends.

Why release the mix now, you say?  Why not wait another month?  Well, you guessed it, Father Abraham is the other, whiter half of Sex Party.  If I'm going to let DJ Tunafist share his solo work here, I can't leave out Father Abraham (that's FFFFFF to all you freshly-minted Sex Party groupies) just because he suffers from an undiagnosed malanin deficiency.  That wouldn't be fair, and could probably get me sued. 

And why not wait?  If I wait, I'll be waiting forever.  When I say Abraham is talented, it doesn't really do him justice.  Father Abraham is a weird spirit with a rehabbed-synth fetish, and more discipline than he seems to give himself credit for.  The end result is a pretty wide range of sounds to choose from in 52PickUp, and as much as I hope I've captured the scope of what Abraham is capable of in the songs I've selected, I don't think I'd ever be totally confident that I had.  And when I said Father Abraham's lyrics were smart?  I meant "intelligent," sure, but also that other thing:  Sometimes they sting.  Father Abraham is not exactly about holding back or making sure we are all safely secured within our comfort zones.  We're not luggage stored in the overhead bin.  That boundary-pushing can be pretty delightful, if you're into that sort of thing.  As I've listened to 52PickUp, I've picked up on some pretty outrageous lyrics I hadn't noticed before.  Let's just say I like that sort of thing. 

I had to draw the line somewhere, and here seemed to be as good a place as any.  So without further ado, here are my top picks from Father Abraham's 52PickUp.  Despite the time that's passed, the objective has remained the same: If I were to put together an album from the tracks Father Abraham recorded in his 52-week music-writing marathon, what would it look like?  The resulting tracklist is below.  If you want to check out the whole project, you can do it here.  And if you're curious which tracks made it into the mix tape Father Abraham released last Spring (in one form or another), you can download it by clicking here.

Wanted:  One Fawning Assistant

1.  Despondent Clown Rap
2.  Jacques Cousteau
3.  Sleepless Nights
4.  Lum Di Lie
5.  Body
6.  Bomb
7.  All My Friends Are CFOs
8.  Loud Sex
9.  Leave Me Alone
10.  Horse Thief
11.  Sasquatch Hunter
12.  Snake Oil
13.  Rhymes with Khartoum
14.  Self Destruct/Flower People
15.  He Was Sad

Sex Party's Silent Half Puts Out

So, when he heard that I'd posted the flier for the SXSW showcase at which Sex Party would be performing, the DJ in the duo offered First and Fifteenth an exclusive listen of an as-of-yet unreleased, uncut version of a solo set he spun at Tipitina's in New Orleans.  As a member of Sex Party, he goes by the moniker DJ Tunafist. But as a solo artist, he goes by The Zen Lunatic.  I've written about him here before, but he's come a long way since then.  The live set he's released to us includes two early incarnations of beats he and FFFFFF (pronounced "Superwhite," or just "Ffffff," if you're hooked on phonics) worked on together when Sex Party was still just foreplay.  Have a listen to Tunafist's generous gift, and the Sex Party EP and see if you can spot 'em.

Okay, boys and girls.  On March 17th, a couple talented and dirty, dirty bastards I know are playing the AFHC Showcase at SXSW.  The duo is called Sex Party and they go on at 11 PM.  So if you find yourself around Austin, TX this Saturday, and are looking for some free fun inappropriate for all ages, head over to The Grackle.  They'll bring the sex, you bring the party.

Saturday Night 45s

I hit record on Audacity while playing a few 45s this evening. On the fly, no headphones or fancy editing.

Listen along by clicking here: http://www.mediafire.com/?tr405qed2u398w6

Includes: Eddie Kendricks, Barbara Mason, MFSB, The Moments, The Intruders, First Choice.

Groovy music for sipping a brandy on a cold night.

Studio Review: Vox and the Hound, Hermosa

Good, young bands bursting with talent and driven by balanced creative initiative are hard to find. I think, to a certain extent, we tend to assume that a band is a vehicle for its leader's creativity. Vox and the Hound may have started out this way, but it's not where the band wound up, and a genuinely collaborative approach to making music is paying off for this indie band from New Orleans.

Vox and the Hound began as a solo project in late 2009 when Leo DeJesus, then of MyNameIsJohnMichael, wanted to scratch a creative itch. Leo can best be described as a jack-of-all-trades; he is an energetic multi-instrumentalist who plays pretty much every instrument you can think of, and then a few more you didn't even know existed. That a musician with such a broad range of talent wouldn't feel whole without composing his own music comes as no surprise.

And when you see Leo and bandmate Eric Rogers jump in time while performing "The One" live with MyNameIsJohnMichael, it's no surprise that as Vox and the Hound started to grow into an ensemble, Eric came along for the ride. The two worked together on snatching up some wonderful local talent, the project naturally morphed into a full-fledged band, and a dynamic EP called Hermosa followed.

I have listened to Hermosa over and over again on a persistant loop: on the subway, walking around my neighborhood, on the 2.5 hour bus ride between New York City and my parents' home in Pennsylvania. I have never once been bored.

The project is a percussion-rich (although not percussion-heavy). Leo is a drummer first, and the only consistent elements in the entire EP are an artfully executed percussive undercurrent and Leo's molassas-rich voice. Aside from that, all bets are off: within a mere five tracks, Hermosa reveals the breadth and depth of the band's talent. Each track is different, from the ambient opening of the first track, to the almost ragtime quality hanging in the background of the second, to the lyrical quality of the third, and the stripped-down, percussion-only arrangement of the fourth, which just goes to show that the five-member ensemble still understands that sometimes less is more. The fifth track brings the EP full circle, back to its melodic beginning.

But what is truly special about Vox and the Hound is how balanced the band is. You can hear the real impact of the band's approach when you listen to Leo's original demos of "Clouds 1-8" and "End of Me" next to the final EP versions. Geppetto may have put Pinocchio together, but it took a whole cast of characters to help him become a real boy. Thus it is with Vox and the Hound. Leo may write the songs, but the band breathes life into them and gives them body. No one member dominates the band's sound, no instument is just filling space. What a listener is left with is a rich listening experience; you could, if you wanted, listen to these five tracks over and over again, and capture something new, something different, each time.

In short, Hermosa is worth a listen (or ten). You can stream the EP here for free, and if you like what you hear, you can download it for just five bucks. And think. If you throw a litte green these boys' way, maybe they'll wind up in a city near you.

Whodini - Five Minutes of Funk

Show Review: MyNameIsJohnMichael, Mercury Lounge 9/21/11

I am a person who grew up playing music for all the wrong reasons. It was supposed to teach me discipline; it was supposed to make me better at math; it was supposed to help me get into college. I hated it. But in spite of that, I seem to have grown up listening to music for all the right reasons. Really listening to it. I am a person who will sit and devote all my attention to an album, who will do nothing but listen, who will listen again and again until I think I know the music better than I know myself. I am a listener who even after all that remains open to the possibility that the music I think I know will continue to surprise me.

This experience tends to instill in me a deep-seated attachment to the music itself. And it makes me painfully resistent to change. So when MyNameIsJohnMichael replaced four of its members earlier this year, and took the project in a totally new direction, I worried. I had listened to The People That Come and Go over and over again through some of the more stressful moments in my law school career, and in a strange way, this music had become a good friend that was always there for me when I needed it most. I worried that MNIJM was a friend that I was losing.

The moral of this story is that I should probably worry less. MyNameisJohnMichael has undergone an extraordinary evolution. The band has always been comprised of extremely talented musicians, and the current line-up is no exception. But the music is not the same. This time, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The differences are all fundamentally good; MyNameIsJohnMichael has moved forward. The arrangements are much tighter, and although their sound could never be described as minimalist, it's been simplified in a way that allows each of its members to really be heard. John Michael Rouchell, the band's front man, brought in an honest to goodness horns section, eliminated a second guitar, and pulled back somewhat on percussion. The end result is a clean, fantastically brassy sound that is classically New Orleanean.

Although the sound has changed drastically, some quintessential MNIJM traits remain: the band kicked off its Mercury Lounge show last week by playing its way through the crowd to the stage; John Michael's first order of business was to encourage the audience to step forward (if you expect to go to a show and shuffle your feet awkwardly in the back of the venue, you need to go see a different band); Joe Bourgeois (bass) still hollers the lyrics at the top of his lungs even though he's not mic'd; and as much as the band is there to play for a crowd, there is no question that they are as much there for the sake of making music together. The band's chemistry is still palpable.

Another thing that has remained unchanged is MNIJM's ability to harness bold, big sound on a live stage. While the band has made some perceptable shifts in its style and line-up, they are still a seven-piece band that now touts a big brass core. Good brass will make you swoon; bad brass will huff and puff and blow your house down. Terence Green (trombone / baritone), Ashton Hines (trumpet), and Jeremy Phipps (trombone), are each incredible musicians in their own right, but on stage they melt together like butter. The audience can't help but melt with them.

And on the off-chance that you are both familiar with MNIJM's music, and as nervous as I was about the band's renovation, don't be. All your favorites are still there, this time performed in fresh arrangements that will only leave you wanting more.

In short, if MyNameIsJohnMichael comes to your city, go see them. If you're on the road and can stop off in a city where they're playing, go see them. If you find yourself in New Orleans, and they're playing, go see them. If you find yourself anywhere near where they're playing, go see them. If you don't, you're missing out.