Tag: Brooklyn

Review: Joke Rap? Toke Rap? Coke Rap? Das Racist Picks Up a Belated A.V. Club Nod

Das Racist. Jokes? They got them. Sit Down, Man.

I may live to regret all the positive ink I’ve spilled on rap’s Brooklyn-based red-headed step children, Das Racist, but then again, there’s always the chance that I’ll die from laughter first while listening to one of their mixtapes. Here’s a doubly belated review of Sit Down, Man, part of the A.V. Club’s “Sorry We Missed Ya” catchup coverage. Catch up, man.

“… the two weave a complex word-web out of references to a villain from The Smurfs, a song by The Vapors, the star of The Mummy, and suicide being a largely Caucasian phenomenon, before dropping a Sister Sledge-jacking chorus …”

Huh? You should read it. Yeah, you should probably read it.

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New Magazine! Plus, Words on Cool Kids, U-N-I, Themselves, and Anti-pop Consortium

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Print ain’t dead, it just shrunk. To wit, Blink Media has just started up a brand new, free L.A.-circulated magazine dubbed Poptimist. It just so happens that said mag could fit into one’s back pocket, and without the classic rolling method that’s loosened so many perfect bindings. I haven’t held a copy in my hand yet, but I do have experience with these things, and I’d guess Poptimist‘s specs to be roughly 10 inches high by 6 wide. Though, if you click here, it can be however big you’d like it to. Once you’re firmly ensconced in those digital pages, you may want to turn to:

– Page 24, for an update from Chicago hipster hoppers The Cool Kids.
– Page 26, to explore the fabric of Compton’s fashion-forward U-N-I.
– Page 45, for a critical take on Anti-Pop Consortium’s Flourescent Black.
– Page 47, to read an overdue lauding of Themselves’ latest, CrownsDown.

Free Lefse Records digi comp (Neon Indian, Calico Horse, Phaseone, more)

A new Northern California label based out of a treehouse, Lefse Records, has just released an impressive 18-track digital sampler of its roster, which not only includes awesome Brooklynite Neon Indian but several highly promising San Diego acts as well. Read more, and download the free sampler here (via LA Weekly). Below, you’ll find Calico Horse performing non-album track “New Years” [sic] for LiveDaily.

Q&A: playing iPod shuffle with Matt & Kim

Brooklyn’s Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino, collectively Matt And Kim, may be best known for turning out warehouse parties with their synthesizer-heavy, four-on-the-floor dance-rock, but the pair are pop-punk kids and hip-hop heads at heart. And, as it turns out, fans of The Microphones (Mt. Eerie) and Belle And Sebastian to boot. We recently played “Random Rules” (via The A.V. Club) and the results will make you laugh, cry (maybe just a little), and — if the comments section is any indication — shout obscenities. Click here, after watching the amazing video for “Lessons Learned.”

Also, if you never got a chance to hear Eagles Of Death Metal’s Jesse Hughes snort meth during his “Random Rules” interview, check that out too.

Feature: Dirty Projectors interviewed by SMS

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The Dirty Projectors may be responsible for the year’s best album, a manic and schizo piece of art-pop released last month titled Bitte Orca. It’s the kind of record that begs a lot of questions — thoughful questions that couldn’t, say, be crunched into the 140-character limitations  of a Twitter post, or squeezed to the parameters of a series of SMSes. And yet, the latter is exactly what went down when, after ducking my best attempts to conduct a proper interview, DP’s David Longstreth at last offered his undivided attention — via text message. Click here to read the story (via LA Weekly), which unfolds this modern narrative in the context of the new album’s importance.