WQHS-The Blog

Modest Mouse and St. Vincent take “Portlandia”

Besides the usual nonsensical tomfoolery of Portlandia, a recent episode starring St. Vincent’s Annie Clark and Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock brought up incredibly important questions for any person trying to raise a “musically cultured” child (or whatever that means). Are Mike + The Mechanics the bane of rock history? Is Whitney Houston our generation’s Dante? Is Harry Nilsson the perfect soundtrack to an intense session of Lincoln Logs? Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein would say yes to all of the above, but are they the authorities in musicianship that we should obey? Sure, Brownstein used to be in Sleater-Kinney and now leads Wild Flag, and even Armisen has had some drumming stints alongside Les Savy Fav and Joanna Newsome- but what does that mean. Well… that’s debatable. Needless to say, the sketch guest starring Brock as the musically incompetent good samaritan is a hilarious reminder of the dangers of an over-inflated music ego.

Jack White: “Love Interruption”

Now that Jack White has finally ran out of other people to work with, the vinyl traditionalist is free to strip it all back and put out a project under his own name. But that doesn’t mean he’s reinventing himself. Lyrically, his debut solo single, “Love Interruption,” exudes the same awkwardly macabre bitterness that White often turned to in both the White Stripes and the Dead Weather. “I want love to stick a knife inside me and twist it all around/ I want love to murder my own mother and take her off to somewhere like hell or up above,” White sings in a smoky quaver that betrays the song’s Wurlitzer flourishes and relaxed tempo.

“The SlapBack’s” Battle Of The Week: Hollohan vs. Cortez

Before I go on to discussing the video below, I would like to mention the fact that this KingOfTheDot event entitled “Blackout2” is most definitely packed with the best production and “epicness” I’ve ever seen in a rap battle before. From the dramatic introduction interviews to the appearances from Raekwon The Chef and EpicMealTime’s Sauce Boss, this event is definitely not something you want to let slide without recognition and respect.

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour @ Union Transfer (2/2)

Pairing funk-inspired rhythms with psychedelic synth and a healthy dose of brass, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour channel big band soul gone 21st century. The feel is perhaps best encapsulated by the glittering silver bow ties worn by the band’s two-man horn section: retro, futuristic, and a whole lot of fun.

The “Awkward” Sounds of San Cisco

It’s amazing how often things that shouldn’t work together do. For example, as a true Australian, I love Vegemite and cheese— don’t try this at home, folks. This love, however, is intellectually counterintuitive; Vegemite should not be loved in conjunction with anything (to be honest, the thought of Vegemite by itself is, in a word, “vomitous”). On the other hand, unlike the erstwhile Vegemite, Western Australian vocalists Scarlett Stevens of The Flairz and Jordi Davieson of The Real Life Animators have never been considered vomitous. Together, fronting their unholy musical lovechild San Cisco, these two remarkable vocalists are even less vomitous than they are separately— in fact, the band is really very good. However, the fusion of Stevens’ and Davieson’s vocal stylings is not the unusual combination that makes San Cisco what it is; both The Real Life Animators and The Flairz are lo-fi bastions of the Fremantle garage rock scene, and in a country as small as Australia, cross pollination between the two bands was practically inevitable. Instead, it is the introduction of minimalistic, energetic, poppy riffs to Davieson’s stringent, keening vocals that makes San Cisco a liminal musical force.

Meet Mac Miller

As a Canadian, I often find it difficult to dissociate myself from my nation’s past time: hockey (although, contrary to popular belief, it is not Canada’s national sport). So this week I am bringing to you a little treasure that hockey brought to my attention. This season of the HBO show 24/7: The Road to the NHL Winter Classic followed the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers in the weeks leading up to the Winter Classic – an outdoor hockey match shortly after New Years. In the first episode, the Flyers returning to their dressing room after a victory and immediately began celebrating by playing Mac Miller’s “Knock Knock”. Turns out they play the song after every win and pretty soon this tune was even popping up on SportsCenter. Rather ironically, Mac Miller is from Pittsburgh, home to one of Philadelphia’s biggest rivals.

Looking at Little People

Little People, in all seriousness, is neither little nor “peopled”, in the plural sense of the word. Rather, it’s one dude with a big sound. The one-man, trip-hop icon derives his inspiration from all things classic(al) — whether it be Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (cue “Moon”) or old school funk (cue “Above the Clouds”), Little People’s music simultaneously preserves and elaborates on musical canons of several genres. It’s like ancestor worship in avant garde form: pay respect to your forefathers by making trippy muses of them. Download half of Little People’s album, Mickey Mouse Operation, gratis here and his EP, Bits & Pieces, here.

- Tiffany Kang, Tiffany and Co. (Thursdays from midnight to 2am @ WQHS.org)

Mary J. Blige: My Life II…The Journey Continues (Act 1)

Born Mary Jane Blige on January 11, 1971 in Savannah GA, Mary J. was raised in the housing projects in Yonkers, NY. Mary got her musical start, when her stepfather passed along a tape she recorded in a karaoke machine in the local mall, to Uptown records. She was signed up with Uptown records as a background singer for local artist. While at Uptown, Sean “Puffy” Combs became her mentor and assisted her with the production of her first album in 1991, What’s the 411? With her bad girl urban image, Mary has always been known for sharing her life and all its drama in her music. Her musical sound has afforded her comparison with such great musical artists as Chaka Khan and Aretha Franklin. While she may share the vocal strength of these artists, she did not have their sophistication until recently. Her bad girl image has since been mellowed with a bit more maturity and class.

Grimes: Visions

When I saw Grimes open for Austra last year, I saw a meek DIY artsy girl dressed in a grungy t-shirt and dark tights wail into a microphone while expertly mixing complex tracks to produce a seriously rhythmic dance spell. Now, as 2012 has unraveled before us, Claire Boucher, the Montreal-based mastermind behind Grimes, has become the “it girl” of the indie music blogosphere. Much more than just a buzz band, Grimes has sky-rocketed in popularity thanks to the success of her previous albums (Geidi Primes, Halafaxa, Darkbloom) as well as her signing onto 4AD records to release her latest album Visions. Now when I look at Grimes, I see a meek DIY artsy girl dressed in slightly less grungy t-shirts and dark tights that has created some of the most imperative and compelling songs in quite some time (or at least since the beginning of the year).

The Shins: “Simple Song”

After 2007’s Wincing the Night Away, the Grammy-nominated album that established The Shins as the latest indie darlings to crash the mainstream, the band seemed destined for even bigger things. But James Mercer had other plans, teaming up with Danger Mouse to release an album and an EP as Broken Bells, which seemed more than a side-project vamp at the time.