New Music Tuesday #78
Snoop Dogg, Stereolab, Chuck D and Pee Wee Herman
What rock bands up to these days?
Like in general what are they up to? Are they still rocking? Did rock bands go the way of rap groups and pretty much cease to exist? Are rock frontmen looking on youtube for Maroon 5 Type Beats or whatever and just making music that way?
Like what is up over there? The only rock music I know about is Kid Rock because I’ve heard his name recently (he’s the flagship artist for this admin) and it’s also in his name. He also used to be a rapper and I knew him from that so does he count?
I’m only partially joking but in general I don’t know much about big albums from other genres anymore. I checked Pitchfork to see what I was missing and they told me to check out Smerz (who?), Tune-Yards (I remember them!), Stereolab (These guys kick ass!) and some other band I can’t remember or find again (sorry to that band, they had a cool cover tho). They also told me that Garbage was coming back which I vaguely remember seeing.
I think the last rock band I got excited about was HAIM. I love them but I should at least be hearing about one new rock band a year and I’m not.
Okay enough rambling about rock. Here’s some rambling about rap
SHOWS
5/31 - Franklin Park: I’m spinning and you’re hanging. That’s it. Very simple. It’s free.
6/2 - Frankenstein’s Baby: There will be jokes! Hilarious one’s even! You should come! It’s at Union Hall! 7PM! Exclamation marks!
NEWS
Sacha Jenkins passed away at 54. He co-founded Ego Trip, wrote several books, directed films, created TV shows (VH1’s White Rapper Show), played in bands and a whole lot of other culturally important stuff.
D’angelo dropped out of the Roots picnic line-up and Maxwell took his place. That line up is already pretty stacked but D dropping out is kinda a bummer since they are such close collaborators but Maxwell ain’t no slouch either!
Common’s BE turned twenty and he dropped a deluxe edition of the album with a few previously unreleased tracks and some instrumentals. Kinda crazy to think that the guy who produced this masterpiece of an album is the same guy who’s popping up on livestreams dressed as a KKK member. He went from making alternative rap to alt right music.
VIDEOS
Pee Wee got a documentary dropping on HBO Max and I’m very sad that I no longer have access to the account that I was sharing so I probably won’t see it.
Man remember the Pee Wee Dance?
What happened to Joeski Love? No, I can’t do this right now. I have to focus….
(this song is so good. )
Rome Streetz & Conductor Williams got a project on deck and the lead single sounds promising.
Riff Raff became Jody Highroller a while ago and now he’s just Jody and his band are the Highrollers. I did not know what to expect from this but it definitely wasn’t a Nu Wave song. This time around he’s earnestly singing and there doesn’t seem to be any unintentional humor to the spectacle of it all.
Remember Machine Gun Kelly? Well now he’s just mgk. He is also making 2000s era pop rock songs like this one. I can’t tell if he’s being earnest (he probably is) but this is… not good. It’s not full on parody either which makes it even worse? He was making Punk Pop before this and it was equally as bad so he’s probably being earnest.
Does this count as rock? Is this what rock is doing? There’s gotta be something better out there.
ALBUMS
Snoop Dogg’s response to the Crypto Ball controversy was to drop a very solid album. Probably one of his best in years i’f I’m being honest.
Chuck D dropped an album that feels envelope pushing in some ways. I don’t really have the words to articulate it but it’s got a Bomb Squad-esque vibe. It honestly feels like it’s not music which I am kinda into and enjoy. I’ve played it a few times and I can honestly say it’s not for everyone but for those who enjoy hearing artists try new things it’s a fun listen.
Amine is willing a little sunshine into his life with this joint. It’s a fun record with lots of uptempo bops.
Estelle’s new album is also very upbeat and fun. It’s dancey and feel good and lives in a similar vein as Renaissance. (I’m not comparing it artistically to Renaissance, just saying that it occupies that same joy as resistance vibe)
Scienze droped a banger of an album with NappyHigh. It’s got high quality raps, beats and features.
Stereolab dropped their first album in a very long time. I haven’t listened to it yet but I do know that this is a pretty big deal. I can’t wait to microdose and wander to this.
SINGLE
Black Milk popped up on a Moroccan rapper named Smallx’s album. The song is really good.
Dunno who Peter Sun is but I do know that putting the $ in front of ‘un’ to properly spell his name is freaking Substack out. Also this joint is a jam.
Rae Khalil does not miss. At all. Ever. This is evidence.
threetwenty is back with more groovy ass vibes
I was just wondering where Conway has been and here he goes popping up on a Pale Jay track. This makes so much sense to me.
I really enjoy seeing Lady Wray’s current output and thinking about how it evolved.
BONUS
Joeski Love is alive and well. He doesn’t really post online but he was recently tagged in an Instagram post performing The Pee Wee dance at someone’s birthday party or something.
But here’s a video of him telling the story of how the song was created.
Some rock albums I've liked over the past year (in no particular order)
Uranium Club – Infants Under the Bulb: The most underrated garage punk band around and at or near the top of the list for bands I’ve never seen live that I’d really like to see.
Oh Sees – SORCS 80: I hope John Dwyer will rediscover guitars on the next album, but these songs still rip.
La Luz – News of the Universe: Beautiful, kinda creepy surf rock/girl-group music. Their self-titled one before this (also very good) was produced by Adrian Younge
Being Dead – EELS: Easily my favorite indie rock album of the year.
Naked Roommate – Pass The Loofah: Early 80s sounding synth pop, but somehow kinda punk, weird, a bit lo-fi, and smart-funny.
Hamilton Leithauser – This Side of the Island: The Walkman lead singer continues to write great songs and sound great singing them.
You check out the album Volume 2 by MRCY? I got it as part of a secretly subscription and I'd never heard of them before, but I was so pleasantly surprised at how much I dug it, I listened to the album twice in a row.