School of Rap

If L.L. Cool J is the “professor, the teacher, the hip hop dean” then he must standing before a classroom of Midwest college students. According to CNN, McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, Minnesota is the very first to offer a diploma in Hip Hop. That’s right! The classes combine hands on music and textbook history lessons in a three-semester course. Toki Wright and DJ Freddy Fresh are among two of the instructors teaching this years accredited diploma program.

All I can picture is a classroom full of kids reading Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists and cramming for a pop quizzle. All jokes aside though, if KRS-One’s Temple of Hip Hop can be officially accepted by the United Nations as a culture, well there’s no reason why we can’t study it like one.

Instructor Toki Wright (left) and hip hop Columnist Davey D. (right) at the program kick-off ceremony in June.

I choose you, Micachu!

Brittany and I hit up the Micachu and the Shapes show last week at the El Mocambo. It was exactly what I'm used to hearing from Mica- pinging noises, gravely english-english and cutesy lyrics with a little hard guitar. Afterwards, the band told us they were headed to one of our top spots: Ronnie's patio.

I've been trying to persuade everyone to listen to her since the new year and now is the time. Peep this video of them playing "Lips"

Punk Rock & Trailer Parks

Typical small town backdrop, alienated by top 40 radio, narrow minds and white trash with only punk rock to turn to... Gee, sounds awfully familiar.

Punk Rock & Trailer Parks is a coming of age story that parallels my own, but with a little less gloom and self-pity. A lighthearted look into the first wave punk scene in Akron Ohio, home of protopunks Rubber City Rebels and legendary rock venue The Bank. Derf presents a charming, band geek protagonist self titled "The Baron", an overgrown wimp equipped with a weird but genial brand of wit. The Baron takes us on a ride in his beat up black Mercury Cougar through uncle Elmo's trailer park, to the church basement bowling alley where Lester Bangs and Joe Strummer are putting back beers and bowling pins. Along the way we meet Wendy O Williams, The Ramones, Klaus Nomi and others with amusing and believable outcomes. Derf's upbeat tone and accurate references to the setting and soundtrack of this incredibly intoxicating period of punk rock history make this book a must-have.

Check out Derf's other works here.

Steamboat EP

You could ask anyone who knows us and they'd agree; Jillian and I have seen our fair share of live music. With that said, you'll understand that we treat our favorite bands like an ambush of Siberian white tigers: rare, beautiful and dangerous. In fact, you can think of us as the Siegfried and Roy of killer local talent, adept und German.

Now, one of our favorite Toronto bands has just released their first EP and frankly, it's the cats meow. You can hit up the Steamboat myspace page to hear 3 of the 6 recordings included on the CD. Additionally, I'd like to inform you of the very official record release party, which is set to take place May 16th at Sneaky Dee's... You absolutely cannot miss this one.

international record store [yester]day

Dear friends, as you know, yesterday was International Record Store Day. Hope you popped by Sonic Boom or Criminal Records for some rad, live and free Canadian acts.

Yes?

A lot of people around here hate on k-os pretty hard. Why? I can't say exactly. Sadly, our negligence toward locally grown talent is somewhat emblematic of Torontonians... But I wasn't into his last album either. Regardless he's done it again, Yes! drops today and is available at your local Canadian record shop.

Suck up that 'tude and swing by Soundscapes to see if they've got it in yet.

Downtown Soulville

When I was 10 my nanny bought me a refurbished double tape deck with AM/FM radio at Canadian Tire. Up until then, I'd been producing primitive mix-tapes by holding the microphone of a Fisher Price tape recorder to the rec room stereo unit.

So, I'd wander for hours through strange frequencies picking up jazz, dance, alt-rock, gospel, talk... If I liked it I'd press down on the record + play button simultaneously. That's when radio was fun.

A couple of months ago a friend put me on to WFMU's Downtown Soulville, I felt 10 again. The show starts off appropriately with Chuck Edward's Downtown Soulville and dives straight into the rare soul 45 collection of host Mr. Fine Wine. The station is based out of New Jersey, so you aren't likely to pick up these waves without a satellite. Good thing the whole show is archived here, with a pop-up player to boot. Oh and hey, you can put away that tape deck, it's available as a mp3 download.

bad boy 4 life

Friday's jam was the best fun I've had in a while. Stephanie laid down some legit bangers and no one stopped dancing to the luscious Bad Boy catalogue. Here are a couple friends who came out.








As always, responsible drinking was encouraged, as was a trip to Hero Burger to cap the evening!

listen to: Fever Ray

Something new. Karin Dreijer Andersson, half of Swedish dance duo The Knife, has released her solo project Fever Ray. Retaining those dark electro and ambient beats that set The Knife apart, Dreijer Andersson has also introduced a bit of drone and some hollow tribal sounds. 

While spectral electronic melodies isn't what you thought would be spinning in one of the gloomiest springs yet, it's beauty is still uplifting. Give it a try. 

Summer Goth

Obviously hit up the Wavves show last night at Sneaky Dee's. I've been really into the only two tracks that Toronto duo The Bitters have on myspace, so it was cool to see what else they've got. They even said this was their first gig. Get The Bitters on your radar- they're a band to watch for. Next up was Vampire Hands. I think they had a pretty good sound but also a forcefield which kept the crowd a good five feet from the stage. There was literally no waiting around for Nathan of Wavves, who was adorable, polite and sounded great live. I scored a T, a poster and some snaps. Here are a couple:

Aerin Fogel and Ben Cook of The Bitters

Nathan Williams of Wavves

It was shaping up to be a good night and by the time Nathan played the track "wavves", everyone was jumping around. And that was it. It was all over at 11pm.

3, 2, 1, comin in with a bang.

Here we are, the last week of March. In like a lion, out like a lamb? Well, I've got my fingers crossed. Although, this spring does seem less exciting than last. Maybe it's because last year around this time I was beginning to plot out The 10 Deep Canadian Skateboard Tour with my friend German Nieves and the good folks at snkrbox. Or maybe I'm just a bit envious of the team, who crashed San Fransisco earlier this month.


German hit me with an email this morning regarding said jaunt to SF. All sour grapes aside, they've put together a tight promo video and some choice flicks. Check out Tony Montgomery, Daniel Kim, Jamal Smith, Tommy Wisdom and The Big Germ skating the Bay Area in style at Steelo Hero.

As a segway, I'll introduce this edition of Album of the Week: A classic by 1990's gangster rappers RBL Posse, hailing from Hunters Point, San Fransisco, titled A Lesson to Be Learned. Their first release, Don't Give Me No Bammer is a Summertime Anthem for us ghosts. Now, listen to it and visualize stooping with a cold Mill St. in July... We're almost there Toronto.

giant Wavves hit Toronto!

Pull up some sand at the end of March.
Riding the Pipeline-esque lo-fi movement of 2009 is Nathan Williams, creator of Wavves. While every other one of his tracks are titled Beach-this or Goth-that, the undeniably fun sound has captured a following. We get our share on March 31, when Wavves roll into Sneaky Dees with The Bitters and Vampire Hands. It's only $11 and will be less weird than Ariel Pink's gig the night before.

Get a ticket before MTV and Now spill the beans!

Dust Jackets: Nas "Illmatic"

Nanaimo BC's top elevator musician and mixtape addict, Colin Gillespie continues to listen to music. This time, he dips his toe in the river of hip-hop and gets wet.

Issue #2: Nas "Illmatic"

Ok. So, among Miss Elizabeth’s Ghostfaces, rap music runs rampant and unchecked. Fine. I can deal. Unfortunately, they’ve recently discovered that I still haven’t heard the East Coast Hip-Hop “masterpiece”, Nas’ debut album, Illmatic. After being subjected to derision, humiliation and Indian burns, I was then assigned to immediately listen to the album, and write a first-time, virginal review on it in one uninterrupted sitting. I now descend into the abyss while sounding as white as TV on the Radio…

Track #1 “The Genesis”:
Train sounds. Vocal samples. I can dig. Sounds like an argument in a crack den right now. Mothers are being brought up. I really hope someone takes that goddamn Hennessy soon. Things are gonna get real.

Track #2 “N.Y. State of Mind”:
Due to my tiny versing in rap, all backing tracks sound like DJ Shadow. Nas’ flow is pretty laid back, and he sounds like he’s not breathing between lines. I guess this track sort of sets the scene for the rest of Illmatic, being all like “my streets rougher than your street”. And you’re right, Nas, I am pretty sure your street was a lot tougher than Hillside Avenue, Nanaimo, B.C.

Track #3 “Life’s A Bitch”
Turns out it was AZ who wanted that Hennessey. Again, with my handful of rap albums, I am reminded by Biggie’s “Juicy”. Man, I am such white, suburban dish soap. I am slowly getting into it though. Just in time for the cornet-led refrain!

Track #4 “The Word Is Yours”
Did he just say “wipe the sweat off my balls?” I guess a clean scrote is the first step to carpe diem. Either this song is about making the most out of the resources and skills you are given in an unforgiving environment, or avoiding sweat rash (UPDATE: on second glance, the line is “Wipe the sweat off my dome”. Fuck). All phallus references aside though, Illmatic is turning pretty solid so far. I totally bet Nas is the Botch of hip hop. Illmatic=We Are The Romans for reals.

Track #5 “Halftime”
The four-on-the-floor bassline makes me wish I had a car. So do the sleigh bells. I am starting to see why Nas’ flow is so appealing. “You couldn’t catch me in the streets without a ton of reefer/That’s like Malcolm X catching the jungle fever.” Ahoy, Wikipedia! I like this Nas better than the Bill O’Reilly-arguing Nas of today. WOOO IT’S HALFTIME.

Track #6 “Memory Lane”
You know what I’m saying? I totally wish my nickname was the Brown Wizard. Nas shows off how he can rap at more than one tempo, and also to a Hammond Organ. It’s kind of got an echoey vibe to it, like Lee Perry’s dub production. Illmatic is developing more as a full album rather than a set of singles, which is what I’m into. Also, if I wasn’t into it, Steph would probably brass-knuck me.

Track #7 “One Love”
Even with what sounds like a thumb-piano backing track, Nas sounds fucking tough. I’m still impressed that Nas’ hasn’t regressed into the obligatory hip-hop ballad yet. Man, that shit tires me out. I guess Nas is playing a mentor figure in this one. He would be awesome in a community centre, telling kids to stay away from drugs and give abstinence a serious try this time. I could see that. Oh, and Q-Tip kind of sounds like a Keebler Elf.

Track #8 “One Time 4 Your Mind”
Nas reminds me that I am still listening to Illmatic, sounding more and more like a repeated safety announcement. This track really lays back. Kind of like getting messed up on cough syrup while actually having a cold. Nas’ rhymes like he is remembering his lines a split second before he spits them. Not bad.

Track #9 “Represent”
Yeah, this is pretty strong. I kind of dig how there is a minimal amount of guest rappers, because nothing pisses me off more than reading “featuring” followed by a list of exponentially idiotic nicknames. It’s Nas’ album pretty much, and why get someone to take up a verse when Nas obviously has superior rhymes to spare? OH WAIT. Now he is just shouting out ridiculous monikers. Well fuck me. “Can’t forget Primo or Drawers or Sean Penn or Big Oogie!”

Track #10 “It Ain’t Hard To Tell”
Illmatic ends with Nas rhyming over acid-jazz rave. Kind of like if Trainspotting’s final scene was set in the Burroughs. I am actually bobbing my head at this point, so I guess it’s a job well done, Nas. Congratulations, you’ve earned the approval of a paunchy, red-headed, suburban, ambient-music fan. Sweet, sweet vindication.

I was four years old when Illmatic dropped, so around then I was listening to whatever the fuck Thomas the Tank Engine was spittin’. But bestowed on me with a decade and a half more wisdom, I can get into this album. I mean, if I wasn’t raised in nice neighbourhood, or by both parents, or if I had more problems than saving my allowance to buy Pokemon cards, it would probably hit deeper. But, I can still appreciate it (and secretely feel tougher) from a pedestrian point of view, can’t I?

record of the week 003: shorty the pimp

This week I've chosen a juke 45 single on Money Label, titled Shorty The Pimp by Don Julian & The (Meadow) Larks. Released in 1972, the song was the theme to an obscure blaxploitation film that never screened.
I first came across this song 3 years ago when I was researching 1960's and 70's era lowrider cruising music and recognized it from Too $hort's opening sample on In The Trunk. This tune is funky soul at it's best, which is of course, a little sleezy.

You can listen to the recording on youtube.com visually paired with the 1998 CD release cover, which includes the entire soundtrack (originally issued as singles) and previously unreleased tracks.

Death Row a tribute.

Miss Elizabeth's Ghost Presents:

DEATH ROW RECORDS a tribute.

Friday, March 6th, 2009
751 Queen Street West

Dre, Tupac, Snoop, Kurupt, DJ Quik, Michel'le, Warren G, Nate Dogg, Lisa Lopes, Daz Dillinger, Lady Of Rage, The Dogg Pound... and more.

No cover. $10 pitchers, $3.50 shots.

Bring your crip walk biatch.

Pittsburgh Zombi

Filling lulls at parties, a common conversation device goes "If my life had a soundtrack...". This will be used by:

a) Keen conversation-makers. Usually the last thing you'll ever talk about.

b) Music nerds who can develop ridiculous affinities with tunes at the drop of a hat.

c) That one guy, wasted enough to think Dark Side of The Moon was created for him, more than 10 years before his conception.

Contrarily, if your soundtrack accompanies an action-packed life full of martial arts, genuine magic, and lengthy contemplative build-ups where you gallop across the Savannah like Simba on fire... it might be Zombi's new album Spirit Animal. "Epic" is the word. Already on heavy iPod rotation in 2009, you've gotta hear this one to believe it.

Hollywood Babylon

Fiend Club: An Introduction to the Misfits Brand

The divine early incarnation of The Misfits ended in October 1983, a couple of months before I was even born. I didn't start listening to punk until 12 years thereafter, although it was mainstream and pop influenced. Before I had even heard the band's name I could recognize The Crimson Ghost: it was on the t-shirts of concert goers at The Dungeon (a punk venue dive in Oshawa, Ontario) that I would frequent with friends. Oshawa had a particularly obnoxious breed of punk fan due to the fortuneless tinge of the city, it was exciting. At the shows I would buy 7 inch records from personal distros and safeguard them in my jacket until I got home to autopsy. My obsession with aggressive music grew from my compulsion to collect.
I didn't consider The Misfits until the mid 90's when I became obsessed with punk-hardcore and found interest in what I had initially passed-off as a gimmick band. It was brain mutating.

I tattooed hybrid moments to my wrists a couple years back as a wink to fellow groupies. I believe as a teenager you can phase through queer and deviant behavior before melting back into adult society, but after a certain point, you're forever a misfit. Fiend Club for life.

-Stephanie

***

Just like vandalistic tendencies, awkward piercings and bad haircuts, moshing around to the Misfits was intrinsic to nearly every alt-youth I now associate with in adulthood. Raise your hand if you weren't into them in high school.

The Misfits, as a horror-punk band and a brand, has many imitators but no true equals. While their sound is not the most original, they achieved a marketer's dream: being first.

A lot of their strong presence is attributed visuals. Early albums and EPs featured plenty of awkward, budget design but it is easy to see the evolution. Their logo started out with more of a hand-scrawled look, tried on several font families (including the one from the namesake Monroe film), and in 1981 settled on what we know now.

With imagery "borrowed" from 1950's mystery series The Crimson Ghost (whose first appearance was on the Horror Business single) and their extra bold, bubbling font ripped off from The Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine...

It is now among the most recognized band iconography out there. A lot of design purists fault them for visual heist (their EPs feature other stolen art) but after all.. they are a punk rock band and the biggest mainstream purveyors of horror culture. This has remained consistent with their brand, along with emulating the American 1950's both musically and aesthetically.

With only Jerry Only and Robo left and a much younger fan base, a Misfits show isn't where you'd find us anymore but we give them respect for the influence their band has had.

record of the week 002: divine

This edition of Record of the Week doubles as a tribute to the late great Harris Glenn Milstead a.k.a Divine.

The album: A rare 1984 single, containing synth-overload disco beats coupled with raspy sassy vocals, titled "I'm so Beautiful".















The night Divine died he had dinner with friends and returned to his hotel, leaned over the balcony and sang Arrivederci Roma, before exiting into his room for the night.

I just want to say thank-you, for briefly gracing this world with your weird and exorbitant genius.

It's the freakin' weekend...

It's Friday night Toronto, what are you gonna do about it?

Loving In The Name Of
10:00 pm - 3:00 am
@ The Gladstone
Tonight!


This party is destined for magnitude on the grounds that your favorite local musicians are covering your favorite songs; and when I say favorite songs, I don't mean the ones you quote on your facebook profile page, I mean the ones you privately sing in the shower. Matt Murphy, Nobu Adilman, Allie Hughes and Katherine Bates take on the likes of Styx, Bon Jovi, Bob Marley, Jackson 5 and The Cure.
With DJ's Product Placement, Strictly Commercial and Disappointment to get things cookin'.

Rumor has it former singer of The Deadly Snakes, Andre Ethier is doing R. Kelly's Ignition. Could it get any better than that? Incidentally, Andre has a new album out on Blue Fog Records called Born Of Blue Fog which we believe is magnificent. You can listen to some recordings here.

record of the week 001: Star Trek

In anticipation for the new movie, I'm sharing my 45 of children's stories from Star Trek TOS for the first record of the week.