Flosstradamus, Kid Sister (MC), Black Kids, Foals, The Kills 7/31

all photos courtesy of my cousin carlos.

So I found out about this show the day of, and I went in an attempt to entertain my cousin with something interesting and free. It was at the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue. There was a line? I found out later some people had been there since 11 am...weird. The Floss DJed and did not fail to deliver as usual. My favorite part was a mashup of "Around The World" and "American Boy". Kid Sister was probably getting paid obscene amounts of money to say 25 words introducing the bands and hang out with her brother. She was still hella cute though.

The Black Kids are not good. They haven't really mastered their instruments, and as a result their inexperience shows. The sister of the frontman plays several drumpads so I don't know how one could master that in the first place. Their drummer is talented but lacks control. I had never listened to anything by them besides the remix of "I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend To Dance With You" by The Twelves (it's incredible, by the way). I haven't been missing anything.

Foals were a lot better than I remember them being when I listened to their album. Their abrupt changes in rhythm and tempo make for sporadic and catchy math rock. Jack Bevan is an animal on the drums. I'll be re-obtaining their album. I got tired and left before The Kills. The end.

grinding, outside

Important observations about this video:
-Akon at the beginning=Darth Sidious?
-This is a serious departure from the vague-allusions-to-drug-dealing videos that DJ Khaled normally makes. The majority of it is really bad blue-screen type stuff and has nothing to do with anything, really. There is no theme or plot; everyone is just making a very feeble attempt at looking cool.
-Goofy hats: Busta Rhymes is wearing a cookie monster cap (I want one) and T-Pain has a huge mad-hatter style top hat on.
-Rapping in nature's harshest elements is a key motif of this video. Khaled and Akon could get struck by lightning on top of that building. Rick Ross came somewhat prepared with an umbrella. Lil' Boosie...is being chased by a giant fireball. Trick Daddy spit his hot verse in the middle of a tornado. Inclement weather is not going to stop our heroes from being out there grindin', thank goodness.
-Rick Ross' chain always reminds me of this awesome piece of jewelry that belongs to Gucci Mane:

">

Anyway, this song sounds so much like "We Takin' Over" combined with "I'm So Hood" that I can't even listen to it since it's just a weaker version of the former two. The rappers and rapping are worse, the beat is worse, and the video speaks for itself. Try again, DJ Khaled.

Le Night Dominator

One of those hard-hitting, epic tracks that makes me want to dance uncontrollably. The Touch are Swedish. And they're night dominators, obviously. Lina is the girl in the video.

Yeah, this is old, but it's really good.

hot new jam

Plies never fails to deliver. The beginning is a little confusing, but just keep watching, it gets better.

"My hands have been getting me in a lot of trouble lately..."

Well, at least they're apologizing for the sexual harassment/objectification. This is what I like about modern Top 40 rap: There is a certain subtlety to it that you can't find in older videos like this one:



It's almost too much. I don't think MTV would play that if it came out today (ok, not really. But in a perfect world, yes). However, would they not play it because it's grossly offensive, or because it's incredibly boring? There are limits to how many times one can reinvent all of the gimmicks of rap videos. Therefore, it's understandable that music video directors would begin to change the tone of their work to try and keep shit hyped up. Note that, too: It's not the subject material of the videos that's changing, just how it's presented. It's as if the girls, money, and cars are the only medium with which the rappers can express ideas. But then you have to ask yourself why that's all they're rapping about in the first place, and that's a WHOLE 'NOTHER POST!! No time for that.

Wiley

wot?

Ah, Wiley. A man at the forefront of the UK Grime scene. He's well known for keeping the scene on its feet with the subgenre he popularized, Eski. I really can't tell the difference between that and regular Grime but whatever.



Look at him. So young and goofy.

While researching the article i found this: http://www.grimepedia.co.uk/

This is a lot more eski than grime:



I think the difference is that it's supposed to sound more like a bad cell phone ringtone.



I wish I understood what was going on here, I wonder how serious this is supposed to be.

Pitchfork: The Final Chapter

And so, I collected all of the knowledge I had gained about the Pitchfork experience in the last two days and applied it to the best of my knowledge on Sunday (Read: I looked for all the free stuff). I saw about half of HEALTH's set. I watched Les Savy Fav from a distance. I lamented the absence of El Guincho. The first show I actually put effort into seeing was Ghostface Killah and Raekwon. It was decent. I've heard that Ghostface gives the best live performance out of everyone in the Wu. They looked tired and insisted on reminding the crowd how they just got off a 9 hour flight from Europe. does this mean they didn't play Rock The Bells the day before? I do not know. I was impressed by how well the Pitchfork crowd sang along. It wasn't embarrassing for either of them. We requested Kilo, but for some reason the DJ hadn't keyed it up in his equipment...what gives? How would you not have one of the singles off of a recent album available? This, coupled with the fact that their set went on longer than expected, took the edge off of things during the second half.

My spirits were raised by Occidental Brothers Dance Band International, a Chicagoan/West African dance band. Great rhythmic stuff. The frontman can be summarized in one sentence: "If you like the music, say YAYAYAYAYAAH!" Once they finished, I wandered around some more and then went to watch Bon Iver, who was alright.

The wait for Cut Copy was excruciating. 15 minutes after they were supposed to come on stage, King Khan and Brandon Cox appeared to let everyone in the crowd know that CC was still at the airport. So they jammed for an increasingly volatile crowd. After a long period of unhappiness, they finally came on and played a half set. It was great, life-threatening, and too short. Stupid noise ordinances. What's worse, they won't be back in Chicago until September...on a Wednesday. Life is cruel.

Pitchfork: Part Deux

he can hear them sirens coming

Got to Union Park in time to catch the back end of A Hawk and a Hacksaw's set. I wasn't really paying attention, so I can't tell you if it was good or not. Caribou was pretty ferocious, which was entertaining to watch. I liked how the two drum kits were set up, so that they semi-mirrored each other. As expected, the crowd left after that so my comrades and I were able to obtain excellent seating (standing?) for Dizzee Rascal.

It was a lot of fun. Dizzee has a great stage presence and really seemed to enjoy standing out from the rest of the festival as some sort of groovy, hard-banging anomaly ("Y'all been listenin' to dat folk shit all weekend-yo fuck dat shit!"). He played all the hits, notably a spot-on rendition of "I Luv U" that has re-addicted me to its sinister, ear-fucking bassline. As they would say in the East End, "it's some heavy blood, innit?" It is a paragon of UK hip-hop equaled by few other songs. I really wanted to yell "Roll Deep!" during the set, but I couldn't remember if he was still on good terms with them. Turns out he isn't, so it's a good thing I kept my mouth shut.

Edit: Yours truly is in this video.

Not surprisingly, Vampire Weekend was a disappointment following such a high-energy performance. The only people who were really enjoying it were the festival bros. Erza Koening is letting the fame get to him. Extra Golden, on the other hand, was really really great. Pitchfork would be a lot more one-dimensional if it weren't for the hasty addition of world musicians. Anyway, their take on Kenyan pop, which is called benga, is refreshing and a lot of fun to dance to. I caught the beginning of Bradford Cox's (Atlas Sound) set, which seemed like it was off to a good start. Then I got tired and decided to head home. I regret not staying for No Age (and Animal Collective, I guess).