It’s not often that I post BMX videos here on the Bloglin but this one can’t be overlooked. Arik has one of the most unique styles in BMX and his new edit for Osiris shows just that!

NYC suffered a bit last week when the natural disaster called CMJ swept through it, leaving a lot of bass heads injured from from fist pumping overdoses; Trouble & Bass was a part of this chaos, crew deep. To help you recover, the big man they call AC Slater will be releasing his next single “Big Brooklyn Bass” in anticipation of his upcoming winter release. AC has kept busy working along side Bart B More (recent Keep Watch mix alumni), Chiddy Bang and of course master of ceremonies Dell. If you were still a bit shook from his past releases then hold tight for dear life as this one will keep your arms in the air for the duration and your face screaming for more!

Take a bike ride through Williamsburg, Brooklyn with AC as he shows you his favorite bars, eateries, shops and various chill spots of the Burg where the big man and the crew go to hang when they’re not grindin’ in the studio. The crew is always up on the best spots when it comes to fine drinks, food and the best ways to relax on the 1 day a month they’re not on tour so take it from them and make the best of it!

Excision – X-Rated (2011) [Mau5trap] // Grade: D+

Let me get a few things out of the way before you start whining: I have nothing against so-called “brostep.” I actually quite like it at times. I also enjoy Excision’s music, generally speaking. He has made some unfuckwitable tracks (yes mostly through collabs, and I’ll get to that). Through Rottun, his label, he has put out even more great tracks. So the grade you are seeing above is not me lashing out at the genre or even the particular brand that Excision has brought to the dubstep table. Neither is it another lament against grinding and buzzing music made from Transformers sound effects – as a kid it was actually my favorite part of the cartoon.

I am truly disappointed by this album, and that may be because I had my hopes up (I do that, on occasion). As a labelhead and a guy who has been around the scene long enough to know that there is no such thing as a dubstep album, I expected Excision to make a halfway decent compilation of banging tunes that I could possibly listen to on my off days. But most of what I’m hearing on X-Rated sounds like he actually tried to make some kind of a consistent album where he would be the feeding line, and that some people would actually come back to in 3 years, while enjoying a cup of hot cocoa.

First of all, there are only 2 tracks by Excision alone. Which should not be surprising considering his previous output, but the best we can expect in terms of consistency from this album is for it to sound like a mixtape. “Execute” is textbook Excision though, hip-hop based and distorted just right, while “Oooh Noo” has more of a drum’n'bass tang that we hadn’t heard from him in a while. These tracks would make pretty good B-sides but they’re not exactly slaps in the face. For that category, we could look at Sexism which has the über grimy, cinematic quality that SKiSM likes to bring. It even has a nice growling sample with some guitar riffs thrown in but there’s a weird trancey melody that underlies the track and kind of ruins the heaviness.

The opening track has been done several times before, and I guess it’s a good intro/eponymous track but that’s all it will ever be. I could spend some time talking about “Sleepless” and “Jaguar,” the middle track and the closing track, featuring vocals by Savvy and Mr. Hudson. But I won’t linger. One is an unnecessary remake of a classic UKG song that hasn’t been improved upon by nearly 10 years of remixing, the other is vile vocoder vomit.

The two Downlink tracks might could make a good single, I guess, I can see “Swerve” as a good transition track in a set. Same applies to the two Datsik tracks, except that I am totally puzzled by 8-bit superhero, which changes tempo much too often to be listenable, danceable, enjoyable, or really anything that would require more than a few bars of the two Megaman samples. As a tool, it’s great! As a song, ehh.

At the end of the day, this album is… soft? It fails to come up to my expectations, which is one thing, but it also doesn’t live up to its own title or to its artist’s name. It doesn’t work as an album. And considering that it’s out on Mau5trap and not any kind of real label, it’s not like he had pressure from anyone but himself to make this. It’s either too much effort to make a bunch of things stick together or not enough effort to make something good that would elevate Excision past the one-hit a year status. If it was a way for Excision to bring his people to a larger audience, it should have been billed as some kind of “Excision presents:” or “Excision and friends” compilation; and probably a free download. For detractors of dubstep, it’s another disposable dubplate from a disposable genre. For the rest of us, it’s just a bummer.

We’re big fans of Vaughn. This young cali kid has been flashing some incredible potential and we expect big things from him in 2012. “D.O.P.E.” is the second video and lead track from his recently released Cocaine Kites EP. Go cop that shit now if you know what’s good for you.

Here at the Мишка Bloglin we support our troops. We support Jimmy Darmody, who is pushed to the wolves right off the bat by his former ally Nucky Thompson. It’s Memorial Day in Atlantic City, and Nuck has no qualms about calling Jimmy out to bust out a speech off the top to an audience that’s bored as hell. He looks a bit panic stricken at first but gets a hold of himself pretty quickly and knocks it out of the park on some “I’m not a hero” type shit. The kid’s getting good at holding his own. Right after that, we get Jimmy’s second speech of the day, which Eli set him up to. I guess he had something prepared, but the crowd was tougher (the Commodore’s Society of grumpy elders) so the crowd response wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic (a cane handle to the face). Once again I feel like Jimmy handled it like a champ: “You just taught me plenty [about respect]” he says as he leaves the room. Eli isn’t quite as impressed by his fearless leading though, and soon enough defects to Nucky’s house, who in turn defecates in his mouth for even expecting about mercy.

Eli: “I’m your brother, Nucky”
Nucky: “Then I love you”

Love, though, is the last of these men’s worries. Eli breaks down in tears and while Nucky looks vindicated, that is clearly not enough. He has not digested the betrayal, and starts ranting and slapping his brother until the fight turns to fisticuffs in the greenhouse. Eli (who has a good upper hand in this fight, not sure what Nuck was thinking) tries to reach for his gun but Margaret comes in with the rifle to separate the two men. I assume Eli was going to tell Nucky that their father was on his last leg in lieu of parting words, but Nucky doesn’t give a shit and off Eli goes.

Here at the Мишка Bloglin we support our troops. We support Richard Harrow, the half-fallen war hero who is browsing his Un/Happy Family Bible in the early morning. He slides his knife in his sheath, packs a cute lunch, takes his rifle on the side, and hitches a ride into the middle of the woods. As he enjoys some solace amidst the pines, he gets momentarily distracted by a pheasant, and enjoys a slice of apple as well as the mouth of his rifle for lunch. Oh. Lucky for all of us, a puppy sneaks up on him to still his mask. Cue Yaketty Sax as he runs behind the dawg yelling “i need that mask!” in his wimpiest voice (so you weren’t REALLY going to kill yourself, were you Rich? Makes you wonder how often the man thinks about killing himself). The chase ends up around a campfire with some squirrels on the grill and big swigs of moonshine. The two men tending the fire are sharing their camaraderie with Harrow and the dog, an “old soldier” who “just comes and goes”, and “knows his mission.” Which makes Richard think that he probably needs a friend. And a mission. Which is exactly what Jimmy provides him with that very night. Avenging his honor by scalping an elderly French & Indian War vet is a pretty appropriate way for Jimmy to make his moves. It gets the point across.

Back to Eli, relegated to helping fix one of his kid’s toys in the musty garage. But even there no one will leave him alone, and when a ward boss come a knockin’, Eli’s boat starts a-rockin’. With a pipewrench to the collarbone (and some extra hacking of the face for lack of recognition purposes), he puts an end to all the discussions that was he shut out of that day. I’m not sure if that’s going to give him some extra strength for the future or just put a nail in his coffin, but that was a nice touch for a character that has been clearly falling apart since the middle of season one.

Nucky and Jimmy are certainly handling business, but both their private lives seem to be suffering. Jimmy’s still lying to Angela, and Nucky isn’t even thankful to Margaret who most likely saved his life at the buzzer. Eli has been trying to maintain a healthy private life, but it made him fall behind the business aspect and all he can do is mop up after himself, and Richard is basically all business to forget about his lack of private life. All business and no play make… A pretty colorful episode overall, with a good deal of blood spillin’ and cussin’. Nucky’s legal troubles are being resolved by the attorney general getting some head in the room adjacent to his office and a judge in his longjohns ordering more oysters and champers. At the end of the day though, we have no confirmation that Nucky’s going to make it unscathed. Maybe it’s his glass half empty character, maybe it’s foreshadowing troubles ahead. The Attorney General has been portrayed as kind of a loser before and honestly, Nucky has been getting off this whole ordeal pretty easily up to now. We do have confirmation however that Sleater is doing it with Katie (capo… status?), as she awakens Margaret with her screaming in the middle of the night.

Gillian’s appearance in this episode makes me wonder about her again. That look of Schadenfreude when Jimmy asks her whether she knows the grumpy elders… Could she be an eminence grise in all this? Since last week, we know that she didn’t reconnect with the Commodore out of nostalgia…

It’s been a strange day.

Remember the Boryoku Genjin (Violent Caveman) that we’ve posted about a bunch of times on the Bloglin? Yea those amazingly ugly but somehow beautiful chunks of vinyl? Well this is the guy who made them. Not the guy on the right, that’s Lamour Supreme of course… But the guy giving the big numero uno on the left. That’s  higeru, the mastermind behind the Boryoku Genjin, Nag Ball and his newest creation the NZOMBIE!

Shigeru made his first trip out to New York last week as our guest for Comic Con where we unveiled the NZOMBIE and satiated countless kaiju crazed fans clamoring to get their hands on brand new NagNagNag toys. And those disgusting and amazing creations are probably fetching an arm & a leg now over on eBay. Only seems right.

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725

J/M/Z to Marcy Ave
G to Broadway
L to Lorimer

Antwon – Fantasy Beds (2011) [Self-Released] // Grade: B+

Alright, so I just met this dude (along with Himself from Shadowrun Click) a few nights ago. Himself played a low key show in San Francisco, and Antwon was the hypeman. We mobbed around for the evening and kicked it with some of Antwon’s homies, and while I didn’t have 20 on the 40 bag, I did have couple peace missiles in my hat. Anyways, on “40 Bag” — the mixtape’s unofficial opener as there’s an intro, but the intro has some raps on it — Antwon starts out “I once smoked black tar at 10:16 McKean now I live life like America’s next wet dream.” And, that line kinda sets the tone for the record. The verse goes on toe describe his ride to work at Kinko’s getting high on the bus to deal with his bullshit job. But, it doesn’t end with the obvious shit because Twon goes on to speak on a whole range of the existential challenges of 2011 life as a young man in America. He does a lot of drugs and he thinks a lot, and his life is filled up with experience measured against comprehension. This translates pretty seamlessly to his raps as he takes us in and out of conscience, contemplation, context, and the converse. Twon weaves a variety of perspectives through a variety of moments often looping back through the moment in order to modify or emphasize what was already said. It’s word wizard shit.

Playing the genealogy game in California is way easier than Alabama. And Antwon’s San Jose location places him in a genealogy that is varied, outrageous, and incredibly impactful. While Aantwon doesn’t really sound like anyone except Aantwon you can see how he figures into the Bay Area’s incredibly vibrant, and longstanding hip hop community. Here comes another dude doing raps that sound familiar, yet are wholly unprecedented. But, even as he clearly figures into the Bay’s rich hip hop narrative, he doesn’t really fit neatly within it. Much like Main Attrakionz — another of the Bay’s most recent emerging hip hop acts, and a Blogin fave — Aatnwon is somewhat of an anomaly. Too friendly to pop sensibilities to be backpack, too aware to be ignorant, too effortlessly cool to be nerd rap. He is, merely, a human of the times making great raps, and he’s in the best place in the world to do it.

I’m not gonna give away much about Fantasy Beds, you really should go into it without being tainted. The whole of the tape is great, and Aantwon does a great job of balancing a lot of different sentiments. I guess if anything that’s the best way to describe him. You never know which element of Aantwon you’ll get on a track, and regardless of what you do get, you’re liable to wind up with something entirely different before the end of the song. It’s refreshing to hear another voice that is using rap as a means to speak, and create great human art, rather than merely rapping as posturing in order to pretend to be some unlbemished idealized individual. The fantasy of Fantasy Beds is the total realization of the self, not the perfect realization of the self. Don’t sleep, download it now.

Fantasy Beds Mixtape by Antwon____

I know it’s short notice (my fault) but we’re thrilled to announce that our next in-store performance will be with none other than David Liebe Hart of Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! fame!!! How friggin’ incredible is that?

You all know (and love) DLH for his kooky songs and even kookier puppets from T&EASGJ!; but he’s also been touring around the country for the past year or so with a full band performing all of his wonderful songs.

The show is this Tuesday, October 25th from 7-8pm and is totally free. It’s going to be a guaranteed riot. Come by and join in the fun and sing along to all of your favorite DLH songs along with us.

Tuesday October 25th, 7pm-8pm
Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725

J/M/Z to Marcy Ave
G to Broadway
L to Lorimer

Quite often the efficacy of the sidekick is downplayed. They are relegated to pure ancillary uses. You know, serving to wipe down your bloodstains, do the laborious bone sawing. The grunt word of the serial killer underworld. Let us make no mistakes about it, every serial killer aspires to one day have their own lackey. It’s understandable. They’re clutch though, and if you’re going to take a sidekick into your underworld of Blood and Gloom the best advice I can give you is this. Choose carefully. Your enterprise rides on it.

Someone should have given Professor James Gallagher this advice. Motherfucker is trying to roll out as the Doomsday Killer and he can’t even hire himself a competent number two. It may very well be this lack of adroitness by Travis (played my Colin Hanks) that is in fact slowing down the entire fucking season. I mean, four episodes in and nothing has happened. Something has to be behind this slow building nonsense. Right? I blame the soft-bodied, dough-faced inadequacy of Admiral Adama’s right hand man.

Already this douchebag has blown off two meetings, to hang out with his sister and lay some pipe. There’s a fucking Apocalypse to be kicking off and he’s too busy snacking on ice cream and getting some poon-funk on his grime stick instead of painting bodies for their Horsemen Tableau. This isn’t just poor form. It’s downright rude. It’s also taking its toll on Olmos’ character.

Once he was a respectable serial killer, painting pictures in-between slathering his gorgeous mullet with nutrient oil and buttoning his favorite cardigan. Now? Now he’s skulking about in Demented Robin’s apartment. Peering through doorways staring at what should be his Helpful Assistant defiling some poor women. Condemning her to Oblivion. Do you think he likes the skulking? Hell no! He was just wondering what the fuck was going on. It was past midnight and he had some corpses to saw and Travis hadn’t rolled up yet. He’s as embarrassed as we are for his stalking and the such.

And so mark my words, this soft-bodied Excuse for an Apocalyptic Assistant will be the Doomsday Killer’s undoing. He’ll crack. Be it to the police, or on the edge of Dexter’s scalpel. I mean, Jesus Christ! As the locusts swarmed and romped about the crime scene the doughy douche had the temerity to sit there with a slack-jacked grin. Sloppy man. Sloppy.

He’ll crack.

Don’t feel too bad for Gallagher though. I know that’s the tendency. We all want to see glorious Apocalypse carried forth courtesy of bent scripture and warped skull. So we weep for him. But don’t. Because as I’ve said, it’s one of the easiest things to miss, and one of the most essential to get correct. The hiring of your second in command. Why do you think Dexter runs solo?

Speaking of Dexter, it’s like the writers don’t even try to pull off that he’s a blood splatter guy anymore. He’s a straight-up autopsy machining motherfucker in this episode. Just him and Deb hanging out in the morgue. Like, really? I don’t know if I appreciate their gusto or if I’m offended they’re not even trying. “Let’s just have Dexter examine corpses now! What do you mean how are we going to explain why he’s doing it? Fuck you Steve, always the naysayer! We’ll explain it at the beginning of next season like we do all our odd character changes! Ha! Haha! Hahaha!”

These are the sorts of things that I thought about as my mind meandered throughout the episode. Why is Dexter now examining corpses? Angel and Quinn get lit-up as fuck is awesome. I want to crush some burritos with the two of them. What is that chick Ryan really up to? Why does she make my balls hurt so much? This Mike Anderson guy seems legit. I appreciate his use of literary terms. Why does LaGuerta exist at all? Is Deb hot, too skinny, or somewhere in the gray area? How are they going to kill Brother Sam?

How are they going to kill Brother Sam?

(more…)

60 Seconds Left is a video project that gives indie musicians sixty seconds to do anything, or as their website says, “to be as creative as they want.” So far acts such as Lykke Li, Odd Future, and Cloud Nothings have participated in the program. It’s unclear under what circumstances these videos come about, I’m assuming that the artists receive little notice prior to the taping, which would explain some of the more uninteresting videos. Cloud Nothings, for example, all ran away during their sixty seconds, and then I guess one or two of them came back. It was pretty uncreative.

Up top are installments featuring Gruff Rhys and War Paint, respectively. Of the ones I watched (which were only about ten because of the thirty-second ads at the beginning and end of each piece), these were my favorites. Gruff Rhys’ captures him walking up to wall and singing and then walking away. It’s not the most creative venture, but is simple and artistic. For War Paint’s sixty seconds they sing a couple of songs and then try for some harmonizing in the last two seconds. Again, not creatively astounding, but at least it’s music. They’re not just running away.

The various segments seem best suited for fans of the musicians, or at least those familiar with the acts. For instance, I liked the Odd Future edition because I know what they’re about, so watching Tyler throw up on camera, while still rather gimicky, at least makes sense. Those dudes in Cloud Nothings running away just seemed square. I’m sure if I listened to them at all though I would find it funny. Similarly, if Dr. Dog did a 60 Seconds Left I would instantly love it, just because I would get the chance to see more of my favorite band. These clips really are less of a matter of creativity, or complex contemporary art, as I could see many of these claiming to be, and more of just a “check out your favorite artist doing something goofy!” thing. So, check it out and if you like these artists watch them.