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week 4...

happy thanksgiving, er, holidays everybody. with tofurkey day around the corner, i'm decidedly thankful for all the music i get, which has been, for the most part, free. in keeping up with the theme of this mp3blog, i'm hitting you guys with seven rare tunes and one new jam that i have to share with the world...

1. Nump featuring Turf Talk, "Slizzerrd"

Nump is a fresh faced rapper from the Bay Area, whose ties to the legendary E-40 has garnered him one hell of a solo album called "The Numpyard," released through 40's Sick Wid It label. This song features a sample from a staple of French and American animated television and is way more of a tribute than that shitty Gnarls Barkley song.

2. Saves the Day, "Jodie (Acoustic Bug Sessions Version)"

This version of "Jodie" appears on the tour-only acoustic EP, "Bug Sessions." For those who don't remember, "Jodie" is the final track from Saves the Day's debut, "Can't Slow Down," and its lyrics are suggestive of the kind of dense lyricism that Chris Conley would exhibit in subsequent recordings.

3. The Smoking Popes, "Megan"

For many kids, this song is familiar because Bayside relentlessly butchered it on their acoustic EP which was released earlier this year. For music fans in their 20's (and Morrissey), they know "Megan" from the Smoking Popes' final release on Capitol Records, "Destination: Failure." The band's two albums on Capitol are long out of print, so this may be the only way for you to hear the O.G. version of "Megan" without trying to find the bastard on eBay.

4. Keepsake, "The Beginning of the End of Sound"

Before screamo penetrated mainstream media and social consciousness altogether, a little band from Florida called Keepsake were one of the few to take the style that Rites of Spring briefly showcased and gave it up a pop-punk polish. This is the first track from Keepsake's "End of Sound" album, originally released in 2000 on Eulogy Records.

5. Bone Thugs N Harmony featuring Eazy-E, "Foe tha Love of $ (Radio Edit)"

Wu-Tang and Fiddy Cent all incorporate sound effects like kung-fu punches and gunshots to bleep out the swear words in their songs, while other rappers simply play the curse backward, though you usually could tell what they're saying. Back in the day, rappers had to rerecord their verses sans swearing in order to get radio play. Eazy-E's verse in the original "Foe tha Love of $" is easily one of the most distinct guest spots in the last ten years. If you walked up to a random rap fan and said, "Standing on the corner straight slangin' rocks," that person would be forced to reply with "aww shit here the muthafuckin' cops!" out of sheer awareness of the line. The radio edit of the song softens up the line and replaces "motherfucker" with "stupid sucker" which adds to the absurdity of Eazy-E's gangsta persona. Let's also not forget that the man donated to the Republican party.

6. JT the Bigga Figga featuring Mac Mall, "Game Recognize Game (Remix)"

JT the Bigga Figga is a hero in San Francisco. The man brought himself up by his own bootstraps and created his own rap empire without any major label, save the two years his label Get Low received distrobution through Priority Records. Now the guy is touring with Snoop Dogg and writing books on getting in the rap game. "Game Recognize Game" is a song that was a local hit back in 1994 and this remix is essentially a radio version.

7. Further Seems Forever, "There I Said It (Demo)"

Earlier this year, I reviewed the Further Seems Forever retrospective and I couldn't help but mention the awesomeness of this track. For anybody who owns the first two albums, but don't have this song, I give you this as a gift. The compiliation is not worth your $15.

8. Brand New, "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad (Radio Remix)"

In a bit of label shuffling, Brand New ended up on Razor & Tie, a BMG imprint, who gave their debut full-length, "Your Favorite Weapon," a big push. Their lead single and video "Jude Law" was re-recorded for the radio and given the sheen. Anyway, the vocals on this version are far better than the original album version and you can hear guitar parts that are either buried or non-existant in the O.G. copy. Oh yeah, buy their new record, too.

posted by ryan @ 9:43 AM 0 Comments

week 3...

i almost forgot to put something up this week. my bad.

so a little while ago, i wiped my hard drive of numerous mp3s and burned them to several data discs. this week's three tracks are some of what i kept because they're some of my favorite songs from the last 10 years or so.

first up we have one of my favorite emcees, common. this is a remix of the title track from 1994's "resurrection," back when dude was known as common sense. the original was produced by no.id. and it's awesome, but this large professor remix is just solid. and out of print. it also reminds us all that before kanye breathed some new life into common's dead career, he was once a rapper who stood on his own.

anybody who was into tooth and nail bands during the 90's is sure remember ghoti hook, a band often eclipsed by mxpx and...well, mxpx. their cover of "walking on sunshine" is pretty sweet and far superior to any of the songs on mxpx's "on the cover" album.

and finally, matthew sweet is one of those guys whose music you never admit to liking for fear of alienation and rejection. well, if people don't want to hang out with you because you like a little matthew sweet, i say "fuck 'em." this guy -- had he been a booze hound -- could've been where ryan adams is today, instead, he's largely respect and put out an album with former bangel susanna hoffs. "farther down" is from one of my favorite movies of all time, "can't hardly wait," and is played at a very important part of the flick.

posted by ryan @ 9:57 AM 0 Comments

week 2... or something like that.

i'm not sure how long this blogamp shit is going to fly (the beta version i'm using is free until nov. 10th), so i'm going to hit you off with a few more jawns before i scramble to find a host for these mp3s. if you didn't get a chance to download the donny hathaway, billy bragg or the movielife, sorry yo.

for this week, i'm giving you some pretty rare jams starting with bad boy records' forgotten girl group, total. before danity kane or dream there was total. they had the ulitmate spring song back in 1995 with "can't you see," which rocked the sweet "payback" sample and one of the best notorious b.i.g. guest spots ever. the song on this week's playlist is a remix of total's third single, "kissin' you." funny enough, the single was orignally released in the winter of 1995/96, dormant, then rereleased during the summer with a raphael saadiq (tony toni tone, lucy pearl, etc.) remix. when you listen to this remix, you'll understand why it was THE summer jam. ironically, i'm putting up this remix at the end of fall. oh well.

the controls is a little friendlier to the fall/winter seasons. in essence, the controls were just another portishead/morcheeba rip-off group, but they had a very strong single with "terrified of nothing." this remix was produced by rob swift, formerly of the x-ecutioners, and sounds like a throwaway beat from his awesome solo album, "the ablist." you don't really hear that much scratching in songs anymore, so it's cool to hear it on this, even though this song is like 8 years old.

glassjaw is one of my favorite bands of all time and rather than put up one of their screaming, angry songs, i'm posting the acoustic version of "midwestern stylings," an old song that was supposed to appear on their last album "worship and tribute." but that didn't happen and showed up on some singles and samplers as a b-side. glassjaw singer, daryl palumbo, is now in head automatica and a few other rap-related indie rock groups. blah.

posted by ryan @ 6:06 AM 0 Comments