Look forward to posts by this fella here: MC Asswipe.
He's our newfound long distance lover from SUNY Purchase, a fabulous musician, and an all around hip-cat in the realm of aural and rhythmic pleasure...
Each week, Monsieur Asswipe will be blasting out these extensive album reviews, so eat your heart out.
- DJPJ -
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The Lowdown on the Get Down:
THANGS FOR Y'ALL TO CHECK THE HELL OUT...
1) David Bowie – “Quicksand,” Hunky Dory (1971)
What might be Bowie’s greatest existentialist anthem of all still burns 37 years later. Obscure references to the Tibetan Book of the Dead and WWII politics propel the abstract “Quicksand” to an almost-E.E.-Cummings level of weird conceptualism. The lyrical content is full of phrases you have never yourself written and will never need to write, but you’re sure that they pretty accurately describe how sad you were when you were a teenager. There is a demo version that accompanies the remaster, offering a stripped-down, unfinished-sounding take on the same material. Honestly it’s even a little sadder.
Sandwiched between the two worst cuts on the record (“Kooks” and “Fill Your Heart”), this tune is often overshadowed by the prominence of tracks like “Oh You Pretty Things” and “Queen Bitch,” but I think it’s important to recognize it as an underrated classic. Matter of fact, this whole album is underrated. That is, except for “Kooks” and “Fill Your Heart,” which are terrible, terrible songs.
The importance of “Quicksand” is not to be understated; It survives as the ominous precursor to the entirety of the metaphor that is “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust…” Putting the latter next to “Hunky Dory,” it’s pretty evident that this is the iceberg that the drug-addled self-analysis of “Rock n’ Roll Suicide” was the retrospective tip of, 6 months later, without the troubled allegory of the Ziggy character, and without another 40 minutes of recorded material.
FOR FANS OF: Nietzsche, heroin, makeup on dudes, definitely makeup on dudes.
2) Chris Potter’s Underground – “Train,” Follow The Red Line: Live At The Vanguard (2007)
I really and truly believe that the only people qualified to write about jazz are Jack Kerouac (dead) and Amiri Baraka (unavailable to help me with this review). So fuck it. Chris Potter has, as of late, become my favorite saxophonist, as well as everyone else’s. He combines the genuine melodic “outness” of Dolphy or late Coltrane and the motivic development of Sonny Rollins with a kind of angular rhythmic precision that is reminiscent of a young Mike Brecker, whose illest-mother-on-earth-throne he by all accounts ascended when the late innovator passed in January of ‘07. On top of it all there are subtle allusions to soul masters like Grover Washington and Maceo Parker…but neither of them ever came close to being as hip rhythmically or harmonically as Potter. Backing him up are Scofield disciple Adam Rogers, a veteran of gigs ranging from John Zorn to Elvis Costello, as well as Gotham mainstays Craig Taborn on rhodes and Nate Smith on drums, who between the two of them have played with everyone from bass legend Dave Holland to pop sensation and consummate kid-toucher Michael Jackson.
“Train” starts as a slow, soft 6/8 that eventually morphs into a dirty off-kilter funk groove, reminiscent of a wasted but well-educated George Clinton falling down the stairs. The interplay between Taborn and Nate Smith during Potter’s solo reminds me of the first time I heard Elvin and Herbie on “Witch Hunt.” Adam Rogers is nothing if not a love maker, but the ferocity of his playing reminds me a lot more of fucking than love making. He is at once raw and polished. A profound Hendrix influence shines through even in his use of traditional and modern jazz vocabulary.
This track is a great representation of a movement that critics- and even players- have had trouble accurately giving a name since it began sprouting in the downtown NYC scene a few years ago. It is characterized by free takes on post-bop harmony, hip-hop-influenced drumming, and Mahavishnu-rooted mixed meter (songs on “Follow The Red Line” range in meter from 5/4 to 11/8). But despite its complexity, a lot of it is legitimately down-home and bluesy, and truly digable on a visceral level, moreso than almost any other contemporary jazz record that I’ve heard in the past few years. It achieves what Herbie achieved with “Headhunters,” and what Miles was going for with “Star People,” but it is twice as raw and half as self-aware. I can’t in good faith try to explain it any further- just go out and buy this record.
FOR FANS OF: Barack Obama, Stella Artois, blowjobs.
3) Kanye West – “Good Morning (Intro),” Graduation (2007)
Kanye! What are you doing these days buddy? More importantly, what were you doing when you were supposed to be writing rhymes for this album? Anyone who is into hip-hop will agree- the beats are unreal. Yes they are. I copped the instrumentals, and they catch heavier rotation on my ipod than the mp3’s of the actual album. I just can’t get past chuckling at some of your silly ass lines. Granted, it must be hard to rap with Jay-z’s dick in your mouth, but come on. Some of these verses couldn’t make it onto a Lupe Fiasco album.
I was with you when you told me about Jesus walking. I was with you when you were talking about diamonds and bulimia, or something. I was all set to be with you on this album too…but Yeezy… “I’m like the fly Malcolm X, buy any jeans necessary”? How am I supposed to put that on when other people are around?
The standout track on this record is the lead single, “Stronger,” which pulls the beat back and puts a slight Jay Dilla (R.I.P.) twist on a Daft Punk sample, successfully taking an electronica classic to the next level. I’m all about it- most hip-hop heads I know love this song even though they know Kanye is at the whack end of the stick, but a good deal of the less worldly cats I know hate it outright because of the Daft Punk rip, which I have heard compared to “punching your grandmother in the stomach.” Whatever the case, lyrics like “Let’s get lost tonight / you could be my black Kate Moss tonight,” will keep you drinking red bull and vodka until you pass out in a soup of gawdy jewelry and dance club date rape.
FOR FANS OF: Dr. Seuess, cocaine, overhyped records.
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S'all for now.
Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams,
- MC Asswipe -
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