It’s kind of hard to believe this album is so good. I happily snapped it up when it came out... Danger Mouse was really at the top of his game at the time, and MF DOOM was (and is) one of the most unstoppable, unpredictable rappers in the biz... but the angle of the two doing an album for Cartoon Network was pretty strange. But it worked out really well. DOOM’s solo work already spends plenty of time sampling cartoons, but here they actually have permission, and the two craft a spectacular, dense, dizzyingly fun hip hop album that just happens to feature interludes by (And a few songs about) characters from the original (Infinitely superior) Adult Swim line-up like Space Ghost, Sealab, Harvey Birdman and, of course, Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Toss in perfectly chosen guest spots from Talib Kweli and Ghostface (Oh, if only the long-promised DOOM/Ghostface collaboration album had happened), and you really can’t lose.
Danger Doom with Ghostface, “The Mask”
Electric Six, Heartbeats & Brainwaves
The release of a new Electric Six album is cause for celebration. It is, in fact, the soundtrack to its own celebration. Heartbeats & Brainwaves is a more synth-driven album, taking the dance rock we’ve come to depend on and turning down the “rock” part a little. The result is more akin to 2nd album Senior Smoke than most of their catalog: glorious, bombastic, even catchier than usual. And lyrically, Dick Valentine really brought it this time, delivering some of the Six’s more absurd, delightful songs to date in songs like “Gridlock!,” “It Gets Hot,” and “Food Dog.” Electric Six songs that get really excited about mundane events tend to be homeruns, and “Free Samples” is no exception. It’s about getting free samples. Even moody opener “Psychic Visions” offers plenty of fun. The whole album is a great time from start to finish. The first three Electric Six albums are far and away the best, and a big part of that for me is they all sound different. The first is really rock oriented, the second more dance-based, and the third stretched out and tried some new genres. After that, until last year’s Zodiac, they’d mostly settled into a reliable, Fire-esque, dance rock sound. But Zodiac began and Heartbeats & Brainwaves continues a new era of experimentation, and I am all for it. Electric Six are on top of their game right now.
Electric Six, “Gridlock!”
Puscifer, Conditions of My Parole
Puscifer is the name Maynard James Keenan uses for his “solo” material. The name originated in a Mr. Show sketch Keenan and Tool bandmate Adam Jones cameoed in. I find it interesting, though, that Puscifer, the music project, does seem to just be a name. As a band, it/he doesn’t have a defined style or approach. Generally speaking, most bands have a pretty well-defined sound or niche (Tool) and if you want to do something even a little bit different, you go somewhere else (A Perfect Circle). Puscifer, though, just seems to the name Keenan applies to whatever he’s been doing lately, and he likes it that way.
The first thing I heard under that name was a playfully spooky song on the soundtrack to that paragon of cinematic excellence, Underworld, in 2003. I really, really liked that song. When a Puscifer full-length made its way to the public in 2007, I was excited. It was totally different. From that song in 2003, from any band Keenan was in, anything. It was hard not to hear it as Keenan baiting the rabid fans of his day job. The man has a pretty good range as a singer, and refused to sing in any of it, affecting this gravelly voice the whole record. And that voice bopped its way across weird funky jams, dark electronic music, and even what seemed to be an unironic reading of a Christian sermon. The obsessive Tool fans who pore over and ascribe meaning to every syllable of every song would be hard-pressed to delve too deeply into ludicrous faux-R&B lyrics like, “This lovely lady got the thickness/Can I get a witness?/Miss Betty Booty got the thickness/Can I get a hell yeah?” from “Queen B” or my personal favorite, the chorus to “Drunk With Power,” “Where all my honey gone?/Pooh Bear be cryin’.” Even the name of the album, “V” is for Vagina, seemed to be daring his fans to take him seriously.
After remix albums (“V” is for Viagra and “D” is for Dubby), a short EP of new songs and remixes (“C” is for (Insert Sophomoric Genetalia Reference Here)) and the soundtrack to the documentary on his winery (Blood Into Wine) featuring still more remixes and some rarities, Keenan is back with the second true Puscifer album, Conditions of My Parole, and has once again gone off in another direction. It’s less gleefully silly than “V”, and yet, still has its silly moments, and they stick out more here due to their rarity. And it even seems like it could be a concept album, as themes and locations are repeated in several songs, whether ridiculous or dead-serious. Some songs have the darker, more serious tone of Keenan’s work with other groups (“Telling Ghosts”), some have a much more gentle feel (“Monsoons”), others still are just plain goofy (The title track). The weird R&B stylings of the first album are gone, replaced by a greater focus on electronics, and Keenan is back to his familiar singing voice. Not much on here suggests a kinship with the first album. But I guess that’s just part of the deal with Puscifer. As an album, I think it’s less cohesive than “V,” but also a more satisfying listen, all told. The songs are each engaging in their own way even if they don’t present a very unified sound.
Puscifer, “Green Valley”
Every Time I Die, Gutter Phenomenon
ETID’s 3rd album is where things really started to gel. Keith dropped the last of the “screamo” style from his vocals, the Southern Rock influences creeping around the edges of Hot Damn! take a much more prominent place, and the songwriting feels more focused than ever. Even though the material doesn’t have the crazed mathcore-style complexity of Last Night In Town, it still feels like the band’s most precise album. Almost every lyric on the album is a memorable one-liner. they even came up with something akin to radio ready song in “The New Black.” All this and a perfect cameo by Daryl Palumbo make this one of the band’s finest hours.
Every Time I Die, “The New Black”
Das Racist, Relax
After a flood of free music in the last couple of years, DR is finally asking you to buy something. And I think it’s well worth doing so. They’ve changed things up on Relax. It’s easy to say they did it to make the album more palatable to a wider audience, but given the rapid evolution they’ve gone through from “Combination Pizza Hut And Taco Bell”s viral success to now, it could easily just be what they’re into these days. Regardless, there’s more singing, some songs you could call “club friendly,” but also really insane songs that seem as far from commercial as possible, and one of those, “Michael Jackson,” is the lead single. “Shut Up, Man” is a particular highlight, with a searing verse from producer El-P and a title seemingly designed to be the last word on the previous phase of their career. “Rainbow in the Dark” from the first mixtape is the only old song to make an appearance, although theoretical club banger “Booty In The Air” uses the same beat and a brief passage of lyrics from ancient artifact “Different Schools.” Overall, I think it’s a fine introduction to the group for the commerical music biz. Next up: free solo mixtapes from every member to released on the same day in January.
Das Racist, “Relax”
Stevie Wonder, Song Review
You’re not going to catch me listening to too many hits packages. As this ridiculous feature demonstrates, I am pretty dedicated to the concept of the album. But come on. The first disc alone of Song Review is some of the best songs ever made by anybody, all in one place. We throw the word “genius” around all the time these days. Hyperbole is just how people talk. But man-oh-man, Stevie Wonder. His honesty, his openness. Even at its most complex, his music always seems unpretentious and real. Whether partying with the best of them, dealing with complex social issues, or making you cry, the man can and will make you feel it right along with him, every time. Listening to many of his very best songs one after the other is a rollercoaster ride well worth taking.
Stevie Wonder, “I Was Made To Love Her”
Yup.
--D
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