Play | The Rhapsody Editorial Music Blog

Rhapsody Song of the Day

Song: BabyLetsHaveABabyBeforeBushDoSomethingCrazy
Album: Pick a Bigger Weapon
Artist: The Coup
Selected by: Sam Chennault
Date: November 28, 2008

As we wade through the final days of the Bush administration, it seems appropriate to revisit this beautiful and strange Coup cut from 2006's Pick a Bigger Weapon. You can certainly argue whether or not the possibility of an apocalypse is justification for procreation, but you have to credit guest vocalist Silk E’s smoky, beautiful vocals as well as her ability to find romance in abject despair and political paranoia. 

Rhapsody Song of the Day

Song: Thanksgiving Day
Album: Other People's Lives
Artist: Ray Davies
Selected by: Nick Dedina
Date: November 27, 2008


The British have never been shy about reminding Americans about the ugly truths behind our Thanksgiving myths. But England's Ray Davies pays homage to the real joys and sorrows of the holiday. Families and friends come together in tattered triumph  -- or sit alone remembering happier times. 

A Hippie Thanksgiving Dinner With Joy of Cooking

        
Joy of Cooking – two rootsy singing-and-songwriting feminist musicians from Berkeley, California, plus a few male fellow travelers providing rhythmic accompaniment, all of whom apparently took their band name from Irma Rombauer’s eternal Depression-era cookbook classic – might have the distinction of being the most critically acclaimed ‘70s rock band that almost no rock critic who graduated high school in the past 35 years has an opinion about. Their self-titled Capitol debut album finished in sixth place in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics poll in 1971; Robert Christgau called it “exciting and amazingly durable” and gave it an “A” grade, praising its rolling piano-and-percussion grooves and lyrics about wives victimized at both ends of the economic spectrum. 

He Said/She Said: Beyoncé/Sasha Fierce

Chris Ryan: I am ... underwhelmed. Usually doubles are so conceptually robust that they demand the extra acreage; or they come at a time in an artist's career where the fever pitch of creativity demands a big canvas. This joint is about as long as Thriller and despite all the talking-points memos going around about B's beguiling "split personality," the two poles of Beyoncé seem to be "slow jams" and "club bangers."

Angela Bruno: I am ... going to ignore 85 percent of this album. Or, I'm gonna wind up saying something I'll regret. Like, oh, her artistic bipolarity only reminds me of that commercial for a product-which-shall-remain-nameless where a woman sees her totally-slummed-out-on-the-inside reflection in the mirror due to a lack of "freshness." Which, actually, is quite applicable here. (Forgive me Sasha, for I know not what I say!) I feel like I'm betraying a good friend, like LC and Audrina or vice versa (depending on whose side you're on). What happened to that brickhouse-ness that only B'Day can invoke?!?! Sigh. I may have to disagree with you on the acreage, though. B covers a whole lotta ground: Buzz Lightyear ("Single Ladies": "Here's a man that makes me then takes me/and delivers me to a destiny/ to infinity and beyond"), Dave Matthews ("Smash Into You," ummm "Crash Into Me"), Renée Zelweger (in Jerry McGuire, "Hello"), Pavarotti ("Ave Maria," WTF?), career criminal ("Diva": "this is a stick up, stick up"), you know. Shall we dissect (further)?

Dig This! School of Seven Bells

FREE DOWNLOAD: School of Seven Bells, "Connjur"

Rhythm and harmony! They’re the first things you hear on “Iamundernodisguise,” the opening track on School of Seven Bells’ debut, Alpinisms: a rolling drumbeat marshals a hint of rhumba in the bassline, while sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza speak-sing the word-sounds like a two-part Eastern Orthodox choir. Soon enough, the chorus brings the hook and the result is left-field electronic pop; but it’s the confident mix of beats and voices that defines the song.

[Click the "Continue Reading..." link to listen to a playlist featuring the music discussed in this post.]

Singling Out 2008: Jaguar Love, Kings of Leon, Rev Theory, more

     

The new January 2009 issue of Blender includes, among many other things, a list of "the top 144 songs of 2008," as presumably selected by the editors. (Though I write for the magazine some, my own input was not requested.) Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the list at blender.com, so maybe you'll just have to turn to page 66 at your neighborhood newsstand. Regardless, I still wanted to check the trustworthiness of some of their song choices that I'd somehow survived almost 11 months of the year without hearing (not unlike what I did with other '08 best-singles lists here, etc.). So, that's what I'm gonna do.

Rhapsody Song of the Day

 Song: Slow Motion
Album: Juve the Great
Artist: Juvenile
Selected by: Toshi Kondo
Date: November 26, 2008

Soulja Slim's first and only number one single was a bittersweet accomplishment; it was released after he was murdered on November 26, 2003. Nonetheless, the rest of the nation finally had a chance to see what those in Slim's hometown of New Orleans had known for years, that he was one of the realest and most talented rappers ever to come out of the Big Easy.

Play It Now

Metal Ketchup #12: Krypteria, Landed, Litmus, more

All I'm gonna say is that the band from Germany pictured above definitely has a sexier singer than the band from Rhode Island. Though both bands do have bald guys. And who said metal was a fashion show, anyway? Not anybody in Iron Maiden, you can be darn sure of that!

Dig This! San Quinn

FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD: San Quinn, "Devotion"

The Bay Area hip-hop scene is among the most compartmentalized in the nation. There are hundreds if not thousands of young producers, rappers and promoters who manage to make a decent living without ever having to leave Northern California.  In this vast, thriving and largely underground scene, San Quinn is a legend. He started out in the early '90s with fellow SF emcee JT the Bigga Figga and has continued to be a major player ever since -- first as a young rapper on the Priority label and then independently under his Done Deal label. Over those 16 years, Quinn has had his hand in nearly every major hip-hop movement to come out of the Bay. He terse flow and gruff voice are instantly recognizable, and his finely detailed vignettes on life in San Francisco’s Fillmore district are among the most compelling narrative raps to emerge from the West Coast. His most recent album, From a Boy to a Man, continues in this fine tradition. Quinn has also been fortunate to score one of the biggest hits of his career this fall with “SF Anthem.”  We recently sat down with the legend to discuss life, art and Bay Area pride.

Rhapsody Song of the Day

  Song: The Truth Will Set You Free
Album: Back to Now
Artist: LaBelle
Selected by: Sarah Bardeen
Date: November 25, 2008

Patti Labelle and the ladies (circa "Lady Marmalade") returned to the recording studio this year for the first time in three decades and released an album of pure '70s soul-funk in October. This song pounces like an avenging angel, slaying soul music Janes-come-lately in one hard-rocking swoop.

Play It Now