Robot Sheets Music
Mixtapes in a post-cassette worldTumblr Migration
It’s true. This site is moving. I’m really not convinced that anyone could sit in front of their computer for long enough to listen to the mixes that I post here, so I’m accommodating the Twitter-length attention span of the internet and I’m migrating to Tumblr. You can find the new Robot Sheets here:
http://robotsheets.tumblr.com/
See you there.
A List of Rappers
(Ridiculous. I have time for this? I don’t. Still, I don’t have time to finish anything else I’m working on between now and when I go to bed in a few minutes, so…this.)
Here are the five most consistent rappers whose careers have begun in the past five years. Because you asked.
Danny Brown
Jay Electronica
G-Side
X.O.
Freddie Gibbs
You know, according to me. Based upon what I know.
Crash Crew to Flying Lotus
Unkay, new Robot Sheets. Let’s do it.
1. Crash Crew – “We Are Known As Emcees”
When this record was re-released a few years ago, the blurb was basically that these guys were Jurassic 5 before Jurassic 5 ever rippity-rapped at the Good Life. Whatever. They’re a really great and pretty big rap crew that sung their hooks. What’s impressive to me is the fidelity of the production in 1984 – a lot of drum machine and bass production from that time, even from big names, was pretty thin-sounding. Anyway, seems like a good way to get started.
2. Lil Wayne – “Cash Money N*gga”
This might be my favorite Wayne song, and there are a lot of great Wayne songs to choose from, even though it’s no longer fashionable to admit it. This is from Tha Carter 2.5, which I don’t have, but I copped this song from a compilation put together from the guy behind The Martorialist website. The flow is untouchable, and you can tell he loves this beat – I do too…Mannie Fresh is a legend, but this is in his top five beats, in my book.
3. Glasser – “Apply”
There’s something Bjork-ish about this track, if not the rest of the Glasser album. Mostly, I put it on because the beat bangs and I love the way this one builds.
4. The Clientele – “E.M.P.T.Y.”
This is a rocky transition because I didn’t mean for this tune to come next – I goofed with the track order. I love, love, love this song and the album it comes from. I think I agree with the rest of the world, Strange Geometry is my favorite Clientele album. But if the Minotaur mini-album is any kind of indication, they’re heading back in the right direction.
5. Robyn – “Call Your Girlfriend”
If you’ve visited this blog before, you already know how I feel about Robyn. This is from her kind-of full-length from the end of last year. I loved it when I first heard it – I’d never heard a song from the perspective of the “next girl,” providing her new boyfriend advice on how to let the “ex-girl” down easy. Romance is complicated, and it takes a grown-ass person to write about it sometimes (see Millie Jackson).
6. Jamie Woon – “Spirits”
Jamie Woon is the latest in a string of pop singers who have decided that UK bass music is the stuff hits are made of. It’s hard to say if they’re right at this point, especially by me. I’m shamefully out of touch with what songs are being played on the radio – and I mean shamefully…it’s not like a contrarian thing. Either way, I’m glad to hear that dubstep and UK garage music won’t just fade in and out of consciousness like most strains of electronic music. Jamie Woon has a heartthrobby kind of voice, and even if his stuff fits a little too snugly next to Jason Mraz, his lyrics are not dumb, and he seems genuinely interested in creating a kind of nocturnal R&B. I’m into it.
7. Portishead – “Only You”
Since we’re honoring one moody genre of Bristolian electronic music, it seems only right to cherry-pick a song from the last big moody genre of Bristolian electronic music (the worst named genre ever, “trip-hop”…yeugh). I can only conclude that there is something wistful in the water of my hometown.
8. Nosaj Thing – “Us”
I’m almost sure I’ve dubbed some Nosaj Thing for you before, but his debut album really is beautiful. This piece of glitch-and-glow actually manages to be romantic.
9. Death Cab For Cutie – “Lightness”
Thank God I’m 32 and don’t care whether people approve of my musical taste anymore. What a shackle to wear for so long. Ben Gibbard writes the occasional stunner, and he threw a whole bunch of them on DCFC’s 2004 album, Transatlanticism.
10. Jon Brion – “Piano One”
I saw Synecdoche, New York the other day, and I think I liked it. I definitely liked Jon Brion’s score, but that was predictable. Jon Brion, like me, is probably nostalgic about a moment before it’s even over. Which is what makes him perfect for the films of Charlie Kaufmann and Michel Gondry, which are obsessed with memory and narrative.
11. Crowded House – “Fall At Your Feet”
Every once in a while, one of the great songs from one of Crowded House’s first three albums will pop up on my iTunes shuffle. It’s always a welcome surprise, and it’s usually followed with a couple of spins of Woodface, which is probably their most consistent full-length.
12. Townes Van Zandt – “Nine Pound Hammer”
I’m not trying to be difficult. This just came up the other day, and it sounded so good next to everything else I was listening to that I thought I’d play it for you. It’s from his live album, Live At The Old Quarter.
13. Robin Pecknold – “I’m Losing Myself” (ft. Ed Droste)
I’ve heard the new Fleet Foxes album, and it is astounding. It is the best album I’ve heard in ages, and that’s including James Blake’s fantastic debut. I just feel like Robin Pecknold has marinated himself in only good songs for his entire life, internalizing the way they work so he could deliver his own unique take on them. This is a song he wrote and released on his MySpace, and that’s Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste playing Garfunkel to his Simon.
14. Paul Simon – “Graceland”
Speaking of Simon. I don’t have much interest in hearing Paul Simon’s newest album – he’s grumpy in interviews, and I think he’s finally gotten old. It doesn’t matter how AOR it is, or how trendy Vampire Weekend (another deservedly hyped band) has made Graceland, it is still an amazing piece of work. One great thing about the 1980s is how free mainstream artists were to get weird over the top of production that sounds like it cost millions of dollars. Paul got really, really free-associative on this album, and it resulted in some of his most memorable lyrics. This song came up during a performance of The Score the other day, and I figured I’d include it here.
15. Judas Priest – “Electric Eye”
Butch Roy is to blame for this one. We were at Pizza Luce after a night at HUGE Theater, and this song came on the XM. Until that moment, I had been sheltered from the double-guitar flame throwing assault of K.K. Dowling and Glenn Tipton. I had no idea what this awesomeness was, so I asked Butch, who knows his metal. He knew it was Judas Priest, but it took some kind of magic application on his iPad to place the album (Screaming for Vengeance). Needless to say, it was mine within 48 hours.
16. Low – “Try To Sleep”
Good heavens. Alan and Mimi (and bassist) have been making some of my favorite music for over a decade, but this most recent album is an astonishing return to form. It has all the slow beauty of Things We Lost In the Fire, but Alan’s in a better place now, so it’s not quite as bleak. I really, really recommend it.
17. Flying Lotus – “Galaxy in Janaki”
Cosmogramma is harder for me to love than Los Angeles, which blew my mind. A music writer I sometimes like said that Flying Lotus sounds to him like someone playing J Dilla and Squarepusher at the same time out of different speakers, and not in a good way. I agree with his points of reference, but I think it’s in a very good way. This is the last song from Cosmogramma, and the last song on this mix. Hope you liked it.
Sharon Van Etten to Company Flow
Eh, I’m done with the year-end list. I can’t sum up a whole year of music like that, and besides, I don’t think of music that way anyway. I just want to share some music with you.
1. “One Day” – Sharon Van Etten
Sharon Van Etten can write songs, friend. Like, actual songs. Her album last year, Epic is seven songs long, and is about a half-hour, which is my favorite length for an album. I love being able to listen to something twice in an hour – really feel the topography of it. Simple chords, simply strummed – it’s all in the melody (which is one of those meaty ones that takes up more than a couple of bars) and the harmony she sings with herself. This is the best one on the album, but there are a couple of other killers as well. It reminds me a little of James Mercer’s country song, “Gone For Good.”
2. “Helplessness Blues” – Fleet Foxes
I was worried when I read that Robin Pecknold was writing songs inspired by Roy Harper’s Stormcock that he’d ignore his ear for songs that have a kind of ancient logic to them (I know, I know). I don’t mind Stormcock, and I love Astral Weeks, Pecknold’s other big influence right now, but I don’t want those kinds of ragas and meditations from Fleet Foxes. I want “Helplessness Blues.” It’s way more lyrically dense than anything from Fleet Foxes or Sun Giant, and the fact that it’s still breathtaking is a relief to me – sometimes guys who write great poetry write awful prose. This is a folk rock song that has two movements, which gives his band room to move around, which they do. I love this so much.
3. “No One But You” – Doug Paisley
Doug Paisley, where have you been? Canada, I guess. This the first song from Paisley’s Constant Companion album from last year. I don’t think people who pick up an acoustic guitar for the first time realize how hard it is to do what he’s doing here without accidentally ending up on a Cities 97 sampler. One way to avoid that terrible fate is by getting Garth Hudson (of The Band) to wig out on every song.
4. “Sad Songs And Waltzes” – Willie Nelson
I’ve recently been trying to absorb Phases and Stages and Shotgun Willie. When I put either of them on, they feel so substantial. They’re just so full of effort and art. To say how hard this stuff is to find in 2011 country music is to forget how hard it was to find in 1973. I’d generally prefer that songwriters didn’t try to make jokes, because a gag usually pushes me out of an otherwise engaging song (take note, Ben Folds), but the joke of this song is a really, really sad one, which makes it funnier and sadder, like all the best jokes.
5. “Life Is Suicide” – Percy Mayfield
Percy Mayfield was an influence on Ray Charles, which you can hear right away. This is not a pose, this is genuine cathartic tragedy in song. I’d like to see some dumbass on a stage at Famous Dave’s try to pull off a song called “Life Is Suicide.”
6. “Walking Far From Home” – Iron & Wine
On first listen, I was really disappointed in the new Iron & Wine album. I’m still in two minds about it. In his attempt to escape his trademark sound, it sounded like Sam Beam was leaving his strengths behind. But there are moments of the album I love. The coda of “Your Fake Name Is Good Enough For Me” is as good as anything he’s done. And when you set aside the burping keyboards and the argumentative percussion of this one, there’s a melody that’s fun to sing and a set of lyrics that stand somewhere between “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and Beam’s own “The Trapeze Swinger.”
7. “Swim” – Surfer Blood
Surfer Blood are a really good band that I almost didn’t notice because of all the stupid reviews written about them that used all the wrong points of reference. These guys have nothing to do with Pavement. I also think the lead singer, like the guy from Band of Horses and James Mercer on the first Shins album, is doing himself a disservice with the mush-mouth reverb treatment. But this is a really great pop song, and there are a handful of other really great pop songs that have that Shins-ish spirally melodic sense on the album. You should get it, I think.
8. “True Love” – Pointed Sticks
See, when you dry up the vocals on a pop song (unless that pop song is “Crimson and Clover”), it’s more immediate and fun to listen to. Guitar solo! Organ solo! ORGAN SOLO! It’s not even a farfisa, which would have been less cool.
9. “Crossin’ Fingers” – Kid Dakota
I challenge you to find a meaner love song than this. So, so mean. Like, apocalyptically mean. A song in praise of jealously. That’s rock and roll. That long-held harmony break would be corny if it weren’t for those two pickup notes before everything comes crashing back in. AWESOME. “Jealousy: it’s what saved me from believing the lies and doubting the truth.”
10. “Henry Plainview” – Jonny Greenwood
Since we’re getting dark, this is from the soundtrack from There Will Be Blood, which I still haven’t seen. We saw a dance piece from the company at Zenon a couple of years ago that used this soundtrack extensively, and it was heartbreaking. Constant climbing and death-defying falls. It worked really well.
11. “Unluck” – James Blake
I’ve already listened to James Blake’s self-titled album (and the EPs that preceded it), more than anything I’ve bought in the last several months. It takes so much nerve to chop up a song like this, especially when you know how good it is. On “The Bells Sketch” from his first EP of last year, he pitch-shifts and screws Stevie Wonder’s “They Won’t Go When I Go,” which is a great jumping off point for what Blake does so well. When Stevie was at his best, he was totally fearless – he would take pretty melodies and break them, then harmonize to sew the pieces together in the wrong order, and then he’d make you sing along. James Blake is a good singer in the tradition of Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis, only he shares my weakness for those rich major sevenths in 70′s soul music – the kind that used to be played on a Wurli. So when he reduces his songs to the sinew, even if there are only a few notes left, they’re notes that really hold some emotional weight. Blah blah blah. The point is, James Blake likes a lot of the same things that I like, and he combines them in a way that is very welcome to me.
12. “Mr. Handagote” – Tomas Dvorak
If you like adventure/puzzle-solving computer games (the name Guybrush Threepwood should mean something to you), you should summon up $20 and download Machinarium from Amanita Designs as soon as you can. It is funny, smart, and beautiful. Tomas Dvorak composed all the music for the game, and it fits right in with his other recorded work as Floex. I recently spent about forty hours in a few days traveling to and from England, and the Machinarium soundtrack (free with purchase of the game) was on heavy rotation. Check the mixture of electronic and organic elements. Check the sounds of marbles dropping or something at the end.
13. “3-Way Phone Call” – R. Kelly
R. Kelly is hilarious, but if that’s all you hear in his music, then I don’t have much time for you. I’m happy to have read recently that Will Oldham and I both love this song. I’m not a Christian, and I’m not really a “spiritual” person either, but I find the vulnerability and the unconventional story/conversation structure of this song really moving. And yep, it’s funny as well. I love that he wants to hang up the phone when his sister tries to call Kim, and that he doesn’t realize that Kim is talking to him at first. I don’t know how he pulls this stuff off. R. Kelly is a real original.
14. “Lune TNS” – Company Flow
I tried to get into El-P when I first discovered Aesop Rock, but I started with Fantastic Damage, which was kind of a mistake…although I had some success with stuff like “Dead Disnee” and “Squeegee Man Shooting”. I should have started with Company Flow’s only album, Funcrusher Plus. The beats are a little less frightening, and El-Producto is rhyming with a bit more of a traditional flow, if you can call it that. But you can still hear what makes him great – the stridence, the arhythmic and compelling nonsense. Big Jus is good too. And I love how far up front the vocals are mixed. It’s really confrontational. It’s quitting your office job music, I figure.
Illmatic
Illmatic is an inspiration to me. Every line is meticulously assembled, every metaphor surprising, and the stories are invested with so much specificity and emotion. He makes Queensbridge in 1993 relatable to a guy whose childhood couldn’t have been more superficially different. Despite the care put into the record, it doesn’t feel brainy – Nas manages to make the whole thing feel spontaneous and free. The thing that stays with me, though, is the worldview.
I hate it when writers try to legitimize rap by comparing it to other forms of literature…but like Humbert Humbert and Holden Caulfield before him and Max Fischer and Don Draper after him, Nas’s Illmatic character radiates a unique perspective on the world. He gets “charged” drinking Dom Perignon and watching Gandhi. He mourns the fact that the local petty criminals are getting younger. He keeps a jailed friend apprised of the state of his reputation in the borough. Through all of this, he warns off anyone who might try him – he’s pointing guns in all his baby pictures. Unlike fellow Queensbridge resident Prodigy of Mobb Deep, he’s a reluctant nihilist. Afterwards, Jay-Z played a similar role – the “kingpin with a conscience,” but with Jay, it’s usually all or nothing. He’s either unrepentant and ruthless, or he’s a wet blanket. Don’t get me wrong, I love Jay-Z, but nobody ever managed the dichotomy like Nas. Okay, enough said. If you don’t own Illmatic, take care of that. If you do, give it a listen.
Ron Sexsmith
Not the cheeriest song to post on Christmas day, but it felt right for all sorts of reasons not worth writing out. I can’t remember if I’ve posted it before. From Sexsmith’s excellent Steve Earle-produced album Blue Boy
2010 Pt. 1 (Cee-Lo to Mavis Staples)
Well, the response was overwhelming. Two people demanded a year-end list. So here it is. Or, rather, here’s Part 1. I don’t believe anyone’s listening to these ridiculous hour-long mixes I post, so I’m breaking this one up into a few chunks. Here’s chunk number one.
1. Cee-Lo Green – “Fuck You”
Yes, it’s already played out. That takes nothing away from the indelible melody, the audacious chorus, and the undeniable charisma that Cee-Lo has always had. Always. You guys, he was already a really big deal. And I’m not just talking about “Crazy,” which is also great. I’m not just talking about his amazing features on Outkast songs either (can you imagine “Git Up, Git Out” without him?). I’m talking about the god-damned Goodie Mob. If you don’t own Soul Food, correct that immediately and then get back to me.
2. Ra Ra Riot – “Boy”
The effervescent pop trend (Vampire Weekend, Passion Pit, Elsinore, etc., etc.) is one that I hope doesn’t go away. This song makes me want to jump up and down on a hotel bed until the pizza gets here. I don’t know what it’s about. Knowing my luck, it’s about PTSD in Afghani freedom fighters or something (yes, I subscribe to Newsweek.
3. The Walkmen – “Juveniles”
I’ve always liked The Walkmen, but this album accompanied me on some long trips to and from Forest Lake to lead an after-school program whose numbers dwindled to disheartening lows. And for that, I am especially grateful. It turns out it sounds even better through headphones, although that shouldn’t surprise me. The refrain (“You’re one of us or one of them”) was especially resonant during a mid-term election that I took a little too personally.
4. The Radio Dept. – “This Time Around”
I hear something new that I like each time. This time, I’m hearing Jens Lekman, although I’m not sure if I’m just projecting Scandinavian influences onto Scandinavian artists. I wish I had it on a cassette so I could listen to it on a Walkman (You can stop making them, Sony, but I’ll never relinquish mine! It was my shield! My umbrella, ella, ella!)
5. CEO – “Come With Me”
This is the guy from The Tough Alliance, but I like this project better. There’s been a bunch of nonsense from the music writers this year about white dudes co-opting modern R&B sounds, and I think that’s what they said about this one. Whatever. I don’t hear any R&B here, it’s electronic pop music with wobbly vocals, and it sounds good. Not too long, not too short. In strictly aural terms, CEO is to Delorean as Biblio is to Boards of Canada. If you get that reference, you’d probably be inclined to argue with it.
6. Caribou – “Odessa”
Truthfully, I was a little disappointed with Swim. I really loved Andorra. It was an electronic album that showed terrific songwriting chops and always seemed to be on the verge of toppling over into a tub of warm Rhodes distortion (good grief, James). This one feels colder to me, and way less accessible. But “Odessa” is a masterpiece.
7. Jamie Lidell – “Enough’s Enough”
Yep, I already posted this one. That’s probably going to happen a few times in this list. I love how willing Jamie Lidell is to let things get loose and weird. He could make a ton of money if he’d get in bed with someone like Mark Ronson, but it just isn’t him. This is by far the most conventional song on Compass, which I liked a lot.
8. X.O. – “She Posed To”
I already wrote about this a while ago. Everything works here. Everything. It’s chips and vinegar. It’s a piping hot shower at 2pm on a December day. I hope the man’s making a good living at this, because he deserves to. This is from X.O.’s only mixtape this year, 1.1.10.
9. Aloe Blacc – “Good Things”
Aloe Blacc has this great Bill Withers thing going on. He overreaches sometimes, but that fits genre, which is soul music made forty and fifty years ago. Obviously, he and I have some of the same records.
10. Mavis Staples – “You Are Not Alone”
This is my favorite song of the year. Jeff Tweedy wrote it for Mavis, and there’s a beautiful video, which I’ll dig up and post, of the two of them performing it together. It’s direct and right-on. I find it extremely comforting, which I think is the point.
More (much more) soon.
Rogue Valley to Old 97′s
1. Rogue Valley – “Geese In The Flyway”
Chris Koza and his excellent band have released three albums already this year. It’s an embarrassment of riches. Each album corresponds with a season, and this is from Geese In The Flyway, their fall album. I feel like I’m taking all these beautiful songs for granted because there are just so many of them.
2. Mason Jennings – “Drinking As Religion”
Erin and I can sing Mason Jennings’s first album word-for-word. A lot of his stuff since then is great, but only if you don’t get itchy listening to someone sing explicitly about their path to “spiritual enlightenment,” whatever that is. This is from his terrific Use Your Voice album.
3. Big Star – “Give Me Another Chance”
I think I’ve written enough about Big Star already. But this is just a gorgeous song. Mellotron!
4. Sufjan Stevens – “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”
Sufjan actually likes Christmas. Is it cool to like Christmas again? Is it cool to like Sufjan again? Quickly, check the internet.
5. The Impressions – “Grow Closer Together”
From 1962…this qualifies as early soul music in my book, but there’s a lot going on lyrically here, which is rare for this time period. At around this time, Smokey Robinson (the songwriter to whom Curtis Mayfield is most frequently compared) was still writing sequels to “Get A Job.” And check the Latin rhythms – that’s the Chicago sound.
6. Miles Davis – “My Funny Valentine”
Miles’s second big recording of this tune is the one people usually talk about (and for good reason), but I was in the mood for this one from the Prestige recording sessions. It’s a softer pillow for kind of a prickly week.
7. Donny Hathaway – “Someday We’ll All Be Free”
I’m beginning to think that, as great as Donny’s studio recordings were, he was really in his element when he was performing live. I need this song lately – the things you see on your path to becoming an educator are sometimes heartbreaking. “All you got to do is hang on to the world.” Yep.
8. Kanye West – “Lost In The World”
I guess this would be the new Chicago sound. Although, if the film that Kanye made to accompany this new album is any indication, he spends more time in France than in the Midwest these days. Yes, that’s an auto-tuned Bon Iver creating the foundation for this one, proving that auto-tune isn’t to blame for our current radio problem. Kanye is a lyrical monster (as he will tell you) on this album, and although this song doesn’t highlight that aspect of the record, this is my favorite music on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. And on the album, it’s Gil-Scott Heron, not Matt Lauer, who gets the last laugh.
9. Robyn – “Indestructible”
You guys know how I feel about Robyn. The new songs are good, but I wish someone would remind her that there are electronic kick drum patterns other than the ones that got us through the 1990′s. Whatever. This one has corny classical synth squiggles underscoring a pledge to remain vulnerable without guarantee of reciprocation. So, basically, it’s perfect.
10. Martina Topley-Bird – “Phoenix”
Not quite the breathtaking back-to-back masterpiece that her first album was, The Blue God is still solid, and this one is the highlight. “I will stay for this last transformation.” And that voice. Good grief.
11. The Radio Dept. – “Heaven’s On Fire”
It took me a while to warm up to this album. I like the Smiths feel to it (obviously), but the singing felt half-hearted and fey. I was hearing it wrong. It’s great. And they had the nerve to use a saxophone on the song, which is something the Swedes seem less afraid of than us. I think there are a couple of Vapnet songs with saxophone used non-ironically. Incidentally, if you’re doing something ironically while making music, your name had better be Weird Al, or you’re getting the James Rone boycott. The Grand Avenue Freeze Out.
12. Bruce Springsteen – “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out”
Come on. I have to write something about Born To Run? No, thank you. It’s one of those albums you have to decide about for yourself.
13. The Old 97′s – “The Magician”
…and they’re back! It’s not perfect, but The Grand Theatre, Vol. 1 is the best Old 97′s album since Satellite Rides, and possibly since Fight Songs. When he’s on his game, Rhett Miller can write a bunch of clever stuff and then grab you by the valves with an as-the-crow-flies declaration like “I’m gonna be the one for you!”
Hey, should I do a “Best of 2010″ list? They’re kind of a lot of work, but it’s worth it if people are interested in that kind of thing.
