For everyone still thinking the Mannequin Challenge was the new hot thing, I’ve got an amazing story to tell you about the U NAME IT phenomenon that’s been the highlight of my November by far. If you don’t listen to Hip Hop you might have missed this one, so sit back, relax, and learn how two artists took the raw grist of the internet and turned it into magic, one after the other.
Way back in 2010, a gospel singer named Shirley Caesar uploaded a performance of her singing a gospel tune named Hold My Mule. The epic performance, clocking in well over nine minutes, describes a tale of an honest priest tilling his fields and praising the Lord. When a bunch of idolater & materialist Reverends come from the city in their fancy cars, telling him that he’ll be thrown out of the Church they all preach at for his meager and overenthusiastic ways, Shirley utters these words (~5:55 for those interested), that will forever go down in meme history:
“I got beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes, lamb, rams, hogs, dogs, chicken, turkeys, rabbits — you name it!”
I’m all about glib & lolworthy music-related art, and my boy Jim dashed off a dope sketch featuring a gives-no-fucks Koala. Who knows, maybe if we help him get some replacement hardware he can draw some more animals spouting lyrics. Can someone please make woodland creatures dropping 2 Chainz & Taylor Swift?
I’m coming at you with some officially under-the-radar shit. Coucheron, the Shia LeBoeuf of the people (I swear, that’s his Twitter description) picked up a gorgeous mashup cover of Chris Brown’s Loyal Ed Sheeran’s “Don’t.” This flip the script mashup came to me on a tip from This Song is Sick and I’ve gotta thank Nick for this, as it’s a MUST listen. Not only are the Eastside my new indie underground band to watch (they’re so new they’ve got 2 digits of twitter followers, so let’s help change that). This soothing vocalist reminds me of Daughter in the way that they take songs and bend them to their will. This track takes the original work and adds a soft, groovy chill vibe that I am digging hugely. With the rise in Tropical House, I think we’re going to be hearing a lot more of this kind of sound even when we’re not hearing a 4/4 dance beat. Coucheron is a great example of what’s possible when you don’t cling to the dance beat 3rd rail of EDM and we all benefit from it. Check out the original below and definitely hit up both the original artist & the remixer on this one. Quality all over the place.
[UPDATE: Rebound, by Arty & Matt Zo has returned to the Beatport Top 100 list, for the first time in 2 years.]
Just in case you didn’t have enough reasons to dislike Will.i.am, Chris Brown & VEVO some more, today they uploaded the 5th track from his fourth “studio” album #willpower. I’m going to use studio extremely loosely here, as the track is straight up lifted from two astonishingly talented producers, Arty & Mat Zo. Just because I would never wish to be accused of not showing my work, the two videos are below. Listen to Rebound, then listen to “Let’s Go” and if you think Will.i.am didn’t rip this the fuck off, I’ll buy you a coke.
Arty & Mat Zo are wonderful producers, with Arty making some amazing remixes and Mat Zo having just dropped a mind-blowing, genre-exploding Essential Mix on BBC’s Radio 1 back in Feb. 70 tracks in 2 hours, annotated with tracks from “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan. Those of you playing the home game remember I named it my Mix of the Week back on February 16th. Get at it, as I’ve re-listed it below.
They both mentioned that Will.i.am had asked to use the track but they declined/didn’t want to work with him. It seems, much like Chris Brown, Will.i.am just can’t take no for an answer. When pressed about it, Chris Brown pleaded stupidity on twitter and Will.i.am hasn’t said sh*t. Besides how annoyed I am that this has forced me to write William with two periods so often in this review, I think it’s quite a stunning commentary that this violation of copyright & artistic integrity should ensure both of these fools are run out of town on the rails after being tarred & feathered. But they won’t be, and people will still love the shit out of his new CD and Chris Brown will continue to get sex thrown at him.
Le Sigh. Anyway, try and get at Arty & Mat Zo’s work, I’ve listed their respective soundclouds below, so instead of wasting your time hating on either of the fools in the first 2 words of the title of this article (because I’m done typing William with dots), blow up their shit, buy some stuff or just listen and enjoy two hard working trance/EDM producers. I’ve also included the beatport link to the track, just in case it’s impressed you so much that you want to buy it and not the shoddy knock off by He Who I Am Sick of Naming & the guy who has a neck tattoo of the woman he beat up.
Terry Gotham 