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Going into the new year, I intended to make my music posts more current considering most of the songs I’ve featured so far date back to the earlier part of last decade. And that shit’s so old it might as well be the soundtrack playing at Jurassic Park. The problem is, current music is making that really hard for me to do. I’ve got a couple fairly new releases in my slick 5-disc Panasonic CD player — they’re not exactly knocking my socks off here, now — so I’m giving them some time to marinate, and we’ll see.

But for now, fuck all that shit, it’s been too long since I did a proper one of these. Today, dedleg is brought to you by the number 6 and the letter q, with special musical guest Dilated Peoples.

Dilated Peoples - image via amiestreet.com

Dilated Peoples are one of those groups who never quite made it. They rose quickly through the LA underground scene alongside Jurassic 5, with both groups achieving a frenzied cult-like following before releasing their anticipated debut full-lengths. Ultimately, J5 saw more commercial success, though Dilated did get a small taste of the mainstream.

The group, consisting of emcees Rakaa Iriscience and Evidence rapping alongside DJ Babu’s turntable wizardry, saw a bit of MTV rotation and was featured on a number of video games’ soundtracks — and I mean, in hip hop you can’t get much more legit than that. If you played as much NBA Street Vol. 2 as I did in college, you no doubt know them as the group responsible for the funky theme music. Or maybe you don’t, but yeah, it was them.

Interestingly enough, Dilated’s real Achilles heel was their consistency. They’re solid almost to a fault. Their 2000 debut, The Platform was a hell of a first impression. Sharing the limelight with a host of guest vocalists and producers, Rakaa and Evidence blazed through every track — tight flows, lush beats and unbeatable stamina made it one of the best hip hop releases of the early millennium. Unfortunately, their subsequent albums, though solid, never really brought anything new. They were too consistent. Additionally, they increasingly favored solo tracks, which lost the entrancing dynamic between Rakaa and Evidence. Ultimately, The Platform remains their shining achievement, so here’s one of the most exciting tracks on the album:

Have your party thank me later.

This post was begging for the inclusion of this Elliott Smith track from Figure 8:

Listening to Elliott Smith is probably the worst choice possible for somebody searching for happiness — the man is practically The Anti-Joy. Almost every song he wrote is dripping in melancholy. Look at it this way, the man committed suicide by stabbing himself in the chest. TWICE. That’s not just a case of a blues, folks. Nonetheless, this is actually one of his more upbeat tracks… not that that’s saying much.

Oh, speaking of suicide — the quote is Ernest Hemingway’s — perhaps just a little bit biographical considering most of his work focuses on death and then, yeah, there was that whole thing where he killed himself, too. Anyway, a bit of a grim start to the day. Cheer up, Charlie. After all, it’s…

Ignorance really is bliss. I wish a Playstation 3 and an HD plasma screen television were all I needed for a content existence. But no, you need games for it, too.

Just think about it. Or, I guess, let the post’s tags do all the thinking for you.

Great song too, b-t-dubs.

I don’t know about everybody else, but I’m running from this week as fast as fucking possible… which involves not running at all, but sitting relatively still inside a moving vehicle.

And we’re going now / ‘Cause, hey this is it / This is where we are / Out here where silence is / Seventy miles an hour, windows up tight / And I am home 

This song more than earned its spot on my award winning Pissed Off At The World: The High School Years mixtape. Although, in retrospect, my high school years contained remarkably little that warranted being so pissed off about. Nonetheless, posting this seemed appropriate, even if it’s going to be far from a crowd pleaser. But that’s what it is to be emo, after all — friendless, and deservedly so. 

This is my official reply to the 160+ spam comments I received between the hours of 6 and 7:30 PM last night…

Yeah, it doesn’t make too much sense, but neither did any of the spam I got.

In fact, that’s the worst part. They were all completely nonsensical — literally, there was no reason for these comments to exist at all except to annoy. So I guess they’re kind of like mosquitos, except at least we were able to use mosquitos to bring dinosaurs back to life until fat, stupid Dennis Nedry had to go and fuck it all up.

Really, just ask yourself, if you saw this message sailing on the Internet’s high seas during your travels, would you be at all enticed?

a8L6Hx xoklakygzknu, [url=http://tpdsdyjvpwkn.com/]tpdsdyjvpwkn[/url], [link=http://fqbodgnzdeku.com/]fqbodgnzdeku[/link], http://npxlpzlnsfix.com/ 

Mmm… so rich with meaning. Anthropologists from the future will be trying to decode that shit for decades. I honestly don’t understand how spam remains an actual industry. How does anyone make any money at all from this? They don’t appear to be selling anything — no veiled messages about nude celebrities or herbal penis remedies. I mean, Jesus Christ, the fucking link doesn’t even work! It was designed for the sole purpose of wasting my time!

Another strike against the robots, as far as I’m concerned.

The best video for the best song on The Avalanches’ debut, Since I Left You, “Frontier Psychiatrist”. They’ll have a new album out sometime this century, but right now this will have to suffice.

Since acquiring turntable mastermind RJD2’s newest album, The Colossus, last week, I’ve been trying to decide what I even really think about it. All things considered, it’s a decent album… but it isn’t really what I wanted from him. Naturally, the instrumental tracks are by far the strongest. And while RJ has mixed in more live instrumentation, and even did his own drumming on some songs, the album occasionally sounds less experimental than his earlier material, with some songs that resemble adult-alternative way too much to be cool.

RJD2 - photo via last.fm

RJ would do well to play his strengths here — proof of which comes in the second half of the album, which is a good deal more exciting than the first due to a greater number of layered sampling compositions. Unfortunately, it seems like he wishes he was a singer-songwriter, when the reality is, he’s already a really great DJ and producer. Granted, as an artist and proprietor of his own record label he has carte blanche to experiment with weak lyrics and lite R&B. Nonetheless, nothing on The Colossus quite measures up to the intensity and drive of songs like “The Horror” from his debut, regardless of genre.

While his new album is an enjoyable listening experience, it too easily fades into the background. That’s fine if you’re listening to music while working on something that demands your attention, but what about when you want some music that demands your attention? Well… maybe pick a track off Deadringer instead.

So, on that note, I thought I’d share one of the stronger tracks from The Colossus alongside a couple of steamy cuts from the days of yore — a freshly served three-course weekend warm-up. And as for RJD2’s third album, The Third Hand, well, how about we never speak of that again… just like the time my dad found drug paraphernalia in my dorm room.

The Colossus:

Since We Last Spoke:

Deadringer:

Sorry dude. Uh… remember to buy those songs on iTunes after you download them for free here, otherwise it’s illegal!

Have you ever been working on something — a painting, an essay, a drawing, a few lines of emo poetry, whatever — and suddenly, a song with vaguely related subject matter popped into your head? It happens to me all the time… I think it’s some kind of rare pox I caught from a dirty cassette tape when I was a kid. Unfortunately, there isn’t any cure for this nagging affliction. Worse still, the infection rate seems to be on the rise ever since holding a conversation with one iPod earbud in became socially acceptable.

Anyway, while I was drawing yesterday’s illustration, The Mighty Underdogs’ “Monster” crept into my brains and I was unable to chase it out. Now, this could have happened because I was scribbling a monstrous hand for a couple hours, or maybe it was just that I’ve been beating their album to a slow death over the past few weeks — I’ll leave it to the doctors to decide.

Gift of Gab and Lateef - photo by Joe Engle, via avclub.com

Of course, now that I’ve been writing about the song, it’s stuck in my head again. Common wisdom provides that listening to a song will exorcise its demonic, catching chords so, uh, let’s just fucking do that already.

For those who don’t know, The Mighty Underdogs is a side project of Gift of Gab from Blackalicious and longtime collaborator Lateef the Truthspeaker of Latyrx, with producer Headnodic on the boards. If you’ve done your alternative hip hop homework, those names alone should be enough to sell you. If not, just know that The Mighty Underdogs do hip hop the way it should be done — intelligent, fast, and rich with storytelling, all on top of beats that are fresh, creative, and occasionally trippy.

It’s basically a tossed salad of everything I like about music, and because it’s my website, you’re gonna have to eat it. So start digesting, my loyal subjects.

Blockhead first came to my attention as Aesop Rock’s go-to producer, and his work on those albums was a major factor in my appreciation of them. Truly, an emcee that outlandish needs a producer who can create a sonic environment for him to thrive in, and Blockhead’s brooding, melodic soundscapes are always precisely crafted and just weird enough to fit the bill.

This week sees the release of his fourth solo album, The Music Scene, a methodical, cinematic sea of instrumentals. Here, Blockhead’s production mastery and attention to detail are really given a chance to shine without any proper vocals to work around. Each track is a dense collection of samples, expertly arranged to achieve the most mystifying, psychedelic result. Much of the material sounds more trip-hop or downtempo than anything, until Blockhead starts piling on the pounding drums that drive the album to its next peak.

Here’s one of my favorite tracks, “Only Sequences Change,” which is great evidence of how Blockhead can build up a track with layer after layer of sound.

Although to be fair, the album is really best appreciated in its entirety. It’s a slow burner, and as it gradually weaves through each song, surprising samples and transitions spring up at just the right moment. I said Blockhead’s compositions were cinematic, and just like any movie soundtrack, you only get a small piece of the story with just one song. Even taken in all at once, the staggering number of details and subtleties worked into each song will take you more than a few listens to really appreciate.

Julian Casablancas’ video for Phrazes For The Young’s first single, “11^th Dimension” released exclusively on the Internets on December 23^rd, and if you haven’t seen it yet, consider it paying dues if you want to keep your place in the cool kid club.

Seriously though, it’s fucking awesome. The song is simple synth pop on the surface, but the lyrics are actually pretty insightful and then the video ratchets up the weirdness to all new heights. All told, it results in a fairly deep viewing experience, all things considered.

Although truthfully, I’m mostly just considering the fact that on television, the most you’re going to see of a music video is a thirty second clip at the end credits of whatever Laguna Beach spinoff MTV’s moved onto now. It was smart to release the video exclusively on the web, where it can be viewed in its entirety and actually appreciated… by fans of The Strokes, Mad Max and 80’s sci-fi anyway.

The Cribs, photo via lastfm.com

Time for your seasonal dose of negativity, Dedheads. It’s not all peace on Earth and good will towards men, you know. In fact, if you’ve been living in the same version of reality I have, you’d know it’s actually mostly not peace on Earth and good will towards men. That shit’s just easier to sell around Christmas.

Here’ an excerpt of lyrics from The Cribs’ “Be Safe,” featuring a spoken word cameo by Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. Absolutely required listening for the terminally pessimistic. Not like it’ll help, but of course, nothing will.

One of those fucking awful black days when nothing is pleasing and everything that happens is an excuse for anger, an outlet for emotions stockpiled, an arsenal, an armor. These are the days when I hate the world, hate the rich, hate the happy, hate the complacent — the tv watchers, beer drinkers, the satisfied ones. Because I know I can be all those little hateful things and then I hate myself for realizing that.

There is no preventative directive or safe approach for living. We each know our own fate. We know from our youth how to be treated and how we’ll be received and how we shall end. These things don’t change. You can change your clothes, change your hairstyle, your friends, cities, continents, but sooner or later your old self will always catch up.

Always it waits in the wings.