Kate Bush is one of those who's a household name in England, yet can only manage a cult following in this country. Her 1985 song "Cloudbusting" is an absolute classic. It's vintage Bush -- with warbly vocals, esoteric lyrics (about Wilhelm Reich) and production via the Fairlight CMI synthesizer, a staple of the phenomenal Hounds of Love album and the state-of-the-art machine of its day. And consider this: "Cloudbusting" was the last track on Side 1, which also featured "Running Up That Hill" and "Hounds of Love". What a side!
Over the years, plenty of artists have gone back and mined Kate Bush to bust clouds of their own. Take Utah Saints -- the Leeds EDM duo sampled Bush's "Cloudbusting" vocals in the appropriately titled "Something Good" from 1992 (and did it again in 2008). That track never fails to put me in an upbeat mood. More recently, the Blacksburg, VA band Wild Nothing turned out a more traditional cover version of the song.
For whatever reason, a lot of Kate Bush songs have lent themselves to very strong cover versions. Like the Futureheads version of the aforementioned "Hounds of Love", and Placebo's version of "Running Up That Hill". And last year, Das Racist's Himanshu sampled "Suspended in Gaffa" for his track "Kate Boosh".
I've been a Kate Bush fan ever since hearing her otherworldly track "The Dreaming" for the first time when I was about 11 years old. I'm just glad her music lives on as new artists discover it.
Das Racist's "Fashion Party." Okay, I've had this song in my head for about two months now. I just love the juxtaposition between Chairlift's Caroline Polachek -- who's probably pretty fashionable -- and the DR guys who sound and rap like they're anything but. It's a great parody -- and be sure to listen for some great lines -- like Heems saying "Garbageman Lanvin/Why you call it Lan-van?/People very educated out here in the Hamptons/Yes I'm tanned and Taliban chic/Shorty said I look like a Taliban freak/Mr. Talley Man told me I'm bananas last week/I'm Heems working on a line with Khalif." I just love how Heems builds up that rhyme.
My other favorite line is earlier in the song when Kool A.D. says "I'm like a fountain pen/I look like mountain men/But I'm not a mountain man/I'm a f---ing mountain, man/I f--- with fashion trends/My trends are fashion forward/Two dollar jeans and Gucci visors from the Dollar Store." The "mountain man"/"mountain, man" rhyme is so subtle.
Seriously, though, these guys are the real deal.
There's so many good lines in this song. And you really get the sense that the DR guys are at the party for the free food and drinks and probably the girls.
Hard to believe it's been ten years this week since the Strokes phenomenal debut album Is This It. When it came out, it didn't sound like anything else, it made New York the epicenter of cool again, and it ushered in a new wave of like-minded bands from both here and abroad. In the years that followed, the Strokes never really captured the energy, spirit and impact of their debut, but their immortality was secure on the strength of Is This It alone.
Now there's a tribute album called STROKED... A Tribute to Is This It which you can download for free over at stereogum.com. I downloaded two tracks this morning: Real Estate's version of "Barely Legal" -- which sounds like Real Estate doing the Strokes. The second track I downloaded -- and the reason I was attracted to the project in the first place -- is "New York City Cops" by Heems, who is one half of Das Racist. Apart from a sped up sample of the chorus from the original song, Heems' version doesn't resemble the Strokes at all. In fact, it's a rapped litany of victims of police brutality in New York.
I promised a blog entry on Das Racist. The hip-hop trio from Brooklyn have released two mix tapes and are set to release their first commercial release Relax next month. And dare I say it, these guys are the new Beastie Boys.
For now, let's count the reasons why you need to listen to these guys.
#1) Great references
They name-check Gerard Depardieu and Alexander Ovechkin in "Speaking in Tongues", and manage to mention conservative guru Dinesh D'Souza, Maya Angelou, W.E.B. Dubois, John Philip Sousa AND the 1987 movie Throw Momma From the Train in a song called "Hugo Chavez".
#2) A good sense of musical history
They tag everyone from A Tribe Called Quest to Cream. And that's just in one song -- "Who's That? Brown" from 2010's Shut Up, Dude.
#3) Narc (!!!)
The video for "Who's That? Brown!" is essentially an homage to the classic arcade game of our youth (and also references Frogger among other games) and it links to an online video game you can actually play.
#4) Great samples
Check out their use of Enigma's "Return to Innocence" from Sit Down, Man (which also references actors Mark Ruffalo and Sam Rockwell.)
And how about this use of Billy Joel's "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" in "You Oughta Know"? They manage to poke fun and pay tribute all at once. Priceless.
#5) The perfect balance of the juvenile and the profound
Take their breakthrough song -- an ode to American consumerism called "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" -- about getting lost at one of several combination Pizza Hut/Taco Bells in Queens. It's the musical equivalent of Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle and it's pretty awesome.
#6) "Shorty Said"
This song makes me laugh out loud. Especially the string of Indian references Heems makes starting around 1:44. I have no idea what it all means but he just keeps piling it on -- it's sublime. If you want the full effect of Das Racist, play this song.
#7) Not just a one-trick pony
When you get tired of all the staccato raps, chill out with "Fashion Party" -- a track they did with the Boulder/ Williamsburg band Chairlift. And laugh at lines like "I'm at the fashion party/I'm wearing fashion clothes/I'm putting fashionable powders up inside my nose" and "The pope wears Prada/The devil wears Prada/I can't be bothered/I'm trying to holler."
I could go on. I just remember the days when I'd listen to Paul's Boutique and get lost in the references and the samples. And I know it's sacrilege, and Das Racist haven't stood the test of time -- yet -- but these guys are smart, funny and have the potential of doing the Beasties one better. Or at least they are poised to be to this era what the Beasties were to the 80s. There's just a whole lot here to like.
