10
thursday, September 13,2007
MUSIC SHORTS
OAKLEY HALL
I’LL FOLLOW YOU
ROCK/COUNTRY
On its fourth album, I’ll Follow
You, Brooklyn’s Oakley Hall crafts
a brilliantly unique style indebted
just as much to ’6os psychedelia as
it is to ’7os Southern rock.
The excellent barnstormer, “No
Dreams” blends the fire and brim
stone of traditional country with a
riff that recalls Cream-era Clapton.
But Oakley Hall’s gifts don’t stop
at its ability to seamlessly blend such
disparate styles. The band also shows
off its excellent songwriting skills.
“Rue the Blues” is a heartfelt and
empowering breakup song and “Take
My Hands, We’re Free” is an ominous
yet ultimately uplifting spiritual.
All the songs are delivered with
fantastic instrumentation. From
weaving fiddle to loud, rumbling gui
tar, all the parts resound vibrantly.
The real treat, though, is the excel
lent harmony between lead singers
Patrick Sullivan and Rachel Cox.
Thanks to a unique style and
wonderful songw-riting, Oakley Hall
blazes a trail that listeners should
find impossible to resist following.
-Jordan Lawrence
U.R.F. MOVAS ENT.
DEATH B 4 DISHONOR
HIP-HOP
Once upon a time great rappers
were marked not by how many
times they’d been shot or what
brand of jeans they wore, but by
their charisma as entertainers.
The Triangle crew, U.R.F. Movas,
shows itself to be a band of artists
who know how to entertain.
Thematically, the group’s songs
revel in the kind of glorification of
street crime that, true or not, guar
antee escapist thrills. But unlike
many of its peers, the U.R.F. Movas
do it all in a way that comes across
as witty and enthused.
O.Z. rhymes “Flip you up like
Optimus Prime/Whip you up with
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a Glock and a nine,” on “Holdin’
Out,” one of the 21-track mixtape’s
standouts, over a quick-paced beat
that makes the song as dance-floor
ready as it is lyrically demanding of
its more-than-capable MC.
O.Z. and Cos. (including rappers
Young Jus, Jayeness and producer
D-ablo, among others) carry the
album with an uncanny consisten
cy and skill rivaling any number of
top selling hip-hop albums.
But that’s not to say it’s perfect
by any means. O.Z.’s flow borrows
heavily from Eminem, most nota
bly on the horrorcore “Halloween
Madness.”
Production-wise, Death B 4
Dishonor doesn’t offer anything
entirely new, its beats mesh easily
with recognizable East Coast and
Southeast sounds.
But what it does, it does well,
and Death B 4 Dishonor is chock
full of should-be-hits from a crew
of hungry artists deserving of
mainstream recognition.
-Bryan Reed
COCO
PLAY DRUMS + BASS
INDIE/ROCK
COCO achieves a lot with a little
on this album. Play Drums + Bass
is exactly what it states, with some
vocals as well. Olivia Ness’ singing
is sultry, with an explicit sway that
comes from the minimalist struc
ture of the band. This is most evi
dent on “Your own secret way/Sly.”
Other gems include “For You,”
“Crime” and the foreboding “Ess.
Ay.,” which features the band’s
other member, Chris Sutton, on
lead vocals.
What’s best about the album is
that if you enjoy one song, you’ll
probably enjoy them all. It’s a short,
listenable album with no B.S. or
guitar.
-Sam Wineka
THE DIRTY PROJECTORS
RISE ABOVE
INDIE
In 1981, the seminal California
hardcore punk band Black Flag
released its masterpiece, Damaged,
fronted by anew singer, Henry
Rollins, who lent the band a level of
ferocity unmatched in the genre.
Damaged and Black Flag went
on to become iconic in the realm of
indie rock, as much for the band’s
aesthetic and DIY ethic as the
music itself.
Diversions
Fast forward 26 years and
Damaged has been re-imagined
under the creative efforts of Dave
Longstreth, and his musical proj
ect The Dirty Projectors, and given
the name Rise Above.
The Dirty Projectors’ take on
the seminal punk LP builds on the
foundations of Greg Ginn’s lyrics,
changing the arrangements to a
sound that is decidedly unhardcore.
Clean-toned staccato guitar lines
dodge and skitter around childlike
vocal harmonies and Longstreth’s
off-kilter, warbling croon.
It’s not totally off-base given the
latter-day Black Flag’s experimen
talism, but the raw fury that made
Damaged so affecting the first time
is lost in The Dirty Projectors’
orchestrated melodies and jazzy
overtones.
Rise Above is certainly a creative
reinvention of its source material,
and one with a strange appeal spill
ing out of its sonic detours.
But it will never be the essential
recording that Damaged is.
-Bryan Reed
VARIOUS ARTISTS
RED PETERS COMEDY MUSIC
HOUR, BEST OF VOL. 1
COMEDY
There are times when cursing is
used by those with nothing else to
say to cover up the fact that they
have no real ideas.
Unfortunately, this is true of half
the material featured on the first
volume of “hits" from Sirius Radio’s
Red Peters Comedy Music Hour.
This isn’t to say that there’s
nothing funny about the collection:
Many of the zany, highly offensive
song parodies featured on this col
lection are complete knockouts.
“The Hand of the Almighty” is
a hilarious send up of conservative
Christianity delivered in the style
of traditional country and “If I
Had the Copyright” is an interest
ing muse on what would happen if
one obtained the rights to a certain
word starting with “F.”
There are a good deal of others
worth mentioning, too, but all with
titles too explicit to print.
The best moments of this disc
are filled with gut-splitting laughs,
but the other half leaves the listen
er frustrated, wondering what the
artist was thinking.
The album’s most abysmal cut,
“Unwanted Rock Advance” is just a
pile of bad heavy metal jokes built
on the premise of rape.
It leaves listeners’ ears violated
enough to justify pressing charges.
In the whole of the album,
there’s not enough quality mate
rial to get more than just an initial
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on our 2 Beer Pong Tables 1
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-Jordan Lawrence
PINBACK
AUTUMN OF THE SERAPHS
ROCK/INDIE
The best aspect of Autumn of
the Seraphs , the latest LP from
Pinback, is how comfortably famil
iar the music feels.
There are times on the record
when it would be quite easy to
mistake Pinback’s music here for
the soft pop of Beck or Death Cab
for Cutie.
The odd thing is that while this
would be a cruel criticism of most
records, for Pinback it’s somewhat
of a compliment.
The band gets the styles that it
copies down to a tee —a true feat
when compared with the excel
lent output of the artists that this
album seems to aspire to.
“Good to Sea” grooves along like
some of the very best of Beck’s out
put and “Blue Harvest” could be the
second coming of ’Bos-era Police.
Still, there are too many irksome
rip-offs on this collection for it to
be completely satisfying.
The album has enough
Coldplay-by-numbers piano and
skitteiy drums to give detractors of
this style a whopping headache.
So, while Pinback has enough
talent that its collection of rehash
is entertaining, it’s hard to not be
a bit cold toward it when every
single trick here has been pulled
before.
-Jordan Lawrence
ADRIAN ORANGE & HER BAND
ADRIAN ORANGE & HER
BAND
ROCK/SKA
Adrian Orange & Her Band has
a decent horn section, but one that
highlights the band’s self-titled
album. Its clunky drums and piti
ful vocals are just distractions that
get in the way.
“A Flower Is Mine” features
a lead vocalist, not specifically
named among the 17 vocalists in
the liner notes, who cries like a
wounded dog begging for mercy.
The effect only makes the listener
uncomfortable, if not squeamish.
Sudden screeches leave a bad
taste, taking away from pseudo
reggae backbeats that mark the
rest of the songs.
The horn section saves a few
songs, namely the opener “Window
(Mirror) Shadow,” but it’s still
probably better to leave Adrian
Orange on the shelf.
-Sam Wineka
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE
DTH/BRYAN REED
Clad in a T-shirt endorsing the black metal band Dark
Throne, Durham resident John Darnielle, aka The
Mountain Goats headlined the “Reach for the Skye”
benefit show at Cat’s Cradle Thursday with a solo acoustic set
Local rockers Bellafea and The Moaners opened the show.
Kanye comes out
stronger than 50
BY LUIS TORRES
STAFF WRITER
50 Cent and Kanye West. They’re
rap’s bad guys, rap’s spoiled brats
and rap’s two biggest stars.
The media —and the rappers
themselves have hyped their
simultaneous album releases as an
old-fashioned show down, with the
loser getting out of town.
50 went as far as promising to
stop doing solo music if he sells less
than Kanye on opening week.
Well, if sales reflect overall
album quality, it may be time for
50 to start job hunting.
Lyrically, Curtis is mostly
uninspired and sorely lacking in
creativity.
A quick glance down the track
list reveals as much, with song
titles such as “My Gun Go Off,”
“Man Down,” and “Fully Loaded
Clip” hinting not too subtly at
the subject matter of 75 percent
of Curtis’ songs.
The rest of the album consists
of radio-friendly manufactured
tracks obviously aimed at covering
all of hip-hop’s cliche-bases,-mainly
party anthems and love songs.
But, with a little help from his
friends, 50 Cent’s latest album still
isn’t bad.
A slew of no-name producers
provide a backdrop of excellent
beats, and a few veterans such
as Timbaland and Dr. Dre lend a
hand, making Curtis a stand-out
album, musically at least.
And even 50’s words aren’t com
pletely terrible.
He’s always had a sardonic,
slightly evil sense of humor in his
lyrics and he hasn’t lost his touch
here. “I Get Money” is 50 at his
finest, bragging about his cash for
the hundredth time and injecting
enough charisma to keep it enter
taining.
50’s problem with lyrics is some
thing Kanye West doesn’t have to
worry about.
Graduation has two poorly writ-
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KANYE WEST
GRADUATION
HIP-HOP
50 CENT
CURTIS
HIP-HOP
ten songs: lead single “Stronger,”
a lame attempt at party-rap that
Kanye butchers and is only sal
vaged by its genius Daft Punk
sample, and “Drunk and Hot
Girls,” a track that is as bland as
its title.
But the other eleven songs on
Kanye’s third solo album map
Kanye’s psyche, addressing his self
doubt, arrogance and even his pri
vate problems with Jay-Z.
Graduation is a completely
personal album in which Kanye
wears his emotions on his sleeve
and, after years of corny puns and
cheesy punch lines, finally evolves
into a lyrically excellent rapper.
Unfortunately, Kanye’s produc
tion hasn’t made the leaps and
bounds that his rapping has.
This isn’t to say that the music
on Graduation isn’t great it is,
it’s just not Kanye’s best.
But when he does have a bad
beat, Kanye usually saves the songs
with his lyrics and makes his voice
the star.
50 doesn’t leave his comfort
zone on Curtis, so he shows off
everything that he does best with
his third major label album, but
it’s all stuff we’ve heard before.
Kanye’s made the better album,
releasing a daring, varied product
that flexes his versatility and tal
ent and proves that even bad guys
can have their good moments.
Contact the Diversions Editor
at dive@unc.edu.