Two things you’ll learn after watching this video: 1) Kele definitely could have given you everything you wanted, everything you needed and 2) He’s sad about it. Don’t cry, Kele! Don’t you know there’s a camera on your face? Besides, you always have your muscles. And Silent Alarm.
Australian synth/dance-pop trio Cut Copy are at work on their self-produced (and self-pronounced) Tusk-influenced third album. The rhythmic, anthemic (“yeah, yeah, yeah, woo”), smeary, and psychedelic “Where I’m Going”’s likely appearing on said record. Much of it reminds me of the Beach Boys-via-E6 (on an electro kick).
Between the World Cup’s conclusion hijacking the standard operating procedure of most any establishment serving alcohol and space enough for a TV screen, and Jelly NYC’s Pool Parties kick off at the East River State Park, on Sunday the greater Williamsburg area was even more a playground of creatively outfitted drunken dilettantes than usual. Which is saying a tremendous amount. A perfect storm of cause celebre on a perfectly storm-free day, and so it came to be that after Spain finally put a goal in the hole, the WC2010 afterparty shifted into Pool Party mode, at the park where there is still no pool, still plenty of party, and a new stage orientation which has the Manhattan skyline and its luxe sunset to the crowd’s back. But hey, at least the bands can enjoy it. And the bands on this kickoff Sunday were many: Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof melding into a single unit, performing as an Unknown Pleasures Joy Division cover band, a role that Jamie Stewart’s throaty vocal wavers were built to portray; the metallic and endlessly ebullient soundtrack to perpetual high-fives of Fang Island; the art/house/rave/noise turntablist cuts of Pictureplane (here joined by folks in fat suits and costumes, dressing to the occasion); and Yoni Wolf’s WHY?, a constant favorite of indie bros and sensitive bay area lyric champions alike. Also, Chuck Schumer came to remind you that he is working for you hipsters. Speaking generally, then: There are better options for food this year (Roberta’s, Meat Hook, tacos), there’s a spatial configuration that takes a few sober moments to internalize, there is a super-VIP pub sponsored by All Saints clothier and doling out free drinks, but otherwise this series remains the single best reason for anyone not to plot get-aways for NYC summer weekends, and there is still an afterparty at Brooklyn Bowl where you can muster all the courage and free rum one needs to make the questionable decisions any great summer is built upon.
The full lineup for the summer Sundays is below — not every Sunday’s a slam dunk, but the ones that hit (like the Cut Copy date, the Cap’n Jazz date, and the summer closer) are pretty massive. And it’s worth noting that Jelly’s on the verge of announcing six free Saturday shows, to begin later in the summer, and extend into October, in a lot at S. 2nd and Wythe, just a 10 or so blocks south of the Pool Parties site. Summer is most definitely here, not so cruel after all. Check the Sundays lineup, and also make sure to get a good look at this great gallery by photographer Ben Lozovsky.
Bloc Party spin-off Kele Okereke pumped iron then ran straight to the dance-floor with his “Tenderoni.” Now we have a couple additional tracks from the XXXChange-produced The Boxer. “Rise” is an anthemic pep talk, not a PiL cover. “Walk Tall” takes things down a couple notches via its hand-clapping chant-along, but it’s also about puffing out your chest, realizing your inner strength, etc.
Last month Kele Okereke sent an email with a note saying he’d been spending time in the studio with XXXChange, and a picture showing he’d been spending the rest of it in the gym getting totally diesel. This video for “Tenderoni” extends the message, with the Bloc Party leader singing of his DJ’s electronic dance attack with a video conceit that’s somewhere between “Mama Said Knock You Out,” the Junior Boys’ “Bits & Pieces,” and D’Angelo’s “Untitled.” That is: boxing robes and jabs, dark-defying dancers, and shots of a corn-rowed man with an alarmingly ripped torso. Have at it.
‘We was sitting there, vibing on the verses,’ Jeezy tells Mixtape Daily of making the Darkside track.
By Shaheem Reid
Fat Joe
Photo: EMI
The O.D.: A Mixtape Daily Exclusive
Young Jeezy was always going to be on Fat Joe’s The Darkside; he just wasn’t always on deck for their club banger “(Ha Ha) Slow Down.”
Jeezy had agreed to get on a record called “Dope Boys” for Joe, but when he got to the studio, DJ Khaled kept raving about the Scoop DeVille-produced “Slow Down.” The Snowman asked to hear it.
“He played it for me one time,” Jeezy, said on the song’s video set in Harlem last week. “We was sitting there, vibing on the verses. I went in there and knocked out the hook.”
“He knocked that hook out quick,” Joe marveled. “I told him we were using that ‘Slow down, son, you’re killin’ ‘em,’ then he started with that ‘We came in this bi— tonight to murder things. And we gonna leave this bi— tonight a murder scene.’ ”
“Two seconds,” Jeezy added his speed on the booth. “We in Harlem now. This is where it got us.”
Joe’s video takes the viewer into the party. “The video is going down movie-style, if the hip-hop police let us,” Fat Joe said. “We in Harlem. We gonna touch that town. Me and Jeezy gonna have Puff surfin’ on the ‘hood of the Phantom Drop. That New York Diddy bop. Jeezy coming through with that A-Town stomp.”
Speaking of Young, he said he’s going to remain just that, refuting online reports that he dropped the first word of his moniker.
“Nah. I’m ‘Young,’ man,” he declared. “I’mma stay Young till I ain’t Young no more. I don’t know why they trying to make me old. But this is ‘Young Jizzle from the bottom of the map.’ This is the name they gave me. I gotta rock till it’s over with.”
Young said his album Thug Motivation 103 is now slated for July, while Joe’s The Darkside is on schedule for June 29. Meanwhile, Jeezy’s Trap or Die 2: By Any Means Necessary mixtape is coming soon. Fat Joe is also contemplating a tape prior to his LP’s release.
The Streets Is Talking: News And Notes From the Underground
Just because they sing doesn’t mean that they don’t want to feed the streets and Net. Look out for a wave of mixtapes by R&B singers. Bobby V just released a tape with DJ Drama called 60 Mins. Dram also has one in the cooker with The-Dream named #lovesessions.
Meanwhile, So So Def newbie Dondria is planning to follow up her Dondria Duets with a sequel in the near future; DJ Envy hosted the original. Queens’ Super Star Jay is in the lab with one of our all-time favorites, Faith Evans. Faith already dropped a freestyle to Snoop Dogg’s “I Wanna Rock” beat last week. We hear Trey Songz may be dropping another tape as well, and we know for sure former G-Unit princess Olivia has Under the Radar coming this weekend.
Last but not least, sexy singer Shanell is stepping into the forefront with her recent release Shut Up and Listen. The girl can sing!
For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines or follow the Mixtape Daily team on Twitter: @shaheemreid and @mongosladenyc.
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You Say Party! We Say Die! drummer Devon Clifford passed away early Sunday morning after collapsing onstage Friday night in Vancouver. As Spinner reports, “Clifford reportedly suffered a brain hemorrhage and after having emergency neurosurgery at 3AM, he was on full life support for about a day.” He was 30.
The artsy post-punkers gone club-music obsessed album-release machines of Bloc Party seem to be on a break, or at least that’s what drummer Matt Tong suggested some months ago. And then there was the slip of the tongue from producer Hudson Mohawk, who said he’d been working on a project for Kele that possibly included someone from Spank Rock’s crew. Still no official confirmation on Mohawk’s insinuations, but Kele’s come out of the closet with some details on his solo debut record. He blogged (via Kele’s Twitter):
As you likely surmised after watching Ben Gibbard’s cover the Magnetic Fields, our show’s sponsor Samsung kindly hired a a video crew to memorialize the good times at Range Life. As a result I found myself with a mic in my hand having a chat with the morning benders’ Chris Chu. 1PM on day last of SXSW isn’t the ideal time to not look like a bleary eyed fool, let alone conduct a coherent interview, but Chris is smart and did the heavy lifting, talking about Austin and Big Echo and how it felt for us to sit really close to each other. I hope it makes sense! We talked a bit about our relationship with Alex Chilton, too, though that doesn’t make the cut here. Ask me about it next time I see you. (During their set, the benders would cover Big Star’s “I’m In Love With A Girl”; later that day, many artists could cover many Big Star songs.) In addition, we enlisted our friend Mallory Blair to Q&A her way through a few minutes with Wye Oak and Dominique Young Unique, who closed Range Life with an unexpected party-ending (though effectively, evening-party-starting) set that inspired many to ask me the same question: “She’s going to be huge but tell me … who is she?” That’s what this interview’s for. Dominique sets the record straight on her relationship with Yo Majesty, her age, and watching it gives you a sense for how her mind works. Once you get through that, then watch this. OK guys, that’s it — last post on our party. Until next year. You’re invited already.
Perez Hilton photoshopped his presence onto the image of SXSW yet again this year, hosting a late-night last-night party that drew Hole, Snoop Dogg, and Estelle, but it’s the earlier set featuring Macy Gray that caught our attention for her choice of cover: Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up.” If your eye’s cocked at mainstream artists covering Arcade Fire as a ploy to grab headlines, I guess you’ll have just have to adjuuuuust — but her old soul rasp and way around an emotional anthem (“I Try” is still a jam) adds up to a pretty pointed makeover.
