WOLFMOTHER - "Dimension" and "Mind's Eye"

An epic weekend deserves an equally epic soundtrack. These guys are the headliners. The act, Wolfmother, the style, don't-give-a-shit rock'n'roll, the tracks "Dimension" and "Mind's Eye". These aussie hard riffers are the kind of guys you want to kick it with at the bar, but would be cautious about having crash at your place. If Led Zeppelin had listened to Nirvana, but got too fucked up to really remember how do anything but assault and batter their guitars, you might end up with Wolfmother. You might end up with bloody fingertips and a loss of hearing. These guys make either alternative sound appetizing. Their Coachella set almost blew down the palm trees.

"Dimension", the opener to to their self-titled debut, just flipped over my car and broke all my glassware.

http://www.stanford.edu/~joshsc/01%20Dimension.m4a

Leadsinger Andrew Stockdale rapidly metling faces with licks and a tight aussie fro

"Mind's Eye" builds with psychadelic anticipation like waiting to hear your friend didn't get robbed of all your drug money, to climax with what sounds like a highway car chase on acid.

http://www.stanford.edu/~joshsc/08%20Mind's%20Eye.m4a

Don't be squemish. Though they could kick you ass, Wolfmother have been stabilized in mp3 form and are safe for now.

Jurassic 5 and Dilated Peoples LIVE in Santa Clara, 5/23/06

(Shoddy CamPhone pic of J5)

Last night I recieved a quaint harmonious hip-hop injection from the likes of J5 and Dilated out at Santa Clara's Leavey Center. Let me say this, I saw Jurassic play 6 years ago at the Warped Tour, and boy they were tight. Sadly, the years have worn on them, with certain members starting to show significant graying of the hair. This is not something you want in your rapper. However, J5 managed a solid set with DJ Nu-Mark getting Emeril (BAM) on the group's hits like "Quality Control", "Jayou", and "What's Golden", but the energy just wasn't what I was hoping for. The atmosphere was not assisted by the group constantly telling the crowd to buy their soon to be released new album. Seriously, let us know it's coming out, but don't bring my wallet into the discussion, this about music not sales. Can't say I'm not skeptical about how their first disc in 4 years will sound, but what it will NOT do is top their old skool materials. So that's what I'll leave you with. Check out how true hip-hop sounds, when rappers 1. Don't need to prove their masculinity by repping weapons, and 2. Try singing instead of spitting monotone like a chemistry lecture (both Three 6 Mafia and my Stats prof trying to drop knowledge, I am trying to hear neither.)

Jurassic 5 - "Jayou"

http://www.stanford.edu/~joshsc/Jurassic%205%20-%20Unknown%20Album%20-%20Flute%20Loop.mp3

Thank the Lowwd openers Dilated Peoples were trying to exert. They really impressed an unsure crowd and as they say "We make it hard when we go on first".

Hear that line in their classic:

Dilated Peoples - "Worst Comes to Worst"

http://www.stanford.edu/~joshsc/Dilated%20Peoples%20-%20Unknown%20Album%20-%20Worst%20Comes%20To%20Worst.mp3

On the Brighter Side

Ben Gibbard and Andrew Kenny -
You Remind Me of Home


Ben Gibbard is somewhere plotting to make you feel something. With Death Cab it’s Sad, just really really sad, With the Postal Service it’s that you wish the whole world was a video game about making someone fall in love with you, and when he gets out on his own, it’s that fuzzy nostalgia feeling. This track from his acoustic jaunt with Andrew Kenny has the later in spades. Take a stroll to this one.
http://www.stanford.edu/~joshsc/01%20You%20Remind%20Me%20of%20Home.mp3


The Academy Is... - "Slow Down"

Fiction: All songs without depth are without merit.
Fact: It’s fun to dance around to pop-punk rock. Exhibit A – The Academy is - “Slow Down”
These guys probably spent about 10 minutes writing this song (though the lyric “You kissed me like an overdramatic actor who’s starving for work” was probably lifted from the lead singer’s middle school poetry), but what matters is that I’ve spent more than that singing it in my car while being defeated by what seems like an endless stream of Stop Signs. If you hate Blink 182 and Fall Out Boy A. Don’t download this song, B. Get over yourself.
http://www.stanford.edu/~joshsc/02%20Slow%20Down.mp3

And I thought you weren’t listening. But insecurity issues aside, it’s nearly the school year’s end. This means different things to different people. Some think it’s time to buckle down, while others see the lack of scheduled classes as an opportunity to aleve themselves of all the pesky knowledge they’ve gathered in the previous months. That’s right friends, its time for songs about DRUGS.

Ghostface Killah - "Kilo"

On the glamorizing side, we have the new single from Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah. While others from the rap super group have had it bad, (ODB’s stomach punctures a concealed condom of coke and he croaks), or worse (Method Man proclaiming how ill the new Right Guard Extreme Sport Power Stripe deodorant is), Ghostface continues to drop the hotness Eskimos long for. 70’s soundtrack horns and razor on mirror effects, its nice.
Enjoy, and keep a low profile, you never know who will narc next.
http://www.stanford.edu/~joshsc/03%20Kilo.mp3

Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Snow (Hey Oh)"

To juxtapose we have Anthony Kiedis and the Red Hot Pepper boys crooning over a dagger point guitar riff: “[Guitarist John] Frusciante came away from his near-fatal heroin addiction with new musical superpowers” (rolling stone).
Laying down a sobering account of yayo abuse over an instrumental that would probably be quite enjoyable to listen to while off one’s face is an interesting match. The rest of the group’s bloated double-album Stadium Arcadium (ugh… who chose that rank name) is pretty mediocre, but this tracks deserves credit as an update for “Under the Bridge”.
http://www.stanford.edu/~joshsc/1-02%20Snow%20(Hey%20Oh).m4a

Any opinions on these?: “No that album is a perfect retrospective of the Chili Peppers’ career” (FALSE) or “Too close to mainstream rap, I thought you were indie” (good, bring the hate. hate hate hate. Let me know, that’s what the comment button is for. Though it’s also good for telling me to keep my day job in non-music non-criticism.