Tiger JK

Tiger’s Blog

South Korean rapper Tiger JK, aka Drunken Tiger, gave his first paidperformance for $500. The audience, outraged by a musical genre theyhad never heard before, threw fruit and shoes at him. The company took half the profit, and JK gave half of the remaining money to hisgirlfriend, now his wife. With only $125, JK began saving his cash in an envelope under his bed as he pursued his dream.

In Korea, hip-hop is still in its infancy. In mainstream music, the genre only caught on in the early 2000s, but now grows as an influential culture. The break-through is largely due to Tiger JK. At 35 years old, JK continues to prove both his pioneering talent and financial success, holding a Jay-Z-like iron grip on the title of hip-hop king amid a sea of teens and 20-something fame chasers.

Fans of JK have praised the genuine emotion of his music, the presentation and lyrics of which clashed loudly with the soft, pop-industry prepackaged music of the late 90s. His earliest album, deemed too explicit by the government and banned from public play, gained considerable underground respect.

 JK’s talent for rapping and musicality surges through in his best albums, most notably The Legend Of… and Sky Is the Limit. The single“8:45 Heaven” from the latter, a song written after JK lost his grandmother, proves his lyricism and emotionally raw flow.

 JK released his eighth album, Feel gHood Muzik, in 2009, on which hip-hop legend Rakim collaborated on the single “Monster,” reportedly only out of respect for JK’s work. The song blasts open with a heavy beat and rotates through collaborates Rakim, Rakka, Roscoe Umali and female Korean rapper Tasha a la Drake’s “Forever.” 

Despite the fact that Feel gHood Muzik has sold over 100,000 copies, JK doesn’t have much money in his bank account. JK explained that he keeps a significant amount of his savings in his house, citing an emotional attachment to his early days of saving cash in an envelope. He recalled the day he realized he had saved $5,000 after years of minimal success and cultural criticism, and the resulting pride that to this day keeps him holding cash under his bed.

By Asst. Entertainment Editor
Ginny Chae

Chromeo

Courtesy of Myspace

Chomeo’s Myspace

Chromeo is on a mission to fight bad music taste. This psychedelic electrofunk duo from Montreal dubs it “Hypo Auditory Aesthetic Aphasia,” also known as HAAA. “It’s a serious socio-psychological disease manifested by awful taste in music. And it’s scary,” says singer David Macklovitch in a YouTube video titled “Chromeo Fights Crappy Music.” As Macklovitch snaps on a white, medical glove, instrumentalist Patrick Gemayel nods sadly in agreement.

In that video, the band visits New York City to combat the outbreak of HAAA. The duo slaps a “I Beat HAAA” sticker onto a jazz fan and grow concerned over a yuppie who says “hip-hop didn’t do it for me.” While I thank Chromeo for the laughs, it should rest assured that its freakishly catchy, ’80s pop songs are enough to fight crappy music.

Its second album, Fancy Footwork, earned an A- from music critic Robert Christgau. Singles like “Bonafied Lovin’” and “Fancy Footwork,” with Macklovitch’s cheeky lyrics and synthesized funk, inject a dancing groove into your body. The type that makes listeners wish they knew how to moonwalk and pop-and-lock, even if it meant secretly practicing in front of your closet mirror as a kid.

Chromeo’s infectious vibe has boogied its way into 2009 with the release of single “Night by Night” by music label Green Label Sound.

Currently, the band is working to complete another studio album for a summer of 2010 release. So don’t worry— if the summer heat waves affect your judgment and you get a case of HAAA, then Chromeo will be there to fight it off.

— By Asst. Entertainment Editor
Ginny Chae

Plasticines

Courtsey of Myspace

Plasticines’ Myspace

Whether or not you’re addicted to the Upper East Side shenanigans of Blair, Chuck and the rest of the “Gossip Girl” gang, you’ve got to admit that the folks over at The CW have good taste in music. In its first season, the show featured every song from the debut EP of indie-rock gods The Virgins and a mesmerizing performance by folk-pop duo The Pierces. On Nov. 9, “Gossip Girl” was at it again, shining the limelight on the little-known Plastiscines.

Although the Plastiscines, a Parisian quartet comprised of four enviously gorgeous French girls, have made quite a name for themselves across the pond, their seductive sounds have yet to flirt with the eardrums of most American listeners. Throughout its ultra-brief discography, the Plastiscines leap from grungy, distorted ’70s post-punk (“No Way”) to rollicking garage rock (“Bicyclette”), but it’s ultimately the band’s saucy dance-pop tracks that capture what the Plastiscines are all about.

Although I, admittedly, have only a faint idea what feisty frontwoman Katty Besnard is singing about, the simple rock chords of “Loser,” the bouncy French-language single off the band’s 2007 debut, LP1, transcend any language barrier. Wonderfully upbeat, the song showcases the girls’ signature group shouting and toe-tapping bass. Likewise, “B—h,” an aptly-titled English track from the band’s sophomore effort About Love, which was released this summer, and one of the two sultry songs performed on “Gossip Girl,” revels in female unpredictability. Besnard sings, “I’m a b—h / When I fall in love / I’m a b—h / When I give a kiss / I’m a b—h / When I sing like this / I’m a b—h / In disguise.”

With simple yet addictive instrumentalism and wild live performances, the Plastiscines are anything but a cookie-cutter girl group. “Gossip Girl” might be losing the ratings game, but with bands as quirky and fun as the Plastiscines gracing the set, its soundtrack is hipper than ever.

— By Entertainment Editor
Franchesca Winters

Sleigh Bells

Sleigh Bells’ Myspace

Dance pop isn’t aggressive enough anymore. College airwaves, a prime locale for truly gratifying party tunes, are now filled with the mundane: sexy (yet soulless) club hits such as Emory’s expectation-failing stoner Sean Kingston to hip (yet uber-sappy) dance tracks from MGMT or Passion Pit. Head-bangin’, speaker-bustin’, straight-up violent dance is fading fast.

Sleigh Bells hopes to deter this decline of righteous rock. Sleigh Bells, duo of producer Derek Miller and vocalist Alexis Krauss, met up when Krauss was dining at a Brooklyn restaurant where Miller waited tables. They started talking about music — Miller, a former member of Florida hardcore band Poison the Well, and Krauss, a singer in bubble-pop group RubyBlue. Like a scene from a movie, the two became excited at the possibility of collaboration, and Miller left the chance meeting with far greater profits than minimum wage. Their dissimilar tastes merged into a fuzz rock band that both delights and assaults the eardrums.

Through extensive touring, including a hotly-attended spot opening for The xx at CMJ, Sleigh Bells developed a fanbase bridging pop and hardcore, balancing their disparate musical histories. Synth-rave sensation “Crown on the Ground,” bursts open with bent guitar notes that explode into a noisy, yet sonically-pleasing cacophony of amped-up power chords and rambunctious dance-ready drums. Krauss’s subdued vocals ring bells of a Santogold on Ambien or a female Julian Casablancas — the cool indifference and sporadic wails keep songs on edge, like a garage band wandering into a night club.

Halfway through the song “Beach Girls,” Krauss belts out what can best be described as an orgasm solo: moaning out erotic melodies to Miller’s distorted bass riffs.

According to the band’s MySpace, all four of the tracks available online are currently just demos — low-fi, complex-FM samples — which will be professionally rerecorded for an LP in the near future. And their return to neck-breaking jams couldn’t come soon enough

— By Entertainment Editor
Geoff Schorkopf

Epik High

Courtesy of Flickr

 Epik High’s Myspace

A quick glance at the South Korean music scene would have any, self-respecting music fan running for the border. To some extent, this reaction is justified. The country’s notoriously corporate-driven music industry took a note from the 90’s pop phenomenon and perfected the exploitation of girl groups and boy bands decked out in matching outfits. You think the Backstreet Boys were bad? One of South Korea’s current successes is a 13-member boy band called Super Junior.

Dig a little deeper, though, and within this pop-reigned industry you’ll find some artists worth noticing. Rap group Epik High, independent from studios, is one such act. Composed of three members — Tablo, Mithra Jin and DJ Tukutz — Epik High’s sixth album, (e), which was released Sept. 16, was one of the most anticipated albums of the year.

The group has shown off a variety of stylistic influences. On (e), Epik High fuses rap with electronica, instrumentals and bossa nova to create an intriguing hip-hop fusion.

The song “Rocksteady” carries a clear influence from old-school groups like Run DMC. “Wannabe,” a sharp criticism of Korea’s fame-driven music acts, relies on a electronic base rhythm. Several songs employ heavy instrumentalism, aresult of member Tablo’s 10 years of experience playing the violin. (He quit after disrupting his orchestra’s concert performance of “Brandenburg Concerto”by breaking into the theme song of “Jurassic Park”.)

Epik High’s songs also contain considerable lyrical quality. Jin originally wrote poetry, and Tablo experimented with underground hip-hop while earning his English Literature degree from Stanford University.

While Epik High’s lyrics may get lost in translation to western listeners, their musicality soars. As mainstream U.S. hip-hop continues to rely on stereotypical bass beats and overdone themes, Epik high has managed to breathe fresh air into the genre.

— By Assistant Entertainment Editor
Ginny Chae

Mr. Hudson

Mr. Hudson’s Myspace

Straight-laced, well-spoken, sweater-wearing Englishmen might not seem like Kanye West’s type, but the infamous award speech-interrupting rapper has a thing — a musical thing, that is — for Mr. Hudson. He signed the soulful singer-songwriter to his label late last year and helped produce Mr. Hudson’s solo debut, Straight No Chaser, which is slated for a Dec. 1 U.S. release.

Mr. Hudson got his mainstream musical start as Mr. Hudson and The Library, a laid-back band whose chill, lush sound falls into a genre somewhere between R&B, reggae and British pop. In a delightfully witty move, the band launched a 12-stop U.K. library — yes, library — tour in 2007. But Mr. Hudson dropped the books and his band and signed with West a year later, embracing a synthesized new sound in the process. Since then, he’s been featured on a number of major hip-hop albums, including Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3.

On Straight No Chaser, Mr. Hudson blends the slick digitally-enhanced punch of modern hip-hop with the smooth, sing-along sensibility of indie-rock and R&B. On “Everything Is Broken,” a swelling track that features Kid Cudi and a Lady Gaga-worthy beat, Mr. Hudson sings, “I was just a token, token, token” above unintelligible whispers.

But Mr. Hudson hasn’t completely forgone the organic sound he crafted with The Library. That sound, captured most beautifully on the band’s old radio hit, “Picture of You,” which opens with an infectious beat-beat-clap, can be heard in slivers of the sensual “Anyone But Him.”

As much as we all might hate to admit it, West knows a thing or two about music, and his protégé’s clever lyricism and versatility undoubtedly could propel him to into the American spotlight. After all, West himself told MTV that Mr. Hudson has “the potential to be bigger than me.” Coming from such notoriously egotistical lips, that’s really saying something.

— By Entertainment Editor
Franchesca Winters

 

The Antlers

The Antler’s Myspace

Often, a musical work’s concept can overwhelm its content. Take Bon Iver: critics fell hard for the artist’s story — composer Justin Vernon’s hibernation in the woods of Wisconsin to meditate and create groovy tunes — until his journey and his music became inextricably linked. The correlation was both a gift and curse, unfairly tying Vernon’s voice and music to feelings of isolation and desperation.

Similarly, Peter Silberman, vocalist and guitarist behind the up-and-coming band The Antlers, wrote much of his sophomore album Hospice in two years of isolation from friends and family. Once emerging, Silberman recruited a full band to bring his idea to life.

Hospice is a post-rock masterpiece, a concept album of both complex metaphors and simplistic narration. Its scope is both nostalgic and heartbreaking: the album tells the story of a man watching his loved one pass away from bone cancer in the Sloan Kettering Cancer Ward. Hospice is told from the woman’s bedside, accentuating the narrator’s grief and mourning. The setting alternates between deep, brooding tracks in the hospital and more upbeat, instrumentally-diverse songs that take place in flashback. The result is an album which is immediate and catchy, yet tonally eerie and sparse.

The opening track “Prologue” transitions into “Kettering,” which explicitly narrates the basic plotline -— a man has become a resident of the hospital ward where his hopelessly dying love lies.

“Bear” stands out as a dark and lyrically powerful character arc about two lovers choosing to abort their child. Silberman’s choice to combine the album’s most hauntingly beautiful reverberated guitars with its most depressing content illustrates his notions on the duality of love and hope versus fear and reality.

Undoubtedly fans and critics alike will question the story: Who are these mysterious characters? Is this a true story? Was Silberman the true narrator? The real question, however, should be: With music this beautiful, does it really matter?

 — By Entertainment Editor
Geoff Schorkopf

Vandaveer

Vandaveer – Fistful of Swoon from Grandcrew on Vimeo.

There are plenty of good things to say about those buzzy bands out of Brooklyn. You know, the ones that get the synth just right, make some dance-your-ass-off music and are usually led by some skinny lad in even skinnier jeans. But there is something about a timeless, classy sound that just can’t be beat — and Vandaveer has this sound nearly perfected.

Vandaveer, which consists of Mark Charles Heidinger and backing vocalist Rose Guerin, makes the kind of music that sounds like it should be enjoyed with a snifter of brandy in a room with dark wood paneling. Everything about Vandaveer is steeped in tradition; the name has been passed down for generations — both on birth certificates and an engraved pocket watch — in Heidinger’s family and songs are more likely to reference classic books than pop-culture icons.

Vandaveer’s sophomore album, Divide & Conquer, has 10 songs featuring simple instrumentation — mainly guitar, piano and drums — that provides an elegant backdrop to the voices of Heidinger and Guerin. Heidinger has the rare kind of voice that is smooth and soothing, but still crackling with energy. Guerin’s voice provides a haunting complement to his — at some times sweet and at other times, seductive.

“Fistful of Swoon” highlights Vandaveer at its best. In the opening lines, Heidinger and Guerin are nearly whispering, sharing secrets with lines such as, “You’ve got lust in your veins.” Their voices swell during the chorus, then drop back again to hint at some kind of trepidation, some caution that will be thrown to the wind a few lines later. A simple snare and the occasional piano chord add to the anxious feeling of the track, as it always seems as if the song could explode at any second.

Most other songs are less fiery and more charming. “Beverly Cleary’s 115th Dream,” for example, pays homage to the kid-lit author, especially her Ramona-Quimby series. The music, which sounds as if it could have been taken out of a music box, is fitting without being juvenile.

Vandaveer should appeal to anyone who has a soft spot for the likes of Audrey Hepburn and Frank Sinatra. There is something sophisticated, yet fresh, about its sound that makes it apparent that it’s not going anywhere any time soon.

— By Executive Editor
Ani Vrabel

The Hoosiers

The Hoosiers Myspace

There’s something inexplicably pleasant about circus-inspired instrumentalism. It worked for Panic! at the Disco and, on the second single off its 2007 debut, The Trick to Life, it more than works for indie-pop trio The Hoosiers. “Goodbye Mr. A,” a boppy commentary about real-life comic book hero Mr. A, who is both too stoic and too logical for his own good, kicks off with the delightful bounce of piano keys. The sound instantly drags up happy-go-lucky memories of funnel cakes, clowns and childhood simplicity.

A few seconds into the song, the guys quickly introduce some rollicking guitar, a swelling bass and lead singer Irwin Sparkes’ impeccable falsetto. Sparkes sings, “You had all the answers / But no human touch / If life is subtraction / Your number is up / Your love is a fraction / It’s not adding up.” With straightforward lyricism that (gasp) doesn’t revolve solely around failing relationships and unrequited love and a musical sound worthy of a charming little carnival, “Goodbye Mr. A” effectively sums up The Hoosiers’ appeal: simple and upbeat.

The Hoosiers — composed of sweater vest-wearing frontman Sparkes, bassist Martin Skarendahl and mustachioed drummer Alfonso Sharland — first formed when Sparkes and Sharland, who are both from the United Kingdom, secured soccer scholarships to a university in Indiana. While there, where the locals are commonly referred to as hoosiers, the guys gathered not only a band name but enough compelling material to record an album, which they released after returning to London and hooking up with Swedish musician Skarendahl.

The resulting debut, which eventually reached No. 1 on the UK charts, was a collection of 12 weird, infectious tracks. Standout track “Cops and Robbers” utilizes heavy synthesizers and a hodge-podge of everyday sounds that range from clashes and bangs to space ship noises.

In the end, The Hoosiers are a deliciously unique addition to a genre sadly bloated with musical clones, and the band’s sound is more lighthearted than a trip to Six Flags.

— By Entertainment Editor Franchesca Winters

Los Campesinos!

The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future from Los Campesinos! on Vimeo.

On paper, it might seems as if Welsh group Los Campesinos! simply adopted and tweaked the schtick of Panic! at the Disco. There’s the obvious punctuation similarity (even if Panic! did drop its exclamation point for a year), and the groups share a penchant for giving songs long, odd titles. Case in point: Panic!’s 2005 debut, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, has tracks such as “Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off” and LC!’s debut Hold On Now, Youngster…, released three years later, has songs with titles such as “Don’t Tell Me to Do the Math(S).”

But comparisons between the groups can stop there. LC! doesn’t have the same pop polish that Panic! does. Rather, the seven-member, coed group excels with frenetic tracks that sound like collective catharsis or crazed parties, depending on the subject matter. Some tracks, such as “This Is How You Spell ‘HAHAHA, We Destroyed The Hopes and The Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics,’” blend these two categories. It has a hurried spoken-word solo as well as several members chiming in on the near-malicious, taunting chorus.

This sense of childishness is a common trend for LC!, which has  created a blend of twee and punk, two of the most youthful musical genres. Members tend to play their instruments as loud and fast as they can, and rush to sing-scream over their bandmates. But the dissonance works thanks to some smart, sharp lyrics (the narrator of “Death to Los Campesinos!” is “broken down like a war economy,” for example) that keep the group from sounding  immature.

The band’s second album, We Are Beautiful We Are Doomed, which was released just a few months after its debut, has all these same elements, but an overall darker tone, presumably paving the way for its upcoming album (the details of which are still fuzzy). If its first single, “The Sea Is a Good Place to Think of the Future,” is any indication, the group has spent the past year doing some considerable growing up, as the song features some of the band’s most somber, reflective lyrics and music to date. Despite this, there are still glimpses of the frantic energy seen on previous albums, showing that although LC! may be growing up, it isn’t outgrowing the excellent elements that have defined the group since day one.

— By Executive Editor Ani Vrabel