Don’t be deceived by the pastoral, peaceful-looking press photo above. Land of Talk is dark, kind of angry, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. It seems Saddle Creek and the band couldn’t wait until October 7 for the physical release of Some Are Lakes, so they dropped the whole thing digitally on iTunes this week. They also leaked this track, off the new album, out to the blogosphere, so fans can get an early taste of the Montreal-based band’s energetic, guitar heavy sound.
It’s still a bit of a wait for The Juan MacLean‘s forthcoming full-length, The Future Will Come, which is due out in early 2009. Never fear though, there are still plenty of offerings from the band in the meantime. Besides a tour and a new single, “The Simple Life,” set for release on September 16, Juan and Co have also leaked this track off the new album. As danceable as any of the band’s other numbers, this one features echoing vocal choruses and hypnotic piano chords that sort of induce a trance-like state.
Famed 1970s roots music producer Bertram Brown, whose Freedom Sounds label issued some of the era’s most important roots music, died Monday, September 8, at the age of 58. Brown produced hits by Prince Alla, Earl Zero, Rod Taylor, Philip Frazer, Frankie Paul, and Pompidoo, and worked with Earl “Chinna” Smith’s Soul Syndicate session band, as well as with King Tubby. Several of Brown’s productions were reissued on the U.K.-based Blood & Fire label.
Nominees for the 13th Annual Music of Black Origin (MOBO) awards were announced. Receiving nods in the The Best New Reggae Artist category are Beenie Man, Etana, Mavado, Busy Signal, and Tarrus Riley. The winner will be announced at the MOBO ceremony on October 15 at London’’s Wembley Arena.
Will Bounty Killer and Ninja Man clash at an upcoming stage show? That’s what some news sources are claiming will happen when the two DJs share the stage Sunday, September 21 at the New Jersey Reggae Fest. Ninja commented to One876.com “[America] never really get a good stage competition yet. It is about time the dancehall people in [the U.S.] get to see somebody lyrically dead pon stage. I am coming for the one Rodney Price…”
Mavado and dancer Ding Dong will star in a new dancehall-themed movie titled What Goes Around Comes Around by director Steve “Tehut Nine” McAlpin. The movie was shot in South Florida and gets its first runs in select Caribbean communities.
Reggae singer Cocoa Tea has extended further support for U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama by creating a website where fans can buy tunes and proceeds support Obama. Cocoa Tea is offering a new Barack-themed titled “Yes We Can,” which will also available on his forthcoming Zojak label release due out–you guessed it–on U.S. election day, November 4, 2008.
Reality roots singer Gyptian releases his new album, I Can Feel Your Pain, October 21 on VP. Production duties are handled by Vertex Productions’s Ray Stephen and Kemar “Flavor” McGregor, among others.
Help ’70s roots reggae veteran Claudius Linton rebuild his house, damaged by Hurricane Gustav. There’s a donation page at U.S. label partner Sun King Records. Linton will tour the U.S. with legend Ansel Collins after repairs are finished.
Truckback Productions new Ole Axe riddim is available now on iTunes and other digital outlets. Digital music sites, including Amazon, Juno, and Dancetracks, are increasingly becoming the mediums of choice for labels releasing new riddim sets.
Veteran U.K. reggae DJ Tippa Irie, from Saxxon Sound System, drops by L.A.’s Dub Club on Wednesday, October 22, 9 p.m. at The Echoplex in Silverlake.
Out A Road Top Ten Dancehall Singles
1. Assassin’s “Dem Nuh Want Nuh Gal” (Board House)
2. Elephant Man “Nuh Linga’” (Board House)
3. Elephant Man “Gully Creeper” (Shuanizzle)
4. Serani “Stinking Rich” (Daseca)
5. Beenie Man “Gimmi Likkle” (Born So)
6. Mavado “I’m So Special” (TJ)
7. Vybz Kartel “Trailer Load of Money” (Chimney)
8. Konshens “Winner” (Nutural Bridge/Cash Flow)
9. Mavado “Inna Di Car Back” (Big Ship)
10. Mavado “Money Changer” (Juke Boxx)
Pictured: Mavado. Photo by Martei Korley.
We asked all the artists in our issue to tell us their favorite places to hang out in Portland, and here they are…
Our house, Grass Hut (the gallery our friends own and operate), and, of course, Forest Park. – APAK
I like my backyard underneath my gigantic fig tree. – Bwana Spoons
Forest Park, a 5,000-acre-plus expanse of Oregon woods on the Northwest end of town. [My husband] Colin [Meloy of The Decemberists] and I just bought a house there. We’re moving to the lonely northern reaches of the park where you can walk all day and not see another soul. – Carson Ellis
This bar at Albina and Alberta in North Portland called the Paragon. The neighborhood is kinda the cuts, and the front door opens into a steel cage, which the bartender will buzz open if they like the look of you, and/or don’t think you’re dangerous. It’s kinda low-end inside. The clientele tends to be a mixture of that inner city G type and gutter punks, which somehow co-mingles without much of an issue. They all sing bad karaoke tunes in the side room (I think the discs they own are limited to stuff in the vein of the Grease soundtrack), and they sometimes books shows in there as well. I saw S.T.R.E.E.T.S. there (Skating’s Totally Rad, Everything Else Totally Sucks), who are kind of a thrash band in the vein of the Accused). My only bad experiences there were having this girl I was with once tell me I had to pay some dealer money or his girlfriend would beat her up, and the time I forgot to lock the door to my beater car,and someone actually stole one of those shower CD players out of it, which I had bungie-corded to the dash, and a bunch of beat up CDs in a greasy, crumpled box. I am a bit curious who the junkie manged to sell a bunch of Darkthrone and Brainbombs CDs to though… – Jon A.D. (Anthem Records/Lodubs)
The Skidmore Bluffs. – Johnnie Monroe (Fist Fite)
Pirate Town, which is this burned-out factory place down by the river, and these kids built a skatepark. It’s covered in graffiti. – Justin Wheeler (Fist Fite)
The Skidmore Bluffs. You can ride your bike out there. From my house it’s a three-minute ride. It overlooks the stockyards, [which are] super industrial and post-apocalpytic. You can go there by yourself and you’ll know half the people that are there [and] share a few joints. Bands will play out there, quietly. – Charlie Salas-Humara, Panther
We like this bar called Tiga. I like to ride my bike on the Esplanade next to the river. They have awesome bike trails, they get you everywhere you need to go. – Joe Kelly, Panther
There are lots of little hidden hangout spots along the Willamette River from Sellwood up to St. Johns. This time of year those are invaluable, and we (my broke friends and I) keep finding more. – Benoît Pioulard
Cinema 21 is the best indie cinema in the world. They have $4 matinees, cheap candy, and a balcony with a cry room! – Manny Reyes (Atolé)
My store, Liza Rietz – Liza Rietz (Swords, Tu Fawning)
The docks of the Oak Street building, The Artistery, and Marriage Records. – Erik Gage & Kyle Handley (White Fang)
My favorite place to eat right now is Papa G’s on Division–some of the best vegan food I’ve ever eaten. My favorite bar is Holocene or Dot’s, but I never get to go out so I haven’t been to either in so long. I love just walking or skating around SE… Everything is so beautiful around here. – Harvey Tumbleson (The Builders & The Butchers)
Witch’s Castle. It’s a ruin in Forest Park–it’s these old bathrooms from the ’40s. – Daniel Menche
Scapegoat Tattoo, and the river (any of them I can swim in). – Jordan Hufnagel (Hufnagel Cycles)
Any street on my bike in the summertime. – Corrina Repp
Valentine’s [coffeehouse /bar]. – Grouper
Northwest Portland Hills, with a view to the dry docks. – Jarkko Cain (Holocene)
Laurelhurst park with my dog. – Scott McLean (Holocene)
I love Portland, but that’s kind of private. it’s personal. It shouldn’t be what “John Jewel thinks is cool…” – Johnny Jewel (Glass Candy)
Southeast Portland. There’s a lot of dope stuff around me. There’s a couple record shops that I go to, restaurants–everything. – Ohmega Watts
I really like Northwest Portland, west of I-405 and east of Forest Park. It’s dense but full of trees, weird people. It’s a big jumble of eras, styles, people, and things to do. – Strategy
The Clinton Street Pub, right around the corner from my house. They have pinball, punk rock, and cheap beer. – Duane Sorenson (Stumptown Coffee)
Knee-deep in my vegetable garden. – Lisa Molinaro (Talkdemonic)
The whole downtown Oregon City and that mill. Sometimes if I’m wigging out or need to get away, I’ll just drive down I-99 until I hit Oregon City and just traipse around for a while. – Honey Owens (Valet)
Oak Street Studios. – Adam Forkner (White Rainbow)
The Fresh Pot. It’s the coffee shop across the street from my apartment. Portland has the best coffee in the world as far as I know, so far. – Jona Bechtolt (Yacht)
As a long-standing figure of the U.K. electronic music world, Howie B, has worked with Bjork, Tricky, U2, Brian Eno, Sinead O’Connor and Goldie, among others. Now he’s teamed up with five-piece Italian favorite, Casino Royale. “Plastico Mistico” is off of Not in the Face, Howie B’s re-imagining of the band’s 2006 release, Reale. In the song’s intro, demented descending notes repeat, giving way to quirky glimpses of accented screech guitar on top of a simple bass line and a hollowed-out snare. A lonely sax breathes in unexpectedly over the stark percussion backbone of this rolling funky layered dub melody. Lulu McAllister
Choirboy or rude boy? 38-year-old Bronx-based sing-jay Treasure Don might be both, balancing his sanctified childhood with rugged dancehall, hip-hop, and even dub (via work with eclectic producers Subatomic Sound System and Bastard Jazz’s DJ DRM). “Treasure Don is a hybrid,” Don says of his multifaceted sound. “I was raised in a fusion environment in the Bronx and eventually came up with my own style.”
Christened Henry Walker by his Jamaican pastor father, who preached to an 18,000-strong New York congregation, Treasure Don was immersed in reggae and religion from the start. “God and reggae music were innate to our family… You’d hear reggae and hip-hop everywhere: coming out of people’s cars, houses–you were submerged in it. We’d be driving to church at 8 a.m. and I’d hear, [singing Michael Palmer’s classic ’80s dancehall tune] ‘Dem a lick shot…Lord a’ mercy!’” Walker perfected his vocal skills as a chorister at Manhattan’s prestigious Cathedral of St. John the Divine while simultaneously absorbing his father’s extensive reggae tape collection.
Walker began hitting Manhattan clubs in the late ’90s, singing with Sting’s horn arranger Clark Gayton and Skatalites’ lead trumpeter Kevin Batchelor, which led to connections with New York’s Jamaican music fraternity. But even after college-tour stints with reggae band Fireproof in 2000, and a two-year live residency with musician King Django at Secho on Ludlow Street, Walker wasn’t satisfied. “I wanted to be a volcano on the mic and build a whole island with hot lava from out of my mouth!” he says of his vibrant live performances, influenced by dancehall DJs Cutty Ranks, Flourgon, and Lieutenant Stitchie.
After years paying dues in clubs and airing his demos on local low-power radio stations, producers began lining up to record Walker’s half-sung, half-chatted vocals–resulting in tunes like “The Chronicles,” “Ghetto Champion,” and “Heart of Gold.”
Walker has seven beats chosen for his next album, including reggae joints from Alphonso and Myrie and hip-hop heat from Ruff Rydaz producers Driz and J-Knocka. But this rude-boy toaster hasn’t abandoned his righteous roots–he still seeks to minister through his music. “I’m the son of a preacher. If you’re having a problem I need to talk to you,” he explains. “At one of our shows, there was this person way in the back of the room looking stressed. The gig was going well, everyone was having a good time, I’m feeling high, but I was conscious of this person. So I changed the lyrics I was singing at that moment to ‘In your time, you’ll be healed.’ He knew I was
talking to him.”
Seasoned sub-underground experimentalist Joseph Raglani has released an LP, tapes, CDRs and small-run CDs under labels such as Gameboy, IDES, Kvist, and his own Pegasus Farms imprint. “Jubilee” is the first widely distributed release off his latest album, Of Sirens Born. The bizarre textural dreamscape of this song features scratchy synths, deeply atmospheric reverberated cooing, and other unexpected, but pleasant, accents. Somewhere in the background of this sound playground, a bagpipe (or something like it) whines occasionally while warm buzzes and clicks enter and exit seamlessly. The composition is like a psychedelic insect jam session in the clouds. Lulu McAllister
Brendon “Alias” Whitney established his production alongside abstract, nigh-emo MCs Sole, Slug, and Doseone. Since, he has been a prolific remixer, honing his electro-organica. This third full-length, its name Latin for “I shall rise again,” opens with southern bounce gone EBM as Casiotones distend. Soon, however, the friction of graphite-rubbed drums is replaced with a more mercurial sputter. Guests include Yoni of Why? getting screwed down and The One AM Radio thawing. Indeed, standout tracks (including “Death Watch”) are often with cipher swatches, as voices allow for dynamics playing tug-of-war more than just tug-the-heartstrings. Alias primarily mines only two modes–starry-eyed chords and wistful riffs–but in those he stays gold, ponyboys.
Thes One and Double K are about some of the nicest guys you could meet–both a blessing and a curse. Their brand of Tribesque/Pharcydian hip-hop is so non-threatening, your grandmother could breakdance to it. PUTS’ lyrics lack any sense of menace whatsoever, and though both MCs can flow, the rhymes are frequently overshadowed by the funky beats. Still, as this double-disc of laid-back goodies–including “Invisible Blunt Roller,” “43 Labels I Like,” and “Code Check”–shows, these West Coast funk disciples and backpacker mainstays have built up an impressive resume. Their sample choices bespeak deep, deep crates, and their production work easily ranks up there with any of their L.A. underground cohorts.
Talkdemonic may be one of Portland’s best-kept secrets. The local-favorite duo of Kevin O’Connor and Lisa Molinaro uses its unlikely pairing–drums and viola–to craft tight yet reverberating tracks of pastoral melancholy. Molinaro, who recently moonlighted in The Decemberists, lends a dramatic, almost visual touch with her strings. The instrumental tracks on Eyes at Half Mast certainly recall the cinematic beauty of the Pacific Northwest, but that isn’t to say they’re calm or quiet. In fact, O’Connor beats the shit out of his drums on some of these tracks, drawing urgency from his lush, multi-instrumentalist arrangements. Sorry Portland, don’t expect this to stay your secret much longer.
