I saw Hospitality more than a month ago, along with quite a few other bands (Kurt Vile and Onenotrix Point Never). I forgot to write about the show, but if you have a few minutes read Jamieson Cox’s retelling of his night seeing Hospitality and Eleanor Friedberger. I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again right now but this dude’s writing! This dude’s writing!!
?!A few weeks ago, I went with a friend (of the best variety) to a free concert in Raleigh. Right now, I don’t remember the name of the opening act—they were good though; the second band was the entertaining garage rockers Twerps. But, to short-shift the other two bands further, I was there only for Real Estate.
That this blog didn’t devolve into a sea of Drake quotes from the time Take Care leaked to mid-January still amazes me. As told by my mother, I’m “over-emotional” meaning I tend to attach myself to things and never-ever-ever-ever let go. This not only applies to relationships with people, but also the arts and while Days isn’t the first album I’ve really connected to my emotional reaction to works is usually immediate. But, I streamed Days a few times before its release, wasn’t too impressed and did not come around to it till December zoning out to the guitar melodies at friend’s house. So, when I finally ordered the album, and gave it some proper listens: Turns out this was the album I wanted hear, while getting wrapped up my in self-pity in the winter.
I’m not quite sure what my face looked like when I heard the opening chords of “Easy”, but judging from the reaction of the drunken girl near me and the entire rest of the crowd, I can only image it was pure ecstasy. Shouldn’t be too surprising my favorite aspect of Real Estate are the guitars, because on repeated listens the album melts into a beautiful mush of hard to distinguish reverbed guitar melodies. But, when “Easy” began or when another guitar was added for “Kinder Blumen”, the heavenly jangled mush reformed into those highlight tracks.
This sense of joy was kind of hard for me to place, because if I had saw this concert in February, I told my friend I’d probably be a puddle of tears. Not, that wouldn’t have been a good thing—certainly would make for a more dramatic retelling, but my direct emotional connection to the songs on the album had lessened since we first learned about this show. Even with that said, I’d be lying to say I didn’t choke up a bit during “Wonder Years”—and it was more than just Alex Bleeker being a marvelously bearded human being—it was the song that after 15 or so listens became my favorite song the album, a bit simple, the album’s shortest track, but also the one that SPEAKS TO ME THE MOST. Also, turns out I know every word from all the Days tracks, which currently excluding my 2012 2 Chainz guest verse playlist, I cannot think of any recent album where I can pull off the same feat, which answers the non-existent mystery of why I loved this show so much.
Araabmuzik live from Santos Party House from CMJ 2011
The critical respect Waka Flocka Flame’s 2010 album Flockavelireceived was a little surprising to see as few of the positive reviewers of the album would call Waka Flocka a traditionally good rapper. Instead he got a lot of respect from the emotional you could hear just coming from his voice, and one way of hearing this was in his adlibs. The “Bow Bow Bow”, “Waka Waka Waka”, and constant yelling of “Brrriiiiccckkssssqquaadd” appeared all over the album, as “Hard in the Paint” and “Young Money/Bricksquad” exemplify this as the rapping became secondary and the intense adlibs were the first priority for the music.
This is a clip from a live performance by Araabmuzik doesn’t include any adlibs from Waka Flocka Flame, but it does mix and mash the adlibs of the last few remaining major label gangsta rappers standing Young Jeezy and Rick Ross. The result sounds like the “therapboard.com” come to life in a crazy MPC performance, where Young Jeezy’s “Yeah” and “Heeey” adlibs are strange disembodied samples with the exclusive purpose of giving the track a sense of haunted familiarity. Trap rap gets its name from the subject matter that rappers focus on, but Araabmuzik’s mix highlights how important the sonics and even adlibs are for this particular brand of rap music.
Last night I saw Kylesa, so quick thoughts on a somewhat enjoyable concert experience.
Band #1 (They were named after weapon, but I cannot remember what weapon)
They were a bass and drum combo. The bass player played the bass as if it were a guitar, which was disappointing and inspiring at the same time (I thought the bass was a guitar missing the middle two strings at first); it looked like his guitar and drum kit could have broken at any point. Me and my friend expected a lot worse, but they were okay and fine for the first of four bands playing in a night.
Band #2 (Caltrap, writing your name on your equipment is a great way for someone to remember you)
I liked them somewhat, while my friend was too distracted by the guitarists actions and “singing” during the guitar solos. We were both made note that one guy was not was bare foot, one was not wearing shoes, and one was wearing shoes that are advertised during Saturday morning cartoons.
Band #3 (No idea, what their name was)
They sounded like a generic metal bands that had their song released in the video game Rock Band during 2008. The lead singer had a beard; I know that counts for something.
Band #4 (Kylesa!)
Sadly, I never listened to Kylesa’s newest album Spiral Shadow from last year, so there were songs I did not recognized, but most of them still sounded pretty great. I wish I could have heard Phillip Cope’s vocal a little better, as his voice is pretty great—at multiple points he stepped back from the mic to let loose some monstrous yells. Having two drummers was nice to hear live, but I wish the guitars were less harsh, as on record there is so much detail in every instrument and some of that was lost live. Still a fun show and the spinning projection of their album cover was nice.
