purple

2011-05-20T11:14:00.002-04:00

It's official after trying and failing to get machinegunfunk, slumbilical, onthebeach and countless others too boring to name, I am officially switching to knotstoothick.tumblr.com.

Peace.

2011-05-18T09:43:00.000-04:00

Maybe now people will stop referring to it as a country.

2011-05-18T00:41:00.000-04:00

Japanese technology.

2011-05-13T14:34:00.002-04:00

Mali-BOO-YAH

2011-05-11T14:34:00.000-04:00

"Big" blog news on the horizon. I'm ready to leave movable type and blogger templates behind. Tumblr has been clearly better for a while and I'm finna embrace it. Just need a suitable blog title (Dave Chappelle references are so 2007).

Please don't send any suggestions.

2011-05-11T14:22:00.000-04:00

Big Bro's Outfits.

2011-05-10T14:26:00.000-04:00

Just an incredibly lyrically-sound rap song.

Lohans get the brakes (breaks), the T.I.'s we just steer (stare) through 'em.

2011-05-06T14:02:00.001-04:00

Robbery (Social ecological ad)

2011-05-05T16:00:00.002-04:00

Where do you fall?

2011-05-05T11:38:00.001-04:00

It's alive!

2011-04-29T13:16:00.001-04:00

My initial reaction was that it was pointless for Obama to succumb to the birther bullshit. Birther is just a byword for racist, hater, or bitter conservative. However, his tone on this video is pitch-perfect.

Grow up, you idiots.

2011-04-28T16:35:00.002-04:00

Ira Glass says that you're likely disappointed because your skill hasn't yet caught up to your taste. Spot-on.

2011-04-28T16:15:00.003-04:00

Spider traps an ant. Pretty creepy

2011-04-28T15:49:00.000-04:00

21 Q's and A's with some chick that wrote something that I really dug once.

2011-04-28T10:57:00.000-04:00

DJ Quik: Killer Dope from The Book of David.

2011-04-27T10:54:00.003-04:00

Jessica Lea Mayfield: Our Hearts Are Wrong from Tell Me

Hate has brought me up
The stairs into your house
I'll not let hate be the one
To make me naked for you

My self-esteem
Is heating up the room
You're intimidating as all hell
But i ain't scared of you

I know how you work
I am just like you
No matter what you say
Our hearts are wrong
Our hearts are wrong

Love has brought me down
Like love's been known to do
I try to deny with all my heart
That i'm in love with you

I don't really care
You knew that's what i'd say

The only time i miss you
Is every single day

2011-04-26T14:53:00.001-04:00

TV on the Radio: Staring at the Sun demo

The story goes that they got a record deal just on the strength of this song.

2011-04-25T16:00:00.001-04:00

Deerhunter: Nosebleed

2011-04-25T10:21:00.001-04:00

The per capita GDP in Bermuda is >$100K. I'm sensing that there is a significant wealth disparity there.

2011-04-24T17:03:00.002-04:00

Free Ai Weiwei

2011-04-24T16:10:00.004-04:00

Big Krit: The Return of 4Eva

The newest out da South

Big Krit is a rapper-producer from Mississippi. He has a typically-Southern legato and laconic delivery which makes his insights uniquely disarming. On his first major mixtape, 2010's Big Krit Wuz Here, those moments of insight were too breathless to resonate. With his words often further back in the mix - overwhelmed by the drums or the sample on the track - Krit seemed more intent on highlighting his production. Sedate tracks in the middle and at the end of the mixtape suffer as a result and, now, I rarely find myself listening beyond the bangers (particularly Adele-sampling, "Hometown Hero" and crunk-ass "Just Touched Down").

On Return of 4Eva, Krit presents an album that is a more complete portrait of himself as an artist. On the first verse of "Dreamin," Krit mentions the southern rap royalty that influenced him - a collection of legends ranging from Three-6 Mafia to 8Ball & MJG. Though this list isn't comprehensive (he doesn't mention Outkast or Organized Noize), he does a solid job of listing what you'll hear in his music. On the tracks devoted to celebrating cars ("Rotation," "My Sub," "Time Machine"), he sounds like Pimp C resurrected and more self-conscious. On "Dreamin" (particularly, that song's compelling third verse) and on "the Vent," he inhabits the doleful sentimentality of rap's original bluesman, Scarface. And most of his beats pay tribute to some amalgam of Organized Noize, Three-6 and UGK.

As an astute fan, Krit is able to distill so much of what's good about Southern rap - the bump, the funk, and the groove. He's attuned to the elemental and primordial instincts entwined in the rhythms (and in the words used to describe those rhythms). His beats are all honey-drip smooth with organic-sounding instrumentation and drums programmed bass-heavy but supple and drawling. You've heard all of these elements before but often not together and rarely this expertly.

2011-04-24T10:59:00.000-04:00

There are no limits. There are plateaus, and you must not stay there; you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. - Bruce Lee

HUMONGOUS article on memory.

2011-04-23T18:59:00.000-04:00

Really Fun Read About Listening to (vs. Reading) Rap

2011-04-21T10:59:00.001-04:00

2011-04-20T17:12:00.000-04:00

I grabbed Kim by the waist and started kissing her on her neck. I thought about Mary J. Blige and decided to play this situation differently. “Stop, not right now,” Kim said. “There are too many people up here.” I understood what she meant but I kept trying to sex her right there on the balcony.

Prodigy talks about the time he tried to date-rape Lil Kim.

2011-04-19T17:10:00.003-04:00

1. I've always thought Yo Yo Ma would make a good rap name. Or at least a good rap song name.

2. I can't believe he's scuffing up his J's like that.

3. I wonder if they'll eventually teach dance like this (i.e. jookin) at modern dance studios. It seems too individual and immediate to be made academic.

2011-04-19T14:31:00.000-04:00

Act One is one of the most harrowing things I've ever heard.

2011-04-18T22:30:00.001-04:00

Coachella Street Style

2011-04-18T17:05:00.000-04:00

2,123,131st!

2011-04-15T14:14:00.002-04:00

Sounds about right.

2011-04-14T21:13:00.003-04:00

Norm MacDonald's moth joke.

2011-04-14T16:54:00.001-04:00

"NYU is like a Jurassic 5 concert—there are supposed to be black people there, but there aren't."

Still not sure how I feel about this guy, but I might just be being a jealous hater.

2011-04-14T09:27:00.000-04:00

I was finna write something about why and how Bill Callahan is genius, but I don't know enough about his work with Smog (and I don't have enough hours in the day). My favorite critic, Sasha Frere-Jones "killed it," though.

Fear not - the Big K.R.I.T review is everything but written.

2011-04-13T14:36:00.003-04:00

Big K.R.I.T: Exhibit K
Not sure how this slipped by me before. Krizza!

2011-04-13T09:35:00.004-04:00

Not. Fucking. Cool.

2011-04-11T14:27:00.000-04:00

More Himanshu, less Ashok next time.

2011-04-06T17:54:00.002-04:00

Jay Electronica is precise and artful, playful and somber, pompous and modest. He is not prolific. If he were, he'd be perfect.

2011-04-05T17:11:00.000-04:00

Benjamin Franklin's Daily Schedule

2011-04-05T00:19:00.003-04:00

Be prepared to hear this quoted until the next Apatow movie comes out.

2011-04-04T16:08:00.000-04:00

Nardwuar should own a trademark on invading personal space.

2011-04-04T13:00:00.003-04:00

Suppository music!

2011-04-03T11:01:00.003-04:00

Chris Brown - Music - More Music Videos

I forgive him.

2011-04-02T10:15:00.002-04:00

2011-03-30T14:20:00.004-04:00

Got these f***ts shouting revolution, I am Earl, that shit's ruthless

In the booth, there's no spoofing, bitch I spit like I'm toothless

Fool, OF crew, fool y'all fruits and 'em

Lying like fuck truth, dropping shit like pollution

Dirty like a bum's unwiped ass now

I'm transitioning from class clown to cash cow

Indeed, I got steez to pass out

Believe I'm dope, but fucking breathe in crack house

She diseased on her knees, with ass out

Ace got on ski mask, she gon' need knee pads

Supreme 5 panels and green hats

Y'all don't come close like Winehouse and Rehab

Going back, no, the crafty assholes plateau

Got the game in a motherfucking lasso

Ride that ho, cruising in the music with the attitude

Of two kids, make 'em respect my two cents

Could really give two shits, let alone a dollar

My flows flows make bros go whoa, your mother says holler

Wack niggas say nada, OF the best, no synonym

Still my pockets slim like the Olsen twins, it's on

Off I piss 'em and dismissing 'em quick and my sentences

Stay Oliver Twisting like Charles Dickens death

Wishing competition, but listen, the plot thickens

I'm a stand up nigga, well fuck it, I'm not sitting

-Earl Sweatshirt, "CopKiller"

Free Earl. Seriously. Earl may have the best flow of any rapper - period. Name the last 16 year old rapper that was this good.

Don't worry, I'll wait...

2011-03-30T00:38:00.000-04:00

Dogtooth

2011-03-29T11:03:00.000-04:00

Lemon

2011-03-29T10:56:00.001-04:00

If you've ever liked thumping, syrup-y Southern rap and you're not listening to Returnof4Eva, Big K.R.I.T's latest gift to that subgenre, stop everything and do yourself a favor.

2011-03-28T11:24:00.002-04:00

Old Moola baby. (N.B. This is mildly humorous at points...slow news day).

2011-03-27T12:01:00.001-04:00

Mad Girl's Love Song

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;

I lift my lids and all is born again.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,

And arbitrary blackness gallops in:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed

And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:

Exit seraphim and Satan's men:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,

But I grow old and I forget your name.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;

At least when spring comes they roar back again.

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

-Sylvia Plath

2011-03-25T16:20:00.001-04:00

They say that I have no hits, and that I'm difficult to work with. And they say that like it's a bad thing.

2011-03-25T15:25:00.000-04:00

When asked what the phrase “sort of crushing” might mean in the context of high-stakes online poker, Cates shook his head and said: “I don’t know. I’ve lost maybe a million, a million point two over the past few days to Gus. Something like that.”

2011-03-23T22:44:00.000-04:00

Well-said.

2011-03-23T08:45:00.001-04:00

C A N N I B A L S !...!..!!!

2011-03-21T22:48:00.000-04:00

Photoessay

2011-03-18T15:05:00.000-04:00

A History of the World in 100 Seconds from Gareth Lloyd on Vimeo.

Many wikipedia articles have coordinates. Many have references to historic events. Me (@godawful) and Tom Martin (@heychinaski) cross referenced the two to create a dynamic visualization of Wikipedia's view of world history.

2011-03-17T20:38:00.002-04:00

Jesus H.

2011-03-17T19:59:00.002-04:00

Stockpile Chicken!

2011-03-15T00:08:00.002-04:00

The genius of James Blake, it seems to me, is that he made an album that is mainly preoccupied with production flourishes but imbued it with enough emotion to distract you from the knob-twiddling.

2011-03-13T22:47:00.001-04:00

2011-03-11T13:06:00.000-05:00

Modern Art by Craig Damrauer

2011-03-10T00:06:00.000-05:00

Kings of Pastry

But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.

-John Fitzgerald Kennedy, American President / Crappy airport namesake

2011-03-09T14:55:00.000-05:00

I feel like I have to get this...

2011-03-09T00:23:00.000-05:00

And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger.

2011-03-02T15:20:00.000-05:00

~~Fuck Kill Marry~~ Sheen Qaddafi Beck

2011-03-01T23:04:00.000-05:00

http://9-eyes.com/

The best collection of Google Street View pictures ever.

2011-03-01T12:25:00.001-05:00

2011-03-01T09:53:00.003-05:00

Free Kindles?!? I love business strategy.

2011-02-28T10:18:00.002-05:00

Thank you based god.

2011-02-26T19:42:00.002-05:00

It's amazing that such feminizing dance moves are what's cool amongst young black men. It's a resurgence of the 80s jheri curl or the 90s (and present-day) obsession with jewelry - things stereotypically associated with women being aggressively marketed to men who are stereotypically associated with aggression and machismo.
It's hard to be hard all the time.

2011-02-24T22:46:00.001-05:00

http://www.corinnevionnet.com/index.php?/photo-opportunities/

Series of photographic works entitled "Photo Opportunities", from hundreds of snapshots of tourist locations found on the Internet.
By collecting and then bringing together successive layers of around a hundred similar "photo souvenirs",
these images conjure up questions about representation and memory of places.

2011-02-23T21:58:00.003-05:00

Embedding Disabled.

2011-02-22T23:55:00.004-05:00

Tune-Yards: Bizness from the upcoming and probably perfect whokill

2011-02-22T21:42:00.001-05:00

Rick Ross: Teflon Don Freestyle

How good is Rick Ross? This didn't even make the album.

2011-02-21T16:54:00.000-05:00

There's a girl that you should know / She was mine not so long ago

2011-02-18T22:29:00.000-05:00

2011-02-17T23:10:00.000-05:00

The Rhythms Pronounce Themselves Then Vanish

After they told me the CT showed

there was nothing wrong with my stomach

but my heart was failing, I plunked

one of those weird two-dollar tea balls

I bought in Chinatown and it bobbed

and bloomed like a sea monster and tasted

like feet and I had at this huge

chocolate bar I got at Trader Joe's

and didn't answer the door even though

I could see it was UPS with the horse

medication and I thought of that picture

Patti took of me in an oval frame. Sweat

itself is odorless, composed of water,

sodium chloride, potassium salts,

and lactic acid; it's the bacteria growing

on dead skin that provides the stench.

The average life span of a human taste bud

is seven to ten days. Nerve pulses

can travel up to a hundred and seventy miles per hour.

All information is useless.

The typical lightning bolt

is one inch wide and five miles long.

-Dean Young

2011-02-17T22:16:00.001-05:00

"50 didn't sign me because I wore skinnies," he says. "I've never told anyone that before. He used to always try to get me to wear regular jeans and the shit was awkward. I get a lot of shit about skinnies. People hate on me all the time. I come in the room, shit tight, dick bulging, it's for the bitches!"

2011-02-17T12:46:00.000-05:00

Golf Wang on national television. WOW.

2011-02-16T19:38:00.000-05:00

J-Lie: Double XL ft. Curren$y, Kendrick Lamar & Mickey Factz

I'm loving this whole cloud rap movement...

2011-02-16T19:05:00.000-05:00

Got tickets to check out my homie Billy C.

2011-02-15T13:16:00.001-05:00

Happy Day After Valentine's.

2011-02-14T21:31:00.001-05:00

Einstein's workspace (picture taken on the day of his death).

2011-02-14T21:12:00.000-05:00

http://www.thekingoflimbs.com/

2011-02-11T14:32:00.000-05:00

You make me important.

2011-02-09T16:53:00.000-05:00

This reminds me of all the free time I used to have.

2011-02-07T14:04:00.000-05:00

Ronaldo is a twit. This move is awesome.

2011-02-03T16:10:00.000-05:00

If you don't "get" Lil B after this, you probably don't need to.

2011-02-03T14:02:00.002-05:00

So Punk.

2011-02-02T23:39:00.003-05:00

DMCA SAY NO STREAM!
Best Coast: Bratty B from Crazy for You.
If you want to be happy, get the album.

2011-01-29T17:49:00.002-05:00

Incredibly inappropriate.

2011-01-27T17:03:00.000-05:00

I wish this was around when I wrote this.

2011-01-25T20:45:00.001-05:00

Michael Jackson.

One million dollars.

You feel me?

Holla. Holla. Holla.

2011-01-20T20:33:00.000-05:00

LBJ Buys Pants from Put This On on Vimeo.

2011-01-17T23:26:00.003-05:00

Someone have a lighter?

2011-01-14T16:25:00.000-05:00

Kendall Marshall is the best PG on the Tar Heels and should be starting.

He also has eyes on the back of his head. Apparently.

2011-01-12T02:13:00.003-05:00

Destroyer's Kaputt

Nine albums in, it would be completely reasonable to expect Destroyer - né Dan Bejar - to have fallen into self-caricature. After all, Bejar is given to bombastic metaphors, obscure references, and the type of overreaching that can be dismissed as aimless rambling.¹ His lyrical tendencies are matched by an offstage persona that seems at odds with an increasingly convivial indie rock scene. Bejar has never been afraid to voice his distaste. In most interviews, he comes off as crotchety and finicky and you can usually sense the interviewers' reluctance to rankle him. You don't expect self-indulgence this deep-seated to have nine lives. And on his last album, 2008's Trouble in Dreams, there were signs that Destroyer was dying. TID seemed uninspired and too self-satisfied. It played as a death knell.

But Destroyer's genius lives on. With Kaputt, Destroyer has made the first great album of 2011 (and named it after a book that he has never read). Kaputt is typical Bejar: confident, precise, tangled and accomplished. In an intriguing turn, Bejar deserts the last record's generic Montreal indie rock sound² to embrace the musical signifiers of easy listening. Plasticized drums, 80's pop synthesizers, and woozy saxophones all make appearances, sounding more infectious than you remember on the many intros and outros. Destroyer has also turned off his verbal fireworks. Mostly gone are his tra-la-las and tumbling syllables. Instead, the whole album is sung in a disaffected croon with little emphasis given to even the most arresting lyrics.

Thematically, however, he remains preoccupied with the same things (music and musicians, language, and America) and they serve as the fodder for some of his most gnomic lyrics yet. On "Suicide Demo for Kara Walker," Bejar crafts an impressively circumspect song about race in America evoking the brown paper bag test, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Kara Walker's silhouettes, Obama and so much I have yet to untangle. All sung in a voice so cold that it could be wet.

^1. Try this excerpt from Destroyer's Rubies standout "3000 Flowers":
I was Clytemnestra on a good day,
Dispensing wisdom to the uninitiated,
The initiates brought out in tumbrels, shadowed by the dawn.
(Shadowed by the dawn, shadowed by the dawn.)

^2. Think guitar-heavy, rhythm-light and slightly twee. Not the Springsteen-aping of Arcade Fire, but the jangly asides of Wolf Parade or the thankfully, now-defunct Unicorns.

2011-01-11T20:52:00.000-05:00

Joanna Newsom: Good Intentions Paving Company from Have One on Me
Have One on Me is exhausting - more than two hours of music spread over three discs - but it has sustaining moments (particularly on "You and Me, Bess," "Kingfisher," the posted track, and the title track) that appear like applauding onlookers encouraging you to keep running.

2011-01-10T18:52:00.000-05:00

The Vice Guide to Everything - MTV Shows

I'm sorta obsessed with Lil B and the whole Odd Future crew (Tyler the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, MellowHype etc) right now. It's difficult to talk about, though, because their music is so repulsive. Without the context of their Twitter pages and videos like the one above, their songs are inexcusably homophobic, frighteningly offensive and downright misanthropic. They're also gorgeous, clever, layered and not boring. But, you usually have to sustain a pummeling before you reap any rewards.

SWAG.

2011-01-07T19:55:00.001-05:00

From SWDJ: A histogram of all Pitchfork.com reviews for the 2010.

2011-01-06T19:24:00.004-05:00

Godbody