Chickens Don’t Clap!

Fever Sleeves are a band on the cusp. They’ve been together for roughly 5 years and have had to deal with their fair share of setbacks; they’ve juggled college (with one member going to school outside of San Diego), endured intermittent hiatuses, been stuck with frustrating recording arrangements, and have scrapped a number of songs as they’ve grown as a band. Somehow, they’ve managed to survive, stay on the same page artistically speaking, and have finally unveiled their first official release (ie: non-self-release), the excellent Futuristic Killings 7-inch.

The circumstances listed above, plus the loudness and ferocity of their live show, as well as the apparently ever-plaguing lameness of San Diego as a music city, have largely prevented Fever Sleeves from developing a sizable following. Though that’s not to say they haven’t earned the respect of their peers, compatriots, and others. As a result of their newfound consistency, they’ve been featured on local radio, developed relationships with impressive San Diego bands, and earned the backing of some major figures of the local music scene. Perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle has been Black Box Recording Studios where Fever Sleeves have recorded material not only for this debut 7-inch, but also for their as-of-yet-untitled full-length. Currently mastering and label shopping, the Sleeves are poised to collect a wider recognition that is long overdue… personally, I’m very excited to see where it all goes.

As far as first steps are concerned, “Futuristic Killings” is definitely a strong foot to lead with. For this highly-technical band that blends prog, hardcore, indie rock, post-punk, and math-rock, it is easily their most pop-oriented offering so far. Infectious guitar licks soar over surging moog and relentless drums, the melodies are memorable and engaging, and the vocals are at once ethereal and forceful. While the track contains musical refrains, shifting song parts and the lack of a chorus convey a sense of constant progression as lead-vocalist Tony Gidlund delivers a gem-filled diatribe against group think, herd mentality, and more specifically frat-life:

Alpha Beta fortune for a friend
Paid a rate to have companions
Way to imitate a fish in a school
Ain’t ya heard of individualism, bro?

According to my iPod count, I’ve listened to this song a nearly-embarrassing number of times… and after you listen to it I’m sure you’ll understand why. Yet, “Futuristic Killings” is ultimately just one piece of Fever Sleeves’ larger, refreshingly diverse sound. Try to concisely define it and you can struggle for whatever label you wish, progressive indie rock, mathy tech pop, technical post-hardcore-pop… in the end, their music is many things, but above all it is their own.

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Download: Fever Sleeves - Futuristic Killings
Buy: The 7-inch is available through a Paypal mailorder on their myspace page in either pastel pink, hot pink, or red vinyl. Orders will also include a CD-R so you can upload the tracks to your (futuristic) mp3 player. And while you’re there you can also listen to the b-side, “Tigers for Hire”.

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Download: Fever Sleeves - Maximum Castles
Buy: From the Black Box Vol. 1 compilation, which is available in digital or CD format on Amazon… or you could send an e-mail to Black Box and order it from them directly.

Though it’s being billed as a Re-Up Gang song, Ab-Liva and Sandman are nowhere to be found on this decidedly solid party-up track… and it’s certainly a whole lot better than anything on the disappointing Clipse Presents: Re-Up Gang. Produced by Maestro, who was responsible for “3 Peat” on Tha Carter III, we’re left wondering if this simply didn’t make it onto the crew album or if Clipse is giving us an early glimpse of their upcoming Till the Casket Drops. Unfortunately, the latter seems unlikely considering the recent announcement that the record has been pushed back to 2009 (this is starting to feel all too familiar). Either way, if you weren’t excited about the trajectory their latest effort hinted at, “Celebrate” might help wash that bitter taste out of your mouth.

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Download: Clipse - Celebrate (feat. Joss Stone)

D.C. rapper Wale is one of the most exciting up-and-comers in hip-hop these days. Running on mixtapes, singles, live shows, word of mouth, and hometown props, he’s managed to assemble a really impressive producer line-up for his highly anticipated major-label debut (out sometime in 2009), garnered a plethora of good press and legitimate hype, and rubbed elbows, performed and toured with some of the biggest figures in hip-hop. Of particular note is his latest mixtape, The Mixtape About Nothing, which has been critically hailed as an effort so focused and so excellent that it transcends the medium itself.

While there’s been a discernible shift for the better in the quality of mixtape-crafting over the past couple years, most are simply used to fill the void between official album releases (which, unfortunately, can be sizable in the hip-hop world) or as hype-creating teasers for upcoming records. Artists don’t typically bank on conceptual quality as the driving force of a mixtape, but instead rely on a widely cast net of prominent recycled beats and tracklists 25+ songs in length. And while there’s no question The Mixtape About Nothing has created a fair amount of hype for Wale’s debut, it opts for predominantly original production (courtesy of Best Kept Secret) and is executed with such cohesion and skill, one might be surprised that it’s a mixtape at all. [I'd like to point out that this refreshing aspect of The Mixtape About Nothing is covered in more depth in an excellent post over at Passion of the Weiss.]

As the cover art and title suggest, Wale’s most recent effort is centered around the theme of Seinfeld; the song titles are formatted just like the show’s episode titles (”The _______”), it’s full of lyrical references, samples heavily from the show, and he even got Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who played Elaine) to drop in for a humorous/slightly embarrassing shout-out. And under the pretense of crafting a mixtape “about nothing”, like anything from Larry David, Wale slyly touches on nearly everything, with a portion of his wide breadth of topics laid out in Seinfeldian “what’s the deals” in the intro (over the show’s theme song) and others subsequently explored with an impressive amount of complexity and wit.

Beyond it’s conceptual focus, The Mixtape About Nothing is also notable for Wale’s formidable presence as an MC. With dense wordplay and vocabulary he’s able to effortlessly layer self-reflexive humor and satire, clever deconstruction and dissection, and poignant insight into a series of varied cadences. Leaping from the off-kilter flow on “The Opening Sequence”, to fitting in comfortably with Bun B and Pusha T or Lil’ Wayne, to showcasing his verbal agility on the self-conscious “Roc Boys” freestyle, to the laid back emotion of “The Remake of a Remake”, or to any of the other styles he flips, Wale makes it sound way too easy. There’s no doubt he recognizes the value of his contributions to the genre (what’s a rapper without an ego?) and yet, for all his obvious skills, Wale won’t be using his bravado to vie for the title of “Best Rapper Alive” or similar accolades anytime soon. From “The Vacation from Ourselves”:

…And they label me a king; you can kindly take it back
I don’t want no fuckin’ crown, I don’t need no fuckin’ throne
See, the kings get killed, or at least overthrown…

It’s just one tiny example of Wale’s ability to take familiar topics in hip-hop, turn them on their head, and approach them with a refreshing balance of ego, modesty, intelligence, and complexity… something he does at nearly every step on The Mixtape About Nothing. Check out a few tracks below, including “The Kramer”, perhaps one of the most painfully honest and thoughtful reflections on race in hip-hop, period.

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Download: Wale - The Kramer

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Download: Wale - The Vacation from Ourselves

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Download: Wale - The Artistic Integrity

The Mixtape About Nothing is available for free download over at Elitaste.

Despite being a band in its very early stages, San Francisco duo Girls (Chet JR White and Christopher Owens) have already garnered attention from some serious internet indie heavyweights (Gorilla vs. Bear, Pitchfork). They haven’t released a full-length, or even an EP, as of yet, but the few tracks that have come out of this band so far hint at a decent range of exceptional pop sensibilities. Of the five songs they’ve got floating around, I’m particularly amped on “Lust for Life” and “Hellhole Ratrace”.

These two tracks are a bit like two sides of the same coin; while they both operate on the same basic songwriting principals, the end results are quite different. “Lust for Life”, the title track from their most recent 7-inch single, is an upbeat blurb of endearing pop. Somehow lyrically earnest and farcical all at once and driven entirely by a single catchy guitar riff and vocal melody, with just a subtle one-measure variation on both, it’s impressive that they can even pull this song off. But, Girls appear to have a peculiar knack for utilizing simplicity in all facets of their music. On “Hellhole Ratrace”, in which the guitars and vocals rely heavily on just two basic chord progressions (over about 7 minutes), they again harness that same kind of unrestrained straightforwardness and repetition to craft a more pensive, mesmerizing track. Here, Girls start out simple and sparse, but gradually add layers of sound until the song becomes a surging wall of shoegaze-like guitars. This builds against the plainspoken melancholy in the nearly-pleading lyrics rather effectively, conveying a sense of genuine honesty in the emotional reiteration of the chorus.

They’ve got a couple more tracks up on their myspace that are worth checking out as well; “Lauren Marie”, with its twangy guitar strums, haunting synth, and sparse percussion, is almost The Jesus and Mary Chain by-the-numbers, and “Morning Light” finds Girls exploring lo-fi, garage-rock sounds. Considering they’ve only got a few songs out, I’m surprised at how often I find myself coming back to them.

Still waiting on news of a full-length, but you vinyl-indulgers might wanna check out the Lust for Life 7-inch that’s out on True Panther Sounds. Only 500 copies were pressed and they’re selling quick, so pick one up while you can.

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Download: Girls - Lust for Life

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Download: Girls - Hellhole Ratrace
Buy: Order the Lust for Life 7-inch from the True Panther Sounds webstore.