Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Final Fantasy meets Andrew Bird meets hip-hop. ...wait, what?

The entire thing is just too surreal and hilarious to pass up. As it turns out Owen Pallette, the violin looping musician otherwise known by his ridiculus monicker, Final Fantasy, paired up recently with Canadian emcee (okay, we can all stop giggling about Canadian hip-hop now) Cadence Weapon to perform some live music.

I did a little digging and found that Cadence Weapon is pretty damn awesome, in a Anti-Pop Consortium kind of way. Beautiful, fractured beats with an electronic/experimental bent. So they go and perform "Sharks" from his album, with Pallette providing underlying violin loops. If that's not enough for this violin worshiping, hip-hop loving blogger, Pallette decided to build the loops quoting from Andrew Bird's tracks, Imitosis and A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left ending with Cadence quoting the latter's lyrics.

One can only imagine how this blogger reacted (I always keep a spare pair of pants around for just such an occasion.) The results are not as awful as one could expect, in fact I shook my booty violently. And the best part, it introduced me to some great hip-hop.

Now the Andrew Bird fan in me has to ask, is this move an homage, a compliment? Or has Pallette thrown the musical gauntlet down expecting some type of challenge. That can only mean one thing... LOOP BATTLE!!!!!!! Begging the question, who will MC for Bird? Following the Anti Pop Consortium tip, I'm putting my money down for Beans.

Give this booty shakin' track a listen

Monday, July 02, 2007

NASA knocks Gnarls Barkley into orbit.

I mean... just... I... it... we... I... sputter... This looks entirely too hot for words....

Pitchfork reported today that Squeak E. Clean (Spike Jonze's brother) and DJ Zegon are joining forces to make a crossover hip-hopish act to rival the likes of Gnarls Barkley, but with a FAR more impressive guest list.

There is NOTHING confirmed about this album yet. No date, no track list, no label, but the following artists make guest appearances. The album features MANY great artists including (but not limited to): Tom Waits (!!!), M.I.A. (!!!), RZA, ODB, Method Man, Kool Keith, Fatlip and SlimKid Tre (!!!) of the Pharcyde, The Gift of Gab (!!!!!!!!!!!!), KRS-1, *wheeeeeeeeeeeeeze* George Clinton, Seu George, Chali 2na (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and Nina Persson.

Excuse me while I catch my breath. Pitchfork was kind enough to post a stream of the material you can hear on this yet-to-be released, named or even picked up by a label album, featuring 2na, RZA and ODB among others. Needless to say, it sounds quite hot, and I foresee hype building up far beyond what Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse were able to accomplish, and I bet Squeak and Zegon don't even need to dress up in silly costumes to do it.

Given that all but one of my most anticipated albums of 2007 are out now, this album climbs high in the charts for albums I can't wait to get my grubby little hands on.

Editors note: To Chali 2na, your appearance on this album, though most welcome, does not obscure the fact that you've been promising us a solo album for how many years now? Each public appearance (again, more than welcome) brings to surface the fact that we've yet to get the long-promised and much-ballyhooed Fish Outta Water. So pony up dude!