Photography by PriCipEssa

Holy crap!  It’s Friday!  Uh-huh-uh-huh!  The sun is out, the roads are clear, I even got to ride my road bike… OUTSIDE!  I know, crazy, right?   Check out a quick mobile pic I took on the ride in, the last stretch:

Oh sure, it was cold & there was a little black ice to avoid, but screw it.  I needed to get back on my bike!!!

Speaking of, oh I don’t know, let’s say, uh, good times, sure.  Guess what?  One of you guys bought a “What’s A Teh-Soo-Roo Anyways” shirt last night!

Say what?  That’s fucking awesome!  Now this is through Zazzle, so I made $1.30 off the shirt (all of which will go toward the continuation of the TsuruNation Domination Actuation plan), but more importantly, one of you crazy music geeks is going to be getting some rather interesting looks as you strut (and you BETTER strut) that shirt down your ‘hood!

Think I might have to pick one up, not just for me, but maybe as a giveaway soon, eh?

But anyways, to our first buyer, to the first brave soul who challenged conformity to wear a very un-hip ironically-hip but not really-hip shirt, I got a little something for you. Go ahead, push play:

WOOT!

Hey… Dir-tay…

What?  Not your cup o’ tea…. Fine, how about this?

Yeah, it’s Kanye, but man, that song is all things Mmm….

Anyways, to the purchaser of the shirt, I guess what I’m (poorly) trying to say is, “thanks!”  You made my evening last night.

Speaking of delicious, doesn’t a drink called “Carolina Chocolate Drops” just sound amazing?  Unfortunately, the booze will have to wait til tonight, but I got something that sounds fives times as nice, Genuine Negro Jig!

This should be a nice transition from yesterday’s old-timey sound as these guys basically take a banjo, a violin, and play something from dimension.  Part O Brother Where Art Thou, part modern hip-hop/R&B.  Yeah.  Seriously.  What?  I know.  It works.  Fucked up, but works.

Now, these guys are on Nonesuch & Nonesuch scares the shit out of me so let’s just share my favourite song on the album, “Hit ‘Em Up Style”.  But be warned… It will floor you.

1. Peace Behind The Bridge
2. Trouble In Your Mind
3. Your Baby Ain’t Sweet Like Mine
4. Hit ‘Em Up Style
5. Cornbread And Butterbeans
6. Snowden’s Jig [Genuine Negro Jig]
7. Why Don’t You Do Right?
8. Cindy Gal
9. Kissin’ And Cussin’
0. Sandy Boys
11. Reynadine
12. Trampled Rose

Chocolate Drop love!  Official | Buy

It’s a twofer today, so let’s keep the love going with something COMPLETELY outside my wheelhouse yet still on track with our semi-rap-focused post.  This time with the rap-dance-funkish stylings of Galactic’s Ya-Ka-May!

Really can’t explain this (outside what of what I just wrote), we’ll leave that to the genuine music crickets out there, but I can say this.  You WILL put this on and you WILL shake your ass and You WILL feel good.  That’s all there is to it.  It’s fun and I can’t think of a better way to send this ass-kicking week out, can you?

I didn’t think so.

Here we go!  Enjoy!

1. Friends of Science
2. Boe Money (featuring The Rebirth Brass Band)
3. Double It (featuring Big Freedia)
4. Heart of Steel (featuring Irma Thomas)
5. Wild Man (featuring Big Chief Bo Dollis)
6. Bacchus (featuring Allen Toussaint)
7. Katey vs. Nobby (featuring Katey Red and Sissy Nobby)
8. Cineramascope (featuring Trombone Shorty and Corey Henry)
9. Dark Water (featuring John Boutte)
10. Do It Again (featuring Cheeky Blakk)
11. Liquor Pang (featuring Josh Cohen and Scully)
12. Krewe d’etat
13. You Don’t Know (featuring Glen David Andrews)
14. Speaks His Mind (featuring Walter “Wolfman” Washington)
15. Do It Again (again) (featuring Cheeky Blakk)

Some Galactic love!  Myspace | Official | Label

Have a great weekend everyone!  Have fun, go riding, and I’ll talk to you soon…

Cheers,
Tsuru

Photography by Elle

Well… The weather outside is frightful, but the fire’s soooo delightful.  I wish there was no place to go today, but alas & alas, here we are and here we must be, no snuggling in a bed all day for us today.  As the French say, “kest le vye, kest le vye”, that’s life man.

One thing about the snow, it’s keeping me indoors on the various stationary bikes.  Not cool.  BUT, made the most of it and did my first product review yesterday on a spinning video for cyclists!  So, for all you hardcore mammer-jammers out there looking for a distracting motivator while spinning your wheels in futility in your basement, check it out.

Yeah, yeah, enough about cycling, I know what you are here for, I’m here for the exact same reason!  And today, I was very pleasantly surprised to find floating around on this super information intertubal river system of love The Desert of Shallow Effects by Miles Kurosky, who is the lead guy from Beulah who’s name I can’t seem to remember (which explains why I was pleasantly surprised).

I read about this album coming about a year ago, I think.  Certainly a while back.  I think there were issues causing the delay of the album, including some hospital time by either Miles or someone important to the album.  I was following along for a while, but ultimately other interests took my attention away.   So much so, that I forgot the guy’s name is Miles Kurosky.  So, when I saw this thing floating around, it was by happenstance that I looked inside and saw that it was Beulah.

HOORAY!

I’m very curious how the hype machine (not The Hype Machine website, I mean, the actual hype machine that is you, me, and the rest of this blog-eat-blog universe) will treat this album.  I mean, according to Amazon, this is “sure to be one of the most talked-about indie-rock records of 2010″

Apparently, one of the songs, “An Apple For An Apple” was already myspace-released back in 2008 and granted, I don’t always have my finger on the pulse of the blogosphere, I completely missed it.  WHIFF!

So…. how is it?  Does it live up to the hype that I’m apparently completely oblivious to??  Does it meet the lofty expectations Amazon and “Pitchfork & other influential blogs” have set upon it???  I don’t know.  Probably not.  When you go out on top, you can’t come back and just keep on going, I don’t think the brains of a music lover work like that.  If Neutral Milk Hotel put out an album right now, I’d imagine they’d have a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of “meeting expectations”.

Maybe that’s why this is a Miles Kurosky album, eventhough Beulah was pretty much Miles already, and let me tell ya, this album’s chocked full o’ Beulah (it even has old members on it)?  Does going solo 6 years after the demise of a beloved band give you a fighting chance or an excuse not to match the vision of Beulah that bounces around in our tiny little noggins?  These arequestions for wiser people than myself.

Me?  I just have 10 songs sitting on my mp3 player of necessity, 10 relatively tiny clumps of time that represent the 6 years of work by Miles that may or may not involve an owl.

I’ll say it again….. and again… and again.  I’m so glad I’m not a musician, or more specifically, a recording artist.  Don’t know how you guys do it.  But I’m so glad you do.   I think I’ll just stick to photography, thank you.

So, yeah, the album. Well, it’s today’s feature, so obviously I like it.  The more I listen, the more I like it.  It’s got elements that are immediately enjoyable, but I think there’s more here, more nuggets to enjoy later as well as the shine fades and it all settles in properly.  In all honesty, if you told me this was Beulah and not Miles Kurosky, I’d say, “yeah, that sounds about right”, because, it DOES sound like what I imagine a 2010 Beulah to sound like, that is, evolved, moved on, but still “Beulah-y”.  If that makes any sense (probably not).

Will it be one of the most talked-about indie-rock albums of 2010?  Personally, I don’t think so… In this day, it seems the most talked-about albums are trendy genres (like maybe the weird-electronic-pop trend going on) and a few really hyped up bands like Vampire Weekend.  But, man, I’ve been wrong before.  More often than not.

But who cares?  It’s up to you and me, i.e. the music listener, to like or dislike something, not Pitchfork or whatever the hell makes up the list of “other influential blogs”.  So, listen and figure it out for yourself!

Enjoy!

1. Notes From The Polish Underground
2. An Apple For An Apple
3. Dead Language Blues
4. I Can?t Swim
5. She Was My Dresden
6. Pink Lips, Black Lungs
7. The World Won?t Last The Night
8. Housewives And Their Knives
9. Dog In The Burning Building
10. West Memphis Skyline

Some Miles linkage: Myspace | Official | Label

Cheers,

Tsuru