Jason Toney

Geezers Need Excitement

"I know it�s hard to take but her mind has been made up/There�s plenty more fish in the sea" - The Streets, Dry Your Eyes [buy the album] This is what I fear about getting older:

Like some who wrote in, I initially confused Timbaland with a well known pop singer called Justin Timberlake. Some listeners may know of the latter because he appeared with Janet Jackson during her infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at this past winter's Super Bowl broadcast. Ulaby's interview with Timbaland was about how he found inspiration in the Tolkien novels, The Lord of the Rings. It seemed an unusual combination, but Ulaby made Timbaland more comprehensible and his music more accessible. This was good cultural journalism: It introduced me to an artist I didn't know. It told me why he is important and why he is an artist. I may not run out to buy his CD, but at least I can make an informed choice. - NPR's Ombudsman (initially found via Anil)

Nevermind the confusion between Timbaland and Timberlake, which is just crazy, but then to not even make the connection that there's a relationship between Timbaland and JT? To be so out of touch with contemporary music that while listening to a music piece that uses several Justin Timberlake tracks that Timbaland produced and, I believe, even refers to Timbaland in context with Justin and still not correlate that not only are they not the same person but that Timbaland produced what was the signature track on Justin's solo album while also being one of the most creative and forward thinking producers in pop music today? Sigh. Please shoot me in 30 years if I'm on some old man bullshit like that. I have absolutely no plans for this weekend? Wanna hang out? I'm trying to go to the Apple Store in Santa Monica tomorrow so I can meet up with alphabet girl and see the guy she manages perform. Other than that...it's lookin' like DVDs and chores. What kind of shit is that? Also, I will buy you something off your wishlist if you can figure out what the hell's going on with my typekey and comment problems. The milk's gone bad. hit me up via email and if you're not crazy I'll give you access to my MT and you can work your magic. My mind just is not working looking at all that code today.

10 after 6

"When I'm feeling alone, you feel like home, you feel like home" - Zero 7, Somersault (Dangermouse Remix) Halfway There
The Top 10 Albums of the first half of 2004. In order. 10. AIR - Talkie Walkie AIR is best heard when you're by yourself, or at least want to be alone. Talkie Walkie feels solemn and pensive, looking inward. It's an empty park on a blustery gray day. Talkie Walkie also has tons of tracks that you'd want to end a mix CD with. I've listened to it less as the year has gone on but it dominated my winter. Download Universal Traveler (25 itunes spins) [Buy the album] 9. Toots & The Maytals - True Love I'm a pretty new listener to Reggae, Ska and it's roots. This compilation with one of the originators of the style performing with some of the best artists across all forms of America's popular music is a great introduction to Toots Hibbert's songs and his powerful, striking voice. Download Reggae Got Soul (featuring Ken Boothe and Marcia Griffiths) (11 itunes spins) [Buy the album] 8. Madvillain - Madvillainy Madlib always blows me away with his production. The gritty tracks he's built for MF Doom are perfect for Doom's many rhyme aliases and Madvillian stands strong from start to finish. Download Fancy Clown (featuring Viktor Vaughn) (8 itunes spins) [Buy the album] 7. Cee-Lo Green...is the Soul Machine Cee-Lo is baad, man. Hip hop so funky it makes your bootyhole pucker. "Whenever you need some soul, start him up." Indeed. Download My Kind of People (featuring Jazze Pha & Menta Malone) (24 itunes spins) [Buy the album] 6. Modest Mouse - Good News for People who love Bad News No, I'm not obsessed with Float On. It's a cool song that's been squeezed into a smashing pumpkins video and is a little too radio friendly for an act that is more more interesting than pop music is allowed to be but whose to say that that's a bad thing? If Float On gets folks to hear The Good Times Are Killing Me and Ocean Breathes Salty and the blaring of horns just for the sake of horns, well, then that's a good thing. "And that is that and this is this." Download Ocean Breathes Salty (13 itunes spins) [Buy the album] 5. DJ Nu-Mark - Hands On It's not just that I love his blending of intro tracks from several different albums and artists into a head nod dream (and don't think that I'm not totally biting that concept with all the intros and skits I've got...it's damn harder than it sounds) it's the middle of this album that I love. From Chali 2na's jump up and get down Chali 2na Comin' Thru to Viktor Vaughn's Saliva it's fun , upbeat, rarely heard tracks from some very adept rhyme slingers over really solid beatwork. Nu-Mark is always impressive when he's showing his turntablist skills live, I'm incredibly happy that he's as adept at picking tracks on his own compilation album. Download Melody (7 itunes spins) [Buy the album] 4. Ozomatli - Street Signs I've only had this album in my possession for a few days but it's speaking to me. It's probably the perfect album for a Los Angeles Summer. It sounds like LA. It's alive and vibrant. It makes me sing loudly in my car. It makes me want to get out of my car at stop lights and dance. Download Te Estoy Buscando (3 itunes spins) [Buy the album] 3. RJD2 - Since We Last Spoke It's just a special, special album. RJD2 takes the sensibilities of a hip hop producer and just takes them to a completely different world. Wonderful, romantic, multi-faceted music. Get Iced Lightning on (18 itunes spins) [Buy the album] 2. Rewind 3 The album with the most spins combined in my itunes library, Ubiquity's compilation of many of the artists on their label (and some that aren't) doing covers and remakes of some of their favorite songs is inspired and awe-inspiring. Antibalas, This Kid Named Miles, Nobody, Greyboy and the rest just do beautiful and unexpected things on what are already great tracks. I think everyone needs this is in their music library but that's just me being hyperbolic. Download Genevieve (33 itunes spins) [Buy the album] 1. Zero 7 - When It Falls Now, this is just for me. I reviewed the album earlier this year and then I sort of reviewed the show. It's the absolute embodiment of my first 6 months in 2004. Download Passing By (12 itunes spins) [Buy the album]

The Two Zeros

"One day all them bags gone get in your way." - Erykah Badu, Bag Lady Trent loved the list David was making and I'm loving both so I figured I had to chime in. My top 20 albums of the new millenium so far. 20. Since I Left You - The Avalanches (2000/Modular) 19. Justified - Justin Timberlake (2002/JIVE) 18. Another Late Night - Zero 7 (2002/Kinetic) 17. Phrenology - The Roots (2002/MCA) 16. Voodoo - D'Angelo (2000/Virgin) 15. One Beat - Sleater-Kinney (2002/Kill Rock Stars) 14. In Between - Jazzanova (2002/Atlantic) 13. Aaliyah - Aaliyah (2001/Blackground) 12. American IV: The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash (2002/Universal) 11. One Word Extinguisher - Prefuse 73 (2003/Warp) 10. Vespertine - Bjork (2001/Elektra) 09. The Colored Section - Donnie (2002/Giant Step) 08. Like Water for Chocolate - Common (2000/MCA) 07. Shades of Blue - Madlib (2003/Blue Note) 06. Reflection Eternal - Talib Kweli & DJ Hi-Tek (2000/Priority) 05. Red, Hot + Riot - Various Artists (2002/MCA) 04. AOI: Bionix - De La Soul (2001/Tommy Boy) 03. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below - Outkast (2003/La Face) 02. Simple Things - Zero 7 (2001/Palm Pictures) 01. Mama's Gun - Erykah Badu (2000/Kedar) If I was on a desert island with an ipod filled with the tracks from these albums, I'd be happy for a long time. It pretty well acknowledges my eclectic tastes and includes my favorite artists of the era. The honorable mentions would include Verve Remixed, Duck Season Vol. One, Back To Mine (Tricky), and the Ocean's 11 Soundtrack. I'm surprised, too, because I'm a sucker for good compilation and/or mix/remix albums and I love those 4 but there were some albums that just had to be there. I only considered albums I actually own and because just about all of them are in my itunes, it wasn't as difficult to widdle down as I expected. I'm also surprised neither of Kelis' albums made the list but Wanderland did get close. Zero 7 appears twice, although Another Late Night is a compilation mixed by them and is, easily, the best comp album I have in my collection. Zero 7 is maybe my favorite act of the 2000s.

Negro Please and the Inappropriate Crush

"I love you, I love you, I love you , I do. I only make jokes to distract myself from the truth, from the truth." - Zero 7, Distractions I'm in love with Hermione Granger. There, I've said it.

Why He Walks and Talks This Way

"Forget about your worries/Forget about your bad times/Life is but a shadow" - Handsome Boy Modeling School, Sunshine (So, How's Your Girl...) It's a harrowing dance the DJ has with his music. We imagine the good DJ is always in control and command of his partner, manipulating and moving the sounds to his whim. Watching Live! In Tune & On Time, however, you get the sense that even the most masterful of disc jockeys are on the brink of chaos. The beat drives and builds to a crescendo, ever faster and harder, the crowd reacts ever more strongly wanting only to grow as the music grows. The DJ must be in that moment while also being two steps ahead. He's in a race with the rhythm and he has to win. In Tune & On Time was shot on October 19th, 2002 in Brighton (UK) about a month before I got to watch Shadow do his thing at the KCRW Sounds Eclectic Evening after-party. He was tight and focused that night spinning a lot of hip hop that didn't bear his name. Now I understand why. The nearly two hours that made up his tour sets consisted almost entirely of self-produced tracks--many off of his solo albums (Endtroducing, Pre--emptive Strike, The Private Press and the U.N.K.L.E. collabo) and the rest of the set filled with several of the pieces he had cut together for others like Handsome Boy Modeling School and Blackalicious. There are very few hip hop DJs that could spin 40 tracks of original instrumental music that they created and command the attention of thousands of people. Who knows what lurks in the hearts of sweaty, head nod maniacs? Only the Shadow knows. Would you know Josh Davis if he walked past you on the street? Unassuming in his Quannum sweatshirt and jeans, hat cocked to the back, he walked down the aisle of the Cecci Gori Fine Arts Theatre right next to us. He was dressed the least hip in this very hipster crowd and initally I assumed he was just another early twenty something angling for a better seat to view what was sure to be musical majesty. He introduced the film, thanked everyone for coming, and walked back up the aisle as the lights dimmed. He was no different on that Brighton stage and as he welcomed us to his show on screen we were transported to that night. "Love is the Answer," someone screamed from the right side of the theatre and we all relaxed into our chairs realizing this was more night at the club than night at the movies. Shadow's visual and audio performance didn't dissapoint. Using short films by Ben Stokes to complement his beats, the film merges the aural and the optical perfectly. We quickly found ourselves nodding our heads and raising our hands. We suppressed the urge to scream "Put Your Hands Down!" to the people on screen who for a moment might block our view of Shadow's stage. None of this could really prepare us for what it would be like to get an up close and personal view of him mastering the turntables. I was mesmerized by the scratching that took place in Scratch: The Movie (particularly Q-Bert and Shadow's section of the film) but I hadn't seen anything like this before. No overdone grandstanding like you might see at a Turntablist contest, Shadow presents the most spectacular crab scratch you are like to ever see. It's brilliant. It will make you want to DJ yourself. "Engage the moment!" the disembodied voice in the theatre screamed. Really, how could you not? This is the perfect party DVD. Even if you're playing other music, having it on screen and on repeat would be a wonderful touch. Especially if you want to impress hipster cats like me. The DVD and accompanying CD hits stores June 15th. On June 14th, DJ Shadow heads home to Mill Valley to spend the rest of the year working on his next record. I'm not sure which piece of news you should be more excited about.

Nice Manners, Babe

"Welcome back to the classic stories that's been told" - Gift of Gab, Flashback (4th Dimensional Rocket Ships Going Up) My favorite John Hughes film has always been Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It's the sexiest and smartest of his teen comedies. There is perhaps no better acting in his films, however, than Anthony Michael Hall's and Gedde Watanabe's star turns in Sixteen Candles. The HSW and I went to a midnight showing at the Nuart Friday night. We'd both never seen it in a theatre before. There's quite a difference. You notice the subtle things you never saw on television (the female DJ in the top right corner of the screen at the dance, the scribbling all over the curtains in Jake Ryan's house when we first enter the party, the license plate on his dad's car which reads "NYSE", etc. etc.) and you are amazingly aware of just how good 15 year old Anthony Michael Hall is. When his Farmer Ted, wearing an apron and mixing horrible cocktails, talks to Jake Ryan in the kitchen after everyone has left the party, it is one of the most nuanced comedic performances you can get. He is holding court with Jake, dropping olives into short glasses, discussing Samantha and women in general. He slides up onto the counter and crosses his legs lightly tugging his jeans up onto his knee. In the midst of this genuine conversation between the geek and the prom king, Anthony Michael Hall's character visibly grows up in front of you. He turns from geek to prophet all while offering Jake Ryan pretzels and peanuts. Meanwhile, Gedde Watanabe is in the comic stratosphere turning what could have been a woefully awful stereotypical character into a tour de force. Which brings me to my next point and problem with John Hughes films. I know Chicago is crazy segregated and was even more so 20 years ago but, damn, where all the brown people at? There ain't no brothas on the football and basketball teams in that high school? And, twenty years later, there are some jokes in the script that didn't get laughs from this midnight audience. Like,

Geek: Will you fix your hair, Bryce. Bryce: (trying to) I already did. Geek: Wheeze, close your bone, all right. (Cliff turns his back and zips up his fly. He then turns back.) Geek: And be polite to his parents okay? Bryce & Cliff: Okay. (The Geek rings the doorbell and Dong answers the door. Bryce and Cliff both take a step back.) Dong: Hey, come on it! The party�s hot, dude, person. (laughs) Geek: He�s from outta town�he speaks English, all right? Don�t be such faggots!

and some that still did

Randy: Why don�t you remind them? They�ll feel some massive guilt, it could be highly profitable. Sam: I wouldn�t stoop to remind them. Since I was about 12 I�ve been looking forward to my sweet sixteen. You know, a big party and a band, tons of people� Randy: �and big TransAm in the driveway with a ribbon around it�and some incredibly gorgeous guy that you meet like in France, and you could do it on a cloud without getting pregnant or herpes. Sam: I don�t need the cloud. Randy: Just a big TransAm and a guy right? Sam: A black one. Randy: A black guy? Sam: A black TransAm, a pink guy.

Randy's absolute shock that Sam's dream guy might be black was jarring to me. Not to anybody else in attendance, though, so maybe I'm just sensitive. It is wonderful to see at the movies, however. Absolutely satisfying. And a fitting final hurrah for me and the HSW as it is nearly time for her to go spend 15 months in the future. I'm going to have to go see Clash of the Titans without her. One tear.

One Nation, One Beat

"Moods don't command you if you don't know what you're going through." - Rilo Kiley, Commanding Moods (The Execution of Things) There's something wrong with Corin's set-up. She's getting feedback from her amp and can't tell what her rapid fire guitar licks are putting out through the monitor so there's a lull in the set. Janet, who is a human drum machine, taps out a few riffs to pass the time. You can see the only slightly contained energy crackling in her body. She's already done 45 minutes banging out the hard driving off-kilter songs of her oddly-paired side-project Quasi but her arms scream to smash through more tunes. She looks desperate to rock out. And so Carrie stands there, lips near the microphone, in a simple dress, knee-high, guitar sitting almost like a side-arm on her hip. If you hadn't just seen her blow your mind with 3 crowd-pleasing tracks that marry her and Corin's intricate guitar dance and vocal gymnastics, you might mistake her for the hipster soccer mom picking up your daughter instead of the Riot Grrl Sleater-Kinney fans know she is. She turns to the crowd and says, "Since we have this moment, I'd like to let you know that Human Rights Campaign and Music for America are here. There's a lot going wrong with our country. Please register to vote and get Bush out of there!" The crowd roared. On a night when S-K would play tracks that they haven't performed on tour in quite a while to the delight of a pretty packed El Rey Theatre, that would be the loudest singular reaction from the audience.

When It All Falls Down

"You put my feet back on the ground. Did you know you brought me around? You were sweet and you were sound. See I had shrunk yet still you wore me around. And 'round and 'round" - Zero 7, Somersault (When it Falls)

I bought Zero 7's second disc, When It Falls, the day it hit record stores. I had been so enamored with everything Zero 7 (Simple Things, Simple Things Remixes, Another Late Night, their live performances) that it was a given. What Sam Hardaker and Henry Binns do with music is mind-blowing. The ample use of strings and bass lines paired with the silky voices they find to use on record is something special. It's soulful classical music that you can dance to, get high on, and make love by. So, it was a shock to me that I listened to the new CD a few times, never all the way through, and then put it away, moving on to other things. My ears weren't impressed. My first instinct was that the new music wasn't all that new. The songs sounded like they filled much of the same space as Simple Things. It was pretty music but nothing earth-shattering. I didn't find myself telling everyone who would listen that they needed Sia and Mozes and the boys from the UK in their lives. Sometimes first impressions are wrong. I've been listening to the album non-stop for a little over a week now. It started simply enough. Home was playing on the radio and for a good half of the song, I was shocked. Who is singing this, I thought? Why don't I own this? Its so wonderful. By the end of the track, though, I realized I did own it and, in fact, was ignoring it. So, I popped it into the boomin' system in my car and found myself being taken away. Somersault is my song of the moment. Featuring Sia, my vocal Venus, over a lush, beautiful track. Zero 7 performs an ode to the whimsy of, well, simple things. Sia sings about the wonderful, unrecognized nice things that the object of her affection does. She dotes: You talk to loners, you ask how's your week You give love to all and give love to me You're obsessed with hiding the sticks and stones When I feel the unknown You feel like home, you feel like home Yeah. I'm in that space right now. The rest of the album isn't want for excellent singing. Mozes gives his strongest performances yet put to wax and the arrival of Ms. Tina Dico is greatly appreciated. Sophie Barker is lovely on In Time and there are some lovely instrumental moments throughout. It is lacking a little edge, though. Where Destiny and In the Waiting Line made Simple Things a truly special recording, When It Falls seems like it's just middle ground between the auspicious debut and what these downbeat kings can truly do. Lucky for me, then, that I've rediscovered it now when I'm lost in that same kind of abyss. Yay me.

Bitches Ain't Shit but Hoes and Tricks: Sexism, Feminism and Denial in hip hop

�Never lettin� ya leave, never lettin� ya go.� � Amerie, Can�t Let Go (All I Have) Early in Chris Rock�s Black Ambition Tour set, he jokes about his uncomfortable relationship with hip hop. Especially now that he has a daughter, he thinks more about the words. He notes, however, that women are always the people that seem to get the most amped when those misogynistic songs blare through the speakers. The lyrics could be Stick it in her ass Stick it in her ass Hoes always love it When you stick it in they ass and what is seemingly every woman in the club saying as they grind up on their man or dance with their girls? �That nigga ain�t talkin� about me. Shiiiit. Holla!� In LA, it�s pretty much standard that you must rock something from the Snoop Dogg/Dr. Dre Chronic era in your old school set at the hip hop club. Probably the most misogynistic song on either the Doggystyle or Chronic albums is Ain�t No Fun (If My Homies Can�t Have None). Nate Dogg sings the smoothed out chorus over a silky 70s style soul loop on a song about passing a woman around like she was a joint. The girls go wild. Every damn time. They laugh. They joke. They high five. �That nigga ain�t talkin� about me. Shiiiit. Wesst Side bitches. What?!� The key women in hip hop seem to only broach the subject of this rampant sexism by suggesting their own sexual dominance. Missy Elliot�s most recent hits all deal with her demands of men in the bedroom. On Ghostface Killah�s Tush she says, I really like you baby Do you know how to wife this lady? Give me what I want don�t talk don�t touch Unless you got a bank account to make my face blush Now shush Eat my bush And I can give you what you want Make a wush The implication being that she�s as sexually aggressive as the men and, unless you�ve got the money to back up your bravado, you better do what she asks. That�s great and all and I love a strong, sexually aware person but shouldn�t women be demanding that same respect outside the bedroom? Li'l Kim and Foxy Brown have never gotten past the sex as a weapon ideology either. According to them, the only power women have is in the pussy. Jean Grae and Ms. Dynamite aside, is the most accessible feminist voice in hip hop a man? Talib Kweli regularly broaches the subjects on his records. He consistently looks at the plight of black women in the world, if not in hip hop specifically, and rarely, if ever, makes sweeping generalizations about women in his word choice and metaphor. Is there anyone else out there challenging hip hop, challenging young black minds to consider women as something other than hoes, tricks, chickenheads, your baby�s mamma, or big mamma? Maybe it�s Erykah Badu whose Worldwide Underground album might be the preamble to the future of hip hop anyway. From the outset, she has been a soul singer intricately tied to her love of hip hop. She challenges the hip hop generation to always re-evaluate what is accepted as true. On the single from Worldwide Underground, Danger, she looks at a common archetype in hip hop, the drug dealer, and showcases what the woman at home is doing while he�s away or on lockdown. No hoes or tricks here just a strong woman taking similar risks as her partner whether she gets acknowledged for what she does or not. But, perhaps, the truest commentary on where women in hip hop are takes place later on her album on the Love of My Life Worldwide remix. The guests on the track are Bahamadia, Queen Latifah, and Angie Stone - 3 powerful female MCs who haven�t put out relevant commercial hip hop releases in 5, 10, and 20 years respectively. But the ladies in the club are dancing and cheering. �That nigga ain�t talkin� �bout me.� Who is that nigga talking about then? �Excuse me, miss. What�s your name?�

Music while on Hiatus - February Faves

"She said, 'I'm grown, I ain't gotta do what you say'" - Floetry & Mos Def, Wanna Be Where U R (Thisizzaluvsong) (Barbershop 2) The February 2004 Mix CD is:

1. Public Service Announcement - Jay-Z - DJ Danger Mouse presents The Grey Album
2. Dust- Van Hunt - Van Hunt
3. Genevieve- Greyboy - Rewind! 3
4. Mystery of Iniquity- Lauryn Hill - MTV Unplugged 2.0
5. All Falls Down- Kanye West - The College Dropout
6. Che Che Colo- Antibalas - Rewind! 3
7. She Wants to Move- N*E*R*D* - Promo Single
8. Tush (Featuring Missy Elliot)- Ghostface Killah - Promo Single
9. Get Em High (featuring Talib Kweli & Common)- Kanye West - The College Dropout
10. So Many Rappers in Love- Westside Connection - Terrorist Threats
11. Maps- The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
12. Creepin' In (with Dolly Parton)- Norah Jones - Feels Like Home
13. Rock the Casbah- The Clash - The Clash: The Singles
14. Don't Forget to Set the House on Fire Before You Crawl into Bed- The Junior Varsity - The Great Compromise
15. There's No Home for You Here- The White Stripes - Elephant
16. Space is the Place- Spaceboys - Rewind! 3
17. Universal Traveler- AIR - Walkie Talkie