A Message From Juevos

Yo Yo -

What up friends. Today: Friday, February 29th at 9:30pm a good friend of mine, Hum. V, and his group The Cleptoz are performing at Funky Buddha Lounge here in Chitown. Hum. V has been making music for about a decade now and the Cleptoz have been on the Indy scene since '01. They bring quality hip-hop and have opened up for big boys like Kayne, The Roots, Wu-Tang, Twista, Common, Jurrasic 5 and The Clipse. Hum. V is currently in talks with Capitol Records and is hopefully close to signing a deal. He certainly deserves it, it's been a long time coming.

Sooo....if you don't have anything crackalackin on Friday night and wanna see an excellent hip hop show, be sure to stop on by. You won't be disappointed. (PLUS....you may just see yours truly - Sweet Eggz on stage performin' an old track Hum. V and I did together in college...well worth price of admission!!) Check out their music through the websites below.

Please forward this email on to as many peeps as you wish. We plan on packin' this joint! Here are the details:

When: Friday February 29th
Time: 9:30pm - 11:00pm
Where: Funky Buddha Lounge - 728 W. Grand (Grand, Milwaukee, & Halsted) - http://www.funkybuddha.com/
Cover: $12-15 - Normally it is $20 to get into Buddha...so your savin $$$!

Check out Hum. V's website & make friends @:
http://www.myspace.com/humvmusic

Check out The Cleptoz website & make friends @:
http://www.myspace.com/cleptoz

Some articles about them in the press:
http://www.nuvo.net/articles/hum_v,_the_cleptoz,_lazarus,_lynda_sayyah/
http://www.nuvo.net/article.php?title=the_cleptoz_get_back_to_work

Thanks ya'll - see you Friday,
Eggz

Pledge Your Allegiance

KEXP needs our help again. It's the time of year for the Pledge Drive. Click on over to KEXP and give what you can. They are consistently one of the best sources in the US for finding new music of all genres. And they just happen to be one of the few ways to hear music for free without advertising interruptions. So please help keep it that way. This is important.

KEXP Blog

KEXP Playlist (the best in the biz)

KEXP On Demand (Streaming, Live Archives, Podcast)
- mp3: Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, "I'm Not Gonna Cry" Live
- mp3: The Frames, "Devil Town" Live (Daniel Johnston cover)
- mp3: M.I.A., "Paper Planes" Live from KEXP Studios
- mp3: Thurston Moore, "The Shape Is In A Trance" Live
- mp3: The National, "Start A War" Live

Also, they have sweet gifts for people that donate...

-J2

Next Big Thing Alert: These United States

These United States is quite the apt band name for a group that is quintessential Americana. At once the sound of yesteryear and tomorrowland, TUS exist outside of time and outside of the neat little categories in which we music critics live and die. Expect to hear much more about these D.C. musicians from the middleCoast in the coming weeks (a real-life interview to come soon!), but in the meantime, kick back and enjoy a few live tracks. They're debut album, A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden, drops next Tuesday, March 4th.

"So High So Low So Wide So Long"


"We Go Down To That Corner"


"Jenni Anne"


See them in Chicago April 3rd at The Hideout.

Make friends @ http://www.myspace.com/theseunited.

-J2

The Importance of Swagger

swag·ger
-verb
1. To walk or strut with a defiant or insolent air
2. To brag or boast noisily
-noun
1. Ostentatious display of arrogance and conceit

Generally associated with hip hop and athletes (read: black people), the term Swagger contains either a positive or negative connotation depending on your point of view. If you're a basketball fan disillusioned with the NBA, Allen Iverson is the poster child for everything wrong with swagger. God forbid you mention practice in the presence of The Answer. But the flip side of that coin is that without his swagger, the six-foot-nuthin' baller would never have become one of the most prolific and consistent scorers in the history of the game. Certainly talent is what it is, but perception is reality - the more AI believes in himself and the more he projects that confidence-cum-arrogance, the more his competitors believe it too. Next thing you know, the one-time Slam Dunk Champ, Vince Carter, doesn't even attempt to block the six-inch-shorter Iverson's dunk.

The same holds true for music - especially hip hop (but also rock, which we'll get to in a sec). There are the pros and cons (so to speak), but it is virtually impossible for a hip hop artist to become a huge star without first telling everyone listening what a huge star he is. Whether your braggadocio is related to how much street cred you deserve - in the amount of blow you used to sell (Biggie, Clipse, etc), how many times you've been shot (50 Cent), how straight ghetto you are (Wu-Tang) - or simply to laying claim that you're the greatest rapper alive (Jay-Z, Lil' Wayne), the industry is based on swagger. As a result, artists with mediocre talent can become enormously popular (T.I.), while an artist like Black Thought - arguably the greatest MC to walk the earth - will never reach that status. Swagger alone can automatically demand respect.

But look at the career of Kanye West: once just a good producer that couldn't even get a record contract as a rapper (because he was thought of as just a good producer), he's now a Grammy-winning recording artist with three of the highest-selling hip hop albums of all time. It was his unflappable belief in himself that launched him from fine print to top billing, but it was when that self-belief took on an arrogant, narcissistic tone (aka, swagger), that he truly became a superstar.

Kanye West Joins Daft Punk Aboard Their Spaceship

As I mentioned at the start, there is a certain amount of latent racism at play here. Swagger has existed in rock 'n roll from the very beginning; from Elvis Presley to Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop to Jim Morrison, it was swagger that made rock 'n roll the fear-inducing beast it became in the 50s and 60s. The fear that these icons caused, however, was due in large part to the type of music they were playing - the "devil's music" was really just appropriated Blues (i.e., black music). And the more fearless an artist, the more fear they induced, and, simultaneously, the bigger a rock star they became. Censored by all forms of mainstream media, it was their swagger that convinced them to persist, and convinced fans that they should pay attention despite - or in spite of - that censorship.

Beyond lyrics and beats, swagger extends to how you carry yourself. From the chains around your tattooed neck to the coke-white sneakers on your feet, your appearance defines your swagger too. Commonly referred to as Image, your aesthetic, and that of those you surround yourself with (be it entourage or posse), is an essential element in the music business. In the early days it was Elvis' pelvic thrusts and Jagger's pouty-lipped strut; but it is hip hop that took swagger to the next level. LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Tupac, UGK, Dr Dre - these are the artists that established swagger without saying a word. More importantly, though, they established swagger as a marketable tool, and made it synonymous with hip hop itself.

Clearly not all musicians are interested in becoming superstars, and many superstars achieve that status without eternal boasting. Today, the term swagger stretches beyond Webster's abridged version, and beyond hip hop. Whether conscious of it or not, the Arcade Fire have swagger - not because of self-aggrandizement, but because of a certain self-importance that sidesteps bragging. They refuse to sell any of their songs for commercial use, they write grandiose orchestrations full of political dissension, and their sheer presence - at least seven members all dressed in Amish-like outfits - make them something bigger than the sum of their parts. And that too is swagger, and that too is why they have become the entity they are today.

So let's add one for Webster's:

swag·ger
-noun
2. Indelible quality that advances the rocker to the Rock Star, the MC to the Superstar.

-J2

Strange Bedfellows

MiddleCoast fave Danger Mouse is actually a real-life superhero, making the world a better place. After producing some of the best albums in the past five years (see: The Grey Album, Demon Days, The Good The Bad & The Queen, St. Elsewhere), not to mention pulling one of the best pranks ever in 2006, Mouse is still at it. He teams up with Cee-Lo once again (hallelujah) with a new Gnarls Barkley release, The Odd Couple (due out in April); he's produced the newest from Martina Topley-Bird (of Tricky's Maxinquaye fame), entitled The Blue God; and perhaps the most interesting pairing is with Ohio garage-rockers, the Black Keys.

As the story goes, Danger Mouse was planning an album for Ike Turner, a fallen idol he'd hoped to return to his rightful glory. Mouse and Ike had employed the Keys to write the songs (it was to be billed as Ike Turner & the Black Keys), Mouse would produce, and Ike would sing, as well as play guitar, organ, and piano. When Turner passed away last December, the songs the Keys had written simply became the basis for their own new album, and Danger Mouse stayed on to produce Attack & Release (due out April 1st on Nonesuch).

The first single, "Strange Times", is evidence that the pairing worked, giving the middleCoast our favorite song of the year thus far. The minimalist blues-rock of the Keys, which owes so much to Turner's career, gets infused with the sound of soul that Danger Mouse has brought to all of his rock 'n roll projects. Here is a sneak peek:



The Black Keys hit Chicago April 12th at The Riv.

Make more friends at:
http://www.myspace.com/theblackkeys
http://www.myspace.com/martinatopleybird
http://www.myspace.com/gnarlsbarkley

-J2

Weekend Roundup

It's a good weekend to live in Chicago (despite the sub-arctic temperatures, of course). Aside from Wilco's winter residency at The Riv, this weekend also sees Iron and Wine performing in the Edman Chapel at Wheaton College, Super Furry Animals at The Metro, and Holy Fuck at Schubas (with A Place to Bury Strangers opening).

A few highlights to entice:

Wilco, "What Light"


Iron and Wine, "Boy With a Coin"


Super Furry Animals, "Run-Away"


Holy Fuck, "Lovely Allen"



Make lots of friends:
http://www.myspace.com/wilco
http://www.myspace.com/ironandwine
http://www.myspace.com/superfurry
http://www.myspace.com/holyfuck

-J2

Monkeys & Robots

Kool Kid New Yorkers already know about these guys, but we in the Middle are just now getting word about electro-rock-opera connoisseurs, Apes & Androids. Described by another (an aforementioned NYC Kool Kid that has had the opportunity of seeing A&A live) as "David Bowie meets 'Bohemian Rhapsody' meets Godspell meets Tron", the Brooklyn-based quintet released their first full length, Blood Moon, last month. The Queen and Bowie comparisons are impressive - and justified - but it is their live show that is getting all the attention. Sparing no expense, Apes & Androids goes the theatrical, Spinal Tap route, complete with hanging skulls staring at the crowd with blazing red eyes, intergalactic make-up adorning their faces, and costumes perhaps stolen from the original Logan's Run. For example:

For a taste of their sound, here is their music video for "Radio":



Hopefully they'll be making their way to Chicago soon.

Make friends at http://www.myspace.com/apesandandroids.

-J2

Music and Politics, Pt 2

Last week we posted the inspiring video for Barack Obama entitled "Yes We Can" (watch it here). Well, assuming he knocks off Hillary, his presumed republican counterpart will be John McCain, who has a similar video:



-

Free Is the Best Price for Things

We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol 3: The Spirit of Competition (We Just Think We Better)

While it is still to be determined what impact artists (such as Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and now Pearl Jam) giving their album album away for free online will have on the record industry, there are still more and more artists following that path. Hip Hop has always thrived on the mixtape (free today to get cheddah tomorrow), and while Lil' Wayne may be most prolific, it's Clipse that make it an art form. Not surprisingly, over tracks once belonging to Kanye ("Good Morning"), Jay-Z ("Roc Boys"), Obie Trice ("Cry Now"), and others on this latest collection, Pusha T and Malice inform us that they did, in fact, deal drugs in the past. That they can essentially repeat this notion over and over (see: We Got It 4 Cheap Vols I-II, Lord Willin', Hell Hath No Fury) and still drop lines that make the whitest boy in the room say, 'Cot Damn', is evidence that these mixtapes are not simply thrown together on a whim. The Clipse are as much poets as they were ever pushers, and each line they drop is clearly accounted for as thoroughly as each key they sold.

Witness Pusha spitting fire (from "Re-Up Gang Intro"):
"No mentions of the best without mentionin' the 4
The tales of movin' powder like the Yeti's the allure.
The writers scream more yet they don't run to the store
With all this money in the streets to write a verse is like a chore.
Ignore the lies that they tell
Under my cuticle proof the pos' that I sell.
Guess life in jail's just a manicure away
Well I don't feel like gettin' my nails done today."

The spirit of competition has Malice not wanting to be outdone by his partner. And so (on "Cry Now"):
"We the R-E-U-P Gang, that's us brah
Yes I said Gang although it's a faux pas
Funnelin' the cane, how we do is not folklore
Bitch in Vera Wang, and the kid's got gold card
Cook the heroin till it's black like Bopa
Ill with the composition, I'm Mozart
You don't want this fig' to start spittin' so don't start
Not to mention I'm everywhere like Gold Starr
Prolific like W.E.B. Dubois
Seventeen in a nickel 'n I'll fuck witcha boy"

Oh, did we mention that the Gang is giving the whole album away for free? When have you ever been able to re-up for free? Go get it here.

If you need to feed the monkey, here is the mp3 for "Cry Now":

Make friends at http://www.myspace.com/clipse.

-J2

Music & Movies

Generally speaking, the movie musical is a painful experience. Watching a character break into song when it makes absolutely no sense to do so is almost embarrassing to watch - embarrassing for the actors. Very few movie musicals have managed to pull it off without cringe-worthy numbers, and usually they must be set in some space and time foreign to modern viewers (see: Singin' in the Rain, Grease: Parts I & II). For a movie musical to be set in contemporary society with realistic characters is a gamble, but we certainly get lucky with Dubliner John Carney's award-nominated 2007 film, Once.

A musical about musicians - there's a novel idea. Characters breaking into song when the context is, specifically, breaking into song. The fact that the songs themselves are gorgeous and consuming compositions, though, are what truly set the film apart. Glen Hansard, lead singer for Irish indie rockers, The Frames, is the main character of this tale of difficult love, and it's almost exclusively Hansard and The Frames' music that comprises the soundtrack. The plain beauty of Czech-born female lead, Markéta Irglová, is made far more enchanting upon hearing her lovely voice harmonizing perfectly with Hansard.

Now why can't Hollywood figure out how to make love stories like this one?

Enjoy a few clips from the film, but put it in your Netflix queue immediately.





-J2

The Cynicism Test, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love a Politician

When was the last time you were truly inspired by someone? I'll let you think of an answer....

Now when was the last time you were truly inspired by a politician? If you're under the age of 30, odds are the answer to that question is Never. Well here's your test, fellow cynics: bear with the slow beginning of this video of middleCoast-endorsed Barack Obama from last night's speech until the final two minutes or so, and if you don't get the chills then your cynicism has gotten out of hand and you should go watch E.T. or something.



Please vote.

New Music Tuesday

We at middleCoast have a bit of a soft spot for one-hit wonders that keep us wondering over the years. Cool kids and dweebs alike loved Nada Surf's 1996 hit, "Popular", in all its ironic glory. Well with twelve years and three albums gone by since, the trio shakes any hint of that one-hit wonder status with their newest effort, Lucky, released today on Barsuk. With a sound reminiscent of The Jayhawks or label-mates Death Cab for Cutie, maturity sounds good on Nada Surf. With an album title like Lucky, it seems a given that you'll hear some upbeat, life-affirming jams, which we certainly get with "From Now On" and "Whose Authority". But since Nada Surf happen to make some of the best saccharine indie rock out there, they also give us the sweet melancholy of "See These Bones", "Are You Lightning?" and "The Film Did Not Go 'Round". Somewhere in the middle this combination results with an overall tone recalling The Eels, and it just sounds good. Plain and simple.

Nada Surf make their way through the Middle in Chicago April 4th at The Metro (label-mates What Made Milwaukee Famous opens).

Enjoy "Whose Authority":


Make friends at http://www.myspace.com/nadasurf.

-jT

Music and Politics

Normally we at middleCoast only muster a mild annoyance at celebrities getting involved in politics. However, this is actually rather inspiring (assuming there is a greater ratio of celebrities-you-like to celebrities-you-hate represented here).

So yes The middleCoast is officially endorsing Barack Obama. Deal with it:


http://www.barackobama.com/

-jT

Music For Peasants

We are most certainly living in a golden - or maybe platinum - era of new music. And god bless the internet gods for allowing us such easy access to it.

New mC fave of the day is Welsh sextet Los Campesinos! - another stellar artist on Wichita Recordings. With their debut LP, Hold On Now, Younster..., set to drop at the end of the month, these peasants are poised to become britpop royalty. Sounding like a punk version of Stars, the mixed gender vocal interplay over the pulsing drum beat and various guitars/keyboards/strings/glockenspiel/bass/horns accompaniment, Campesinos! are what fun sounds like. Simple as that. If they didn't have the hap-happiest damn time making music together then they are brilliant actors. With song titles like "We Are All Accelerated Readers" and "This Is How You Spell 'HAHAHA, We Destroyed The Hopes And Dreams of A Generation of Faux-Romantics'", a sense of humor (or should we say 'humour') is self-evident.

Released as a single last summer, "You! Me! Dancing!" combines a Ted Leo-esque riff with the dance-pop enthusiasm of The Go! Team to create a wholly enjoyable tune. If you're not dancing halfway through - or at least tapping your foot and bobbing your head - then go see a doctor and get help.



Make friends at http://www.myspace.com/loscampesinos.

-jT