Gabe’s Picks – Angry and Ashamed

Over the past few weeks, underground hip hop legend El-P has been going after tween icon Justin Bieber via Twitter pretty hard.  A challenge was issued to El-P to remix one of Bieber’s tracks and to everyones surprise he posted the remix last week.

This seemed like fairly normal Twitter meme with a producer releasing a sub-par joke track and everyone forgetting about the opus within a week, but somehow El-P made Bieber’s “Baby” listenable.  Nevermind, he made “Baby” great.  Mixing in Paul McCartney and the Wings’ classic “Live and Let Die”, and adding that unique El-P touch, the song was transformed from bubble gum radio hit to a hard as hell track that I would only be semi-ashamed to play in public.

Now, I’m still waiting for El-P to release the instrumental minus the Bieber vocals so someone with real talent can work their magic over the beat, but until then i won’t stop listening to this version.  I’m not the only person flabbergasted by how much this track goes.  The rap blogs have been blowing up with the anger/disappointment that goes along with actually enjoying a J-Bieb’s track.  Before you judge, give the song a listen and hey, you never know, maybe you’ll enjoy just as much as I have.

Gabe’s Picks: Last Seen at Parliament

Cat and Stas rocking the Vera Project at the first Parliament

Over the past year or so a phenomenon has hit the streets of Seattle.  That phenomenon is the sub-genre of hip hop music, “space hop”, that has invaded our airwaves.  The movement is led by Cat and Stas, better known as the incredible, genre-bending duo THEESatisfaction.  By some crazy coincidence, Cat and Stas happen to be performing at Capitol Hill Block Party on Saturday at 5:15 at Neumos. Another crazy coincidence, THEESat performed at the very first Parliament event and rocked it, so as a former Parliament organizer, I am forever indebted to them.  You can download some of their material over HERE at their Bandcamp page.  I would personally recommend Snow Motion.  It’s stayed in my rotation ever since its release which is no small feat.

Incredibly, THEESatisfaction is not the only Parliament alumni performing at Block Party.  Also on Saturday, you can check out State of the Artist at 7:45 at the Vera Stage as part of the hip hop showcase.  They perform alongside Grynch and Spaceman.  Check out these two groups.  Give them your love.  They definitely deserve it as some of the hardest working, most prolific talents in the region.

Gabe’s Picks – July 9

Fostering

A traditional Gabe’s Picks post hasn’t appeared on the blog in over a month and I can tell that the masses are truly yearning for some more truly important music journalism.

Today, we have new Los Angeles quartet Foster the People who already have an MGMT like buzz surrounding them based on their breakout hit “Pumped Up Kicks”.  They personally remind me of Peter, Bjorn and John in an alternative, lo-fi kind of way.  When I first heard “Pumped Up Kicks”, the first thing that grabbed me was the infectious beat and driving bassline.  I thought it couldn’t get any better, but then the hook came in and I knew it would be one of the songs that I played over and over again throughout the summer.  To top off the infectious beat and incredible chorus, they start humming at the end and the song becomes even sweeter.  In all honesty, I haven’t even listened to another Foster the People song, because I’ve been listening to this on repeat for the past few weeks, but I’m sure the rest is pretty decent too.

Gabe’s Picks: The Curious Case of Big Boi Not Releasing His Damn Album

Ever since that 2007 VIBE interview when the immortal Big Boi announced details for his second solo album (everyone knows Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was packaged as one album to create the illusion that Outkast had not broken up) produced mostly by southernlegends Organized Noise, and set for release later that year (2007), the hip hop world has been buzzing with excitement.  The album was to be titled Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Curious Case of Chico Dusty an awesome name that pushed my interest even further.

When the album wasn’t released in 2007, we blamed his label, Jive Records.   Big Boi switched to Def Jam Records and in early 2008 released the excellent “Royal Flush” with former Outkast partner Andre 3000 and Wu-Tang legend Raekwon.  The song didn’t get much radio play, but sparked the interest of hip hop heads around the world.  Big Boi spent the rest of 2008 hyping the album and releasing an awful pop song called “Ringtone” (bet you can’t guess what that’s about!).  Oh yeah, he also jumped on the Obama bandwagon and was one of dozens of rappers/singers to make a song dedicated to our future president (summarized well here).

Gabe’s Picks: Not angry, just disappointed

c'mon guys

Earlier this week before leaving on my cross country trip to the East Coast, I obtained a few albums I had been waiting to hear for quite a long time.  One of the albums I was especially excited to hear was Ratatat’s brand new album LP4.  I’ve been a huge Ratatat fan since I first saw the duo at Neumos in 2006 and have enjoyed just about everything they’ve released.  I loved Ratatat, enjoyed Classics even more and appreciated LP3 even though it didn’t contain nearly as many creative, head-nodding tracks as the other two albums. So why would I waste my time by writing a review of an album by a group that I unequivocally love?

This review had to be written because of my profound disappointment in the duo’s recent effort.  After listening to LP4 in entirety, not one song stuck out.  Now I’m not claiming that any of these songs are awful, but it appears that the duo has lost their creative edge.

Gabe: saga of the new voter

We at the Bus were pretty excited today. We got to watch as Gabe, one of our awesome crew of volunteers and a brand new 18 year old, registered to vote for the very first time. Were we excited? We were excited. Were we proud? We were absolutely proud. It was beautiful to see.

He IS perfect.

Get familiar.

Pow!

But then things started getting weird. Gabe got this look in his eye. A crazy look. And then it struck us: Gabe was coming down with a case of the New Voter Crazy!

See that crazy eye?

That’s when things really went off the rails. Gabe moved quickly through the many stages of New Voterdom. Firstly: littering.

Oh no he didn't.

Secondly: laughing and pointing.

That's just rude.

Thirdly: graffiti (the horror!)

The claw!

Fourthly: destruction of property

Modern day Samson.

Fifthly: Purse snatching.

Doesn't he look a little TOO happy?

It just goes to show that registering to vote is a powerful thing. Way to keep that permanent record clean and that voting record perfect Gaberino!

Gabe’s Picks – Auckland Edition

The Bus Office is getting ready for Greyhound tonight and you should be too!  In the meantime though, you should check out Homebrew of Auckland, New Zealand.  Know nothing about them, but it sounds perfect on this beautiful afternoon in the 206.

Also, a very cool video featuring the above song and Auckland graffiti artist Askew.

Gabe’s Picks – Back From The Dead

Aloe Blacc is a bilingual singer/songwriter/rapper signed to SoCal’s legendary hip hop label Stone’s Throw Records.  He can also create a song that perfectly epitomizes the feeling of the masses in response to our current economic climate.  Aloe has been making hip hop music since the mid 90’s with group Emanon (with producer Exile) and toured with the legendary Lootpack in the late 90’s.  Since then he has released a full length album, an EP and an album with Cradle.  Look out for Aloe in the future as he is one of the most talented artists across all genres in the game today.

Also stay up on the (possible) upcoming release of Big Boi’s first solo album Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty.  It’s been given an release date of July 5th, but that probably won’t stick.  In the meantime, another excellent song has leaked from the album titled “Shutterbug.”

Producers, Start Your Engines

Seattle is known for two types of Fresh Espresso.  Everyone knows Seattle loves its coffee, but not everyone knows about local hip hop stalwarts Fresh Espresso.  The group is helmed by P. Smoov of Mad Rad and Rik Rude.  Fresh Espresso released their debut album, Glamour early last year and it immediately became a new age hip hop staple.

Recently, “Diamond Pistols” one of the hottest tracks off of Glamour was given the remix treatment by a few local DJ’s and producers.  In response to the popularity of the remixes, Fresh Espresso has put every acapella from the album on the internet for free.  That’s right, you can download and remix your favorite Fresh Espresso track this very second.

Download “Diamond Pistols” File Jerks Remix

Download “Diamond Pistols” Sebino Remix

Download Glamour Acapellas

Gabe’s Picks – February 24th

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Here at the bus we like to pride ourselves as matchmakers between the worlds of politics and popular culture.  This weeks “Gabe’s Picks” highlights two Parliament: Green Edition performers who have collaborated on a new song.  We’re not saying that this song came into being because of us, but it most definitely did.  Kung Foo Grip and Brothers From Another have collaborated on “Kids In The Mall,” and I’m proud to say that the song bumps. The beats got a mid-90’s West Coast feel and Fish, Greg Cypher, Goonstar and Breez all kill the track.  Download “Kids In The Mall”.