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"Negro humor always escapes me." - MF Doom, Deep Fried Frenz

I live in a house with a red door. It doesn't currently have internet access. It does, as of 2 hours ago, have directv and tivo. Outside of the fact that I have a billion channels, the best part of directv may be east coast network channel feeds. Pictures of the house, the dogs, the doggie oats, and other such goodies should come to flickr sometime this weekend.

How people are able to move and set up their homes while having jobs, I have no idea. I would have never been able to get done what I've gotten done in the last week if I actually had places to be and things to do.

Although, this travelling to my parent's house to use the internet is kind of like having a job. Sort of.   

"And you know that until the stars fall, I'll always love you." - Eisley, Lost At Sea

Out of 1244 songs rated with 5 stars in my iTunes, we've got ourselves a

Friday Random Ten (now as an image because I'm too lazy to type it out)

" I heard it from a friend/The Revolution never happened" - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Over and Over Again (Lost & Found)

Out of 1194 songs currently ranked with 5 stars in my iTunes, we've got ourselves a

Friday Random Ten

1. Hunter - Bjork
2. Plastic (featuring Diverse) - Prefuse 73
3. Lean Back (remix featuring Eminem & Ma$e) - Terror Squad
4. Staring at the Sun - TV On The Radio
5. I Get The Job Done - Big Daddy Kane
6. When the Last Time - Clipse
7. Free (Interlude) - Mary J. Blige
8. Holiday - Madonna
9. Say It Again - Little Brother
10. Sofa King - Danger Doom

"Ay Yo, they beggin' for a taste of it." - Little Brother, Say It Again

When last we (sorry, LAist habit) I talked Kanye West, it wasn't about music. That post got some interesting responses. I'm interested in the people that listen to Kanye say "doesn't care" and hear "hates" instead. I'm interested in the response of people who think writers who understand the frame of mind Kanye was coming from are giving the government of Louisiana a free pass. Be clear, it was a failure on every single level of government and I, like many others, believe all politics is local but if even the infamously non-apologizing President is going to shoulder some of the blame, then you know the feds, the people with the real power to save large numbers of lives, truly fucked up.

But maybe you want to read my LAist piece about last night's speech and make up your own mind.

While you're there, you should check my piece on the Spin '05 Finals and concert because I want to talk about Kanye the musician.

I've been bumpin' the hell out of all things 'Ye the last two weeks and reconsidering my position on College Dropout. I thought, at the time, that West came off as a weak MC over exceptional beats. In a lot of ways, I still think that, but I'm much more forgiving of those perceived inadequacies now. I think back then I was hoping for more of the promise of the lyricist on Through the Wire. There are some amazingly intricate and witty rhymes on what is probably his most personal and emotionally true record and he doesn't come close to that anywhere else on his debut album. Jesus Walks attempts it and the lyrical content of his grammy award winning track is complicated and surely a harbinger of where he heads to on Late Registration but it doesn't really work for me all the time.

On Late Registration, though, I feel it all coming together. I'm still not overly impressed with Kanye the MC but I see what he's trying to accomplish. I appreciate his willingness to look inward instead of outward, to create some supremely uplifting music and to grace it with ever more challenging subject matter.

I know lots of people are up on We Major and Hey Mama on his album but I'm constantly returning to Bring Me Down and Touch The Sky and the UK-released We Can Make It Better. I smile for Celebration and the hidden Late and they have yet to feel tired.

Bring Me Down is my anthem right now. Brandy riding the chorus is a cherry on top.

GOOD Music.

"They're busting down the big wall and sounding the horn!" - M.I.A., Bucky Done Gun

I did this last year (complete with mp3s and itunes links and all that good stuff). I've been trying to get this together all week and now, at 1am on the 4th of July there is finally time.

The Top 10 albums from the first half of 2005. In Order.

1. Arular - M.I.A. I don't want to start talking about Arular by mentioning The Emancipation of Mimi but there's a debate raging in my ears. Arular is a live grenade. It is packed with politics and passion and power. M.I.A. rages on the dance floor. She marries innocence and confidence, awareness and arrogance. In her sing-songy UK rhyme style (a la Estelle and Ms. Dynamite) and Diplo's adventurous production, there is the embodiment of the current youth culture of our multicultural world. She's a worldwide sociopolitical dance party. Arular is where I go to riot and revolt all while doing the robot and the running man (and maybe a little Rerun but don't tell nobody)...

2. The Emancipation of Mimi - Mariah Carey. ...But I listen to Mariah more. And there lies the debate. Arular is likely to be the best of popular genre bending forward thinking music we see this year but The Emancipation of Mimi is a pop masterpiece. I want to genre-fy that but the reality of music right now is that the R&B and Hip Hop that is Mariah Carey's album is what pop music is right now. If Gwen Stefani can have a "crossover" hit with "Hollaback Girl" (which isn't really crossover as it is completely a hip hop Neptunes beat and Gwen is invoking her punk rap girl chops) and Mariah isn't making "rhyme break free" versions of her songs for radio anymore than I can leave the genres at the door. And I can put the best tracks of the album (which, as time goes on, includes just about everything except that sore thumb of a song with Nelly) on repeat again and sing along. "Circles" and "Joy Ride" and "Stay the Night" creep into my head all the time and let's not even talk about "We Belong Together" and its remix which, while currently ubiquitous, hasn't lost any of its lustre. Everytime she sings that second verse -- "wait a minute this is too deep" -- I get caught up. I have to take a breath. I rewind. "And then I hear babyface". Its one of those rare pop albums that feels both contemporary and timeless. I can see myself calling it up on my digital media marvel of the future and being transported. So, I'm left wondering...why is this #2?

3. Be - Common. I'm old in hip hop terms. At 30, I'm irrelevant to the equation. As I said last year with The Grind Date, I want my dad rap. I want my hip hop  -- and I do mean "my hip hop", your young-ass mileage may vary -- to grow with me. I love that Common makes love records. I love that Be is reflective instead of reflexive. I love "Testify". My god I love "Testify". I'm a little tired of the sped up soul sample kind of production but "Testify" is a showcase of how a tight, hot record can be created with just that one perfect sample and a banging drum beat. I love "The Corner" which is on the top of my list of 2005 singles. That generational connection in that song between The Last Poets and Common is something woefully lacking and underrepresented in our popular culture and it is refreshing. The Last Poets aren't trotted out as some revered war horses from a time gone by -- quaint but irrelevant. No, they are participants in the conversation. They are active in this world, this life, this community. I shouldn't be surprised by this on a common record. His father takes center stage on every album at least once but when I stop to think about it...that black male bond is so rarely seen. And neo-soul be damned, I'll take this kind of good dripping with classic soul hip hop any day.

4. Motown Remixed - Various Artists. Taking a page from Verve and Blue Note, Motown goes the remix album route with surprising success. They made some jams! The cast of DJs and producers they assembled do a great job of giving some really familiar tunes a very fresh look. Both Jackson 5 reworkings are hot but I'm particularly fond of the Martha Reeves' "Love is a a Heatwave" remix that might only be on the iTunes version of the album. Martha Reeves wasn't really on my radar before this album and now she's music I seek out. I think that's what these types of albums should really do. Not only showcase what these current knob turners can do with full access to some of the finest recorded music ever put to tape but to also find a fresh audience for forgotten stars. Motown is creepin' on a comeback I think.

5. The Woods - Sleater-Kinney. Who knew Sleater-Kinney would become maybe my favorite rock band in the world? I've already seen them twice in two different states this year. That seems ridiculous but Carrie, Corin and Janet rock in the truest sense of the word. The Woods doesn't surpass One Beat as my favorite S-K album but it does showcase their ample musical talents and their always improving vocal skills better than any album previous. The leap to Sub-Pop seems to have given them the freedom to spread out a bit. To take some risks and to challenge themselves as not just artists (genre defining artists) but as musicians. Carrie shines brightest this time out and its fresh and welcome. Are we at 10 years with S-K? It doesn't really seem possible but I guess even Riot Grrls grow up.

"I am of one color don't put me down" - Breakestra & LA Carnival, Showbiz/Blind Man/Color

Is it a secret that Stones Throw is my favorite record label? A label that puts out blatantly west coast hip hop and rare groove funk re-issues (and then last year put out an electrodiscorock kind of record) is my kinda spot. Madlib competes with Dr. Dre and DJ Premier and Pete Rock in the Celebrity Death Match for Greatest Hip Hop Producer Ever, so yeah, I dig the house that Peanut Butter Wolf built. I'm not obsessive about much of anything though so it's taken me a minute to pick up Stones Throw 101 - the DVD & CD release that chronicles the label's history.

Featuring all 15 videos produced for their artists, it is incredibly cool to be able to see All Caps and Slim's Return on my TV in high resolution instead of through the jaggy frame rate of a quicktime window. The freshest moments in the video package are Rhinestone Cowboy (which I didn't realize there even was a video for) and Red Light, Green Light (which is hands down my favorite Charizma and Peanut Butter Wolf joint).

The key moment amongst all this great rarely seen stuff is in the extra credit. Egon and Andrew Gura meet up with Lester Abrams -- an incredible funk pianist who was grammy nominated once for his production work with the Doobie Brothers -- who, during his college days in Omaha, Nebraska, recorded one of the funkiest albums that few have ever heard. Between 1969 and 1971, Lester pulled together a group of young local musicians and, calling themselves L.A. Carnival, they wrote and produced just amazing, amazing stuff -- and then proceeded to press only 50 copies of the album. Watching Lester 30 years later still banging out superfunk on his home upright piano and being privy to the first time in 3 decades that just about anybody in the world had heard the original recording of the L.A. Carnival album is just, I don't know. It was one of those goosebumps moments. I want my dad, the jazz/funk musician to see it. I want my mom, who was in junior high school probably down the street from where this was being recorded at the time, to see it. I want everyone to hear Color and Flying and Blind Man and just be in it.

Damn.

I am of one color!

"Happy to be nappy, I'm black and I'm proud" - Donnie, Cloud 9

I should be dressed. I should have already been out shopping and done my laundry and maybe had chipotle and maybe taken a phone call or two and be on my way to Silverlake to see my friend perform a little burlesque in betwixt the rockin' and rollin' of the Pin Down Dolls sets (or perhaps during? It hasn't been made clear). Yeah, I'm still in my PJs. The first three hours of the day were spent with Roland's Ka-Tet and the fictional Stephen King as I wrapped up Song of Susannah (which was very good, by the way, maybe my new favorite of the Dark Tower Series, but I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to write about it here yet) and Resident Evil 4.

Work has been incredibly eventful this week but I'm not really at liberty to share it publicly yet. It's good stuff, though, but it has me mad busy. Hence the complete lack of posting here all week. But this is the boring stuff. To make up for my lack of posting: two, two, two memes in one post.

Roxanne is passing the torch to Lauren but the rules are the same. You know them well. Out of 593 Songs on my iPod Mini, we've got ourselves a

Friday Random Ten

1. I'm No Angel - Dido
2. Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do) - Cyndi Lauper
3. Riot and Revolt - Wale Oyejide
4. Makeda - Les Nubians
5. Rock and Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This) - Handsome Boy Modeling School
6. Symptom Finger - The Faint
7. Sota L'aigüa - Savath & Savalas
8. Wanna B Where U R (Thisizzaluvsong) - Mos Def & Floetry
9. Pass the Mic - Beastie Boys
10. I'll Be Around (featuring Timbaland) - Cee-Lo

"I know you got some place to get to and I really gotta get somewhere." - The Faint, How Could I Forget (Wet From Birth)

It's the last one of 2004 (and the last post of 2004) and surprise, surprise, the most common band on my random ten lists -- The Beastie Boys -- show up 3 times this morning.

You know the deal. Out of 2629 songs, 984 artists, and 517 albums in my iTunes we get the

Friday Random Ten

1. Tony Guitar Watson - Hi-Tek - Hi-Teknology
2. Mullet Head - Beastie Boys - Sure Shot CD Maxi-Single
3. I'll Be There (Soul Mekanik Remix) - Weekend Players - Pursuit of Happiness
4. Eugene's Lament - Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
5. 99 Problems - Jay-Z - DJ Dangermouse: The Grey Album
6. Oriental Folk Song (La Funk Mob Mix) - Wayne Shorter - Blue Note Revisited
7. Oceania (featuring Kelis) - Björk - Unreleased
8. Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun (Green Mix) - Beastie Boys - New York State of Mind
9. How Deep is Your Love? - Jonatha Brooke - Steady Pull
10. Sail Away - Randy Newman - The Randy Newman Songbook Volume One

"There's just one thing that you should know, I still live at home." - Spymob, I Still Live At Home (Sitting Around Keeping Score)

"Raise that money, son, we raising these kids."
1. De La Soul, The Grind Date (Sanctuary Records)
Is it so wrong that I absolutely love hip hop that grows up as I do? That with each successive album, I've found plugs won, two and three to continue to speak to my particular point in life as well? The Grind Date is absolutely dad rap. It's bumpin' and hard and clever and on point but De La understands that there are those of us that can remember 20 years of hip hop. There are those of us who need a little more from our hip hop. And De La responded by saying, you know what, "we give you much more." And this isn't harkening back to times and sounds long since past, this album is fresh. Fresh as in clean, crisp and now and fresh as in FRESH make me wanna walk the streets with my boom box blasting joints. FRESH like head nodding hard on the bus or the subway or in your car at stop lights. FRESH like put that shit on repeat fresh.

"I keep talking trash but I never say anything."
2. Rilo Kiley, More Adventurous (Brute/Beaute)
Tracks Magazine and Amazon.com have both put this on their best of 2004 lists but I haven't seen it getting much play elsewhere. This is a travesty. I know a lot of old Rilo Kiley fans don't necessarily appreciate the more polished and lush sound and I also know that it's hard for this band to pull serious indie cred when so many hipster boys in geometric shaped glasses are drooling over the music nerd wet dream known as Jenny Lewis but, come on, several of the songs on More Adventurous are perfect. Hooks, choruses, and willfully poetic lyricism from the red haired songstress are sung with the right emotion and skill (something that can't be said about previous albums) and the music itself is just, just pretty. The So. Cal. kids wanted to make a big record and they did and I love it a little more every time I hear it. Well, except for Blake's odd ditty early on but, come on, he was on Salute Your Shorts. He gets a pass.

"When I'm feeling alone, you feel like home. You feel like home."
3. Zero 7, When It Falls (Elektra)
There are valid criticisms for this album. Binns and Hardaker are overly in love with their arrangements often letting them ride two and three minutes too long just for the sake of hearing a xylophone or some pretty chord played by string instruments. True. They take no risks on this album not even taking the Simple Things formula to it's next progression. It's a safe record that panders to their most die hard fans. Also true. Thankfully, I'm a die hard fan. I think Sia, Tina Dico, Sophie Barker, and Mozez are the bee's knees and I could hear them sing translations of Osama Bin Laden tapes and still love them. The story of my romantic life this year is hidden in the grooves of this album. If you are happy, sad, resolute, and cut raw at all the right moments on When it Falls then you totally get me. Let's not talk about it, though. I have this firm belief that Zero 7's only purpose in the world is to make me happy and I don't want you to ruin it.

"In my head, in my heart, in my soul."
4. Modest Mouse, Good News for People Who Like Bad News (Sony)
I knew very little about Modest Mouse when I bought this and, in truth, I still don't know much. Float On sucked me in and the rest of the album haunts me. Isaac Brock, all my instincts suggest, is just thisclose to bat-shit crazy but it's that off-kilter energy permeating every song that sticks with me. I found myself regularly singing parts of Bukowski and Ocean Breathes Salty and Blame it on the Tetons and The Good Times Are Killing Me whenever my mind idled. And the horns. An album with horns just randomly blaring must get recognition. Fuck more cowbell. Find me a brass section.

"The pain that you've known, evil you've seen, I've got a feeling that we're gonna be alright"
5. The Foreign Exchange, Connected (BBE)
This was originally slotted at #6 on this list but this had to move up. Nicolay's beats are  luxurious. I recline into them the same way Phonte does when he's rhyming over them. Every time I play Connected it's like sliding into leather bucket seats. Seats that conture to your frame and get more comfortable with each ride. Yeah, that's what this is like. And, like every BBE release, this is woefully underbought and underappreciated. You need The Foreign Exchange in your life.

The rest of my list after the jump.   

"Far away. Far away, Danny, in another galaxy." - Mix Master Mike, Full Range Earmuff

You know the deal. I would've done this yesterday but I was too busy eating, drinking, and being merry.

Out of 2462 Songs, iTunes put on shuffle we get...

Friday Random Ten

1. Da Art of Storytelling, Pt. 2 (A Capella) - Outkast (featuing Slick Rick) - Aquemini
2. Satellite - TV on the Radio - Live at Gate City Noise
3. Tell of Tales (Tell Me When You Need it Again) - Will. I. Am - Taken to the Next Phase
4. Tug of War - Nikki Costa - Everybody Got Their Something
5. Hikky-Burr (Mix Master Mike Remix) - Bill Cosby & Quincy Jones - The New Mixes, Vol. 1
6. Flowers (Original) - Ghostface Killah - Bulletproof Wallets
7. Empty Cans - The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free
8. When it Falls - Zero 7 - When it Falls
9. Free as Love - Mosquitos - Sunshine Barato
10. Afro Blue - Lizz Wright - Salt