Friends Who Make Music

"I'm comfortable enough in my (relative lack of) masculinity to admit that I'm a fan of this show"

One of the more awkward aspects about being a (not a) blogger writing about music (you know, aside from all of it…) is being asked by your friends to listen and post their band’s music for your site. As any person who adheres to the most basic of social conventions can tell you, peer-to-peer human bonding requires one to like (or at least, pretend to like) your friend’s shitty band even if you’d rather stick a corkscrew into aural cavity than listen to their music. Naturally, this can be problematic when one considers oneself to be an objective critic (and in my case, somebody with flawless taste) and you have to inform your friends through your (relative lack of…) social graces that you won’t be writing a fawning piece of their industrial sludge metal band on your blog because you don’t want to compromise your objective integrity (or rather because you simply have taste…) Fortunately, I have been blessed with friends that have musical talent and I’m proud to be able to post their stuff on my blog.

5 O’Clock Shadowboxers – The Slow Twilight

Over the course of my blogging career, I have befriended (and made enemies with) many of my fellow bloggers and musicians who frequent the same corner of the interwebs that I do. Through my travels, I somehow managed to befriend the infamous rapper Zilla Rocca of Clean Guns and producer/musician Douglas Martin of Fresh Cherries from Yakima through our correspondence and daily shit-talking we all do at Passion Of The Weiss and The What? message boards. Douglas and Zilla despite being on opposite coasts have formed like Voltron to form the group, the 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers, to release their collaborative album, “The Slow Twilight”.

This album is no joke and is one of the best albums to be released recently in a year that many critics are calling a return to form for hip hop (if the form was like 2004 but still…). The Slow Twilight sounds like the artistic cousin of GZA’s “Liquid Swords” if it were mated with Edan’s “Beauty & The Beat” and channeled through a less needlessly unintelligible version of Aesop Rock (in a good way) humping a DVD of “Double Indemnity.” Zilla Rocca is obviously a very talented lyricist and song-writer (although he does fall into my number one pet peeve of all white rappers which is cramming too many words and syllables into their verses to show of their technical virtuosity. Sorry, Zill. It’s true.) as he takes effort to craft some really effecting and sad songs on this like his ode to dead-end girls from Philly on “Dead Queens.” However, the real star of the show is Douglas Martin’s murky, low-end production. Drawing heavily from familiar mood rock sample sources like Radiohead and the Velvet Underground (allegedly, I’m not nearly enough of a Lou Reed stan to tell you), Martin crafts a dark, dark noir inspired beats. The beat on “Bottomfeeders” alone might be my favorite beat done all year.

Download or Buy: 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers – The Slow Twilight

Ra Ra Riot – The Rhumb Line

I have known the dudes (and chicks) from Ra Ra Riot in one shape or the other since my days happily drinking myself steadily into oblivion at Syracuse University. Their original drummer, John Pike, before he tragically passed and their lead singer, Wes Miles, were friends with my old college roommate, Clint, and used to sit on Clint’s bed and listen to weird break-beat records in our dorm room while I played Battlefield 2 on my computer. I remember seeing them perform their first shows in the basement of grubby house parties and now, the band is breaking nationally appearing on Late Night With Conan O’Brien and touring with (Seth Cohen Approved!!!) Death Cab For Cutie and (the immortal) Vampire Weekend. Numerous number of my friends are obsessed with these dudes (since they know them, personally), so its been oddly satisfying in seeing a band I can remember from its infancy going from playing shitty parties in the ‘Cuse to selling out Webster Hall in the space of three years.

I’m not the world’s biggest indie rock fan (obviously) but I’ve always had a really good time at their shows and I purchased their debut CD when it was released last August. Ra Ra crafts sweet and peppy indie pop songs that work slightly better live than they do in recorded form. They are kind of hypnotic live due to a large part because of their high energy state shows (and the fact, their two female members are hot) as Wes Miles really brings it. “Ohh La” off their album was probably my favorite indie rock (well, the only indie song I liked) last year.

Buy: Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line

Divine Minds – Divine Intervention/SoulKlap & Divine Minds – The Quan

Divine Minds, consisting of fellow Shaker Heights alums, rapper Jerrell Johnson (Black J) and producer Mike Amaddio, have been kicking in and out of my musical consciousness back since I was pretending to be a rapper myself (and no, you will die before you hear any of my old material. Asher Roth, eat your heart out..). Jerrell was a friend of my younger brother and knowing that I was a big hip hop fan myself, used to pass me his early mixtapes that he created in his buddy’s homemade studio.

Now, Jerrell and Mike are all growns up (Word to Vince Vaughn) and crafting some damn, quality hip hop in their own right. “Divine Intervention” and “The Quan” (with rapper/producer Soul Klap) are some true boom bap purist goodness filled with J’s nimble rapping and some quality Dilla-lite quality beats. Each record is primarily concerned with social and geo-poltical…um, politics and can at times be mired in the typical conscious rap tropes but its definitely worth the time to check out. “The Quan”, Jerrell’s collaboration with Soul Klap is probably the more realized mixtape of the two but both are filled with some banging beats and rapping. Plus, there has to be the first song about “Global Warming” that manages to be hard as nails.

Download: Divine Minds – Divine Intervention

Download: Soul Klap & Divine Minds Presents The Quan