"Wide Awake" ft. Cat Power- J Mascis

On "Every Morning," the first single from J Mascis' new solo album Tied to a Star, the Dinosaur Jr. singer/guitarist was struggling to get through the day; "Every morning makes it hard on me," he depressingly whined. To summon the strength to head out into world he had to softly beg "Oh baby won't you see me?" before leaning into a characteristic guitar solo. You could tell if he had any company at all, he'd make it through. If not, he might sit in bed all day.

Though a guitar solo is absent from the considerately strummed folk number "Wide Awake," and it's a few hours earlier, everything else is intact. Mascis is still sitting up in bed worrying about what the day will bring. "I'm wide awake," he repeatedly intones over a delicate acoustic guitar melody. Listening to Mascis' "slacker" moan in such a sparse setting, you can almost hear his eyelids closing and him sliding further down the bedroom wall back onto the mattress. His sleep, or lack thereof, all depends on someone ending his lonely spell. He's been bad at interactions since the early days of Dinosaur Jr. and now is no different. "Walking by your will," Mascis recounts in a tender duet section with Chan Marshall of Cat Power. It doesn't sound like much, but even standing up and walking is a victory.



Tied to a Star drops August 29 through Sub Pop.

"Forerunner Foray"- Shabazz Palaces

When I was previewing Shabazz Palaces back in April for Kansas City's well curated Middle of the Map Festival, I mentioned that Ishmael Butler's work with the project made him "(outside of MF Doom) hip hop's greatest Lazarus." Having been dealt two potentially fatal blows after jazz rap pioneers Digable Planets collapsed and Cherrywine sputtered at the starting gate, Butler managed to suture his wounds and release the devastating EPs Of Light and Shabazz Palaces in late 2009. Those suffocating, osmium-dense EPs yielded Butler a Sub Pop contract which he spun off into Black Up, one of 2011's best. 

At the end of the month Butler will continue the resurrection act when Shabazz Palaces release their second LP, Lese Majesty. They've already shared the pitched-up banger "They Come in Gold" and the glitch rap nightmare "#Cake." Now comes "Forerunner Foray," a skulking piece of rap music littered with wobbling synthesizer and unsettling bass lines. "Resurrection act" is an appropriate descriptor because Butler sounds like he's crawling out of the grave to deliver "Time travel fast and far to the last ocean, punk potion, pimp pirate pushin' plush prose in, curtains closin'." Rather than lighten up the graveyard mood, Jalal Mansur Nuriddin's sampled 1973 tale "Hammock's Hall Was Big" adds more of the macabre. He feels the "tension" of the scene as "pickpockets, and dope peddlers, and murderers and thieves," all rub up against each other. It's a soured look at gangsterism before gangsterism was even a thing in rap music. In fact, it's the very same look that's reflected in Butler's heavy eyes. When he threatens to "AK that" under the influence of space cakes, you can hear the weariness in his voice. He has no interest in gangster posturing because he saw where that landed many of his early 90s peers: dead, painfully irrelevant, or in jail. He'd rather stay free and bear witness like "Shaheed." Listening to "Forerunner Foray" it's clear he still has plenty to say.

hip-hop’s greatest Lazarus

hip-hop’s greatest Lazarus

Lese Majesty is out July 29 through Sub Pop.

"Every Morning"- J Mascis

Hearing J Mascis' effusive first single for upcoming sophomore solo release Tied to a Star, it's hard not to imagine an alternate career path for the Dinosaur Jr. singer/guitarist. One where his Neil Young influences weren't guitar epics "Down by the River" or "Cortez the Killer", but homespun folk tales "Round and Round (It Won't Be Long)" and "See the Sky About to Rain". Songs defined less by the fists they ball up and more by the open hand they extend.

Impeccably strummed without much intensity, "Every Morning" does precisely that. Throughout the sanguine tune, Mascis can be heard searching for someone to make it through the days with. "Every morning makes it hard on me," he wearily mewls. Each morning begins to feel less like a "fresh start" and more like a "continual slog." Day and night swirl together rendering time irrelevant. The longer you're around, the more you ask "why am I here?" But with someone else around, the eternal harshness of time begins to feel less severe. "Oh baby won't you see me?" he gently asks before settling into one of several guitar solos. Instead of thrashing about though, they softly envelop the track. Good company can soften almost any blow.

Tied To A Star drops on Sub Pop August 26. The tracklist can be found below, along with tour dates for a solo tour Mascis will embark on.

 

Tracklist:

1. "Me Again"2. "Every Morning"
3. "Heal the Star"
4. "Wide Awake"
5. "Stumble"
6. "And Then"
7. "Drifter"
8. "Trailing Off"
9. "Come Down"
10. "Better Plane"

 

Tour Dates:
7/26 Carnation, WA - Timber! Outdoor Festival
9/24 Hamden, CT - The Ballroom at The Outer Space
9/25 Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
9/26 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
9/27 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
9/28 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle
9/30 Birmingham, AL - Bottletree
10/1 Nashville, TN - Exit / In
10/2 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
10/3 Atlanta, GA - Terminal West
10/4 Louisville, KY - Zanzabar
10/5 St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway
10/7 Lawrence, KS - Bottleneck
10/8 Omaha, NE - Waiting Room
10/9 Minneapolis, MN - Minneapolis Institute of Arts
10/10 Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon
10/11 Chicago, IL - Subterranean
10/13 Ann Arbor, MI - Blind Pig
10/14 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
10/15 Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe
10/16 Washington, DC - Black Cat
10/17 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
10/18 Boston, MA - Sinclair
11/7-9 Austin, TX - Fun Fun Fun Fest
11/11 Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom
11/12 San Diego, CA - Casbah
11/13 Long Beach, CA - Alex’s Bar
11/14 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
11/15 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
11/16 Sonoma, CA - Gundlach Bundschu
11/19 Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
11/20 Portland, OR - Dante’s
11/21-22 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge

"Rimbaud Eyes"- Dum Dum Girls

"Lost Boys and Girls Club", the first cut from the forthcoming Dum Dum Girls LP Too True was a cauldron churning effort. Drums lumbered and synthesizers muted the band's color palette to a hazy grey, making Dee Dee Penny's lingering voice darker in the process. The only common identifier it had with past works was its runtime, still clocking in at less than 4 minutes.

"Rimbaud Eyes", the newest release from their 3rd full-length similarly tips its cap to the bands' breakneck pace, while simultaneously moving into uncharted territory. The band previously paid tribute to French-poet Arthur Rimbaud with the galloping "Season in Hell", but that jangling slice of garage pop fit in comfortably with the work of peers like Best Coast. "Rimbaud Eyes" on the other hand dives headlong into an 80s abyss, imagining a white wedding of the Bangles and Disintegration-era Cure. Here the drums are in an unshakable lockstep and the bass is back to its chugging pace. Jules' guitar work contorts like the Stone Roses' John Squire caught in a never-ending game of Twister. And then there's Dee Dee, voice trapped in a far-off cavern; crying "every morning's atrocious" and hiding from the dawning Sun. When surrounded by such self-assured performances, her crippled vocal turn registers as "weak". But as the titular poet of the tune once asked, "what soul is without its flaws?"

Too True drops January 28 through Sub-Pop.