What's New(s)?

Andy Warhol directed clip of a 1967 Velvet Underground concert surfaces

Last week was a very good week for the Velvet Underground. First there was the well publicized news that a 1966 acetate of the band's "Scepter Sessions" was going up for auction, and now Spin is reporting (with help from Open Culture) that a 33-minute film of the Velvets performing in Boston in 1967 was posted last Wednesday on YouTube.

Simply entitled The Velvet Underground in Boston, the Andy Warhol directed footage was found by the artist's museum in 2008 and premiered at New York's MOMA in 2010. Since then it was essentially gathering dust until a YouTube account called "John Colon" liberated it from the museum on the 21st. Shot at Boston's Tea Party Club, the clip bursts with sudden pans, zooms, and abrupt edits that are as jarring as the band's lacerating wall of noise. In fact, "noise" or more appropriately "noise rock" is the best way to describe VU's set since nothing is distinguishable behind Warhol's constant knob twiddling. Considering very little complete footage exists of the band, any performance is a complete revelation.

Raekwon debuts new collabo "Call of Duty" with Akon

 

If the Wu-Tang Clan really is forever, then today is one of those days that offers unassailable proof.  This morning saw Ghostface Killah teaming up with BADBADNOTGOOD and Danny Brown for a brilliant round of freewheeling; this afternoon Ghost's frequent Wu-collaborator Raekwon dropped the latest effort from his upcoming sixth LP FILA (Fly International Luxurious Art). 

Entitled "Call of Duty", the track features a riotous hook from R&B singer Akon and Raekwon nimbly recalling "roughed up stones" and "murders by number in Monaco." He even crafts a slight allusion to his recent feud with RZA, saying, "When we go, yo, we go together; whatever is said, it’s still combat boots on the door." Not even internal disputes can bring the Wu down.

(You can listen to "Call of Duty" here and look for FILA to drop later this year.)

 

Check back tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s) and follow AllFreshSounds on Twitter for updates throughout the day.

What's New(s)?

Debut Joy Division EP to be re-released for Record Store

Back in 1978 before Ian Curtis and company had become a flagship band of the nascent post-punk scene, they were a Salford-based quartet who had recently changed their name from Warsaw. Not long after the name-change to the now iconic "Joy Division", the group released a debut 7" EP on the personal Enigma Records imprint, followed by a 12" offering on Anonymous Records in October of that year. While the band hit major heights in 1979 with Unknown Pleasures, An Ideal for Living was relatively unheralded.

Over the years the record has been frequently bootlegged by hardcore fans of the band and now those fans will be able to legally obtain the EP once more. Out April 19 for Record Store Day, the re-imagined version will feature artwork from the less-controversial 12" cover (the 7" originally depicted a member of the Hitler Youth). You can view the tracklist below and enjoy a clip of the band performing "Transmission" live.

Wu-Tang Clan member GZA gives a Ted Talk on "The Genius of Science"

"GZA is just the Genius" Raekwon reminded listeners on the way back in 1993 on Enter the Wu-Tang. Recently the head of hip-hop's Voltron, GZA, got a chance to put that mind on display with a TedxTeen talk about what he calls "The Genius of Science."

In the course of the lecture, GZA (born Gary Grice) discusses his fondness for science and the work he now does for Science Genius, a nonprofit that teaches high-school students to learn about science through unconventional means such as hip-hop. GZA also goes on to expound upon the meaning of the Wu-Tang Clan name, how nursery rhymes are really just childhood raps, and how music can "harmonize the school." The 19-minute lecture wraps up with students from the program showing off their knowledge on subjects like: gravity, sexual reproduction, and natural selection, before showcasing some of GZA's material from the forthcoming Dark Matter LP.

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"Keep Watch"- Wu-Tang Clan

I haven't exactly been shy about my love for the Wu-Tang Clan. For my money there hasn't been a better rap-group to come up. Everything is there in the group, larger-than-life personalities like ODB. Classic rappity rappers in the way of GZA and Raekwon. Frenetic madmen a la Ghostface Killah. A blunted MC in Method Man who can never shake a cartoonish grin. And then there's a bench of the "second-tier" teammates who rarely drop the ball when they get called up. Uniting it all is the singular, uncompromising vision of RZA. While he's justly received his fair share of flack in recent years for being a hip-hop autocrat, without that focused power the Wu would've never been the Wu.

Even if the Wu had never climbed to those lofty heights, "Keep Watch", the first track off of the forthcoming A Better Tomorrow would be worth celebrating. It's not on the same level as storied entries into the anthology like Enter the Wu-Tang, Liquid Swords, or Only Built for Cuban Linx but it doesn't need to be. Everyone here is hyperfocused in their approach and effortlessly bounces off each other; a small miracle considering it's been nearly seven years since their last group LP dropped. Meth's verse kicks off the "instrumental killing spree" as he goes off the muzzle like a rabid dog and devours anyone who dare label him "washed up." Inspectah Deck follows suit and blitzes the circular guitar riff and loping soul vocal (courtesy of Mathematics) with the intensity of Justin Tuck. Cappadonna renders any arguments about his place in Wu-Tang Clan proper irrelevant from the word go. "I'm a project n**** I don't care about the Benz," he chest puffs, reminding everyone of the grime the Clan originally came coated in. And after three rounds of brawn, comes the ultimate in brain. GZA indulges his inner astrophysicist to talk radiating heat and solar clouds. Midway through he lectures "balance on all sides, it’s such great symmetry," perfectly surmising why the W has remained so successful after 20 years. They're balanced and anyone who dares test them will be left kicking rocks.

“Keep Watch” is available for download now.

"Enter the Wu-Tang" Turns 20

I've written before about the countless CDs littering my car, about half-cracked cases and fraying cardboard covers I hold on to because of their vitality. I'm unwilling (or unable) to part with them because they all occupy a special place in my cluttered musical brain. Some are recent additions like Yeezus or Wise Up Ghost, while others have been around for a minute; surviving countless scratches and lost cases. Anchoring one of these cluttersome piles in my car is the Wu-Tang Clan's debut 1993 record Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). For me it's the foundation, the enduring anchor. Still in its original case, it's stuck with me like the gum under the table of bulldozing posse-cut "Protect Your Neck". When I first purchased the album, I'd already been orbiting hip-hop writ large, but Enter the Wu-Tang was my entryway into the underground. A ticket to a sideshow of: comic book villainy, wanton violence, and kung-fu flicks. With the record turning 20 over the weekend, I decided it was time to return to the land of Shaolin.

As a gateway into the warped world of the W, "Bring Da Ruckus" decaying drums and deadly-accurate snaps remain an all-time classic. For quotable samples, few in the annals of rap rival "Shaolin shadowboxing and the Wu-Tang sword style...". When two close friends and I pilgrimaged to Chicago's Congress Theatre to see the crew, the whole crowd was in unison repeating the line as it blared out the house speakers. Ghostface Killah's gusto-filled introduction has become mantra in my mind. Self-assured and frenetically paced, his threats "causing terror, quick damage your whole era" were harried, like he had another hit to scurry off to across town. In terms of one-two acts, few in any context can rival the Ghost/Raekwon pairing that sends this track into the stratosphere. Ghost is the rabid attack dog and Raekwon the Mafioso figure holding the muzzle. GZA's warning shot to the world is assassin caliber. His next level internal rhyme-scheme delivered on the promise of the “God MC” Rakim and had the salvo of a bitter veteran whose debut LP met the sound of crickets. And that's just the opening track.

An album spilling this much viscera circa 1993 was almost unthinkable. Sure hip-hop was littered with promises of violence before, though never quite this joyful. When Method Man's dusty voice resolves to "sever the head from the shoulders" over the infernal horns of "Shame On A N****" it’s the by-product of there being nothing good on TV that night. As a marble-mouthed U-God rushes in to announce a shooting outside, Meth is still concerned with a missing tape.  A full two years before Mobb Deep promised to stab brains with nose brain, the Wu was concocting skits focused on banging nuts with spiked bats and force-feeding unwilling participants (assholes sewn shut of course). When hip-hop critics derisively label it "cartoonish violence" this is the album they mean to cite, but never do.

And there is an almost cartoony or comic-like way in which these nine MCs joined together for a hostile takeover. The origin story begins with two cousins, the RZA and the GZA each nursing their own wounds from failed record deals. While GZA put pen to paper and crafted dense tales of "God squad that's mad hard to serve, come fronting hard, then Bernhard Goetz what he deserves", cousin Robert Diggs began scouring the depths of soul/funk samples with the fervor of a gravedigger who loves his job a bit too much. If it were ever possible to hear dirt on a record, RZA made it so. Vocals don't crisply travel through speakers, they float in disembodied fashion. "Can It All Be So Simple" offers its own origin story as told by a ghost. Elsewhere, drums rattle and clank like bones. Guitars, pianos, and keyboards travel in broken loops, decaying in real time. Frequently the group was just shooting the breeze, but fitted atop RZA's atmospheric production even the endearing lines register as threats. Here "the sound of the underground" is more literal than figurative.

Slowly the seven other crew members gathered together, "forming like Voltron". Rap groups were commonplace when the Wu began, but never this unwieldy or spirited. There was: "Genius" GZA, spliff-puffing/s***-talking Method Man (whose rugged amiability guaranteed he'd be the first with a solo record), Raekwon weighing grams in the backroom with a fierce scowl, Ghostface's full-speed ahead delivery. U-God's leaden voice only appeared on the drunken double-dutch of "Da Mystery of Chessboxin" (he was incarcerated for much of the recording), but his sole verse packed a mighty wallop. The criminally underrated Inspectah Deck made up for a less-than-stellar personality through an eagle-eyed rap perspective. Few hard knock tales have ever expressed as much anguish as Deck's legendary second verse in "C.R.E.A.M." where jail bids are served at 15 and stray bullets become commonplace. Masta Killa's ferocious turn on aforementioned "Chessboxin" corroborates the now mythic-story he stayed up all-night writing to gain entrance into the group. And then there's the Ol' Dirty Bastard, named so because "there ain't no father to his style". In an alternate write-up, I'd spend its entire length and breadth fawning about the now-deceased ODB. In a group bursting at the seams with oversized personalities, his looms largest. The man known as Russell Jones' rap "style" has been described as everything from "drunken" to "seesawing" and "sing-song". More frequently he stumbles, composing himself only to bark out a threat or recount the time he got burnt by gonorrhea. More than a feral animal anthropomorphized and taught to rap, he was the group’s irregular heartbeat.

All those stray elements and fragments coalesce into the alien Enter the Wu-Tang. Debut albums have rarely come as insular as this. Not sure what "jakes" are? Then you're out of luck. Never seen a kung-fu film or B-movie schlock; this fraught world will make no sense to you. And yet here we are celebrating its 20th anniversary as it’s routinely heralded as one of the greatest hip-hop records released. Wu-Tang didn't kowtow to the prevailing wisdom of the era (innovators rarely do). We met them on their own terms. Two decades later and they still "ain't nothing to f*** with". If Wu-Tang really is forever (and recent in-house fighting calls that into question), this was the album that ensured their eternality.

Up from the 36 Chambers

This past Friday, it was announced that deceased Wu-Tang Clan member Ol' Dirty Bastard's debut solo album would be given the deluxe set treatment. According to prefixmag.com, the re-release will include the remastered Return to the 36 Chambers, as well as an additional disc and a bevy of collectibles. The release is pegged for November 22 and can be found on GetOnDown. In the mean time, enjoy this clip from the album's first single "Brooklyn Zoo."