Das Racist

Since their arrival on the scene some three years ago, much blog hullaballoo has been made over Das Racist's post-ironic clusterfuck rap. But though the internet debates have raged, the wider hip-hop world has mostly shrugged; now that the group has delved into Diplo-fied club-a-dub-dub with its debut LP Relax, expect folks to start paying a little more attention.

I recently penned a feature on Das Racist for Creative Loafing in which I tried to parse the dudes' labyrinthine musical language.

There's a moment of quiet impact in a now-famous Dave Chappelle sketch about a "Leave it to Beaver"-esque family whose last name happens to be homophonous with a certain racial epithet. Clad in milkman-minstrel garb, Chappelle finally turns to the camera and utters a smiling SOS: "This racism is killing me inside."

Rappers Victor Vazquez and Himanshu Suri operate with less comedic masochism but with a similarly absurdist eye for racial politics, cloaking their observations in a stoned but studious tone that could rightly be deemed subversive. It's Chappellian-via-Wesleyan, less "Did he really just say that?" and more "Wait, what did he just say?" As Das Racist, the Brooklyn group self-released two stellar and much-blogged-about mixtapes in 2010, Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man. On the surface, Das Racist consisted of a couple of wildly talented jokesters musing on dumb shit: junk food, rap culture, weed. Underneath, they were a couple of wildly talented jokesters with a penchant for profundity. "We are family," goes the deadpan chorus to "Puerto Rican Cousins," from Sit Down, Man. "At least that's what we look like we might be."

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MusicfestNW 2011

The piece I did on the always impressive MusicfestNW is up over at Tiny Mix Tapes. Though I didn't make a point to see some of the fest's many oldsters (Butthole Surfers, Archers of Loaf), I did witness some pretty spectacular sets from the new guard. Some (Ume) killed outright; others (EMA) seemed on the verge of greatness but were charmingly flawed. Great lineup this year, and though Iron and Wine confused the fuck out of me (and everyone), I was glad to see folks like Sam Beam venturing outside their comfort zones in favor of some next level ish.

My generation is truly lost. Most people feel isolated some time or another, but in our case, everyone seems to feel this way all the time. What do any of us have in common, besides the internet and the sickly persistent desire to always be connected? But to what? And to whom?

The MusicfestNW 2011 lineup boasted anachronistic names like Archers of Loaf, Butthole Surfers, and Sebadoh. Now, before we get too far, I should note that I didn't see most of these bands. They don't interest me much now. If it were 1994 or 1989 or whenever, I'd be all about it. But it's 2011, and these are not our artists, as much as we want to think they are. Never before has a generation so lustily consumed the culture of its forebears. It's one big memory daydream, like our whole society's turned into one big nostalgia pit ready to open up and swallow it all.

So it was with a warrior's countenance that I approached MFNW, with the constant nagging mental backdrop of time, time, time...

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Wild Flag: Wild Flag

What surprised me the most about the debut from Wild Flag is how much Mary Timony's songs really stand out. Brownstein still knows how to write a solid tune, but it's MT who steals the show. If you haven't heard the record yet, it comes highly recommended, from me and, uh, just about everyone else.

Supergroup alert: The all-female, all-badass Wild Flag consists of former members of Sleater-Kinney, Helium and the Minders. Since its rather inconspicuous formation last year, Wild Flag has steadily garnered a fair share of hype from media and fans itching for a real-deal rock resurgence in the increasingly gutless indie landscape. Now that the album's finally here, can it fulfill its destiny?

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Young Jeezy returns! (To Portland?)

I did a piece for the new issue of the Portland Mercury on Young Jeezy, who's playing the Roseland tonight with Freddie Gibbs. Yes, Jeezy is in Portland. I'll bet he's in line at Voodoo Doughnut as we speak.

TM103 has been a loooong time coming. Too bad it looks like it's gonna suck.

Two years is a good chunk of time by any measure, but in rap, it's an eternity. In the days since Young Jeezy first conceived Thug Motivation 103, hiphop has changed in ways both predictable and unexpectedly exhilarating. Even as it seems to slip inextricably further into a labyrinth of slick soullessness, smart alecks like Das Racist, and misanthropes like Tyler, the Creator have forced us to reexamine our complex relationship with the genre. With TM103 finally slated for a September 20 release, the question arises: Will rap's new guard make room for the king of the coke anthem?

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