Future Islands

I spoke recently with Future Islands frontman Samuel T. Herring, who told me tales of the construction of the group's new album, the impressive On the Water (pictured). I whittled it down to 350 words for the Portland Mercury.

Synthesizers and self-flagellation were the last two things anyone expected at Pickathon, but there was Samuel T. Herring barreling across the stage, pounding his chest, gagging himself with his free hand. He was a maniacal mirage, a dense cloud of danger interrupting the idyllic panorama. "I was intimidated," Herring admits regarding Future Islands' chaotic incursion into the folky, family-friendly Portland festival. "At the same time, it was liberating, too, to get up there and do what we wanted."

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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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