The 1880

Yo! Listen to This: Organized Konfusion

Organized Konfusion are ready to hit the slopes!

When people like to talk about early 90’s hip-hop, it’s common (no pun intended) for the speaker to usually get stuck on A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, or any other member of the admittedly expansive Native Tongues Posse. However, Organized Konfusion constantly existed outside of the Native Tongues orbit, offering a somewhat darker alternative to the predominantly positive raps kicked around by other artists, and each of their albums saw them delving into darker, yet no less intelligent territory.

Prince Poetry and Pharoahe Monch released their first, self-titled album as O.K. in 1991, an album that notable music journal AllMusic awarded a flawless 5 star rating. This album would exemplify the O.K. style, with beats and lyricism that provided a bridge between the manic pulse of Eric B. and Rakim and groups like A Tribe Called Quest. Tribe leader Q-Tip would later show up on Organized Konfusion’s second album, the extremely underrated Stress: The Extinction Agenda, providing one of the few guests spots on any of O.K.’s albums. Actually, on that note, their 1997 swan song, the somewhat-concept album The Equinox is pretty underrated as well.

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Ted Leo and The Pharmacists - Living With The Living

Living With The Living

This is proof that time machines exist. Somebody has obviously perfected the technology, and somehow, our friend Ted Leo got his hands on it. Did this album even come out in 2007? Upon flipping the case over, the copyright logo does say 2007, but this sounds so much more like Ted Leo circa 2001. The uninformed individual, if they were to try and establish a timeline of Leo’s albums based on sound alone, would probably place this one right between The Tyranny Of Distance and Hearts Of Oak.

Largely abandoning the more punk directed sound that 2004’s Shake The Sheets teetered towards, it almost seems like Leo is playing a bit safe on Living With The Living. Had he continued in the direction that Shake The Sheets seemed to imply, we might have received a straight up punk classic. However, while bloggers/reviewers may sit around and speculate on what could have been, Leo is still going to put out admittedly strong albums like this one, even if it seems like somewhat of a stop gap.

The only extreme diversion from the time tested Leo formula is the herky-jerky, incredibly syncopated “Bomb.Repeat.Bomb,” which ressurects Leo’s spoken word skills from Hearts Of Oak’s ”The Ballad Of The Sin Eater” and throws in a chorus the size of Texas. The song is completely jarring from both a musical and lyrical standpoint, as Leo raves about an unnamed war situation as stabs of guitar fly by like bullets. “The Unwanted Things” straight up makes out with the ska/reggae influences that Leo has constantly flirted with, although it doesn’t work as well as the aforementioned “Bomb.”

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Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future

Klaxon’s album, Myths of the Near Future

I kind of feel bad for Klaxons, as they have garnered a monolithic tower of press attention in an extremely short amount of time, mostly from the extremely hyperbolic British press. The reason this is a bad thing is because with such emphasis comes a metric ton of expectations. Basically, the odds are stacked against this band very high, and to be blunt, this album shows them caving a bit under the pressure.

First order of business: A message to the British press, and for that matter, the American press as well. STOP WITH ALL OF THIS “NEW RAVE” TALK. This term makes no sense. If you truly embraced all of the aspects of rave culture that the music press seems to attatch Klaxons to, and actually did Ecstasy while listening to this album, you would probably dance like a prick (to steal an Ali G phrase), but you’d also probably freak out and cry and have a huge existential dilemma at the same time. Klaxons aren’t that smooth of a band. So get that pacifier out of your mouth and change out of those ridiculously huge pants, because rave has not returned.

Let’s address the actual album. First off, it’s coming out way too soon. 2006’s Xan Valleys EP got so much acclaim because it stood on the shoulders of two absolutely amazing singles, the admittedly rave-like “Atlantis To Interzone,” and the anthemic “Gravity’s Rainbow,” both of which re-appear in re-recorded form. Problem is, these are the two best songs on the album. The spanking new studio sheen makes these two songs absolutely crush everything surrounding them, including their old versions. Jamie Reynolds’ new and improved bass tone spews venom all over these songs, giving them a much harsher kick that the EP lacked. However, those going in expecting 12 tracks of this caliber will be quite dissapointed. There is almost a feeling that the band saw the success of Xan Valleys and booked it into the studio to try and satiate their rabid fans. A noble cause, but a bit more time could have developed these songs a bit more.

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No Phishes, No Marleys, No Daves

Sebadoh’s III, one of Erik’s Non-Typical
College Albums

Moving to Boston and attending college has ushered in an entirely different environment than the one I previously inhabited in Cincinnati, OH. Offering probably the largest deviation is the music people are into up here. This has been to my advantage, however, because there have been several times back home where I”ve tried to show albums to more punk minded friends of mine and been turned away, or shrugged off like “Oh Erik, you and your indie rock.”

Too many times in magazines I”ve read in the past, in some attempt at wit, a writer has tried to rank the top 10 college albums of all time. These usually include such played out jams like Bob Marley’s Legend, any number of Dave Matthews Band albums, or some other album that’s constantly being played while a bunch of dudes chill back over some Nati Ices and “bro out.”

While I completely understood going into this article that Emerson defies the “bro” stereotype by about a mile (thankfully), please, allow me to complain. I still hear too much Dave. I don’t care about Dispatch. Or, now that I live in the big shiny tower known as Piano Row, I hear a shit ton of show tunes, or people just talking about show tunes. I don’t really think I”ve heard people just TALK so much about a genre as much as I have show tunes. It was bad enough having “Seasons Of Love” from Rent play as our class song at high school graduation.

So, without further ado, I present to you, in somewhat of an attempt at wit:

The Top 10 Non-Typical College Albums (in no particular order)

Sebadoh - III
In 1989, J Mascis kicked Lou Barlow out of Dinosaur Jr. Almost immediately, Barlow retreated to his home and began kicking out all sorts of lo-fi jams under the name Sebadoh. III, which is thought by many to be the band’s peak, also stands as a great example of a college age adult hiding in their room constructing tunes on their own budget, something that Emerson students have a tendency to do. Drop this album on your acoustic-jamming roommate’s bed. It”ll change things.

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