Devotion #21

I would like to be posting more, but recently, I’ve been doing more plugging of events where I’m DJing. I can’t continue to do that in good faith, however, especially as Michael and Patrick are still valiantly carrying the mighty Audiversity torch. So today I’m going to plug another event and offer up some music, because 1) I have another set to promote, and 2) something’s been bugging me about this Jackson Conti collaboration between Madlib and Brazilian drummer and percussionist Ivan “Mamao” Conti of Azymuth.

In a recent piece for Wax Poetics, I alluded to how much the song “Papaya” from Jackson Conti’s Sujinho reminded me of Player’s “Baby Come Back.” Not that it is anything out of the ordinary for songs from divergent origins to be similar. “Breathe” (Pink Floyd) and “Down by the River” (Neil Young) have a bass line so similar that I’ve been obsessed for years with finding out who either party stole it from. But in the case of Jackson Conti and Player, this is straight up apples and oranges – or more like apples and feta cheese. “Baby Come Back” is among the pinnacle of 1970s White Boy Soul, and with the wealth of musical knowledge that Madlib has, I’m sure he’s familiar, but to hear hints of it in the Jackson Conti was both a shock and a very pleasant surprise. I could just be crazy, though. The Ronnie never knows for sure. Check the track and the video and decide for yourself.

Jackson Conti – “Papaya” – Sujinho (Kindred Spirits 2008)

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about that. If you’re in Chicago and free tonight, come check this event at the Hyde Park Art Center. I’m becoming something of a regular there, which isn’t a bad thing, I guess. A little culture ain’t never hurt nobody.

Here’s some randomness from the office hard drive…

Blade Spade – “To Serve With Love” intro – To Serve With Love (OM 2008)

I’ve been meaning to post this Black Spade for months, but you know how that goes. If you’ve read any of my previous writings here, you would know that I’m fairly disenchanted with contemporary hip-hop, but To Serve With Love is the first project in a long while that I’m putting 100% support behind. It’s just good music, which I’m not denying the existence of – I’m no rap agnostic – as much as I’m finding it harder and harder to come up on. Perhaps this has more to do with the state of the industry and the adjustments that artists have to make than the music itself, but that’s a conversation for another day. This right here, though? It’s the slickness.

Nas – “Surviving the Times” – Greatest Hits (Sony 2007)

For some reason I can’t recall, I recently got into a discussion with my girl about est. I was trying to think of the artist who was a proponent of the self-help movement, and after minutes of racking my brain and a little Internet research, I remembered that it was Diana Ross. Then I remembered I first learned of Ross’ involvement with est after hearing this Nas track – which flips Nipsey Russell singing “What Would I Do if I Could Feel” as the Tin Man in the film version of “The Wiz” – and getting caught in a Wikipedia maze. According to Wiki, “The Wiz” screenwriter Joel Schumacher was also an est devotee, and his presence and Ross’ influence resulted in “an est-ian fable full of est buzzwords about knowing who you are and sharing and all that,” in the words of producer Rob Cohen, who admittedly “hated the script a lot.” “The Wiz” turned out to be a critical and commercial failure for a number of reasons, but I loved it when I saw it as a shorty. It had Richard Pryor and Raj and Dee’s mama from What’s Happening!! in it, plus “You Can’t Win,” a severely underrated solo Michael Jackson jam. How bad could it have really been? I’ll have to revisit it at some point.

Gnarls Barkley – “Blind Mary” – The Odd Couple (Atlantic 2008)

If you can’t get to this, then I weep for you and I weep for the children.

Radio Show Playlist: 5/7/08

Audiversity's reign on 88.7 WLUW-FM Chicago is coming to a close -- with June 25th being the last possible show date, though it could very well come sooner with the way the situation is developing. On July 1st, WLUW will no longer be listener-supported community radio; instead it is reverting back to Loyola's student-run station, and most likely with it, all of the downfalls and short-sightedness of college radio. As solely a community member, I will no longer be welcome to contribute. There is no animosity, it's just the reality of the situation, and I am ready to move on to bigger and better things. What exactly is this bigger and better thing? It is the Chicago Independent Radio Project! A brand new station is in the works that will be potentially launching this summer on the web. This will be Audiversity's new home, and I hope all of you will follow us there. The show will be new and improved and hopefully taken to brand new levels. Thanks for listening for the last 2-and-a-half years if you are a WLUW listener, and I'm looking forward to developing this idea even further. Cheers.

6a:
1. Boards of Canada - An Eagle in Your Mind - Music has the Right to Children (WARP 1998)
2. Plaid - Diddy Mouse Did - P-Brane EP (WARP 2002)
3. Aphex Twin - Green Calx - Selected Ambient Works 1985-92 (R&S 1993)
4. Autechre - Simmm - Quaristice (WARP 2008)
5. Boom Bip - Third Stream (Four Tet Remix) - Corymb (Lex 2004)
6. Lucky Dragons - Givers - Dream Island Laughing Language (Marriage 2008)
7. The Eternals - This Mix is So Bizarre - Heavy International (Aesthetics 2007)
8. Konono No.1 - Masikulu - Congotronics (Crammed 2004)
9. Chief Checker - Africa Irie - Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump (Strut 2008)

7a:
1. King Tubby meets Roots Radics - Country Gal Dub - Dangerous Dub (Greensleeves 1981)
2. Watty Burnett - Rainy Night in Portland - A Live Injection: Lee Perry Anthology 1968-75 (Trojan 2001)
3. Congos - Congoman - Heart of the Congos (Blood & Fire 1977)
4. Tom Ze - Mulher Navio Negerio - Estudande O Pagode (Luaka Bop 2006)
5. MoMo - Tao Feliz - A Estetica do Rabisco (Dubas Musica 2007)
6. Gilberto Gil - Pega a Voga, Cabeludo - 1968 (Mercury 1968)
7. Eddie Palmieri - Una Rosa Espanola - The Sun of Latin Music (Musical Productions 1973)
8. Tito Puente - Que Sensacion - Sensacion (Concord Picante 1987)
9. Mongo Santamaria - Para Ti - Up from the Roots (Atlantic 1972)
10. Unknown - Erhu Solo - Streets of Lhasa (Sublime Frequencies 2005)

8a:
1. Sandy Bull - Memphis, Tennessee - Inventions (Vanguard 1964)
2. Debashish Bhattacharya - Gypsy Anandi - Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide Guitar Odyssey (Riverboat 2008)
3. John Coltrane - Peace on Earth - Infinity (Impulse! 1972)
4. Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake - For Brother Thompson - From the River to the Ocean (Thrill Jockey 2007)
5. Van Morrison - Purple Heather - Hard Nose the Highway (Mercury 1973)
6. Chris Connelly - Mirror Lips - The Episodes (Durto Jnana 2007)
7. Joan of Arc - The Surrender #2 - Boo Human (Polyvinyl 2008)
8. J. Spaceman - Musicbox Underwater - Mister Lonely: Music from a Film by Harmony Kornie (Drag City 2008)

Singleversity #56

Audiversity’s weekly column on music we stumble across during our sonic adventures. No random numbers, just straight audio goodness.

MA:



“In the beginning there was nothing,
but it was kind of fun to watch nothing grow.
You came walking
into my life
carrying your own dreams.
You could have been,
yeah, you could have been good,
then why were you so goddamn mean?
But til you I never had any fun.
But I’m sure glad I never,
ain’t you glad I never,
be glad I never owned a gun.”
-Lee Hazlewood, “I’m Glad I Never…:”

I’ve gotten in the habit of listening to the Jesus Lizard in the 6am hour. Just, you know, because nothing goes better with the sunrise than a little atonal upchuck and chafed ass-shaking. Of course, that was only until I stumbled across Lee Hazlewood’s Requiem for an Almost Lady (released exclusively in Sweden) from 1971. Now instead of dewdrops and pseudo-industrial noise, it’s bird tweets and swinging country-pop grooves. Don’t mistake that for a loss of volatility though – see above transcription from the opening track. "I'll Live Yesterdays" is my personal favorite. “Seems we’re always doing something to hurt each other, but you know you never really hurt me until the fourth verse of this song.” Oh yeah? “Knives that have cut you when others have touched you have taken our children away. If there is no tomorrow for us, then I’ll live yesterdays.”

PM:



I recently got mixed up in this Indian kick for Netflix. We hit a groove for a few weeks where it just seemed like it was one after another - "The Namesake," "The Darjeeling Unlimited," and then most recently "Monsoon Wedding." Other than a comical subplot involving the wedding planner and the servant girl (who, it turns out, is the best looking actress in the movie), the latter isn't worth enduring unless you just really love Indian bickering. But hey, there's even a pot of gold at the end of this dusty rainbow: Stay tuned for the credits, because the best part of the movie plays right over them. Sukhwinder Singh is one of India's more recognizable Bollywood singers and is currently working on his own private studio in Mumbai. From a less complicated time when bleached out jean jackets were, um, all the rage (Revisionist history alert!), 2001's "Aaj Mera Jee Karda" has some great percussion and an instantly memorable melody. Put it this way: I enjoyed the credits more than the movie.

Radio Show Playlist: 4/30/08

6a:
1. Jesus Lizard - Monkey Trip - Goat (Touch & Go 1991)
2. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Hold on to Yourself - Dig Lazarus, Dig!!! (Anti- 2008)
3. Ladyhawk - I Don't Always Know What You're Saying - Shots (Jagjaguwar 2008)
4. Sam Shalabi - Jessica Simpson - Eid (Alien8 2008)
5. Singer - Oh Dusty - Unhistories (Drag City 2008)
6. Spires That the Sunset Rise - Clouds - This is Fire (Secret Eye 2007)
7. Lee Hazlewood - I'll Live Yesterday - Requiem for an Almost Lady (Smells Like 1971)
8. Scott Tuma - Nobody (River of Tin) - Not for Nobody (Digitalis 2008)
9. Grails - Dead Vine Blues - Burning Off Impurities (Temporary Residence 2007)
10. Ulaan Khol - Untitled 3 - I (Soft Abuse 2008)

7a:
1. Jason Kopec - Untitled Track 2 - Ground Up 2: Release the Cheerfulness, China (Noise|Order 2008)
2. Debashish Bhattacharya - Gypsy Anandi - Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide-Guitar Odyssey (Riverboat 2008)
3. Jason Ajemian's Smokeless Heat - With or Without the Universalator (Birdie's Dream) - The Art of Dying (Delmark 2008)
4. Ted Daniel Quintet - Sweet Dreams - Tapestry (Porter 2008, originally Sun 1974)
5. Birigwa - Okusosola Mukuleke - Birigwa (Porter 2007, Seeds 1972)
6. Franco & TP OK Jazz - Azda - Rough Guide to Congo Gold (World Music 2008, originally 1973)
7. Sir Shina Peters & his International Stars - Yabis - Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump (Strut 2008)

8a:
1. Four Tet - Wing Body Wing - Ringer (Domino 2008)
2. Ecstatic Sunshine - Perrier - Way (Cardboard 2008)
3. Thank You - Embryo Imbroglio - Terrible Two (Thrill Jockey 2008)
4. Animal Collective - Street Flash - Water Curses EP (Domino 2008)
5. Cloudland Canyon - Mothlight Pt. 1 - Lie in Light (Kranky 2008)
6. Alex Delivery - Milan - Star Destroyer (Jagjaguwar 2007)
7. Portishead - Nylon Smile - Third (Island 2008)
8. Dosh - Don't Wait for the Needle to Drop - Wolves & Wishes (Anticon 2008)
9. Stars Like Fleas - You Are My Memoir - The Ken Burns Effect (Hometapes 2008)
10. Boris - Statement - Smile (Southern Lord 2008)
11. Flower Travellin' Band - Satori, Pt. 1 - Satori (1971, reissued WEA Japan 2003)

Prolyphic & Reanimator - "The Ugly Truth"

Prolyphic & Reanimator - Dick and Jane (feat. Macromantics) (Removed by request) (Strange Famous 2008)

Prolyphic & Reanimator - The Ugly Truth / Strange Famous

Since there's no use ignoring the elephant in the room, let's get it right out there and say that Strange Famous gives away what kind of record this is, so this review will make no bones about being short and to the point. Sage Francis, the man behind the label, urged Providence-based MC Prolyphic to work with Windy City beatmaker Reanimator over three years ago. The collaboration was so successful that the two became the first members of the Strange Famous label.

Unfortunately, making The Ugly Truth was far less smoothly successful: The reason this album has taken three years to form is largely due to three crashed hard drives of valuable material, re-recordings of vocals, remixings of songs, anything that could quantitatively slow an album down seemed to fall the way of these two cats. It's enough to get anyone incensed.

Prolyphic might have been an edgy character before (which is what initially got him noticed), but he's spittin' mad on this album now. Prolyphic & Reanimator have built one of the most vital indie hip-hop records of the year on a premise of anger that sounds like the inverse of, say, the Clipse: While the brothers Thornton wax caustically disinterested over coked out beats when their albums hit trouble, Prolyphic comes out with furious passion and Reanimator concocts maximal beats honed on past Francis albums like 2002's memorable Personal Journals and last year's Human the Death Dance. "Broken Bottles" and "Born Alone" open up the album with breathless rhymes that barely stop for air.

This dense style is what characterizes so much of independent hip-hop today: By sacrificing futuristic club beats or ridiculously inane Urban Dictionary catchphrases for serious (and often self-serious) floetry with generic bargain bin funk beats, it's easy for artists to fall into the perilous pigeonhole of backpacker. In some ways, The Ugly Truth lands a direct hit for social responsibility and brooding over the state of any inanimate object or concept within a ten-foot radius. "No time for punchlines / That's why I'm bitter," right there in "Survived Another Winter."

But "Survived Another Winter" (and "Artist Goes Pop," for that matter) is also a demonstration of why this record does more than merely lament societal indifference at the plight of the poor. This is also a personal journal of Prolyphic's own, a peek into the psyche of two dudes who have had this record brewing inside them for three years. What would the difference have been had they not lost those hard drives and put this out at the tail-end of the climax over Rhymesayers and Anticon?

That's not for us to answer. All we know for sure is what The Ugly Truth delivers: a solid hip-hop album that pulls no punches during its extended 58-minute run-time. If there was one complaint, it would be that the truth takes so long to get out... But sometimes you've got to delve just that little bit deeper just that little bit longer to get the ugliest bits out. In that light, Prolyphic & Reanimator's debut is a resounding success. It doesn't get much more honest than this.

Jason Ajemian's Smokeless Heat - "The Art of Dying"

Jason Ajemian's Smokeless Heat - “With or Without the Universalator (Birdie’s Dream)” (Delmark 2008)

Jason Ajemian’s Smokeless Heat – The Art of Dying / Delmark

I want to start this review by looking at the liner notes to The Art of Dying. It seems like a nit-picky, superfluous approach though, so I really should just close this booklet and walk away. Close my eyes, enjoy the music, and write on just the sonic peculiarities. But they are just so damn weird! Ajemian rolls from baseball analogies to the formation of his trio – Smokeless Heat (see baseball analogies for reference) featuring saxophonist Tim Haldeman and drummer Noritaka Tanaka – to Scott Tuma’s homemade instrument, the Universalator, to the death of a sea lion, which of course becomes a metaphor itself, and into a little universal questioning: “Can we see an art in dying, or the great love that lives in pain, or bliss in honesty and selfless discovery?” Good question. I don’t know myself, don’t have a clue in fact. But this random assortment of ideas is telling in itself. The way Ajemian takes an idea, blends it into the next despite such off-setting subjects, tinkers with reminiscences and rhetorical questions, gets lost in his own pondering thoughts, and slips into traditional jazz gab, “Music – music, sound – sound, we focused in the moment and the fashion with which to discover, recover and sonically relate,” makes for an excellent analogy to his playing. The Art of Dying is not a singular idea. The music shifts and wanders; toys with one direction then immediately backtracks to try the other fork; spends six minutes developing a phrase and condenses the very next track to just fourteen seconds; and of course challenges, but with an approachable warmness that is the steadfastness of the underground Chicago jazz scene.

The opening track title, “With or Without the Universalator (Birdie’s Dream),” references a conversation the Chicago-based bassist had with Tuma concerning his quirkily named mechanical drone device, but the music is far from anything at all in regards to drone, mechanics, or even Tuma’s experimental Americana background. Instead, it’s a cool-toned, melodic workout right out of Blue Note’s early-60s discography with guitarist Matt Schneider playing the part of Grant Green and Ajemian providing a versatile, light-toned bass line à la Bob Cranshaw. Trumpeter Jaimie Branch extends the depth by distance miking his calmly swinging horn while marimba player Jason Adasiwicz accentuates the melodic chords and Tanaka unleashes a mid-song rant of brushed kit.

“Miss O” dons a similar set-up, but with Haldeman taking the climax. His tenor is confident, full-bodied and surprisingly tender, sounding much like the direct product of a classic middleweight saxophonist like Hank Mobley. He certainly bucks his horn when need be – see the scathing “U’re the Guy (Keith Wood)” for example – but for the most part, he remains in a patient post-bop motif. Which works well with the similar-minded Branch, as “Manisia Lynn” proves. A close-miked, room-less tune – to the point where the clicking of the tenor’s keys is clearly heard – Ajemian plays moderator to Haldeman and Branch’s phrasal conversation. Haldeman lays down his story with only a brief, quickly stifled interjection from Branch before the saxophonist gets agitated and eventually concedes with soft tonal yearns. Branch jumps in at an excusal tempo, but it must be too little too late, because the song concludes on a rather sober, sighing and inconclusive note.

The album is rounded out with a twenty-four minute piece recorded live by the Smokeless Heat Trio at WMSE Radio in Milwaukee. It’s a searching, drawn-out song with a number of twists and turns, none of which in particular stand out, but when taken at a whole makes for quite the listen. The trio is mercurial with their transitions; one second Ajemian is bowing his bass while Haldeman squeaks in the upper registers of his horn, and before you know it, they’ve set into a relaxed post-bop workout behind Tanaka’s steady cymbal rhythm. There isn’t a single out-of-step moment, which is not an easy feat for three players to achieve over the course of a twenty-plus minute piece.

The Art of Dying is a rather melodramatic name for such a welcoming set of jazz tunes. Ajemian guides his cohorts through a gamut of styles, but none of which concedes to the sensational or theatrical performance that the title might suggest. But perhaps this is his point, or at least the point of his story of the dying sea lion in the liner notes, beached and slowly drifting in and out of consciousness only to be inhumanely brought back to awareness by prodding sticks and nets. “A music that drifts in song and rhythm – loses self-reflection and awareness,” Ajemian states. And it’s true, this album does effortlessly glide along; it soothes and wanders, but just as you lose consciousness of its details, it abruptly changes its course, forcing you to find comfort in their next approach. “Can we see an art in dying, or the great love that lives in pain, or bliss in honesty and selfless discovery?” Umm, well I still don’t know the answer to that question… Music’s good though.

Singleversity #55

Audiversity’s weekly column on music we stumble across during our sonic adventures. No random numbers, just straight audio goodness.

MA:



According to the infallible wisdom of Wikipedia, Japan's preeminent proto-heavy metal, psych-rock collective – the Flower Travellin’ Band – has reunited as of January of 2008. And on top of that, they have a new album “in production” and are playing the Fuji Rock Festival ’08 (and you were excited about seeing a reunited Rage Against the Machine at Lollapalooza, tsk). If you are not already familiar with the influential hard rockers, let me introduce you to them via their most notorious collection of acid tripping, “beach blanket bong-out muscularity.” 1971’s Satori – the Flower’s first proper album of exclusively original material – is often their most revered record and sends worldly musicologist Julian Cope into literary fits: “Flower Travellin’ Band is furious Sabbath atonal doom played with a Zep fitness and a berserk Japanese thoroughness.” There is not a poor moment during the 40-minute set with "Satori, Pt. 1" unanimously inspiring the slow motion stoner rock head bang right from the initial Ozzian howl. It’s not only their transition from clever cover act to path burning legends, but they also established “a sense of musical space which made them into the Can of heavy rock.” If you aren’t already hip, which there is not really an excuse to not be at this point, do so today.

PM:



The same walk that had me simmering over Michael's abrupt dismissal of Santogold also eventually led us to a tangent on 90s genres coming back (Hercules and Love Affair as Culture Beat, anyone?) and how average The Night Marchers are and whatever happened to art-damaged things and how about some fucking -core? How about bringing that back? At least the hardcore scene is still alive and well, even if Louisville one-off Pusher aren't. Featuring members of Breather Resist and Coliseum, their only full-length features a dozen songs clocking in at a mighty, yes, 12 minutes. True story: Songs like "Nail Spitter" and "Scapehole" have been known to restore faith in people who otherwise might still be having Haddaway nightmares.

CREATIVE MOVE this Friday!

FREE, at the Hyde Park Art Center

Starts Friday, April 25 at 8pm and runs until Saturday, April 26 at 8pm.

Yours truly DJing the jump off starting Friday at 8.

Much more info here

Have a Nice Life - "Deathconsciousness"

Have a Nice Life - Hunter (Enemies List 2008)

Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness / Enemieslist

"The band Have a Nice Life would like to announce that they have recorded the most depressing in the history of music. (Learn More)"

More: It's entirely possible that you may not have heard of Connecticut duo Have a Nice Life, or maybe you've dismissed them because of their absurdly "ironic" band name or the fact that their street team is so dedicated they've made it feel like there were more than 200 copies pressed with the 75-page booklet by their own Enemieslist imprint. But the buzz isn't in all the right places yet, and as I listen to this record, I expect to hear myself asking the same question others are asking who haven't yet heard Deathconsciousness for themselves: What would people want with an 85-minute double disc with "Death of Marat" on the cover for when they could just as easily go for A Place to Bury Strangers or, one better, Swans?

The answer is that this record, though flawed, is still worth hearing for so many reasons. The weak point first: Yes, it is 85 minutes. If you're listening to it straight through and don't really, really love the sound that's displayed from second track "Bloodhail" onward (Opener "A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut" sounds more like Mogwai's "Stanley Kubrick" than anything else), then you're not going to be able to survive the journey to the end of the ear-shattering "Earthmover." It's a pretty consistent album all the way through with some slower Gregorian chanting to balance out the overmodulated noise-pop that peeks out from behind all the reverb and darkwave posturing. There are no brave new steps, no swashbuckling gestures, no bold moves that haven't already boldly been moved two decades ago.

But Have a Nice Life are good despite all of that for the same reasons that their New York City counterparts garnered so much acclaim last year: They like it loud, and they really don't care what that does to your headphones when you're listening. Even though the recordings sound for the most part like they were recorded on the floor of a high school gym with mics set in the bleachers, this distance allows the music to cloud over itself in a way that only distracts on the filler songs. It's hardly all killer-no filler, but for a first effort some four years in the making, Deathconsciousness is as gloriously overwrought as its Darklands-aping contemporaries and easily batting in the same cage as The Cure's epic Disintegration.

I don't see much worth in pointing out any particular track; there are a few other places who have spit solid verse on this record that I don't think I can add much to, other than that there is a lot more emotion and aggression behind those echoing vocals and endlessly reverberating guitars - one listen to "Waiting for Black Metal Records to Come in the Mail" will be the selling point on that. Perhaps the Achilles Heel of reviewing a record like this is that once everybody throws out the typical namedrops and makes most obvious mention of the thematic concerns and has established the tone and tendencies, there isn't much more to add beyond individual song descriptions, but who needs that? For me, five paragraphs is enough. Rather than a comprehensive review or a definitive source for information, let this be a supplement to what you think you already know. Let this be the link Enemieslist did not give you. Even though there are no plans to press more of this record, hopefully they will change their minds. One can only imagine how loud Have a Nice Life are in person, too. Does Oliver Ackerman lose sleep over Have a Nice Life at night? (Learn More)

Santogold - "Santogold"

Santogold - Unstoppable (Removed by request) (Downtown 2008)

Santogold - Santogold / Downtown

"Santogold? Isn't that the one that's just like MIA?" Michael quipped as we went over the records we'd be reviewing for the coming weeks. "I'm pretty sure she sounds just like MIA." The sun's glow was fading behind Halas Sports Center and youthful Loyola students were out flinging frisbees, laying in the lush grass, enjoying the wonderfully warm weather. I wasn't in a mood to argue.

Except that Santi White is worth arguing over. Here is a woman who has worked as an A&R rep for Epic, fronted a smartly delivered pop-punk band (in Stiffed), tried to start her own imprint, and is now enjoying her greatest success as an art-damaged diva in waiting. So her sense of style is similarly bright and (dis)tasteful. So she had producer du jour Switch and worldly cohort Diplo doing some tweaks to the final mixes of the songs for her self-titled debut. So she knows a little something about international instrumentation. So "Creator" is uncomfortably close to the Sri Lankan culture assassin Santogold is most often mistaken for.

So what? As Mark Ronson has said, White can actually "sing a song properly." This may sound like a presumptuous declaration, but when you think of MIA, you don't think of her singing because, in fact, there isn't much of it to be found on Arular or Kala. For all of her streetwise hoodies and post-millennial charm, Mathangi Arulpragasm is essentially a one-trick pony. No amount of sampling or collage camouflaging can disguise it.

Santi White comes from a completely different perspective. Armed with a musical background (rather than a visual art background), White is less naive about the music business and about her approach to it. References to her disenchantment with the status quo are littered all over the place (perhaps most prominently on the chorus to "Shove It"), but even when she sounds like she's preaching, you can at least sing along to it. You can sing along to almost anything here.

That's the great bit about this record, for Santogold is a stubbornly bipolar album that never resolves whether it wants to go in a dance club-oriented direction or a rock club-oriented direction. Though it's the fundamental fissure, it's also what makes her music so unpredictably engaging... Because at the heart of it all is one woman with a big enough heart to go in a direction that she wanted to go with the music. It's a disjointed record because Santi White is disjointed; we as people are rarely whole. So many albums are lauded for being uniformly brilliant (and you could list anyone from Led Zeppelin to the Wu-Tang to Kraftwerk to Interpol here), but Santogold falls under the imperfect masterpieces, the records that are great because they have no cohesion at all.

Depending on what you're looking for, on any given day you'll be listening to the instantly affable "Lights Out" or "I'm a Lady." The next day you'll be listening to floor-shaking anthems such as "Creator" or "Unstoppable." Posting just one song does not begin to describe the picture; there is something for everyone here. In that sense at least, Santi White will be unable to avoid comparisons to MIA. The critical difference is that while Maya collects every color of the rainbow to put in the blender of enlightened universality, Santogold splinters the influences with a prism. It's not nearly as challenging, but it's also not nearly as annoying.

Without sounding too self-congratulatory, I'd like to think that we at Audiversity appreciate artists who are challenging the divides of modern subculture (even if we don't like listening to them). It is my hope that by year's end Santogold will have done more than established herself as simply "the one who sounds just like MIA." Honestly, we already have enough of those. Here is something both distinct and familiar. Here is the culmination of one woman's years in pursuit of herself. Here is that woman's self-belief rewarded. As much as Triclops!, I believe in Santogold. That's my argument. What's yours?

Their Teeth Will Be of Lions - "The Color By Numbers! Demo 07"

Their Teeth Will Be of Lions - An Anxious Night Minus Television (Veritas et Aequitas Records 2007)

Their Teeth Will Be of Lions - The Color By Numbers! Demo 07 / Veritas Et Aequitas

For all of the stigma that comes with being well-informed about music (Just ask anyone at my office who's tried to talk with me about music beyond, "Oh, so you listen to, like, rock and hip-hop?"), it does afford you the nice opportunity of connecting with smaller artists on a more personal level. Their Teeth Will Be of Lions now fall under this category. The Michigan act was kind enough to play a ChIRP benefit on April 4th and lead singer Glenn Michael Willis enthusiastically handed over a copy of this three-copy EP. The poor guy had no idea that my night was about to take a dramatic turn for the worse, but that's another story; what's important here is that Their Teeth Will Be of Lions are a promising group going in all sorts of directions, each of them wild with possibility. Kalamazoo funcore? It exists. Here's some proof.

The sextet run through a multitude of styles in just three songs here (though this demo has aged somewhat, the band recently signed to Veritas et Aequitas Records and released a fresh EP with a neat retro cover in Everyone Made it Out Alive... Almost!), but the keyword is energy. This band has buckets full. "It's a lot like watching monkeys. We're random and unpredictable," guitarist Derek Feltner has said. I've watched them, and I've watched monkeys. I don't mean to be a hater here, but monkeys are much less interesting.

The vocals are split between Willis and female foil Jenn Hampshire. Neither are afraid to croon, and they can do so competently, but aside from the astonishing amount of time signature changes packed into the demo's 11 minutes, the real fun is in the erratic yelping that really brings these songs alive. Though they mention Chicago's own Hyper Viper!, I wonder how much the band collectively loves the Northwest's scene between 2001 and 2004...? There are reminders of early Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Gossip, Soiled Doves, and the more melodic moments of The Blood Brothers. Obvious reference points maybe, but why not throw in East Coasters Les Savy Fav to complete the picture? That should be enough namedropping to get the idea. The trick is that this band is just as clever and almost as technically adept as any of the aforementioned.

If you're looking for a flaw (and if you're doing that, well, what happened to 2KGreat? What about that?), it's that this endless exuberance can exhaust the ears over the course of a full-length. Easy for three songs, perfectly suited for a live audience, but a dozen tracks and you'll need a breather. Given that they're six people and the band (which has already run through numerous line-up changes) has only been together for, what, 13 months?, it's understandable that they would be brimming with so many ideas they run out of space and time to put them.

The future of Their Teeth Will be of Lions is unclear. For now, it's all about enjoying the rock n' roll ride, saving up some cash for Hampshire (whose apartment recently burned to the ground no thanks to a kitchen fire), getting out, playing shows, meeting the people. I haven't heard the entirety of the full-length yet, but my guess is that they've already found the solution to an unasked question this EP proposes.

Q: What's the best way to fuck with people when you've already established such a demanding sound?
A: Don't fuck with them at all.

Anyway, think about it.