music my love

The first album cover I recall is Thriller, it came out in 1982 eand I had come out in 1979. The first song I ever remember hearing was by a radical man and musician called Keith Green. My parents had seen him perform on his piano in Hollywood several times but I did not as he was dying in a plane crash about the same time I was hearing his songs.

The first time I heard a hip-hop bass line was about ‘91 as far as I can recall; the location was Idaho and the music was not coming from where I was but a party across the way. I was hanging out with some Mennonite kids whose folks were a few steps more conservative than mine and their house had no radio or stereo; some households had musical instruments and others banned even these. I recall that bass line wandering or stumbling drunkenly from the party and ending up in our midst. You could barely hear it but you could feel it.

The first time I ever heard hip-hop was on the radio at a friend's house in Palmdale, CA. If you didn’t happen to catch the name of a track after it played on the radio in the early ‘90s it could be hard to know what it was. Sometimes the impact of things is not realized until sometime later; it took me roughly 20 years of humming the chorus of ODB’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” to friends and strangers to figure it out.

The first cassette tape I bought was Pokinatcha by Christian-approved punk rock band MXPX. By 1994 I had found a double-deck tape player and Nirvana. The Keith Green tape in my Walkman at youth group outings only said Keith Green but the sounds were now Kurt on a stage in NYC sad and awkward and beautiful. The first compact disk I purchased was Motzart’s Requiem. In those days my dad would say that if you want to find Matthew, look between his headphones; in these days it’s the same though the headphones look different and my volume level is now up out of necessity more than anything.

Besides my relationship with my parents, I don’t figure I’ve had any other relationship last as long as the passion I’ve had for the music. Relationships go both ways though and so I see my music creation as a bit of a fulfillment of that. For all the nights held by her comfort and for all the days driven by her passion I make music.

#prayforye

We are to blame for Kanye West; the Mr. West that you think of today when you hear his name anyway. Kanye Omari West was born in Atlanta and raised by a single mother in Chicago. Kanye’s natural talent was recognized early on, and whether his early recognition birthed his narcissism or his narcissism birthed the art is debatable; either way both were evident from the beginning.

Until very recently there is nothing Kanye West has not excelled at besides keeping his mouth shut. Ye will be the first to tell you about both his talent and his mental illness; on his 2018 release “ye”, he quips, “See, that’s my third person. That’s my bipolar shit [..] that’s my superpower, ain’t no disability, I am a superhero! I am a superhero!” Kanye caught the eyes of all the most important people that make their livelihood selling things to people that they don’t need; he wore enough of their clothes and danced close enough to instep that his fault could be overlooked, because of the profit margin.

The endless attention fed the worst parts of Kanye and the moguls like irresponsible guardians shut his screaming mouth only by stuffing it full of sugar; he courted the queen of modern media before the entire world and was pronounced king in a swarmed ceremony in Florence. Kanye in 2019 admitted to Zane Lowe of Apple Music 1 the very significant blow he took loosing the potential of being artistic director at Louis Vuitton to Virgil Abloh, a confidant and colleague up to that point. In my opinion this is when began the descent. In the following year a trend developed and Kanye proceeded to cut ties with many of those collaborators and friends that had observably brought him the greatest joy. The train wreck was broadcast to eager viewers week after week, season after season. Corporations took a chance, they gambled on Kanye, and they lost.  Adidas is all to quick to pat themselves on the back for all the the money they have lost in dropping Kanye, it’s significantly less then they would have lost if they had kept him.

The damage is done. Kanye’s most recent anti-semetic antics inspired fear and hate across our country; threats were made, schools were closed and already traumatized people were terrified further. When it became clear that there was no more blood to be wrung from Ye he was spit out just as quickly as he was initially gobbled up. We failed Kaye West and as happens when we fail those that we have invite into our homes, we failed ourselves.

#freethug

I cry when I think about Young Thug (aka Jeffery Lamar Williams) sitting in Fulton County Jail for almost a year now as his RICO charges are addressed by the court. Like so many other black Americans Thugger was raised in poverty and has spent years of his life behind bars. When he wasn’t incarcerated he built an empire with his talent. He mentored those around him and didn’t leave his community behind as he arose.

Young Thug was praised by mainstream media for his authenticity, until soneone decided he was to authentic. So authentic that he made white people uncomfortable, which happens when we think there is potential for financial loss. It was a failed relationship, the things that were most endearing initially were now the source of great concern. If you are a black person in America that can dance you’ve got a shot on the big stage, as long as you dance to their music and don’t get to groovy. Malcolm X said the white mans greatest weapon is his ability to divide people. Think about that for a sec.

Thug and his crew were arrested when they had multiple albums in multiple top ten charts. Some of the crew have pleaded out, including Gunna (Sergio Giavanni Kitchens) who prior to arrest was one of Thug’s closest associates. Thug has not spoken on it but much of the hip hop community have now expressed disdain for Gunna. The hip hop community, the glue of some of the only community that some have is divided. Its connections that keeps people off the streets and protected from addiction.  Division is white mans poison.

This is just one story; the story of a few black men experiencing what so many black and other marginalized Americans do everyday. The conservatives waste time arguing against things like reparations and affirmative action when so many Americans would be glad to simply play on an equally level field if not the same one.

12*18*20 roundup

Truth be told when I took a sneak peak of this week’s releases, I was not especially excited. Though the pickings were slim here are a couple albums by some household names.

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Paul McCartney- McCartney III

Paul McCartney sang and wrote songs and played bass in the Beatles. This is his 18th solo album. He is playing the instruments and singing the songs on this album and he did a good job, good job PM.

Eminem- Music to be Murdered By - Side B (Deluxe Edition)

Eminem is prolific if nothing else, in both tracks and lyrics within those tracks. This year Eminem release “Music to Be Murdered By” and this is an accompanying album, 16 additional joints. Do Eminem’s lyrics contain misogyny and homophobia? Yes. Eminem admits to a borderline personality disorder diagnosis on this album and it makes sense. Eminem has no filter and its part of what makes his music appealing, and these songs attest to that. Eminem covers a lot of territory, from his two decades of sobriety and politics to his beef with Machine Gun Kelly, and it is done cleverly. The album features anyone you wanna hear a feature of if you like current hip-hop and some great beat and production work. I suspect I will listen to this album hard for a day or 4 and then set it aside and rediscover it at some point when I am feeling like a frustrated white man and it will be a glove that fits perfect. Fave track currently, “Gnat.”

fave track of the year

Some secrets are meant to be kept and so I will not be officially releasing my top listened to tracks this year according to iTunes but will confess to having listened to more Oliver Tree than is probably appropriate for a functioning adult. My favorite track this year was released as a single in anticipation for an LP to be released early 2021; the track, “feel away,” the album, “Tyron,” the artist Slowthai, aka Tyron Frampton. You may have heard about this 25 y.o. rascally Northampton youth this year after the NME Awards 2020. Slowthai was presented with the “Hero of the Year” award and during his acceptance ended up making sexual innuendoes at the host and brawling with the audience. Don’t they make heroes like they used to? Maybe. Since the occurrence, the man has gone out of his way to be transparent and remorseful about the eve and takes us with him through it all in “feel away.” “feel away” feels good but it feels sad too, it is about love and life and death and birth and the video deserves its own review. The song sounds beautiful because of James Blake and Mount Kimbie whom it features and a little less comfortable and more relatable because of Slowthai; it is catchy, and it is funny, “you felt low, I took you higher than a note from Mariah.” Does Slowthai deserve our pardon, I do not know but I think his song deserves three minutes and twenty-one seconds of your day.

12*11*20 roundup

2020 has been a really great year for music. Being creative I’m told is a healthy coping mechanism and haven’t we all just been tryin’ to cope?! When there is a forest fire then all the little seeds go on the ground and for a hot minute it looks pretty ugly but if you give it a bit then you will find the best Christmas trees ever there. This year we burned it down, some forests, and some old ideologies, and lots of people died. Right after that happened or while it’s happening because human beings are amazing animals we started rebuilding and the songs we’re singing while we do it are powerful. Here are my faves this week:

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Kid Cudi- Man On the Moon III: The Chosen

I have been waiting 10 years for this album to come out and it absolutely does not disappoint. Kid Cudi has released sever albums since the last iteration of the MOTM series, and with them taken us on an exploratory journey. If you like Mr. Solo Dolo you will like this album. Cudi gives us everything we have grown to appreciate from him, namely humming, dope beats, smooooth flow and soul. This album has soul. There is a banger on there feat. Pop Smoke (RIP) and the grime legend Skepta. I would like to have seen him work with Slowthai for dat Brit. bit but it’s a club banger and will bring in the widest general appeal. Favorite track so far: Undecided

James Blake- Covers - EP

James Blake is singing and he is playing the piano and he is singing other people’s songs and sometimes he sounds like Antony and the Johnsons and sometimes he sounds like Nina Simone and its lovely.

Burial, Four Tet & Thom Yorke- Her Revolution/Sis Rope - Single

Hello, did you see who made these songs? Don’t you want to hear them already? The Brits come together to give us Yanks something nice to listen to. Burial is a dubstep pioneer, Four Tet is an experimental electronic artist, Thom Yorke is Radiohead. Listen to this.

Max Richter- All Human Beings - International Voices

Max Richter is a modern German composer. Germans are good at making music that makes me want to dance but these songs did not do this. The track starts with a reading of the preamble from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If you end up listening to any of these recommendations listen to this song, it will be good for your heart.

The Avalanches- We Will Always Love You

The cover of the album features an image of Ann Druyan that was turned into sound with a spectrograph and then processed back into an image. Ann was the lady behind the Voyager Golden Record, blasted into space in 1977 and it is her heartbeat that the Golden Record features. The Avalanches put sounds together that you have probably never heard to create songs that seem familiar.