June 01, 2004
THE WIND THROUGH THE PLANE TREES
We pride ourselves here at s/fj on being up to the minute, give or take six months. When the editor was released from his hyperbaric chamber this morning, [Ed.--You are heading for a pronoun logjam. Ease up.] what did he find? "Galang" by M.I.A., an almost un-Googleable artist. It seems both cheap and obvious (like that would stop us) to point out that, with no reference to the genre of rock, "Galang" rocks the promotional sweatbands off Mash Out Posse, an album by some musicians we don't know and M.O.P., an almost unfadeable artist. The idea of Posse is to make manifest the implied headbanging in M.O.P.'s music. Ah hah. We wonder like Wayne: Did they not see the ruts in the road? Did they think competition in this field was light? Could they not get the Soul Brains to back them up? And what exactly is going on? "Take My Breath Away," the first track on Jacki-O's Official Bootleg, is yet another honorable placebo that finds its place in the world only when the "I am trying to program a rock drum roll" moment rolls around. Find this moment and you will find Technology Precedes Genre, chapter 13, page 52. Great things happen when one idea cannot be realized and another bumrushes the stage. When it happens twice, that list of genres at AMG (an almost unusable website) gets one longer.
Is rockless rock what happens when your main audio source is Playstation 2? If you put down that joystick, drop the kutchie and take a stroll around the Interthing, you'll find things like this, which does an admirable job of matching roommates from different countries. Because I love it when the races unite and shit, I have love for this particular pairing. And because I love it when the races unite and, like, pay $7 for a soda, I am sad that I am once again missing Hot 97's Summer Jam. The hint of Jadakiss is almost enough to lure us away from the thrill of playing chess against outdated university mainframes.
(I just realized I can ask my kids to bring me beer. They're much closer to the fridge than I am. Sweet Jesus, it took me a long time to figure that out.)