“I never said I’m ready to die, but I accept it,
never said i’m ready for war, but I’m protected,
I don’t even know when its coming but I expect it,
lost thoughts innocent hopes an now I’m left with
nervous conditions, addictions, in addition
to prisons that mixed in to the wrong crowd,
My life is on a flight that going down,
My mother had an abortion for the wrong child,
With the time I felt loved, thats gone now,
Thats replaced with purples rays some storm clouds,
Misery love Misery, so why make friends lets make enemies,
An now I got a habit thats wasn’t meant for me,
Now im in a marriage that wasn’t meant to be,
One more reason to change identity,
The cars, the crime, K’s, penalties.”

The Roots “I Can’t Help It”

It’s an older song I recently discovered. It’s got some pretty intense lyrics for such a simple song. There are 100s of covers on youtube…but this version is the best.

MGMT: “Oracular Spectacular”
Last November, Rolling Stone pegged MGMT (aka Management) as one of the top 10 bands to watch in 2008. I say they are number 1. After listening to the entire album 3 times yesterday (early May), I am definitely down with MGMT. 

A combination of Brooklyn indie rock blended with synthetic-pop is the best way to describe them. They tend to stray from their normal sound on “Pieces of What” which gives the song a classic rock feel.

Pieces of What

4 Must Listen Tracks:

• Time to Pretend
• Kids
• Weekend Wars
• Pieces of What

MGMT are currently on tour and will be opening for Beck this summer.

I wan’t really feeling The Roots 10th album, Rising Down, all that much. It felt as if it was missing something. Then I discovered the 15th song on the album, “Birthday Girl.”

This is what is great about The Roots. They evolve with the times. While one good song does not an album make, I am keeping it in rotation…for now.

If you take a look at the line-up for this summer’s Rock The Bells tour, you will notice something quite evident…hip hop is dead. Well hip hop the culture will never die, but rap is DEAD!

Look at the line-up. It’s every act from the mid 90s. Tribe, Pharcyde, Meth and Red, Ghostface and Raekwon, Nas and Mos Def.

Where are the new rappers? What Da Phuk happened?

The 2200 capacity Nokia Theater (directly across from the Staples Center) was at max capacity last night. The lights were off and stage was glowing. The night started with Lupe Fiasco. His high energy, skateboard infused hip hop is a nice break from the current radio rap. His set list was short, but he managed to cover his hits, “Kick, Push” , “Paris, Tokyo” and “Superstar” which he was joined on stage by Matthew Santos.

After a quick intermission, NERD took the stage and rocked the crowd. With all due respect to Pharrell, as a producer and solo artist, NERD sounds like a high school garage band who is rehearsing for the Cobalt Cafe. That didn’t seem to matter to the NERD fans who quickly rushed the stage. By the end of their performance the entire place was packed. There was not one open seat. 

Rhianna took the stage next which had it’s own glow in the dark feel. Rhianna must spend hours every day working on her body because she is smoking hot…for lack of a better term. She flew through her set, even cutting some of her hits short. Rhianna played all of her singles except for her very first one, “Pon de Replay.”  

At exactly 10:40pm, the curtain rose to Kanye laying on floor of a deserted set. His spaceship, Jane, informs him that he has crashed landed on an unknown planet. She is broken and it is unknown how long it will take for her to repair herself. For 80 minutes, the stage was constantly evolving, displaying different backgrounds and themes as he incorporated them into his set list. At one point, Kanye bitched “that he needs pu**y” and Jane quickly transformed into a (hot) gold woman on the LCD screen. A crowd pleasing “Gold Digger” performance followed.

Many times throughout the show the notion that Kanye is the biggest star in the universe was heavily implied. Actually, it was said many times in those exact words. This is a Kanye West headlining show, and I would expect nothing less. After Kanye finally fixes the spaceship and returns to Earth, he is joined by Lupe Fiasco for his final track. “LA Reid, Jaime Foxx, don’t leave yet, it’s not over” shouted Kanye followed by much laughter from the crowd. Kanye tried to introduce his live band and DJ, which were hidden behind the scenery. Kanye was disappointed in his own ability to control that aspect and even said, “this is anti climatic!”

The show was one hell of an experience. It is very rare to see a hip hop artist take the stage, by himself for an hour and twenty minutes. There is room for improvement but overall it was pretty incredible. Kanye has a second show tonight at Nokia and at Staples in June. I wonder how different the Staples show will be. I guess I will just have to find out.

• De Novo Dahl
• Noah and the Whale
• Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s
• K’NAAN
• Serena Ryder
• Louis XIV
• Love and Rockets
• Bloc Party
• The Black Keys
• Broken Social Scene
• Lupe Fiasco
• Flogging Molly
• Mark Ronson
• Cat Power
• The National
• G. Love & Special Sauce
• Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
• Explosions in the Sky
• Brand New
• The Raconteurs
• Gogol Bordello
• Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
• Dierks Bentley
• Okkervil River
• Amadou & Mariam
• Blues Traveler
• John Butler Trio
• Girl Talk
• Your Vegas
• CSS
• Eli “Paperboy” Reed & the True Loves
• Battles
• Steel Train
• Jamie Lidell
• Bang Camaro
• Butch Walker
• Rage Against the Machine
• Nine Inch Nails
• Wilco
• The Blakes
• Mates of State
• Tally Hall
• Spank Rock
• White Lies
• Brazilian Girls
• Magic Wands
• Chromeo
• Electric Touch
• Duffy
• Innerpartysystem
• Kanye West
• The Kills
• The Postelles
• Rogue Wave
• The Parlor Mob
• The Go! Team
• Bald Eagle
• Mason Jennings
• Krista
• The Gutter Twins
• Ha Ha Tonka
• Yeasayer
• Witchcraft
• Grizzly Bear
• We Go To 11
• MGMT
• Sofia Talvik
• The Weakerthans
• Booka Shade
• Santogold
• Black Kids
• Black Lips
• Dr. Dog
• Nicole Atkins & the Sea
• The Ting Tingsv
• Kid Sister
• Office
• Radiohead
• The Cool Kids
• What Made Milwaukee Famous
• Does It Offend You, Yeah?
• The Whigs
• Manchester Orchestra
• Foals
• Gnarls Barkley
• Uffie
• The Octopus Project
• Cadence Weapon
• Ferras
• Newton Faulkner

I spent the last month super excited that I was finally getting the opportunity to see GZA, one of the most legendary, founding members of the Wu-Tang, perform. This wasn’t just a GZA concert. He wasn’t promoting a new album. He performed, in it’s entirety, the 13-year-old, hip hop classic, Liquid Swords. Tracks 1 - 13.

GZA kept the show so authentic to the album that he was joined on stage by Killa Priest and Method Man. Having Meth come out for Shadow Boxing was unbelievable. My friends and I wondered all week if he would show. It was truly amazing to be able to witness GZA perform Liquid Swords live.

We new that when the doors open at 8 for a Wu-Tang show, it means they are going on at midnight. We got there at 10:30 and we waited until 11:30ish for GZA to finally take the stage. But as soon as the lights dimmed, and the sounds of Shogun Assassins hit the speakers, the crowd was captivated.

“When I was little my father was famous. He was the greatest Samurai in the Empire…”

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In case you don’t know, Aubrey O’Day is the really hot one in the group Danity Kane. I only caught the last 2 episodes of Making the Band (Season 4) and I must say, Aubrey is damn hot. In fact, she’s not just hot, she’s beautiful. So why does Diddy insist on ho’ing her up? She looks so much better when she doesn’t look like a girl asking for 300 roses on Craigslist.

I can’t just blame Diddy. When not working with the group, Aubrey ho’ed herself out to Travis Barker as the face (legs) of his clothing line.

Check it out for yourself. Totally SFW