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Friday, April 10, 2009 Neapolitan Neomelodics  My biking bro Mike, who works at VBS.tv (the Vice magazine internet TV channel), has just finishing editing a crazy ten part series on a internationally unknown but regionally popular genre of local pop music found in Naples called "Neapolitan Neomelodic". An intro to the series, in their words: Ask any average Italian what pops into their head when they think of Naples, and you’ll almost assuredly get the same three things every time: pizza, garbage in the streets, and the most powerful international crime syndicate in the world—the Camorra. Does that sound bombastic? Well, this is an organization that in the past 30 years rose to be valued at around one-tenth of the aggregated wealth of the Italian nation. It is a mafia that deals in illegal activities, such as drugs and weapons trafficking, contraband, and extortion, and additionally controls a huge amount of legal, straight businesses in pretty much any economic sphere in which they find an opportunity to invest. It is in this reality that a very distinctive genre of music rose to prominence over the last two decades.I have now made my way through five of the ten episodes and I have to say: wow. These performers may play 600-700 shows in a single year--imagine a breakneck SXSW pace upheld for an entire year, in perpetuity--and demonstrate a FJM-esque devotion of grit to their trade. In this time of increasing globalization and fading of regional identity in pop culture, particularly in Europe and North America, I implore you all to check these videos out, as they tell a story so particularly and spectacularly "at home" that it's both mindblowing and heartening. Labels: CRAZY, curiosities, fucktactics, music, small giants posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 4/10/2009 11:07:00 AM 0 comments Tuesday, March 24, 2009 The Dead Are Eclipsed By The Moon Maximum dweebage alert: after five months of wearing the shit out of these, I have now faced up to the fact that it's time to upgrade to another pair of kicks. I had been mulling this decision over recently and had been thinking I'd just go simple and do standard all-white, but sure enough, arriving in my inbox today was a message from Hot Doorknobs saying: "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh boy. These have Beaumont written all over them." And goddamned if he wasn't right, and these weren't exactly what I'm looking for. Black! Prisms and Rainbows! I don't really know how I could dream for these to be these any cooler. (Oh yeah, maybe if I could get a Converse version of these ones instead of the dreck produced by the talentless hacks at Nike.) And boom, they are now mine:   I look forward to wearing these with suits to business meetings to show them what a "heady" business man I make. Harr harr ba zing. I just have to hope that they hold up better than the Dead Cons, because honestly, those shoes more or less began disintegrating after just two months of (admittedly heavy) wear. But at least they're all only $50, which in 2009 is super radical. If Cons keeps pumping out the rock icons, I will keep rocking the pumps. Labels: junkjunk, old flames, small giants posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 3/24/2009 02:59:00 AM 0 comments Wednesday, October 22, 2008 All Modded Cons  Rah rah rah. I purchased these bad boys last week and they just came in today. For only $49.95 (available here), the best ridiculous purchase i've made in quite some time. I am wearing them already. Labels: junkjunk, old flames, small giants posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 10/22/2008 01:52:00 PM 1 comments Wednesday, October 31, 2007 Caribbeans Be Burnin' Holes In My Ears Quick: please name favorite songs EVER utilizing that sexy percussion from the islands, the steel drum. EVER.  top three, of the top of my head: Prince -- "New Position" (Parade) I LOVE this bitch. Parade, from '86 is by far my favorite Prince album, as it does a nice job touching on all the various poses Prince did best and turning them into one forty minute long expression of his greatness (with segues to emphasize his "inclusiveness!"). "New Position" is the "Little Help from My Friends" following the "Lonely Hearts Club Band" of opener "Christopher Tracy's Parade." Opening with the sweet sounds of tinny steel magic, you realize immediately how Prince's andro-sheeeet was born to preen behind such exotica. There is no question whatsoever that, in 1986, this man was a genius on top of the world. (download mp3) 50 Cent -- "P.I.M.P." (Get Rich of Die Tryin') The obvious choice. "P.I.M.P" is easily the best or second best song 50 has ever done, and is certainly my favorite. I tend to hate 50's uberthug schtick, as it's both creepy and samey, but here it works brilliantly--probably because the automatic "teh ghey" of the steel drum meters 50's powerdude-ism in the sort of brilliant compromised way to bring any ole academialeptic postmodernist fuckwad to cumgasm. I, for one, am one of those 'wads AND I LOVE IT. (download mp3) Clipse -- "I'm Not You" (Lord Willin') No, my three favorite steel drum mantras do not include anything as performed by The White Man (though I suppose don't automatically rule such compositions out). However, it should come as no surprise that one of the most stellar steel drum trax EVER would come from Teh Ghey Captain Pharell. For, as "Superthug" Noreaga once put it, "Neptunes is homo. You won't hear another Neptunes track again on Noreaga again in your life. I didn't know that they hand was broken. [makes limp-wristed gesture]." This BEEFCAKElovewonder came to me in 2003 courtesy of one H. Doorknobs, helping to provide a friend late on the scene with a clue to the hottest rap game on the planet (Clipse, who are are all men and no chubb). This track, featuring 50-competing clobberthug (tho not uberthug) Jadakiss, kills me at the heart in way different from the other two in that it stays simple and within itself (as the best of Clipse often does--which reminds me that a treatise on Hell Hath's "Nightmares" is long overdue)--confident is as confident does, they say. (download mp3)  So that's mine. What are yours? Hit me up with your steel love, if you have any. -JB Labels: loved sounds, random lists, small giants posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 10/31/2007 09:13:00 AM 4 comments 4
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