Greetings and salutations devoted reader(s?) — decided to sit down and bang out a post since yesterday’s race has left me unable to do anything more ornate (which is a bit like a fat kid getting winded downing a donut, but I’m dealing with the disgrace). This one’s for all the kids who’ve become devoted RTJ fans the past few years (and good on ya for that, as you should be) to highlight another hip hop “supergroup” that might tickle your fancy if you’re ready to graduate to something new. Similar to Mike and El, it’s another duo of dudes who’d had a string of minor hit solo efforts that decided to join forces to test the gestaltic principles together (spoiler alert — it worked) and ended up dropping some really good albums that surpassed their independent efforts. Coincidentally, they’re also from the same label that El used to run back in the day, Def Jux, so share some of the same sonic elements as their former boss.
Made up of Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic, Hail Mary Mallon first showed up in 2011 with their debut Are You Gonna Eat That?, which was followed three years later with Bestiary, and both of them are sleeper gems. The lead track off the debut, “Church Pants,” is emblematic of the duo’s work — curious/intriguing samples that give way to big, crisp beats and swift, cryptic lyrics that keep you bobbing along even if you can’t quite decipher what they’re rapping about. “When the rats rose up and they broke the silence and assembled on the shores of the closest island, with their folk beside them and their rogue defiance went two by two and awoke the silent…” It may seem like nonsense reading it here, but listen to how effortless and smooth it is below and you’ll see why these guys are so tough to ignore. Sometimes it’s playful, sometimes it’s plain inscrutable, but it’s always catchy and keeps you coming back for more (just in case this is the time you finally crack the code).
Of the two Aesop tends to be the better regarded lyricist — although that’s a real close call. Listen to them trade verses on tracks like “Meter Feeder,” “Table Talk,” “Krill,” and “4am” and you tell me one is demonstrably better than the other — while to my taste Rob is the better beatmaker (as evidenced by his stronger solo outings). All in all, though, it’s a bit like arguing over which of your ladyfriend’s breasts you like better, the left or the right — they’re both pretty solid and together they’ll keep you smiling for years. So check them out below — I’ve assembled some of my favorite tracks from the two albums (the aforementioned songs along with a few others), plus a couple winners from Rob’s equally winning solo stuff to get you started.
As for the odds and sods portion of the post, otherwise known as “the things I would have posted sooner, were it not for my backbreaking, soul crushing job,” I found a couple other items of note this week. First up is this pretty hilarious “Brief History of Radiohead” that Pitchfork did, which among other things nails the “everything they do is the greatest of all time” mentality of some of their fans. Check it out here:
Then it’s the latest single from fellow Scots Franz Ferdinand, who return with a shot of pure disco that shows them moving farther than ever from the indie sounds of their early years (a gravitation in recent years possibly exacerbated by the departure of founding member and guitarist Nick McCarthy last year). It still somehow worms its way in and gets you moving — frontman Alex Kapranos still has an infectious command at the mike. When he’s shouting “now TALK to me, cmon TALK to me” you feel powerless to resist, and the groove doesn’t hurt much either. May not sound quite like what we know and love of them in the past, but it’s still pretty catchy. See for yourself:
And we’ll close with a couple links, the first to a little article on the backstory behind Kevin Morby’s latest single, which is two versions of the same lovely song “Baltimore” (both of which you can hear in the link), and the second is to a quick little laugher from Montreal, which highlights an often overlooked danger (either for how you sing or for who you choose to sing — it’s unclear). Until next time, Sunbeams…