WTF?

Wow. Where do I begin? A friend of mine slipped me an album with the ominous words “You have to listen to this, what the hell is going on?” – and once you start down the rabbit hole…it’s hard to find your way back out. Matt Duke is either the dumbest wanna-be rapper that ever lived, or the most brilliant pop music satirist of our time…

The album is True Ohio Playa (really??) and the “artist” is Matt Duke. Not to be confused with the singer-songwriter Matt Duke who just released the album “Kingdom Underground”. As far as I can tell these are two different guys. (I smell a “naming rights” lawsuit in the future!) I have featured three selections off True Ohio Playa which vary in form from stripped down rap (“Mama, I Can’t Stop Rappin’”) to an R&B-esque love ballad (“Soft Jams”), to an obviously sophomoric but fun pop song (“Tune In Tokyo”).

The songs are all pretty catchy, though musically not that complex (that can be a good thing), and with lyrics that make you wonder about this guy’s intent. Is he joking? If so, very funny. Is he serious? If so, very, very sad. For example, take a verse from “Soft Jams”:

“And it’s ice, and yachts, and expensive cars
And our face in US Weekly ‘cause we the stars
When you’re away, it’s like the Great Schism
And when you come back I get priapism“

I recognized the term “priapism” from those annoying Cialis commercials. I have to hand it to Matt Duke, I’ve never heard a great schism/priapism rhyme before…and hopefully will never hear one again. My 7th grade history is a little fuzzy, but wasn’t the “Great Schism” something to do with churches or England or something? What is that doing in a rap song?

Matt Duke has apparently been listening to a lot of Mike Jones because Duke takes every opportunity to say his own name. However, I didn’t hear a phone number anywhere on the album, so the entire catalog of Mike Jones’ tacky marketing tricks wasn’t used.

Most rap cliches (guns, girls, money) are explored but in an almost blatant exaggeration which makes me wonder if Matt Duke is pulling our chain. In “Mama”, Duke talks about his MAC (or “ATM” for everyone outside of Ohio) machine receipt and decides to tell us the account balance…I lost count after about 15 zeros. I think technically the number of Duke’s Washingtons is greater than the number of atoms in the known universe, but who’s counting? There is obvious exaggeration throughout the album, but then again, what would a rap album be without braggadocio? Could Matt Duke be saying that the current state of hip hop is like a rap arms race, where every new guy has to be badder and richer than the next…and where does it end? I don’t know. All I know is..apparently it ends with Matt Duke…

So in the history of album reviews, this has got to be a first – I either give Matt Duke one star or five. Listen to the mp3s and take your pick…you’ll see why I could go either way…

So Matt Duke’s True Ohio Playa is out now and available from iTunes

MP3

“Tune In Tokyo” from True Ohio Playa

“Soft Jams” from True Ohio Playa

“Mama, I Can’t Stop Rappin’” from True Ohio Playa

UPDATES

Y’all need to know that Graham Lindsey has a new album titled We Are All Alone In This Together and an EP called The Mine due out on November 18, 2008.

ALBUM REVIEW
Graham Lindsey (at least for now) lives in Montana with his wife and two dogs after having made stops in the driftless woods of Wisconsin, New York’s chrome canyons, a Nebraska farmhouse, and New Orleans along the way. Luckily this well-traveled troubadour has been bringing his guitar and banjo with him wherever he goes, and (recently) in Montana recorded his two new releases We Are All Alone In This Together and its companion The Mine EP. I can easily sum these two records up in one word (amazing) but it will most certainly take many more to do any justice at all.

The first thing that strikes you about We Are All Alone In This Together is how raw, primal, and off the beaten path Graham’s music is. It is dark and unapologetic and roots folk-blues that falls somewhere in the middle of Gillian Welch, Bob Dyan, Tom Waits, Woody Guthrie, etc… and does so without any hyperbole. Graham Lindsey and his uncompromising backwoods Americana is the real deal and We Are All Alone In This Together (while not aged like those I compared him to) can (even at this stage) easily hold its own with anything from those artists. We Are All Alone In This Together is haunting and timeless but doesn’t hark to the past in order to rehash it. Graham’s honesty and sincerity and naked emotion abounds on these songs and its instantly apparent that this is as contemporary as any current Americana currently being played by peers like William Elliott Whitmore, Austin Lucas, and Chuck Ragan.

While Graham Lindsey’s aching gravelly voice and his lyrics (along with his acoustic guitar and banjo) are at the heart of We Are All Alone In This Together but the addition of fiddle, pedal steel guitar, harmonica, and other assorted instrumentation give this layers and a scruffy richness that makes it bore its way into your heart. It is almost all I’ve been listening to since I heard the first notes. Both We Are All Alone In This Together and The Mine EP will be released just under a month from now on 11/18/2008 on Spacebar Recordings.

MP3

“Shit On A Shovel” from We Are All Alone In This Together

“Everything” from The Mine EP

UPDATES

San Fransisco based singer/songwriter Drew Piston’s new album is out now and available from CD Baby.

ALBUM REVIEW
Even though Drew Piston seems to draw all sorts of Tom Waits comparisons, I hear more Dylan in his voice and his songs than I do Waits. Dylan meets Dean Wareham and Mark Lanegan on a dark, dusty road just outside of Reno. Originally from Idaho, Drew Piston and his unique brand of American folk music now call San Fransisco home. He sings hushed and melancholy odes to whiskey, women, and crime with (oftentimes) only an acoustic guitar for accompaniment. The results are quietly intense and despite the melodic side (frankly) a little bit on the scary side. So maybe Piston is a bit more Waitsian that I originally credited him for being. His album is unpolished and worn but better because of it. It isn’t all that captivating, though. Drew Piston’s songs have this uncanny ability to sneak up on you just when you start to forget the record is playing, meaning that despite the often almost whispered tones of the album, the music of Drew Piston refuses to let you stop paying attention.

VIDEO

“I, Human”

MP3

“Arson” from Drew Piston

UPDATES

Deas Vail’s new White Lights EP was released on August 26, 2008 and can get it from the band’s Myspace page or iTunes.

ALBUM REVIEW
The first thing you’ll notice about Russellville, AR’s Deas Vail are the soaring vocals of Wes Blaylock. Between his upper register range and his falsetto it is clear that this guy has pipes, but it is also clear when listening to the band’s new White Lights EP that Blaylock’s vocals aren’t the only thing they have working in their favor. Deas Vail’s pop-rock is full of wonderful contradictions. It’s sleepy but clear & bright; it’s moody but not dark. On the White Lights EP Deas Vail’s songs sound simply majestic as piano and strings augment the rock-solid rhythm section and driving guitars that will make you play these 5 songs over and over. Just imagine Coldplay vs. Copeland vs. Sunny Day Real Estate making music for floating in the clouds. The melodies abound but don’t overwhelm and everything on the White Lights EP seems to be perfectly placed. It is the kind of record that sounds great at first and just sounds better with every subsequent listen. The melodies coaxed from the strings, pianos, guitars, and the soaring vocals just slide under your skin and take hold. Deas Vail will be your new best friend… or at least your favorite new band.

MP3

“White Lights” from White Lights EP

“From Priests To Thieves” from White Lights EP

NEWS

DC’s Detox Retox has a spankin’ new EP Hard To Swallow out now. Hard copies can be purchased at Kunaki or digital copies at Emusic or Amazon.

UPCOMING SHOWS
Oct 23 2008 – PJ Skidoo’s – Fairfax, VA
Oct 31 2008 – Asylum – Washington, DC
Nov 16 2008 – Trash Bar – Brooklyn, NY

ALBUM REVIEW
Detox Retox calls the angular music capital of the world (Washington, DC) home and their new EP Hard To Swallow sounds like it. Formed only last year by friends Michael Parker, Nate Frey, Kabir Khanna, and Kevin Glass, Detox Retox is still a relatively new band but (even so) the slinky guitar leads and propulsive ass-shaking rhythm section might just force you onto the dance floor (or at least up off your living room couch). So what you’ve got are sharp riffs and some bass-heavy and urgently danceable disco post-punk that is made for moving. reminds me of groups like Moving Units or Arctic Monkeys. Detox Retox doesn’t get overly funky and don’t get all electro on us here on Hard To Swallow. Instead of art-rock over-indulgence, Detox Retox just plays “loud sexy rock music.” They even add an interesting, unexpected, and almost classic blues-rock element on the closer “Resurrection;” a scandalous and raucous fusion of dance-punk and garage rock that will have suburban kids and hipsters alike wearing their jeans tight and their sunglasses at night.

MP3

“Groovebox” from Hard To Swallow

“Too Late” from Hard To Swallow