grinding our wicked gears to the beat

Symbolyc One and Illmind Featuring Strange Fruit "The Broke Song" - Don't struggle, just hustle: Here's a tidy bit of mellow hip-hop for all y'all who've ever had to deal with the difficulty of stretching that last dime to the month's end--which probably means it applies to just about everyone but the cheesy skeezy Paris Hilton types out there. It's an interesting treatment of a subject that's troubling for all who have to deal with it--they could've chosen to come off hard, with a really dark "message" track, but it instead projects a nice, laid-back groove, easy like quitting time on a hot summer afternoon. Message: I'm done broke, but I'ma workin' hard and got hope.

This joint comes to us via Symbolyc One (aka "S1") and Illmind, a newish and notable production duo who hail from Waco/Dallas, TX and Newark, NJ, respectively. You can find it on their debut album The Art of OneMind, which on the whole is a masterful blend of warm soul, cool jazz, and top-flight hip-hop flow. Totally worth checking out, especially if you're in the mood for a break from some of the more steroidal beats being slung around the hip-hop scene these days. [Buy The Art of OneMind or The Broke Song EP at Studio Distribution.]

I discovered these guys through last month's Sumosonic CD sampler. For those of you not yet in the know, the media promotion company Heavy puts out a great CD of some of the best underground music happening at the current moment (their last CD was their very first "all hip-hop" edition, and it included tracks from fairly well-known heads like Roots Manuva, Ghostface, Z Trip, and Slum Village alongside relative unknowns like The Gray Kid, Minors Into Fire, and Black Spade). If you're a US or Canada resident, Heavy has a deal where they'll send the Sumosonic CD to you for the low, low cost of $5US per month, which they say covers shipping & handling. It's an excellent deal, and a great way to discover new music (alongside mp3 blogs such as this one, of course :D ). [For more info about the monthly Sumosonic CD deal, go here.]

The Fort Knox Five "Radio Free D.C. " - Wake up! Time to free your mind! Whenever I hear that the Fort Knox Five--a Washington D.C. production team with ties to the Thievery Corporation--have pressed something new to wax, I get that twitchy "gotta gotta hear it" thing goin' on, 'cos they never, ever turn out a weak beat. "Radio Free D.C." shows the FK5 in fine form yet again: 70s blaxploitation soundtrack funk guitar licks, horn fills, tight percussion, a bit of vocoder steez, the works. But it's the guest vocalists who really make this piece special: it features a sharp bit of political consciouslness courtesy of veteran rapper King Kamonzi ...and, as icing on the cake, some great radio DJ patter by none other than His High Hip-Hop Holiness Afrika Bambaataa himself. It's the kind of thing that makes you want to run out into the street in yr shorts and turn the fire hydrants on full blast. Even if you don't live in the inner city, even if it's not particulary hot/humid where you are right now. I'm tellin' ya. [You can get "Radio Free D.C." (and its remix on the flip) at Groove Distribution (US) and Juno (UK). The Fort Knox Five also did most of the production on Afrika Bambaataa's recent solo album Dark Matter Moving at the Speed of Light, which you can purchase via Amazon.]

Plantlife "The Last Song (Skylab Remix)" - And now to get you all flippyfloppy like a crash test dummy, I'm closing out this entry with "The Last Song." It's the latest single from LA-based act Plantlife, whose weird, warped blend of electrotechnofunkrock + rap always tears the roof right off of whichever structure it's being played within. And this remix by electrohouse producers Skylab is especially dynamic; it totally turns the track up to 11+ with its crunchy rawk gitars and hyperdrive beat. Is it the ultimate, the top, the song to end all songs? Probably not, but it's definitely good for dancing oneself into a righteous stupor, especially when things are going nuts all over the world and all day long inside your telly. Who knows how long we've got? Rock out while you still can, brothers and sisters. Yeah, they're dropping bombs, we're writing songs...they say that we're the criminals, but we're just tryin' ta spread some love. [Buy this EP at Juno (UK). "The Last Song" originally appeared on Plantlife's recent album The Return of Jack Splash, which you can pick up in the US at import prices via Amazon. Hopefully someday someone will wake up and release it domestically....]

((((^_^))))
Well, for a couple of generally humble homebody folk, my sweetie and I sure are travelling a lot this summer. I'm off to supastylin, freshtastic GREEN BAY WISCONSIN this weekend for Molls' family reunion. Will try to return with some crazy electropunk polka jams for y'all, plus also maybe a slice or two of yummy rhubarb pie. If I somehow don't manage to post next week, it's because I'm stuffed too full of that good ol' midwestern home cookin.' I'm salivating already and my plane doesn't leave for at least 18 hours yet. :D :D :D

Next up: NYC at the end of the month (July 28-31), for a wedding in BKLYN. Lemme know where the parties are at, y'all.

Kiwi pals: we're still working out our dates for the November NZ/OZ tour. Will send 'em soonish.

Late update: Astute observers of my front page sidebar--all two or three of you (everyone else probably reads this via an LJ "friends' page" or RSS)--have probably noticed that funny little Operation Yellow Elephant button at the top of my "politics, schmolitics" links. This is, to paraphrase Oliver at the Liquid List, "a blog-driven initiative to help young Republicans who support the war in Iraq to find the strength to let their asses cash the check that their mouths have been writing for two years."

Have any necon conservative pals of military fightin' age who endlessly rant on about the wonderfulness of the Iraq liberation/occupation but somehow can't seem to find the cojones to actually go over there themselves? Well, now that recruitment goals are consistently not being met, month after month, it's kind of imperative that these boys and girls shut their yaps over here and take the fight over there, where it belongs. Tell them you're sick of their craven cowardice. Guilt them into going to the front. Whatever it takes! We've got a war to win, after all, and who better to fight it than its most steadfast believers?