Scrobble Scribble #3: Momma I'm So Sorry by Clipse

Little story about my music taste: people who know my music taste should know that it started with Hip Hop. Not rock, not metal, but Hip Hop - specifically the song H to the Izzo by Jay-Z. I received as a gift for Chris Cringle from this guy. Spawning from that point, I went through the stage where any Hip Hop was good; Nelly, Ja Rule - why not! Then I discovered the album "illmatic" by some really dumb luck (or what you might call, internet hipsters and getting bored), which started my phase of listening to underground/alternative Hip Hop and being antagonistic to anyone who listened to mainstream Hip Hop or didn't know who I was listening to. I started researching the history, watched Style Wars, watched Scratch, read (and still do) read blogs. Then I started finding out the popular samples for Hip Hop - Jazz, Funk, R&B, Soul and dabbled in a bit in that. Then for some reason I got into psychadelic rock (probably because of listening to "Bitches Brew" era Miles Davis) and eventually came to listening to rock. And that's pretty much it for me, after that I started listening to Triple J & FBi because Uni deprives me of money to spend on music. It's opened me up to all types of genres and now I just listen to anything. Still, I probably look into Hip Hop a lot still.

And of course, I still have to keep up with my favourite music some way (downloading of course). And I still have a heap of music which sometimes I acquired and listened to once, then gave up on it because I didn't understand it. But then I revisit and realise - why didn't I like it this much first time around? "Hell Hath No Fury" by Clipse is one of those albums (Momma I'm So Sorry being one of the many songs). The time it was released it was getting so much hype and rave reviews to back it up. But when I listened to it I was like - wtf? It sounded so arrogant, heavy beats - this can't be good. But after a couple of years, and releases by similar sounding The Cool Kids, you just get this newfound appreciation. I don't think Clipse have gotten in my Top 50 yet, but I think some of their tracks from Hell Hath... should be creeping up my charts. You have to get off your high horse once and a while and just love knockin' beats by a group so crazy that they get labelled as "Coke Rap". Also, I just admire Pharrell and his Neptune beats. Some people might find him annoying but he's very likable to me.

And all of the beats here are provided by Pharrell Williams & partner Chad Hugo --or a production team you may know as The Neptunes. They've produced so many songs and are probably recognized by their bucket sounding beats. This one isn't strictly normal-Neptunes sounding beat because of that accordion but it has that epicness of Drop It Like It's Hot. In fact, why I chose to do this song was because of that unique accordion part I was hearing which was similiar to the Cool Kids' new song, The Delivery Man (and later, reminding me of Accordion by Madvillain). Right at the start of the song, you get Pusha T (1/2 of Clipse) singing "Miami Vice... For My Cocaine Dreamers..." setting the "Coke Rap" label in its place. The lyrics are very braggadocioloious - " I Philosopy's About Glocks And Keys" - but that's really the keys to Clipse's success; never letting up to their hardnosed approach, backed with crazy beats. Oh and the beat - it's sort of like a high hat, mixed with a bit of bass and that lovely accordion. Top that off with a bit of Pharrell vocal - just in case you didn't he wasn't over everything else on this album.

Besides, doesn't hurt if Clipse apologizes to their mums, right?

Clipse - Momma I'm So Sorry



Scrobble Scribbler uses Last.FM and Last.FM's "Audioscrobbler" software. However, Scrobble Scribbler is not employed by Last.FM and thus views expressed by its author are not those of Last.FM. Join Last.fm here

Scrobble Scribble #2: So He Won't Break by The Black Keys

The second song and artist to be featured is So He Won't Break by The Black Keys. I'm not too sure how I discovered The Black Keys, but I think I was listening to The Black Lips who, apart from sharing an almost similar name, also have a garage-rockish sound which I dug. And I think a few months ago Triple J started playing Strange Times which I didn't mind. Oh and also, the song with which this album belongs - Attack & Release - was produced by Danger Mouse who you may know as the other half of Gnarls Barkley with Cee-Lo, The Grey Album mashup, the latest Beck album and Gorillaz's bit old but still good album Demon Days. As for similar artists I think a lot of people would agree that The White Stripes would be the band to come swiftly to mind. Both have that garage-rock revival sound going, both are duos. I think the most distinct difference between these two groups would be the way in which the lead singers deliver their vocals - with Jack White being a bit more fast and aggressive whereas Dan Auerbach likes to just sing like a blues or soul musician.

Looking at my charts, The Black Keys have just recently been inducted in to my top 50 artists (I've been listening to them quite a bit lately) sitting somewhere around the 30 mark. Haven't played their songs on rotation enough yet to get a track into my favourite songs, so I'll see if I can change that with So He Won't Break.

Of course, I think the whole album is great but So He Won't Break just happened to be the song on at the time. Other tracks I'm diggin on the album are Psychotic Girl and Oceans and Streams, that consist the great sound of this duo. I don't know how you would describe So He Won't Break in musical terms but it's a pretty repetitive drum sort of pattern through the verses that concludes with a bit of guitar stroking at the end. There's a bit of guitar throughout - especially near the end where there's a little solo, I thought I heard a bit of keyboard or organs. The vocals are a bit distorted to make for that garage sound and aren't delivered in a loud, aggressive way by Auerbach (lead singer) instead he sort of croons or sings over it. As a song, it works well as a sort of old bluesy ballad except, you enjoy it.

The Black Keys - So He Won't Break


Scrobble Scribbler uses Last.FM and Last.FM's "Audioscrobbler" software. However, Scrobble Scribbler is not employed by Last.FM and thus views expressed by its author are not those of Last.FM. Join Last.fm here

Scrobble Scribble #1: Avalanche by Leonard Cohen

Influenced by some of the great works of fellow DIGC101 students, I've decided to branch off into my own sort of posts that are unique in scope. Dane Cutler's Ninja Winja was one example that, although very simple, is highly original and particularly inspired me to get to writing something interesting. So I thought for a bit, and I thought well-- how about a write little short notes about songs that I just listened to. And at the time, I was thinking of a better title as well and the best I came up with was - Scribble Jam (which is actually the name of a Hip Hop festival in the US).

Think harder. Ok, Scribble Jam is good but I need something more original. Then it occurred to me that I had been putting my Last.FM widgets everywhere. Well, that would be easy to show my recently played tracks. And wait a minute... how does Last.FM record music? It scrobbles them. Scrobble + Scribble? Why, it was so obvious now.


But anyway, down to business. The first song to kick off the Scrobble Scribbling is Avalanche by Leonard Cohen, featured on the album "Songs of Love and Hate". I don't know where the sudden popularity in Leonard Cohen came from, but I remember seeing "Songs of Love and Hate" at Dirt Cheap CDs in the city a while ago for $10 then one of my closest friends said he had just bought that album. Then one of my other friends got "The Essential Leonard Cohen" and when I questioned him about it, he just said "yeah I love Leonard Cohen" in a tone like he'd been listening to him for a long time. So I took a shot and popped in "Songs..." not sure what to expect.

Going off Avalanche, Leonard Cohen sounds something like Nick Cave (who actually did a cover of this with his Bad Seeds) with a dark, monotone voice infused with a bit more of a soft, folk sound. His lyrics are very poetic and emotive, and this song sounds sounds like Cohen is confused on how to feel with a person that loves him. He himself needs that love, but doesn't know if he can accept it. This is my interpretation anyway. His vocals and the instruments that proceed him are both fleeting (possibly a technique that is in harmony with the lyrics of the song), and it's interesting at the end how he finishes it "It is your flesh I wear" because the way he sings this feels like he isn't finished. Not the most uplifting music, but Avalanche and "Songs..." would definitely be a companion to those times to when experiencing a bit of love and hate in your life.

Leonard Cohen - Avalanche


Scrobble Scribbler uses Last.FM and Last.FM's "Audioscrobbler" software. However, Scrobble Scribbler is not employed by Last.FM and thus views expressed by its author are not those of Last.FM. Join Last.fm here

Week 8 of DIGC101

More on blogging this week and we coupled up to find some of the popular bloggers out there in the blogosphere. Technorati is probably your best friend in such a case, as you try to learn about the authority attribute that Technorati gives to measure blogs. I still haven't quite figured it out but i'm sure an exploration on Wikipedia would turn for some results. But as Chris and David seem to point out its not so much how many people read a blog as how many people link each other in a sort of virtual mafia of its chosen topic. I'm not big on American political election blogs so I didn't know too much but if we were to do something like Hip Hop music, I could easily tell you which ones (and when I briefly looked over them, most didn't have blogrolls).

On to more interesting things; I watched my first episode of South Park in a while and it was awesome. It was an episode which opened with Mr. Garrison talking about how kids get high, and explain a way where kids take cat piss. Lol funny stuff, Trey and Matt pick it up and sensationalise it by getting FOX news to blow it out of proportion so that police confiscate all cats in people's homes. Haha, Kenny's delusions were hilarious (and a tribute to a movie Heavy Metal, which I hope I will watch some day in the future).

To finish things off, here's a clip of Kanye West performing a new song Love Lockdown at the VMAs.

Belated post for last week: Crosstown Traffic

I was going to post this on my own personal blog that I host with Windows Live Spaces but it refused to connect for some reason so I abandoned the post. But it is interesting, from guest lecturer Katie's own personal experience with getting fired over blogging, that had me interested in the exposure of myself online. It was particularly well-timed with the recent post I did with the death of my friend, Alex (which I blogged about before).

When I quite briefly combed through some of the older entries on my own blog, some of it to me makes me cringe but I would not (and will not) take it down because it was me at the time - and deleting seems to be unfair because I put the effort in to write about it in the first place. However, I wonder if anything I have written could be used against me in the future? It is surely something I have just now worried about.

I think it would be a good idea to have posts that you can publish on your blog but only you can see, while other posts you can post for everyone to see (I believe LiveJournal has such a function). Because if you look at my recent post on my personal blog for example, and then look down a few posts you can see that such a space is merely a sort of scribble pad for whatever I am feeling. Now, that doesn't matter to me but if people are going to be reading my blog they might not feel as comfortable with some of the things I said (is it within context, in other words). So to me, I am coming to a realization of the aethstics of a blog. When Katie said she wanted to make another blog (on the few that she already upkeeps) it seemed like a ridiculous idea to me but I am coming to understand that for the sake of herself - and a potential audience - what's private and what's public still exists in impression management.

DIGC102 presentation

So today I did my part of the presentation but unfortunately had to bale early to make it for the train. I was nervous, shaking but I felt I covered it pretty thoroughly (I hope...). The video games industry is not that hard to map but I could not concisely put it through sometimes. Also, I wish I'd made my presentation more visually exciting. Anyway, battery on the laptop is about to run out, watching Wedding Crashers on 9 - hilarious (and it did, I'm posting this the next morning lol).

Week 7 of DIGC101

Today we did a bit on blogging - what a surprise. I particularly found Katie's insights into her blogging interesting, she was a guest lecturer for today. She keeps three blogs - her personal, research and LiveJournal blog - and has these clear delineations for a reason. She told us of how she got fired because she defamed the company on her personal blog using a work computer. Not only that, but she told us of the extensive action the company took - "Someone in IT will always be reading your blog" - and the threat of legal action. It was quite an awakening for me because I like to think I like to drop in and post on my own personal blog from time to time and (as my prior post noted) I just ran into a bit of exposure. Maybe its a sign...

We also did some presentations today for different questions in relation to gender on blogs. I don't remember much of it now, but my argument was pretty baseless (we won though so all good).