2.23.13

On February 23rd I listened to The Roots Things Fall Apart, Beck Mellow Gold, and Jake Bugg Jake Bugg.

I love the idea of The Roots. I think they’re cool as shit. They have a couple songs I like a lot, but I never owned an album and have never listened to all of this one. What kind of music lover am I? We’re righting that wrong today.

Released in 1999, Things Fall Apart was the coming out party for The Roots. Dense, smart, funky, lush, complicated, this is not an album to be treated lightly and it’s certainly not something that can be fully realized in one listen. I gotta come back to this one!

“Dynamite” was my favorite and “The Next Movement,” and “You Got Me” are definitely your stand out tracks. I just sent a submission to the Urban Dictionary, hopefully now if you look up the term “stone groove,” you’ll see a picture of this album.

During the opening chords of “Loser,” Beck’s mammoth giant smash hit song that we’ll be listening to until we die, I tried to place myself where I was when I first heard it. I was so into it, and then I started working in radio. I must have talked out of it 10,000 times and I would always say “sprechen sie Deutsche, baby! Beck on whatever-fucking-radio-station, I’m Brad Maybe…”

Regardless. I had just turned 23 when I first heard “Loser,” and it was so much fun. Weird, different, goofy, it rocks and it stretches across a couple of genres. It is Funk, Folk, Rock, a little Rap, and what the hell does “soy un perdedor” mean? I still like “Loser,” but 20 years ago, I LOVED IT!

I used to listen to this album a lot, but then when the dust settled and I was moving on to other records to fixate on, I would always go back to “Beercan,” “Pay No Mind,” and “Truckdrivin’ Neighbors Downstairs.” “C’mon motherfucker, put your clothes on!” Those are still my favorites and from this listen I got reacquainted with “Fuckin’ With My Head,” and “Nitemare Hippie Girl.”

The line that resonated the most from Mellow Gold is "give the finger to the Rock N' Roll singer, as he dances upon you paycheck," from "Pay No Mind." Boy, did we ever! We took the shirt right off his back.

I interviewed Beck once and they made a big deal about not asking him about him being a Scientologist.

A few weeks ago Jake Bugg played a show in NYC. I didn't hear about it until it was about to happen and it seemed like every hipster, music geek and Anglophile in New York City was pooping themselves over this kid. I hand't heard of him. So, I decided to throw his album on my 2013 Year Of Music playlist.

I was sitting on a train when I started listening to this album and about a minute into “Lightning Bolt,” I was looking around the car for somebody to talk to about Jake Bugg! “Hey stranger, have you heard of Jake Bugg? No? Here check this out, pop my earbuds in, don’t worry about all the wax, the song is worth it.”

I was smiling ear to ear listening to this album. To me, Jake sounded like the reincarnation of Woody Guthrie and he’s only like 19! Coincidentally, Jake Bugg was born the day before Beck’s Mellow Gold was released. Now I hate him.