I've had just a couple things up on the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog lately, a review of the new Architects Recording Studio mixtape Street Radio Vol. 5, and a live review of the Sugarhill Gang @ Rams Head Live, although it's since come' [...]
11. Reflection Eternal - Train Of Thought (Rawkus Records, 2000) I’ve always been in the weirdo minority that heard the Black Star album and just liked Talib Kweli more than Mos Def, but I will continue to maintain, even though Kweli’s career has been on a boring [...]
16. The Dismemberment Plan - Change (DeSoto Records, 2001) The Dismemberment Plan were hands down my favorite contemporary band for at least a couple years around the turn of the century, mostly for their late ‘90s masterpiece Emergency & I. But during those couple years that I [...]
As much as I love the two albums the Boredoms made around the turn of the century, Super Ae and Vision Creation Newson, they have such a large and daunting catalog of releases and side projects that I've never really gotten up the nerve to dive' [...]
21. Young Jeezy - The Recession (Def Jam Records, 2008) This album is just a monster, I know a lot of people would rep for his first album or Trap Or Die as the definitive Jeezy record but in my opinion he really obliterated his early stuff [...]
26. Trick Daddy - Thug Matrimony: Married To The Streets (Slip-N-Slide Records/Atlantic Records, 2004) Trick’s made so many good albums, but this is the one that has a perfect balance of filthy sex raps (“J.O.D.D.”), fight music (“Fuckin’ Around”), bass jams (“Down Wit Da South”), pop singles [...]
31. Pitbull - M.I.A.M.I. (Money Is A Major Issue) (TVT Records, 2004) It’s funny to remember back when “Culo” dropped and how it was kind of confusing to see this Cuban rapper come out doing a song with Lil Jon over a reggaeton beat and not really [...]
Carla Bozulich's post-Geraldine Fibbers career has always seemed to move in fits and starts, always starting a new project and only recording one album, if that, before moving onto the next one: Scarnella, Night Porter, one-offs by design like Red Headed Stranger. So it's been [...]
This week I have a piece in the Baltimore City Paper about the Rapdragons, a new hip hop duo I saw at the All-Rap Round Robin, a few months ago, which was actually only their 3rd show ever. They're playing at the Windup Space this' [...]
36. The Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun (Birdman Records, 2001) I tend to think of Vision Creation Newsun as a lesser sibling to Super Ae, if not necessarily a sequel or retread. But in truth the amazing June ‘99 show at the 9:30 Club that made me [...]
41. Cex - Being Ridden (Temporary Residence, 2003) About 9-10 years ago, when I was a Baltimore teenager going to Dismemberment Plan shows all the time, I became intrigued by this other Baltimore teenager who was opening Dismemerment Plan shows and remixing them and making his own [...]
46. Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott - Miss E...So Addictive (Elektra Records, 2001) It’s been longer since I listened to this than probably any other album on the list, I lost my copy of it like 3 apartments ago. Still, I remember it being a shitload of fun, and [...]
51. Three 6 Mafia - Da Unbreakables (Hypnotize Minds/Columbia Records, 2003) Triple 6 and HCP turned out such a huge volume of music this decade, so consistent in a if-you-like-one-you’ll-like-them-all way, that it seems almost arbitrary to pick one or another to hold up for praise on [...]
Number of comments: 2 a) Anvil! The Story Of Anvil I'm such a nerd for rock lore and music career stories that I've watched plenty of movies and even read books about artists I've never owned an album by. So it was kind of weird to watch this, after all the hype about' [...]
Number of comments: 0 Back in August, Raymond Cummings of Ill With The Composition invited a few dudes, including myself, to participate in a "dad-rock roundtable" discussion, discussing the dad-rock genre/pejorative as well as music and fatherhood in general. The first installment went up recently, although some stuff I say in there [...]
56. R. Kelly - Chocolate Factory (Jive Records, 2003) It’s funny to think that for a good year or two, it seemed likely that R. Kelly’s career was probably over, and then Chocolate Factory came along. ‘03 was just in general a great year for R., maybe [...]
61. Bubba Sparxxx - Deliverance (Beat Club/Interscope Records, 2003) Alright, so he spends like half this record whining about how his first album didn't sell as much as he expected, even though it almost went platinum and is still the commercial peak his career (every whit rapper' [...]
Number of comments: 0 NPR's All Songs Considered is running a special called The Decade Defined this week and next week about the last 10 years of music, and part of that feature involved a survey sent out to a number of writers and music types, including myself. Some of my responses are' [...]
The Baltimore Scene held the Baltimore Crown Awards at 5 Seasons on Sunday, and I decided to stay home with my son that night, but I ended winning a "golden pen" award to match my "best blog/website" award from last year. So thanks to them [...]
66. My Brightest Diamond - Bring Me The Workhorse (Asthmatic Kitty, 2006) As far as I can tell from other critics’ lists, a lot of pretty young women made a lot of pretentious chamber pop and indie rock albums in the past decade that I haven’t heard. [...]
71. Bossman - Law & Order (Double Down Entertainment/1Up Productions, 2004) When this album dropped, I was still just kinda dipping my toe in the Baltimore hip hop scene, checking for a handful of artists I knew of, and this was the first record that really felt [...]
Who Got Next, the latest Baltimore hip hop DVD that I'm apparently going to be on is having a release party next weekend -- they just taped my interview yesterday, and I think for once I actually managed to say some shit, hope it all' [...]
Number of comments: 0 My latest piece for Splice Today, Overcoming Reality, is about the curse of reality shows dooming musicians to never again have success in the music industry. [...]
Number of comments: 2 1. Gucci Mane - The Cold War: Guccimerica I have kind of a love/hate thing going on with the Cold War series. One one hand, I think it's kind of a dickish publicity stunt to drop 3 mixtapes at the same time, a week after another mixtape, and it sets' [...]
Number of comments: 2 1. Pitbull - "Hotel Room Service" I initially dismissed this as part of Pit's recent hot streak of hits that have left me cold, but it's really grown on me in the last few weeks, great big obnoxious hook. Also, on an eye candy level this is probably the [...]
My reservations about The-Dream are many and well documented, but there's no denying that he's on a hot streak, and has already made two of the best R&B albums of the year (Eletrik Red's and his own). So the possibility of he and his production team, Tricky' [...]
76. My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge (Eyeball/Reprise Records, 2004) They got bigger but not better on The Black Parade, trading in all the hooks and humor that made them great on their breakthrough album for some kind of goth Up With People bullshit [...]