Sunday, January 2, 2011

Song 20: HeyYa! (Radio Club Mix) - OutKast


Released September 23, 2003 on the album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below




I have to admit it, I'm not a huge follower of hip-hop music. Rap itself has been around for quite awhile, predating its mainstream breakthrough in the mid-80's by many years, and I have liked some rap, but it hasn't been a style of music that I actively pursue. Perhaps my tendancy to avoid Rap or hip-hop has been the seeming tendancy of the genre to use the less than family-friendly portions of the English language more often than an angry dockworker. That is perhaps the point - the angst - from various issues - boiling up and being expressed in its performers. Rock itself, and punk rock and hard rock in particular has at its base similar angst, even though the reasons for it may not always be the same as the anger behind some hip-hop songs. But in both cases, it's art depicting - or slightly imitating - the life that inspired it. The difference - to me - is that I have a hard time listening to any song that uses - for example - the F-bomb over and over. Emenem, for example, has some incredibly catchy tunes, and the language he chooses to express his viewpoints is perhaps more "true to life" as far as he's concerned, but I can't help but wonder why a guy as creative as he is couldn't come up with a different way to express himself? Then again, Emenem would probably simply say, "That's the way it is...it's a way to taste that side of life if you haven't experienced it, and if you can't relate, hey, then the song isn't for you" The same is probably true of the hard rock, less-than-happy tunes of several groups that could be mentioned, but the fact remains that I'd rather not listen to songs that employ the use of the saltier words on a regular basis. Not to say that some songs don't surprise me. P!nk's Raise Your Glass - at least the non-radio edit version - does essentially the same thing because that's the language that gets associated with a partier, and that was catchy enough that it got included on this mix...but I will say that I'll probably listen to the radio edit version of that song in the future because I don't think it's necessary for the words that get a Parental Advisory label slapped on the release to be there to get the party feel of the song across.
That all being said, HeyYa! is a song that is done by a Hip Hop performer (Andre "Andre 3000" Benjamin, who used to call himself simply "Dre") but not done in the classic Hip Hop style. The album it comes from - which won a Grammy for Best Album in 2004 - is actually two albums in one. Andre 3000 essentially has a solo album (The Love Below part), while his OutKast partner, Big Boi (Antwan Patton), did the Speakerboxxx portion. Speakerboxxx is much more of a hip hop album, but The Love Below has songs that fit into a variety of musical styles, with some critics comparing that portion of the double-album as "like Prince". The combo worked very well, since the album became the second Hip Hop album to gain the Album of the Year Grammy award, and it sold an incredible number of copies, while also making its debut on the album charts at #1, where it stayed for several weeks. HeyYa! itself was one of two #1 singles from the album (the other was Big Boi's The Way You Move which was also the song that knocked HeyYa! out of the #1 spot it had held for nine weeks) HeyYa! was also a bridge of sorts....it was the #1 song for the American Top 40 show for the last one hosted by legend Casey Kasem, and still #1 for the first show hosted by Ryan Seacrest.
The video for the song was (and is) popular as well, featuring Andre playing all the roles of a fictional band making their debut in a manner similar to the Beatles' debut on the Ed Sullivan show, complete with old black and white TV's, 60's-style studio video cameras, and screaming, swooning, and fainting women. It's a fun and high energy video. Big Boi has his appearance at the beginning, but after that, it's all Andre and the wild-eyed girls.
All in all, OutKast (named that way because the two performers originally wanted to be called "Misfits" but had to go with a stylized synonym when they discovered that name was already taken) found themselves - already very popular after two #2 albums - in the superstardom realm after the release of this album. Interestingly, there has been only one OutKast record released since then and they have been active in other endeavors, mostly film, during the last seven years. There is talk about a new Outkast record being in development for release sometime in 2011, though right now that's still speculation.
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Saturday, January 1, 2011

Song 19: At My Heels - Twin Shadow


Realeased November 15, 2010 on the album Forget







This tune brings "back" the new wave sound of the 80's, and reminds me somewhat of the song In A Big Country. On About.com's Alternative Music posts, Twin Shadow's music is described as "a kind of retro, electro-tinged soul-balladry; peddling big songs with big choruses, big synths, big echo, and big drama (and, y'know, big hair). Whilst Lewis obviously owes a debt to the 1970s output of ELO and David Bowie, there's a distinctly '80s vibe to his jams"




Strangely, in this day and age, that there isn't even a Wikipedia article for Twin Shadow that will pop up among a Google search (how many people/groups/organizations can say that? Even this blog pops up when doing a search on Google for "Amature Music Mixer", and it's only been "in the cloud" for three months since it was created at the time of this posting!). Twin Shadow does have a Wikipedia article, but, not only does a more specific search than usual need to be done to find it, there isn't much for info to be found there! Even so, Twin Shadow has been featured as a "Band of the Week" on October 7th, 2010 on Rolling Stone magazine's website. Oddly, that coincides when this blog site was first set-up! Unfortunately, that's the only connection that I can claim to the efforts and talents of Twin Shadow.


Twin Shadow is another one of those "groups" that isn't a group. Like Owl City, and Grande, Twin Shadow is the performance alias for George Lewis Jr. Like Owl City's Adam Young, Lewis does all his own recording and producing, and (more shades of Young, and his basement studio) he tends to do it in hotel rooms using portable equipment. Lewis also has something of a hair style akin to that of La Roux's Eleanor Jackson. Lewis is listed as "twentysomething" with no actual birthdate in some articles and Wikipedia, (although Pitchfork says he's 26) but it is known that he was born in the Dominican Republic, then moved to Florida and then to Boston and finally to New York City. His work as Twin Shadow began after he arrived in the Big Apple, where he strives to stay off the "dark path" that has befallen so many by staying focused on the music he creates.


The name "Twin Shadow" is derived from the fact that he has a twin sister, and he refers to himself as her "Twin Shadow". This song comes from the debut album for Lewis, called Forget that was released officially on November 15, 2010. Another song from the album, Castles in the Snow (listen here on youtube) has been receiving quite a bit of praise from the likes of Rolling Stone and Pitchfork.com, with Pitchfork saying of the album as a whole, "It is sophisticated enough to withstand close, repeated listening. The songs may be catchy, but their intricacy and thoughtful storytelling makes them stick."
Some of the songs on the album discuss some rather less-than-nice memories of childhood (based on what I've read), but only half of the songs have this tone. The other half, which At My Heels falls under is more upbeat, and as Pitchfork also says, "sweet".
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