No movie this week, went to check out Relatively Speaking on Broadway instead. Three one act plays written by Woody Allen, Ethan Coen, and Elaine May, dealing with family relationships and the topics of love, death, and mental health. Great cast, REALLY hilarious, and definitely worth checking out if you’ve got time in the next week before it closes.
It being Sunday today, it’s time once again for the Sunday shuffle. 10 randomly selected songs from my iPod for your listening pleasure. Wonder what will come out this time…
1. Rise Against – Boy’s No Good (from the EP This is Noise[2007])
So up first we’ve got a quick little punk song from Rise Against. This being an EP and not an album, I haven’t listened to it much and don’t really know this song. After doing a little bit of research, I’ve discovered this is a cover of The Boy’s No Good from NJ hardcore/punk band Lifetime from their 1997 album Jersey’s Best Dancers. Having now listened to the original and the cover, I have to say I enjoy the Rise Against version more, though it’s not really all that great a song in general.
While I’m talking about Rise Against, I need to give credit to Pete Sheppard for introducing me to this band. He was constantly trying to get me into them, and I kept resisting. After hearing the album The Sufferer & the Witness (still my favorite Rise Against album) though, I was hooked and have since gone back and discovered their older stuff, becoming a definite fan. The last two albums, while very interesting lyrically and thematically, have been a bit of a disappointment though.
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2. WISE – Wanna Know Ya (from the album Children of the Sun[2007])
So we’ve finally got our first hip-hop track in the Sunday Shuffle, from Seiji Kameyama, better known as WISE. Better known as one of the members of Japanese super group Teriyaki Boyz (featuring members of M-Flo and Rip Slyme in addtion to WISE). Formed by producer extraordinaire, Nigo (of Bathing Ape fame), the Teriyaki Boyz took the world by storm working with artists like Pharrell, Kanye West, Ad-rock, Cut Chemist, and many more.
Aside from his work in Teriyaki Boyz, WISE has a decent solo career as well. This track is from his first solo release. WISE’s solo efforts are generally made up of smooth, jazzy, R&B styled hip-hop often featuring female guest vocals. While certainly not the best rapper in the world, I’ve always been a pretty big fan of WISE. Unlike many Japanese rappers, his flows tend to have a real nice rhythm to them and he manages to come closest to something you might here from an English language artist.
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3. The Cherry Coke$ – Oblivious (from the album Rouse Up[2005])
This one’s a fun one, celtic punk from Japan. Yes, you heard right, celtic punk from Japan. And done well to boot. These guys could easily share the stage with bands like Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly, and in fact they have! This isn’t one of my go to tracks, but it is very representative of their style and well worth a listen! (In fact, I’ve listened to it three times now in writing this…)
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So, I just finished this post (all 10 songs), and accidentally left the page before it got posted on the site and lost all of the work but these 3 songs. I will redo it at some point in the next day or two, but here’s this for now…
To be (re)continued…
The World Through the Eyes of a Purple Moose 