I mentioned them in a post awhile back, but if you weren't a high school/college-aged kid in DC about 4 years ago then you probably missed out on Dead Vice Prez. Alumni of several DC area punk and hardcore bands, DVP was a stone-cold crew of straight-edge rappers. While some might consider them a joke or a gimmick, I don't think anyone could deny that their production values only increased on every track they dropped, and that the majority of their lyrical content was pretty damn sick.

From "You Don't Own Shit":
Talk shit/Name drop/Get jealous/Black list/You're the part of the scene that slits its own wrists/Get my gist?/Let me clarify/I want to staple your dick to your lower left thigh

From "My Other Car Is An American Flag":
Let me tell something people just get out of the bars/Grab a brick and then throw it at a government car/Burn a flag and let these idiots know who we are/Real Americans/REAL AMERICANS!

With lyrics that poked fun at the often elitist punk rock scene, while at the same time exhorting a tongue-in-cheek brand of straight-edge philosophy and politics, DVP rose to the status of a crowd favorite in DC, but never made it much farther than that. Members of DVP are involved in the also amazingly funktastic Food For Animals. DVP beatmaster, Joe, has a studio that can be found here.

Since this group (which was really more of a side project) never made an "album" per se, I'm uploading all my Dead Vice Prez for your listening enjoyment. Included are all ten DVP hits, plus the DJ Barticus remix of "The Routine." Enjoy.

Assassination
Let The Heads Roll
My Other Car Is An American Flag
Prisonz
The Party Song (Lickin' Waists For Democracy)
The Routine
The Routine (DJ Barticus Mix)
They Preschools
Tristain Intro
xNewMilleniumStraight-EdgeAnthemx
You Don't Own Shit

PS- I'm going to keep doing "You may have missed... X" from time to time. But since we don't really have a "readership" it won't be a "regular feature."

Posted by darrell at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Bunji Garlin hailing from Trinidad & Tobago (Soca Warriors - Worldcup 2006!!), is setting the world on fire. And even sometimes himself! Always a crowd favorite from Port of Spain to Notting Hill London, his studio productions aren't slouching either. His pure skill, enthusiasm, and lack of filler songs, are what is keeping him firmly in the drivers seat of the soca movement.

download Bunji Garlin - Fire | buy Bunji Garlin - Revelations LP

Posted by blake at 09:28 PM | Permalink

In honor of Clipse's sophomore LP being released today (but leaked on the internet like years ago) I give you a bit of a back of the crate jam. Clipse's hot hot single "Wamp Wamp (What It Do)" mashed up with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth." Total head nod jawn, for all the indie vs hip hop heads out there. Wamp wamp.

download Clipse vs CYHSY - clap your hands say wamp wamp

Posted by blake at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I suffered a brief hemmorage of punk and hardcore during high school (just ask Dmac if you doubt this; i later turned to d.metal, then grindcore). Post-high school, I moved on to more jazz/funk, hiphop, and electronic flavors. Then, last year, my buddy Jru (of FlavorHerd fame) threw me a curve with Tuner Control's Air Raid vol. 2. Punk, hardcore, rock blended, cut, and mixed like hiphop. And damn, it was good. So I threw it on the iPod, rocked out for a couple weeks, revisited all my old Misfits jams... and then the iPod decided to wipe itself clean and set free all the glorious [stolen] music to which it had given a home (pesky little critters). Then, a couple weeks ago, I was exchanging music with a friend [Hollar at you Tina Fury] and remembered the mix. I promised her I'd pick up a couple copies from the lab. And so I did.

Air Raid [vol. 2] is chock full of all the good shit from high school: Misfits, Minor Threat, Danzig, Op Ivy, The Stooges, Pantera, Motley Crew, The Cars, Le Tigre... The blends are sharp, and not nearly as obnoxious as you might think. And I aint even gonna talk about the Metallica juggle secret track jump-off. Go buy it. Support a couple DJs.

download 3 London Dungeons [direct]
download 4 Stepping Stone [direct]
download 15 Crackin Up [direct]
download 25 Damaged Goods [direct]

buy Air Raid vol. 2 [turntablelab]

Tuner Control has more tracks on their site and on their MySpace page

Posted by alex at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

If you enjoy this blog, there's at least a slight chance you'd dig Dublab. Why is this relevant? Because Dublab introduced me to the duo Ammoncontact. Grimey bass and drums with out-of-tune samples and synths, thrown together in a not-quite-on-time sequence. Broken beat, abstract electronic hip-hop, whatever the hell you label them, Ammoncontact is awesome in that Daedelus way, but more accessible (read: I can almost always jam out to Ammoncontact, as is not the case with most Daedelus).

The following cuts are off the 4th side of Ammoncontact's latest - With Voices. The album is pretty sharp, as a whole, with a couple tracks standing out.

download Sleep Stasis [direct]
download Worth It [direct]
buy With Voices [TTL]

Posted by alex at 02:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

"PEGASUSES is a fraternal order of the philosophical variety; a salon for ideas and a forum for what-if's. PEGASUSES is the challenge of channeling youth-rock kinetic energy (aggression) thru cold digital mediums. PEGASUSES is three dudes sussing it out." [quoteunquote records]

I don't know if I could write a better description of PEGASUSES-XL (the band seems to have adopted the "XL" on their most recent release). One dude on drums, two dudes on keys and electronic madness. Pay attention, because this is punk rock. Melding electronic sensibilities with hip hop, rock, and pop elements PEGASUSES-XL are the answer to the storm of shitty, non-threatening Hot Topic brand punk which has saturated the music industry since the new millenium. My mother often tells me about when my uncle purchased the first DEVO record and wouldn't take it off the record player for a month. Now I know how he felt.

These dudes have two gritty EP length efforts out on Quote Unquote Records, the brainchild of Bomb The Music Industry! rocker Jeff Rosenstock. The label offers its whole catalog for free download, they only ask that if you like the music you either make a donation to the band or make an arbitrary donation to keep the label afloat. (By the way, if you haven't heard BTMI! they're worth checking out too.)

PEGASUSES-XL are garunteed to please, whether being spun between bands at a punk show or dropped during a dance set. They have officially climbed to the top of my list of "Bands I Want to See Live." Too bad they're based in Athens, GA. Well I'm issuing an open invite to play my small town in Japan, and a place on my floor if they want it.

download The Midnight Aquarium
download PEGASUSES-XL
donate here

Posted by darrell at 08:13 PM | Permalink

Joe Lally has a new solo album out. Yes, the bassist from Fugazi.

Now I don't want people to think I'm pimping Dischord or anything, but I found this little gem while I was buying the new Evens record. You wouldn't think a bassist could break away from a band like Fugazi and have a successful solo career (and no, Sting doesn't count), but here is Joe Lally doing exactly that. The celebrity guestlist is stong on this one, with DC 1980s yearbook signers Ian MacKaye, Guy Picciotto, Ed Janney and Amy Farina doing their thing, but Joe stands out over them all.

I took the title of this entry from a Dead Vice Prez lyric. Well whether he heard the DVP song and took it as a challenge or not, never let it be said the Joe Lally is a "background" member of anything again. Recorded at Inner Ear, this record is filled with the blunt musical and lyrical content you'd expect from someone associated with Fugazi, but delivered in an almost folky vein. A solo debut is hard to execute, and he's done a damn good job this time out.

download There to Here (song)
buy There to Here (album)

Posted by darrell at 07:23 PM | Permalink

I kind of thought everyone already knew about Ed Banger Records, based in France, but after intense polling (asking alex if he heard of them) I realized this wasn't true. You may know Justice from "we are your friends" an infectious electro banger that has been a European club staple for a while now, even winning video of the year honors (which prompted Kanye to bumrush the stage ODB style and say he should have won because he spent a million dollars on his, and hasn't even seen this other video - what an asshole). But I digress, this is not about catchy club songs or kanye being an awful human, this is about "Waters of Nazareth" a new-ish single from Justice. This track is serious, mean glitchy distorted guitar chopped to all hell over a heavy 4 on the floor beat. I can't really do it justice (ha) through description, so just listen to it. This version is his own remix of the track.

Justice - Waters of Nazareth (justice remix) : Cop the CD single

Posted by ben at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Adam Dyment, better known as Duke Dumont, is pretty much on top of the game. Winner of the "Electronic" division in the 2006 Diesel U-Music International Music Contest, and world-wide dj with upcoming gigs in Sao Paulo, Istanbul, and every night worth going to in London town. Oh yeah did I mention he was 24 years old? So why would the mild-manner englishman be so uppity? Well... he was sought out to do a remix for Missy Elliot's "We Run This" single, and when the label released the song, but weeks went by and nothing was heard, he got a bit upset. So his, and Atlantic's loss is your gain. He gave it out... for free.

It's an electronic-electro slammer. Gated, cut and sampled vox galore. This is a serious dancefloor burner. I cannot believe anyone sat on this tune for anything less than a hot minute. So Duke Dumont, we at WGF, salute you and say, you run this.

download Missy Elliot - "We Run This" (Duke Dumont rmx) | Buy Mekon - "Yes Yes Ya'll (Duke Dumont rmx)

Posted by blake at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The internet is awash with Bloc Party leaks. And let me just be the first to tell you how excited I am for "A Weekend in the City" to be released. Expected date is February 5th, 2007. "The Prayer" is going to be the first single off the album, expected the last week of January. It is a sweet melodic tune, with some grimy basslines and whiney guitars! I cannot wait for this album, you should be excited too!

download Bloc Party - The Prayer [zshare] | buy Silent Alarm Remixed

Posted by blake at 06:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (45)

New Nas! Some of these have been around for a while, but never the less new Nas is always exciting. I know I know, he has been dissapointing the last...8 years? Forget that though, despite "Hip Hop is Dead" using the same exact Iron Butterfly sample that was used on thiefs theme from the last album, it's still a certified banger. Nas rips it just like we know he can, and the production is tight with plenty of changes to keep it interesting. The album, also called Hip Hop is Dead, is due out december 19th on Def Jam. Also check "Black Republcan" (what the fuck?) with Nas and Jay-z, not nearly as good but theres still the "oh shit!" value of Nas and Jay on the same track.

Nas - "Hip Hop is dead" : Nas ft. Jay-z "Black Republican"
Pre-Order Hip Hop is Dead (the album)

Posted by ben at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Syl Johnson is like Al Green but funkier — less 'girl, I love you', more 'girl, what's your husband going to say?'. He's another southern R&B artist, product of a musical family (brother Mac [bass] and brother Jimmy [guitar]), who cut his teeth playing with Magic Sam, Howlin Wolf, and Junior Wells.

The following cuts are from Syl's album Total Explosion, released on HI in '75.

download Steppin' Out [direct]
download That's Just My Luck [direct]
buy Total Explosion [Dusty Groove]

Posted by alex at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I was kicking around in a local used music shop when I stumbled upon this goody:

Bomb. I was a huge lover of Operation Ivy back in the day. In fact they were probably the band which got me into punk rock.

Tribute to Operation Ivy was released in 2002, but don't be surprised if you've never seen it because this baby is a Japan-only comp with all Japanese bands save one (NoCal's The Chinkees). There are a couple stand out tracks, DOBERMAN's Bombshell and Sk@ymate's Sound System jump out at me, but the whole album is really damn solid. Much better than its American counterpart.

I don't usually gush over comps, especially tribute comps, but this one is an upbeat trip down memory lane. The Japanese bands attack Op Ivy's songs with a sense of fun which is painfully missing from every cover of Unity I've had to sit through at a basement show.

download DOBERMAN - Bombshell [zshare]
buy V/A - Tribute to Operation Ivy [amazon]

Posted by darrell at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Funk is the best genre ever (aside from new-age Yanni/Enya shit). Bronx River Parkway (Truth and Soul records) is a New York revivalist funk outfit from Brooklyn. Incredible grooves, beats, and chops. They killed it at the Wax Poetics release party last Spring.

I picked up their first 7" (on the Latin Express imprint of Soul Fire records - of Sharon Jones fame) on a whim during a weekend crate-diggin jaunt to NYC back in 2004. Both sides [download below] have gotten so much rotation I had to pick up another copy.

download Chum's Pimpage [direct]
download Quienes Que Resolverio [direct]
buy Up From The Vaults Vol 1 [Dusty Groove]

Posted by alex at 11:34 PM | Permalink

A quick leaky, leaky of a jawn from the new Timbaland album expected in the 1st quarter of 2007. "Give It To Me" features Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake, both who've spent some studio time with Timbaland (and owe him one). But seriously... am I the only one who hasn't worked with Timbaland? He worked on Jay-Z's new album, Björk's next album, and a few tracks with Chris Martin from Coldplay. He's even rumored to be working on some of the songs on Duran Duran's new LP.

download Timbaland - Give It To Me (feat. Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake)

Posted by blake at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Daft Punk played at someone's house last night in Miami. Myspace is awash with praise and pictures, as you would expect. In honor of me missing them playing once again I offer up another time when I missed them, Daft Punk Live from Coachella 2006. This is not a silly little mic'd copy, its quality hi-fi.

01. Daft Punk - Robot Rock
02. Daft Punk - Technologic
03. Daft Punk - Television Rules The Nation
04. Daft Punk - Steam Machine
05. Daft Punk - Around The World (Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger)
06. Daft Punk - Too Long
07. Daft Punk - Face To Face (Harder Remix)
08. Daft Punk - Interlude
09. Daft Punk - One More Time (Aerodynamic Remix)
10. Daft Punk - The Brainwashers (Rollin' & Scratchin' Remix)
11. Daft Punk - Alive (The Prime Time Of Your Life Remix)
12. Daft Punk - Da Funk
13. Daft Punk - Human After All (Superheroes Remix)
[all above hosted on zshare]

Rumors around are that LCD Soundsystem is headlining Coachella 2007. Details in the new year I'm sure.

buy Daft Punk - Interstella 5555 [DVD]

Posted by blake at 01:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There hasn't been a Gothic Archies release since their original EP in 1997. This gag band, a side project of the ever amazing Stephin Merritt, is better than a lot of serious bands. They play extremely dreary music, or as Merritt himself says, "What makes this band different from The Magnetic Fields is that any glimmer of hope is absolutely extinguished."

I guess it's only fitting that the new album, The Tragic Treasury, is a soundtrack to those most morose of children's tales, Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. Devotees of The Magnetic Fields will recall that Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) has played accordion for Merritt on several occasions.

watch Scream and Run Away [myspace]
download Smile! No One Cares How You Feel [zshare] | buy The Tragic Treasury

Posted by darrell at 01:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This song just rocks so hard. Re-discovered it this summer on the way back from a camping trip to the Maryland National Seashore with a couple friends. Obviously had to listen to it 4 times in a row. Obviously had to play air-guitar and butcher the lyrics.

Hendrix is quintisential high-school listening. But this album (Axis: Bold as Love) is so underrated. Released after Are You Experienced, this disk is full of classics ('Little Wing', 'Castles Made of Sand').

The world is getting confused. Zeitgeists are contradicting themselves and angles are getting sharper and sharper and so on and so forth. Things are turning out to be exactly the opposite of what you originally thought. But what can you do? 'Wave on, wave on...' Let it be. Just get whimsical and do your thing.

download If 6 Was 9 | buy Axis Bold as Love

Posted by alex at 03:57 AM | Permalink

When I was living in England and going to London town every weekend, you never really worried about guns. The biggest concern was getting your travelcard nicked. The "guns" that youths carried were usually just re-bored air-pistols, which rarely even worked. The real people who carried guns were drug runners and proper organized crime. The times are changing though. You can blame the gun influx on the expansion of the EU eastward, but it'll leave it at that to avoid sounding too xenophobic.

Roll Deep Crew with some finance (£100k!!) from the Met Police's Trident initiative made a video for Badman, which is actually not too bad (a US producer worked on it). The blogs are kinda questioning the genuineness, and if Roll Deep was the best fit for this seeing as they babble on about guns every other verse.

where is the gun?
breezey hand me the gun
somebody life gonna be dun

Either way, change always comes organically, and I doubt Ken Livingstone even has a clue. He has enough problems with trying to pry congestion charge fees from the US embassy's pocketbook.

Last second update:

If you haven't picked up Ruff Squad's latest, "Guns And Roses Vol.2" then you're sleeping. It has heavily sampled versions of "War" (think Edwin Starr) and Cutting Crew's "(I just) Died in Your Arms".

download Roll Deep Crew - "Badman" [direct]
download Ruff Squad - "War" [zshare]

Posted by blake at 03:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So Dischord, Inner Ear, and Ruffian Records have teamed up to give young DC bands the chance to record for free. The program is called the DC Free Recording Project and it offers 5 hours of professional studio time to aspiring indy musicians. The criteria for participation is on the website, but my favorite bit is that at least half the members must be under 18. I like anything that gives young people a chance to rock out, so I like this project.

Also, speaking of Dischord, the new Evens album is the jam. Ian and Amy's stripped-down rock tunes hit me in just the right way. Check out the mp3, but also buy the album over at Dischord so they can continue to help young DC bands. Word.

download The Evens - Everybody Knows [zshare] | the rekkit [buy it]

Posted by darrell at 01:07 AM | Permalink

Black Strobe self-described 'gay biker-house' rockers from Paris have a new EP to be released on the 4th of December. Absolute electro-house WMD. It features Black strobe remixes of songs from Bloc Party, Rammstein, Tiefschwarz, Depeche Mode, among others. Available on limited 12"s and exclusive Beatport downloads.

download Bloc Party - Like Eating Glass (Black Strobe Remix) [zshare]

Posted by blake at 09:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Alex asked me a few days ago how I would celebrate once we sold this blog to Gawker Media and I told him 'gak', just like Lily Allen. Another remix (*yawn*) of Smile, but I really like William Russell's take on it, its very heavy on hihats, electro synths, and stuttering vox. And I promise that it has nothing to do with the fact that he is from my own hometown of Cleveland.

download Lily Allen - "Smile" (William Russel remix) [zshare]

Posted by blake at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Welcome to WoodgrainFronts. I've been wanting to get a music blog going for quite some time, now, and finally scraped together a spare half-hour to style one up.

The real impetus to start this thing came from a single track on the 6th segment of the Diplo / Mad Decent podcasts — 'Hot Boyz', by Dear Nora & Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. This track just kind of hit me in the gut. Such a hard bass drum... grimey and out of tune and perfect. Dear Nora's voice makes me smile a big shit-eatin-grin—so childish, innocent, sweet... It really made the mix, for me. So, being the music nerd that I am, I found a clean MP3 of the track. It's gotten a lot of rotation on the iPod since I found Dear Nora's MySpace page (also has a download of the track).

The track appears on the compilation Bro Zone (featuring a bunch of groups I've never heard of) from States Right Records.

Dear Nora has a new album out on Magic Marker titled There Is No Home. The site has an mp3 download of the track 'Emily' which aint half bad, though I'm not a big fan of the whole indie singer-songwriter thing. Dear Nora's currently touring in Australia, and has a blog up documenting her travels.

download Hot Boyz | buy the comp [you dirty pirate]

Posted by alex at 01:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)