The Roots - How I Got Over

Taylor's Choice:

The Roots - How I Got Over

Hipster Review:

The Roots have quite a musically expansive career. Since the early 90's the group has been mixing hard social politics and diverse musical influences to create a volatile blend of Hip-hop, one that is in rare supply these days. And after their 2002 masterpiece Phrenology, the group began taking a more somber and angry tone; their politics rang with more conviction than ever before, and the music that accompanied the frenzied, hardcore rhymes was raw and powerful, like being hit in the face with a brick. In particular, their 2008 effort Rising Down had a certain darkness that was as worrying as it was captivating, and it further established The Roots as one of Hip hop's most unique acts. Then in 2009, the group became Jimmy Fallon's house band for his Late Night program, during which they began preparations for their follow-up.
And here it is, their ninth studio album. The first thing one will notice is that it's considerably uplifting in tone; while their passion and and fiery political mindset is far from absent, the group focuses less on the hopelessness of one's circumstances and more about him or her getting over them, hence the album title. The record's climate is more hopeful and celebratory, and it's definitely a good change of scenery; while their previous two albums were undoubtedly fantastic (partly BECAUSE of their dark overtones), it's nice to hear less doom and gloom this time around. While some tracks are more effective than others (sometimes the price of optimism is cliches), the album triumphs because of it's steady balance between slow-burning and pep. The album's most surprising and interesting tracks are built upon collaborations with indie acts of the past decade; "Dear God 2.0" is a reworking of Monsters of Folk's track from their debut last year, and "Right On" samples Joanna Newsom's "Book of Right-On" from her 2004 debut The Milk-Eyed Mender. Hell, the girls from Dirty Projectors sing a melodic, wordless harmony on the intro track. It's an album full of surprises, twists and turns, and while it's not their best it's nevertheless a unique addition to their canon.

Hipster Rating:

8.6

Friend Review:

Hellllloooooo loyal readers. Do we have loyal readers? I certainly hope so. How do you like the new layout? I think it’s pretty nice, the three columns are definitely helpful and everything’s more organized… I’ll mess around with it later.

Okay, so this is my first experience with The Roots in any form, I don’t think I’d ever heard a single song from them before this listen. My first impression with this album was, “Jeez, this is pretty groovy.” The entire album has a very swinging vibe to it. While it does sound great at first, there’s not really much variety throughout the album. The album is only 42 minutes long, but it really seemed a lot longer than that to me. After the first few songs on the album everything starts to get repetitive (how many times can you repeat the song title in one song?). While the album was still pretty enjoyable, these were definite setbacks. Besides that, all songs have great flow, the lyrics roll off the rappers’ tongues like butter and every distinguishable bass line is danceable with a nice groove. All in all, I can see The Roots’ talents shining through in the album, but it’s just not organized well enough to keep me interested. The Roots’ musicianship is amazing, but the structure is lacking in this work. I think that The Roots are capable of much more than this album and I’d be interested in hearing of more from their collection.

Friend Rating:

6.8

Coming up next, Serotonin by Mystery Jets!

Featured Artist - Hungry Dinos

With this blog, all we have done so far is inform you on artists that are already relatively well-known in the indie music world. While this has been great and we will continue to do this, something I’ve wanted to do for a while is introduce you to music that even the hippest of hipsters will likely have never heard of. I’ll do this whenever I hear someone really awesome or if you want me to inform readers of your own musical project, shoot us an email at hipsterandfriend@gmail.com and we’d love to write a little blurb about you.

As many of you may know, I’m a pretty frequent visitor of /mu/. Anyways, that is where I first heard of Hungry Dinos. To be honest, there’s not much I know about these guys besides the fact that I love their music. The guy I talked to was kind enough to provide the /mu/tants with a site to listen to demo versions of the tracks that will soon be released on their EP entitled Generous. These guys have a very relaxed sound that at times reminds me of early Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin, one of my very very favorite bands. But anyways, don’t just read about the music, give it a listen! You can check out the preview of Generous that they let /mu/ listen to here (psst, click "here", it's a link). And see that e-mail toward right hand site of the site? Shoot Hungry Dinos an email and they'll give you a link to download the EP for free and you could also get some free stuff like posters or even vinyl. Really awesome eh? Anyways, check these guys out, you won't be disappointed!

http://hungrydinos.com/mupreview.html

Hungry Dinos - In the Garden of the Holy Ghost

Wolf Parade - Expo 86

Paul's Choice:

Wolf Parade - Expo 86

Friend Review:

So Wolf Parade’s latest album comes out tomorrow, but we at HaF like to keep you ahead of the game so you can go brag to your friends about how indie/hipster you are and despite the relatively positive reviews of Wolf Parade’s latest album by a blog so obscure you’ve never even heard of it, you still think they will never again match the artistic ventures of Apologies. And yeah, you can’t say the full title, just Apologies, ‘cuz if they don’t know what you’re talking about then they’re not your friends. Anyways, on to the review.
Wolf Parade’s been one of my favorite bands ever since I first heard Apologies. That album is one I listen to regularly and in my opinion, is one of the best albums ever recorded. Unfortunately, due to the greatness of their debut album, I have not listened to their sophomore release At Mount Zoomer as much as I should. I’ve only listened to it two or three times, but as far as I can remember, it was pretty good. For the first fifteen minutes of Expo 86, I was thinking to myself, “Wow, they’ve actually done it. This is as good or better than Apologies.” The open track, “Could Shadow on the Mountain” is a very gorgeous track, featuring absolutely amazing drumming by Arlen Thompson and awesome vocals as always. However, past the first half of the album, it begins to feel very long. Wolf Parade loses its primary pop sound that is heard in Apologies and takes on more of an indie-rock feel to the album. It’s not such a bad feel, but I really do miss the poppy sound of Wolf Parade’s past synth lines and the screeching vocals from Apologies. But it’s not a bad album by any means, and I highly encourage all to give it a listen, especially if you have any interest in Wolf Parade.

Friend Rating:

7.6

Hipster Review:

Wolf Parade's last album At Mount Zoomer was something of a mixed bag for me; while it had plenty of the band's signature zany songwriting style, some of the songs showed the band's descent into more proggy waters that really bogged down the album's momentum and kept the songs from reaching their fullest potential. Which is unfortunate, because a band as manically creative as Wolf Parade was more than capable of keeping their ideas in check. But although the album had it's missteps, it wasn't anything damning; it was still a decent album, it just didn't display the band at their best.
Which is why I breathe a sigh of relief writing this review for their latest effort, Expo 86. While it's not in the realms of their near-perfect debut Apologies To The Queen Mary, Expo shows the band neatly balancing the line between their wild pop craft and their proggier tendencies. It's the band at their most relaxed and alternately insistent. They've gone back to the more straightforward song structure of Apologies, yet they also still give the songs plenty of breathing room to move around and expand, oftentimes to go into extended jams. Which brings up an albeit minor but still present complaint: many of the songs on here are a little too long. The 5-minute mark works for a couple of tracks, but sometimes a song will drag on a bit without much point but to simply be crazy. But thankfully this is a minor complaint, and the record comes together quite nicely. Like I said, it's not their debut, but it's also a lot better than I expected it to be. It's the work of a great band making music that only they can and doing it in the most fun way possible.

Hipster Rating:

8.5

Coming up next, How I Got Over by The Roots!

Tokyo Police Club - Champ

Paul's Choice:

Tokyo Police Club - Champ

Friend Review:

So Tokyo Police Club is playing tonight in Dallas, and unfortunately the show is sold out, but it’s all good, I need to save money anyways. But I will regret not seeing them because their latest album, Champ, really is a simply fun album to listen to. I saw Tokyo Police Club a couple years back when they opened up for Weezer and they really put on a great set. The interesting about Champ is that it doesn’t really have one gem of a song that stands above all the others. Instead, this is an album that really sounds best as a package. Instead, all of the songs flow together to create a simply peaceful sound. This album is just about perfect for casual listening. If you’re ever in need to simply break the silence, there are not many that can fit the bill better than Champ. It’s an album that doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not, it’s simple indie rock at its best, the way it should be. The instrumentation is subtle as there’s nothing really outstanding about it, but it’s still a pleasure with infectious synth lines and perfect-for-the-situation guitar playing. Everything is much calmer than their last album Elephant Shell and past EPs, but it’s a change that goes over okay for the band. This album is fun and easy in the simplest terms, and good way for anyone to reach into today’s indie rock.

Friend Rating:

8.3

Hipster Review:

I'm not terribly familiar with Tokyo Police Club; this is my first exposure to one of their full-length records. But I know enough about them to know that they aren't my type of thing, as I've heard a few songs from their debut LP Elephant Shell that failed to impress me. Which is surprising that I actually enjoyed my experience with Champ a lot more than I thought I would. It's nothing mind-blowing or revolutionary; it's just a fun, safe alt/indie rock album with a few more surprises than you'd expect. The biggest one I found was the band's frequent use of electronic guitar effects, which add more oomph and intrigue to the overall sound. Also, the band as it turns out is quite well-versed in song structure; the music is quite realized and developed, despite the fact that more often than not the lyrics are pretty undercooked and lack depth. Although there are few complaints I have with the album, there's nothing all that special about it as far as I can hear. But It is fun and well-made, no doubt about that, and I'm sure many people will find it quite enjoyable.

Hipster Rating:

7.5

Coming up next, Expo 86 by Wolf Parade!

Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III)

Taylor's Choice:

Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III)

Hipster Review:

I remember reading about Janelle Monae in Spin magazine (back when I wasted my time reading magazines) a few years back. The piece consisted of her talking about art and the impact that it had made on her throughout her life. She also stated her belief that music was an art form with the potential "to change the world". While this usually is a generally pretentious statement made by musicians to show off, listening to Monae's music reveals that she means it when she says it. Her music is expansive, (other)worldly, risky, and celebratory. She pushes musical boundaries not simply because she can, but because she aims to push herself and to allow her music to reach as many people as possible. She might succeed too: the music on ArchAndroid goes left and right, taking influence from funk, soul, classical music, swing, folk, art rock, and hip-hop to make a unique blend of pop music so dense, it makes a rock look like sponge cake. But unlike some high-shooter projects that go for quantity rather than quality, The ArchAndroid benefits from Monae's ability to limit her ideas and stop when she needs to (granted, the album is nearly 70 minutes long, but only three songs go past the four-minute mark, and very few of them drag). The guest appearances by Big Boi and Of Montreal are some of the album's high points, particularly the single "Tightrope," where Monae's funky side shows best. Overall, The ArchAndroid is an ambitious, messy (in a good way), and incredibly exciting album. Experience it at your own caution - but don't let it stop you from enjoying it.

Hipster Rating:

8.7

Friend Review:

Alright, so Janelle Monae (I’m just gonna type her name normally without that goofy accent over the “a” because those things are a pain to put in and you guys know what I mean)is another act I haven’t really heard of but I gave it a listen and like always came up with some opinions. I’ll go ahead and start with the high points. Two tracks, “Cold War” and “Tightrope” are very enjoyable to listen to. The fast tempos and Monae’s impressive vocals keep the listener interested throughout the entire song. Like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, these two tracks would be very fun to drum along to because they offer many chances for experimentation. Then there is “Come Alive (The War of the Roses)”. This track is an absolute gem. The instrumentation is just about perfect, one of the grooviest bass lines I’ve ever heard and jazzy drums create one spicy tamale to dance along to. The shrieking guitars intertwining with Monae’s passion-filled screams is in all honesty one of the best tracks I’ve heard all year. While these three are very impressive tracks, they do not make up for the slower parts of the album. First off, at a running time of an hour and eight minutes, the album is about twenty minutes too long. I could do without the two overtures which I think would be more appropriate in a Star Wars soundtrack. Maybe they’re necessary for the “album structure”, but whatever, I didn’t dig them. Anytime Monae feels like slowing things down a bit it drags on far too long and gets boring very quickly. The vocal distortion or tuning or whatever the crap is going on in “Mushrooms & Roses” is absolutely painful to listen to. The few good songs on this album don’t make up for the long boring parts.

Friend Rating:

5.5

Coming up on next, Champ by Tokyo Police Club!

Tea

Special Post:

Tea

Hipster Review:

After years of killing my body slowly with sodas and such, Tea became my drink of choice in the Fall of 2008. Since then, I've touched a soft drink maybe once or twice in a year (if I was feeling really risky maybe 5 times or so). Do I regret this change in drinking? No I do not.
Tea comes in a variety of flavors, and when I say variety I mean there is absolutely no way in Hell that I can put that in small terms. From sweet tea to fruit tea, to jasmine tea to green tea, there are literally thousands upon thousands of varieties of tea, which guarantees that you will like at least two or three (did I just rhyme? I digress...)
My personal favorite is Camomile, lovingly sweetened with a pinch of honey. It's sweet, healthy and satisfyingly soothing. I don't care how much of a soda junkie you are, you will find a tea at some point in your life that you will enjoy. Hell, the British have a specified time of the day for it! You know you're a classic drink when you have your own meal time. Until we have a specifically chosen "Coke break," then Tea will always reign supreme. Checkmate.

Hipster Rating:

10.0

Friend Review:

There’s a time and a place for everything. This is a lesson I’ve learned many times whether it’s been being yelled at to put my pants back on or having to be resuscitated after trying to do the “Single Ladies” dance underwater. Now that I’m through with my introduction, I will relate it to tea. And now that I’ve explained what I am going to do, I’m gonna do it. What? I don’t know. I figure there are two types of tea: hot tea and cold tea. Now, cold tea is pretty appropriate in any situations. It’s refreshing, it’s healthy for you (kinda?), it’s relatively cheap, and it can give you a good caffeine boost which is usually why when I’m found carrying my Tim Horton’s travel it’s usually early in the morning and it contains tea (coffee is gross). But tea is lacking in one very important aspect that ultimately determines what beverage I will choose to consume: taste! It’s really hard to find a really good tasting ice tea. I love me some raspberry and lemon tea, but I find pretty much everything else repulsive. They should make strawberry tea, I think that’d taste good. And even raspberry and lemon tea has to be VERY heavily flavored for me to enjoy them.
As far as hot tea goes, the situation has to be two-fold for hot tea to be the appropriate drink: you must be cold AND you must be sick. Whenever I’m sick, there’s really nothing that feels better than a hot lemon tea to sooth things. But say you’re just cold and you need to warm up. You would have to be crazy to say you’d rather have hot tea than a good ol’ hot chocolate. Which brings me back to my main point against tea: it just don’t taste that good kids. Usually. There’s some times when tea is the perfect drink but again, they are few and far between. Now go have a Jones!

Friend Rating:

5.7

Coming up on Wednesday, The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III) by Janelle Monae and Champ by Tokyo Police Club! That’s right, a double-post!

Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts

Ello mates! We got a bit topsy-turvy with our scheduling so here's my choice today. Tomorrow we will have a not-music-related post of Hipster's choosing and on Sunday we will have Hipster's choice. Oh, and if we have enough time we'll try to throw a requested review in there!

With love,

HaF

P.s. I almost forgot! Let us know what you think of the new layout and whatnot. We have a chat box now, woo! Alright, I'll leave you alone now.

Paul's Choice:

Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts

Friend Review:

Doot do do… doot do do dooooo… Oh hi, I didn’t see you there. Alright, so my pick for this week was Nothing Hurts by Male Bonding. I first heard about these guys on XM radio because the album’s first single “Years Not Long” gets quite a fair bit of airtime on Alt Nation and XMU, those lucky ducks. Anyways, I then Youtube’d “Years Not Long” and witnessed the single’s video. Wow. It is the gayest things I’ve ever seen. And I’m not even using the connotation of gay to mean “lame”, I mean this is a very homosexual video. But that’s beside the point. The first thing you’ll notice when first opening this album is how short it is. The 14 songs whirl by in just under half an hour. As sad as it is to say, I’m glad this album was that short. The album has a punk rock feel to it mixed in with lo-fi sound. Almost all the songs are fast-paced and filled with energy, however many times it is hard to discern one song from the next. It’s hard to explain: there’s really not a bad song on the album. If I were listening to my iPod on shuffle and any one of these songs came up, I don’t think I would ever skip. However, listening to them all in a row is a bit draining. Whenever a song takes a break from the album’s typical sound, it is a breath of fresh air as is the case with “Franklin”. The instrumentation on the album sounds good, the drums are creative while simplistic and the guitar reminds me of Tokyo Police Club which is a good thing as far as guitar goes. The vocals are a bit drone-y and bland however. This band has all the right elements to be good, they just need to clean themselves up a bit and add in some more dynamics.

Friend Rating:

6.7

Hipster Review:

Mixing various styles of punk and indie rock, Male Bonding's debut Nothing Hurts creates an interesting blend of fuzz pop music. While there is a dizzying multitude of Lo-fi buzz bands these days, many of them lacking originality or distinction, the thing that makes Male Bonding an interesting group is their bleeding-heart sincerity; the passionate, albeit distorted, vocals convey heart and soul. And while close inspection may be needed to decipher what each song is about, the listener can still make out the underlying tone. The other quality that makes Nothing Hurts a distinctive experience is the musical performance of the group; while most Lo-fi bands pride themselves on their minimalist, lack-of-proper-instrumental-ability approach, Male Bonding plays with a pop mentality, crafting jumpy mini-anthems that explode instead of crash. And the album's short length makes it plenty easy to take in if you happen to be one with short patience. While it's not the brilliant work that some critics have hyped it up to be, it's still a fine album in its own right by a promising new band.

Hipster Rating:

8.4

Coming up tomorrow, tea!

Jasmine

This post is dedicated to the memory of Jasmine Taylor Moore, a wonderful girl with a heart of gold. You could not find a more talented, ambitious, Christlike person.

Things have been a bit hectic around here and I am heading off to the North for my cousin's graduation and a bit of a vacation with the family. We will be hitting it again and reviewing full-steam in a week, see you then!

Pizza

So, some people had an idea that we at Hipster and Friend should expand our reviews to include more than just music. While we do want to keep the main focus on music, I thought it'd be funny to see how Taylor and I differ on other parts of life...

Oh! And while I'm here, I wanna make it known that we are now accepting requests for reviews! If you wan to know how we feel about an album or just want to see Taylor and I get into a huge argument, shoot us an e-mail at hipsterandfriend@gmail.com and let us know what you want reviewed! It can be any album from the past or present!

Thanks for reading!,

HaF

Special Post

Pizza

Friend Review:

I love me some food. I really think I am a fat dude stuck in an average-sized dude’s body. Pizza has always held a special place in my heart. One of the reasons for that is that it’s EVERYWHERE. Last night I was watching hockey with my girlfriend and we got hungry. Guess what we ate? PIZZA. A few years ago my cousin had a party at Chuck E. Cheese’s. Guess what we ate? PIZZA. Why is pizza always there for you? Because it tastes fantastic. And it can please just about anyone. You’re a vegetarian? That’s cool, try pineapple and mushrooms. Oh, you say you love meat? They have meat lover’s pizza. You’re a cowboy? They have barbecue pizza. You don’t like pizza? Get outta here, we don’t like you. I have a friend who’s lactose intolerant and thus has problems eating cheese (we call him Chi-Chi, but that’s another story…) and he still chows down pizza like a champ. Pizza is proof that God is merciful. We are sinners, and He still blesses us with cows, tomatoes, and dough to make delicious food that is also nutritious to some degree. Now, there is good pizza and bad pizza. Good pizza comes from small places such as Zini’s in Deep Ellum or Pizzaghetti on Buckner. Bad pizza comes from chains such as Pizza Hut or Papa John’s. But here’s the thing, bad pizza is still pretty flippin’ delicious. In fact, I’d take bad pizza over most other good foods. So kids, when you’re at home, hungry and indecisive about what to eat, pick up the phone and order a pie, you will never regret it.

Friend Rating:

9.8

Hipster Review:

Pizza: the great American food. While it may be that it is loved by a good majority of people across the nation, I must say that for the most part I am not. Yes, I have had my fair share of delicious pizzas, but compared to most of my experiences with the food, I have for most of my life been served a heap of garbage that dared to call itself "pizza." Most of the good kinds I've found have been homemade, and in most every case the fresher the better. And these have been wonderful moments: just the right amount of sauce, perfectly chosen cheese, fine-tuned oven time, and just all-around quality crafted pizza. But these moments, however wonderful, are small milestones; most pizza I have encountered shouldn't even be counted as food. Papa John's, Pizza Hut, etc, all poor excuses for pizza, and I for one refuse to take part in any and all feasting of these selections. If you want a good example of quality pizza, visit Zini's in Deep Ellum; I promise that you will walk away satisfied. If only all pizza was like that...

Hipster Rating:

6.5

Coming up tomorrow, Nothing Hurts by Male Bonding!