Vulfpeck - Are we just gonna pretend this is not a thing?

[Jimster]

Drake wouldn't venture that far off course for fear of "Diluting the

Product" - such is the magnitude of his tryst with "The Business". I'll

allow Drake some kudos as he does collab with non-mainstream acts, like

Hiatus Kaiyote. They have Nai Palm as a focal point though, not just

some Berklee skinny whiteboys. Maybe if the Vulfies had a Sharon

Jones, or like the Snarkies used Lalah Hathaway, they might get more

props.
It worked for Winehouse using the Daptones, but Winehouse's canon (and there were some very strong songs therein, regardless of style) did lend itself to a full band.
Personally that gritty tambourine-soul retro sound does nothing for me other than remind me of too many Northern Soul nights where I wasn't old enough to get it (the music, and anything that came with it I guess). Maybe I never will as I wasn't there "First time 'round" and that's what's missing from what the Vulfies are (perfectly) doing. "You had to be there to fully appreciate it" etc. Like they say about Hendrix and Jaco and Bird, doing shit that no-one had done before, but everyone does now.

 

[Duderonomy]

Jimster said:





Mandem said:

this whole strain of talent-rich, idea-poor...





This is also very accurate. It's like a computer is doing it. But I can't hatt the musicianship. I mean, they sure make less mistakes than me.



I’m not gonna argue with James on that, but while I’m never going to buy any of their recorded output, I think I’d lose my shit to this after a few tequilas in a hot, sweaty club. Live music is always great, and these guys have obviously got “the sound” right IMO.

 

[ppadilha]

thank you for summing up succinctly the way I feel about Quentin Tarantino's work


Hairy Moody said:

I feel like this is music for enthusiasts at the two extremes: Musicians who know and care a great deal about music, and cargo-shorted casuals who just want something to bob to until the next Record Store Day.

As someone who falls between those two poles--I think and care a great deal about music, but have never been compelled to roll my own--allow me to offer the minority opinion: Every lick of this shit needs to be put in a giant sack labelled "CHOPS!," taken out behind Guitar Center, and fed into a fucking wood-chipper, New-Balances-first.

The sheer uterus-withering sterility of this whole strain of talent-rich, idea-poor, and fiber-free YouTube nu-funk makes my lips pucker, and not in the good way. It has nothing to say to the contemporary culture that surrounds it, it doesn't hold a candle to the bygone culture that inspired it, and it doesn't express anything about its makers or ask anything of its listeners beyond "Hey, wanna see my record collection?"

In the approximate words of fellow hater Miles Davis, I would always rather listen to inferior music that is of its own time than listen to superior music that belongs to another time. That so many of my beautifully intolerant record-nerd brethren have found room in their heart for such Berklee College jam-session runoff is, to me, a real sadness.
Wherever Philippe Lehman is, I hope he's getting his liver eaten out daily for his role in all this.

 

[klezmer electro-thug beats]

In my experience as someone who studied film and has spent my whole adult life around film nerds in jobs etc., the people who "know and care a great deal" about movies do not at all consider Tarantino's stuff to be for them. It's like that brief moment in the mid 2000s when 4 in 10 people said Donnie Darko was their favorite movie. It's for those people. If you seriously appreciate movies you watch the old ones, just like with music. There are certainly people who go and see a Tarantino film and get the references and enjoy it but there are many more who'd get the references and be like "what the fuck is this guy doing, this has no passion or meaning, I'm gonna go watch Cleo from 5 to 7 again" or whatever. Tarantino is definitely for the RSD cargo shorted casual of film watchers. He is taken very seriously by them, though, because the only other stuff they watch regularly is Disney/Marvel's output.

So yeah as I said I totally get that revulsion. I have it with QT movies.

The real thing, coming from the real time and place, with genuine zeitgeist mixed in, is always going to be stronger in an ineffable way. "Realness" or authenticity. That said, just as I can enjoy music that samples stuff I'd also enjoy listening to in its original form, I can enjoy barely-modified twists on the music if it's got Something - musicianship, a deep understanding of the genres it's drawing from, etc. It's true most White Funk doesn't cut the mustard, but I continue to enjoy a portion of the funk recorded after '82, including this decade.

Not a fan of the Beck-esque non sequitur lyrics though.

 

[Hairy Moody]

Sorry for the delayed response. I was unexpectedly called away to Rubber City, which I realize sounds like a euphemism for something, but is not.

But yeah, fuck Quentin Tarantino for his obvious hatred of women, which he has managed to brylcreem into a greasy appreciation-shaped non-appreciation that has somehow buffaloed all kinds of folks that should really know better. One might say that in this slickness and in his unwillingness or inability to engage with the heart and complexity of his source material and subsequent over-reliance on technicality, repertoire, and tonal facsimile, he's like the film-world Vulfpeck.

I kid/exaggerate (or part-way, anyway--fuck QT, for real). The questions about what then is acceptable and what "of its time" means in 2018 are fair ones. I'm gonna keep thinking about that.

(Confidential to His Fretlessness, La Jimster: One, the free-book box nearest my home has had moldering within it for like two months now a moisture-swollen copy of the memoir My Boy, by one Philomena Lynott. I went to maybe put it out of its misery today, but poof, it was gone. Two, I accidentally heard some of that Hiatus Kaiyote on honest-to-goodness terrestrial radio the other day--credit/blame to Vocalo FM--and man, no disrespect to riders including but undoubtedly not limited to yourself and Theo Parrish, but that kind of post-Esthero time-signature-salad stuff is not my type of hype. Signed, Man Who Paid Retail For A FOLEY Record Back In The Nineteen Nineties)

 

[Jimster]

Perhaps, while you ponder the Zeitgeist, the answer was staring you right in the ears? The Hiatuses are a complete one-off and for my 2p, the world is a better place for them and their ilk*. You might process the noise better if you break it down thusly:

She (Nai Palm) is truly mad-as-a-wasp. I gained this understanding over time. And following her on Instagram.

Given this axiom as a starting point, applying the Butterfly effect to the ensuing curveballs (from a truly wild pitcher), to any additional travel along the creative process, and mixed with the inputs of the other bandmates, means: Wonky time-signatures are often a given, and perhaps the least of your worries when you factor the lyrics in. I fully understand that.

And yet, for all that, she is truly adorable. I gained this understanding listening to her sing "Fingerprints", mourning her mum. And by listening to her more intimate, rhythmically less-wonky solo set, "Needlepaw".
And more following her on Instagram.

Or you might just finger-crucifix the whole lot, I dunno. I mean, I can't ride for all of it. Finding gold always involves processing a lot of shit.

[Q.T. sidenote - Is this is a good time to recant the tale of when my wife told him to STFU, and he did? Well, that, basically. It's the way I tell 'em.]
My Boys:

*I need to ponder who their ilk are. So many false dawns.

 

[SPlDEY]

Jimster said:

The Hiatuses are a complete one-off and for my 2p, the world is a better place for them and their ilk*.


Homey, if he can't hear what's good about Vulfpeck or Hiatus Kaiyote. His ears may be broke g. - D

 

[klezmer electro-thug beats]

Dipped back into this barrel recently, here's a new track
https://youtu.be/3HOb5vXOIkw

If I can get clinical about this:
I hate the bass solo, but the part's fine
I really don't like the straight/whiteness of the rhythm guitar clang, there's no south in it
Both key parts are perfect
Drums are good

So that combination of factors lands this song out of jam band guys with "fonk" in the band name territory and into "I kinda really like this, but feel a bit dirty because I'm not listening to rufus thomas wattstax performance again instead" territory.

 

[SPlDEY]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpYHp-W51H4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpYHp-W51H4

I keep listening they keep get funkier!

- spidey

 

[ppadilha]

they need that girl that nailed the Mac Miller/Thundercat cover