SNAKES ON THE ‘CLONE

My co-workers and I wondered out to Coney Island last week. It was soothing to hit the other side of the city and lurk around.

Don’t Mess With…

It’s almost a year since I left Texas and currently being in the NYC area, I do start to miss the little and obvious, big things from Texas.

• Whataburger!
• Pumping my own gas
• Wal Marts everywhere
• Shiner / St Arnold’s
• Really really good Mexican food
• Hearing/saying, “Yes sir,” “Yes mam’m”
• Huge freeways
• FreeBirds, Chipotle comes up short to me
• Being able to buy fireworks
• Premium Goods
• Always running into Bun B
• Houston’s food truck scene
• Cheap car insurance, well, cheap everything
• Rent for an apartment in Texas, is equal to rent for a room here
• Buccee’s
• Once again, Whataburger
• HEB
• People trash talking other Texas cities, while in New York, people trash talk on the other bouroughs

This past weekend I caught The Uncluded, at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson = The Uncluded. When describing their sound, I pretty much say, “Aesop raps, Kimya sings.” It’s simple, but bringing these two together is a bit more complex than riding the G train on a weekend.

This is my fourth time seeing Aesop Rock, all previous times he had Rob Sonic on stage, the most recent show he played a lot of jams off, “Skelethon” which grew so much on me after his set. Being an Aesop fan, I’d listen to him, and think, “What did he just say?” hit rewind, and listen again. To me, he defines hip hop, it’s supposed to be fun, you don’t have to be serious, ALL THE TIME. I’ve heard of Kimya Dawson’s material before this collaboration. Her songs remind me of lullabies, really deep lullabies where you have to stir up a moral for yourself at the end. “Hokey Fright” is a fun record, after a few rotations, however, after seeing them live, this record is more than fun.

The Knitting Factory is small and intimate and The Uncluded were in yo’ face! They also had, “James” along with them who played the bass and every other instrument, even the recorder, yes, the recorder from fourth grade music class. There was a part of me hoping to hear Aesop drop, “Daylight,” but I’m glad he didnt. It’s The Uncluded, and not their solo acts, which seemed to be repeated heavily when mentioning their upcoming shows through twitter.

Aesop and Kimya work so well together, on record, and on stage. Like I said, Aes’ raps, KD, sings. Their lyrics really settle down in your ears, and make you think, “Oh wow, this record is deep!”

Favorite lines:

“No checked bags, show up with the most baggage.”

“I couldn’t fight my way out of a wet paper bag if I was Edward scissor hands

“It’s easier to say, “oh hell” instead of, “hello,”

“I’m spinning in slow motion like a ballerina on top of a kid’s jewelry box when it’s about to stop.I’m spinning in fast motion like a motorcycle inside of a caged sphere of death when it’s about to shred.”

“Please don’t tap on the glass.”

“Hokey Fright” is solid, it’s amazing. There’s a different side that Aesop shows, you get to hear more of his intricate, mind-boggling verses that flow so well with Kimya’s words. The record has it’s fun moments as well, and they pull it off in the same way on stage. When collabs happen, whether it’s music, movies, even sports (the Los Angeles Lakers this year!) sometimes it’s a hit or miss. Aesop and Kimya, killed it though. Don’t sleep on this record, and please don’t tap on the glass.

FIRST DAY

I’m always amused by the short “about the author” section in books. It mentions where they live, how many cats they have, their spouse. I’ve sort of, always been into writing. In first grade I got an award for the perfect score on a state writing exam. Reading and math, didn’t ace it. I wish I could remember the topic. In high school, I got into online journals. LiveJournal was the trend. LJ was a hit and wish it was still as popular today. Instead of posting about our teen crushes and how much we hate math, we’d vent about husbands, wives, kids, and bills.

Tumblr is big now, but I feel that it’s like cable television. Once you’ve seen it, it repeats itself. It’s mostly reblogs of porn, gifs, stories no one hears about, and requests for a message from followers. There’s very rare original posts.

Welcome, I’ll be posting random topics here, from things I see and hear on the trains in New York City to sports and media, pretty much anything and everything.