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Dusted Features
Every Friday, Dusted Magazine publishes a series of music-related lists compiled by our favorite artists. This week: Why?
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Listed: Why?
As a member of cLOUDDEAD, Anticon affiliate Why? (aka Yoni Wolf) has already had a considerable hand in the advancement of hip hop (to paraphrase the sect's motto). Falling somewhat below the radar of his cLOUDDEAD contributions have been his solo efforts: a 2003 LP (Oaklandazulasylum), and a 2005 EP (Sanddollars), both of which were quite respectable, and neither of which were explicitly hip hop. His new record, Elephant Eyelash is straight-up indie rock, and is one of the best such records to be released all year. Combining endearingly lo-fidelity with catchy melodies and captivatly (though admittedly trying) lyrics, the record is an instant-charmer. Wolf and his band-mates contributed this week's list.
The first five are things that we have recently discovered for the first time and are digging at the moment. The second group are things that we were once into and have recently made a comeback for us. I hope y'all can relate.
New Discoveries:
1. German Bio Dent (or something like that?) organic toothpaste
I got this stuff at the Bio Freische market in Berlin and have been really feeling it ever since. It is a lovely green color. It has these little crystals so it's kind of grainy and it makes for a satisfying brushing experience. A subtle mint taste. It comes in a pressurised tube so you don't have to squeeze with plyers to get out the last bit. If I had just gotten this toothpaste sooner I would have prevented so many fights with my old girlfriend about her squeezing from the top of the tube...With this variety of tube, it doesn't even matter. Maybe she wouldn't have dumped my ass. She might have thought I was laid back and didn't care about stuff like people squeezing from the top of the tube. Who knows?
2. Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
I know we're late on this one. All my friends have been trying to get me to check out this record for the past year or so and I finally did it. I got stoned two nights in a row for the purpose of listenning to this album in headphones. It blew my fucking mind. I mean really split my wig. They are on to some crazy stereo techniques. I can't tell if they are fucking with computers a whole lot or if they are just layering like mad or what but I love the results. Hardcore tribal goodness. If I talk about what it sounds like to someone who has never heard it, they might think it's gonna sound like Leftover Salmon or Bobby McFarrin or someshit but in reality it sounds like nothing I've ever heard. Although it seems primal and farmiliar like it's ingrained in my psyche somehow.
3. Sunshine Bakery vegan cookies
This little bakery out of Sacramento makes the bombest treats out of pinto bean flour. They have the greatest density and chewy texture. Right now I'm feeling cinammon, banana nut, and peanut butter. I have gotten them all over the country at Whole Foods and the like and their distribution in Berkeley (where I live) is one of the worst. What gives?...We are like 2 hours form Sacramento. Hometown availability: poor. Overall rating: delicious.
4. Timmy Treadwell
The subject of Werner Herzog's new documentary, Grizzly Man, this guy looks and acts like Andy Dick on a Yohimbe/Minithin cocktail. He lived with wild grizzly bears in Alaska for 10 years before they finally ate him to death. How can I be dope like that. He did not give a fuck about anything (except the bears of course).
5. Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt"
Josiah put this on while we were crossing the bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan. I got all goose fleshed and near cry and all that. I didn't realize Trent Reznor was such a good songwriter until I heard Cash croon it. I would venture to say it is one of the best heroin songs out there only rivalled by The Velvet Underground's Heroine and The Silver Jews' "We Are Real" (which I'm not even sure is about heroin...but I'm pretty sure...). I never did heroin. These songs make you want to do it and never do it at the same time...I think I wouldn't want to do it because Al-Q'Aeda makes like 90% of the profits for poppy sales worldwide or something rediculous like that, so to start using it would be like giving up completely on this whole planet and shrugging off all descression and responsibility as a 1st world consumer or something...like really not giving a fuck about anything on some straight up Timmy Treadwell "going down in a blaze of fire" type shit.
Stuff That's Even Better The Second Time Around:
1. "Under the Bridge" by the RHCPs
I don't want to say it was dead dead but it has definitely pulled some Lazarus shit for me and mines in the past few weeks. It's back in a big way baby. God damn that's a classic song. Text book dope. I met Anthony Kiedis last year at Vegan Express on Cahuenga in the Angeles. I told him "Respect". And that was before I realised "UTB" was to reenter my life. Hot. He looked compact and symmetrical.
2. Goatees
The filthier the better. The minute I saw it on Kiedis' face like some pet playing dead on his chin, I knew it was meant to be. So I tried some different variations: full chin and neck, just chin, just neck, with moustache, without moustache, long, short, etc. I've settled on something fairly conservative and non-descript but still agressive enough to say, "What the fuck are you lookin' at you dick-neck, elbow-chin, no nipple waxed ass pervert?! You probably watch me having sex with beutiful women in the porno movies I star in and you hide from your mom. You wish you could grow some fucking facial hair. Maybe then you wouldn't get carded trying to get into 'Seabiscuit'."...Paul McCartney tried to pull off the goatee in '01 but we weren't ready. As usual li'l Tony "the key man" Keidis was right on time with his retro follicle fashion. Oh, and by the way, don't try to grow one after reading this. It's too late! You probably still have a moustache, Mr. East Village 2004.
3. Odd Nosdam as a person
David soaks oats daily. He really takes his time. He takes care of himself and you. He's been eating well. He's regular (he lets you know). Slender, healthy, working through his anger issues. Truly a pleasure....He's back. He's back.
4. Rayon
Those rayon Thai ankle-length newager batiqued culotte skirts never really went out (at least in Berkeley), although they did dwindle in the early days of the millenium. That's not what I'm talking about though. What I'm talking about is an oversized earth-tone abstract leafy print man's dress shirt. They made a clean break in '95. We always like to give a ballsy look a 10 year grace period to cool off before it reenters fashion rotation. Guess what. It's 2005. You do the math.
5. Love, the physical act of
Had problems the first time around? I'm telling you, try it again. Give it just one more go.
By Dusted Magazine
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