This was an album that, for whatever reason, I kept putting off listening to last year.  I finally got around to it after seeing how many “Best Of 2012″ lists included Mike and it now tops my “Best of 2012 that I didn’t listen to until 2013″ list.

This is an aggressive album both musically and lyrically.  The production is tackled by El-P who is known for his dark, tense beats, mixing synths, grime and classic samples; they are a soundtrack to a dystopian urban future.  His soundscapes are detailed and crafted with Mike’s delivery and content in mind.  A less skilled rapper would be swallowed by these sounds but Mike’s swagger and righteous anger fit hand and glove with El’s beats.

Lyrically this album is message-heavy with nods to classic hip hop (Eazy-E and Public Enemy are referenced) as well as R&B/Soul/Jazz/Blues legends that infused politics into their art (Nina Simone/Miles Davis).  His song “Reagan” details government and political lies (“We invaded sovereign soil going after oil, taking countries is a hobby paid for by the oil lobby”), “Don’t Die” is a story of running from dirty cops (“Cause if I get caught it’s my life they terminate, or stick me in a cell at Guantanamo Bay … I’ll be an outlaw before I ever behave, I’ll die a free man before I live like a slave, and nothing changes if they catch me today, f*#k the police is still all I gotta say.”).

For me, Mike is probably at his best when he’s rapping about the difficulties of growing up poor in a racist society and the impact family and music can have.  He ends the album with two inspiring tracks “Willie Burke Sherwood” and the title track: “What I say might save a life, what I speak might save the street, I ain’t got no instruments but I got my hands and feet … And the words that I put in the wind, coming back like a boomerang, when I take this microphone, point it at the crowd they start to sing.”

Be sure to check out Killer Mike live at the Blue Moose on April 6th as part of the Mission Creek Music Festival!

If you have ever been in a room with Jazz heads, you know the most annoying and pointless discussion is the “what is Jazz” discussion. It’s about as interesting and pointless as the “what is art” discussion. Everyone thinks they are right and has a well reasoned argument. However everybody is clueless and wrong on both fronts. Nils Petter Molvaer with his Jazz meets Electronica album Er stirs up some of those very emotions.

Rather than go that route, I think it’s probably better to describe this album based on the trajectory of its influences. On the jazz side of this recording, I would say you would want to start in the 1950′s. Although the rhythms on Er are generated by drum machines and are unnatural sounds, it draws heavily on music from both Africa and Latin America. During the 1950′s in Jazz there were several artists (see Yusef Lateef for a start) who took Jazz back to its roots in Africa. Er definitely follows this tract of thought. Lots of tabla and big polyrhythmic drums. However even though the rhythms are African there is still a very modern electronic sound to them. Fans of electronica will see shades of Aphex Twin, Portishead, or Four Tet. The album meanders from big drum dance songs to downtempo or ambient. On the songs Water and Only These Things Count, Nils employs a great female singer in Sidsel Endresen. Sidsel has a great smokey cafe jazz voice as thick in texture as Nils’ horn. Which is very reminiscent of Miles Davis‘ breathy horn. You can really feel the texture in the sound in his horn with every note. Rather than sounding processed and synthesized it sounds very natural and warm. At times almost sounding like a human voice.

Some Jazz heads will say this isn’t pure enough and dub stepping dance heads will find the horn work too up front. For the rest of us this is a great aural journey. If you find you like this there is an entire world of Jazz/Electronic crossover out there. An excellent place to try next is Cedar Rapid’s very own Koplant No.

Guest Blogger Kylie Buddin is an active member of the Iowa City music scene. He works with young people at United Action for Youth.

I first discovered Frank Ocean through his 2011 free online mixtape “Nostalgia, Ultra” which had some original R&B tracks and others that were sampled music put to original lyrics.  If you follow music news then you might remember the mixtape’s problems relating to his remake of “Hotel California” (bless those ever-litigious Eagles). I wasn’t sure what he’d be capable of with his own material but have found that I’m pleasantly surprised with the final album, “Channel Orange.”

In terms of song styles and themes it’s a bit all over the park but because of the quality of each track, the album works it out.  Lyrically he blends modern playboy swagger talk with sweetly naïve introspective emo poetry. These songs are chock full of hooks that you’ll be singing under your breath all day long, or, if you’re like some of the teens in our Computer Lab, you’ll proudly sing them loudly and off-key.

There are a few throw-aways that you might skip on subsequent listens but I think even these have their moments.  At his best he channels the funky “Songs in the Key of Life” Stevie Wonder hooks and vocals, the falsetto soul bedroom-voice of D’Angelo, and the brash modern arrogance of big R&B artists tempered with indie-emo sensibilities.

Standout tracks are the ballad “Thinking Bout You”, fun ’70s soul/funk throwback “Sweet Life”, the summer-mellow melody and rapping on “Super Rich Kids”, and epic prog-funk “Pyramids.”  I can also see a lot of broken-hearted teens and twenty-somethings singing “Bad Religion” to themselves in the dark thinking about their own unrequited love.

So far Channel Orange is my favorite album of the year, even after a solid month of it on repeat.

This is an album of hushed, chill R&B/soul vocals over danceable electronic and drum-kit beats all wrapped in outer space synths.  Singer Yukimi Nagano’s jazzy vocals are the obvious draw for first-time listeners; her notes are clear with a bit of swagger and she refrains from the obnoxious diva runs that I get tired of hearing.  I usually tend to focus on lyrics but with Ritual Union I don’t think I could recite a line, instead it’s more about the song’s attitude.  It is an album that requires low lights and the trendiest cocktail you can afford, but feel free to keep your Chucks on.

I’ve definitely been wearing this album out all summer and I’m ashamed I missed the group at Mission Creek 2010.  You can also look for Yukimi and company on the 2011 dubstep album by SBTRKT on the track, “Wildfire”. Hear the title track to Ritual Union below :

Ritual Union by Little Dragon

July was hot.  Too hot for any heavy thinking.  I put a my  literary novel back on the shelf and picked up the sleaziest rock and roll biography I could find, Stephen Davis’s 1997 history of Led Zeppelin.

Jimmy Page had found lucrative work in the early to mid-sixties as a studio musician.  Turns out that many of the British Invasion bands (the Kinks, Van Morrison’s Them) couldn’t actually play very well, so many of the most distinctive licks from that era were his. Hired to play bass in the Yardbirds, he took over lead chores when Jeff Beck left.

When the Yardbirds dissolved in a toxic stew of booze and hallucinogens, Plant recruited another old studio pro, John Paul Jones, and discovered the siren-voiced (in both senses) Robert Plant, a country boy who’d jumped on every fad to come down the pike, from mod to rocker to glam to hippie.  Plant’s neighbor John Bonham filled out the lineup, a sweet guy those rare times he was sober.  Drunk, he and thug manager Peter Grant liked to grab passing men by the crotch, squeeze, and ask, “how’s yer nob?”

“Gradually Zeppelin’s avowed Apollonian intent reverted to a Dionysiac bawdiness.”   Salacious details involve drugs, ,girls, wrecked hotels, and the Satanic rumors that author Davis mocks, but keeps returning to.   Girls and drugs were provided by the sleazoid flunky Richard Cole, not above booking live sex shows for the band, or helping himself, for that matter.

Anyway, it’s quite a story, and an excuse to revisit the soundtrack, turned up loud.

Robbie Robertson’s scratchy whisper isn’t anybody’s idea of a great voice, so when he found himself in a band with three great singers years ago, it was a stroke of luck.  How to Become Clairvoyant reflects on those days in “When the Night Was Young” and a few songs about the problems that broke the Band up, “He Don’t Live Here No More,” and “This Is Where I Get Off.” Eric Clapton, Tom Morello and Robert Randolph make guest appearances here.  Robertson served his songwriting apprenticeship under The Bob Himself, so, yeah, this is worth a listen.

Robertson made just a few appearances to support the album, and he chose Dawes as his backing band.  Led by Taylor Goldsmith, Dawes sounds mostly like a songwriter’s showcase, with hints of solo Paul Simon and gorgeous harmonies.  Goldsmith’s songs on Nothing Is Wrong are a bit wide-eyed and ernest, mid-tempo, and aim at an early 70′s L. A. sound.  Like this.

Goldsmith’s side project Middle Brother is even more fun.  It’s a supergroup along the lines of Monsters of Folk, including John J. McCauley of Deer Tick and Matt Vasquez from Delta Spirit.  McCauley in particular shines here with his once-in-a-generation voice that evokes Sammy Llanas of the Bodeans.  The vibe is looser and rocks more than Dawes.  Thus.

Speaking of supergroups, Buddy Miller’s Magnificent Silver Strings matches the longtime alt-country godfather with jazz pickers Bill Frisell and Marc Ribot on reworkings of country standards like the gorgeous “Cattle Call,” “Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie” and a “Dang Me” that’s way more desperate than Roger Miller’s original.  Added vocals are by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Lee Ann Womack, Shawn Colvin and Patti Griffin, whose voice is so good, I’d buy a record of her snoring.  This much talent should reward repeated listenings.

Emmylou has her own new record, Hard Bargain.  She played Hancher on her first three tours, and my wedding vows include an Emmylou escape clause, but I’ve pretty much given up on that.  Hard Bargain finds her in a reflective mood.  “The Road” looks back on her time with the late, great Gram Parsons, whom she’d written about before, tho not with this kind of perspective.  “Darlin’ Kate” is about another lost friend, Kate McGarrigle.  “Big Black Dog” lightens the mood a bit, a song that will resonate with dog owners everywhere.

Can’t talk about gorgeous voices without mentioning the Fleet Foxes, just about my favorite young band.  Their new Helplessness Blues reminds me, once again, of Crosby, Stills & Nash.  If you like one, check out the other.  It’s this good.

When I was in school, dinosaurs roamed the earth and Greg Brown was the guy who didn’t charge a cover at the Mill.  When, years later, friends from out of state told me how important he’d become, I was taken aback, but it’s true.  He’s arguably the most successful Iowa musician ever (Everly Brothers, maybe?), and his new Freak Flag shows why.  His songs go as deep as his voice here, and Bo Ramsey’s guitar and production remains as tasteful and self-effacing as ever.

The late, lamented Mike & Amy Finders Band also owned the Mill during their years here.  Moved to Fort Collins (like Euforquestra, dammit) Mike  (now Finnders) carries on with Finnders and Youngberg.  FY5 is another stellar collection of songs, wry, funny, insightful, and well-performed.  I miss Amy’s voice, but that’s life.

Remember the incredible set the Derek Trucks Band played on the Pentacrest for the IC Jazz Festival a few years back?  Mr Trucks has put together a new band with his wife, blues/soul player Susan Tedeschi (recycled both their old bands, actually), and their new disc Revelator resulted.  There’s more of Trucks’s Allman-influenced, jaw-dropping virtuosity, of course, but Tedeschi’s a hotshot guitar slinger in her own right.  You could easily mistake her voice for Bonnie Raitt’s here.  That’s a good thing.

My Morning Jacket can bring the thunder,  but much of Circuital sounds more like a gentle summer rainfall.  Damn, it’s pretty.  They’ve done this before, of course. Still waiting for that make-up date.

So.  What else should I listen to?