Month: April 2011

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Madness – Classy

I spotted a track in the SXSW 2011 collection by Madness, and thought to myself, “Oh, is the famed British 2-tone ska band, known for One Step Beyond and Our House, recording music again? How pleasant it will be to hear those charming beats and dulcet voices again.”

Then I heard the song.

This Madness ain’t that Madness. Oh, no. This Madness is the aft half of a Central Florida hip-hop duo called Critical Madness – the bow half is called, not-very-shockingly, Critical – and this song is, um, not ska. It is, however, raunchy and outrageous, and over-the-top enough to be pretty damn funny. The video adds to the hilarity, with an assortment of debauchery and a fine homage to Reservoir Dogs. Yeah, it’s crude and politically incorrect, but Madness is a clown, aware of his buffoonery, and the track is a send-up of the hip-hop glorification of excess. Or maybe he’s serious, in which case, motherfucker, he’s classy.

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Flipron – Gravity Calling

OK, I’ve renamed my weekly music discoveries to “Friday Finds,” because alliteration is effective and important. (See what I did there? Did you know that early Germanic languages, such as Old Norse and Old English, used initial, i.e., alliterative, rhyming instead of end-rhymes, and a word that started with a vowel was suitable for such rhyming with a word that started with any other vowel? The More You Know.)

Anyway. Flipron. British band with a sort of psychedelic cabaret bent. I really like this track. Taken literally, the lyrics have a bit of science geek appeal; but the tone is deliciously arch, taking a discreet delight in the inevitability with which gravity brings low the mighty and the elevated. “There’s nothing that doesn’t hear the voice of gravity calling,” indeed.

I’m still exploring the band’s other music – some of which can be streamed here – but what I’ve listened to evokes a sort of demented circus. Accordions. Bouncing rhythms, just a little off, and minor chords. Their lyrics can be Tom Waits-esque – case in point: “At Rusty Casino’s Casino Rustique, you can taste all the pleasures that you dare not speak.” All in all, a lot of potential with these guys. (Also, the lead singer looks like a young Peter Capaldi, one of my favorite Scottish actors, so he gets bonus points.)

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agentmlovestacos:

THIS!

by kateordie:

A new comic! A new comic! And just as gay as ever.

ASK away. I’ve been really enjoying talking to you guys. Those of you who’ve received responses – I hope they help, in some way. I hope, too, that I’m not coming across as self-important. I guess I just wish I’d had somebody tell me it was okay to be confused as hell at that age. Someone not reading it from a textbook.

xo