Tag: little dragon (page 1 of 1)

December 21, 2020 / 0 Comments

2020 in Music

Anderson .Paak - Lockdown Music Video — Anderson .Paak – Lockdown Music Video

As the lyrics begin in the video for Lockdown, Anderson .Paak stands with several other LA-based musicians whose work I admire. Their fists are raised. The names of far too many black people killed by police violence are used to make up the song title’s letters. Paak is wearing a black jersey with the word “riots” presented in the Los Angeles Sparks logo style.

It’s a night in late May or early June of this year. Protests have taken over this city in outrage over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer thousands of miles away. In this city, people scream out in anguish for the extrajudicial deaths at the hands of those tasked, in theory, to protect and serve us over the years. We’re a little over two months into the pandemic, and it’s too much.

It’s all too much. And so the people rise. Black Lives Matter signs go up in our well-appointed neighborhood, including by store owners with boarded-up windows hoping not to be painted with the same brush as those with the guns and the badge. We’re all complicit, though, aren’t we?

Far too often, we vote blindly or with our pocketbooks in mind. We pay little attention to how the city makes decisions. We’re unaware of how it metes out the spoils of government funding or the processes it employs to do so. In any other time, we’d be more concerned with where we needed to get to next than the death of yet another black person.

Any other year, the city would have a more significant complaint about the inconvenience of civil unrest and anguish than the roots of that pain and the merits of those demands.

It was a lockdown, and yet the people were rising. I wasn’t downtown, but maybe I should’ve been.

Towards the end of the video, Paak embraces his son with tears in his eyes. It reminds me of the generational conversation that went viral around the same time of three black men trying to make sense of this endless repeating terror cycle. The pain and frustration and anger and hopelessness is palpable. It builds in their chests.

And mine.

Like, Anderson, I cry.

My song of the year.

Untitled (Black is) - Sault — Untitled (Black is) – Sault

“We present our first ‘Untitled’ album to mark a moment in time where we, as Black People and of Black Origin, are fighting for our lives. RIP George Floyd and all those who have suffered from police brutality and systemic racism.

Change is happening…We are focused. ”

— Sault

Sault first came on to my radar last year around this time as I explored Best Of lists. I believe they were included on several KCRW DJ lists for their first two very dance encouraging albums, “5” and “7”.

We don’t know much about Sault except that they are immensely talented British soul artists, though mostly anonymous. Michael Kiwanuka gets credited as a singer on occasion because his voice is recognizable, but most others remain unnamed.

Sault delivered two more albums in 2020, “Untitled (Black is)” and “Untitled (Rise)”. The former was released on Juneteenth with the statement I quoted above released on Twitter as it’s primary promotional effort.

Any time a song from any of their albums shuffles into my ears, I’m compelled to binge their rapidly expanding and impressive discography.

Not only is their music right for this moment in time, but it also seems to be a time traveler. There is a cosmic funk retro sensibility mixed with a constant push through the boundaries like afrofuturistic music explorers.

It’s how I wanted to feel in 2020: present, thoughtful, wise, and focused on the future.

Let’s go.

Artists of the year.

Early in the pandemic, Little Dragon released New Me, Same Us. The second single, “Are You Feeling Sad?” was on repeat often during those chaotic weeks in March and April as the world turned upside down.

It played as I moved from working at the dining room table to the makeshift office I made for myself in our underfurnished second bedroom.

It stayed on loop as we started ordering masks and tried to navigate what we could and couldn’t do.

And as days turned into weeks turned into months and I began using an app daily to check in about my covid risks, that song was my check in on my emotional health.

“Are you feeling sad, Jason?”

Nope.

Every day, a new me. Every day, the same us.

And Little Dragon, as they have for nearly 15 years, light up my brain and heart and spirit with their sounds. Always in new ways but still the same them.

My album of the year.

May 25, 2020 / 0 Comments

Are You Feeling Sad?

“No worries, no worries, oh. You’re gonna be alright.”

— Little Dragon

The route to Saturday’s successful grandma pie started a few weeks ago when I first watched Carla Makes Sheet Pan Pizza.

I had assumed it was a recently published episode of From the Test Kitchen when it popped up in my recommended playlist, but it is nearly a year old. It’s a delightful 11 minutes that close with other Bon Appétit staff members cursing with pleasure after their first bite.

Pizza has been one of my regular cravings during the COVID-19 “safer-at-home” orders. Despite a couple decent pies from a local restaurant, they hadn’t scratched the itch. Carla made it clear that this would.

I haven’t been spending my homebound days baking like many of my friends (and many Americans in general). In this case, though, I made it my mission to make this entire thing from scratch.

The original plan was to make it for our ninth wedding anniversary. Problem number one: we had flour in the house but no yeast. Yeast has been hard to come by during the pandemic. I had yet to see any of it restocked in our local grocery stores when I’ve made my occasional excursions out for provisions. On Mother’s Day, however, when I ventured out for my first low risk meet up with my parents and sister—outdoor, ten feet apart, masks on—I was able to procure yeast from my mama.

When I went about the making of the dough, though, a new problem: the yeast wasn’t active. No exciting reactions in my warm water. No foaming. Nada. Anniversary plan derailed but, no worries, dear reader, we ate very well.

In the time before the coronavirus, I’d cultivated a life of great convenience. We live in a comfortable neighborhood, surrounded by grocery stores and shops of all kinds, all within walking distance. They are usually stocked with all manner of goods in multiple varieties to appease the upscale palettes of the surrounding zip codes. How brain disruptive to be denied such a common ingredient?

I would not be denied. A little online hunting and a large quantity of yeast was ordered. There would be no instant gratification, as it would take more than a week to arrive. Still, the delay of good things, the earning of them even if it is just by having to wait, has been a lesson I have enjoyed re-learning over the last two months.

Ten days later than planned, yeast went back into the mixer. Ten minutes after that, bubbles appeared. A ball of dough formed. 24 hours after that, a pizza went into the oven and, fuck, that’s delicious.

There’s joy in cooking. There’s joy in circling the block. There’s joy in Los Angeles. There’s joy in remembering to care for others.

Even now, there’s joy.

December 15, 2018 / 0 Comments

2018 in Music

“Miss me with that bullshit. You ain’t really wild, you a tourist. I be blackin’ out with the purest.”

— Kendrick Lamar

Unapologetically black. That’s how I liked my music this year. Not just black, per se, (though that was where my head was tbh) but unapologetically whatever it was trying to be. That could be unapologetically pop. Unapologetically fun. Unapologetically woke. Whatever. Just make me feel like it’s real, that I’m real, that who I am and what I am is not only okay but brilliant.

King’s Dead did that for me from its very first notes. Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, James Blake, and Future with my favorite of all the songs on the epic Black Panther Album (Music from and Inspired by the Movie) is ultimately a villain’s anthem but one that reeks of authenticity. It sounds like California. Black California from the bay to the South of LA. When Jay Rock says, “My name gon’ hold up. My team gon’ hold up,” I feel that shit.

My last.fm charts will say that All the Starz from the same album is my top track, but it’s treating King’s Dead from the Black Panther album and Jay Rock’s Redemption as two separate tracks. Combined, it’s close to 100 spins.

The 2018 Mixtape

My methodology this year for figuring out my faves was to look at each month separately rather than focus on my listens in aggregate though those numbers were a secondary factor. My mixtape reflects my favorite song of each month from January through November as well as my favorite discovery.

I like this approach better because it acknowledges the rhythms of time more than the inertia of routine and the impact of the Spotify algorithms on my listening behavior. So instead of seeing a playlist dominated by a few albums and artists, you’ll hear some tracks that I forgot I loved right next to the records that I played the hell out of for a few weeks at a time. There’s a little symmetry here as well with a song featuring Sza—artist of my favorite track of 2017—and ends with a song by Janet Jackson who I have admired since I was knee-high and who just got nominated for the Rock & Roll hall of fame. She’s still got it.

The Albums

I haven’t looked at many of the end-of-year lists yet, so I don’t know what the consensus is around the top releases though I’m guessing some of my faves like Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer and Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy are on them. I know they are both GRAMMY nominated for Album of the Year. They weren’t my very top albums this year despite trying hard to convince myself otherwise.

Black Panther—both the compilation mentioned above and the Ludwig Göransson score—set the tone for everything I would listen to for the rest of the year. It primed me for Jay Rock’s full length, an artist I wasn’t checking for before King’s Dead and his instant anthem WIN which was the theme for the LA Sparks season well before it was played at nearly every sporting event the rest of the year. The score re-ignited my interest in film compositions which led to an April filled with the soundtracks to Arrival and Annihilation and Westworld and many a Black Mirror episode. Combined, Kendrick Lamar’s curated playlist for the best black popcorn movie ever released and that score was the best thing going all year. Full stop.

Beyond that, I enjoyed grown folks hip hop from Beyoncé and her husband and Phonte. I liked expansive sounds from The Midnight Hour and Abstract Orchestra, clever reworks from Kelela, and a pretty perfect pop album from Ariana Grande who is, perhaps, an even more interesting artist than she is a celebrity. She, too, is figuring out how to be unapologetically herself with each release.

My Fave Albums of 2018

Black Panther Album & Black Panther Soundtrack
Redemption – Jay Rock
Dirty Computer – Janelle Monae
Everything is Love – The Carters
Invasion of Privacy – Cardi B
No News is Good News – Phonte
The Midnight Hour – The Midnight Hour
Sweetener – Ariana Grande
TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES – Kelela
Dilla – Abstract Orchestra

Other Notes

Shout-out to Drake for great singles and better videos. Jordan Rakei, Nightmares on Wax, and Little Dragon for great live shows. Rapsody, Gifted Gab, Noname and Princess Nokia for providing excellent counter-programming to the overwhelming masculinity and aggression still dominating popular hip-hop. And Aretha Franklin and Mac Miller for having existed.

Thank u, next.

The Raw Data

misterjt’s_Music_Profile___Last_fm-3.png

misterjt’s_Music_Profile___Last_fm-2.png

December 26, 2014 / 0 Comments

My Favorite Music of 2014

“When everything’s clear like cold water go feel better.“ – Little Dragon, Klapp Klapp

I rather enjoyed music this year. As I spent time re-listening to albums and songs in preparation for this post, I realized how much music I heard that I thought was genuinely good and interesting. In the midst of all the cotton candy confection on terrestrial radio and vine—a place that increasingly became where I discovered new to me sounds and artists and songs, some of which I actually liked—there were a lot of artists releasing confident and risk-taking songs and albums.

It almost seems anachronistic for artists to attempt to put out complete and connected albums with strong thematic ties or storytelling flourishes today. We live in the age of the eternally shuffled on streaming services like Spotify and Pandora and Rdio (my personal fave). The music video (even if it’s just lyrics or a static image) and soundcloud dominate the young ear. So why put together an album whose songs work better together? Especially with the standard being about 10 songs and 45 minutes these days? I don’t know but I’m glad folks did.

My Favorite Albums of 2014

Some notes: D’Angelo did me dirty like Beyoncé did last December and put out an album that’s impossible to deny but that I haven’t had the time to sit with like I have with other albums. In fact, Black Messiah’s inclusion bumped Mary J. Blige’s The London Sessions—another late in the year entry—out of my top ten but you should really cop that one too. You’ll also have to forgive the nepotism but my sister’s album is good y’all.

Little Dragon, Prince, and Freddie Gibbs with Madlib on the production produced the albums I kept coming back to this year, though. Every time I hear just one song from their releases I want to hear the whole collection. Art Official Cage is a revelation. I haven’t enjoyed the purple one this much since the Batman soundtrack.

Like Pusha T’s album last year, Piñata was the get hyped soundtrack for 2014. I bumped that in the car on road trips, in the morning on the ride to work, on the way home to take the edge off (or get it up). I was Thuggin’.

Ultimately, though, there’s a certain sound and sensibility that gets to me (gets me) more than everything else. Little Dragon is one of those bands and Nabuma Rubberband is one of those albums. Love it.

Other albums worthy of consideration – Michael Jackson’s XSCAPE; Kelis’s Food; alt-J’s This is All Yours; FKA Twigs – LP1; Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour; Jóhan Jóhannsson’s The Theory of Everything soundtrack; The Juan Mclean’s In A Dream; and, Nicki Minaj’s The Pinkprint

The Top Songs of 2014

Rdio helpfully made a playlist. It’s pretty accurate although last.fm notes a few differences. Klapp Klapp was the song I went back to the most this year though less so in the last quarter of 2014. Drake’s 0 to 100/The Catch Up and D’Angelo’s Sugah Daddy deserve mention for the back 90 of this year.

Two important musical notes for me at the end of 2014 came out 22 and 25 years ago but seemed especially relevant for the complex ways I was/am feeling about the world. The hope and clarity of Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 and the anger and obstinance of Ice Cube’s The Predator were what my soul needed as America in the Fall of this year felt more like Los Angeles in the Spring of ’92. Rage and sadness and uprising and the knowledge and power to the people.

We are a part of a rhythm nation and 20 years after Rodney King we’re still asking “when will they shoot?” and so we’re going to make it rough.

December 25, 2014 / 0 Comments

2014 Annual Report

“You know you’re better than that.” – Little Dragon, Mirror

I didn’t make goals for 2014. I had professional ones, sure, but no overarching personal plan like I had in 2013. This year rapidly got away from me and I never caught up.

2014 was hard. Is hard. A review of my activity on Thinkup would lead you to believe that this year started in August with the murder of Michael Brown and the rising tide of emotion and action that has come since. This is what I leave this year with: that racism continues to dominate the institutions that make up our society and it is quite literally killing and terrorizing black people and this must change. Black lives matter. I want to scream it.

sometimes i do.

Also, men are terrible. And the evidence suggests want to be and want to continue to be. This too must change. I apologize for any and all actions during my life where I wasn’t the man, the human, I like to think I am.

See? 2014 got me fucked up.

I’ve thought about this a lot since I tumblr’ed it in September. I’ve failed at this professionally since about August. I haven’t “made fun” but I’ve definitely leaned towards complaint over action. I hope to shake that off over the next 2 weeks and begin 2015 in Just Do It mode. No excuses. Make cool shit. Every day.

This is not to give short shrift to the accomplishments of the year at work. We started publishing live entertainment stories on AXS.com in April, right before Jazz Fest. Speaking of, I got to attend my first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this year! I wrote a few things I liked. We took what we learned from our first six months in responsive design on Examiner.com (I may not be proud of a good chunk of what gets published there but I’m proud of our UX work) and kicked it up several notches. I got to be creative in ways I haven’t been since I left The Mouse.

But I end the year feeling like we worry about the wrong things and not chasing greatness with what we publish.

Make cool shit. Every day.

At home and with friends, I’ve felt, I don’t know, distracted or distant, maybe? I’ve been so consumed with navigating work, I haven’t had mental space for much else including those I love. I don’t mean the grand gestures or the emergencies and the like. It’s easy for me to come through in those situations. It’s easy for me to give. But in the every day? In the small moments? I don’t think I really had it for y’all this year like I would want and I’m sorry. Brotha’s gonna work it out.

A toast to my health. Despite carrying 10 pounds more this year than last, I’ve been consistent with a personal trainer for the last six months. I’ve taken much greater advantage of my insurance and I’m getting every closer to buying a ticket on the eat right train. My doctor says I’m strong like bull so we’ll stick with that. I just want to be a more fit bull who is slimmer around the middle.

I also have to be more honest about my needs emotionally.

https://twitter.com/misterjt/status/545357397296807936

I tend to keep it pretty level but, this year, I think I’ve needed more…something. I don’t know what it is so I haven’t been able to say out loud to anyone, give me this, but there’s a hole. I’m feeling some kind of way about the world, about what I’m doing or not doing to make it a better place, and about the life I’m leading and I need…something. The early part of 2015 has got to be about figuring that out and saying out loud the answer to the equation.

But, tonight, let’s get to the accounting of things. I traveled to San Francisco, Denver (twice), New Orleans (twice), Palm Springs, Phoenix, and DC this year (I think that’s it). My office moved to Downtown LA at the beginning of the year and I really like working in that part of the city. I’ve never driven to the office.

I really need to do a better accounting of the shows I go to each year. Ray, once again, puts me to shame. But there were a few pretty exceptional shows. My sister, Dominique Toney, essentially closing the 4th of July show at Exposition Park (sorry Troop); Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at the Wiltern with Sharon’s amazing post-cancer energy and short hair. Big Freedia on the Congo Stage at Jazz Fest just a few weeks after her mom passed. Laura Mvula on the Jazz Fest main stage. DJ Spinna’s Wonder-ful set at the Echoplex with Stevie Wonder showing up to surprise him and perform a bit. Har Mar Superstar in New Orleans on my birthday by myself. Also, Rhye. Jessie Ware. And a grip more at the echo/echoplex I’m forgetting.

The best thing I experienced this year, though, hands down was the WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix. It was the most entertaining women’s basketball game I’ve ever seen live. It was amazing how much of a women’s basketball town Phoenix is (and lovely to see considering Los Angeles…isn’t.) I was high off that experience for weeks.

That game and everything around it reminded me that for all the shit of 2014, we live in a world where a rookie from a reservation can be the best baller on the floor. We live in a world where an out lesbian black woman dunks with regularity and is cheered for it. This world exists.

The world changes. The world is changing. It starts small. It gets big. You put in the work. You make cool shit. Every day.

And some days, like on July 19th 2014, your shit is the coolest shit.

Thanks 2014. I won’t miss you but I hope to think back on you fondly as the spark.