Chief Tizo Interviews #4: MC Coolarge

Hey folks! We promised new interviews, so here we are with a fresh interview with experimental hip-hop stalwart MC Coolarge. We discuss the lyrical content behind his old/new material, question some of his sonic influences, and get some info about his upcoming untitled LP, which is due in Autumn.

Check it here:

You can find MC Coolarge's current discography HERE.

Song of the Day: On A Friday - To Be A Brilliant Light

Many adore and love Radiohead's catalog for very deserving reasons (seriously, how many bands match the stretch from The Bends to In Rainbows?), but very few people know of their initial embryonic recordings under the name On A Friday from 1985-1992. Dabbling in a wide variety of different sounds across their handful of cassette recordings (see the hilarity of the sped-up ska in "Tell Me Bitch" or the steel drum tinged "Happy Song"), this particular recording comes from their second demo from 1988.

At the time accompanied by three saxophone players,  On A Friday wastes no time crashing "To Be A Brilliant Light" headfirst with full melodrama and force. Slowing down with a reverberated acoustic guitar riff resembling something out of In the Court of the Crimson King, Thom Yorke quietly sings, "I'm getting sort of worried/Like the time of life I've reached /I'm getting pretty old /I should be reaching my peak". As a song obsessed with growing old (see "Bones") and desperate to find success while one is youthful, the nervous energy is apparent throughout and remains one of OAF's strongest songs.

Possibly influenced by Elvis Costello and the Attractions during Punch the Clock (and perhaps even Dexys Midnight Runners), the trio of horns go further to add that extra touch of desperation as Yorke sings "Where to start to build a clock?" They then joyfully enter a call and response to his pleading of "TO BE A BRILLIANT LIGHT, YEAH", and it is nothing short of melodramatic brilliance. A definite must-listen for Radiohead fans, and to listen to Thom Yorke's powerful and youthful vocals.

Song of the Day: Tears for Fears - Advice for the Young at Heart

My listening history with Tears for Fears is one that is rivaled only by The Police, but to be clear, TFF were my first "absolute favorite band of all time". Despite not being as regular of a listen as they used to be, TFF set the gears in motion for my later taste in music: a healthy fascination with gloomy synthpop and quasi-post-punk music with their debut The Hurting, and introduced a seamless fusion of drum and synth programming with live "arena-sized" instrumentation on Songs From the Big Chair.

Among the innovations that TFF brought into their sound with Songs From the Big Chair, they subtly tapped into jazz flourishes (most notably on "The Working Hour" and "I Believe") and organic, almost post-rock sounds ("Listen"). These subtleties were something that TFF would explore further on their following 1989 record, The Seeds of Love.

The record contains multiple elements of jazz, organic textures, and use of "widescreen" ambiance throughout its running time. Whether it be in "Standing in the Corner of the Third World"'s use of heavy dynamic shifts between its sleepy verses to explosive chorus, the bluesy piano and rattling drum patterns on "Badman's Song", or the sophisticated and expensively arranged pop sounds on "Swords and Knives", it was obvious that TFF shifted to a paradoxical raw but cleanly produced sound.

Many consider it to be the poorest of the group's releases under their first phase, before Curt Smith departed, and it is not hard to see why. While TFF definitely shifted their sound into new territory, it is arguable that many moments are overproduced, pretentious, or at worst, boring (the almost two-minute guitar solo on "Swords and Knives", the sheer length of "Third World", the veering on annoying sentimentality of "Famous Last Words", among other things).

I actually love the record though, and when the mood is correct, The Seeds Of Love comes off as an overly ambitious pop record that has an interesting mixture of psychedelia, jazz, and blues within its roots. Not to mention how damned inspiring some of the production is since TFF spent over a million pounds on this record, and it shows, for better or worse (I am of the former).

But even if you think the whole record is a bombastic mess, I find it hard to believe anyone who does not think "Advice for the Young at Heart" is a brilliantly arranged and produced piece of romantic pop. A song that pleads "Soon we will be older/When we gonna make it work?" and "Love is a promise/Love is a souvenir/Once given never forgotten/Never let it disappear", it is a melancholic masterpiece of romantic territory that many do not attempt today.

With its salsa influenced piano chords, ghostly synths that fill empty space, a rising and falling timpani, wailing organ, and the propulsive chorus, it all comes together to create a really beautiful track. By the end, a downtrodden Smith sings a quiet melody with the sole descending piano, and are treated to a final bit of "Advice."

Book Review: The Orange Eats Creeps & Nova Express

It has been a while since I posted. A lot of things have been going on with school opening up ,and all, and me getting a stomach virus. So here is my belated reviews of both The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich and Nova Express by William S. Burroughs.

Starting off with The Orange Eats Creeps, I think that it is best to explain what the overall story of the book is. The book is about a roaming "Slutty Hobo Junkie Vampire" that wanders through America having sex for money in 7-11s and going to a lot of underground punk concerts (which may or may not feature the infamous G.G Allin). The style of the novel is reminiscent of the cut-up method and even Thomas Pynchon's long and beautiful sentences.

The book seems to wander from subject to subject not being able to find a place to stay still in which matches the overall "Hobo" idea of the novel. The main character continues to shift through her memories and sometimes through the influence of drugs, the memories of others.  (She has this ability where she could see the thoughts and the past of someone through touching them.) The character seems to be looking for her sister who she was separated from in a foster home. She continues to have these wandering thoughts of her laying down on the side of the road dead; being murdered by some serial killer that resembles the character Bob from Twin Peaks.

The meat of the novel is surrounded by the theme of immortality. What do you do with immortality? The novel feels like an extended account of some existential crisis where the person's life doesn't end. The main character struggles with this in her sexual experiences with men, taking to the road, thinking back to the past, and going to explosive rock concerts that contain vomit and blood.

For me this book got a bit taxing towards the end. Not because of the experimental prose, but because it is a very repetitive book (which totally makes sense within the context of the novel but still...) that recycles phrases a bit too much. Overall it was a very well thought out novel that has very beautiful and vivid language that I find unique in literature today. It is a very exciting debut from a talented writer that I hope to see more of.

Nova Express by William S. Burroughs is the conclusion to the Nova Trilogy which Burroughs claimed to be the "mythology for the Space Age" and to some respect he is right. The book is filled with this quest to take over the omniscient and omnipotent powers at be that are constantly referred to as being part of a board room filled with people that are part of the Nova Mob.

The "main character" William Lee is an agent that is part of the Nova Police that is supposed to take down the Nova Mob and the wicked boardroom that is controlling the actions and thoughts of people through words and addiction with a special weapon: the cut-up.

The book that preceded Nova Express, The Ticket That Exploded, set up what is going to happen this novel greatly. Showing the creation of an uprising coming up against the boardroom and even giving a step by step way of using the cut-up and further explaining the power of a tape recorder (a section that is also recycled for Nova Express) for destroying whole governments.

Burroughs ideas behind the cut-ups are nothing less than genius; Burroughs has found a way to overrule all metanarratives that transfixes the general public in its clutches. In a section concerning the power of tape recorders, Burroughs explains that sound creates an image and that image is therefore a part of language due to association (all of language is relating to image). For example, by using a recording of a political demonstration in say... Japan during the 1960s. Playing it back on three different recorders will insight a political demonstration. The sound of a political demonstration creates an image of a political demonstration, which in turn causes a political demonstration due to the infectious nature of language ( a thing that Burroughs straight out calls a virus).

To me, Nova Express is the weakest of the Nova Trilogy, while The Ticket That Exploded is the best for its amazing cut-ups and ideas. Nova Express to me is just trying to wrap up, but to me not in a completely new way. It feels like it is a reiteration of The Ticket That Exploded with a good handful of good cut-ups, but it was still a fun read.

Song of the Day: The Angels Light - Praise Your Name

 Right now I am reading The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich and Nova Express by William S. Burroughs which I hope to finish before school starts. I will be posting reviews of both right when I am finished.

Now right now this was the song of the day for me: Angels of Light's "Praise Your Name."

Praise Your Name is probably my favorite song due to the dissonant violin coming in and out reach with the icy xylophone and mournful piano. The lyrics are dark and drenched in apocalyptic imagery concerning the worship of some lover. The chorus' choir behind the yelping of Michael Gira sounds all so glorious.

I gained an emotional attachment to this song after listening it everyday, for three weeks last year after feeling trapped in my small dorm room. In fact, Gira was pretty hot on Bryan's and mine playlist for majority of our first year at CSUN.

Where are you wounded girls
With bruised faces and blackened eyes
Break open your glass doors
Welcome the whirling debris
Carve your name there
In the marble and concrete

New Release: How Scandinavian - Philistine Empathy EP

The latest and most delayed-est release by How Scandinavian ever. I put a good deal of work on these and I hope I didn't overcook the songs as a result. Much darker and 'lush' than Pity Won and it reeks of some sort of dreadful nostalgic call-back to Dolorous along with some new influences I've found through nightmares, dreams, and harsh cynicism. Probably the least messy and 'mid-fi' release I've been able to muster at this point in time as well. Now that this is out I'll be working on the sophomore LP and have some peace in not following personal deadlines. How Scandinavian will probably tour this little EP locally for a month and then I'll concentrate on both school and finishing the work I've already begun for the next LP. I hope any fans that still abide by this blog and HS will enjoy this. I'm sorry I took so long.

Track list:
1. Eucalyptus Burning
2. We Exist
3. New Romantic Ideas
4. A Brighter Hell
5. Life Is Saccharine

Song of the Day: Aesop Rock - Oxygen

Taking a deep-dive back into Aesop Rock's discography since taking a break after Skelethon came out. Float had some really great beats provided by Blockhead and Aesop's lyrics seemed a bit more "raw" and visceral in a good way. I gotta say though, his flow really hasn't evolved too much over the years, which isn't a bad thing to me but it is easy to understand why some people would find his work hit or miss.

Either way, some nice nostalgia is to be found here (the album art is very turn of the century) with the accompanying strings and esoteric samples provided by the aforementioned Blockhead. A new (old) age of hip-hop primitivism seems to seep out of the arrangement, and is something that is hardly heard of much today. Aesop seems to both evoke intelligence and desperation in his delivery for this track, and while it's hard to tell exactly what he's explicitly talking about, it's clear something is amiss. "Oh my god, what have I gotten myself into..." An underrated classic.