i’ve posted about the before. there’s not a lot of info about the group out there, but i’ve pieced together that it was made up of three guys who went to risd in the mid-’90s. they hooked up with wordsound to put out a few records, then capped their discography with an album on load.

the first hawd gankstuh rappuhs album, is awesomely bizarre (an amazon user review puts it pretty well: “some people say that it sounds like the beasties retaded cuzins, a battle between 3 flava flavs, or nwa meets the butthole serfers, or the beatnuts after they got pushed off a subway platform in front of a moving train.”). the second one, , isn’t quite as good, but still has some great moments.

my favorite track on wake up … is “the bong (get in the),” which parodies cypress hill’s laser-like focus on rapping about marijuana. (did you know that b-real smokes pot? it’s true, he does! in fact, it makes him very stoned.)

these days, devin flynn, aka guy albino, is in the band and is an animator who has worked on wonder showzen and the aqua teen hunger force movie. there’s an with him from earlier this year up on the vice blog. he also has his own series, y’all so stupid (the title refers to obscure (but great) dallas austin-related hip-hop group). the show is disgusting and weird in much the same way that the hawd gankstuh rappuhs music is. RAD!

here’s my favorite episode:

from what i understand, seth cooper, aka flybot van damn, makes some of the music for y’all so stupid. cooper also helms an experimental electronic music project called . his new album, upside down helicoptor is available to purchase directly from the label.

hawd gankstuh rappuhs mc’s wid ghatz – “the bong (get in the)”

i grabbed this whatnauts lp over at . i really enjoyed the um… funky soul sound of it. then i noticed this track which was sampled by mf doom for the album. check it.

the whatnauts “message from a black man”
king geedorah “anti matter”

growing up, i had a few friends whose moms were very strict christians and wouldn’t let them listen to rap music because it is dirty and corrupting. then dc talk came around in the early ’90s and offered respectable beats and rhymes that even the blessed virgin mary could get loose to. thank goodness! too bad the group’s songs sucked.

there are many cornball rap tracks in the dc talk discography, but 1991′s “i luv rap music” epitomizes why the group was never able to connect with real hip-hop audiences (despite being HUGE stars on the christian music scene). the song is a hamfisted rip-off of a variety of popular secular tracks of the era, with lyrics that are delivered in a way that recalls a junior high principal reaching out to students on their level to communicate the virtuous joys of recycling … via rap!

the group’s lead vocalist, toby mckeehan, had clearly been listening to a lot of fresh prince around the time this song was recorded (check out the part where he does a squeaky, silly impersonation of his mom – it’s a move jacked straight from the “parents just don’t understand”/”fresh prince of bel-air theme” playbook). meanwhile, the intro is clearly intended to invoke the same sort of apocalyptic superseriousness that leads off several public enemy songs. in his deepest and most earnest rap voice, mckeehan hilariously bellows “some people out there givin’ rap a bad name!”. suffice it to say, he is no professor griff, and this song is no “bring the noise.”

dc talk – “i luv rap music”

noise.io, a synthesizer app for the iphone, is to be released next week. it comes with 81 editable presets and a load of parameters you can tweak. not sure how this holds up against a real synth, or if you can sequence anything on it, but for just $7 you can kill a few hours on the airplane coming up with some great 80s pop tunes.

. more on .

check out this spacey jazz funk track i grabbed from . 1977. great stuff.

richard schneider jr. “samba trip”

i was going through some records i have tucked away in a closet and found the 45 for debbie harry’s “french kissin’,” which was also released as “french kissin’ in the usa.” i bought the record when it came out in 1986 because i’d heard the song on the radio and the drum sounds at the very beginning reminded me of the beastie boys’ “paul revere.” (i even made a very clumsy pause tape-like mix that included bits of both tracks – if that sucker turns up in further closet searchin’, i’ll mosdef post audio from it here).

i forgot how great this song is. i searched hype machine, and it looks like no one’s posted it before, which surprises me because (a) it’s from the ’80s, (b) it’s by debbie harry, (c) it’s got the word “french” in it.

debbie harry – “french kissin’” (aka “french kissin’ in the usa”)

powell peralta’s “” is still the best skate movie i’ve ever seen. i recently played it for my nephew (age 7) and he was completely consumed by it. afterwards i tried to show him another skate movie but he didn’t care for it – saying “i like the music a lot better in animal chin.”

which led me to discover this great cd: the . all the great songs from the classic bones brigade movies! just $10! i’m buying two – one for my nephew and one for me.

here’s an mp3 from the movie, the news segment at the start and then johnny rad singing “raddy daddy.”

also, enjoy the trailer from the recently released animal chin special edition dvd.

there are a bunch of cool blogs that post old albums. stuff on vinyl that’s rare. it’s been great following these sites and getting familiar with tons of music i didn’t know about. check out this late 60s new york psych song that i got at .

bohemian vendetta “all kinds of highs”

last night i was treated to a great presentation by tv’s creative strategist robin sloan. he explained a lot about their vision of the future of video, and how we all have a part in it.

that also has a fantastic online presence, with a wide-range of user created videos. they have a cool system – videos get voted on and the ones with the most votes rise to the front page of the site. on that page, a timer is counting down. when it hits zero, the top video on the site is rushed to the network producers and edited into current news, an on-air TV segment. fun!

you can choose to upload your own video content, or (news, viewer ads, or commentary). and, it can be .

beyond that, there’s about a million other things you can do with their site. good place to start: their .

here’s a video upload about a solar car on a 10k mile journey.

electric car converting is going mainstream: cnn.com has a piece today profiling two people who have . and both people encourage everyone to do it too. inspiring!