Live: Iron Chic with Laura Stevenson and the Cans, Low Culture and Swearin' @ Death By Audio 6.10.11

It's pretty rare in my cranky old age that I want to see an entire bill from stem to stern, but this show was one of them. Iron Chic have been a JS-NYC perennial since we got off the ground, and Swearin' have stepped in the breach in the absence of Little Lungs as my go-to lady fronted band in town.

I posted up just as Swearin' were getting under way and thoroughly enjoyed them. The What A Dump tape is pretty aces and they are on tour for most of the Summer, so go out of your way to check them out.

I had intended to miss Low Culture and Laura Stevenson in favor of hanging with the local bearded drummer set, but ended up sticking around and enjoying both of them. Low Culture are out for a bunch of dates with IC. Based out of  New Mexico, they have some ex-Marked Men and Shang-A-Lang dudes in their ranks and sounded like it. Grab their demo here from the Dirt Cult kids and look out for a full-length maybe in the Fall? I've ended up seeing Laura Stevenson a couple three times over the last couple years and liked her/them, but always wondered why The Cans played on the kind of indie/punk bills they did. Turns out Stevenson also plays in Bomb The Music Industry, so if you enjoy either or both, check them out. I understand LS needs some surgery, but look out for them to return to their continued heavy touring level in fairly short order. Here's a link.

Iron Chic closed out the proceedings with their usual set and respective blood alcohol levels. Things seemed to stretch out a little longer than I remember their average set being, perhaps owing to their having been playing some higher profile opening slots with Bouncing Souls and Hot Water Music in recent months. Either way, good set from good dudes and if the maelstrom of singing/flying bodies is any indication, team IC is maintaining their local fanbase quite nicely. Keep track of them here.

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My Jerusalem - Demos, Live, and B-Sides

Seeing Jeff Klein and the Afghan Whigs in fairly close proximity recently made me realize that I should probably be revisiting their respective catalogs. The recent heat wave and subsequent ushering in of the air conditioning season has made darkly warm fare like said same and the new Crooked Fingers attractive soundtracks for indoor recreation.

I've seen My Jerusalem a couple times in recent years and am pretty sure I enjoyed them.  I bought this collection from the MJ web presence in the last couple months after Jeff played in town last and only recently got around to giving it some serious spins. The ten songs are as billed: demos, b-sides and remixes, with a couple live tracks from Daytrotter and NPR for good measure, all pretty decent for the most part.  The live versions of Sweet Chariot and Proposition are probably the most compelling thing here, but anyone that is a fan of My Jerusalem would do well to pick this up.

That said, I'm not sure how available this is anymore, but the My Jerusalem web presence is probably as good a place as any to start looking.

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Crooked Fingers - Breaks In The Armor

While Archers Of Loaf are back in fits and starts, the primary focal point for all things Eric Bachmann since the new millennium has been Crooked Fingers. While the spartan beauty of the tracks has always remained consistent, the instrumentation and arrangement have always been in flux. Recent times have found Bachmann working with a female foil. Liz Durrett has filled that role in recent years and reprises it here, adding polish and shine to darkly inviting tracks like Black Candles and Your Apocalypse. There is bad dark and good dark, and I'd put Crooked Fingers in the latter camp. Hurt and loss are the bedrock of Breaks In The Armor but the womblike warmth of the music leaves things in much more of of a hopeful place, more 2am sober contemplative than 4am drunken self-flagellation.

Get Breaks In The Armor here from the good folk of Merge Records. Come for the studio version and maybe double down and get yourself the whole enchilada in acoustic demo form, too. Crooked Fingers info portal is here.

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Aziz Ansari - Dangerously Delicious

After Louis C.K. cleaned up selling his last special online for $5, the playing ground for successful comedians have been leveled. Ansari is pretty funny and I like his stuff, but not so much that I've checked out Parks & Recreation or even went back and checked that Human Giant thing. What can I say, JS-NYC lives in the moment.

No Randy, luckily, but his nephew Harris makes a return appearance, as does R. Kelly. It's mostly for good. Aziz is pretty obviously a smart guy with a great delivery and his everyman thing is engaging as hell. If you like Aziz, the $5 is a pretty easy expenditure. It's not so big of a hit if you're on the fence either, when you get right down to it. That reasonable pricing has kept the lights on at Chez C.K. and seems to be doing pretty well for Ansari as well. Whether Jim Gaffigan is the third time that is also the charm remains to be seen, but you would do well to get yourself Dangerously Delicious and dates for his new Buried Alive tour here.

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Hannibal Buress - Animal Furnace

Hannibal has been maximizing his potential lately, touring at a frantic pace while still curating a weekly comedy night at the Brooklyn Knitting Factory. Last year's My Name Is Hannibal did a lot to get him out there on a grander scale and by the looks of Animal Furnace, we may have a new heir to the Chappelle/Rock throne.

Less pickle juice humor, but food still plays a big role in the proceeding, as do travel and dating crazy ladies. That's really just the tip of the iceberg, as cancer walks, passive robberies and Montreal and Edinburgh also figure prominently in the proceedings. There really isn't anything un-funny about Animal Furnace. Those currently possessing of working ear and eye parts should avail themselves of this link and get it with the quickness.

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Devin The Dude - Seriously Trippin'

There are few things in the hip-hop world as consistent as Houston's Devin The Dude. Lovers of smoked-out Texas funk know that Devin always brings lyrics for days and the beats are consistently aces. This little six-song EP is pretty solid, covering the usual touchstones of weed, ladies and the various permutations thereof our Devin encounters on the daily. I'd argue that, while well meaning, Exercise could be excised from the proceedings but save for that midpoint doldrum, the rest of Seriously Trippin' is tailor-made for your next Summer smoke-fest. It appears that it's a precursor to a new record called One For The Road, so keep an eye out.

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Large Professor - Professor @ Large

Anyone with any sense of perspective on hip-hip knows that the scene today is chock full of straight digital trash. Now that anyone with access to a laptop can throw some shitty rhymes over tired loops and call themselves a rapper, we have a biblical plague of overly tattooed nobodies of tomorrow terrorizing our ears and trying to either be Wayne or Jay. The strongest stuff over the last year has been from the old heads: KRS-One, Bumpy Knuckles, even Nas if you count all the ghostwriting he's been paying the bills with.

Large Pro has been in the game since the 80s, initially rocking pause tape that got him production gigs for Eric B & Rakim at 17. Two decade plus later, he's a bona fide legend: having rocked with Main Source and rhymed and produced a million more tracks since. The uninitiated should check this amazing retrospective put together by the good folk of Complex.

On the solo tip,  Professor @ Large is only X-P's fourth release and while they may come few and far between, #4 is worth the wait. After a perhaps too up-tempo a start, things settle down into the pocket for what may be the best hip-hop album we've got this year. Large Pro holds his own on the solo tracks like the title track and Live Again, but the guest appearances on Professor @ Large are totally bananas. Queens gets much love for the duration, and its residents represent on Focused Up with Tragedy and Cormega alongside an off the hook track with Mic Geronimo and Grand Daddy IU. Straight from Golden finds XP rocking kind of a Bun B/G Rap flow before Busta bum rushes the proceedings with his late period Jamaican auctioneer flow. Brooklyn is repped by Fam and MOP on Happy Days R Here, sporting a less frantic than usual flow that is still hard as fuck and we even get the recorded debut of the new Large Pro curated project MARS featuring Mega, Action Bronson, Roc Marciano and Saigon. Not too shabby for an old head that is still South of 40. Get Professor @ Large with the quickness here from your boys at Fat Beats.

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