Bob Dylan vs. Straight Outta Compton

Bob Dylan is considered to be a great social commentator. His songs are like poetry. In the 1960’s he wrote some of the most famous protest songs. And they used to sting. People say he’s peerless when it comes to songwriting.

But in 1988 came an album out of nowhere, which took Dylan head on (and almost succeeded). In terms of both apt social commentary and lethality of sting. The competition came from ‘Straight Outta Compton’.

Like Dylan’s protest songs, ‘Straight Outta Compton’ did not come out of the intellectual environs of New York’s Greenwich Village. As the title says, it came straight out of the blood splattered, drug infested streets of Compton, Los Angeles.

Just like Compton’s streets, the language used is utterly filthy. The songs may lack Dylan’s “sophistication”. But hell, they are as poetic, if not more.

Download Fuck Tha Police
Get the album here

Mind Splattering

I generally do not drop any out-n-out recommendations on this blog (you know stuff like “must buy”, “not to be missed”, “go get it”, etc). One reason is that few people who drop in, know about the stuff already. But today I’ll use phrases exactly like these for an album I heard this Saturday for the very first time in my life (I don’t care if I’m years behind). And that album is Miles Davis’ On the Corner.

I am pretty familiar with other Miles/McLaughlin albums. Some of the most kick-ass stuff one can come across. On albums like ‘In a silent Way’, ‘Bitches Brew’, and ‘Tribute to Jack Johnson’ , McLaughlin was just way too sophisticated, structured and brilliantly subtle. He would pop out of nowhere with an absolutely mind-numbing riff. But on ‘On the Corner’, he plays like a motherfucker. As if this was going to be his last album. This stuff is nothing like the other three. This album is not Jazz. NO FUCKING WAY. This is a full-on electronic album. An album for people who love distorted stuff. Every fucking instrument is twisted to the fucking core, especially the master’s trumpet.

Wikipedia says that critics hammered this album. Panned even by those who hailed his electric albums. I can fully understand why. It was 1972, for fuck's sake. This album sounds like stuff right out of the 1990’s. Believe me it does. To use a cliche – an album at least 20 years ahead of its time. No wonder people just could not get it back then.

Go get this album. Go get your mind blown to pieces.

P.S: First listen will knock out even those who think they have heard enough 90’s electronica.

Damn, did this guy ever go wrong?!

R.E.M vs. U2

One of the best U2 albums. Some of the best guitar chops by The Edge.

A given. This is a classic.

Few months back I read an article discussing which of the two was better. Going by the kind of albums they made in the 1980's, it's a pretty tough call. But a much tougher question is:

Which band sucked more after 1991-92?

Maggot Brain

"Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time, for y'all have knocked her up. I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe - I was not offended, for I knew I had to rise above it all, or drown in my own shit."

Think Tank

Now this is what you call innovation.

In all probability, Think Tank was the last chapter in the Blur book. Because Blur as a musical outfit is breathing its last (or maybe its dead already). Boy, if a band ends its phenomenal journey with something as glorious as this. It becomes immortal.

We expected something, something better than before. We expected something more
You were always weird but I never had to hold you by the edges like I do now
Walk away now and you’re gonna start a war

Read this in a review:

If Boxer is not the record that propels them to stardom, it's unlikely that they'll ever make a record that will.

So fucking true.

Maroon 5: We suck less than Creed

Awwwww! Someone is unhappy.

Adam Levine: "People hated Creed. They don't hate us. At worst, they just don't really like us. Creed ... had that attitude, they pontificated about how great they were, they had a horribly generic band. They were easy to hate and we're just, you know, easy to disregard."

Ah! Look who the guy compares his band with. The fact is he can’t do much better either. Rip Prince in the worst possible way. So much for risk taking.

The National-Black Sessions

The National's best album yet, Boxer, comes out on May 22. To mark the occasion, here is an awesome show by the band.

A thoroughly self-indulgent post

My favourite albums list is always in a state of flux. But for the moment these are my 15 favourite albums from 1965-1985

1. The Rolling Stones-Sticky Fingers
2. Bob Dylan-Blood on the Tracks
3. The Who-Who’s Next
4. Prince-Purple Rain
5. The Velvet Underground- VU & Nico
6. The Stooges-Funhouse
7. The Beatles-Abbey Road
8. The Clash- London Calling
9. Bruce Springsteen- Darkness on the edge of Town
10. Roxy Music- For your pleasure
11. David Bowie-Diamond Dogs
12. Ac/Dc-Back in Black
13. Miles Davis-Bitches Brew
14. Television-Marquee Moon
15. The Cure- Seventeen Seconds

Wait is Over

Album has finally leaked.

And this one too. Haven't got it though.

(Sorry, this has not leaked yet).

My Blueberry Nights

Another Asian enters the big league (or does he?). Awesome Wong Kar Wai’s English language debut, My Blueberry Nights, comes out soon. The movie features two women from the world of music: Norah Jones and Chan Marshall a.k.a Cat Power. It will open the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, which begins today.

Film's title is the last thing that would tell you anything about the movie. But ‘My Blueberry Nights’ surely gives out a typical Kar Wai feel.


Look at the colours. This is exactly what I was expecting. Feels more like Hong Kong than America.

A Haunted School

Jerry, in his latest post, writes that he used to see ghosts in school. The thing that surprised me was not the presence of ghosts in his school, but Jerry’s ability to spot them. And the reason why I was not surprised by the fact that his school is infested with spirits- I know that school way too well. I went to the same “old fashioned/heritage” school.

The building in the picture is the ‘house’ where I lived for three years. Imagine this building after nightfall. The corridor on the first floor had just two night bulbs. Even they used to struggle to stay lit whole night. The toilets were at the very end of the corridor. I generally don’t get spooked so easily. But for the first few months, crossing this corridor in the middle of night, to get to the loo used to scare me absolutely shitless. It felt just like the Overlook Hotel during off-season.

With more than a dozen buildings this huge and ancient, little wonder the school is a favourite resting place for the spirits of Rajasthan.

Forever Breathes the Lonely Word

Last year I rediscovered Ride. Last week I rediscovered Felt.

For a couple of years these bands were quite a rage in DU colleges. The source was: Bootlegged/Unofficial best of collection on TDK Chrome tapes.

The Kids Are Alright

Britt Daniel

Britt Daniel fancies British bands. His love for the Beatles is well known. In fact he loves British music so much, it has settled into his name.

A Spoon CD is essential when you go on a long drive. That's what people say. I have never tried it. But I just tried imagining it- ‘Stay Don’t Go’ blasting from my car stereo on a long empty stretch.

I guess they are right.

Japs are supposedly the most non violent & anti war people in the world. Japan is also a staunch anti nuclear state. They do not even have their own proper army. A hardcore pacifist society, to say the least.

Japan also produces some of the most insanely violent, scariest and psychologically twisted (but brilliant) movies anyone can come across. And it is apparently one of the biggest markets for the so-called “Death Metal” music.