Videos

This is the most awesomely futuristic hip hop video I've ever seen. It's like Tron meets Matrix meets Tomorrowland meets Minority Report meets Inception meets a cologne ad in a fashion magaine thicker than my own girth. Factor Chandelier always looks like he's waiting for us to lose interest in him so that he can continute taking over the world while we aren't looking, but since we haven't looked away he's just decided to take over the world anyway.  In "The Magic City" this dude is hiding something. Someone check this dude's pockets for a handheld Quantum Leap type device that accesses information from the past and can predict the future, as well as communicate across the globe at the push of a button. IS THERE ONE THERE? HA! FUCKIN' CALLED IT BRO.  Beat is fucking awesome,...

In college I took a poetry class...you know, for the ladies. Anyhoo, it seems the underlying meaning of all the great poems we analyzed revolved around the poet's struggle to writing great poetry. My young grad student teacher who unironically wore a bow tie would blurt out some shit like ' YOU SEE? traveling along the streets in between buildings, in the second verse, is like the journey of writing lines in a notebook'. Connecting the metaphors to the underlying meaning was always pretty exciting to me and I was always surprised to learn how common this theme was: Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, even Billy Shakes did this shit.  Once you dive into the anal depths of poetry you realize a lot of poetry is about fucking poetry. Even the poems I initially thought were about a loved one, were...

I fucking love how everything F. Virtue does seems genuine as fuck.  On "Saturday Night Dead" his perfectly layered vocals stumble through a personal narrative overflowing with self-awareness and self-depreciation, with just a splash of 'been there'. I'm thinking merely growing up and maturing into the adult you are is sort of like living over a bar in Manhattan anyway, with the ability to easvesdrop on everyone and anyone willing to forget they're being watched. F. Virtue plays the part as half-voyeur/half-handsoff guardian angel to the fucking letter. Here's to being proud of a rapper for rapping exactly how the rapper wants to rap at rapping.

I watched this on the toilet the first time through. The acoustics were perfect for some ukulele. (Please note, I did not make a joke about the perfect acpoosticks or how great the pookulele sounds.) Lukulele Slim is the dude Lucas Dix from Jellyfish Brigade and Hives Inquiry Squad, but I know him more as the guy who teaches middle school who I wished taught me when I was in middle school. Dude is immediately genuine, instantly relatable, and he's just oozing with cool ass middle school teacher vibes you can't really explain but you know exactly what the fuck I'm talking about.  I didn't think I'd like the ukulele shit because I tend not to like the ukulele because my friend Aram bought one and takes it everywhere and it drives me insane that he's hiking in the Swiss fucking Alps and...

I listened to this video three times and it kind of hits me in that Matthew Sweet 100% Fun sort of way where it's intentionally sweet, but you're positive there's something morose under it all. Atlantic Shore don't sound like a band I would normally shove in my side faceholes, but I'm a sucker for progressively struck opened hihats and high pitched melodies that dance apart from the synths in a way that makes me feel both youthful AND creepy for trying to fit into skinny jeans. I have a feeling that after a few trips around the drunk tank this band will mellow a bit, but I hope they continue to record their drums like this because they sound fucking great. "The Comedown" is sort of a flagship song in my opinion, as it highlights the strengths of each band member without making it...

Do I like this? I've sent this video to more than three trusted friends and no one responded to me. I got two "ugh"s and a "Send this to Javi", but no one said they didn't like it.  What the fuck is up with Men I Trust? Why can't I decide if I like this? I know the first hang up I had with this shit was the use of the word 'disdain'. I understand the word is a verb, but I always use it like a noun, like I'm verbing WITH the noun that I'm holding. Their use of disdain here is like they're disdaining some shit, and that makes me uncomfortable. It's like a word you use all the time is suddenly confusing. The other day I stared at the word 'concert' for like fifteen minutes not understanding what "shonkert" meant. And then they say the word 'bustles' in a way I'm unfamiliar with, and again, I...

Oh, Gregory Pepper. I can remember when you’re Problems first stole my innocent heart. It was way back in 2012’s Great Depression, when Ceschi and the rest of us whipper snappers used to walk uphill in the snow both ways and all we had to eat for dinner was poppa’s Common Grackle.  You were my mantra, Sir Pep. Can I call you Pep? Peps, perhaps? You held my hand when the future shock of grindcore bpms became too much. You taught me, maaaaan, fuck every single fucking animal in the zoo. And I love you for that!  I confess Gregory. Greg? That I lost my way up Crystal Skull Mountain. But now, now with this video, I’ve found you again. Like a hand in the dark. Like a holler from the head of the trail. Like a beacon of light at the end of the inky tunnel.  I love how you shine...

True story: I have a backlog of over a thousand unread SYFFAL music submissions. On weekends when the kids aren't killing each other I take a few hours and go through them. I go all the way to the end of my backlog and work my way forward in one tab and start from the most recent in the other. I click to open one and then click into the other tab to open another and I listen back and forth, deleting or downloading along the way. A month or so ago, I finally got into the year 2015 and discovered a submission from the band Gibberish from January of 2015. I dug the one streaming track they sent and I replied back "No YOU'RE emailing me back over a year ago! Can I hear more?". They obliged, and here we are. Ever since then I've had Gibberish on in the weirdest places. Like, one day I was...

Aesop Rock! The guy is almost 40 years old and is putting out rap records that defy the banality of the genre.  Just when I was losing interest. Just when even new releases from artists I generally care for went womp. It's been disappointing. Like I barely listen to rap anymore, disappointing.  Then something like "Rings" comes along and lights a bottle rocket in my belly button. It's deep.  Exploring more and more his status as art rapper, Aesop Rock takes us into his compartments. Literally his head is autopsied open and explored drawer by meticulously animated drawer. The video along is a staggering feat. of creativity, but its also perfect for the song: about being an artist neglecting a talent to the point of it existing only as memories. The craftsmanship of the video and song as a...

If James Bond had a cameo in Nacho Libre, you'd have the basic plot of the world premiere video, "The Spy," from Bay Area rap duo Onewerd and Pete Feliciano.  As "the spy," Onewerd goes deep. Severed fingers and drive-by espionage are just a fact of life for our syllabic protagonist. This Mexican rap epic and burrito-inducing chorus left me wanting more. What's the next episode? Who's gonna die next? Is Pete Feliciano, as "the mariachi," really there or a figment of our collective wet dreams? I love the styling a la Beastie Boys meets Bullwinkle. I love the creativity. I love the cimematics. I love Onewerd and Pete Feliciano.  Onewerd, educator and all around stand-up American citizen (for a rapper), teamed up with Pete Feliciano, and "The Spy" is the second single from their (much like...