Author: jbenton

It’s official: Apparently I wrote “a gripping column” on Monday.

Speaking of Stones Throw, they’re also responsible for the single greatest compilation-album idea of all time: The Third Unheard: Connecticut Hip-Hop 1979-1983. I’ve no idea if it’s brilliant or crap, but still: It’s time someone stands up for the Nutmeg State’s beat-box legacy. New Canaan, reprazent! (Great photo gallery and liner notes, too.)

Pitchfork reviews the new Stones Throw compilation today, and while I haven’t heard it, you should probably get it. Been getting into a lot of West Coast indie-leaning hip-hop lately, and Peanut Butter Wolf is one of the genre’s masters. (Along with the rest of the label: Madlib, Madvillain, Jaylib, Yesterdays New Quintet, etc.) Check out Wolf’s My Vinyl Weighs a Ton on eMusic if you’re a subscriber.
Speaking of West Coast instrumental hip-hop, I finally picked up a copy of Keepintime, a DVD document of a good idea brought to fruition. A bunch of L.A. turntablists (Cut Chemist, Shortkut, Numark, Madlib) track down the old L.A. funk session drummers of the ’60s and ’70s whose records they love to sample (Paul Humphrey, Earl Palmer, James Gadson). Then they perform live, with the drummers backing the effects wizards. The music never quite lifts off into greatness, but it’s a very entertaining journey along the way. I’m really looking forward to Brasilintime: Batucada com Discos, a similar project the same DJs did with classic Brazilian percussionists, which should be out on DVD shortly.
Finally, if you like this sort of music as much as I do, you really can’t be without In Tune and On Time, the newish DVD/CD set from the king of the scene, DJ Shadow. While a live video recording of a DJ performing sounds boring, the music is stellar, and the visuals are intermittantly hypnotic.
If you want to see what Shadow’s listening to these days, he wrote about the subject a few months ago in the NYT.

Sick of Food, a blog. I mention this because I have a policy of linking to all blogs named, like this one, after songs on American Music Club’s 1991 album Everclear.

Downloadable mix of indie Christmas music (here’s the BitTorrent). Featuring Sufjan Stevens, Death Cab, Dismemberment Plan, Polyphonic Spree, and more.

Someone dropped this book on my desk yesterday. So true.
Slow-speed chase at Apple HQ.
The best albums of 2004 (with MP3s), according to ex-CDMOM trader Dave.
Short W-H story today. Long W-H night last night.

For the record: You are hoping for Dallas Cowboys defensive back Roy Williams to have no more than six tackles tonight. Should he have more than six, the Bum Phillippi — my fantasy football team and, let’s be honest, America’s fantasy football team — will lose.

Here’s my story in today’s paper, which has absolutely nothing to do with Wilmer-Hutchins. I swear. It’s actually one of my favorite pieces in a while — telling the tale of a 35-year-old Chicano civil-rights school strike in a small south Texas town. You may actually enjoy reading this one.

Leave it to a profile of Bob Novak to produce one of the all-time great character descriptions:
“Beneath the asshole is a very decent guy, and beneath the very decent guy is an asshole.”
I’m sometimes convinced I’m the reverse: decent guy-asshole-decent guy.

Jeff Nelson moves to Toledo, puts a bunch of anti-Bush signs in his front yard.
Why is this noteworthy? Jeff Nelson was the drummer of uber-influential D.C. hardcore band Minor Threat and co-founder (with Ian MacKaye) of uber-influential indie label Dischord Records.
Why in the world did one of the world’s hardcore godfathers move from D.C. to Toledo? Not clear, although this alleged explanation — a supposed Jeep fetish coupled with the relatively cheap availability of dilapidated Victorian mansions — could be as true as anything.
(Found via joeyharrison.com, photo blog of the husband of a former Toledo coworker of mine.)