Fresh Jamz: Sir Micheal Rocks – “Cootchie Crook (Put it In)”

Sir Michael Rocks a/k/a Micky Rocks of Chicago’s dizzy, old-school hip-hop duo Cool Kids, is making waves on his own and prepping a mixtape, The Rocks Report. In anticipation, he’s been leaking videos and the latest just hit Fake Shore Drive and the rest of the Internet earlier this week. “Cootchie Crook (Put It In)” is playful and bouncy as fuck. It’s all fat, four-to-the-floor beats, a slinky guitar turn-about, and loads of orgasmic moans.
Get ready for his mixtape by checking the video below and try not to get too excited listening to that beat…

 

Fresh Jamz: Big K.R.I.T. – “Dreamin’”

Mississippi’s Big K.R.I.T. came hard out of his deep south stomping grounds last year with his debut K.R.I.T. Wuz Here. Originally available for free through the MC’s myspace page, Wuz Here eventually got picked up by Def Jam. Since then, K.R.I.T.’s been busy. Just last month he put out an EP of tracks from Wuz Here featuring live instrumentation and vocal hooks care of Grillade, and today he’s officially “leaked” the lead single from his sophomore full-length, Returnof4eva.

 

Amplifier Worship: Liturgy – “High Gold”

Brooklyn’s “post-rock” black-metal outfit, Liturgy, is set to destroy eardrums and confound headbangers with their precise, over-amped blasts with the release of their second full-length album, Aesthetica, on Thrill Jockey in May.

 

Fight for Your Right: Coolzey

In my old roles at newspapers and radio stations, I had to avoid calls to action, it’s been really liberating to do almost nothing but that on this blog. But I’m stepping up in a big way on this one. This isn’t just me asking you to listen to a song or watch a video, damnit, this is me asking you to directly support and affect the production and distribution of art! Coolzey a/k/a Zachary Eli Lint is seeking backers to help him put his 2010 Hip-Hop Hearts project on CD and DVD. Coolzey concieved a forward-looking project–which prempted Kanye’s Twitter-tape and I’ll let him speak for himself below:

 

Corn-Fed Music: Samuel Locke Ward

In yet another instance of wonderful Iowa music news I didn’t get to because of list making and Kanye ego-stroking, Samuel Locke Ward has made a whole mess of his solo material available on his bandcamp site.

 

Fresh Jamz: Colin Stetson

I just got my mitts on the second album from bass saxophone extraordinaire, Colin Stetson. New History Warfare Vol. II: Judges, his sophomore slab, comes out on Constellation Records on February 22nd and is already in contention for my tops of 2011 (it probably would have made my top 10 of last year without much trouble). Stetson has been, for the past decade, the go-to for experimental and indie greats when they’re craving the scronkiest or sweetest sax sounds this side of Albert Ayler; Stetson’s wrap sheet is a collaborator’s wet dream: Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, David Byrne, and TV on the Radio, just to name a few.

 

Fresh Jamz: Big K.R.I.T. and Grillade

Last year I fell head over heels for the lo-fi Southern stylings of Big K.R.I.T. (dude just missed my top 10 records of the year). His debut slab, K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, got the young MC picked up by Def Jam–which meant that, sadly, the album was no longer available as for free through his Myspace page. One of the standout’s from his 2010 slammer was “Neva Go Back,” a sentimental track about youth and family (the hook: “I wish I was a kid again / runnin’ with my friends and them /  up and down the street”) over a blusey guitar loop, “Neva Go Back” is getting a remix of sorts.

 

Fresh Jamz: Ed Gray

It’s been four years since eccentric folky Ed Gray released his fabulous The Late Gray Ed Great–which was one of my favorite LP’s of the last decade. While it’s easy to get impatient and hope for another slab of equal brilliance, that sort of quality is difficult to replicate, and takes plenty of time if you want to get even close.
Gray is finally making new material available: there’s a quintet of new tunes on his Myspace page. The new jams are as lo-fi as ever, in fact the production for “Sallow” seems especially spotty and rough, but he’s expanding his bedroom aesthetic a bit. Gray’s always been able to pluck heart strings with lilting, eerily frayed acoustic ballads, and “Haunted Shoes,” from this latest batch, is yet another in this mold. It was the real standout for me on the first trip through the new cuts, a real gripping tune. But Gray also gets down with some electric guitar pulses, tapping into a Tom Waitsian level of creepiness with “Sampson.” It’s claustrophobic plod is a wonderful space for Gray’s gruff baritone to explore.
You’d be doing yourself a service to find 15 and a half minutes for his online “ep.” Hop on over to Gray’s Myspace page (while Myspace still exists), and check out this bounty of new material from one of Iowa City’s most unsung songwriting greats.

 

WTF: MC “King” Hammer takes on Jay-Z/The Devil

MC Hammer’s bouts with relevance over the past couple decades, since “2 Legit” faded from ubiquitous novelty to head-shaking regret, have most likely reached their laughable nadir. In MC Hammer’s latest attempt at capturing zeitgeist is a pot shot at Sean “Jay-Z” Carter a/k/a the biggest rapper alive.

 

Fresh Jamz: Alex Body

I’m in the midst of composing a massive overview/review of Alex Body’s output (three different releases) since his solo debut, Just Say Yes, was released back in January of this year, and he went ahead and tacked one more track on the heap: “Blood Orange.”
Since he just done gone and broke us off with one more cut, I’m not going to include it in my massive 1000-word review (coming later this week), I’m just going to point you in the direction of the new track and introduce my new segment: Fresh Jamz.
“Blood Orange” chugs along more than the trippy, glitchy rhythms Body has largely embraced. The track also finds Body’s triple-tracked voice creating a unified choir rather than the crazy, dischordant structures he often featured in prior songs. Body channels some Animal Collective, tribal freak-folk with this one.

Alex Body’s been super generous of late, hooking up almost all of his tuneage for $FREE.99 on his bandcamp site. You can score “Blood Orange,” download the entirety of Just Say Yes and Little Hazey, stream his latest, Culture of Closed Doors, and cop select tracks from his recently released Night-People Records cassette, Chief of Time and Frequency at the link above. That’s a boat-load of free music to help you get into the fall mood.