Tuesday, July 30, 2002 -- 06:55 p.m.

Not much to say other that I'm sick and I have new articles on sscb. Not necessarily in that order. The El-P review was written in about the span of an hour when I couldn't sleep due to humidity and I had "Truancy" running through my head. I don't make it a habit of writing things that out there and potentially pretentious but Fantastic Damage doesn't seem to me to be an album you approach on normal terms.

-Nate

Monday, July 29, 2002 -- 08:47 a.m.

Via No Rock&Roll Fun: Tenuous grasp on the English language, or smartass editorializing disguised as poor phonic translation?

-Nate

Monday, July 29, 2002 -- 12:06 a.m.

Albums I've been feelin' so far this year:

Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: Yeah, let me get this out of the way first. I've been hearing so much backlash about this album that the flaws everyone says it has -- weak vocals, gimmicky O'Rourke-isms, obtuse lyrics -- but I'll pop in Fantastic Damage if I want to be lost in the most minute details of an artistically complex record. YHF I can sort of half-pay attention to yet when it ends I feel like I've examined it up close.
Clinic, Walking With Thee: The general consensus seems to be "it isn't as good as Internal Wrangler. If that's true, then Internal Wrangler must be one fucking amazing record because Walking With Thee knocked me the hell out. Jittery neurotic garage-pop that knows more than anyone how to use glitch-techno sensibilities to ramp up their rhythms. Sure to be high up on my list when winter comes around and night falls at five.
Super Furry Animals, Rings Around the World: Technically released last year, but I CHEAT TO WIN, BABY. I know this sounds cheesy, but these guys are like Pink Floyd if they had as much fun as ELO. Paul McCartney appears on one of their songs, eating crunchy vegetables. These Welsh kids are on a huge dose of Goofathol and thank God for that.
DJ Shadow, The Private Press: Josh Davis goes a little nuts and digs so far down into the crates he falls right in. And hey, he can kick out electro breaks and Squarepusher glitch like nobody's business -- who knew? And throwing a bit of New Wave in with his rare groove repetoire is a fascinating style change.
RJD2, Dead Ringer: As if a potential future classic DJ Shadow record isn't enough, this has to drop a couple months later and despite one or two minor flaws (yeah, Mr. Motamouth, you certainly are about the "raw shit", that's nice), sweet merciful crap does this thing blow your goddamned headphones apart. It gets better with every listen.
N*E*R*D, In Search Of...: As mentioned last Friday in shallow depth. Simultaneously earnest and goofy, macho and emotional, big dumb pop and postmodern genius. I don't care if Pharrel "can't sing", he's fun to listen to. The Neptunes are like Giorgio Moroder-bot 2000 or something. El-P, Fantastic Damage: At the risk of being labeled a Def Jukie Jocker (Can Ox's The Cold Vein was my favorite record of 2001), this here is the #1 contender for my favorite album of 2002. Harrowing, cold, lyrically masterful, like a collision of Kraftwerk and Funkadelic and Meat Beat Manifesto emceed by Satan's carnival barker. "Stepfather Factory" gave me chills like no hip-hop cut since the Coup's "Me and Jesus the Pimp In A '79 Granada Last Night".

Note: I have not heard Murray Street or Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots yet

-Nate