John Legend and the Roots, a match made in funk heaven?

I'd like to preface this post by saying that over the summer, I really delved into hip hop in a way I hadn't before, and now I love it, especially The Roots.

They're the most genuine, earnest and badass hip hop group I know of (and also one of the most prolific with 12 studio albums, a Gramy and 6 Grammy nominations). If you're looking to get into them, I'd suggest starting with Game Theory, then moving on to Things Fall Apart and How I Got Over. If you dig, get Organix, their first full length. If all goes according plan, it'll slap you in the face with funk.

Now on to the main point of this post. The Roots recently paired up with funk manic John Legend for an album of politically charged 60s and 70s funk covers titled Wake Up. NPR is streaming the entire album for free if you care to check it out. It's really great, especially "Compared To What." More funk than I could ever handle.

To top it all off, JL and The Roots decided to do a cover of Arcade Fire's "Wake Up," off their 2004 full-length Funeral.

Check it, so much soul. And you'll rarely find r&b and hip hop acts covering british indie rock, so soak it up.

And how could I forget to mention ?est Love, The Roots' fro-laden beatmaster. Check how much love he puts into that kit. We need more drummers like him.

Chef Bill! Rice and Beans Edition

Welcome back me! And welcome back any readers I didn't lose in the three month hiatus I took from this!

I'ma start to encompass my cooking ideas, adventures and aspirations in da Gl-C. Why? Because fuck you, that's why. Also, It's my blog and I do what I wanna.

So here goes.

If you're ever feeling really lazy but want something delicious, pour a can of pinto beans and half a box of white rice into a pan. Add water until the rice and beans are just just submerged (add water as necessary during cooking to keep them covered with water), cook on a mediumish setting until the rice gets soft (depends on the rice and the heat but it usually takes 5-10 minutes,) then bring the burner down to simmer, add a liberal amount of salt and pepper (and heavy d up in the limousine) and one packet of Sazón Goya con Culantro y Achiote and stir until well mixed.

Sazón Goya is to rice and beans like Thousand Island dressing is to the Big Mac. It just makes it.

If you wanna get crazy, add some red or green peppers, jalepeneos and grilled chicken into the mix.

I learned this timeless yet incredibly simple recipe from Rafael Reyes, my crafty Dominican co-worker. Thanks Raff.

Moving Furniture Trumps My Life

During the summer I move furniture. It's a lucrative job. I make more money than I would anywhere else. But it has its drawbacks, particularly for the upkeep of this blog. As you can see, my postage has really fallen by the wayside.

When I get home from an eight to 12 hour day at Scott Relocation Services, I'm completely exhausted, and not the kind of exhausted found after staying up too late or going on a long bike ride. My job produces a complete state of mental and physical exhaustion. I don't want to do anything when I get home, even if it's as easy as writing a blog post.

But I'll do my best.

As for now, I really don't feel like writing anything.

Summer! The Official Bill Shaner Mix

Summer is upon us! Well, maybe just me. This is is a glimpse at what's coming out of my speakers until september.

Telekinesis! - Telekinesis!

Michael Lerner, a twenty-something from Seattle Washington, writes and records everything Telekinesis! puts out, which is one album: Telekinesis!. I've been a big fan of it recently. It has a great natural sound and most of the album is catchy ("Calling all Doctors" in particular. Note how he plays drums on stage, that's really cool.) Better yet, the album was produced in part by Chris Walla, Death Cab for Cutie's guitarist/producer. Can you hear it? After I found out, I thought this song has a feel similar to The Photo Album, Death Cab's third full length; especially with "I Was A Kaleidoscope." The guitar and drum tones are a pretty similar.

But back to "Coast of Carolina," It's engergized and up-beat. If you see me rollin' 'round Milford any time soon, I may be making a fool of myself singing along at the top of my lungs.

Jónsi- Go

This is another good sing-along (if you're up on your Icelandic – yes, that is a real language). Jónsi is the head man of Sigur Rós, a good post-rock act and he recently put out his own solo project, Go. It retains a Sigur Rós feel – kind of abstract, slow paced with rich harmonies – while infused with some Coldplay-ish pop elements.

Here's the album's first track, "Go Do."

It's fun and different, a combination I don't often come by. It hooked me so much that I'm seeing him tonight at the House of Blues in Boston. It's gunna be fun. I haven't been to a good, fun show in a while and I'm excited.

Adventure Plus – In Case of Fire

Music doesn't get much more fun or energetic than this. A couple guys that graduated from my high school a few years before me put this together. Every part, whether it be vocals, drums, guitar, bass, is constantly moving. It makes you wanna jump and it'll be stuck in your head all day. Sometimes I forget these guys are local, because they have a sound that could take them places.Unfortunately there's no convenient youtube links since they aren't very big yet, but they've been kind enough to offer their album, In Case Of Fire, up for download. I highly suggest you get it.

Every song on that album is great for summer, but the best are "Go Home" and "We Killed The Carpool." So download the album and get these songs on your summer playlists!

Happy listening!

Regina Spektor Covers Radiohead's "No Surprises"

Spektor put this awesome cover on her website a few days ago. And let me tell you, it's awesome. Did I mention how awesome it is?

Regina is selling the song on iTunes and the proceeds will go to the Doctors Without Borders Emergency Relief Fund for recently earthquake-stricken Chile and Haiti.

The song is fitting, especially for Haiti, whose government and economy are among the most volatile in the world.

Yorke writes and Regina sings, "A heart that's full up like a landfill/A job that slowly kills you . . . Bring down the government, they don't speak for us." Words any poor Haitian citizen with a shabbily constructed house and an even worse income could say. "I'll take the quiet life/A handshake, some carbon monoxide/No alarms and no surprises."

It's actually haunting to listen to or read these lyrics with Haiti or Chile in mind, and I'd say that's the desired effect.

So you could buy the song on iTunes to do your part (and get a really awesome cover).

And you can listen to the original Radiohead version here.

Death Cab To Start Recording 7th Album

You heard it here first! Well maybe, but I heard it here and here first.

But anyway, Gibbard announced a few days ago that Death Cab for Cutie will begin recording in the summer and plan to release their album early next year.

The album doesn't have a name yet, but Chris Walla, the band's guitarist and producer, said it'll sound like something in between Narrow Stairs' "live and lose" feel and the more polished Plans, according to an MTV report.

Here is Gibbard discussing the album over the phone with MTV.

MTV Shows

Seems like the band's doing it for the right reasons, and it seems

like Gibbard's excited. That's one thing I've always liked about

Death Cab. They just have fun. If I could pick one band and say

they'll never break up, it would be Death Cab. There's just no big personalities or butting heads, and they love making music.

I expect to grow up with Death Cab. I want them to keep producing good music for decades. I want to hear their music

mature and age with them. And I want them to keep doing it for

no other reason than that it's what they love.

Chinese v. American

So I was reading the New Yorker (yes, I am an un-American leftist looney) and I happened upon an article written by a man who was born and raised in America, lived in China for 10 years, then came back. The article, titled "Go West, Scenes from an American Homecoming," essentially compares and contrasts Chinese and American life.

I really hesitated to write about this because the full article isn't free online. You can access it with a digital subscription or in the magazine ($6 anywhere that sells magazines). But I'll do my best to make this interesting without access to the article. Read a preview of it if you want, though it won't help much.

Anywho, I immediately liked the article because it didn't portray the Chinese as the communist drones we tend to think of (and saw in the opening ceremony of The Olympics). Instead, the author used language like, "Everybody [in China] seems to live in the moment," and he portrayed the Chinese moving crew who packed his apartment as incredibly hard and efficient workers, harder workers than the Americans who unpacked it on the other side. (Wait, I thought communism promotes laziness?). To be fair, he was also living in Shanghai, one of the more free places in China.

More interesting still was the comparison between Chinese conversation and American. What the author, Peter Hessler, noticed was the Chinese ask questions, see conversations as a way to gather information and learn. They don't do much in the way of sharing personal experiences, stories or ideas. The Americans, Hessler argues, are more quick to tell a story, share an experience, and they're much lighter on the questions. He said that where the Chinese listen, the Americans wait for their turn to speak.

Best example (I'll type it up, shhh don't tell the New Yorker):

The [American] driver talked non-stop for a hundred and twenty miles, He told stories about his ex-wife, and he described his studies of Biblical Hebrew; he had strong opinions about the Book of Daniel. Nowadays, he lived in a trailer court, but during the nineteen-sixties he had travelled for France, Spain, Greece, and Turkey. "I had a rich uncle who took me there."

"Wow, that must have been nice," I said. "What did your uncle do?"

"That was Uncle Sam."

People in China never talked like that. They didn't like to be the center of attention, and they took little pleasure in narrative. They rarely lingered on interesting details. It wasn't an issue of being quiet; in fact, most Chinese could talk your ear off about things like foodand money and weather, and they loved to ask foreigners questions. But they avoided personal topics . . . Probably it was natural in the culture where people live in such close contact, and where everything revolves around the family or some other group. (Page 53)

This says a lot about the difference between American and Chinese culture. In China, the basic ideal is the common good – everything for the country and everything from the country. America, however, is focused on the individual. We were all taught to be our own person, raise ourselves up, chase the american dream. America, at least modern America, is built on the rugged individualism ideal: life is for the taking, for personal triumph. Whereas in China, life is for the living, and for the betterment of the community.

So it makes sense that Americans like personal stories more. Life is all about personal goals and successes, and our own life story tends to be a favorite; just look at how stacked the biography section is at any bookstore. Everyone likes writing about themselves. We are very selfish creatures here in the U.S. of A. Gotta look out for number one (and turn number one's past experiences into interesting narratives, thus promoting self-worth through glorification.)

The role of the individual in China is diminished (or maybe it's just put into perspective. Some of my friends could use a little of that). The overbearing sense of one-cog-in-the-machine-ism (like that coinage?) makes personal narratives uninteresting.

I don't know whether that's better or worse than what we have here. But I can say one thing: If I were to tell my own life story, I'd tell it to a Chinese person. At least I know they'd listen.