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Siegfried Bilstein

NEWS 3/31/11 7:00pm

Vinyl: Portishead's trip-hop synthesis

By Siegfried Bilstein

It took a while to get there, but by the late '80s hip-hop had cemented its place into mainstream American consciousness. Rap music was everywhere, from the pop charts with MC Hammer to the underground with alternative groups like The Pharcyde. Naturally, as what happens with most genres (think punk or blues music), the movement transformed into a genre, splintering into categories like alternative, gangsta or pop-rap. Even though hip-hop as a unified cultural movement no longer existed, this level of development opened the doors for artists of different traditions to experiment with hip-hop's fundamental ideas. While some '80s bands, like Blondie and the Clash, did incorporate aspects of hip-hop into their music, it wasn't until the '90s that growth of fusion cross-genre bands really picked up.

NEWS 3/29/11 7:00pm

Relish: Yogurtland better, cheaper than Swirll

By Siegfried Bilstein

Sometimes corporations are cool. Like when they give you cheap things, especially when those cheap things are frozen yogurt. This week we trekked out to Yogurtland, a national frozen yogurt chain based out of Anaheim, Calif. Since California is pretty far from Rice we went to the branch located at Westheimer and Shepherd instead. For those of you who are geographically challenged, this is the same place where such Rice staples as Teahouse and that one Verizon store are located.

NEWS 3/10/11 6:00pm

Vinyl: Biggie Small's post-mortum success

By Siegfried Bilstein

"You're nobody (until somebody kills you)" sings Biggie Smalls, aka Notorious B.I.G. aka Christopher Wallace while mocking Dean Martin on the posthumously released double-album Life after Death. Released just 16 days after Biggie's untimely death on March 9, 1997, at the hand of an unknown assailant during a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, CA, the album's ironic title symbolizes the career and personality of one of hip-hop's greatest legends. While in death Biggie's status has grown to monumental proportions, his fame and influence while he was alive were massive. In fact, footage of his funeral procession in Brooklyn includes images of Brooklyn erupting after someone plays his single "Hypnotize." With lyrics of frighteningly emotional depth that frequently contemplated his own demise, spelling out life's ills and even the material successes of a man who spent his teen years as a crack dealer, Biggie is one of the most complex, skilled and fascinating emcees of all times.Fourteen years after his death this week, Biggie is not under-appreciated: any rap fan's top five or even top 10 list includes him. He has several chart topping singles like "Juicy," "Mo' Money Mo' Problems" and "Big Poppa," despite only releasing one album while alive: Ready to Die. Not to cheapen his commercially successful singles (some of his best and most interesting songs are instantly accessible), if you listen closely to Biggie you'll learn a lot about a man who is much more than your average rapper.

NEWS 2/24/11 6:00pm

James Brown: Getting Funky

By Siegfried Bilstein

Last week, Radiohead dropped their new album along with a video of Thom Yorke's bizarre dancing to their single "Lotus Flower." While watching Yorke dance is interesting, his moves are nothing compared to the godfather of soul and king of feverish dancing, the one and only James Brown. While younger people mostly associate James Brown hits like "Get Up Offa That Thing" or "I Got You (I Feel Good)" with cover bands at bar mitzvahs and weddings, James Brown's place in our cultural landscape cannot be underestimated; through his music he pioneered the new genre of funk, became a symbol for the civil rights movement and had a profound effect on hip-hop. It's fun, easily accessible music that, on a superficial level, sounds like one big party. It wasn't really until I started doing research into the history and origins of all the hip hop music I liked so much that I realized just how influential and important Brown was.Brown grew up extremely poor in Augusta, Georgia. Alternating between living with his father and his aunt, Brown was largely unsupervised as a child and dropped out of school in the seventh grade. He learned how to play various instruments from friends, most notably blues musician Tampa Red. Brown was frequently in trouble, and while playing on a detention center's inmate baseball team at the age of 16, he befriended musician Bobby Byrd. When Byrd noticed Brown singing to other inmates, he arranged for his family to oversee Brown's parole and his career began.

NEWS 2/10/11 6:00pm

Vinyl: A look at punk's timelessness

By Siegfried Bilstein

There's no better way to celebrate Presidents Day than by examining two hardcore punk bands named after two of our nation's great leaders: Reagan Youth and Dead Kennedys. With their incredibly low production values and occasionally paradoxical political views, these pioneering bands are an important part of the American punk tradition. Reagan Youth's name is a reference to the Hitler Youth: Appropriately, the cover art of the seven-song E.P. Youth Anthems for The New Order, their only release during the Reagan Administration, features a cloaked Klansman chatting up an all-American family. Part of me hopes no young punks in the '80s confused this group of radical anarchists for racists, as some of lead singer Dave Insurgent's (aka Dave Rubinstein) family were Holocaust survivors. A hostile combination of anarchism and socialism, Reagan Youth's politics represented the vocal distaste many hardcore bands had for American conservatism.

NEWS 11/18/10 6:00pm

My Dark Twisted Fantasy: West's comeback album

By Siegfried Bilstein

Hip-hop is about stories and the people who tell them. Kanye West is one hell of a storyteller, and his latest album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, cements his place as one of the most important artists of our time. His most personal album so far, Kanye makes a great departure from his previous albums musically, lyrically and in content by telling the story of his comeback from the nadir of his career. Unlike his previous albums, Kanye is no longer appealing to every man; there is no "Good Life" to sing along to on this album. Instead, Kanye delivers a brilliantly crafted, occasionally dark and empowering story of redemption and triumph.This album's story really begins more than a year ago. Whether it was caused by the "Fishsticks" episode of South Park (that prompted an all-caps response on Kanye's infamous blog) or the MTV Video Music Awards snafu with Taylor Swift at the end of 2009, Kanye's public image had completely deteriorated. Kanye stayed under the radar, except for a little known short film released in October 2009, directed by Spike Jonze, that is essentially a metaphor for Kanye's public relations suicide - until he leaked the song "Power" in May. "Power" is an appropriately strong entrance back into the limelight. Cleverly using a King Crimson sample, Kanye simultaneously addresses his detractors for obsessing over him and proudly proclaims his influence on the music industry. Combined with his weekly music releases via his G.O.O.D. Fridays music program, the leak primed fans for the most exciting comeback album in recent memory.

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