Beauty Tips According To Forest Whitaker

If one person whose musical taste I respect recommends me something, I'll get to it eventually, assuming I can remember what it was for long enough. But if two people whose musical taste I respect recommend me the same something in the space of three days, I'm gonna give it a shot almost immediately.

And so, Brother Ali, the Muslim albino rapper from Minneapolis. An unusual story, an old-school style, and of late some controversial lyrics and killer harmonica about the "United Snakes."

I like his song Forest Whitiker, about being your own person:

Ima be alright
You ain't gotta be my friend tonite
And Ima be okay
You would probly bore me anyway

You can listen to and download some of his stuff here.

Truth Is

Of Good And Not So Good Band Names

I'm listening to KEXP at work, not really listening, you understand, but just on the headphones so I can concentrate, and the DJ comes on and starts going on about a band called Meth Teeth and what a great name Meth Teeth is. And I have to say, I agree. Even more awesomely, they are on a label called Sweet Rot Records. They have a song called "Unemployment Forever." I cannot understand the lyrics. Here is their MySpace page.

I email this band name to a fellow indy-music-loving coworker. He writes back and agrees that it is an awesome band name. Not, he says, like the name of a band he has just stumbled upon, the Brooklyn-based Sleigh Bells. However, I think Sleigh Bells could take Meth Teeth in a battle of the bands. Visit their MySpace page, where you can download some of their stuff. "At The Beach" is my favorite.

Radiohead + Marching Band = My Head Will Explode?

Ateaseweb sez Radiohead has been rehearsing 15 Steps with the USC Marching Band. And they have a foto to prove it.

B-Boy Obsession

Attempting to recover from the cold/cough plague of death that seems to be going around NYC, I spent all day yesterday on my couch watching TV. At some point, I video-on-demanded "Planet B-Boy." I was totally blown away by the creativity of this Ichigeki crew from Japan, and I'm happy that a clip of their full performance is available on YouTube (in the movie it gets edited down to half of this or so).

I really love the part around five minutes in when the b-boy playing the DJ comes out and dances, even tho' it's not the most amazingly physical part of the routine. He's one of the focal characters in the documentary; there's a bunch of stuff in his family's tea shop about his father's death and how he's dealt with it.

According to the movie, this crew disbanded. Sadness.