English guitarist Guthrie Govan plays a 5 minute solo in the styles of 20 famous guitarists. And look, someone has added a picture of each of them. Don’t scroll down if you want to see if you can name them all. Guthrie’s playing is so good, you might be able to tell with your eyes closed.

Eric Johnson, James Taylor, Pete Townshend, The Edge, B.B. King, David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Albert Lee, Edward Van Halen, Al di Meola, Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Zakk Wylde, Tom Morello, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Sonny Landreth, Jeff Beck, John Scofield, Jimi Hendrix.

BrainTrust

BlakRoc – The Album

I have been a subscriber to the jam-rock music magazine Relix for about 2 years now, and last month’s issue had something quite odd on the cover:  The members of the blues-rock band The Black Keys, underground hip-hop rapper-slash-actor Mos Def, and the very-commercial rapper/entertainer Jim Jones of Dip Set fame (the “no homo” boys).  Needless to say, this was a very jarring image to see on the cover of this magazine (a magazine that was originally created in the mid-70s for obsessed Grateful Dead fans, also known as Deadheads).  It gets stranger.  The purpose of the cover story was to introduce a new project called BlakRoc, created and executive-produced by…Damon Dash.  Dame Dash?  Yes, that guy who started Roc-A-Fella Records with future hip-hop mogul Jay-Z back in 1996.  I told you it got stranger.

At that point, I did not have high hopes for this project.  But then, I kept my mind open and read on.  I didn’t know anything about The Black Keys, but I later learned that this is a band that I have been sleeping on.  Dame Dash fell in love with The Black Keys sometime in 2008 and instantly wanted to create a project for them.  Upon meeting the band, Dash learned that The Black Keys, comprised of vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, grew up as huge hip-hop heads.  The concept was simple:  The Black Keys create tracks with their instruments, then cherry-pick some of their favorite MCs, bring them into the studio, and have them lay down rhymes over the tracks.  What impressed me the most about these dudes from Akron, Ohio was their choice of MCs:  Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch, Raekwon, RZA, Q-Tip, and Billy Danze of M.O.P. fame (or gangsta rap Bert and Ernie fame…your call).  Dame Dash, of course, rounded out the list of artists by adding his own affiliates Jim Jones, NOE (who suspiciously sounds A LOT like Jay-Z), and R&B singer Nicole Wray.  Mix all that together, and you get BlakRoc.  After reading the Relix article, I decided to give it a shot.

But I didn’t start by buying the BlakRoc album.  Anybody who knows me knows that music is one of my most, if not most, passionate hobbies.  I am always trying to find new quality music, and one of the ways I do that is by investigating the side projects and the influences of my favorite artists.  So, for example, if it turned out that I liked this BlakRoc project, then I would have probably checked out some of The Black Keys.  Instead, I did the opposite, and decided to check out The Black Keys first.  I wanted to hear what they were like pre-BlakRoc, and also to familiarize myself with their sound.  This way, in my opinion, it would be much easier to tell how genuine this new project was.  After one day of listening to their 2006 album Magic Potion, I was hooked to the stripped-down blues-rock riffs and simple, yet profound lyrics.  I bought BlakRoc that same day on Amazon (or iTunes).

The album starts out with the banging track “Coochie” featuring Ludacris and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard.  The instrumentals were created by The Black Keys during the sessions for this album, but the vocals in this track were actually found in RZA’s basement and were recorded some 9 years ago.  The track sets the tone for the rest of the album:  Tight, concise rhymes over impressively original live-instrument tracks.  The next track, “On The Vista” features Mos Def doing his standard rap-singy thing.  He sounds quite comfortable over the piano-laced track, as he should be given the fact that much of his recent music features his own live band, Black Jack Johnson.  There are two tracks on the album, “Dollaz & Sense” and “Tellin’ Me Things”, featuring RZA, and they both bring the ruckus.  On “Dollaz & Sense”, RZA actually does most of the work, as he writes and plays the main guitar riff, and of course, writes and spits his verses.  The video below documents RZA’s time in the studio with The Black Keys and shows the birth of the track, and includes my favorite highlight: RZA recording his verse, which he recites from his BlackBerry, all while smoking a joint.  I think Dem David Dem dreamed about doing this once.

Another highlight of the album is the awesomely titled “Stay Off the Fucking Flowers” featuring Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan fame.  Rae has been known throughout his career as one of hip-hop’s more vivid storytellers with his elevated sense of imagery and wordplay, and he doesn’t disappoint here.  As for Jim Jones, who is probably best known for his club hit “We Fly High” (also known as the “BAAALLIIIIIN’!!!” song), he surprisingly delivers a couple of really nice verses on “What You Do To Me”, also featuring Billy Danze and Nicole Wray, and the radio single with Mos Def “Aint Nothing Like You”.  It’s remarkable what some rappers can do when not driven by mass commercial appeal and record sales…

One of the more amazing things about this project is that the album was recorded in 11 days.  Anybody familiar with the process of putting a full album together can attest to how hard it is to do that for ANY album.  Upon listening to this album, one should be even more impressed.

Review:

“This past week Brother Ali was in town as part of the FRESH AIR TOUR featuring Brother Ali, Evidence (from Dilated Peoples fame), and Toki Wright. He did an in-store signing before the show at a local CD record shop down the street from my house, so I figured I’d go down check it out.  I took the insert poster from my copy of US and had him sign it.  The show was at a pretty tight venue in Eugene, WOW hall. It’s a non-profit music venue in town that has converted an old dance hall (church type building) into an all ages venue for music and art. The whole place is run only by volunteers and they manage to get some decent national acts coming through their doors.  The one down side is that the bar is downstairs in the basement and there is no alcohol allowed upstairs (on account of the under age crowd), so you have to run down stairs and chug a beer real quick between acts or watch on a shitty TV at the bar.  Anyways, the show was pretty good. BK-ONE was holding it down on the turntables all night, acting as the DJ for the rest of the guys and spinning some sweet tracks between sets. Toki Wright, who I wasn’t a big fan of before this, did pretty well and was able to get the crowd pretty hyped for the next guys.  I watched Evidence from the bar as I figured I’d get a couple of sweet local micro brews in the belly before Ali.  Ali came out and killed it, the place was packed and there was a lot of love for the Brother man.  As always he put on a great show playing some of his older classics as well as a few notable tracks from the new album. I recommend if you are near any of the stops on the tour to check it out. I managed to get some pretty decent video clips of a couple of tracks…”

Holding it down for the Swagger Tooth Nation in the pacific northwest.

T-Mos

Pictures:

Videos:

Others available at SwaggerToothVideo.

SPORTS

Football is officially back on the collegiate and professional level.  The biggest headlines in college have been:

• Sam Bradford’s season-threatening injury in Oklahoma’s season opening loss to BYU
• True freshman QB Matt Barkley leading USC to victory over Ohio State in the “Horseshoe”
• Michigan vs. Notre Dame in a match-up of two “hot seat” coaches in “must win” situations

Biggest NFL Week 1 headlines:

• Eagles QB McNabb breaks a rib in victory over Panthers.  Vick STARTING a lot sooner than we expected?  Side note, Panthers QB Delhomme throws 4 (four!) INTs and tosses in 1 lost fumble.
• FARVIN!  Vikings win comfortably over Browns as Adrian Peterson runs for 180 yards/3 TD and Percy Harvin scores his first professional TD.
• Denver wins in Cincinnati on a miracle tipped pass for a TD, courtesy of Brandon Stokely, in what was overall a horrible game.  According to NFL:  It was the longest game-winning play from scrimmage in the final minute of the fourth quarter in NFL history.

TRIOS & ORCHESTRAS

Two albums that El Meester has been recently listening to are Phish’s 14th studio offering Joy and Jay-Z’s latest effort The Blueprint 3.  Joy is produced by well-respected and accomplished producer Steve Lillywhite, who has produced some of El Meester’s absolute all-time favorite albums such as Dave Matthews Band’s Before These Crowded Streets, Talking Heads’ Naked, and Phish’s Billy Breathes.  The Blueprint 3, as one would expect, features production work from hip-hop’s finest such as Kanye West, No I.D., Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, and The Neptunes.  Both are solid albums that will continue to receive many listens and are SwaggerTooth-recommended.  El Meester’s favorite Joy tracks:  “Backwards Down the Number Line”, “Sugar Shack”, “Ocelot”, “Kill Devil Falls”, and “Time Turns Elastic”.  Favorite Blueprint 3 tracks:  “Empire State of Mind”, “Off That”, “Venus vs. Mars”, and “Reminder”.

James performed “Woodstock”, “Fire and Rain” and “Sweet Baby James” in studio — if you’d like to just hear the “Woodstock” clip, you can find that one here by itself. I think this can be considered bondernuts?

Brother Ali drops first single “Fresh Air”

Murs and Slug Announce Felt 3 Producer @ Red Rocks

I thought I saw Shaq’s new show tonight at the 4th Quarter with the sound off.  I wish I could have heard his brilliant musings.  Shaq is awesome.  Here’s a write-up on it.  I love Shaq (no homo).

And here is a really good piece on the best-selling jazz album of all time, Miles Davis‘ Kind of Blue.  For those unfamiliar with jazz, this is a ridiculously good album.  Senior editor of Allmusic Stephen Thomas Erlewine said, “It may be a stretch to say that if you don’t like Kind of Blue, you don’t like jazz — but it’s hard to imagine it as anything other than a cornerstone of any jazz collection.”  August 17, 2009 marked the 50th anniversary of its release.  I should have been on top of things and posted this two days ago.  Oh well.

I came across this awesome tune below while YouTubing songs out of a Motown songbook I purchased.  I love it (no homo).  I’ve actually been listening to it repeatedly while I wrote this post.  Hope all you out in SwaggerTooth Nation enjoy it.

Dave Matthews Band (Night 2) Post-show Wrap-up Party (in the parking lot):