Diary Written by Dead Fathers

We're a group of music lovers, and we do things like reviews of new music, classic reviews, and other things as they come. Staff: Mike Aruba, Sheffield Johnson, and Gary Farnsworth

[deaddadsdiary]

Hey yo dog. Listen up.

The Stabone and Demar Rock Group are recording again. Pass it on. If you haven’t heard of them, here ya go.

 https://tsadrg.bandcamp.com/album/nostalge-trois-totally-unbelievable-edition

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Sippy

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we live in the cyberpunk corporate dystopia that none one ever saw coming. 

[deaddadsdiary]

Lil Dicky ‘Professional Rapper’ Album Review

Lil Dicky, or Dave Burd is a rapper initially from Philadelphia, whose song “Ex-Boyfriend” put him on the map of Youtube, and recently showed back up with his new album ‘Professional Rapper’. Personally, he just showed up on my radar really recently; I’ve never actually heard of him until, oddly, a Facebook banner ad mentioned his new album and I wanted to give something a shot. To be honest, I’m not big in the rap game. I’ve got a few people that I listen to consistently, and now, I can very gladly add Lil Dicky to that list.

‘Professional Rapper’ Overview

Coming into this album with a fresh palette, I was definitely tossed around a bit before I decided that I liked it. I will admit, not every piece of this record is exactly the most original thing in the world, but he carefully picks the best pieces of other things to use for his songs and it pays off pretty quickly. Dave’s flow is pretty solid for the most part; there aren’t any songs where his actual rapping makes me groan. He’s got plenty of jokes up his sleeve, which I can always appreciate. I listen to enough sad music, its nice having something that’s just silly.

Track Listings (Picked out of personal favorites)

This whole album picks out bits and pieces of ideas that other artists have played with and tweaks them to work for him. The album starts out with (and includes two other tracks with) phone calls between Dave and his parents. It’s kind of a slow part to the album, which helps when some of the songs get pretty crazy. Going off that, the second song is “Professional Rapper”, which has a feature from none other than the Snoop D O double G. The track is absolutely great, letting Snoop and Dicky play off each other and playing out like Dicky applying for a job and trying to make his points as to what makes him different as a rapper. Next up is “Who Knew”, which is where I noticed the bits and pieces note I made earlier. He uses a very Iggy Azalea sample, which sounds like the one used for “Fancy”. I have no issue with this, he turns it a bit and makes it work. The track “Bruh...” is definitely my personal favorite track on the album. Its fast, funny, solid, and just my kinda thing. “The Hannibal Interlude” comes after that, which features Hannibal Buress basically just talking about what he doesn’t want to see rappers doing. He goes off about Dicky’s rap name, talking about money, and having “30 people on stage”. It’s a really funny little clip and the beat behind it makes it really enjoyable overall. The only other two that I fell in love with were “Classic Male Pregame”, which talks about an unsuccessful night of pregaming before going to a party that doesn’t happen and then getting too drunk and having a bad night and is just super good for laughs, and “White Crime”, which has about the same effect.

Cons (From someone who doesn’t love rap)

Personally, the features, despite being huge names, are what kind of kill it for me. Its more just that I don’t really like some of the people doing it. Fetty Wap has a feature on the song “$ave Dat Money”, and T-Pain has a feature on the song “Personality”. I just don’t personally get into their voices so it’s kinda ehh for me. That certainly isn’t to say that they’re bad at all. The songs are totally catchy and really not bad songs, just not ones I’m going to be seeking out, compared to the Snoop and Hannibal features. The other thing this album does lack is depth. It definitely isn’t an album trying to get a deep message across. Its certainly an album that’s there to be funny, which is what Dave wanted to do in the first place, and that’s personally fine with me. I included it here because some people need depth to their rap and so on and even if I don’t I understand when people do. It holds what I’ve decided to call “Mac Miller Syndrome”. Its odd because it’s the same kind of deal. A white, Jewish rapper comes from a decent town, and shows up doing goofy rap. I like Mac, so it isn’t a jump to Dicky for me. Not to say that they’re the same, because they’re not, but they have a few similarities that I thought were interesting.

Conclusion

As a whole, this album is honestly awesome. Even if every track isn’t totally memorable, I won’t skip any songs on it, which for me at least, is a huge deal. Dicky is super funny in that very goofy way, which works for him completely. It’s easy to listen to, and it makes me laugh, which is good enough for me. It’s something you could play at a party and it’s not gonna cause an issue because of how much variety there is song-wise. I’m glad I found Lil Dicky, and I’m excited to see what he does from here.

Favorite Tracks- “Professional Rapper”, “Bruh...”, “Hannibal Interlude”, and “Classic Male Pregame”.

Rating- 9 out of 10 diamond studded dreidels

Videos

“Professional Rapper” Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlU4FuIJT2k

“Lemme Freak” Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocGiulPm3IU

“White Crime” Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7eA_TyogeU

“Classic Male Pregame” Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je1nn2-y3cw

-The Young Gun, Mike Aruba

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WEEN VS. FIDLAR: “HELP ME SCRAPE THE MUCUS OFF MY BRAIN”

Ween initially wrote the song “Help Me Scrape The Mucus Off My Brain”, which appeared on their ‘12 Golden Country Greats’ album that released in 1996. FIDLAR, in late 2013, decided to do a cover, or more or less, revamp, of the song. You can very easily hear the differences between the two versions of the song, but the differences encapsulate everything both bands are, and they’re both really great renditions.

WEEN:

With the original Ween version of this glorious track, they keep it to a very classically country style, while adding a bit of the weird poppy style that they were always known for. Between the banjo, piano, and guitars, this thing feels just like your Grandpa from Texas who still thinks that he’s still in the Wild West. When it reaches the solo, the song takes on a very Tex-Mex style by going back and forth between a mariachi style solo, and a classic plucking solo on top of it. The whole song is just put together amazingly.

FIDLAR:

When FIDLAR gets their dirt crusted hands on the song, they flip it around, and roll it around the Mexican markets of Southern California, and give it a special, mostly mariachi flair that almost makes it a different song. They give it their special little punk flair when it comes to the singing, but when the solo comes around, they totally toss it through the window. They start with their classic guitar, move over to a recorder solo, followed by a ukelele, and then finish off with a slide solo. If you want to get a bit of a kick, you can go ahead and follow up by watching the video that goes with their rendition, rather than just pluggin’ it in and listening to it, ya goddamn animals.

Overall, both versions make up the same sad song, and from one man to another, it’ll help you next time you get a hangover. They’re fun versions, and it’s just nice seeing bands covering older stuff like that.

One last bit, http://modern-vinyl.com/ is actually going to be reissuing a few different Ween records, starting in late August, and the first to be sent out is, drum roll, ‘12 Golden Country Greats’! So if you’d like to get in on a special colored reissue of this beautiful twang flavored fiesta, then you can go over and pre-order to your heart’s content!

Ween Version- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tvJvh_87i4

FIDLAR Version- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwjZZgCMjAg

Modern Vinyl Pre-Order- http://modern-vinyl.com/2015/07/06/ween-albums-coming-back-to-vinyl/

The Young Gun, Mike Aruba

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Ayyyyy concerts!

So, I’m going to try getting up to Portland to go to quite a few concerts in the next coming months! If anyone’s going to these, feel free to say hey!

Vaccinnes, Wonder Ballroom $18- FRIDAY AUGUST 7

Wavves, Wonder Ballroom, $20 - WEDNESDAY SEPT 9

FIDLAR, Wonder Ballroom $17- THURSDAY OCTOBER 22

Joyce Manor, Wonder Ballroom $15- MONDAY OCTOBER 26 MONDAY

Mac DeMarco, Crystal Ballroom $25- WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 28

WONDER BALLROOM

http://www.wonderballroom.com/event/852131-elle-king-portland/

CRYSTAL BALLROOM

http://www.crystalballroompdx.com/1904-cbr-event-calendar

Let me know if anyone’s going to any of these!

The Young Gun, Mike Aruba

[deaddadsdiary]

Kid Mud ‘The Ghost on Lee St.’ Review

Kid Mud is a band from California, consisting of frontman Sean Duncan, Steve Brooks, Mike Reavill, Nick Ruiz, and Mike Watkins. They’ve taken on a new style for this album, bringing in a few new styles to add to the mix. This record, ‘The Ghost On Lee St.’ is Kid Mud’s fourth (total) release. On this album, they blend a lot of styles from alternative to synth.

‘The Ghost On Lee St.’ Overview

All in all, this record leads itself from a strong finish to a strong end, with a few ups and down in between. It starts out very bright, with a lot of synth going on and a lot of vocals. There’s just a lot happening, and it mixes really well. It gets really spacy and slow after this, which definitely is a big change, but it winds out being pretty good. The track “Justification” is definitely a bit darker and more apparently dark than the rest of the album. It picks up about halfway through the 4th track and keeps it going through the 5th before heading into the end. The actual end of the album definitely feels like an ending track, which isn’t something that I can say very often. I actually like it though, it’s nice having an ending that actually feels like an ending for once. And for the sake of the joke, when the synth comes in towards the end, it definitely feels fitting to say its the “revenge of the synth”.

Synth-Necessity

As a whole, if you didn’t have the synth effects added to this record, then you probably wouldn’t think anything of it; it would just come off as an indie record. Having it, though, does nothing but add, which definitely isn’t something that a lot of bands can really say. For the upbeat songs, it adds a bit more brightness, and with the slow songs, it adds to the melancholy overtones that each song puts off. I’m not personally someone that is a huge fan of synth unless its used rather sparingly, or if its actual EDM. I do like it on this record though, which can be a bit of a statement for me.

Length

This album is relatively short, sliding in at a little under half an hour. Realistically, that’s not really a bad thing; it’s not a huge thing for bands to have to have gigantic, symphony-status records. Sometimes, you just don’t really need that. There’s only six songs on the record, which breaks everything up nicely into little chunks. The songs do flow into each other, but you can obviously just listen to any songs by themselves and it’ll be fine.

Conclusion

As a whole, this album is really up and down, and it makes for a pretty solid listen. It doesn’t linger around too long, but it stays long enough for you to get to hear all of the different styles everyone is bringing to the table. All of the different tones and synths add a fun mix to the sometimes stale ‘indie’ genre.

Favorite Track- “Security Deposit”

Rating- 8 ½ Runaway synth tracks

Buy ‘The Ghosts on Lee St.’- https://kidmud.bandcamp.com/

The Young Gun, Mike Aruba

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20 year old albums that should be revisited (Vol. 2)

Bjork - Post (June 13th, 1995)

Post is one of those album that just seem to blow everyone’s mind.  This was the third album from the Icelandic singer and it has so many different styles.  You have trip hop style ballads that could be compared to artists like Tricky.  You have these huge big band style songs which feels like Bjork found Doc’s Delorean and went back to grab the best 1943 studio artists of the time, packed them all in the car, and brought them back to have an authentic big band recording with the studio quality of 1995.  While you listen to the album the lyrics and melodies are almost written in the style of a broadway performance. For example, the track ‘Hyperballad’ paints this huge landscape with the lyrics “We live on a mountainright at the top there's a beautiful view from the top of the mountain every morning I walk towards the edge and throw little things off like car-parts, bottles and cutlery or whatever I find lying around it's become a habit a way to start the day”  Overall this album is amazing.

Choice Tracks: Army of Me - It’s Oh So Quiet - Enjoy - Possible Maybe 

Chemical Brothers - Exit planet Dust (June 26th, 1995)

Exit Planet Dust was the debut album from the amazing electronic duo The Chemical Brothers.  The title of the album goes along with them changing there name from The Dust Brothers.  This album was an introduction to there funk filled, intricate beat driven music that all rave kids loved to love. The album flows through with a very similar sound with little curveballs thrown in to mix it up.  The track ‘Chico’s Groove‘ could almost be an Air b-sides from their first EP ‘Premiers Symptomes‘.   The first single from the album, ‘Leave Home’ sets the mood for what they became.  This album put them into the class of other great electronic artists from this time such as Daft Punk, Prodigy, and The Crystal Method. 

Writer and good guy, Sheffield Johnson

Choice Tracks: Leave Home - Life is Sweet - Chico’s Groove

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FIDLAR “40 Oz. On Repeat” Track/Video Review

For the first time since January of 2013, FIDLAR has finally released a new song, heading the announcement of their new album ‘TOO’ to be released this September. It’s really really poppy compared to nearly anything they’ve put out, the only resemblance I think of is their song “West Coast”, which *spoilers* is following suit with songs like “No Waves” and is getting a re-release on their second LP *end spoilers*.

Lyrical Content

Verses

The lyrics for “40 Oz. On Repeat”’s verses are pretty simple and a little standard, but they work well. A lot of it is just him singing about his insecurities, talking about asking a girl out a thousand times and she says no, even when it’s just in his head, and then getting drunk because he’s misunderstood. Afterwards, he goes on to talk about how maybe if he cleans up, he’ll understand who he is, but that he still won’t sell out (until he hears a crazy amount of money, leading to the “how much?” line). 

Chorus

In the chorus, Zac is just wondering why he can’t be somebody’s, since everyone is someone’s and why no one will give him more money, since everyone has more than him. It’s really teen angsty but for him, it kind of works. The rest of the song is pretty quick compared to the chorus, so it’s nice to have a slow section to break it apart.

Video

The video is actually a cluster of a bunch of different videos. If you want to look for the full list, its at the start of the song. It starts out with them remaking the “Fly” video by Sugar Ray, which sets it off to a funny tone, and it goes crazy from there, jumping around between bands that seem fitting, like Green Day and Suicidal Tendencies, and then stuff out of left field, like Missy Elliott and Britney Spears. They remake a bit out of all of these, and its actually really cool seeing how much effort went into it. It’s all really well done and really humorous.

Conclusion

The video and the song are both really great overall. It’s awesome seeing FIDLAR bring something new to the table after so long, and this is a great song to bring out to start. I personally am insanely excited to see the new album come out. I’ve already got my pre-order set up <3

Rating- 9 out of 10 homemade music videos

Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJy8VgB83OQ

Pre-order the album!- http://hifi247.com/pre-sale.html

Thanks fidlar and fidlarcali!

The Young Gun, Mike Aruba

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Can’t wait for Best Coast tonight, hopefully the “40 Oz. On Repeat” review will go up tonight once I’m back!

[deaddadsdiary]

FIDLAR ‘S/T’ Review

FIDLAR is a surf/skater punk band out of Los Angeles, California, on the beautiful West Coast. They initially went under the name Fuck The Clock, but later changed it to FIDLAR, after the acronym used by the skater kids in the area, “Fuck It Dawg/Dog/Dude, Life’s A Risk”. They initially started out with a few EP’s, two of which  include songs that would wind up making it onto the S/T. They’re currently signed onto Mom+Pop Records, and have been together and touring since around 2009. Throughout all of their recordings, they go back and forth between really light to really heavy and hard, but they have a standard of a really beachy and punky vibe. They fit very well with a niche of  bands that appeared around the same time, usually being The Orwells, Wavves, Best Coast, and King Tuff, and others. For the sake of the review, I’m going to pay attention to the S/T version of these songs, rather than the ones that appeared on the EP’s.

‘S/T’ Overview

The S/T from FIDLAR encapsulates everything they did up to that point and puts it all on one glorious record. It starts off with the song “Cheap Beer”, which is a gnarly, fast-paced song, probably made for speeding down the freeway. It’s loaded with Zac screaming, and he does a fantastic job of getting you amped up for the record. This album’s set definitely is kind of back and forth to me; it’s a very good record if you just put it on and let it play through, but there’s a lot of tracks I wouldn’t really seek out, like “Stoked and Broke” and “White on White”. About half of this record is absolutely amazing and the other half feels like just filler.

Lyrical Content

The band’s lyrics on this record are very much what you’d expect out of a bunch of Cali skater punk 20 somethings. “Cheap Beer” has it’s tagline “I drink cheap beer! So What? Fuck you!” which shows you straight off that they have that “fuck it” mentality. “No Waves” actually is more of a personal song written by Zac while he was in rehab for addiction, with lines like “I feel, feel like a cokehead. I feel, feel like I can’t get drunk no more, cause I’m on the floor, lookin’ for some matches just to cook up a score”. Pretty much every song has a pretty straightforward idea, either in the title, or just with the first few lines, which makes it easy to read, not that that’s a bad thing.

Track Listing

Like I stated before, the songs are pretty split for me. A lot of the songs that I really like have been on their EP’s (which will be marked by *’s), and have had time to mature and get perfected, and some of the others very much just feel like fillers. Just from my preference, the songs I like are as follow in order: “Cheap Beer”, “No Waves*”, “Max Can’t Surf*‘, “Wake, Bake, Skate*”, “Gimmie Something”, “5 To 9”, “Paycheck” and “Cocaine”.  This splits them evenly, but that’s not to say the other tracks aren’t good, but these tracks all feature something to put them apart. Cheap Beer is extremely quick paced, “No Waves” is very party-esque, “Max Can’t Surf” has a very slow, almost classic surf vibe. “Wake, Bake, Skate” is just extremely catchy the entire way through (And the video, although featuring a different version of the song, isn’t half bad). “Gimmie Something” has that very straightforward rock vibe which is different, “5 To 9” is that “I’M WITH MY FRIENDS!” song, and it’s just really hyper, but keeps it short, “Paycheck” is the slow-paced song off the album, and the only way I can describe the feeling is just “ugh.”, it sounds like what a hangover feels like, and “Cocaine” is probably the heaviest song on the album, having Zac do his most gnarly screaming the whole way through, and it’s just so angry and awesome. This section is the longest because it’s my biggest controversy point, its what will make or break the album for people to me.

Conclusion

This album in the overall is awesome for getting a crowd of your rowdiest friends together and just tearing shit up. It’s heavy and fast and it portrays emotions and feelings really well, which is what makes an album great. It’s a crazy ride from start to end, and it jumps all over the place with its speed and feel. It’s having a drug-crazed heart attack while riding a skateboard into the ocean to rinse off the three day old beer soaked into your hair.

Favorite Tracks- “No Waves”, “Wake, Bake, Skate”, and “Cheap Cocaine” (hidden track)

Rating- 8 out of ten broken skateboards

Videos

(Just a notice, some of the songs in the videos are different from the album)

“Cheap Beer” Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXTc3Choroo

“No Waves” Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYbJmQj5VkE

“Max Can’t Surf” Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jip6Fc-QO4

“Wake, Bake, Skate” Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mV239VN1-U

“Wait For The Man” Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6icW-KFudQ

“Cocaine” Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2srovkhf0w

Buy “FIDLAR”- http://www.amazon.com/Fidlar-FIDLAR/dp/B00AG473IC

The Young Gun, Mike Aruba

P.S. This will be in tandem with FIDLAR’s new video and song “40 Oz. On Repeat”. And also, a shoutout to fidlarcali and fidlar

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Top 10 picks for Glastooo

8. FATHER JOHN MISTY