ByronCrawford.com

Interpol - The Heinrich Maneuver: Track Review

About five years ago, Interpol's debut album Turn on the Bright Lights became one of the few albums ever to receive a 10.0 rating from Pitchfork. (I know. Who gives a shit? But still.) The thing is, I think they were giving out more 10s (and more 0s) back in those days, and I remember liking Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and that Trail of Dead album more than Turn on the Bright Lights. And it's kinda meh follow-up, 2004's Antics, seemed to confirm that Interpol may have been a bit overhyped to begin with.

Their third album and major label debut Our Love to Admire will be released this July, and a shitty radio rip of its first single "The Heinrich Maneuver" (nullus?) hit the Internets just now. Having heard it a few times, I like it, but I'm not crazy about it. It's not altogether different from "Slow Hands," the lead single from the last album, which I did enjoy quite a bit, but this isn't nearly as good a song as that was. And I'm not even sure if it was as good as half the shit on Turn on the Bright Lights.

Stream "The Heinrich Maneuver."

• Interpol - "The Heinrich Maneuver"

Concealed carry is an awful idea

According to Last Week's Poll
Criminals and crazy Chinese people are going to carry around guns anyway, but what about middle-aged crack-ass crackas who harbor Dirty Harry fantasies about preventing violent crime by shooting somebody on the subway? Last week's poll had to do with whether concealed carry is a good idea.

The results:

1. Awful idea (129 votes)
2. Great idea (90 votes)

Of course I had to vote 'awful idea,' and it looks like a majority of you d-bags agree: concealed carry is an awful idea. To paraphrase Burt Bachrach, what the world needs now is less, not more, guns.

The thing is, as much violent crime as there is in this country, the vast majority of it takes place in the ghetto. And it's not like most of the cracka-ass crackas in favor of concealed carry live anywhere near the ghetto anyway.

Do I mean to suggest that there would never be a scenario in which concealed carry might be useful? Obviously not. For starters, last year's incident with Pimp C could have been avoided entirely had some Clint Eastwood-type iced him when he whipped out his AK in a mall.

And for what it's worth, they have concealed carry here and it's not like motherfuckers are just shooting at one another. I'm pretty sure half of the old cracka-ass crackas at the BGM (which is near a gun store as well as a hotel where they have a lot of gun shows) are packing.

Still, I'll maintain that there are better ways to prevent crime than having everyone walk around with a hand cannon tucked in his pants. Call me crazy.

Bollapalooza '07

This weekend, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, out in the California desert, kicks off this summer's concert season, which looks like it could be the biggest evar. Granted, it's still pretty early in the year to be talking about summer concerts, but I guess they have to hold it this early because it gets so hot in the desert.

Downtown Chicago? Not so much. I was up there last summer for Intonation, and the weather was just perfect. I'll be up there again this summer for the Pitchfork Music Festival and probably Lollapalooza as well. In fact, I already picked up a three-day pass for Pitchfork plus accomodations at a local five-star hotel known as the Red Roof Inn.

Lollapalooza just so happens to fall on the same weekend I was planning on going down to Atlanta for a family reunion, but I'm seriously considering a change of plans. Family reunions are usually pretty boring anyway, and from what I understand, we aren't even going to be in downtown Atlanta, but way out in the sticks somewhere.

I was seriously considering going to Coachella to see Rage Against the Machine, but California is such a long-ass way to go just to see a concert. Fortunately, Rage will also be playing some shit called Rock the Bells this summer in New York, and I ended up getting tickets to that. Granted, New York is about as far from here as California, and it's going to cost me a shiteload of money, but what are you gonna do?

The other headliner at Rock the Bells is the Wu-Tang Clan, which doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Ol' Dirty Bastard is as dead as motherfucking doornails, and they couldn't even get Ghostface to show up for VH1's Hip-Hop Honors. I'd hate to go all the way out to New York just to see the RZA, Method Man, and U-God or some shit. The rest of the line-up for Rock the Bells does look pretty solid though.

After the jump is a video trailer for the Rock the Bells festival.

Phat Kat - Carte Blanche: Album Review

Phat Kat, Carte Blanche (Look, 2007)
Phat Kat a/k/a Ronnie Cash is a Detroit hip-hop legend and the original J Dilla collaborator. This, his second solo album, features collaborations with Elzhi and T3 from Slum Village and production by Dilla, Black Milk, and Young RJ.

• Phat Kat @ MySpace

The White Stripes - Icky Thump: Track Review

I never got that into the last White Stripes album, 2005's Get Behind Me Satan. But it wasn't so much that I found it to be a Kingdom Come-style shite sandwich as that I tend to be close-minded, and I was hoping it sounded more like those first few White Stripes albums. But now it's been like two years since there was a new White Stripes album, and damn it if I don't kinda miss 'em.

"Icky Thump" is the title track as well as the first song from their new album, which is due out in June. According to Jack White himself, this album will appeal to fans of the White Stripes' self-titled debut, which I took to mean that they're going with more of stripped down approach, but who knows with these two nut jobs.

Indeed, "Icky Thump" is mostly just Jack wailing on his guitar while his sister/ex-wife Meg seemingly indiscriminately bashes the shit out of her drum set.  If there's a difference between this and anything else they've done to date, it's the sheer force with which they're playing these days. This song's main, monster riff sounds right out of some long lost Led Zeppelin record.

The only audio I have of this was recorded off the radio, but the quality's not that bad. Updated with the real deal, for your listening pleasure.

Stream/download "Icky Thump."

• The White Stripes - "Icky Thump"

The Real World: Denver - Episode 25: Episode Summary

Didn't these seasons used to only run 25 episodes? As much as I've enjoyed this season, and I have, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if they ditched the rest of the outdoors episodes, and whatever other boring shit they've got planned, and wrapped this shit up already.

Fortunately, this is apparently the last week of this shit, though I'm not aware that they've done much of anything to date other than train. I guess there was that one week where Tyrie had a heart to heart with those two black kids, but I'm not sure if that constitutes a job.

This week's boring outdoors episode will involve a similar expedition with the girl refugees, who don't look nearly as much like juvenile delinquents as their male counterparts. Maybe one of them will have a bad attitude though, and Brooke can try to talk some sense into her.

The worst kind of hate crime

The Fight for a Man's Rights
A while ago, I did a post here on an ethical dilemma I had re: lesbians. Basically, if a butch lesbian challenged you to a fight, would you be a homophobe if you didn't knock the living shit out of her? Normally, I'd just settle for being considered a homophobe, but now I'm not so sure.

Last summer, a straight guy in New York's Greenwich Village made the mistake of making a pass at a buncha lesbians. They responded by beating the crap out of him and stabbing him several times in the stomach.

Ouch.

The guy ended up spending five days in the hospital plus another month in bed at home waiting for his wounds to heal. Four of the seven girls were convicted of second-degree gang assault and could face up to 15 years in prison. The other three got off with a relatively lesser charge and were sentenced to six months in jail.

As far as I know, this case wasn't prosecuted as a hate crime, but I don't know. As a straight man, now I'm that much more afraid of being beat up by a buncha butch lesbians, both because of the actual pain such a beating would entail, as well as the embarrassment of getting beaten up of by a bunch of girls.

Isn't that what hate crime legislation is for, anyway: to protect the entire community from having to live in fear?

Bol says: There really ought to be laws governing guys having to beat up lesbians, especially if they're the ones who started it. If they've really got it in their minds that they're men, and are willing to fight you like a man, you beating the shit out of them shouldn't be treated as any different than you beating up another guy.

Checkit: Lesbians Convicted In Greenwich Village Gang Attack [WNBC]

via jimbrah izrael

How Michael Jordan got his groove back

via Fresh

See also: Don't be like Mike [XXL]

Father of the Year: Alec Baldwin

The Fight for a Man's Rights
Alec Baldwin's marriage to Kim Basinger has been on the fritz for some time now, and it's been one of those things that tends to play out in the press. I guess the two of them live in different areas and stay pretty busy, so there's been an issue as far as when and where Alec gets to see their. A couple of years ago, he had to take her to court for violating his visitation rights.

Alec Baldwin always seemed like a nice enough guy on TV talk shows and hosting Saturday Night Live. But to hear Kim Basinger tell it, he can all of a sudden flip out and go into his character from Glengarry Glen Ross. (Which would be a nice ability to have!) But you know how it is once you get divorced from a broad. Next thing you know, out comes all these stories about shit you supposedly did.

Come to find out though, there may have been more truth to Kim Bassinger's assertion than we'd like to think. The other day, an audio recording of angry message he left on his daughter's phone was somehow leaked to the media, and damn it if it isn't some shit right out of Glengarry Glen Ross. Listening to it, I damn near expected him to start going on about how much his BMW costs.

Audio of the phone message:

• Alec Baldwing going off on his daughter

So now he's gotta go to court again to see if he can maintain joint custody.

Here's my thing:

a) Granted, the girl's only 12 (or 11) years old, but we don't know what she said or did to cause this.

b) I definitely hear parents (especially mothers) saying worse shit than that to their kids all the time at the BGM.

c) How did this shit leak anyway? You shouldn't have to go to court over some shit that was supposed to be private in the first place. That unconstitutional.

Joell Ortiz - The Brick: Album Review

Joell Ortiz, The Brick: Bodega Chronicles (Koch, 2007)
Joell Ortiz is like the new Big Pun if Big Pun wasn't nearly as fat, but still pretty fat. He's not nearly as good either, but, hey, at least he's still alive and kickin'. He was recently signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records, but this is his Return of the Mac-style mixtape album to be released on Koch.

• Joell Ortiz @ MySpace