SPIDER ROLL: July 2006

SWINE GALORE

for Shannon

New Yorke, New Yorke

Last week, Thom Yorke's The Eraser debuted at #2 in the US, selling 90,000 copies. That's 90,000 people who are wishing Thom had focused more on signing a record deal for Radiohead and producing their new album instead of this downer.

The Eraser clicks, buzzes, yelps and shakes...but it mostly just feels like a root canal. There are a couple of tracks that sorta resemble songs, but for the most part its a collection of thoughts strung together with a broken down computer and an even more broken down reliance on the good in things.

Give this guy an electric guitar and a bump of gito, please.

THATS WHATS UP

The new Boot Camp album dropped this week...like a feather. Still, I was excited to press play/start waiting for street scriptures from Starang Wondah AKA William H- Gun Clappa Number One. And whose the first voice you hear on the intro....thats right- Will.

But he barely serves up a crumb after that, and I'm feelin robbed. Not like the 'BCC just taxed my iPod, Jordans and my Polo Bear Sweater' robbed, but like 'where's Will at, hes the illest?' robbed.

Sure, the beats are crispy (Pete Rock, Extra P, 9th Wonder and the Beatminerz), Rockness is back, Sean Price pimp struts on hot tar as usual, and BDI sounds friggin stately, but too much of the B team, and not enough from the main gun, Starang One.

Summer Skin

The summer season started with a hiccup, the world cup ended with a head butt, the NY Mets made the cover of S.I., the fireworks from my roof and my neighbor who cooks lit up July 4th, the ferry ride from Bayshore to Ocean Beach sipping Delerium Tremens- like a promise, credit is payed at the Brooklyn Museum, Will Ferrel's interview in July's GQ made me laugh, my DVR viewings of classic REM on Unplugged made me long for the good old days, but these days my boy Ed's photos are on Gothamist, Leonard Cohen, 'I'm Your Man' documentary film plays, PS1s Warm Up is back and bubbling, TV on the Radio is crackling, and Salman Rushdie's Fury's has me turning pages.

Pages are turning. Life is good.

A call to Chicago, when Chicago calls: Wrigley, Bells, Wilco and more...escape, escape, escape.

CELEBRATE/BROOKLYN

Besides having a cool and unique name and a cool and unique look (which has been helpful in getting them major media attention and famous friends), TV on The Radio have an incredibly cool and unique sound.

In their music, one can find moments of passion, loss, pride, confusion and hope, amid a collage of rhythm, handsome melodies, atmospheres, soaring harmonies, acapellas and most of all soul.

Their new album, Return to Cookie Mountain, comes out in August in the US, but import versions are available now. Suffice to say it is bubbling over with life. They are also blowing audiences away on their current tour...as they wailed through the intermittent rain drops in Prospect Park at last week's Celebrate Brooklyn! show.

If you havent already heard the vital Desperate Youth... or their earlier EPs, go back and get edumacated.

Simply put, they're dope.