Buck 65 - Talkin' Honky Blues

YOURZ

Buck 65 (real name Richard Terfry) is a Canadian MC/DJ known for his both his lyrical and musical articulateness.  His samples are often obscure and characterise his production, as do his beat poetry-like lyrics.  Experimental and unforgiving, Buck 65 follows similar roads to artists such as Tom Waits. 

Talkin' Honky Blues, winner of a Juno Award for Best Alternative Album in 2004, came to me via the song Wicked & Weird, which was all over local alternative radio when it first came out.  Unusually, the samples Buck 65 has used are blues (hence the title - a reference to a blues style called Talkin' Blues).  I tried to find his sources but failed miserably (the small print on the CD sleeve proved impossible to read - why do they do that?)

There are some absolutely brilliant tracks on Talkin' Honky Blues, but, like a lot of what Mr Waits does, this is not for the casual listener.  It's not the sort of hip hop you will hear blaring out of overly-loud car speakers nor is it likely to be filling the dance floor at a local RnB club.  This demands attention and, to those who pay it what it deserves, they will be well rewarded.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

I think he thinks I wouldn't like it.  (YourZ sez: yep, I really did but in this case, I'm glad I'm wrong)  But I did.  As YourZ says, it's not for the casual listener, and as such, I'm not going to be putting any Buck65 songs on my gymPod any time soon.  But damn, the guy's intelligent!  This is what I think more hip-hop and rap artists ought to be doing.   I mean, where else are you going to find someone talking about the real emotions he felt when he cheated on his girlfriend?  More often they're boasting about how many hos they've had or how many baby mamas they're paying for.

Maybe it's because he's Canadian....

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://buck65.com/

In our collection we also have Situation

Tom Waits - Real Gone

MINE

That gravelly, whiskey and cigarette-saoked voice, the dead-pan delivery, no, it couldn't be anyone else but Tom Waits.  Actor, singer, songwriter and, in my opinion at least, beat poet - he's truly a renaissance man for the 21st century.  Just take a wander over to his website and click on his "wit & wisdom" page - a great way to spend some time scratching your head and occasionally roaring with laughter.

Real Gone is a blues album (sometimes) that I can listen to (sometimes).  But my favourite track on the whole CD is one of his poems-to-music - Circus.  My favourite lines are "And over in the burnt yellow tent/ By the frozen tractor, the music was like electric sugar"  I mean, how awesome is that?  And a line from an earlier Waits song, What's He Building? has entered into our personal lexicon - "What's he doing in there?"

The problem I have with listening to Tom is that you really have to.  Listen.  It's not fluffy background or something that'll help a mood along.  It's demanding stuff.  So that makes it hard for me to wholeheartedly endorse it, plus also he does mostly do blues, which I really have to be in the mood for.

VERDICT:TURN IT DOWN

YOURZ

It's Tom Waits, fuck it all!  What can I possibly say that hasn't been said a million times by much better observers of music than me?  As the man would most probably say "nothin' but nothin'".  He's not just a musician, songwriter or actor (although, as Mine rightly points out, he is at least these things) but should be declared a living icon, a monumental musical force whose abilities, power and influence touches every corner of this beautiful big globe. 

I'll say it again: its Tom Waits.  What else do you need to know?

VERDICT: TURN IT UP and as Mine says, really listen!

For more information: http://www.tomwaits.com/

In our collection, we also have:

Roots Manuva - Awfully Deep

MINE

Ermph.  Reasonable.  Not Tricky.

I can't figure why YourZ thinks I'll like this, there's too much rappin' and not enough melody.  It just made me want to play Blue Lines full bore to remind myself what good Sarf London dubby-stuff is like, especially when you mix it with good melodic lines sung by great-voiced girls.

I liked the lyrics on some of it.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN/THROW IT OUT (can't raise enough interest to decide) (YourZ sez: c'mon, you have to pick one or the other) (Mine says: whatever YOU say we should do, darling)


YOURZ

I went through a phase where I brought a lot of hip hop, mainly because I was working with a young MC, writing and producing backing tracks for him.  I saw this as a way of educating myself about the variety of sounds and production techniques used by various artists around the world.  I knew I wasn't interested in any of the established black American artists mostly because I didn't (and don't) like their misogynistic attitudes and conspicuous consumption - bling culture has never interested me.

But there are artists making great, interesting music in the genre.  Artists like Handsome Boy Modelling School, The Roots and Mos Def make truly intelligent and innovative music.  While I get what he does and enjoy some of the tracks, for me Roots Manuva, unfortunately, can't be included in this group. 

While named by some as the one of the innovators of the British grime movement, Rodney Smith aka Roots Manuva, makes music that is almost Tom Waits-ian in its production with literate, intelligent lyrics and lots of deep overdubbed voices.  There is also a bit of a nod to his Jamaican roots in some of the beats and use of horns.  But it is not particularly joyous music.  It is dark and challenging and often depressing in it lyrical content.

To be honest with you, hitting on this merely reminded me of how much crap I've added to the collection over the last half dozen years or so.  It actually kind of annoys me because I could've used my hard earned dollars to buy a lot of music we both like as opposed to music I considered necessary to have at the time. Damn it, I should've been more selfish.

Anyway, not to beat that puppy to death, while Mine and YourZ (truly) regularly go through our various collections (believe me, the music one is nothing compared to the book one), a lot of that stuff has managed to avoid the Great Axe of Disinterest (patent pending).  But not any more.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT (can you believe it, Mine, huh?)


For more information: http://www.rootsmanuva.co.uk/

In our collection we also have Run Come Save Me and Slime And Reason