popwreckoning

The four members of YAWN come from the underbelly of Chicago, with roots in neighborhoods like Little Lebanon, Baghdad Row, and Polski Park. Having grown up together both figuratively and literally, their hearts remain embedded in trash but their dreams of success run deeper than the cold waters of Lake Michigan.

Having been in previous bands together and learning many valuable lessons on the DIY sense of creating music, they began crafting a new sound, one more aligned with the eclectic textures of Brian Eno, Aphex Twin and Yeasayer: a solid, badass rock core adorned with rich vocal harmonies, vintage world samples and atmospheric digital layers. Setting up shop in Wicker Park, they recorded new material in their basement. The DIY revelation led to the creation of “YAWN,” a 5-song EP that combines the poppiness of Phoenix with the complex lush layerings of Yeasayer and the creativeness of Unicorns.

Throughout 2010 the band has had the pleasure of opening for such great acts as: Yeasayer, Local Natives, Girl Talk, Twin Shadow, Glasser, Tanlines, RJD2, Steel Train, Memoryhouse, Twin Sister, Houses, Young Man, Class Actress/Beach Fossils, and a few others.

For now, YAWN is taking some time from playing live to finish their debut full-length, slotted for release this August. Be sure to check them out at www.yawntheband.com

Welcome back, readers!  The summer is winding down and I’m still listening to danceable hip hop and R&B jams that make me want to shake my tailfeather on the dance floor.  Well, kitchen floor really.  Last week I unleashed a Sampling Edition, Part 1 to whet your musical appetites and had so much fun that I decided I’d double down on your asses with a two-parter.  Not for the A.D.D. musical aficionado, these tracks featuring a plethora of samples in unique and unlikely capacities.  Sometimes it’s fun just trying to see if you can figure out what part of the song belongs to which artist.  Either way, it’s a luscious mix of sounds and beats that make some of your favorite songs a tad more danceable.  And that’s always good.
–

.Destiny’s Child - “Bootylicious”
Sample: Stevie Nicks – “Edge of Seventeen“
Who doesn’t love that chugging guitar riff that sets the tone of the Stevie Nicks classic “Edge of Seventeen?”  Apparently, Destiny’s Child wanted to pay homage to one of the foremothers of rock n’ roll by pilfering the sound for the intro of “Bootylicious,” a cheeky video that actually features a cameo of Miss Nicks herself.  As is the case with all great art, ironically Nicks and her writing team were subconsciously channelling their inner-Sting as it’s been said that the guitar and drum parts sound eerily similar to The Police‘s “Bring On The Night” and they only realized it afterwards.  Wow, I wasn’t ready for that jelly.

.Notorious B.I.G. feat. Puff Daddy & Lil’ Kim – “Notorious B.I.G.”
Sample: Duran Duran - “Notorious“
One of my favorite hip hop artists of all time (may he rest!), Notorious B.I.G. enlisted the help of some of his Bad Boy family members to create one of the more memorable hip hop and rock mash-ups from the 1990′s that is the quintessential personal anthem of his own self-proclaimed notoriety.  Big up to Biggie for being able to make narcissistic songs so damn catchy by sampling a Duran Duran chorus and jangly guitar licks.  Or was it Puff Daddy‘s idea?  After all, he does claim to have invented the remix.

.Jay-Z feat. Memphis Bleek – “It’s Alright”
Sample: Talking Heads – “Once In A Lifetime“
Oh Jay-Z, can you ever do wrong?  It’s a  song like this that makes me wonder what the hell does Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne have to say about this?  It takes balls to sample Talking Heads for a hip hop song about maxin’, relaxin’ and chillaxin’.  Apparently Jay and Memphis Bleek borrow from a Kraftwerk song (“The Hall Of Mirrors”) here too so the musical sample is essentially an ambitious composite of the two.  Does Jay-Z really listen to new wave and synthpop?  If so, holler back, young’n.

.Puff Daddy feat. Mase – “Been Around The World”
Sample: David Bowie – “Let’s Dance”
This track may be too slow to do the Harlem shuffle, but it still does make me long for the golden days of 90′s hip hop.  With the help of then bromantic musical partner Mase, Puff Daddy had innovation on his mind when he laced this track with the inventive music of David Bowie‘s classic “Let’s Dance,” while stealing the chorus from Lisa Stansfield’s soft-rock hit “Been Around The World.”  Whatever happened to her?  Is she still looking for her baby?  Does Puff Daddy have a soft spot for the light music station?  This is another example of odd musical pairings that totally work and leave it to Puffy to pioneer the art of musical interpolation and mixing the unlikeliest songs.

.Girl Talk – “Shut The Club Down”
Sample: Aphex Twin – “Girl/Boy Song” (among 16 other song snippets)

It was hard selecting a sample of DJ Girl Talk‘s dizzying, creative as hell, genius mash-up tracks off Feed The Animals, but “Shut The Club Down” is one of my favorite tracks.  In this one song he samples everyone from Avril Lavigne, Aphex Twin, Jay-Z, Rod Stewart, Butthole Surfers and Ray J, among others.  I chose to feature the Aphex Twin track because he selects the breakdown of the incredible “Girl/Boy Song” during this track’s breakdown, while lacing in Rich Boy’s “Throw Some D’s.”  Girl Talk finds a way to satisfy any type of musical enthusiast: 80s, rock, hip hop, synthpop, and pop.  I can’t wait to finally catch a set of his at Street Scene San Diego next month.  I’m going to wear my “Engineers Do It Better” t-shirt and hope he picks me out of the audience to jump in his inflatable raft and crowd surf.  Sigh, I love me some Girl Talk.

Remind me why we need another indie-pop super group? Members of Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot populate Discovery and that’s a bad place to start. But the real burning question is why do these guys think that it’s okay to make R&B music the hipsters can jive to? It’s not. Now they have some hooks, that’s for sure; you’ll hum some of this and it can be downright maddeningly catchy. But it’s so trite, so immediate and embarrassing in its guilty pleasure-ness that I have a hard time ever believing that someone would cop to actually owning or listening to it…at least not someone from the massive circles of fans that orbit around their day job projects.

Discovery is a derivative version of Justin Timberlake’s solo output blended with Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreak. It’s Aphex Twin, but substitute misguided posing for actual ambition. While Discovery has a trick or two up their sleeve, they seem fine with bludgeoning those tricks to death. Like the circular arpeggios—I playfully dub them “digital waterfalls”—that dart around “Osaka Loop Line”; solid idea, but when used constantly, it loses the intrigue. “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” sports an ear-turning, choppy female hook reminiscent of that Dirty Projectors song everyone is in love with right now. Except that it also features some awkward lyrics (given the voice singing it) and you eventually have to listen to the rest of the tune. Ohh, and if you’re as tired of autotune as I am, don’t even bother with “Carby”. These guys didn’t get the memo from Jay-Z.

The album is mercifully short, clocking in at around 36 minutes, but the length just reminds you of how much drivel is actually here. I mean, did we really need an electro-twee remake of “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5? This would have worked way better as an EP. The even shorter length would have forced the guys to distill the quirky, indie-dance vibe they were going for into something actually appealing and worthy of more than a cursory spin or two.

Discovery – “Osaka Loop Line”

Tracklisting:
01. Orange Shirt
02. Osaka Loop Line
03. Can You Discover?
04. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (featuring Angel Deradoorian)
05. So Insane
06. Swing Tree
07. Carby (featuring Ezra Koenig)
08. I Want You Back
09. It’s Not My Fault (It’s My Fault)
10. Slang Tang

Discovery: website | myspace