Dominique Larue: The Sam Jackson Project
Columbus, Ohio’s Dominique Larue has a strong voice and a legitimate flow. In fact, the only thing with more bad ass on her album The Sam Jackson Project might be the Samuel L. Jackson samples taken from the many roles he’s played over the years.
If there is one thing that Dominique should be considered, it is the real deal as a rapper. The focus of the album is obviously to incorporate Sam Jackson lines throughout, but at no time does it seem that the album is a concept album. Each track is a separate demonstration of Dominique’s prowess as not just a female, but a rapper.
For me, the standout track has to be “We Are” which features M-Dot and Revalation. Dominique shares the stage here with two male performers, one of which is a Surviving the Golden Age favorite in M-Dot. Not only is the track geared so that Dominique has most of the vocals, but neither M-Dot or Revalation outdo her. That is not to say that they played down for her benefit, but that at their best they complimented each other.
“Lakeview Terrace” is a hard hip hop track with scratching that shows Dominique is no pushover. Even at under 2 minutes, the track shows Larue belongs in rap. Most of the other tracks on the album sample horns, and strings – it plays off of orchestral samples much the way that famous rappers like Jay-Z have been known to be – but even when the music follows more of a hip hop feel with the drums and samples, Dominique Larue shines.
A bit short at only 26 minutes, The Sam Jackson project feels like a quick hello and goodbye from Dominique Larue but it’s a hello and goodbye that leave me waiting to hear more. Unsure what to make of this album when I looked at the cover, I’m sure glad I got the opportunity to listen to it. You can’t judge an album by its cover, and Dominique Larue has made sure of it.
Rating: 9.3/10
MP3: Dominique Laure “We Are featuring M-Dot and Revalation”
Buy: FREE at DJ Booth

Werepire Day: Redefiner EP
Representing the Midwest of America, Werepire Day is led by Chris Golwitzer. Readers may recognize Chris from Hinter, First Grade Crush, Steven, and So Scientific. Accompanying Chris are Cody Holliday, Brian Foster, and Thomas “Atomic” Satterfield. Readers may also recognize Satterfield from Tina Sparkle, and Scouts Honor. Together, Werepire Day are an indie rock outfit that easily entertain.
Redefiner is their new EP. It opens with the title track “Redefiner” which is nothing more than a 30 second instrumental intro. It sounds like a classical piece normally played on a piano, but strummed nicely on a guitar. It then cuts into the next track.
“Ice Show America” is the first real introduction I’ve had to Werepire Day. I particularly like the guitar parts. As an entirety, the song sounds like it could be from Weezer‘s Blue Album. The melodies are pleasant and bring me back to those mid 90′s rock songs.
“Soy Sun Sway” kept reminding me of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts take on “Love is All Around”. Mostly it’s the guitars that have that playful, skip along feel to them. And “Awes K” sounds like a heavy metal song amped down. Turn the guitars up, speed up the tempo, and switch out Chris’ vocals for someone more angry and loud, and “Awes K” can appear on the next screamcore album. I much it prefer it this way.
Overall, Werepire Day show on Redefiner that they have a solid indie rock sound. They’re crisp, and their songs don’t come off as amateur. Redefiner was released August 9th. Get the album and you won’t be disappointed. Grab a free listen at their Facebook page and decide for yourselves.
Rating: 7.1/10
MP3: Werepire Day “Ice Show America”
Buy: iTunes

Curtiss King: DIY EP
Curtiss King is a California emcee and producer. Recently he dropped an EP titled DIY. The nine songs King delivers were my first listen to anything by him and I found it all a bit interesting.
King doesn’t really fit into any particular genre of rap. He definitely has his own sound and his own style. Musically speaking he’s willing to just whip up a track with synths and drums on their own or he can sample some horns and vocals to add a different flavor to his music. Strangely enough, I found similarities between his songs and the artist Rob Roy, though I definitely prefer King’s music. Not only does King focus his music more on hip hop beats as opposed to dance themed tracks, but he raps better than Roy as well.
Lyrically, it’s interesting to see King dance on opposing ends of the spectrum. He can be sincere and honest as when he opens up “21Se7en” rapping, “I named myself King and I don’t take it lightly/Martin had a dream and it looked just like me”. He follows up by going to the heart of who he is, not the character of Curtiss King, but Curtiss himself.
Yet, he takes tracks like “PCC” to show his more flamboyant side, even if it is in a humorous way and I’m not entirely sure it is. “PCC” stands for pumas, cubs, and cougars. Delivered in a cadence similar to Lloyd Banks‘ “Beamer, Benz, or Bentley”, King raps about his adoration of older women. He quips that he’s not interested in the young girls who worry too much about clubbing and partying, admitting that he’s fine staying in and watching “Lifetime for a lifetime” until his cougar falls asleep. Only then will he try to seduce her by whispering subliminal messages into her ear. In this case, just repeating the word “pussy”. And so, he can sexualize his music and move away from the more sincere, honest delivery of “21Se7en”.
All in all, the simple formula of synths over drums works nicely. Afterall, the point of hip hop is to display the vocal abilities of the emcee. Curtiss King has the goods. Unfortunately, the music didn’t seem to change all that much from one song to the next and it started to feel as though I’d already heard it before on the EP. Still, I think it would be best if everyone decided for themselves.
Rating: 6.4/10
MP3: Curtiss King “Thats How My Days Goin”
Buy: FREE on Bandcamp

Hoodie Allen: Leap Year
The first I heard Hoodie Allen was 2010′s Pep Rally. His song “You Are Not A Robot” really caught my ear. I’ve been keeping my eye out for him ever since, and with good reason. Though his style can seem a bit hokey, or more appropriately “white”, I still think he has the talent to be a mainstream success. Hoodie isn’t nerd rap, or geek rap, or anything that puts him in a dark corner of the rap world. He is, however, fond of using pop culture in metaphors and similes to make his point known. Last year’s work proved to be a bit too predictable in terms of where he was going. Too much emphasis on fitting in witty rhymes took away from the album’s overall effect. It certainly seems all that has changed.
Six months in the making, last Tuesday’s release of Leap Year literally left Hoodie unable to sleep at night. Having quit his job, Hoodie wanted to make the most out of Leap Year. As he says, “its me growing up on record”. The witty, pop culture referenced flows are still there. His upbeat, poppy delivery of the words remains. Even RJf is back to produce most of the tracks. What’s different is Hoodie’s vision of having grown up on an album. One listen, and it’s difficult to argue that Hoodie Allen is not a legitimate rapper.
Tracks like “The Chase Is On” only demonstrate how Hoodie’s delivery is light-hearted and fun while carrying a deeper message than just his ability to write witty lyrics. From what I can tell, the track has to do with a girl and the haters of Hoodie Allen. He raps, “Cause I am leap years every time you fall back to where you came from/Now where’d all the hate go?/Are you from Wu Tang, then where’s your face, ghost?/Bottle up my confidence and sell it by the case load/Take a bunch of optimists and drop em in the same boat/Ask em if that’s shit half full, half empty?” He goes on to reference someone naming a bunch of rappers but forgetting him. It shows how his previous work was open to much criticism, but thankfully he
didn’t take what they said as a reason to stop. No, he turned it into a reason to grow.
He continues making intelligent connections between pop culture and his life. He goes so far as to compare himself, on “You’re Welcome”, to Orlando Magic player J.J. Reddick. “I’ll be in the game eventually, cause I’m so JJ Redick/I am white, I got money/People wanna see me debted.” It draws upon the connection between basketball and hip hop. Two areas where being white actually hurts your chances of success and in each, it seems the white man and black man can’t have the same style. There should be no shame to that but Hoodie’s realistic here as well; he admits that he hasn’t made it….yet.
I think Hoodie analyzes his style best on the track “James Franco”. It’s catchy, it’s serious. It’s Hoodie. “Mark Wahlberg up this rap and shit, nevermind/Use a lotta famous people just to write some clever lines/Wonder if they’ll hear it, if they’ll ever notice.” He does use a lot of famous people. The track is even named after actor James Franco but that’s how metaphors and similes work; you pick something relatively well known and use it to describe your own unique, and special situation. It’s Hoodie’s technique, not by invention but by perfection.
The music is very good as well. Whether it be RJF, or one of the other DJs on the album, it’s the goods that complete the package. What Hoodie Allen has with Leap Year is his “graduation”, so to speak. He’s polished. He’s leveled up. He’s here. Though he isn’t signed, it’s hard for me to believe it won’t be a matter of time before he achieves his dreams on his own terms. If you want to hear good music, and get to know the real Hoodie Allen, you should definitely check out this mix tape. He’s made his way onto my favorite white rapper list, just under the Beastie Boys who top it. But more importantly, he’s made it onto my favorite rapper list. Congratulations to Hoodie. You deserve it.
Rating: 9.0/10
MP3: Hoodie Allen “Soul On Fire”
Buy: FREE on Facebook

They Might Be Giants: Join Us
Back in high school I remember They Might Be Giants had a cult status. Many of my classmates were heavily into the band, almost all had at least one song they knew and liked, whether they’d admit it or not. So, it’s strange how all these years later how many things have changed, but some still stay the same. Members of the band are now in their 50′s–hell, even I’m older. Yet the Giants are still recording, having released their 15th studio album this past Tuesday.
I find it hard to believe that there are people out there who have never encountered a They Might Be Giants song. “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” has been featured in so many places that I don’t even know where to start. “Boss of Me” was part of the iconic Malcolm in the Middle opening credits. Why, even “Birdhouse in Your Soul” found new life last year in an ad for Clark’s Shoes. So, I think it’s safe to say that just about everyone is familiar with the sound of They Might Be Giants.
Join Us features more of the same. I can’t say that I blame the band. Together since 1982, in some form or another, it’s hard to keep transforming yourself especially when you have a loyal fan base that wants to hear “you”. Not to say that they haven’t morphed at all over the years. Unsurprisingly, the band have put out several children’s albums. And I say unsurprisingly because I often felt that musically there was nothing a parent could say about the band to make it appear as though the devil were working through them. While lyrically I wouldn’t play a song like “S-E-X-X-Y” to a child, I often felt that the vocal delivery was in tune to what a children’s song might require.
Musically, the album is what you can expect from They Might Be Giants. It’s alternative rock with a wide array and use of instruments. It’s quirky, it’s fun, it’s sophisticated even with it’s simplistic feel at times. What gives any They Might Be Giants song the band’s signature is quite indeed the lyrics.
“You Probably Get That a Lot” has an electro-pop feel to it that sort of reminds me of the B-52′s. In the song, we’re introduced to the word cephalophore, which is a word for a person who has been decapitated and walks around holding their head and capable of conversing. It’s an unusual concept, but I feel its metaphorical use in terms of “there are millions of cephalophores that wander through this world”. It’s a fun word to say, and don’t most people walk around spewing pointless phrases out of their mouths with the seeming intelligence of a person who doesn’t have their mind where it’s supposed to be. Perhaps we’re just supposed to enjoy the image of millions of people walking around like the headless horseman just carrying their heads in one arm and their cell phones in the other hand.
“Canajoharie” sounds like a children’s song with its delivery. Nothing more, apparently, than an ode to the town of Canajoharie in New York, it recounts the tale of a person who gets pulled into the swampy waters by a creature. It has become so memorable that the narrator wants “to go back and commemorate the place with a historical plaque”. It is a bit silly, lengthy rhyme but it’s fun to say. What’s not to like about the fun sounds one can discover they’re capable of making with just their mouth?
“When Will You Die” is a fast paced, up-beat song about a miserable person that nobody likes. The whole world is just waiting for said person to die. The opposing feelings, one of wishing the death of a real louse, combined with the cheerful disposition of the music, and you have a dark comedy of sorts playing out. It culminates with the lines “This is Dan, and that’s Dan. And there’s Marty on the drums to complete the band. And I’m John, and he’s also John. And all of us are wondering when you’re gonna die. Still you live. You go on” followed shortly by the type of happy go lucky horns Disney films like to use.
It was good to hear that the band has not changed their ways. Youthful, smart, quirky, themselves. Perhaps there will be no breakthrough song that finds a home in the main stream off of Join Us, but then there doesn’t need to be. Fans will appreciate new work they might sift through just to find another gem. But I think having a thick catalog of older songs that have become beloved over the years, only to be beloved more as time goes on, the band’s live shows will continue to draw. My one real criticism of the album is that it feels like quantity over quality. Most of the tracks never come close to the three minute mark and there’s 18 of them in total. I still rate the album on the high side, but can’t help to wonder what if they had condensed the songs a little more. Would it have helped the album, or hurt it? Join Us will not be remembered as their best album, but it won’t be their worst either.
Rating: 7.0/10
MP3:They Might Be Giants “Dog Walker”
Buy: iTunes or Insound!