D-Nice – To Tha Rescue LP

Jive (1991)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

I have been after a copy of this on vinyl for quite a few years.  It took a while to find one in as good condition as I needed, while not also being prohibitively expensive.  This copy found that sweet spot and as I am pretty doubtful that To Tha Rescue by D-Nice is very high on any label's reissue list, it was time to grab it.

When I was a much younger man than I am today, I was pretty obsessed with the first D-Nice album, Call Me D-Nice.  In particular the title track was (and still is, if I'm being honest) on of my favorite hip hop tracks.  As 1991 hit, I was really starting to get obsessed with hip hop and was either buying or Columbia House/BMG scamming as many CDs and cassingles as I could get my hands on.  I was really excited that D-Nice had a new album out and I'm pretty sure I got my copy from a BMG six CDs for a penny or something like that.

When I got it, I listened to it a few times, but was kind of disappointed in it.  I think hip hop was just moving so fast at that time that it kind of passed D-Nice by.  I moved on to other things and at some point, sold my CD copy during a purge.  However, many years later I went back and revisited.  With hindsight and not being as concerned about the newest, freshest thing, I was able to appreciate this album a lot more than I did when I first got it.

There are a handful of truly great songs on here.  "25 Ta Life" is excellent, "And There U Have it" has a rugged, aggressive feel to it and "Time To Flow," with an appearance from Treach of Naughty By Nature is probably the album's highlight.  Why there is a second version of "Time to Flow" that doesn't have Treach on it is something of a mystery for an album that only has 12 songs on it.

That said, there are some moments that aren't as great.  "Straight From the Bronx" is excellent for most of song, but there is a wacky keyboard-synth-horn-solo thing at the end that isn't really needed.  "Get In Touch With Me" is the worst of that R&B tinged crossover style that ruined the flow of a lot of records of that era.  And "Check Yourself" has Too Short on it and sounds like a Too Short song.  I don't like Too Short, so I'm not super into D-Nice rapping over beats that sound like that.

At the end, there is more good than bad on this record for sure and it's an album that I really didn't give a chance to when it came out in 1991.  While I still prefer D-Nice's debut, I'm glad to have this one on the shelf next to it.

D-Nice – To Tha Rescue:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lwfFA3Gd_PWhY0G_UFACAJ3vpJ2EIbybo

Four Lights - Four Lights LP

Bypolar / Double Dōs (2024)

Four Lights is the new record from Four Lights and they've done that thing where the self titled record isn't their debut.  In this case it's their third album and for whatever reason my brain finds that confusing.  Naming an album is an opportunity to put something new and chaotic into the world.  Call it 'One Ton Human Hamster Wheel' or 'Bison Bisquick' or 'The Iron Man 3.'  But self titled?  C'mon, we can do better than that.  Especially when you've already thought of an album title two times before.

But my stupid ideas for album naming conventions aside, this is a really fun album to listen to.  Like their previous album, Kobayashi Maru, this new album is chock full of really catchy guitar pop songs full of hooks, harmonies and a good time.  There's definitely a little Weezer worship going on here, but the band is able to channel that as an influence to their sound rather than coming off like a fifth rate copy like Ozma or something like that.  Four Lights is more in line with a band like Gentlemen Rogues. where you can hear the inspiration, but it's not beating you over the head like the band has no ideas for their own.

I dare you to pop on "Clap Clap," "Lie to Me" or "Just Tonight" and not end up tapping your toe or nodding your head along.  The songs are well crafted and they mostly hit that sweet spot I'm always looking for of having energy, melody and not sounding too over produced.  Now, could I live without "Ska Song" hanging out in the middle of the A side?  Absolutely.  It sounds out of place and while I have nostalgia for lots and lots and lots of things, late 90s ska is not one of the those things for me.

That one detour aside, this is a very strong record top to bottom.  There aren't any songs on here reinventing the wheel, but I'm not sure I want much wheel reinvention at this stage in my life.  In a year that kind of bummed me out when it comes to new music in general, Four Lights is one of the bright spots.  It's definitely worth checking out as you start to make up your end of the year lists for 2024.

Four Lights - Four Lights:
https://fourlightsrock.bandcamp.com/album/four-lights

Sicko - Laugh While You Can Monkey Boy - Green Vinyl (/250) & Green w/ Black and Yellow Splatter Vinyl (/250)

Top Drawer (2024, Reissue)

30 years after their first full length was released, Sicko is reissuing all of their albums on vinyl and CD. These boys have put out some really important records to me and over the next few Fridays I'm going to be writing about each of them (Maybe not on Black Friday, but we'll see how that goes). In the 90s, Sicko was part of my holy trinity of pop punk bands that also included The Mr. T Experience and Zoinks.  I still obsess over all three to this day.

Laugh While You Can Monkey Boy was Sicko's second album, but it is the one that was their current release when I started listening to them.  I have this oddly vivid memory of the exact moment it happened at Flipside records.  The conversation had turned to The Mr. T Experience and I was asked if I had heard Sicko.  When I said no, Alan pulled the CD out from the little mini section of new release CDs that was sort of built into the cash register area.  You had to look down at this box to see the spines.  He laid the CD on tope of the others and the cover art struck a chord in me.  After a few songs were played on the record store stereo, I went home with that CD.

That was the beginning of Sicko becoming one of my very favorite bands.  To this day, I could argue that Laugh While You Can Monkey Boy is my favorite Sicko album.  If I look at things analytically, is it their best one?  I'm not sure as you can make an awfully strong argument for either Chef or Boss as being the technically most proficient with a higher concentration of great songs per square inch.  But what those albums don't have for me is the enormous emotional pull that seems to link me to the first album that gets me into a band.  It's happened with almost every band I love, and for Sicko, this is kind of the one.

It sure doesn't hurt that the album has "Wave Motion Gun," "Mom," "Snowcone" and "Bad Year" on it, which would be tough for me to make a list of the best Sicko songs without including.  It also has a song about OJ Simpson on it, which does look a little different 29 years later, but at the time I thought was pretty amusing.

Like You Can Feel the Love in this Room, this reissue has been remastered and everything sounds better because of it.  Once again, the vocals shine on this version and makes it the definitive vinyl version to have.  It also has a bonus track, "80 Dollars."  This was originally on the split 7" with The Mr. T Experience and is another one of those songs I'd put on the Sicko Mount Rushmore.  

It's funny that for the last reissue I said it was jarring that "Pain In The Ass" was put in the middle of the record.  For this one, I actually would have preferred it if "80 Dollars" had been put on before "Weasel Of Doom/Lady '95" as it feels a little tacked on after what is an obvious album closer.  Once again we have plain colored vinyl and a splatter variant, each limited to 250 copies.  I think the plain green vinyl color is the winner again, even if maybe it doesn't pop as much in the picture.

It's hard for me to say enough good things about this album.  Not only is it a great album on its own, but it was a hugely influential one for me that opened my eyes to a band that would mean the world to me for decades after the fact.  I've always felt that you can't put a price on memories like that, but apparently if you go to the Top Drawer website now, the price appears to be $25.  A bargain.

Sicko - Laugh While You Can Monkey Boy:
https://sicko.bandcamp.com/album/laugh-while-you-can-monkey-boy-remastered

Saafir - Boxcar Sessions 2xLP

Rarebreed (2024, Reissue) 

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

I had this in my pile of records to review, but I wasn't planning on writing about it this year, let alone today.  But yesterday it came out that Saafir passed away, so I wanted to listen to this album again and write a little bit about the reissue of his debut LP, which came out on Rarebreed this year.

Technically, the first album that I owned that had Saafir on it was the Digital Underground album The Body-Hat Syndrome.  Even though I owned and listened to it, I wasn't really aware of his contributions at the time.  I was mostly there for Shock G/Humpty antics.  Looking back at that album over the years, after having a better idea of who Saafir was, I actually feel like his verses are one of that album's highlights.

My real introduction to Saafir came via his guest appearance on the track "That Bullshit" on the Casual album Fear Itself.  It's a really unique guest shot, as Casual isn't on the track at all.  It's basically just a short song that Saafir gets to own.  When I got that album in 94, that track really stood out, and one of the lines that Saafir threw out - "The 'D' stands for 'Diesel'" - became a weird sort of slang phrase that got shared with a group of high school friends.  That was the last I heard of Saafir for many years as 1994 was the year I started drifting away from hip hop.

What I didn't know at the time was that in 1994 Saafir released an album of his own, Boxcar Sessions.  That was a great discovery many years later and and it's been an album in pretty frequent rotation ever since.  A few years ago I did a very lackluster write up of the original promo double LP that came out in 94.  I was just kind of rushing through it and didn't write about anything particularly interesting.  For several decades that promo 2xLP was all that was available on vinyl, but this year, the album was finally rereleased with a picture sleeve.  Was the picture sleeve a blown up CD graphic?  Probably.  Is there a bigger UPC barcode in the history of recorded music?  Doubtful.  Is it of the best resolution you've ever seen?  Probably not.  But It still beats having no artwork at all every day of the week.

There have been online missives that the sound quality of this reissue isn't up to the high standards that some other reissue labels have been doing.  Maybe that's true, but I can't can't really hear a big difference between this and the original pressing that I have.  It's not a super high fidelity recording to begin with, fitting in with the gritty aesthetic of the time. 

The album itself is both a snapshot of golden era hip hop and a major outlier all at the same time.  The brew of jazzy beats concocted for this album is exactly what I look for in hip hop production.  Innovative and chock full of low end.  Saafir's vocals are from another planet.  And remember, this was the era when you had the Dels and Kool Keiths of the world experimenting pretty hard with unique flows and cadences, but neither of them were as 'out there' as Saafir was in 1994.

He rhymes in an meandering, syncopated manner, but always finds his groove in the pocket of the beat when it's needed.  As Del famously said ,"If you go off beat and it's on purpose, you've got to come back on beat or the effort is worthless."  Saafir always comes back on beat, no matter how far off the beaten path he strays.  It's this lyrical dexterity that makes him stand out from the pack.  His flow may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those that like to immerse themselves in lyrics and flows, he's top shelf.

Saafir was a unique and remarkable talent.  Whether it's showing up in Menace II Society or battle rapping Casual on west coast radio (one of the more famous battles in hip hop history, and well worth checking out if you've never heard it) he made an impact.   I can't do anything but recommend picking this album up.  It's one of the most unique of the golden era and one that I feel slipped through the cracks for a lot of people over the years.  Hopefully more people have the chance to listen to this album now that it's been reissued, I knew I had to spin it today.

Saafir - Boxcar Sessions:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nF_92fKa1mZnO-YO4kHnbOg0UeA8AZFGo

Pinhead Gunpowder - Unt LP - Yellow w/ Red and Teal Splatter Vinyl (/1000)

1-2-3-4 Go! (2024)

I certainly wasn't expecting a new Pinhead Gunpowder album as 2024 started wrapping up, but here we are with Unt.  Yes, Unt.  I've read more than a few 'hot takes' on this album in the last few weeks since it has been released and there are definitely people with opinions.  Shocking for the internet, but true.  I do realize that by writing this I am adding to it, but I'm not sure my take is as hot as most others.

What it boils down to is that I like this record.  It's fun to listen to and it has good songs on it, for the most part.  Is every song on it a smash hit?  No, but there's much more to like about this album than to dislike about it, I think.  It starts off particularly strong with "Unt," "Difficult But Not Impossible" and "Scum of the Earth" being particularly strong.  Maybe I don't like songs like "Oh My" or "Green" quite as much.  And while I can understand the sentiment behind "Hola Canada," it's a pretty goofy song.

I lot of what I've seen is from people saying that this album isn't as punk or aggressive or angsty as their albums from 20-20 years ago.  That's true.  But I'm also not as punk or aggressive as I was 30 years ago either.  It feels like a record aimed at someone a little older, like me.  And for that reasons I can relate to it more as a new album that's being release now as opposed to something being released purely to try to drum up feelings of nostalgia.  I have plenty of records from that era that make me feel nostalgic, I'm perfectly happy with a new record that's just fun to listen to with 2024 ears.

Pinhead Gunpowder - Unt:
https://pinheadgunpowder.bandcamp.com/album/unt

Sicko - You Can Feel The Love In This Room - Red Vinyl (/250) & Red w/ Black and White Splatter Vinyl (/250)

 

Top Drawer (2024, Reissue)

In the 90s, Sicko was part of my holy trinity of pop punk bands.  The Mr. T Experience, Zoinks and Sicko were always the ones that I was constantly obsessing over.  I spent so much time in a pre-Discogs world hunting down records by them.  The fact that so many are now available with the simple click of a mouse is as exciting as it is unfair.

30 years after their first full length was released, Sicko is reissuing all of their albums on vinyl and CD.  These boys have put out some really important records to me and over the next four Fridays (fingers crossed that I can stay on schedule) I'm going to be writing about each of them.  Maybe not on Black Friday, but we'll see how that goes.

First up is the first Sicko full length.  You Can Feel The Love In This Room was originally released in 1994 and I was completely unaware that it came out.  My entry point to Sicko was their next album Laugh While You Can Monkey Boy, but we'll talk more about that next week.  I had to backtrack and pick up You Can Feel The Love In This Room a year after the fact.  I think for that reason I honestly never really bonded with it as strongly as the others, which always felt more 'current' to me.  It's kind of absurd to say that about a record that came out 30 years ago vs. the next one that came out 29 years ago, but again, during the time it felt different to me than the other three.

That's certainly not to say I don't thoroughly enjoy this record and I've listed to it more times than I can count.  Just not quite as many times as the others.  It is jam packed full of hits and it's really hard to argue how great songs like "The Sprinkler" or "Wisdom Tooth Weekend" are.   The times I've seen Sicko live, these songs sound just as great as the ones off of other albums that I have a bit more nostalgic feelings for.  

Before I talk a little bit about this specific reissue, I do need to call out how absolutely, completely fucking insane it is that all four albums were rereleased AT THE SAME TIME.  That is madness and while as a fan it's sure nice to get them all without having to wait, just thinking about the logistics of making that happen makes my head hurt.

You Can Feel The Love In This Room was remastered for this rerelease and you can tell the difference.  I played the first few songs off of my original LP that came out on eMpTy before putting this new version on and it's a big improvement.  First off, everything is a little bit louder and a little bit fuller sounding, but where this reissue really shines for me is how much better the vocals sound.  They're a little more forward and it sounds great.  

There are also two bonus tracks on here, "Pain in the Ass" from their first demo and "Kathy's Dance" from the Count Me Out 7".  Where are the other songs from those releases?  Who knows.  Maybe we're going to get a fancy pants reissue of A Brief History... one day.  Rather than have both songs at the end, "Pain In The Ass" is at the end of side A of the record, which is a little jarring as I'm not used to that song being their when I've listened to the record for the past 29 years.  

This is the best that this record has ever sounded and even though I already had the original LP and CD, of course I needed to have both versions of the new vinyl.  Here they are, in all of their glory.  I may be in the minority (as I do understand that the splatter is probably more impressive looking), but I think the solid color is the winner here, it just looks the business to me.  

Sicko - You Can Feel The Love In This Room:
https://sicko.bandcamp.com/music (I have been assured that the remastered versions are coming to Bandcamp imminently)

Souls Of Mischief – 93 'Til Infinity (The Remixes) 2xLP

Jive (2024)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

I actually picked this up on Record Store Day Black Friday last year, but didn't get around to writing about it until now.  93 'Til Infinity is one of my top five hip hop albums of all time, and most days I'd probably say it's in my top three.  I've been obsessed with it since the very moment I saw the title track on Yo! MTV Raps when it first came out.  

This album is meant as a companion piece, with remixes and a B side from the 12" singles that came out around the album's release.It's great to have these songs in one place, but it also feels like something of a missed opportunity to me.  While there was only one official B side on those early singles, "Good Feeling," this really was the time to finally get a version "Cab Fare" on to a proper release.  I know, I know - sample clearance.  But this was the time to try.  I also think that "Get The Girl, Grab The Money & Run" from the Low Down Dirty Shame soundtrack should have been added.  Two more new songs would have gone a long way.

As far as the remixes go, they are all stellar, but there's not that many.  Only four remixes are here, which is fine, because that's all that was made.  They're definitely worth checking out if you haven't heard them before, giving a completely new flavor to tracks like "Make Your Mind Up," "Never No More," "That's When You Lost" and of course the remix to the song "93 'Til Infinity." 

Let's do some math here.  One B side.  Four Remixes.  Why is this a double LP?  It's because the rest of the album is full of instrumentals.  Five instrumentals and an acapella version of the title track.  I'm not a DJ, so I really don't need these very much.  Are they cool to listen to?  Absolutely.  But it's kind of scattershot with instrumentals of three LP versions and two of the remixes.  If this was a whole album of the LP instrumentals, yeah - sign me up.  But this kind of feels like an unnecessary double LP.  I'm probably more sensitive to it than usual because of the RSD tax making this a pretty pricey record.  I would have been perfectly happy with a single LP that doesn't have any of the instrumentals.  And add in "Cab Fare!"

Souls Of Mischief – 93 'Til Infinity (The Remixes):

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mCSBGVk3AseBaG81kdOUmmLA79TPQAlWg

Lync / Pedro The Lion - Split 7" - Blue Vinyl (/300)

Suicide Squeeze (2024)

This is an odd little release.  It's a split 7" with Lync and Pedro The Lion on each side playing the Lync song "b."  This version is on blue vinyl and was limited to 300 copies.  There's also a purple vinyl version, but I haven't seen that for sale online anywhere, though admittedly, I haven't really looked all that hard as I'm not sure I need another copy of this.  Though the Lync collector in my head often disagrees.

The original Lync version of this is from 1994's These Are Not Fall Colors album.  It's probably my favorite by Lync, which is saying something considering how much I love pretty much all of their songs.  It's the one that grabbed me by the ears in 1994 and never let go, fully establishing that Lync wasn't 'a band with those guys on the Beck album.'  Which was, of course, how I stumbled across them in '94.  I can't ever say enough good things about this song, this album and this band.  Sam Jayne forever.

On the flip is a newly recorded version of this song by Pedro The Lion.  I've never really been a fan, their records have always been a little too slow and sleepy for me.  Their take on "b" doesn't really do anything to change my opinion.  It's a solo acoustic take that is so slow and has such low, deep vocals that I thought I was playing it on the wrong speed.  To call it a melancholy take would be doing a disservice to melancholy things as it's just borderline depressing.  If this means that more folks get to hear the Lync version of the song, then this 7" is a worthwhile endeavor.  But for me, I don't really need a slower, sadder version of one of the great indie rock songs of all time.

Lync / Pedro The Lion - Split 7":
https://lync1994.bandcamp.com/album/b-2