Das Racist >> It's fun to do bad things like rhyme about handguns

Das Racist - "Rainbow In The Dark" [original version]

(self-released, 2010)

After two "mixtapes" which set the underground rap (sorry... "hip hop") world abuzz, Das Racist's debut album, Relax, was unleashed on a label called Greedhead Music, run by DR's own Heems, née Himanshu Kumar Suri.  Their unforgettable and extremely quotable song "hahahaha jk?" (built on a sample of the theme song of the soap opera Days Of Our Lives) was an instant classic that made me sit up and take notice, but the effortless charisma and cool of "Rainbow In The Dark" is what made me a true Das Racist convert.  Highlights: That slightly off-the-beat synth part and all the obscure, geek-friendly lyrical references.  The 2011 version on Relax is slightly spruced-up compared to the mixtape version, but is almost indistinguishable.  (The original 2010 version is about 10 seconds longer: 4:02 vs. 3:52.)  Das Racist is a group that is always one step ahead of the spider; their secret weapon is the ability to subtly parody other rappers' attempts at lampooning lame genres of hip hop.  (Think De La Soul's "Ego Trippin'" video.)  SPIN's review of Relax says "The synth-pop jam 'Booty In The Air' is essentially Das Racist spoofing Lupe Fiasco spoofing mainstream rap."  It goes on to say "Reprised early internet cut 'Rainbow In The Dark' is a welcome oasis of expertly half-assed calm amid the newfound clamor."  (The last line of this song is especially funny because my sister and I's Cuban friend Alex once exclaimed "I can't... They'd put me to work!" when he was asked if he wanted to visit a plantation.)  Here is the origin of the group's name, if you're the last person on earth who was still wondering.  In order to not embarrass yourself further, the first word is pronounced DASS, not DOSS.  I will remind you that this is a professional site, so please, no Dio jokes re: the song title.

I mentioned this concert last year, so go here to read a nano recap and see the extremely great, Wikipedia-worthy, 7-dudes-in-one-shot pic that I took near the triumphant finale.  Note: I just found out the "DJ dude" (who also did some rapping at the beginning of DR's set) is Lakutis.
Despite the band's laid-back flow on record, they were super-energetic live, almost to the point where I'd use the word "frantic" to describe their onstage antics.  They do rap about Four Loko, and I remember jokingly pointing that out to my sister as a possible explanation for their manic energy.  Amazingly, no vids from the show have been put on YouTube yet, despite it being a pretty packed show.  The bizarre film clips that were playing behind them were definitely unexpected, and I can't even begin to describe them, so I won't.  I'm still shocked that they didn't play "hahahaha jk?," but at least I have a reason to try to see them again.  Some girl was hitting on Lakutis after the show outside, and invited him to go the Saint with her.  My sister and I went over there just on the off chance that he or any Das Racist members would show up, but none of them ever did.  Opening act Danny Brown has gone on to become a pretty big star, at least in indie circles, though he has apparently stopped wearing tiger outfits onstage.  Kool A.D. of D.R. recently released two solo albums.  Sorry... two solo "mixtapes."  I guess the only difference is that a mixtape is given away free, oui?  Heems is my favorite Das-er, basically functioning as the Q-Tip of the group with his nonchalant delivery.

Fun Fact: DR's mixtape Shut Up, Dude was named after a lyric in this song.

Fri. Sep. 28: Bought a gorgeous, essentially brand-new La-Z-Boy recliner at Salvation Army for only $140.  Looked at carpet samples beforehand with my mom, but decided to just get my carpet professionally cleaned instead of getting new carpet after realizing that $2.50 a square foot sounds cheap until you extrapolate it out to the size of a living room.

Sat. Sep. 29: Went to the Mushroom and finally got to talk to Sam again for the first time since Jazz Fest.  I found out she's in a band (Trampoline Team).  She asked if I'm going to see Dinosaur Jr., but alas I ain't; tried to talk her and Mike into seeing Godspeed You Black Emperor.  She offered to burn me this Dino Jr. remix album, but I said I'd have to hear some samples first.  Was somewhat amazed to find out she had gone to the Boris concert in Baton Rouge in '07, and also had seen one of MONO's many shows there.  And she casually mentioned Magma(!) when describing some local band's sound...  We both made fun of Ben from Bipolaroid.  I dug out some used CDs (Unwound's Fake Train & Challenge For A Civilized Society; Yo La Tengo's Painful; Suzanne Vega's self-titled) from under the "blue roof" tarp for her to check out.  Picked up Cat Power's Moon Pix on vinyl and showed them the inner sleeve, boasting "This is what my front porch looks like":

Sam replied that her dad in New Jersey has lots of cacti and desert plants too, which really impressed me.  In addition to the Moon Pix LP, I scored the 2-DVD Criterion Collection edition of Paris, Texas for only $4, and a movie called Forty Shades Of Blue.  (Again, no jokes please.)  Mike said his jokey metal / grindcore band Foot was playing 3 hours away in Mississippi that night, and I took a 1-song freebie CD-R of theirs.  Sam said I'm her favorite customer, which, since she's pretty much my favorite person in the world, pretty much made my year.  Though as a Phillies fan, I was not too fond of the fact that she was wearing a Yankees shirt.  (Aren't Jerseyites supposed to be Mets fans?  I know the members of Yo La Tengo are diehard Mets fans, and their name even came from a phrase that a Mets outfielder was known for shouting.)  It was raining, so I ducked into some little place called Favori Deli on Maple St.  Got a very good grilled chicken for myself and a Philly cheese steak for my mom, who was born & raised in Philly.  It's right next door to the former digs of The Camera Shop, which I used to frequent when taking Fine Art Photography at Loyola in '97. I caught the very end of the Fall Garden Fest at City Park, but most of the vendors had already left due to the rain, so I just bought a little lily called Zephyranthes atamasca, which looks like a chive or wild onion plant.  I unfortunately skipped Glish's Come Down EP release party at Circle Bar, just because I don't really like going there and the acoustics are awful, though Sam had informed me that it finally has air conditioning now.  My sister surprisingly bought a Godspeed ticket without me having to even convince her.  I thought she'd want to go to M83, but apparently not, so I might got to that alone, despite how gleefully Hipster Runoff has mocked M83's recent efforts.

Sun. Sep. 30: Took my dad to the airport parking garage to jump the dead battery in his truck.  Went to Barnes & Noble in the rain for a few hours, getting a few things for my sister's birthday.  Hit up the second (final) day of FGF and scored three more native species: Osmanthus americanus (Devilwood or Wild Olive), Amsonia hubrichtii (Narrow Leaf Blue Star), and Hypericum densiflorum or H. frondosum (St. John's Wort).  Somewhat renowned local acoustic guitarist John Rankin gave a chillaxable performance under the glass dome of the fern / cycad / orchid house at the Botanical Garden, accompanied by a sax player and a guy on upright bass.  I used to walk by his open door at Loyola in '01 and hear him giving one-on-one guitar lessons.  I guess he still teaches there, but I don't feel like checking.  I used to have his '84 LP Something I Ate.  Anyway, it's not often you get to see a jazz concert attended by about 5 people inside a greenhouse at a botanical garden in the rain.  If this sounds appealing to you, move to New Orleans, because I really doubt you'll find that anywhere else other than maybe Amsterdam or San Francisco.  (Which reminds me... Note to self: Move back to New Orleans.)  Drew Brees torched the Packers in Green Bay for 400 yards by the end of the 3rd quarter, but the Saints still found a way to lose, falling to 0-4.

Mon. Oct. 1: The first day of the Times-Picayune's mega-controversial shift to only putting out a newspaper 3 days a week after 175 YEARS as a daily paper.  Why they couldn't have just trimmed it down to 4 or 5 days a week is beyond me.  This happened because the paper sold out to a cheapskate conglomerate based in the NE U.S. called Advance Publications, which already was notorious for killing off Ann Arbor's newspaper after buying it.  And word has it that they're giving Syracuse's paper the axe next.  N.O. is now the largest city in America without a daily newspaper.  Baton Rouge's The Advocate is making an aggressive foray into the N.O. market to try to fill this void.  As a tree fanatic, I can't say I'm too distraught, considering that lots (millions? tens of millions?) of trees will be saved by the shift to digital.  I still refuse to read novels on any format other than actual paper, though.  Extremely psyched to see Merchandise & Glish at The Big Top on Friday, and for the first Obama-Romney debate tonight.  Working on a metal / punk mix CD to bring to the dudes at the Mushroom, since that's what they mainly listen to.  But I'm miffed that the mix I painstakingly made for Sam never made it to her.  And thus ends a post that began with me talking about "mixtapes."

Speaking of Alex, here he is, valiantly holding the purse of his extremely wasted wife Tace at the Orpheus parade in February.  This girl is a doctor and can outdrink the entire U.S. Senate without even blinking, so it was quite a shock to see her practically unable to walk or form a coherent sentence:

(Camera phone pic by my sister.)  I'm in the green hoodie, just a few days before the Trayvon Martin hoodiegate incident broke.  FWIW, I wore a baby blue hoodie to see Boris the previous November, just to stand out among the black-clad metal masses.

Planets with similar climates: Special Ed - "I Got It Made" & "I'm The Magnificent" (1989), MC Paul Barman - "Make No Mistake" (2002), Poor Righteous Teachers - "Can I Start This?" (1990), Eminem - "My Name Is" (1998), Flight Of The Conchords - "I Told You I Was Freaky" (2009).