26: A Love Song for Damian Lillard
Holy jesus christ in heaven, what have you been up to?
Me, I’m just somehow both barely survivin’ and somehow thrivin’ at the same time. Sure is sweet to live life with the ladies. May I show you this pic of Jos & (mostly) me putting together her Barbie dreamhouse that Santa lovingly dropped on our laps for Christmas?
I definitely struggled when watching the Capitol stormed on January 6th, but as always music saved my life. I took an angry walk and listened to Pink Siifu’s NEGRO, and it put my mind right. Later in the month, I really enjoyed reading Patrick Johnson from POW on FlySiifu’s, one of my absolute favorite records from last year. I think the writer really nailed how the album conceptually hangs on the skits, and the sense of community music misfits find in dusty record shops.
this photo of the Capitol at Dusk on Jan 6 by Leah Mills
Meanwhile in Portland, same shit different president.
Some of the better analyses of the Capitol’s occupation draw a direct through line to the Malheur occupation that occurred five years ago this month.
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I spent a bunch of time in January sorting records, creating a database of my collection in Discogs, and listening to old favorites. I will admit that my greatest score was finding a UK 1st pressing of My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless at Off the Record in Yakima, WA in the early winter of 2002. You can see right up there what I paid for it. Fuckin’ smart guy that I am, sent it straight to Ronda for Valentine’s Day, and the rest is, as we like to say in the biz, history.
I also watched this music video at least twenty times
“Earth is Ghetto” by Aliah Sheffield
Earth is ghetto I wanna leave
can you beam me up
Im outside on the street
by the corner store , you know the one on 15 th
got a bright shirt on so I’m easy to see
I been down here stranded
Indefinitely
I can’t reach my planet
but I need to leave
you should see these people
It’s hard to believe
how they treat
Each-other
It’s hard to conceive
earth is ghetto
I wanna leave
They have the hungry starving
nothing to eat
The homeless living
out on the street
And the sick are dying
Crooked police
Politicians lying
Criminals on the street
I got five on fuel if you need it from me
I'll sit in the back if we riding too deep
Better lock the doors, these people lie steal and cheat
Roll the windows up, so we can head out in peace
Earth is ghetto
I wanna leave
I been down here stranded
Indefinitely
I can’t reach my planet
but I need to leave
you should see these people
It’s hard to believe
how they treat
Each-other
It’s hard to conceive
earth is ghetto
I wanna leave
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DJ MIXES
In a vain attempt to stay sane, I threw myself into music & making DJ mixes this month. It all sort of started out as a single mix, and then mutated beyond all recognition when I realized I wanted to use lots of different approaches and genres. I present for your listening pleasure, the following four mixes:
DOWNLOAD // featuring PDX Hip-Hop, R&B, & Beats
DOWNLOAD // featuring mostly rock & indie rock songs
DOWNLOAD // featuring mostly recent Hip-Hop & R&B
DOWNLOAD // a shoutout to El Muntz in the spirit of the Hellfish days
WHY BASKETBALL?
Hoops has given me some solace and escape this winter, at least until Jusuf Nurkić went down with a wrist injury. Nurk is not my favorite player, nor is he the most talented Blazer on the floor (almost ever). He has pretty great post moves, is a solid defender inside, but absolutely infuriatingly refuses to dunk (or bully inside it seems) and is prone to fluke injury, such as breaking his leg in half or fracturing his hand with what seems like incidental contact. In short, he’s cursed, fitting into a long line of doomed athletes that donned uniforms for PNW squadrons, only to be smote by fate and rainy winters.
Now, mind you, I consider myself absolutely blessed as a sports fan to have grown up in the Pacific Northwest, celebrating the hapless competence of Dave Krieg and the incredible planar surface of Detlef Schempf’s hair. For real, I have been able to witness some incredible athletes on my very favorite teams in the primes of their careers: Kemp & Payton and their sweet two-man game; Ichiro climbing walls in the outfield like Spider-Man hopping onto NYC skyscrapers; Ray Allen, cool and sneering, constant money from outside; Marshawn Lynch, a goddamned force of nature fucking straight-up wrecking and stiff-arming fools; Russell Wilson, eternally cool on the scramble when the play is forever broken; Sue, Breanna, and the ladies and their consistent pursuit of excellent; and of course, Felix, vexing opposing players with velocity, movement, and location on perfect summer afternoons and evenings.
I was a reluctant fan of the Blazers at first—I considered myself a Sonics fan to the bitter end. My love for the NBA died in the spring of 2007 when the Sonics & Clay Bennett’s new leadership traded Ray Allen to the Celtics, which portended a swift downfall for the franchise. A few years later in 2011, my fervor was resurrected by a different Klay, when Thompson (a beloved Coug!) was drafted by the Warriors. What followed was a love affair between me and some beautiful fuckin’ basketball, as a carpetbagging fan of a championship team.
Fast forward to the fall of 2016—I’m sitting in the Rose Garden with my great friend Stevie from college, watching the Blazers take on the Warriors. I blinked, looked down at the court, and realized that the last time I’d watched an NBA game in person, Durant was wearing a Sonics jersey. I mean, I’d respected McCollum & Lillard from afar, as one does a superior rival, but it didn’t take long for me to learn to live and die by the Blazers. Which, again as a PNW sports fan, includes a healthy dose of dying.
But, oh, to watch Lillard & McCollum, night after night, making beautiful baskets and defying gravity & physics. Also dope as hell to have Carmelo on this team, mostly because I feel like people I dislike intensely have been underestimating him his whole career. Dame is a singular player, one of the greatest I’ve ever seen. Nurk, he’s just a guy.
A visual timeline of Carmelo Anthony’s headbands, by Sarah Brown
Cannot remember what I love more; the ambiance, or the decor?
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PDX BANDCAMP RECOMMENDATIONS
Bandcamp Friday approaches this week. That means it’s your chance to BUY music directly from artists and have 100% of the proceeds go straight into their pockets. I’m a broken record, but goddamn it would be cool if artists could make a living from their art.
T.$poon // It’s In Me Not On Me
T.$poon has been making GREAT music in PDX since 2015, releasing directly to DSPs and staying in his own lane. This is his first release on Bandcamp and damn it is fine.
K.Penn // Art of Evolution
This album was released on Xmas day and is K-Penn’s second full-length, first on Bandcamp. This one has grown on me tremendously over the last few weeks.
Glenn Waco // “Willie Lynchings”
One of Portland’s finest though-provoking MCs, Glenn Waco has been on point for years in regards to gentrification, police violence, white supremacy, and Portland politics.
Slick Devious // I Just Gotta Work Harder
Slicky D released my favorite album from PDX in 2019, had an immortal music video about the damn Max, and then almost 12 months later dropped the fun-as-hell I Just Gotta Work Harder (plus the instrumentals!), thus forever enshrining him in my own personal PDX rap hall of fame.
Bocha // “Block”
YoungShirtMayne // “Already Won”
Swiggle Mandela “Needed (ft. Westside Boogie, Jasey Cordeta & Kenai)”
“Dear Portland Police” was the anthem last summer
Vinnie Dewayne // “Back From the Dead”
OTHER BANDCAMP FAVORITES
Moor Mother & billy woods // BRASS
BRASS is an intense and breath-taking collaboration between Philadelphia’s Moor Mother & NYC’s billy woods that was released in mid-December. It seems like every winter there’s a billy woods record that makes me shiver a little deeper in my revulsion at humanity.
Navy Blue // Song of Sage: Post Panic!
Somehow Navy Blue released the first important album of 2020 and the last important album of 2020. Song of Sage: Post Panic! is confident, open, and thoughtful, and has been great for afternoon walks with the dog.
OTHER ALBUMS
Heaux Tales by Jazmine Sullivan is everything everyone says it is.
Mountains by Mary Timony just got the deluxe reissue treatment from Matador and stands as one of my favorite nineties albums to ever get slaughtered by Pitchfork. Hahahaha fuck those indie rock, white supremacist, patriarchal bastards.
Supreme Clientele by Ghostface Killah turned 21 this month. Please enjoy this astonishing article by Son Raw for Passion of the Weiss on its modern relevance and greatness, and then read Jeff Weiss’ review of SC for Pitchfork.
Super dope writeup of KeiyaA by Ann-Derrick Gaillot for Crack Magazine.
Craig Jenkins on Freddie Gibbs for Vulture
More DOOM
Craig Jenkins on DOOM for Vulture
CineMasai on DOOM’s legacy
David Ma from POW on DOOM’s song “That’s That”
RIP
Tommy Lasorda
Sylvain Sylvain
Hank Aaron
SOPHIE
Double K from People Under the Stairs
Crab fishing off Oceanside at sunset by Andrew Wallner
Thanks for reading!
DJ Mr. Mom // Andy
North Portland, OR
February 1, 2021