At the age of 20 Shamir Bailey seems more comfortable in his own skin than most of us will probably ever be in our lifetimes. The hip-hop/electronic/can’t-quite-put-a-label-on-him artist out of Las Vegas, Nevada released his single “On the Regular” back in 2014 and the take-away is: ‘Here I am. I think I’m awesome. Take it or leave it.’ This is him on the regular, in his fringed jacket, with his whip, riding his exercise bike, and he doesn’t care if we’re on board or not (but, just for the record – definitely on board.)
And in case it went by a little too fast to pick up on them, here are some of the more amazing lyrical gems:
They say necessity is the mother of invention. They also say that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Let’s face it, “they” say a lot of things, especially when trying to put a positive spin on any obstacles that we may face in life, and I could go on spouting cliches all day, but there is some truth in those old sayings and really, happy accidents can often lead to the best results.
Case in point: Canton, Ohio’s Wrath, a 1970s rock band whose lyrics touched on some occult themes, making them a perfect fit for The Numero Group’s Warfaring Strangers: Darkscorch Canticles, a compilation of similarly Dungeons and Dragons-esque hard rock/proto-metal acts that never acheived huge success. When Wrath booked some studio time back in the ’70s (with a recording engineer who I assume must have looked like Howard Hesseman), singer Rick Page was struck by a bout of laryngitis. Rather than cancel the session and lose out on their deposit, the band soldiered on, recruiting guitarist Ralph Minocchi’s wife Sherry to sing the lead on “Warlord.” We’ll never know how the original version would have sounded, but I can only imagine it wouldn’t have been quite as interesting. Instead of just sounding like a generic ’70s hard rock band, Minocchi’s vocals add a bit of a girl group/garage rock meets psychedelia vibe.
“Teenage Exorcists,” the lead single off of Mogwai’s upcoming EP, Music Industry 3. Fitness Industry 1, is about as close as Mogwai comes to writing a pop song. It also comes with a glorious video. It’s rare that I’d want to see a music video adapted into a full length feature, but this one may be the exemption. The Craig Murray directed clip is full of enough abstract, trippy, cosmic imagery that I’m left wanting more. I’d watch a film based on this video or even a graphic novel – I’m sure Mogwai’s countryman Grant Morrison could come up with something suitably weird to match the video.
Speaking of weird, I’m left wondering if Mogwai’s inspiration for this song was the actual TeenageExorcists, three young women from Arizona who supposedly perform exorcisms. I thought I’d share with you a few choice quotations from their website:
“I do have a very adventurous life! Between casting out demons, keeping up with demanding schoolwork and traveling all over the world, I have had some crazy experiences!”
Demanding schoolwork? Whoa, that does sound crazy …
“An increasingly popular holiday, Halloween is far from an uplifting and moral holiday. It is an ancient tradition that goes back to the druids, full of evil and Satanic worship. Demons gain power during this time of year as death and terror are sold in stores, theaters and haunted mansions all across the country.”
We may scoff at this, but after seeing that sexy ebola nurse costume, I wonder if there’s something to this idea.
“Not everyone who has a demon is ready to be exorcized. Three factors affect this decision: the willingness of the victim, the spiritual preparedness of the exorcist, and the weakened condition of the demons.”
This totally makes sense. I’m sure many folks want to take the time to get to know their demons first before being too hasty and casting them out. I mean, there’s probably some friendly demons out there, right? Like Hot Stuff from Harvey Comics. He seemed pretty nice, and he enjoyed a Hostess snack cake from time to time too, so you know he wasn’t all bad.
So now you know about the Teenage Exorcists. And knowing is half the battle. Go listen to some Mogwai and eat a Hostess fruit pie.
Sunset Sons comprise of three Brits and one Aussie, or as I’d like to say, the worse combo of people to meet at a hostel somewhere. They are apparently a bunch of surfers living in France who just happened to form a band and get on a good record label. HOW GRAND. This track is off their upcoming EP No Bad Days and has a kind of loose late summer vibe to it. Maybe it’s the single cover, I’m not sure but there is a certain amount of carefree attitude to this song that resonates with me at this very moment. Check it out.
