music
Don’t Call It a Comeback
They’ve been here for years, and as a duo they never really broke up. Life and the music industry just pulled
Lateef the Truthspeaker and Lyrics Born in different directions — for a while. But what did you expect from
these emcees, both of whom began as solo artists and originally ended up collaborating by accident with
DJ Shadow and Chief Xcel (of Blackalicious) to form Latyrx?
Fourteen years after these guys released Latyrx (the album), the emcees of Latyrx are back in action
together.
“What we’ve talked about is, very simply, picking up where we left off,” says Lyrics Born.
Though not aged enough to be oldies but goodies, Lateef the Truthspeaker and Lyrics Born crashed
onto the hip hop scene circa 2000, in the company of such peers as Anti-Pop Consortium, Pigeon John and
Aesop Rock. And like the aforementioned artists of underground hip hop’s past, the Latyrx emcees are
weirdos who specialize in abstract lyrics, bizarre content and unapologetic hyper creativity.
Songs like “Lady Don’t Tek No,” “Balcony Beach” and “The Quickening” aptly display the style
and ability of Latyrx. The duo feeds off each other and will most likely appear in a brazen new
form when it comes to live performance.
Rumors of a new album in the works are all over the internet, and hip hop heads continue to
rave and rally behind the idea of more Latyrx to come. Don’t miss out on Latyrx, hitting Eugene
for the first time since 2001.
Latyrx plays 8:30 pm Thursday, Dec. 1, at WOW Hall; $13 adv., $15 door. — Dante Zuñiga-West
The Electronic Vanguard
Hey kids, do you like stylists? Do you
want to hear a stylish glitch and mix hybrids
of pirated half-second spots that sound an
awful lot like all the other dub-house-hip-
pop-hop-step-squawk that’s selling out
electronica shows throughout the country
these days?
Not to say that it’s bad, because acts like
Michal Menert (pictured) and Gramatik of
the Pretty Lights label will elicit all sorts of
swerving, pumping, thumping, stepping,
humping and just straight-up dancing from
everyone who attends their shows. But it’s
tell-tale to see growing homogenization of
subterranean music.
Of course, popularity has something to do with it. Take underground hip hop of
yesteryear: All the best parts of all the best tracks with all the best rhymes with all the
important shit to say was pretty well-received by anybody who listened to it. Then it got
widespread, slightly diluted and backhanded by the mainstream labels. This new rave of
electronica may be reaching that breaking point (pun intended).
Nonetheless, the ease with which decades of music are repainted, harassed and made to
do things they were never intended to do remains stunning. And it sounds good. And it
feels good. And the lights are good. And the bass is good. And I want to contort my body.
And so do lots of other people — and that’s the idea. You can’t listen to Gramatik’s
Dimestore Diamond Remix and not want to boogie. Menert’s style, though jazzier, carries
with it that same vibe.
Fortunately, independent labels like Pretty Lights are still putting out independent music
(for free online). It’s just that what they’re putting out may no longer be the cultural
spearhead it once was. But hey, it’s a fast-paced party, and Michal Menert and Gramatik are
two artists who can surely keep up with the tempo.
Michal Menert and Gramatik play 8 pm Friday, Dec. 9, at McDonald Theatre; $15 adv.,
$20 door. — Patrick Newson
The Postmodern Lover
The intimacy of the small wood-grain stage at
Sam Bond’s suits Jonathan Richman like warm
wool herringbone on a cold rainy evening. Richman
offers a casual medley of soft acoustic waves with
a bittersweet undertow and his longtime partner in
chime, Tommy Larkin, spits back a suave spray of
minimalist jazz drumming. Often singing in French
or Spanish, Richman comes across as a troubadour
philosopher concerned with affectation, affection,
aesthetics and mortality.
His most recent album, O, Moon, Queen of Night
on Earth, from 2010, channels the old romantic
vanguard suffering through the wee small hours of
a starry night with nothing but nylon strings and a
long sense of humor. Songs like “These Bodies that
Came to Cavort” and “My Affected Accent” pulse
upbeat despair about problems like too much wine,
not enough bullying as a child and using big words
inappropriately. “If You Want to Leave Our Party
Just Go” invites a crowd-pleasing meta-farce, and “I
Was the One She Came For” offers a sweet double-
entendre in an otherwise heart-felt love song.
Nonetheless, Richman’s dark lyric depth is apparent
despite his wit, and he plumbs it in “The Sea Was
Calling Me Home.”
Onstage, Richman and Larkin (the Greek
Chorus from There’s Something About Mary),
provide running commentary, spontaneous dance
routines, eclectic arrangement and the energy
drawn up from their proto-punk new-wave
taproots. Though never classically “famous,”
Richman is certainly a velvet hero among those
who thrive underground.
Jonathan Richman plays 9:30 pm Saturday, Dec.
3, at Sam Bond’s Garage; $14. — Patrick Newson
Stomp At Sam Bond’s
Pouting about the loss of Portland-based trance hillbilly blues band
Hillstomp? Stop sulking. Hillstomp’s frontmen may have disembarked on
separate projects, but in so doing they continue to go off in the ways that
made them a Eugene favorite for dancing your ass off to. Henry Hill
Kammerer, the singer/guitar playing half of Hillstomp, plays Sam Bond’s
Dec. 1 with Bitterroot and Kory Quin and the Comrades.
Portland might be a long way from the musical inspirations of the
American South, but something about throwing in a little Pendleton plaid
and the Cascade peaks instead of the gently rolling mountains of
Appalachia adds a twist to the sound that’s both Northwest unique and
distinctly Americana. From Kammerer’s twanging and yelling to Bitterroot’s
eastern Oregon open-spaces influenced sound and Kory Quinn’s train-
hopping hobo blues, if you’re in the mood for dancing and getting sweaty on
a cold December night, then you’re good to go. Kammerer on his own
provides enough stomp and holler to give you the bluegrass fix you’re
looking for.
If you’re planning on dancing (and even if you’re not because trust me,
you will dance) you may want to bring a towel to wipe your sweat. Note to
that lady with the low-cut shirt at the last Sam Bond’s Hillstomp show:
Grabbing a beery bar towel to wipe your chest with and then tossing it back
on the bar got you covered in beer, got the towel covered in your sweat and
got anyone who witnessed your wiping a little grossed out. Luckily we were
too busy dancing Mississippi trance blues to care.
Kory Quinn, Henry Kammerer and Bitterroot play Thursday, Dec. 1, at
Sam Bond’s; $9. — Camilla Mortensen
PHOTO BY TRASK BEDORTHA
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EUGENE WEEKLY DECEMBER 1, 2011 25