the dope report

Hot tip: back in the ‘70s disco secretly escaped to Nigeria, where it thrived in African discotechs, blissfully unaware of what was happening back in the states. Sleeper hit of the Spring, Lagos Disco Inferno charts the continuation of disco on the dark continent: 12 tracks of hits and obscurities from all throughout the 70s. Look at these superb liner notes from Dean Disi, music journalist and formerly Director of Lagos-based label TYC Records:

Lagos by the 1970s was a huge metropolitan city. Due to the oil boom, there was money to made with music and nightlife and big international record labels like EMI, Decca and Philips had set up their recording studios that for a big part got equipped with vintage hardware handed down for their European franchises. So as the sound of the late 70s and early 80s in Europe and in the US got more and more modern and from today’s point of view just plain shitty, overloaded with ugly sounding Roland keyboards, the sound of Lagos was dominated by powerful horn sections, heavy drums, and percussion instruments. There’s plenty of early Moog synthesizers but no synth-generated strings or fake horns.

Expertly crate-dug by Frank Gossner of Voodoofunk.com. Check track “Don’t Put Me Down” for this brazen fusion of disco and highlife that just makes us want to get shitty and take our clothes off.

Spring is in the ear and LA producer Daedelus’ new “Righteous Fists of Harmony” sounds like an absolutely darling fit for the season.

By David Downs

Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age combo Them Crooked Vultures tore up their second California date in history Thursday night. Like rapacious rock and roll raptors, they descended onto the Fox Theater in Oakland and shredded masterfully, combining 100 years of experience into one of the best rock and roll bands on Earth.

“Fuck it. Let’s Dance.”

That was the band’s status update on Facebook when they began streaming their entire self-titled debut LP for free this November on YouTube, and “Dance” was the only mandate to the sold-out crowd. Foo Fighter Dave Grohl and Zepp’s John Paul Jones warmed up the audience with the opener “Nobody Loves Me and Neither Do I” to wild cheering, when right off the bat lead singer Josh Homme’s guitar refused to work.

By David Downs

Danish rock duo The Raveonettes seduced and betrayed a few hundred Bay Area music aficionados Monday night with 90-minute session of heart-achingly gorgeous rock and roll that left us crying for more.

Under the influence Buddy Holly’s “Rave On” and The Ronettes, the seven-year-old, critically acclaimed Raveonettes have yet to hit big in America, even though their fourth LP came out this year on Vice Records. All the better for the jaded critics, fellow musicians and industry types comprising the intimate audience at Bimbo’s in North Beach Monday, part of a small tour. Wildly talented lead singer Sharin Foo, and partner in crime guitarist Sune Rose Wagner masterfully performed new album In and Out Of Control as well as cuts from ‘07’s Lust Lust Lust and some stuff from The Raveonettes’ archives.

So vast has The Raveonettes’ back catalog become, that few knew the words to the opening tracks, prompting Foo to disclaim “that was a little something from the vaults.” But Foo and Wagner promptly transferred into recognized ... Out of Control single “The Last Dance” (about a heroin overdose), and the other high water marks from the album, like “Breaking Into Cars”, “D.R.U.G.S.”, “Bang”, and personal favorite “Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)”.

Insanely violent, stunningly detailed and as addictive as a speedball, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, is worth the hype. Free up time in the schedule, because even sleep will be a low priority while ensnared by this long-awaited and difficult first-person shooter.

By David Downs

Legendary alternative rock band Pixies howled the ferocious language of Doolittle to thousands of rabid, animalistic fans at a rare, sold-out engagement in Oakland’s $92 million, restored 1930s picture palace, the Fox Theater Sunday night.

Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton joined the preeminent DJ Kid Koala onstage in San Francisco last night for the final, howling song of Koala’s new hard rock project The Slew. (Full review after the jump.)

We have to be careful which image we project, because the success of that projection may nullify that image. On one hand, you have Snoop Dogg – who always claimed to be a pimp and a badass. The more money he made and success he found, the more it ratified his image. Then look at someone like Kurt Cobain who made millions of pop dollars as an outsider malcontent. The cognitive dissonance was enough to blow his head off.

HST had no idea the world would adore his outlaw journalist shtick. HST had no idea that such adoration could neuter the exact pose he was striking. So be careful who you wish for …

The Onion AV Club’s review of new Thompson Q/A Ancient Wisdom:

a collection of Q&As assembled by Thompson’s former assistant and widow Anita, can be like reading the earlier ones, except that Thompson is crankier. ... He has some sympathy but little patience with nervous questioners: “God damn, man. Who wrote these questions for you?” he asks a palpably cowed Freezerbox.com contributor in 2004. And yet he responds to David Felton’s belligerent salvos for Rolling Stone College Papers in 1980-”I think it’s generally agreed that you’re pretty much washed up as a writer and a thinker and, to some extent, a human being”-with gentlemanly equanimity: “Hmmm… Jesus. Well, then there’s really no point in doing this, is there?”

[Photo-Thompson Archives]

[AVClub Review]