Big Baby Gandhi
Smart Dumb Kid's Progress
Big Baby Gandhi: Big Fucking Baby (free download)
Like his patron Heems, this Bangladeshi-American is from the part of Flushing "where the smart kids act dumb and the dumb kids act dumb." He just acts dumb in a smart way. You could say his lo-fi debut favors degraded rhythm samples and soprano voices, only from the boat-rocking "Been Around Ya Girl" to the deep-soul "Summertime Thing" to the Indian-children's-song-plus-keyboard(???)-loop "Woof Woof" you'd be missing a lot. The flow seems effortlessly idiomatic, only not South Asian idiomatic, whatever that would sound like besides Heems. The rhymes bespeak a brainy slacker with an analysis underway, only he's watched so much porn and heard so much hip-hop that he's dumber than need be about sex. Here he's all "she's chokin' just hopin' to provoke a nut," there he's telling her he was only kidding about that handjob. Figure by now he's here and there both. He is a kind of famous rapper, after all. A MINUS
Big Baby Gandhi: No1 2 Look Up 2 (free Greedhead mixtape)
"Terrorist with no turban/Lyricist with no sermon," he admits he'll be proud to graduate from college and with the help of two resourceful young beatmakers I never heard of cleans up his production like he's ready to go pro. But for all his "Get $$$," he hasn't quite managed it yet. He's still a kid getting his thoughts together one surprise rhyme at a time, weeding out enough sex and dope to make room for a holy Bollywood "Long Ass Intro," a law-abiding uncle who kept him out of the army, a joke he jacked from Fall Out Boy, and other evidence of grown manhood. A MINUS
“Only because it seems so culturally important to be able to say who you are: I definitely identify as bisexual,” she says. “Every interesting person I’ve ever read about, sexuality’s all over the map for them. It never was clearly defined. I’ve always just kind of existed in that world of openness. But right now, in terms of the political climate, and with a number of young gay suicides, and with don’t ask don’t tell not being repealed, and with so many politicians still being so aggressively against gay marriage, it is hard not to at least identify in a way that lets people know, ‘It is OK whoever you are.’ It’s weird, because no one’s actually ever asked me. People just always assume, like, you’re this or that. It’s like, ‘OK. I’m bisexual. Just ask.’”
Here's the link: http://goo.gl/yzA5n
I love Sleater-Kinney so much--I think I saw them in concert more than any other band, and, more than that, feel so privileged to have done so. The first concert of there's I saw, for Dig Me Out, would've made a fan out of anyone--Corin blew the doors off First Avenue with her voice alone. Carrie instantly became my guitar god. Actually, she kind of still is. What a band.
today's NY Times Book Review has an end essay by the wonderful Jonathan Lethem about his correspondence-friendship with the almost-as-wonderful (and now far less well-known) Thomas Berger --
Apropos of nothing: Showgirls is one of the greatest films of all time.
Best American Novels, 1950-1999 (unorthodox, largely avant list from film theorist Steven Shaviro; includes Valley of the Dolls)
)?! http://goo.gl/KW3f5 (It's, obviously, too short; I may add another verse or a bridge. I freeze halfway through; IDK why! Also, sorry for shakiness--I messed up a few times! 
)Edit: I notice now, I should add 'who will?' onto the last strum!
Lyrics here:
Who Will Love You?
Verse 1 (A/G/D)
She threw on her coat,
And left on a vote,
I'll try to be nice next time.
She threw in her cards,
And put up her guard,
She'd rather be alone.
She gave me a shove,
And strangled a dove,
Oh, how will we get on?
She spat in my face,
And smashed up the place,
I'd rather be alone.
x2 Chorus (C/G/D/A)
I won't write you a love song,
Who will?
I won't play your loser,
Who will?
(Blend--C/G)
Verse 2 (A/G/D)
She cheated on me,
And did it with glee,
You girls leave me alone.
She never loved me,
And acted hasty,
In hanging up the phone.
What did I expect?
And how not have bet,
She'd treat me like a dog.
I'm sick of this song,
And dragging along,
**** her--she'll be alone.
(Blend--C/G)
x4 Chorus (C/G/D/A)
I won't write you a love song,
Who will?
I won't play your loser,
Who will?
Isn't William Gibson science fiction? He may not have predicted computers, but he sure got them right early (before he knew how to operate one, I believe).
Also, I continue to pump Bruce Sterling.
So I was not rejecting what I consider bad bad music because I was not aware of the concept.
Here is the whole of Bob's Yaz sentence:
A tape-layered playlet does disfigure side one, but better godawful than bland, and before you complain about Vince Clarke's hackneyed take on modern romance you ought to remember that he only rejoined the human race a few months ago.
I think most folks would agree that not having anything about the "first rule of rock criticism" in there makes quite a difference. Indeed, as a general, stand-alone principle I certainly prefer yikes over snore.In what more substantial, less time-wasting mode of listening did you hear Kay Huntington's album?
Wouldn't it be a violation of everything I've talked about if I had heard it? I accepted Bob's review that it was wretched refuse and not worth my time looking for. I mean, the thing was called Consumer Guide, right?
I actually did say so but in a (snaps) camp way that went undetected as "guts." It still had the intended effect - a move away from interweb griping towards augmenting my Must Read list.
But b!t(h, if you want to go up against a queen re: camp (still using Sontag?!?), I'm down. It'll have to wait 'til tomorrow night, though. Swamped today.
Two things, though:
1. "And that may be the first rule of kevin john rock criticism"
I actually stole it from Robert Christgau from his review of Yaz: Upstairs at Eric's (which he got wrong; solid A, that).
2. In what more substantial, less time-wasting mode of listening did you hear Kay Huntington's album? Don't tell me you came across it w/o Xgau's help.
about the blogger
Starting in 1967, Robert Christgau has covered popular music for The Village Voice, Esquire, Blender, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He teaches in New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, maintains a comprehensive website at robertchristgau.com, and has published five books based on his journalism. He has written for MSN Music since 2006.
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