J Ship’s A – Z (with Jonathan Shipley)

| J-Ship

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LATEEF, YUSEF
A tenor sax great, Yusef Lateef (born William Huddleston in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1920) has played with the best, including Milt Jackson, Paul Chambers and Dizzy Gillespie. He found Islam in the 1950s and changed his name. A note, now, from the White House: He’s a terrorist! Watch out America! Fear him! His name is Yusef! He’s Islamic! YIKES! His sax is probably booby trapped with explosives. He’s Islamic! He’s a menace to the great world order. His name is Yusef! Do you know any Yusef’s that aren’t bloodthirsty demons?!

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Kaiser Chiefs Interview

| Shane Mehling

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Nick “Peanut” Baines is a keyboardist, founding member of British rock outfit The Kaiser Chiefs and, like a character out of a Back To The Future sequel, can often be found wearing two ties. We left the tie question alone, but thought of a few others to prod the kind gentleman with in the wake of The Chiefs’ new record, Yours Truly Angry Mob.

Usounds: Why do Americans hate soccer?

Peanut: It’s not as glamorous as football, and you guys aren’t as good at it, so you invented your own.

Usounds: Fuck, guess we’re not pulling any punches. What lessons did you learn from your first record that helped you with Yours Truly?

Peanut: We learned that even if people don’t like your music, they want to see a good show. After you see more established bands, and they don’t give as good a show you’re really aware that you don’t want to become stale. After touring all over the world, playing huge stadiums, and putting on relentless shows every night, you become more of a rock and roll band. And that’s what we’ve tried to capture on the sound of the record and in the writing itself.

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Nico The Frozen Borderline [Rhino Records]

| Andrew Boe

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Rating: 9.8

A vast majority of what we listen to today has been directly influenced by a cannon of elite artists. These seminal acts, most of which hail from the mid to late sixties, have come to be widely respected as they are routinely name checked by about every media source. And from the seeds of the original rock groups, there has been very little left in the way of innovation and invention. Because of this, so many groups over the years have mimicked, borrowed and outright copied the originators of the craft. Nico, of Velvet Underground fame, however, is one individual who was so devastatingly avant-garde that her albums remain, to this day, virtually unknown. In fact, her material was so unique that attempts at copying her sound have rarely been done. Rhino UK have just re-released The Marble Index and Desertshore, two of her best solo albums, in one package entitled The Frozen Borderline. The songs have been remastered and also included is a wealth of demos, outtakes, and alternate versions. These records are stellar and the recent mastering job that has been done adds a freshness to the sound that makes them even more incredible than they already were in their previous compact disc form.

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Shapes and Sizes Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner [Asthmatic Kitty]

| Shane Mehling

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Rating: jane.jpg jane.jpg jane.jpg jane.jpg jane.jpg jane.jpg jane.jpg

There was a famous screenwriter whose name I don’t know who said something I don’t exactly remember, but it went kind of like this- “A great script gives people what they want in a way they don’t expect”. If you need the actual quote I’m sure you can pick up a Google tutorial at Borders, but either way, this idea seems to be a succinct way to describe what Shapes and Sizes is going for on their second full length Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner. But the question is, do they actually pull it off?

Alone/Alive mp3
Head Movin’ mp3

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Los Femurs Modern Mexico [HomeSpun]

| Braxton Younts

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I Love You from the Bottom of My Pencil Case

On a spring morning or was it afternoon, I bounded down the stairs to my mailbox. I peeked in the cavernous metal hole. I felt lucky. There it sat like a baby on a nunnery doorstep–Los Femurs Modern Mexico. When I shot Rob Femur a myspace message asking for a copy of the new Femurs’ CD, I intended to write a quick review and shop it around to various music publications. But after hearing their new power-pop tracks, I knew Usounds was the only home for my yet-unwritten review.

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