Music Report

Now that Tax Day has passed, this week’s Report provides some suggestions for music you can purchase and see with those sizeable rebates.

Turns out, Mark Ronson’s Producer of the Year Grammy was well deserved. In addition to producing singles for Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, he released his own album Version which utilizes the talents of Robbie Williams, Phantom Planet (who released an album this Tuesday), and includes a fantastic cover of “Toxic” featuring the late Old Dirty Bastard. Prior to Version, Ronson’s released the heavier Here Comes the Fuzz with appearances by Ghostface, Freeway, Anthony Hamilton and Nappy Roots among others.
http://www.amazon.com/Version-Mark-Ronson/dp/B000PGTF4G
http://www.amazon.com/Here-Comes-Fuzz-Mark-Ronson/dp/B0000AKQGC

The Aggrolites, who passed through the Big Apple last night, describe themselves as “dirty reggae” perhaps indicating that they are somewhere between traditional reggae, ska and soul. For the purposes of The Music Report, a better description might be: white reggae from L.A. Either way, The Aggrolites play a rootsy, laidback style of music that is hard to dislike. You may have heard them previously as the backing band for Tim Armstrong (of Rancid) on his solo debut A Poet’s Life. They’ll be back in the area this Summer as part of the Warped Tour.
http://www.hell-cat.com/artists/artist/213/The_Aggrolites

If this type of music is your bag, also check out the compilation series called Give ‘em the Boot, now on volume 5, from Hellcat, an imprint of Epitaph Records.
http://www.hell-cat.com/artists/artist/95/Give_Em_The_Boot

Santogold is the next lady rapper coming onto the scene. Needless to say, her predecessors have not fared very well. She’s got a good start with an appearance on Mark Ronson’s Version, in FIFA 08, an April 28th performance on Conan and the endorsement of Bjork, for whatever that’s worth. Formerly in A&R at Epic Records, Santi White is trying her hand as an independent artist at age 32. Based out of Brooklyn, Santogold’s music is reminiscent of MIA with fewer club tracks, more New Wave synth and the same amount of vocal inventions playfulness.
http://www.myspace.com/santogold

Coming up April 22, reunited alternative hip hop group Antipop Consortium is playing a show at Other Music on East 4th Street. With their stream of conscious lyrics, Antipop Consortium might be classified as thinking man’s party rap, although they may have that category to themselves. In addition to countless EPs and mixtapes, Antipop Consortium released two full length albums on Dan the Automator’s experimental hip hop label 75 Ark before it folded in 2001.
http://www.warprecords.com/antipop/

Lastly, we have an early (prior to the creation of a Wikipedia entry for the band) preview of possibly the next great album of the year. The group is Quiet Village and the album will be called Silent Movie. Presumably the first single, “Circus of Horror” is now available as a free download. Judge for yourself whether they’ve got “it.” Album drops May 13th.
http://www.quietvillage-silentmovie.com/