Tag Archives: The Money Store

Submerge’s Top 20 of 2012

From local bands and beyond, here are Submerge’s favorite albums of 2012, in tweet-friendly format. These albums are certified #awesome!

20) Jessica Pratt
s/t

(Birth Records)

Pratt’s debut of home-recorded, time-capsule folk stood as a brilliant reminder of the beauty in lo-fi love letters.

19) Wife & Son
This That and the Other

(self-released)

A brilliant indie-pop record from one of our favorite new local bands. The suburbs of Sacramento have never sounded so good!

18) Marina and the Diamonds
Electra Heart

(679 Recordings)

Pop anthems with heart and humor for disenfranchised prom queens and introspective home-wreckers.

17) The Ross Hammond Quartet
Adored

(Big Weezus Music)

Jazz requires inspiration. The Ross Hammond Quartet’s Adored comes from a budding father’s lullabies fed through free jazz spontaneity.

16) Beach House
Bloom

(Sub Pop)

Called a “dream pop duo,” Beach House records a calming and eerie sound unique to much of the music today.

15) Metz
s/t

(Sub Pop)

Sporadic screaming bursts, fuzzy bass and plenty guitar chaos, this album has ears both assaulted and surrendering over and over.

14) Thee Oh Sees
Putrifiers II

(In the Red)

Veteran psych-punk loonies leapt out of the garage and into national consciousness with their liveliest cuts of fuzzy fun.

13) Action Bronson and Party Supplies
Blue Chips

(mix tape)

Skillful rapping mixed with humor and bravado over a range of stellar production, and it’s a wrap. It’s a fun album with rewards for mindful ears.

12) Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Here

(Rough Trade)

The perfect band of misfits surpasses all expectations with their second studio album full of charismatic, folk-y love songs and smiles.

11) Fine Steps
Boy’s Co.

(self-released)

Fine Step’s Boy’s Co. should be on Slumberland. On Captured Tracks. Hell, even Burger. Two self-presses later, Fine Steps gets the glory.

10) Witchcraft
Legend

(Nuclear Blast)

Pure, heavy riff alchemy. Progressive, yet retro. Metal shouldn’t sound this groovy, but we’re glad it does.

9) Japandroids
Celebration Rock

(Polyvinyl Record Co.)

A fitting album title, indeed. Anthemic as all hell, this is a singalong, raise your glass type punk rock record.

8 ) St. Lucia
s/t

(Columbia)

Catchy, dreamy electro-pop fit for a night club or sweaty hipster venue. Leader Jean-Philip Grobler is a pop-music force to be reckoned with.

7) The Sword
Apocryphon

(Razor & Tie)

The lords of stoner rock reach new heights on a space-y trip down the heavy metal rabbit hole.

6) The Mars Volta
Noctourniquet

(Warner Bros.)

Nearly three years in the making, Noctourniquet was worth the wait. Sounds exactly like a Volta record should, and that’s why we love it.

5) C-Plus & Lee Bannon

Young Champions
(self-released)

Two of Sacramento’s finest team up for an epic release. No features, just Plus’ smooth flows over Bannon’s undeniably sick beats. Go cop it!

4) Kendrick Lamar
Good Kid M.A.A.D. City

(Aftermath/Interscope)

Believe the hype. A brave debut, from a bright mind who showed that you can create outside the box and succeed. Truly masterful in every respect.

3) Tame Impala
Lonerism

(Modular)

Lonerism is damn near perfect. It’s a psych album with pop melodies; heavy guitars, intricate drumming, humming keys and an irresistible sonic sheen.

2) Death Grips
The Money Store

(Epic)

Weird, angry, non-imitable experimental hip-hop from Sacramento. Is it rap? Is it punk? What the fuck is it? Don’t ask, turn it up!

1) Solos
Beast of Both Worlds

(Joyful Noise)

The sonic symbiosis of this Aaron Ross/Spencer Seim collaboration explored bold and bizarre realms. Sleeper LP of the year.

DEATH GRIPS’ NEW ALBUM DEBACLE

Sacramento-based controversial rap-punk trio Death Grips again caused a shit storm last week when they leaked its new album NO LOVE DEEP WEB on the Internet after their label (Epic Records) apparently told the group they couldn’t confirm a release date. “The label wouldn’t confirm a release date for NO LOVE DEEP WEB ‘till next year sometime,’” Death Grips tweeted, followed by, “The label will be hearing the album for the first time with you.” True to its word, the next day the group released the album along with its graphic album art (a hairy, erect penis with the album title sloppily written on it in black marker) for free on a number of file sharing websites including their own, Thirdworlds.net, which was later shut down (the band claimed their label did it). What nobody can figure out for sure, although every music blog under the sun is trying, is if Epic was in on the whole thing all along, making for the most brilliant PR move ever, or if Death Grips really are crazy-as-fuck and doing whatever they want with an album that was paid for by Epic. Either way, the damage is done, the new album is out, tens of thousands have downloaded it and the band has since stated (again via social media) that they “have no idea when the new album will be physical or if it ever will be.” Sonically NO LOVE DEEP WEB is tough to wrap your head around. It’s far darker and (for me at least) much harder to get into than the more pop-y (I use that term loosely) The Money Store, which Epic actually legitimately released earlier this year. After a few listens through it’s growing on me, although I will admit it’s a bit awkward when an erect dick pops up on my phone every time I click on a track. See and hear for yourself at Thirdworlds.net, as of press time the website was back up and was still offering the album as a free download.

Game of Death

Death Grips

The Money Store

The capital of California, which few could pick out on a map will be the talk of the industry with the release of experimental hip-hop group Death Grips’ Epic debut, The Money Store. Sacramento will faintly appear in every major online and print music publication. It will travel to Ireland and the United Kingdom and stand out awkwardly amongst write-ups in French and German. The strangest of times lie ahead.

Last year’s Ex-Military mixtape unveiled a top-secret project of a highly classified nature, kept in the confines of Oak Park. Death Grips was not a local favorite that got its big break after years of cold shoulders. It was a phenomenon that rattled our cages and left us scratching our heads as to where the fuck it came from. Every announcement surrounding the band is bigger than the last; Coachella dates, All Tomorrow’s Parties appearance, signing to Epic, two albums in 2012 and a European tour. The warp speed of its success is as terrifying and mind-blowing as the music.

Ratchet man Andy Morin, aka Flatlander, and Zach Hill are the Reanimators of the group, who possibly stumbled upon the breakthroughs that led to Death Grips on Hill’s last solo album, Face Tat. The track “Jackers,” with its stem-warps, revving blips and manic drumming, sounds like the birthplace of Death Grips. The two mad scientists were just missing a vessel, which they discovered in Stefan Burnett, aka MC Ride.

The Death Grips sound is a break beat science that experiments with hip-hop echoism, EDM machinations and the wonky warble of (groan) dub-step. The double helix is constructed with a precisionist’s care, only to have a deadly virus unleashed as though Hyde sought to sabotage Jekyll’s work.

As much as we want to seek derivatives for Death Grips, none of them will satisfy; because as you listen to the first five tracks on The Money Store, it’s undeniable that they are without contemporaries or purebred lineage. Sample-based music was a stagnant art form until now; evolving into the digital catalog of stems. Death Grips collect, record and warp them like diggers obsess over vinyl. But Death Grips’ source material is infinite since it ranges from borrowed drum breaks sent through heavy filter or a looped guttural roar from Ride. The Black Google zip file, which included every stem, a capella and instrumental from Ex-Military, wasn’t just for us to tinker and remix, but a glimpse into the creative process. The same goes for the 109 GIFs currently obliterating computer speakers on the Third Worlds website. Ride is a threat without the assistance of effects, but Death Grips is all the more menacing when the track screeches and caterwauls much like horror films allow black cats to jump across cameras and serial killers to stand directly behind terrified damsels–the quick shock hits keep us on our toes.

Small traces of influence, or intention, trickle through The Money Store; Salt N’ Pepa’s “Push It” as performed by 2 Live Crew on “I’ve Seen Footage” is the most blatant, while “Hacker” bears striking resemblance to the outside-the-club sounds in the opening minutes of Daft Punk’s “Revolution 909,” except standing on the fringes of the hopeful patron line is Ride, plotting on whose car is getting jacked once they go inside.

The Money Store pushes Death Grips’ unique sound into a darker realm than the explorations found on Ex-Military, despite the mixtape crippling our senses and causing a cesspool of miscalculated pedigree. It’s inspired and moving faster than we can compute, which is frustrating since it’s only starting to sink in without the nuisance of definition beyond simply calling it Death Grips. In a year’s time, zero copycat bands or established groups attempted to mimic Death Grips as recognition of a new wave. Death Grips stand unchallenged. As MC Ride puts it on “Hacker,” “The table’s flipped, now we got all the coconuts, bitch!

Much of the intoxicating danger and aggro-rap histrionics in Ex-Military have undergone mutation and the progression suggests that by No Love, the band’s second 2012 record, we’ll have little trace of bread crumbs leading back to introductory tracks like “Guillotine” and “Known For It.” In 23 songs between two records, Death Grips’ movement rivals the intensity of a warpath or rampage with no looking back. It has led them to the kung-fu chamber to face their greatest adversary, themselves, in order to become masters. All that’s left in gauging the impact of The Money Store is the passage of time, but that’s for the canonical talkers, which Death Grips have no time for.

See Death Grips live at Harlow’s on May 5, 2012 as part of Sacramento Electronic Music Festival.

DEATH GRIPS INKS WITH EPIC

Sacramento’s hardest rap group, Death Grips, recently announced a deal with Epic Records that will include two releases this year: The Money Store on April 24, 2012 and No Love, scheduled for a fall release. Ever since last years’ Exmilitary dropped, causing a ruckus online (and at their first few shows), Death Grips have continued to build a buzz with their hard-edged, “What the fuck is happening right now?”-type sound. They’re opening for Refused at the Glass House in Pomona, Calif., on April 12, 2012, playing Coachella on April 13 and April 20, and they have quite a few other impressive festival bookings throughout the year including, San Miguel Primavera Sound in Barcelona, Spain, on June 1 with The Cure, M83, Sleigh Bells and many more. There’s no doubt about it: the world is fascinated by Death Grips’ music, and they want more. So do we. Check out http://thirdworlds.net/ to hear some tunes, watch some really weird music videos, find tour dates and more.