The Grand Rapid City Lipdub 2011

it is blowing up real fast since memorial day weekend, but im not sure how many of you swords dudes had seen the craziness that is the grand rapids lip dub. I know I hadnt until earlier today when i heard about it on NPR. The story went that recently, a list came out of the Top Cities in Fast Decline, and Rapid City was near the top of the list. The citizens of Rapid City said fuck that, and a local filmmaker gathered $40,000 and the support of the city to put together the most intense, single shot lipdub video of all time. And this didnt just reach to the citizens of the city; the government was involved, as well as local police and firefighters, business owners, artists, nerf gun enthusiasts, etc. Everyone represented themselves to unite and give a big FUCK YOU to the world that saw them in decline.

And i mentioned, it is a single shot; 10 minutes long, and one continuous shot of so many crazily arranged things. The undertaking of this project was a daunting idea, but holy shit did they pull it off. Not to mention the nurf gun fight on the bridge all Braveheart style.

This Music Moment- The Roots 2001

So, it does stink to start a post this way, but the music i want you all to hear and appreciate is so far unavailable in my standard pre-blogpost digging; maybe you guys here at the Swords can help me out with finding a link, but i do hate starting off by saying i do not have the sufficient links to share with you.

That being said, i love hiphop. As i have said many times before in many, many blog posts about my history with the style, hip hop is a strange beast; for the most part, i look to strong production and smooth rhyme flow in the artists that end up really sticking with me. As a highschool kid graduating in 2002, a few of my close friends had a deeper love of hiphop and rap than i did, but i sucked it all up in long blunted cruises, listening to and talking about all kinds of music, and why we loved our respective favorite genres.

Talk Talk-1988-1991

Aw snap. This is a big one.
Talk Talk is a group that a friend of the blog, sweet willy, showed me way back in the day in highschool; i was blown away by the inverted post-rock arrangements they put together; acerola pointed this out to me earlier, how they use strings and horns to line the edges of epic pop rock tracks. Mark Hollis, the man behind the voice, brought in all kinds of studio musicians to record sessions that he then chopped up and spliced, back in the late 80s and early 90s, and used to form the basis and background to amazingly emotional music. Talk Talk had 2 albums that i listened to deeply; 1988s Spirit of Eden, and 1991s Laughing Stock. The track i will share, track 2 from Laughing Stock, is Ascension Day



Im not really sure what to say about this; it is something i have loved for so long that i feel just hearing it, intently, explains everything great you need to know about it. The one obvious fact i must land on is the tracks ending, how it builds up intensity up to almost unbearable levels right before the track suddenly cuts out; it is a jarring end, but the next track on Laughing Stock, After the Flood, immediately begins, and quickly shifts you from the momentum of one song into the driving awesomeness that follows. Both albums are long in running time yet short in tracks, and they flow beautifully together. They are true works of greatness.

laughing stock
spirit of eden