El-P, ‘I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead’
By REVIEWS BY DANIEL ARCHULETA
★★★The Pickups are a definite throwback to a simpler time in rock history. Well, simple may not be the best word to describe their layered, guitar-driven sound, but it does elude to this Silver Lake-based quartet’s back to basics vibe.
Their musical palette jets back to a day before studio effects and synth-heavy production began to come into fashion. A day when Jimmy Page ruled the Earth and Robert Plant shouted out across the cosmos. Even down to the cover art, these guys are latter day classic rockers who consciously evoke these images.
Like the grunge-era bands who blazed this trail before, the Pickups have taken a while to gain widespread attention. They’ve bounced around the festival circuit in recent months, including an appearance at last weekend’s Coachella Music Festival. Although “Carnavas” was released last year and looked like it would fade before being recognized, it is starting to move units. (Dangerbird) ★★★★ Imagine hip-hop following a cataclysmic event and what form it would take.
Currently, there seems to be room for just a narrow spectrum of acts that mostly pump themselves up with images that scream out materialism gone wild. It would seem that a major disaster would have to take place before rap, in particular, takes its place alongside rock as a social statement of the sincerest type.
Apparently, El-P isn’t waiting for that to occur. Instead of sticking to the old script that says all rap has to be pop or just plain simplistic, this innovative New Yorker has crafted his latest collection of progressive independent rap to include futuristic images of a looming police state as well as what shape love and devotion would take in such a world.
On “Habeas Corpses (Draconian Love)” El-P narrates a story of a prison ship guard who finds a mate among the prisoners he’s assigned to watch. The haunting hook and eerie soundscape truly offers a vision of the future; a future where rappers don’t have to dumb it down or stick to some preordained format. (Definitive Jux)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 3, 2007. Read the original PDF.