Snoop

After listening to the NPR show Fresh Air talking to Ed Burns, co-writer of The Wire, I found this article about the extraordinary woman who plays my favorite bad character on the series. (Not that anyone who acts on or writes for that show is less than top-notch.)

Listening: Clipse, Ornette Coleman, Hem

Clipse, Hell Hath No Fury (Re-Up Gang/Star Track) Best, most schizo gangster rap album since Ghostface's Fishscale. Best Neptunes album since...ever?

Ornette Coleman, Sound Grammar (Sound Grammar) A tight, well-rehearsed band recording in top form live--Wayne Shorter has really started something with the format, and Ornette's band (with one "harmolodic" bowed bass shadowing the leader and one plucked bass locking in with Denardo's drums to move the music forward) sounds even better. This man has never played better or more lyrically, and it's wonderful that tunes like "Song X" and "Turnaround" have resulted in wonderful, completely different-sounding music over the years as different configurations have played them.

Hem, Funnel Cloud (Nettwerk) They sound honest and homespun and tuneful, like if The Vulgar Boatmen had a woman singing lead and were influenced by Gram Parsons instead of The Velvet Underground. Well-wrought songs, thoughtful arrangements.