Insult to Injury: Week Ending 4/9

Welcome to Insult to Injury, the place where Noisey editors come to escape their problems like ant hordes and roof leaks. As we head into Mother’s Day weekend, here’s what we were listening to AND WAIT! Drown the ants! Of course? Why didn’t we think of that sooner?

Antwon – “Rain Song” (Feat. Lil Ugly Mane)
Bae Area hardcore kid-ternt-rapper Antwon’s debut album Heavy Hearted in Doldrums came out this week after a seemingly endless build-up, and JEEEEEZUS was the wait worth it. It’s a seismic leap for Twon, and—no disrespect to Matrix Man’s eerily great Swizz Beatz impression on “Cold Tears” or the couplet “Off to the bathroom to snort drugs / become thug”—its finest moment is the opening track “Rain Song.” Its opening notes, provided by Lil Ugly Mane’s production alter ego Shawn Kemp, are like witnessing the sun come up for the first time, and once Twon jumps in talking about fucking on coke and acid and shit, it becomes even more perfect. Please do not retire Lil Ugly Mane, we lurve u.

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Drew Millard, Features Editor
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Van Morrison – “Astral Weeks”
I love my mom. I don’t care how big of a pussy that makes me sound. My mom knows me better than anyone else in the world and raised me with a strong enough moral compass where I actually kinda feel guilty about using the word “pussy” just now. Probably the most important thing my mom ever did for me, aside from birthing me, giving me food for two decades, and making sure I didn’t get run over, drowned, electrocuted, or eaten by a large dog as a child, was telling me, regularly, that I’m not special. I guess she didn’t want me growing up with an unwarranted superiority complex and wanted me to earn my place in the world. One day I will get around to doing that. My mom is a big Van Morrison fan and this song reminds me of her. Happy Mother’s Day! Call ya mothas.

Dan Ozzi, Mama’s Boy Editor
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Skrillex feat. Chance the Rapper – “Coast Is Clear”

Kyle Kramer, Guest Editor
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Sylvan Esso – “Play It Right”

THIS WEEK WAS SYLVAN ESSO EVERYTHING. On Wednesday the duo came over to my apartment with four horn players and a man who dink-dink-dinked an empty bottle of Sancerre. (I mean he used it as a delicate percussion instrument, not he had sex with it.) They rehearsed in my kitchen and then went up to the roof to perform a special reworking of “Hey Mami” for Noisey Acoustics. (Keep your eyes peeled for that coming out soon.) Then last night they played live to a sold out crowd at Westway in New York. The audience was giddy with love for the duo. A little bit Feist, a slice of The Knife, a pinch of R&B-dubby-electro-whatever. “Play It Right” will have to tide you over till their debut album drops next Tuesday. It goes without saying that it’s fucking brilliant.

Kim Taylor Bennett, Style Editor
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Travis Scott – Don’t Play
This week is Canadian Music Week in Toronto, which means that there are a ton of concerts to attend and opportunities to be disappointed. Most recently, I watched Travis Scott “perform” for about 600 very rowdy teenagers dressed in black, and in spite of the fact that he didn’t really rap words as much as he just flailed around and climbed on stuff, it was still somehow an amazing concert. Even though it was objectively a bad rap show (“hey, do you want to go see someone writhe around while songs you know play in the background?”) I still enjoyed it way more than the Bun B show I had seen a few days prior. Bun came out and rapped every word in a wide selection of songs, never once stopping or playing his backing vocals, and he even got Drake to come out. But still, I prefer the guy who bounced along to his own songs as if nobody was watching. So now, confused, I sit here listening to this Travis Scott song in the hopes of understanding why I like something that I also recognize is not even close to being empirically considered “good.” Music is weird.

Slava Pastuk, Canadian Editor
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Eddy Current Suppression Ring – “Which Way to Go”
All of this talk about Total Control, UV Race, and Straightjacket Nation has me reminiscing back to the great Eddy Current Suppression Ring’s classic garage rippers like “Which Way To Go.” What a band.

Fred Pessaro, Editor-in-Chief
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