Insult to Injury: Week Ending 6/27

June 27, 2014, 4:15pm

Welcome to Insult to Injury, the place where the Noisey editors pick Friday afternoon–the world’s worst time–to write wittily about what they’ve been listening to over the week. So here are our editors’ picks this week which are better than… a… like, soccer thing, that happened this week, maybe? Look, IT’S FRIDAY LEAVE US ALONE. [JK emoji]

(The wonderful image above came from a video someone sent us this week when we promised to review anything.)

Videos by VICE

Otis Redding – “These Arms of Mine”
This past week, I flew down to Memphis to shoot a forthcoming episode of new Noisey show Made in America. The premise is I run around the States (read: eat my way around America) talking to bands and finding out what’s happening in said city. So far we’ve covered Seattle and Denver, but I digress. Like any music fan, when in Memphis, I made the pilgrimage to the Stax Museum to gawk at Isaac Hayes’ peacock blue, 24 carat gold plated Cadillac and soak up some soul. While there, I was reminded how much I love this Otis classic. I also found out how he got his start. As the sometime backing singer, but mostly the driver for Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers, one fateful day in ’62 Redding helps lug some gear into Stax. The session isn’t going well and they’re about to wrap and Redding is jonesing for his chance to be heard. Those assembled him have a moment and in that moment he busts out “These Arms of Mine”—a capella. Can you imagine? I get goosebumps even listening to this now. Also this song soundtracks a really major moment in Dirty Dancing, so, you know…

Kim Taylor Bennett, Style Editor
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Tyga ft. Young Thug – “Hookah”
The best part of this song is not the video, nor is it the fact that Tyga is surprisingly not terrible throughout. The best part of “Hookah” is listening to people try to sing the chorus. Try as you may, it’s impossible to pronounce “hookah” the same way as Thugga, who somehow guts the entire word while keeping it intact, like, “H__ah”. This unique grasp on the deliverance of the English language is why Young Thug is your favourite artist’s favourite artist in 2014, and why it’s going to be damn near impossible to convince a “traditional” hip-hop fan that Young Thug is the future of music. “You have to listen to the words he’s not saying” is about as pretentious of a phrase as you can apply to a rapper’s verse, but it’s unfortunately apt in the case of Young Thug. It’s art in the simplest of terms, and you can either get it or get left behind.

Slava Pastuk, Canadian Editor
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Katie Pearl – “Wont’ Cry”

Recently, UK Grime producer DaVinChe casually threw up an untitled album he made with the singer Katie Pearl. It’s the first example of a full on R&G record, which is, if you couldn’t guess, a R&B grime album. Sonically, it does all of the things a proper grime album ought to, its beats slithering and stabbing with the intensity of the East London streets from which the sound was derived. What makes the record genuinely special, though, is Pearl’s lithe vocals, expressing heartbreak and defiance in equal measure. The extra-great thing about this record is you can understand exactly jackshit of what I just wrote above and still find this tune to be a genuine slapper.

Drew Millard, Features Editor
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Sleep – “Dopesmoker”

Eric Sundermann, Managing Editor
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Cave In – “Serpents” Noisey Twitter

Ed Sheeran – “Don’t” one of R&B’s most wanted somebody’s

Kyle Kramer, Guest Editor
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Rich Kidz – “Why Us”
More like Rich Kidz Bop: this sounds like if “I’m Sprung” was a children’s lullaby. The oddly named Lady Rich Kids coos an amazing verse over a beat made of nothing but snaps, plinks, and that weird tingly R&B effect that sounds like someone throwing diamonds into a washing machine. It’s perfectly sweet and simple. If you demand anything more from music I hope I don’t have to hang out with you this weekend. TGIF!

Ezra Marcus, Guest Editor
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