Travis’ Two Cents (In Five Parts)

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Hi, I’m Travis Holcombe. I’m a new DJ here at KCRW and you can catch my show on Tuesday nights at midnight (which is really Wednesday morning if you wanna get all technical).

This is my column where I muse and ramble about music or whatever else is on my mind when I sit down to write this blog post. I’m bound to say stupid stuff on here, so please don’t hold it against me — they’re just my opinions.

1) This week I’m going to start with a video…first, I want you to put aside any prejudices you may have about dubstep and/or dubstep remixes of everything for a moment, and take a look at this:

This dude’s precision makes Chris Brown look like a fake Rolex.

My girlfriend and I just sat and analyzed it like the Zapruder film for the past 30 minutes. She insists it’s manipulated in sections (“Look at his right sleeve when he lifts his arm”). I want to believe it’s real (“Look at the cars passing in the reflection and his shadow on the bench”). I can tell you as someone who used to edit video for a living that if it is manipulated, it’s a professional job. If it’s not, then someone should sign this guy up for America’s Got Talent or one of those dancing competition shows — STAT!

Sometimes I see a video like that and think about how awesome humans are. Take that rabbits!

2) My college town heroes, R.E.M. broke up last week. Call me cynical, but if December 21, 2012 isn’t the end of the world as we know it (rimshot!), I predict we’ll see a reformed R.E.M. headlining Coachella 2016’s then month-long concert extravaganza with Bill Berry back in the drummer’s seat. I sincerely hope this is just an extended hiatus to regroup. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who would argue that their post-Berry albums were anywhere near their best work, but I find it hard to believe they’re really done. Not yet.

3) Radiohead’s Thom Yorke dropped some red meat for fans to chew on last week when he joined Gilles Peterson’s BBC Radio 1 “programme”. In between a mind-melting set which featured a Sun Ra cover, Chicago Footwork, an exclusive Jamie XX Radiohead remix and some bossa nova just for good measure, Mr. Yorke confirmed that Radiohead will indeed be hitting the road in 2012. Start saving your pennies!

Thom also mentioned that he and Nigel Godrich are putting the finishing touches on their debut album for Atoms For Peace. You may remember Atoms For Peace as Yorke’s side group with Godrich, Joey Waronker, and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers that made their debut at LA’s Echoplex a couple of years ago (almost to this date). No release date has been set for the A4P album, but fingers crossed that we’ll get something by the beginning of next year.

4) Speaking of anticipated albums, or at least albums that were anticipated at some point, LA-based rapper Kendrick Lamar told Shady 45 that Dr. Dre’s elusive Detox album is finally being mixed. We’ve heard so many promises of an impending release date for this album — it has literally been going on for about 6 years now (we’re approaching Chinese Democracy status at this point) — that I’ll believe it when I hear/see it. There’s absolutely no way that Detox can live up to the hype that’s been hoisted upon it, but just knowing it’s almost done makes me pretty excited. Hopefully the mixing process won’t take another 6 years.

5) Hanni El Khatib is playing a FREE show tonight (Monday) at the Echo, along with Kissing Cousins, Feeding People, KCRW’s resident beat impresario Jeremy Sole and my good friends, We Break Cameras. You’d be a fool to miss it. It’s FREE and it’s Monday night — what else can you possibly be doing?!? I’ll be there — if you see me, come say “Hi”. Here’s my favorite track from Hanni’s debut EP for the sake of enticement:

— Travis Holcombe