live: Why?

"Will they map my skull and wrap my bones when my wig is gone?"
We wrote about Oakland hip-hop/rockers Why? earlier this year; their newest album, Alopecia, has been a 2008 Bobka fav (yes, we've got a bunch of those). Thankfully the good peeps at Dublab recorded a killer live set with Why? way back in January.

The strength of their live material lies in the combination of simplified hooks and the articulated lyrics of lead singer Yoni Wolf (examples below). Even better articulated is the album's logline from Why?'s myspace page:

In short, Alopecia is a collection of hard rhymes and raw-spun songs forced through the stubborn smile of a life-lover scorned and reborn. In long, this is an album of bone-dry jokes, suicides played out in poem, musings on final moments written inside of restrooms, begrudging self-affirmation, and the grit and glories of every day living.

Well put Yoni.

Here's a few samples of Yoni's poetic abilities as well as his knack for unique irony:

poetic
"Your cat clawed out my eyes while I was distracted by your smile /
and now my sockets sit like empty catcher's mitts waiting /
and you ask me if there's anybody else that I'm dating"

ironic
"Sucking dick for drink tickets at the free bar at my cousins Bar-Mitzvah"
"Using Purell 'til my hands bleed and swell"

Highlights from this set include "By Torpedo Or Crohn", "These Few Presidents" and "Fatalist Palmistry".

Setlist:

A Sky for Shoeing Heroes Under
By Torpedo Or Crohn
Gnashville
Brook & Waxing
These Few Presidents
The Hollows
Fatalist Palmistry
Good Friday
The Fall of Mr. Fifths
Simeon's Dilemma
Song of the Sad Assassin

Why? - Live at Dublab 1.18.08" [right click to save]

who: Why?

"Faking suicide for applause / in the food courts of malls"

Genres can be a nasty thing. They can also be essential. I first tried writing this post without using genre words. The result was three nonsensical paragraphs that resembled something Pete Dougherty might have written at 4am in a hotel bathroom. That being said, as critics often ponder the future of popular music on the basis that most musical sounds have already been fully exploited, groups like Oakland hip-hop/rockers Why? prove that regardless of the truth of said critics' remarks, music will always have one thing: itself.

Why?’s newest release, the stellar and invigorating Alopecia, is a lesson to listeners who try to define their own tastes. When looking for Alopecia over a month ago, I looked first in the Hip-Hop/Rap section but to no avail. I scratched my head and tried the Rock section where I soon found the album, clad with a bright green sticker affixed “FILE UNDER: ROCK.”

Alopecia is perhaps as much rock as it is hip-hop, and as much Lyricists' Lounge as it is Cake, or Butthole Surfers. It certainly isn’t the rap you’d find coming from the tinted Nissan pulled up beside you at a red light. But within its genre coding lies complex foundations of fresh sincerity, purpose, and the kind of subtle hooks made famous by people like the RZA and The Hold Steady. Now that I think about it, I might start describing Why? as just that.

Why? - Good Friday
Why? - Fatalist Palmistry