The Hood Internet Accomplishes An Astonishing FEAT (seewhatwedidthere?)
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 26, 2012 6:20PM
The Hood Internet started out inauspiciously enough; Steve Reidell (STV SLV) and Aaron Brink (ABX) would pass time putting together mash-ups of unlikely indie rock songs with slamming hip-hop and dance tracks. They started churning these out with amazing speed and quickly started to get a name across the web for being unusually skilled at matching up incongruous virtual duets. In fact the duo never really considered performing live until a certain website (ahem, ahem) asked them to perform at a show they were sponsoring. Reidell and Brink showed up to that set with two computers and decorated the table they performed from with numerous vinyl LPs as set dressing.
In no time the duo took off, performing in ever larger venues including a prominent spot at Lollapalooza performing on Perry's Stage the year it emerged from the shade and began its rapid growth toward ginormous.Through it all The Hood Internet has continued to pump out mash-ups and insanely good mixtapes. And in the midst of all this output there began to trickle out a track or two of original material featuring guest vocalists. In retrospect this shouldn't be viewed as unusual in the least. Both members of The Hood Internet are musicians, they were In May Or May Not together, so it seems logical they'd want to move into the realm of original compositions.
Which brings us to their debut full-length FEAT. The duo has pulled together an album of all original material with an impressive roster of vocalists including AC Newman, Psalm One, The Rosebuds, Class Actress and more. Many, many more. The sound is rooted in hip-hop but there's a healthy glaze of dance pop that runs throughout too. Even on slower tempo numbers like the the Psalm One and TOBAXXO (a.k.a. TOBACCO) number "More Fun," The Hood Internet can't resist slapping on a but of spunkiness into their beats.
Thought the whole disc there's a playfuless that carries tho proceedings forward. Even when folks like Isaiah Toothtaker and Show You Suck spit out menacing rhymes there's still an undeniable lightness to the music. Ultimately this makes total sense; one reason The Hood Internet has done so well is that they know the key to music is joy. Humor laced through many of their early mash-ups leaving people scratching their heads at the group's technical expertise while smiling broadly at their results. But The Hood Internet also wants to make you dance. They're not tricksters, per se, they've just spent a lot of time finding challenging pairings to fill a dance floor so it's no surprise that their original work would deliver those results time ten.
We can't resist, FEAT will make you move your feet so just give in and give it a go.
The Hood Internet plays an album release show at The Metro on November 2.