Daytrotter Presents: Asher Roth & The Love Planet - "Tangerine Girl" (RetroHash Live)

Let's just say, for argument's sake, that Kanye's recent Aggro-Hip-Hop meltdown of an album Yeezus is a 10 on a scale of mid-career re-defining albums, which would then put Asher Roth's long-delayed and well-matured second album, RetroHash at a solid five. It's technically a "Hip-Hop" album at it's beat-centric core, but Blended Babies' genre-blending production work ultimately helps Roth effortlessly bob and weave throughout a gaggle of assorted musical styles; "It's a classy little nugget — very unique — a little Prince, little Jazz, all Asher. You should be proud regardless of what happens commercially. You've created something distinctly you. Almost a concept album. Really good," as Asher Roth's father David wrote in a praise-filled April 22nd text message. It's been a fairly long tumultuous road for RetroHash, which has been about 3-5 years in-the-making and was tentatively titled both The Spaghetti Tree (entirely Pharrell produced) and Is This Too Orange? at various points in time. Roth's amateur film-maker cousin conveniently visiting from Seattle, Zac McConnell was ultimately responsible for chronicling Asher Roth and his band The Love Planet's recent string of pre-release dates. In honor of RetroHash's world-wide [web] release this past week, McConnell edited together a video of The Love Planet's recent stop by Daytrotter for a special in-studio session, which is only available to download for paying members, expertly spliced together with live performance footage and mini-tour hi-jinx.


"For me, at that time, I had just met my current girlfriend. That's kind of where the lyrical context comes from. I met her Monday and I was thinking about her all week... Kind of talking to myself more or less, almost like a journal entry. And it turned out to be a kind of a funky, Classic Rock, Disco-era record — I think that's a lot of fun... it fits perfectly with what we're doing with RetroHash, which is a progressive, fresh record with a lot of ode to our influences in music: Classic Rock, Jazz, Blues, and Hip-Hop," Asher Roth recently lamented to local CBS News on the real-life inspiration and influence behind "Tangerine Girl." For all intensive purposes, "Tangerine Girl" has been effectively morphed into a beefed up nearly 7-minute slow jam for Asher Roth & The Love Planet's April 23rd Daytrotter Sessions, which were recorded at The Rat Cave down in Brooklyn, NY. It's kinda like I was telling my beautiful girlfriend just the other day, sometimes music, or just art in general, is more about quality over quantity; three of my absolute favourite high-concept albums from the past year or so... Yeezus, Tomorrow's Hits, and now RetroHash are all a sparse 10 tracks or less. Former musician and current walking train-wreck Justin Bieber (ha) put it best in 140 characters or less, "if you like good music, download Asher Roth's album on iTunes. 5 stars @asherroth," which is now available for your listening pleasure.