PLAYLIST: The Best of VICE Records
LONG LIVE THE GROSS JAR
Nersey is a podcast by Drew Millard, Trey Smith, and Slava P. We are produced by Steel Tipped Dove and our music is by Craig S. Jenkins. Our show is technically about music. We publish new episodes most weeks, plus blog posts sometimes. Free subscribers get to listen to the first half of each episode; paid subscribers get to listen to the whole thing. We’re also on Patreon.
Last week, VICE unceremoniously shut down its editorial operations. If you want to read something about its demise that is extremely good, then check out what my former colleague (also Slava and Trey’s former colleague) Harry Cheadle has to say about it in The New Republic. Harry’s piece is funny and poignant, and unlike every other VICE eulogy, does not commit the crime of Gross Jar Erasure.
I worked there full-time from October 2012 to February 2016, and then after I quit I sort of worked there for a couple more years in that VICE was my main source of freelance income and I’d work out of the office whenever I came up to NYC, which was fairly frequently. All of this means I was around for when Shane Smith began, as Harry puts it in his piece, pitching investors “on the idea that VICE had a unique, unbreakable connection to millennials (who were then young people) and that it was the future of news, destined to destroy CNN.” My first Friday on the job, he took Rupert Murdoch for a tour of the office; we’d been ordered to be at our desks drinking beer and eating pizza. Editorial was always the bait for the funding, and then it was underpants gnomes from there.
But that’s all I’ve really got to say about it for now, because I want to talk about VICE Records, which was the record label that VICE had. I have taken the liberty of creating a playlist featuring many good songs from releases that it put out.
The VICE Records pantheon can more or less be broken down into the following categories:
Punk rock that sounded like it was made by dudes in jean jackets
Electronic music that sounded like punk rock
Scuzzed-out garage-rock and/or blooze featuring girl-group melodies
Oddball outliers like Chromeo or The Streets that weren’t “novelty acts” but were “novel” in that very few indie artists sounded like them
Albums that were the result of the worst idea that a famous musician ever had
American distribution of European compilations
Action Bronson
Basically, if it was cokey or kooky, VICE Records was all over it.
Cards on the table: When I worked there, I genuinely thought that the only artists on VICE Records were Action Bronson and Deniro Farrar. This is because VICE was largely an “imprint,” first of Atlantic and then Warner, with a four-year indie interregnum, and it was never really clear how much they were actively involved with anyone other than Bronson, who the company viewed as a de facto spirit animal. And yet! What I lack in firsthand knowledge I make up for in an incredibly high ability to listen to a shitload of music.
Quick caveat: I did not include any Black Lips songs on this despite how closely they were associated with VICE Records, because there are so many other things you can do with your life other than listen to Black Lips.
Kano, Ghetto, Big Seac, Demon, and Doctor: “Get Set (Run the Road Edition)”
If there’s something that VICE Records should be truly applauded for, it’s probably bringing the Run the Road comps to an American audience. They were, for a brief period, the only way for a British rapper who wasn’t Dizzee Rascal or Wiley to get their music in a Best Buy. I don’t necessarily mean that literally, but you know what I mean.
“Get Set,” the lead-off for Volume 2, was kind of a perfect introduction for grime neophytes. It kinda sounds like an extra-bombastic Just Blaze beat but played at double speed, and Kano kicks shit off by absolutely demolishing the instrumental, switching up his flow every few bars and at one point rapping about licking the bottom of his shoes like he’s Fat Joe. Everybody else brings a ton of energy and doesn’t try to overpower the beat like Kano does, which is honestly perfect.
The second Run the Road was kind of bonkers all the way through though: lotta heaters, lotta extremely fast and very intense rapping, some soul-house hooks that probably confused teens in Wichita, and a song where Plan B rapped about really fucked up stuff while playing the acoustic guitar. The whole thing was very British, and I am glad that VICE brought it across the Atlantic. The real winner of the comp, though, was Lady Sovereign, who soon after appearing on Run the Road, Vol. 2 was signed to Def Jam after freestyling for Jay-Z.
(Tangent: I will never understand why one of Jay-Z’s “things” as the head of Def Jam was to make prospective artists freestyle on command. Like, freestyling is a skill that a rapper can have, but it is in no way central to the act of creating a good rap album. Jay-Z kinda did a bad job of running Def Jam.)
Gucci Mane and V-Nasty: “Push Ups” (feat. Slim Dunkin)
Maybe the most early-2010s thing VICE Records ever did was release BAYTL, a joint album by Gucci Mane and the Bay Area rapper V-Nasty, who, lest we forget, was a member of the group White Girl Mob along with Kreayshawn and Lil Debbie. The association with VICE probably did BAYTL no favors in the critical response department, if we’re being honest. But the thing is, the record’s actually pretty good! Zaytoven produced every song but one, and so the beats are fantastic, and it’s fun to hear guests like Mistah F.A.B. and Berner rapping over them. (Tha Bizness produced “Out My Circle,” and decided to lean fully into the whole Bay vibe; Gucci goes so nuts on the track that he raps, “It’s Gucci Nickelodeon and you just the custodian.”) The other crazy thing is that Gucci Mane seems fully invested in the fact that he’s making an album with V-Nasty, like he’s shouting her out in his verses and they’re trading bars on the hooks and stuff. While there are a lot of secretly fantastic songs on here, I decided to go with “Push Ups,” which has an amazing verse from the late Slim Dunkin that offers a succinct explanation of why it felt like he was up next for Brick Squad. From what I’ve found online, Slim Dunkin was killed just hours before he was scheduled to film the “Push Ups” video, which is sad and fucked up.
Justice: “DVNO”
I obviously could have just put “D.A.N.C.E.” on this list and be done with it, but that was too obvious. So instead I’m going with “DVNO,” a song that kinda sounded like “D.A.N.C.E.” but is in fact different. I have way less to say about blog-house than I do about the Gucci Mane and V-Nasty album BAYTL.
Chromeo: “Way Too Much”
Dave 1 from Chromeo used to work at VICE, apparently. I feel like I knew this, but also I did not know this. Chromeo is now an institution of goofy electro-funk, they’re really nice guys, and their live show is good. This song is from before they started getting played on MTVU.
The Raveonettes: “Sad Transmission”
They spell their name “Rave On” like the Buddy Holly song, get it? The fact that The Raveonettes were called The Raveonettes and were on VICE Records should probably tell you that you’re getting 50s-ish melodies with Jesus and Mary Chain-levels of reverb, but if that wasn’t already clear, now it is. Definitely a band I didn’t realize was still on the label by the time I started working there, also probably the coolest-sounding band with a Wikipedia page featuring a pic of one of the members wearing a fedora. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Or maybe they do, what the hell do I know. “Sad Transmission” is more Everly Brothers than Buddy Holly
Action Bronson: “Strictly for My Jeeps”
There was a time when Action Bronson was the hardest-working individual operating under the VICE brand — he was making records and touring, starring in at least one show (both for the TV and YouTube channels) at any given time, performatively cooking, doing books, performing various feats of strength, acting like the VICE mascot, and often treating the office where people were working as a live set for something. I saw the pandemonium that all of this caused firsthand. One time I was visiting the office and trying to get some work done, Bronson had a salsa band really cookin’ on the roof deck for what seemed like an hour straight. He was also literally cookin’, I think. Weird times.
This song is not as good as “Bird on a Wire,” but I don’t think that one came out on VICE Records so I can’t put it on this list. “Strictly for My Jeeps” did, and its music video featured Action Bronson doing a cartwheel. I distinctly remember hearing this on Hot 97 at least once.
Deniro Farrar: “Bow Down” (feat. Denzel Curry)
VICE Records had so much fun with Action Bronson that they decided to try to sign another rapper. That rapper ended up being Deniro Farrar, who was from Charlotte, North Carolina and was a frequent collaborator with producers like Ryan Hemsworth and Friendzone and Lunice — the term “deep SoundCloud” comes to mind. I mean that as a compliment. I was buddies with him back in the day because we’re both from NC, and I still believe he’s a deeply talented dude who’s dropped some truly bangin bangers (see above). Unfortunately, the record industry, VICE included, didn’t really know what to do with him: he was a street dude who rapped over relatively leftfield beats, and for some reason this was completely incomprehensible in “the industry” even though A$AP Rocky was already a thing? He’s still putting music out, though, which makes me happy.
Death from Above 1979: “Romantic Rights”
The thing about Death from Above 1979 is that if VICE Records had not already existed, the very fact of Death from Above 1979 would have willed VICE Records into the world. You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine is the second-best intentionally dumb album of all time. Listening to it makes me reminisce about how I used to wear v-neck t-shirts with ridiculously tight pants. In context, I looked cool as hell. Friend of the Pod Ian Cohen recently claimed that You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine was the “most ‘VICE’ album ever released on VICE Records,” which I 100 percent agree with.
Bloc Party: “Banquet”
Proof that the system works: After watching this music video on MTV2, I convinced my mom to drive me to Best Buy, where I bought Bloc Party’s debut album Silent Alarm, which came out in the US on VICE Records.
The Stills: “Still In Love Song”
I’m gonna be honest here, I’d never heard of The Stills despite the fact that they were on VICE Records for a million years and were apparently popular. There is so much music in this world, and I am but one third of one podcast, blogging about music in a desperate attempt to capitalize upon my former employer’s demise through urging you to Remember Some Guys. Anyways I listened to some Stills songs and this was the one I liked the most.
Snoop Lion: “Ashtrays & Heartbreaks” (Feat. Miley Cyrus)
Remember how I said that VICE Records was super down to put out albums that were the result of the worst idea that a famous musician ever had? This is what I’m talking about. It’s very likely that you either don’t remember this or actively blocked it out of your memory, but in 2013 Snoop Dogg changed his name to Snoop Lion and put out a reggae album produced by Major Lazer and Dre Skull. To understand the full context, let me quote Friend of the Pod/Nersey music composer Craig S. Jenkins’s Pitchfork review of Reincarnated:
Snoop really seemed invested in this Lion thing: his plan to hang out in Jamaica to record a reggae album quickly became a full-fledged Rastafarian spirit journey with guidance from Marley bandmate and roots reggae legend Bunny Wailer and the Rastafari Millennium Council. All of which was ultimately documented in the film Reincarnated and consummated in the album of the same name. Upon release, though, the film immediately infuriated Bunny, who issued a withering polemic castigating Snoop for what he felt was a cavalier and opportunistic misappropriation of Rastafarian culture.
The closest I have ever felt to being like Prometheus, damned by Zeus to be chained to a rock so that an eagle could come eat his liver out of his body only for it to grow back every night, was during the Reincarnation album rollout. I was an Assistant Editor at Noisey at the time, and it was my job to write the copy that would live below the new Snoop Lion music video that Noisey was obligated to premiere. It felt like a new one of these things came out every single week, and I would actually watch all of them. To this day, I may be the only person who knows about this very well-intentioned but very, very bad song by Snoop Lion and Drake about the scourge of gun violence.
I decided to go with “Ashtrays & Heartbreaks” as the official Snoop Lion song for this list because Craig wrote that it was the album’s best song and I refuse to listen to Reincarnated again. It features noted reggae singer Miley Cyrus on the hook.
VietNam: “Lullabye-bye”
VICE Records: Also a place for noise-rock! I know nothing about this band, but I mean it as a compliment when I say that their album The Concrete’s Always Grayer on the Other Side of the Street kinda sounds like Zs if they’d ever tried to “go pop.” Or maybe I’m just saying that because there’s a saxophone here? Either way, the whole “long-ass songs that kinda jam, but in an experimental way” thing was so huge in the 2000s. Honestly it was such a good vibe.
The Streets: “Too Much Brandy”
People still know about The Streets, right? Mike Skinner was so popular back in the day, and yet he’s one of those artists who nobody seems to have successfully ripped off. I can’t tell if that’s because his style was too hard to pull off, or if it’s just that people trying to rip The Streets off are just inherently not going to sound like Mike Skinner. Like, it’d be really funny if Jack Harlow went on Jimmy Fallon and claimed that Jackman was his attempt at A Grand Don’t Come for Free. “Too Much Brandy” is a song that I think that Jack Harlow would enjoy.