Sunday, March 28, 2004

That Elton John, is he ever wrong?

Yes indeed folks, last night's Mannhaus shindig was craaazy good times. Sure, I barely knew anyone there, especially as it got really late, due to the high population of out-of-towner nerds, but it was just damn cool to see that many people drinkin and dancin at 4 in the morning. For the record, I did stay up for breakfast at Waffle House at 6 AM (Thanks Franz!!!) and got back to the apartment at 7:30 to go to bed. And now, because I'm envious of Double Dee's weekly WCWS playlists (well, actually, I'm mostly envious of the fact he has a radio show and I no longer do, boo hoo hoo), I wrote down what I played during my one and a half sets last night at the party. My first set probably started around 1 or 2, I'm not sure.

Smooth Operator-Senor Coconut
The Champ-Moe Bandy
Could This Be Love?-84 Nash
Your Enron-Diplodocus
Skanky Panky-Kid Koala
Doin' the Butt-E.U.
Scotch & Soul-Rufus Harley
You've Been Talkin' Bout Me-Ray Terrace
In the Raw-Whitefield Brothers
Funky Yug-The Neapolitans
Jesus Christ Superstar-James Taylor Quartet
Can't Complain-Mad Rabbi
6th Sense-Common (I played this because Lee told me some girl there didn't know Common and needed to hear some, but I doubt she heard this)
L.A. Vacation-Willus Drummond (snore)
No Ambition-Buck Bowen
Die Da?!?-Die Fantastichen Vier (I freaked out when I found an international hip-hop comp on vinyl at Used Kids because I have no other recordings by these wacky Germans, but the song wasn't that great and the vinyl was really quiet, so it didn't hit paydirt. These multiple problems led to a slight break in the action, which had to be solved by me playing...)
Hold the Floor-Camu Tao (Columbus, bitch! What!)
Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey Hey)-De La Soul
How About Some Hardcore?-M.O.P.
Part of My Life-Freddie Foxxx (Bumpy Knuckles) (One of the out-of-towners started screaming when I played this one, I was impressed with their surprising knowledge of quality hip-hop!)
Notorious Thugs-Notorious B.I.G. F/Bone (For a rousing finale, Andy came up and rapped the whole Biggie verse into the mic along with Brooklyn's finest. Well done sir!)

So that set was a good time. Franz had a set before that, and Lee came on after I did. After Lee's set, we got a quick fix of a six song Power Renkes set, which hit pretty hard. It included a R.I.P. tribute to Hank Marr when Renkes played my scratchy 45 of Marr's "Greasy Spoon." It also included Wham, Michael Jackson, and those damn canaries chirping along to the Mexican Hat Dance. What more do you want, haters?!?!? Then, after playing an emergency request for Ozomatli to keep some fat dude from passing out, Franz came on for another ass-rockin' set. His set rapped up around 5:20 AM, so it was definitely the last hurrah for the party. I came on again after him, but I don't play the dance smashes that Franz does, so the late night momentum was lost. Most of the room was filled with sleepin folks when my set was into full swing, but here's what I played anyway:

5 O'Clock-Nonchalant
I'm Through With White Girls-Dirtbombs
Do It Till You're Satisfied-BT Express
Here's A Smirk-Charizma & Peanut Butter Wolf
Side A of Live Mixtape Part 2-Breakestra
Figaro-Madvillain
Great Day Today-Madvillain
Fried Neckbones & Some Home Fries-Willie Bobo (Dan the Automator remix)
Naima's Love Song-Betty Carter (DJ Spinna remix)

In the middle of that last song, at 6 AM, folks organized for breakfast and I shut off the mix. It was a great party, I hope y'all that attended feel the same way. If you have any questions about the wacky tracks I played, please ask. Enjoy.

Saturday, March 27, 2004

Look Out Glen Campbell!!!

Well, after years of anticipation, delays, and nonsense, it has finally hit the streets...and my hands.

Madvillain (MF DOOM & Madlib) - Madvillainy
Though the cool promo 45 that HipHopSite offered has met a bunch of delays, I did get the CD from them today, which was an awesome surprise (I also got a cool poster of the album cover). Yes, my friends, this album is worth the hype. Now, I definitely agree with the folks who say that this album challenges the current conceptions of what a hip-hop album is, or how a hip-hop song is structured and composed, but that just means you gotta listen to it for awhile to get to it. I've listened to it twice already, brilliant stuff. It's hard to break it into tracks, but my favorites so far are "Figaro," "Great Day Today," and "Meatgrinder."
John's brother has been visiting, which has been really cool, he's a good guy. Last night we went to Hounddogs/Ravari Room (the Ravari Room jukebox is pretty awesome, yo) and then made it down to Dick's Den to see the jazz-funk band Alias, led by Jim Maneri. We caught the first set, which was 4 songs in about an hour, including classics by Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, and Art Blakey. It was a good time, and the band was killin' it!
Thursday night's rock adventure was tremendous. Rockstar extraordinaire Ashley and I went to Andyman's, where we met up with Franz and Heather. Sam Brown's supergroup You're So Bossy was awesome. His wife (who plays in local band Estee Louder, great name) was on the drums, and she was hittin 'em hard! They went into some funky track, and I about lost it. 84 Nash rocked extremely hard as well, playing new songs and a few old ones, with lots of crazy stage banter as well. I hope You're So Bossy plays out more, but I doubt it will happen. Now we just need that Sun full-length to come out.
Chappelle's Show, Season 2, continues its record pace. Best show on television, period. "Breast milk, you made my day-ee-aay!" Hilarious. And tonight I just saw the week before's episode for the first time, the Oprah segment was great. Chappelle for President!
OK, I gotta go rock the Mannhaus party, you all should too. Some day I will sleep, but I don't see it happening soon.

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

You know it's a real blog when...

Dave Lohr deems it a suitable place to drop an "anonymous" reference to his "large" dong. So thanks for that, Dave. Things are going alright here, though I still haven't heard about that job and I'm getting tired of waiting. Chops and John should be getting back soon, bringing some life back to this apartment, it's kinda hard to keep it rockin by myself.
Monday night I was excited about seeing Dante Carfagna spin at Bernie's, but alas, it didn't happen. I was pretty tired around 8, so somehow I reasoned that if I just took a nap, I'd be able to get up and go. HA! Though I set my alarm, I didn't actually wake up until after 1 AM, at which point I figured it wasn't worth going down there. Oh well, at least I got some sleep.
Last night went a good deal better. After the weekly meal at my Grandma's place, I got bored hangin out here and kept up the budding "weekly tradition" of Tuesday nights at the Ravari Room by going by myself. It was cool, as I ended up hangin out with the Wicked Lung and Wookalar and their roommate who was DJing with them this week and talkin music and stuff. Good times. And I found out when I got back that my "friend friend" Ashley was about ready to come over and meet me, but I had left too early, alas. Oh well, there's always next week! The Ravari Room is a cool place to hang out, so join me next week, won't you?
OK, enough cheese. Tomorrow night Andy and I and Ashley (right?) and anyone else that wants to go are going to see 84 Nash and You're So Bossy at Andyman's, that will be the cat's pajamas. And don't forget a Mannhaus party this Saturday night!!! Yessiirreeee, a fun time to be had by all, provided you have nothing early to do on Sunday.
And I will leave you with some more advanced concert hype. Though nothing official seems to be available, local music guy Robert Duffy has posted on one of the forums on his cool site that the Unicorns, some crazy bastards from Canada, are playing the OSU Springfest this year. If this is true, HOOORRRRAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!! They are awesomes! Someday soon I will own this:

For more information, and wacky internet fun, visit their site here. I just did so, and found out that they do have the Springfest on their schedule (June 4)! Just like Sleepy Brown, I can't wait.

Sunday, March 21, 2004

Homeboy Alone

(Slaps own face) Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!! Best intro to a video ever. Anyway, here I am, chillin here at the 905, which I have all to myself until Wednesday night. The weekend has been pretty good, what with a family celebration of my sister Emily's 21st birthday and all. Hangin out at the India Oak Saturday night was cool as well, with Franz and Lucas and Katie and my "friend friend" Ashley (now that I understand her meaning for "friend friend") and the Weyands! Hopefully I'll hear about that job soon, things look good, but waiting makes me nervous.
Music Thoughts: My love for music is definitely some sort of illness, because buying music just usually makes me want to buy more. I wanted to buy the Thrills album at Best Buy last night, it was only 7.99, but somehow I held back. On recently purchased albums, this one is probably my favorite organ album of recent memory:

And no, it's not that James Taylor, but the ass-kickin' British organist James Taylor. Rockinest cover of Jesus Christ Superstar ever, and that's just the first track. Dopeness. The El-P "High Water (Mark)" album is good, it's definitely not a hip-hop album, but a weird jazz album with the occasional beat here and there. Def Jux Presents, Vol. 3 is good, the RJD2 track is nice, so is the SA Smash, some of the new folks are good, some are annoying. Also, I was checkin out the Matador site today, they have good stuff coming out, like the Preston School of Industry that just dropped and the upcoming Seachange record. And oh yes, before I forget...

R.I.P.

Hank Marr, January 30, 1927 - March 16, 2004
A Columbus legend. Hank Marr was an awesome jazz organist who kept on playing until near the end. My dad and I saw him make an unexpected appearance at the Columbus Jazz Orchestra's "Big Band Boogie" show about a year ago, and he tore the house down with his version of "Amazing Grace." To read his bio and get a little better idea for what he was about, try this site, though it hasn't been updated on his death yet. I wish his older stuff would be reissued so it would be easier/affordable to own some. Maybe this will do it???
OK, that's enough for tonight, I gotta eat something. I'll be trying to hit Bernie's tomorrow night for Dante Carfagna (See below for details) and the Ravari Room Tuesday, but we'll see who's with me. Goodnight.

Thursday, March 18, 2004

OK, how bout shorter posts?

Will that get comments? Eh, whatever, as long as I'm happy, right? Tonight I'm listening to the following before I take them back to the library, so I'm not doing too bad. If only I could have been alive to enjoy Blue Note Records' outstanding output when the albums originally came out in the 60s and 70s.


Yessirreeeee. Now, as promised, a little update on upcoming shows:
Monday, March 22nd: Dante Carfagna, as part of the weekly Beat Lounge @ Bernies. This guy is originally from here (related to Carfagna's, the meat market), and is now widely respected as a funk collector, funk conoisseur, DJ, producer, etc. He's gonna be spinning some of his crazy records, and it's free! Folks in town should check it out, let's go!
Thursday, March 25th: 84 Nash & You're So Bossy @ Andyman's Treehouse. I know Andy's in on this one! We missed 84 Nash's first appearance of the year due to pre-ordained Dirtbombing, but we're ready this time. Especially since this bill also contains the debut of You're So Bossy, which features Columbus rock drummer extraordinaire Sam Brown (New Bomb Turks, The Sun) stepping out to front his own band, should be crazy.
Speculation: Apples in Stereo w/Apollo Sunshine @ Little Brothers, May 5th. So far, the OSU Underground site has it up, and so does the Apples in Stereo site, but Apollo Sunshine's does not, though it has the rest of their tour dates with the Apples, so who knows? Hopefully the Bostonians still love us Bustown crazies.
OK, I'm tired. The interview today went well, somehow the computer said I typed 51 words per minute, things are looking good, we'll see what she decides. Rock to y'alls later.

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Happy St. Patrick's Day, y'alls

Yes indeed, green beer for all. I apologize for the lack of updates lately, but I guess I've been busy or something. AND YOUR LACK OF COMMENTS HASN'T EXACTLY INSPIRED MY WRITING!!!!! Sorry, had to say it. So here's a day-by-day update:
Wednesday: Getting ready for my interview tomorrow. Practicing typing now so I don't embarass myself on the typing test, damn. Hung out with John, Jessica, Renkes, Jerome, Rachel for the festivities tonight, fun stuff. Before that, I went to my parents' for the traditional St. Patrick's dinner, mmmmmmmmmm. Corned beef, cabbage, carrots, onions, green potatoes, soda bread. Awesome.
Tuesday: Chops, Jerome, and I went to the first (I think) night of the Wookalar, of Wicked Lung and the Wookalar fame, spinning records at the brand new Ravari Room, next door to our beloved Hounddogs. Y'all need to check out the Ravari Room, it's the dopeness, it's a great setup. It was a grand ol time. I guess he's gonna have random people spin with him every week, last night it was the Wicked Lung himself. They played some funky stuff, and some weird stuff, so nothing I couldn't handle. The guys recognized me from their gig at Andyman's Treehouse, documented on this very blog a while back. I got to talking to the Wookalar about how he's just trying to have a weekly thing where people can play records and turn people on to new music. So, since I have some records (hahaha), he said I could spin sometime. Oh man, it'll be awesome!!! I'll keep y'all posted and make sure I have a maxed out posse there to represent me. I think Chops and I are gonna make this a weekly hangout spot, anybody that ever wants to come along is more than welcome.
Monday: Chops and I (Andy would have been there, but he had one of them damn headaches. You were there in spirit, buddy!) went to Little Brothers to see Apollo Sunshine. I think I must be president of the fan club by now, right??? Actually, we tried to ALSO see the Demons, a fine Swedish rock band, and Grafton, a fine Columbus rock band, put on the first live show at the Ravari Room, but the set times didn't work out and after driving back and forth between the two, we stuck with my pals from Boston. Templeton had a fine opening set, good grungey rock that ended with a cover of a great 80s song, but I don't remember what it's called ("I'll change for you, don't change a thing, for me"). Though few folks were there, Apollo Sunshine still rocked the house. They played the old standards that I've seen a few times now, and the old standard covers ("Hey Ya," "Waterloo Sunset," etc.) but added some new ditties. There was a hilarious ukelele duet that was great, I enjoyed it immensely. They came back for an encore, Jesse started fooling around on the keyboard and ended up playing "Sittin on the Dock of the Bay," which turned into an instrumental jam on "Where It's At." At one point they were trying to figure out what to play, someone yelled out Billy Joel, and Jesse struck into a drunken version of "Piano Man" with new lyrics about trying to figure out what to play. The show ended with a rousing cover of a Beatles tune, I think. Despite the 50 or so people there, it was a good show, and I got to talk to Jesse from the band for a bit, always good. They're good guys, go buy their CD or something. We also saw somebody fall straight off the ledge/counter around the side, funny stuff.
Sunday: Wrestlemania at Jacob and whatshername's place in the southern district of Beigetonia, aka Blandstown. Most of it sucked, sad to say, but the epic battle for the Raw title between HHH, Michaels, and Benoit saved the day. It was an awesome bloodfest and Benoit won, so justice was served, at least until the next PPV. And the presence of Paul Bearer and druids for Undertaker's return to the world of the living was pretty sweet.
So yeah, that's a basic summary, if I missed something, let me know. I'll post again tomorrow about some cool upcoming shows, I don't wanna bury them at the bottom of this post. Wish me luck, y'alls.

Sunday, March 14, 2004

The Internet's a Dangerous Place, but the DIRTBOMBS ROCK!!!!!

Yeah, I've been trying to write about this all day, but it just hasn't happened. Because as soon as you start doing a little online research to help your writing, you end up 1)learning unexpected things, 2)joining new message boards, and 3)spending lots of hours on the web. Then you end up partying on a Saturday night, and BAM! it's 4 AM before you post anything. And then you get to doing something else, get tired, go to bed, and it's 4 PM before you post anything. As you can tell, this entry has been a real labor of love and also, this weekend has not been conducive to blogging.
So yeah, the show was AWESOMES!!!!! I thought all three bands played pretty well, and though it started kinda late for my liking, the sets were compact and the change-overs were short, so it didn't take too long. I know, most people don't care about that on a Friday night, but I'm one of those losers who had to work Saturday morning.
Anyway, with a 8 PM door time, the opening band, the Cheater Slicks, started a bit after 10. Andy and I killed some of that time by going to White Castle before going into Little Brothers, so that was good. I thought the Cheater Slicks, a local band, rocked pretty hard. Though I'd seen them before, it was the first time I realized that the lead singer works at Used Kids. I think that's probably on the application to work there: "Are you in a band? For how many years? Do you play out alot?" It was just three older garage dudes pounding on their instruments and screaming some "lyrics" for about half an hour plus, I liked it.
After a short break, the Greenhornes hit the stage. They're a garage-pop band from Cincinnati on Telstar Records, and they were pretty good. I would describe their sound as the early poppy Beatles sound, only rocked out. I think Andy liked these guys a bit more than I did: it was good, but I wasn't knocked on my ass. But we did notice a woman we will call "Runaround Sue" who sure dug it. She danced her ass off, using about every 60s rock dance move known, and she dressed the part too. I decided that she must have been in a competition to win a date with the Fonz, hopefully she won.
And then, after a bit longer break, Mick Collins, the black lead singer/lone guitarist of the Dirtbombs came on stage and started playing some weird stuff on the guitar. Soon, the rest of the band came on stage and worked into a groove. In my internet research into the band yesterday and today, I found out alot more about the band than I knew before. I'm not completely sure of the lineup that was on stage Friday night, but they kept their traditional instrumentation: two drummers, two bassists, and Mick on guitar. Now that's rock 'n roll! Now, in what I'm sure causes much dismay to Andy, the hot Asian chick on the fuzz bass turns out to be Ko, lead singer of Ko and the Knockouts, another Detroit garage band. I guess she fills in occasionally for the Dirtbombs, but whatever, she rocked! And I'm not sure who the dude on bass was, I don't think it was Jim Diamond, who has played with a billion garage bands and records all the good ones at his Detroit studio, Ghetto Recorders. OK, enough back story. The show rocked. They played lots of great originals and covers (the only Dirtbombs album I currently own, "Ultraglide in Black" is all covers), but the standouts for me were "Underdog," "I Can't Stop Thinking About it," and "I'm Through With White Girls," which I think was the singalong highlight of the show. For that one, Ben Blackwell, one of their drummers, came out front to sing and Mick went back on drums. Ben jumped into the audience and moshed around a bit right by us, then did one of his weird end-over-end flips back onto the stage. So after thoroughly rocking us for about an hour, they left the stage. They soon came back and played a couple more. At the end of the second song, everything went haywire. Ko was playing her bass while laying on Ben's back, he was standing up, sorta crouched, and still playing the drums! Then she got off of him, and soon Ben did another flip thing over the drums and into Ko, knocking her over! It was mayhem, and Ben's drums got knocked over and the stage was a mess. They left the stage again and most of the audience thought it was over. But then they came back again! Mick went back behind the drums and set about fixing Ben's set and Ben sang again, just a weird jam of some sort. A little more craziness and they were done around 1:30. Wow! The only disappointment is that they were sold out of CDs, they just had vinyl and a t-shirt that I wasn't a big fan of. So I got to bed around 2, woke up a bit after 7 and went to work, oof. But it was worth it! Best rock show that I've seen in a long time!
So the rest of the weekend has been lazy and crazy. Late last night, I took care of the Dirtbombs problem and I ordered their two other CDs off CDUniverse, which has good prices. And Chops and I ordered one of the Hip-Hop Honeys DVDs after seeing the commercial on BET Uncut! They showed "Tip Drill" AND "Booty Poppin," it was great! They also showed "Super Hoe" by Filthy Rich, an up and coming star of the Uncut "genre."
I'm heading out soon for Wrestlemania, hopefully it'll be good. And remember, tomorrow is Apollo Sunshine! Anyone reading this should go, unless you aren't here in town. OK, this is way too long, I'm done. Sally forth, or something.

Thursday, March 11, 2004

Suggestive Blogging

Man, the ol' Armington-Bissman roomie connection is feeling strong again.

Upon reading my quick description of the Dirtbombs yesterday, my Cali pal Chris Abele looked into the band online and ended up buying two CDs of theirs! With such powers, I think bands need to hire me for merch sales. Or maybe they just need to send a good descriptive email to Abele every time they have something new to sell, and he will BUY! Haha. In honor of his commitment to "the rock," right now I'm watching some old racing movie with Ferraris and Italians and interpersonal relationships built on driving. I don't know what it is, but I'm sure Abele does, and that he would want to watch it if he were here. Here's to ya, chum!
Tonight, before my winner of a hotdog dinner, I ventured down to campus to put up flyers (and hand out smaller ones to stores) for Monday's Apollo Sunshine show. I agree with Nappy, I'm truly hardcore. I ran out of tape tonight, so maybe I'll put up the rest of the flyers tomorrow or something. I better get a +1 for my efforts, hahaha. I even got minorly splashed by cars on High Street. People, that's what I call dedication. They better rock out now!
In quick job news, I got myself an interview for another job within the company on Thursday morning. I have to take a typing test for this one, so I'm gonna start practicing now! I don't know how great this job might be, but it's worth a shot. This teller biznizz is getting to me. OK, I'm gonna go (Side note: The movie just ended, looks like it was "Grand Prix") listen to some music or something, and prepare for my rocktastic weekend. Night y'alls.

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Chillin and Illin, that's a double major

Yeah, so I realize that the two strongest supporters (by support I mean commenting, you know, clicking on the link that says "Comment (0)" at the bottom of a post and then writing something about what I wrote, or something else, or whatever!) of this blog so far are taking a collective computer break, but still, c'mon people! Comments are cool, and y'all probably got more to say than I do.

Thank you Lucas for your fine words on Bonnaroo. In your mini-review, you seem to forget Soulive and other quality bands that are a definite plus for the fest. Like I've told you before, I went last year with Chops and Doug. It was a good time, and I definitely know what to expect. And I probably have some things in common with your friends there, Lucas. This decision isn't being aided by much here, but either something will come along to convince me to go or it'll sell out, so that's fine.
I bought Def Jux Presents, Vol. 3 and the El-P jazz album today, so as soon as I get to listening those, I'll post some thoughts. Of course, I'll be slowed down by my friends at the public library. A nice woman named Esther brings in deposits to the bank from the Shepard Branch, which is pretty close to our bank. I told her that I needed to come to her library sometime and check out the music, because they seem to have a crazy jazz collection. She said a jazz nut works there, and that she would tell him about me and he would reserve me some stuff. Well, he definitely did, and reserved a total of 25 CDs, as many as possible. That's awesome and all, but the quirk is that you can only take out 20 at a time. So I gotta take a quick listen to a few and get them back so I can check out the rest. Music makes life interesting, you know?
Upcoming concerts:
Friday, the 12th: The Dirtbombs, with the Greenhornes and the Cheater Slicks @ Little Brothers. I'm ready to get my ass rocked off, are you? Tickets are 12 at the door, 10 if you can still get them in advance, I got mine. Industrial strength Detroit garage rock, check it!
Monday, the 15th: Apollo Sunshine @ Little Brothers. Third time in 3 months. Crazy Boston pop-rocksters put on a fun show. The main difference is this time, I actually got an email today about helping them promote it! About damn time! Lemme at 'em! It'll rock y'alls, and it's only 8 bones.
OK, I ran today and I was already tired, so I'm going to bed. Keep me posted, yo.

Tuesday, March 09, 2004

Debt Consolidation! Gambling!

These remixes of the Black album are popping up like...well, popups. I just finished listening to this one, and these guys flipped a rather interesting concept pretty well. I'll let you guys figure out the 3 different sources involved here. Let me know what y'alls think about this one, I like it.
Black Album Unplugged

Best Episode of Bonanza...EVER

Man, I'm sure glad I only worked until 2:30 today, because at 4, PAX showed a fine episode of Bonanza. It was a flashback episode where a much younger Ben Cartwright was struggling to cross the country with his 5 year old son Adam. There were fights, relationship drama, and more tied together with the trademark Bonanza charm/cheese. It even showed the inspiration for Hoss' name/nickname. It was awesome.
So it looks like the Apollo Sunshine show is a go for next Monday, the 15th, at Little Bros. There's no opener listed, doors are at 8, and the tix are 8 in advance and 8 at the door. I know, it's no low dough show, but I wouldn't see why we still couldn't posse up to the max for this one. If you haven't seen 'em yet, you need to, they rock hard.
In other concert news, I got an email from my college friend Margaret today who says, among other things, that her and her hippie friends (sorry, but it's the truth) are going to Bonnaroo! Now, since no one here seemed to have the right amounts of time, interest, and money, I had decided not to go. So of course she has to un-knowingly revive the debate. So if anyone reading this has anything to say on the matter, like you want to go, you think I'm a dumb hippie for wanting to go, you love Tennessee, anything like that, please help me figure this out. Oh yeah, for those of you who don't know, Bonnaroo is a huge outdoor music/camping festival in Manchester, Tennessee, being held June 11-13 this year. Check it out on the web here. OK, that's all I got, laters on y'alls.

Monday, March 08, 2004

Sunday night's alright for rockin'

Yeah, somehow Chops and I woke up and got ourselves together to catch the early show at Little Brothers tonight (doors at 6!). We missed the first band, the Avatars (never heard of em), as we ate our hot dog dinner, oh well. We did get there in time to catch local garage-y band the Tough and Lovely. Damn, they rocked hard, it was a fine set. And I realized that one of their guitarists is Mark Sims, younger brother of Chris, a friend of mine from back in middle school and cub/boy scouts (you know, the origins of my thugocity). So it's good to see that people I know are out rocking. Also, their female lead singer belted out some serious garage soul and their drummer was a MONSTER, pounding the shit out of those drums. Anyway, to all you Columbus folks, go see the Tough and Lovely, they're a fine band. And of course, I had to support by buying their 7" single and a button, you know I can't go to a good rock show without buying SOMETHING. Soon the Von Bondies came on to headline the show. They have gained notoriety recently due to their lead singer getting beat up by former friend/mentor Jack White in a Detroit club. Good way to get famous, I guess. Anyways, they rocked hard too, lots of good, rough, rock 'n roll. Their band, like the Tough and Lovely, contained two women. It's good to see quality rock bands populated with women, you know? I know there's talented women out there, and who really wants to stare at dudes on stage, night after night? Someone in the audience apparently yelled something at the bassist at the start of the set and when they came back for their encore, which sucked. So their encore was about two minutes long, and they left again. The singer's final words were, "We're the Von Bondies, and you're Columbus." Interesting, huh? Anyway, it was a good time. Also, I bought a couple tix for the Dirtbombs show Friday, which should rock even harder. Can't wait. OK, I need to do something productive or something. Good night y'alls.

Sunday, March 07, 2004

Be the first kid on your block...

to remix the Black album! Unless Dangermouse, Kno, Kev Brown, Kardinal Offishall, or any of those other bastards live on your block. Anyway, this site promises you the resources to remix the Black album yourself. So have fun, and let me know how that works out.

Saturday, March 06, 2004

This blog needs an update, yo.

Just kickin' it here with John, Chops, and Mandy on a nice Saturday night. Mandy and Chops made a fine dinner of chicken with craisins and cashews over some couscous with asparagus. MMMMMMMMM. I'm sure we'll get into some trouble later, I mean, why not? Alright, I don't have a whole lot musical to say tonight. Well, we ate at the Elevator last night, which was also damn good, and they were playing Zero 7's installment in the Another Late Night series, which was pretty sweet. OK, enough of this typing, how bout an album cover?

OK, I think this is the album Dusty Baker (aka James, whom I need to get to read this blog) bought in our record-buying excursion in Chicago, only to leave it in a church in Milwaukee, along with my copy of the Dilated Peoples' Expansion Team album. Oh, good ol' band tour, which James happens to be on right now. I'm sure he's having a good time. Anyhoo, I would love to hear this album, but right now Dusty Groove has a CD for 24.99, which happens to be JUST out my current financial means. Oh well, someday. OK, that's all I got. Continue to have a good weekend, y'alls, and comment more, aiight? I got a damn counter, I know y'all check the site out, which is cool, but now you need to let me know what you're thinking. Muchas gracias, senores y senoritas.

Thursday, March 04, 2004

WHO NEEDS IMAGESTATION WHEN YOU GOTS COM-POOTER SKILLZZZ???

Fuck Imagestation. Yes, I said it, fuck Imagestation. I guess you get what you pay for, but if their site isn't gonna work, then I'm just gonna have to do for self, yaknawmean??? So here's a picture:


Takin' it back to the motherland, sweet sweet Norway. I guess Aerien means Norwegian or something, this is likely some cool Norsk funk that I'm gonna have to invest in soon. But I just wanna show y'all pictures cuz I can, dammit. Like this:


POW! "My name is King Lu." "Mine is Capital Q." Best Handles Ever, Nappy Pappy. My definition of...the best handles ever, dammit. How bout one more?


I need to go listen to this, definitely album of the day. Favorite PUTS album, has to be in my top 20 hip-hop albums of all time. Go find it (or ask me) and LISTEN TO IT!
The pics are too big? WHO CARES! Too many pics? WHO CARES! I'm wound up from a rough day of work. When "Stairway to Heaven" came on the radio as I was about to leave work today, I almost cried. Then CD101 played "Kiss Off" by the Violent Femmes (after I crossed my fingers and prayed for ROCK) on the way home, and I almost wrecked. Good ol' music, always there for ya when ya need it, just like pics at ol Dusty Groove.com. Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Recent Listening


Classic, overlooked album. Groundbreaking collaboration between the Automator, Del, and Kid Koala with a future-world/space theme. Lots of great songs and great skits (when you have the Automator producing and help from Prince Paul, how could you mess up either of those???), including perhaps the best over-seven-minute hip-hop track ("3030," track #2) ever. Check this album out, y'alls. "It'll be...instupituous!!!!"
And Poobis, though this pic probably won't work either, I'll have none of your silly man-porn, or whatever the hell that is.

Live Hip-Hop > Computers

Yeah, I'm fighting the good fight against these damn contraptions to get some functional pictures up on this site, but it looks like it's gonna be a protracted campaign. And it doesn't help that this computer in particular is currently struggling, but you know I'll persevere.
Last night, as promised, I went to the Breez Evahflowin show at the High Five, all by my lonesome. Now, I didn't actually see Breez Evahflowin because, as usual, the show went too late, and old man Patton here has to work most mornings. Jay, one of the local MCs who performed, told folks that the show was starting around 10. Yours truly, the way-too-punctual showgoer, showed up at 10:05. But of course, after delays and DJ Auxsend (Jay's roommate and one of my customers at the bank) spun some fine tracks, the unexpected opener the Field Squad from Mansfield didn't kick it off until after 11. Now, all this time did allow me to have a nice chat with Juan, the super-promotions-guy for Weightless Records here in town, for the first time. We talked about shows, it was great. Anyway, the Field Squad was dope: though their rhymes were decent, the beats (done by the DJ named Ridiculous or something similar) were slammin, reminiscent of some mid-90s NYC underground joints. Chase Manhatten (Jay) and Bruce Wayne, along with special guest Harvey Dent(ist) (him and Wayne are in local group Gotham Asylum), were up next, and were pretty good, though the crowd or lack thereof wasn't too into it. Juan had to take off before the end of their set, he's a workin' man just like me. Up next were the boys from Topshelf Music in Asheville, NC. Pens and Needles were first, composed of the Mad Rabbi (MC) and Lurch (I think, they didn't talk to the crowd too much) (DJ). Good thinking man's hip-hop, I had heard some of it before because when I bought the Brycon & Equal (the other Topshelf group on the bill) CD when they opened for Mr. Len/Tame One in January, Brycon gave me the Pens and Needles CD for free. Anyway, the Mad Rabbi appears to be going solo on Topshelf (the actual group doesn't appear to be on Topshelf, just the ol Rabbi solo), I bought his new 12" which they just got copies of yesterday, should be dope. When I talked to Brycon at the end of the Pens and Needles set, I told him his CD was awesome and that I had to go, but he convinced me to stay for a few of their songs. They have a couple new tracks with the Rabbi, lots of good music. I say check out their site and look out for new dopeness from Asheville. I left after a couple of their songs, before Breez hit the stage, and somehow got to bed and woke up for work. WAIT! The musical highlight of the night had to be the Pens and Needles song which used Biz Markie's classic "Just a Friend" beat and most of the hook for "Just a Pen" (at least I think that's what it's called). They had us sing along for the whole hook, it was awesome. It was definitely an Andy moment which Andy missed. Oh well, it was a good time, that ol' hip-hop prevailed again.

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Bling!


I guess this worked, so I'll bring it back. Poobis, sorry about your lost comments, I'll remember them always.

Monday, March 01, 2004

Tired

...but still rocking. Work sucks (I know...damn subconscious quoting of Blink 182!), but I'll make it somehow. Hangin' out at the India Oak and der Mannhaus was cool tonight, paying double what Lee gave me to return his DVD was not.
In future rock news, the latest Apollo Sunshine mailing list email today has the boys back in town at Little Bros. March 15th. If that is true, that would be their 3rd show here in 3 months. And yet, it still made my day to find that out and I'm still excited to see them play. They must be good or something.
Tomorrow night, I think I'm gonna go check out the Breez Evaflowin show at the High Five. I don't remember him being that impressive at Scribble Jam, but it's kinda hard to be impressed by an afternoon set indoors on a Saturday in August, nawmean? Anyway, I wanna check out what the locals (Chase Manhatten/Bruce Wayne) have to offer, as well as the Topshelf boys from Asheville, NC, they were dope before. I'll be going by myself most likely, so if any of the 3 people reading this wanna go, lemme know. Or if you have a better plan for me than going to another hip-hop show by myself, then also lemme know. I think I had other interesting things to talk about, but I'm really tired, so me go sleepytime.

Writers' Blog

OK y'all, I'm mighty sorry about this latest batch of slackerdom, but this blog is gonna be going places soon, believe you me. Man, I need to buy that Chappelle Season 1 DVD soon because: 1) It's damn funny, and 2) Sometime I need to obtain a DVD with my own money, it's time.
In concert news, John and I went to the OSU Talib Kweli show at the Newport Saturday night. It was aiight. I had to pay this time, but oh well, these things will happen. The main problem with this show was organization, or lack thereof. With all the ticket "scandals" with these OSU events lately, they were telling everybody to get there early, like before 7:30. But they had no one warming up the crowd, so people were just standing around. It was LAME. I ran into ol DJ Pos2 (again, buy his mixtape here, bitch!) and he was itchin' to get onstage and learn them folks somethin (OK, he was alot cooler than that). Anyway, eventually Ordinary Peoples opened up and delivered their fine, though somewhat poppy, live band hip-hop. Then a long break, then Kweli's DJ came out and warmed up the crowd with some hip-hop hits. Good set, but it was sad that the crowd didn't react to "How About Some Hardcore." OK, not surprising, but still sad. Kweli came out and rocked it. Did a couple new joints from the upcoming "Beautiful Struggle" album, but mostly hits from his album, Reflection Eternal, and Black Star. After about an hour and a brief encore, the show turned into a hip-hop dance party, as he invited all the girls in the audience onto the stage and they shook it. Kinda weird, and kinda hot in a lame way. So that went on for a while, and then it ended. Decent show, but coulda used alot more organization! Fight for your right to party! Or something.

Featured Link of the Night:
Soulstrut's Ish
Soulstrut is a cool website devoted to crate-diggin' and DJs, and their monthly Ish feature highlights odd gems in record collectors' collections. Ol' Oliver "O-Dub" Wang has some selections in the likely-soon-to-disappear February edition, so go check it out. And some of y'all thought I was a music nerd.
OK, I'm going to bed, stay tuned, bitches.