While we're at it...

Let's remember another all-time great, shall we? In what was universally heralded as the most talked-about death of the '90s (by universally I mean "Davekwonally"), Harlem rapper Big L died six years ago today.

In memoriam, I'm playing Lifestyles Ov Da Poor and Dangerous, his only studio album, as I write this. A master of punchlines and larger-than-life street talk. "If rap was a game I'd be M.V.P. - The most valuable poet on the M.I.C." R.I.P.

Planz
The KOV+1-1 could be venturing to a hip-hop/crap night at NYOH's Wednesday night, if only for an hour and a half of classic hip-hop and affordable beverages.
Friday night is wide-open at this point. I thought there was a Tiger Tiger/Lab Rats show at Scarlet & Grey Cafe, but that does not appear to be the case. Sooo, there's a show at Cafe Bourbon Street featuring The Lost Sounds which is looking pretty strong at this point.
Alls I know for sure is that a 6 man posse will be overtaking Cleveland Saturday night for Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. Damn it's gonna be awesome. Saturday (February 19th) happens to be the one year anniversary of this assed-out blog, so hopefully I will commemorate this fact (and the anniversary show) with a nice post on Monday.

Oh yeah, I went to some shows...
Last night, due to unfortunate circumstances, I rocked a 5+ hour hip-hop adventure by myself, but it was rather fun. It started with an in-store appearance by Hangar 18 at Magnolia Thunderpussy. There were no mics to be found (I did go and get mine, but they decided not to use it), so Wind 'n Breeze and Alaska rocked the beat without 'em. Wes managed to get a crowd in there by recruiting drunk girls who, though very annoying, did seem to get the rapsters in the mood. It was a up close and personal, one-of-a-kind performance that was fun to watch. It definitely gave me more appreciation for the MCs interwoven wordplay, especially on "Saved By the Beezy." After that wrapped up (or the store closed), I walked across the street to Little Bros for the actual show. It was probably the best-paced hip-hop show I've ever seen, or at least in a long time, as the locals started at 10 and the whole thing was over at 1. After some spinnin by Numeric, there was a scratch-tastic set by Ginsu and Ndcent with some MC assistance from Chase Manhatten. Pretty nice. Then came probably the best set of the night, courtesy of One Be Lo and DJ/MC Majestik Legend. One Be Lo's new album, S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M., just dropped, and he did alot of new jams. It was tremendous. Just beat after beat and rhyme after rhyme. He's definitely good at the conscious-yet-streetwise hip-hop style. See him live whenever you can (Maybe he'll show up at Blueprint's release party April 2nd???), you'll thank me later. Then the Hangar came on and kicked it. They were definitely having a good time, and so was I. The funniest moment was when Alaska announced that it was t-shirt giveaway time. DJ Big Wiz (or whatever, he's on tour for DJ PAWL) dropped the beat for "Whoa," and the crowd was made to compete to see who was loudest by yelling "Shirt" in place of "Whoa" to win the shirt. Hilarious. The set was just about an hour of awesomeness. Great use of my otherwise pointless Valentine's Day.

Sunday night, I think I caught the first installment of Park Street Tavern's (formerly the 5:01 Jazz Bar) Sunday Night Jazz Series. Postal kicked some ass with their new school attack. Good organ/keyboard, sax, drums (nice use of cymbals), and a guy sitting in the bar came on all of a sudden to rock the t-bone quite well. Good early show.

Jason, Dave, Andy and I only saw one band Friday night, but my did it count! We saw Electric Grandmother at Cafe Bourbon Street, which was actually one guy with pre-programmed keyboard beats, a projector, and plenty of songs about...80's sitcoms!!! Definitely the finest sitcomcore I've ever witnessed, haha. Not exactly a high-brow affair, but definitely very enjoyable. Then we ran for the hills.

Man, I gotta quit going to so many shows...or post more often. Every time I write, by the time I'm done with show reviews, I'm tired of writing or I have something else to do. Oh well. How about a quick new feature?

Song of the Week!!!

"Alive and Amplified" - Mooney Suzuki, Alive and Amplified
To me it sounds like a glam-rock party with a Sleepy Brown/Outkast hook grafted onto it. Look out for this one on CD101 or your local jam-receptacle.

That's enough. In the immortal words of my soon-to-be 60 years old father, "Have a nice weekend."