Category Archives: art

March 25, 2012 · 5:27 pm

Missing Link Soul Night playlist 6

It got a little intense at Humbrews on March 22.

The venue was intense.  The walls were sweating, the sound was loud, the floor was slick and unforgiving.  It didn’t feel packed, but it was solid — like water just before it boils.

The audience was intense.  Sold out almost immediately.  People who wanted to be there to party and dance. Some serious first-timers and a load of soul night veterans.  The combination was electric — the floor was undulating from the get-go.

Even the DJs are getting more intense.  Every party seems to be an improvement in planning, sound, sonic combinations, mixing and theatrics.

T-Rex had some great records — a great compliment to the party.  Jay Morg celebrated his birthday with some of his favorite tracks.  Some soul night classics he loves to play and a couple of new killer tracks. I played an all-woman set that was so much fun and really well received.  Matt and Adam brought exactly nine 45s each and then destroyed the club. These guys have some good records!

DJ Mantease.  Ah Mantease.  The secret weapon.  The electricity and courage to just take the party to the next level.  He told me that he practiced this set once or twice. I’m totally convinced.  It was an awesome collection of Cumbia and eclectic bangers.

I usually keep my playlists, but this time I gave it to Adam to protect his 45s.  Here is what I think I played (not in order):

Ann Peebles – I can’t stand the rain

Sugar Pie DeSanto Soulful Dress

Naomi Shelton Promised land

Marva Whitney I’m tired, I’m tired, I’m tired

Betty Wright – let me be your lovemaker

Gladys Knight – got myself a good man

Gladys Knight – You need love like I do (don’t you)

Gladys Knight – nitty gritty

Sugarpie DeSanto – Git back

Aretha Franklin – the house that jack built

Aretha Franklin – since you’ve been gone

Phoebe Snow – shine, shine shine

Tina Turner – As long as I can get you

The Coup – laugh, love, fuck

Three-song Gladys Knight and the Pips set is a conclusive answer to the question does Gladys Knight slay in 2012?

I love this party and I feel great about the growing popularity.  We throw a peaceful, woman-friendly, musically diverse, cheap, all-vinyl, multifaceted shindig.  It is very exciting that people want to join.  Lets keep the love flowing.  Join us on April 20th for a sixth and special incarnation of the party at Humbrews.

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February 2, 2012 · 5:38 pm

Muppets vs. Fox news

You should not scrap with fictional characters.  They will always win.  Murphy Brown crushed Dan Quayle and now the Muppets have their retort in the those-puppets-are-biased-against-oil-companies culture war.

thanks to therapup for the link.

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January 24, 2012 · 10:45 pm

DIY: suitcase boombox

thanks boingboing.

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January 21, 2012 · 10:45 pm

Puppets: more real than the judge

Channel 19 in Akron, Ohio was disappointed that it wouldn’t be allowed to take cameras into the corruption trial of Jimmy Dimora, a former county commissioner. But when life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla: they bring the courtroom proceeding to their viewers’ TV sets by re-enacting them with puppets.

via Puppets re-enact no-cameras-allowed corruption trial on the nightly news – Boing Boing.

It is an interesting moment when real life is understood through fantasy.  Situationists would call this detournement — to turn the medium around against itself.  To corrode the ideas of those who continue to think about this idea.  I bet a lot of people in Akron who talk about the corruption trial wind up including themselves in the ridiculous puppet world.

Even more powerfully, the puppets get replicated through the Interwebs, spreading the awareness of this trial far and wide.   It is a brilliant response to court censorship.

I also think it’s worth mentioning the racist stereotype of Suzanne, the sex worker whose puppet pigment and willingness to take money make her a true prop in the story.

See.  Even though I’m right, that sounds foolish. That is the power of detournement.

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November 9, 2011 · 10:00 pm

Mortality ring

thanks to thehairpin.com for the image.

Jewelry as art.  Nice write up on an exhibit of wild art you can wear from thehairpin.com.

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October 19, 2011 · 6:09 pm

Anika – yang yang

I went to see Anika last night.  The show was quite enjoyable.  The Nico comparison is obvious, but the backing band sounds slightly more hip (keyboards) than the VU (guitar).

I really enjoyed the set, and the highlight for me was their tune “Yang yang.”  Yoko Ono cover FYI.

Also playing were the Starving Weirdos, Humboldt’s best particulate-noise band.   I enjoyed the first tune a lot — with a whiny feedback loop that seemed to be at the core of the song.  Only to find out that it was unintentional.  Whoops.  But that tells you a lot about the Starving Weirdos — the experience, acoustics and responses are part of the music itself.

 

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September 13, 2011 · 3:38 pm

DJ Screw vinyl archived at University of Houston

DJ Screw made a huge difference in the way hip hop fans understood the sound.  Local, exceptional, slowed down, Texan, and all that made a package that made his 90 minute tapes (TAPES fool!) a necessity.  Screw died a few years back and what we have are memories of him.

This University of Houston librarian knows the deal — someone should swoop in and try to save all that history.  The vinyl, the photos, and all the rest from the Screw lab should get archived, and shared with the public.  Now it’s happening.  Kick ass.

Check Rap Radar for some photos of the collection.  RIP DJ Screw.

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September 9, 2011 · 3:37 pm

Respect Frank Ocean

I woke up this morning with Frank Ocean songs running through my head.  I did the dishes and made coffee singing “Novacaine.”

But now, its all about “There will be tears.”  “Hide my face, hide my face, can’t let him see me crying, ‘cuz these boys didn’t have no fathers neither, and they weren’t crying.”

If you don’t have Nostalgia, Ultra — go get it!

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August 31, 2011 · 6:51 pm

hip hop 2011: Building vs. Beef

I cheer for a couple of rappers who have successfully avoided beef.   I know that a lot of people still make money through simple controversy, but I wanted to acknowledge a couple of rappers who took the classy road.

I’ve been listening to Big K.R.I.T.’s Return to 4eva all day long.   Check out “Sookie Now,” the spicy track that K.R.I.T. rocks with fellow Mississippian David Banner.

You might remember David Banner back when he was rapping and scaring folks as a Southern political rapper.  Or perhaps you are one of those liberals who remembers him as the rapper who drove a tractor trailer of water and supplies to New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina.  Either way, he is an absolute boss, and for a rapper coming up in Mississippi he had to be the paragon.

K.R.I.T. invites him on the track, gives him props in interviews — does what a gracious up-and-comer should do with an elder.  Pay his damn respect. The result on “Sookie Now” is just awesome.  Banner’s verse is blood-chilling.

Today, the big hip hop news is that Curren$y and Lil Wayne have a collaboration — “Smoke sum’n” — a track released on the 110% badass DJ Drama mixtape Verde Terrace.  (Actually Curren$y’s verse is on Verde Terrace, Lil’ Wayne sent in his verse a week later, whoops!).

(Thanks and props to The Smoking Section one of the best hip hop blogs running.)

Curren$y spent time on a couple of labels before meeting up with an appreciative audience.  His time with Lil’ Wayne and Young Money resulted in some great tracks.  “Poppin’ bottles” and “Where the cash at?” on Dedication 2 are standouts.  Despite leaving the label and setting up his own projects, Curren$y passed on every opportunity to attack Lil Wayne and his folks.

I hear some bitterness on the tracks of “Independence day,” but they aren’t explicit Lil’ Wayne slams — they are complaints about the industry.

I guess I’ll add Gucci and Waka to this conversation and note that despite various potential provocation they have never turned on each other that I know about it.  Ferarri Boyz get’s a solid 3.5 from this fan — it’s a solid undertaking.   But kudos to continuing to build with each other.

Respect to the emcees who take the high road.  Those emcees who simply step past the petty bullshit and make good music.

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August 26, 2011 · 10:50 pm

Bigfoot days

Thanks to the LA times for this photo of previous bigfoot days in Willow Creek

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