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Dr.Dre and Snoop Dogg live

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April 17, 2012
2012, Festivals, Live
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Tupac's hologram performance at Coachella

If you haven’t heard people in hysterics yelling ‘Tupac Lives!’ this show was the cause for that assumption. On Sunday, April 15th, for the first time ever in music festival (or world) history a CG hologram was used to reincarnate a rap icon.  Now besides the technological implications this has for the future of concerts and sports (Japan boasted the idea to equip 400 stadiums around the world with 3D flat screens that would make holograms of the players in the World Cup 2022. Thus allowing every country to ‘host’ the World Cup.) its a slippery slope in terms of how frequent artists use this technology to reincarnate nostalgic artists. Imagine if this was used to materialize Biggie, Mac Dre, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia and the list goes on.

In terms of the show itself, Snoop and Dre put on a killer performance. Bringing out an all-star cast including; Kendrick Lamar (performing The Recipe), Wiz Khalifa, 50 Cent, Eminem, Warren G, Kurupt, a giant projection of Frank Sinatra, and of course a hologram of Tupac Shakur. Backed by a full band this stellar lineup rocked the final night of Coachella. You can catch the hour long set on youtube below and I highly recommend watching the entire set for all of the guest performances and of course Snoop and Dre on the mic.

Frank Ocean Live

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April 14, 2012
2012, Live
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Wish you were at Coachella? While this won’t remedy the fact that I’m not able to see Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog, M83 and many more. It’s still pretty cool that someone finally decided to do live streams from the festival.This year there are live streams from some of the shows at Coachella including this awesome set by Frank Ocean who is backed by one of our favorites, BadBadNotGood. You can watch around 40 minutes of the set below and be sure to check out the live stream page here.

Kohoutek Is A Comet and One of the Most Enjoyable Music Festivals In Southern California

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April 11, 2012
Festivals, Live
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Photo by Juliana Bernstein

As Spring rolls around and the weather warms up, it seems like every college in America holds some form of Spring music festival. Whether you go to a massive state university, or a tiny liberal arts college, your school is likely to have some sort of festival, carnival, or other live music event. I happen to attend one of those tiny liberal arts colleges (go figure), and every year, Pitzer College puts on Kohoutek Music and Arts Festival on the school’s version of a quad, a series of rolling grass bumps called “mounds.” The festival is named after a comet that was first sighted in 1975, and the event has been a staple of Spring life in Claremont, CA. This year’s festival takes place on April 27 and 28 and includes two full days of music, arts, food and great people.

Kohoutek is one of those few times of year when nearly the entire student population gathers together to take their favorite hallucinogens and listen to whatever blog darlings the student committee has chosen for that year. In the past, The Roots, Blackalicious, Blu, Zion I and Mr. Lif have performed. One year, GZA and his entourage stole a bunch of sound equipment. Another year, a performer climbed a 30 foot tall tree and played from one of its branches. This shit has history… At least for Pitzer students.

This year, DFA Records rep The Juan Maclean and San Francisco folk-favorites Vetiver are headlining, with beat scene up-and-comee Co. Fee, Seattle hip hop mainstays The Knowmads and talented multi-instrumentalist LYNX on the undercard. The lineup is filled out by Tornado Rider, Young Rapscallions, Raheem Cohen, Cogito, Shakey Graves and several student bands. The Juan Maclean put on an incredible show in the DFA dance-punk model. Co. fee is one of the most innovative artists in the beat scene at the moment.  McLovin will be there. No really, he will. He’s a member of Young Rapscallions. The Astral Plane will be out in force. You should come. It’s only a quick jaunt from Los Angeles.

Watch James Murphy’s Boiler Room Set

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April 10, 2012
Live, Mixes
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I always enjoy when two really fantastic but previously unrelated things get combined into an even-more-spectacular entity. This morning, we bring you James Murphy x Boiler Room. The former LCD Soundsystem frontman recently threw down a 50-minute set at the London club, where he proved that he is not only a brilliant musician but also a pretty superb DJ. This is particularly exciting news for those of us getting continually more amped for Sasquatch!, as Murphy will be performing a DJ set at the festival. Additionally, those of us who missed the showing of the LCD/Murphy documentary, Shut Up And Play The Hits, at SXSW a few weeks ago will be glad to have something James-Murphy-related to tide us over until the film hits theaters this summer. Head to the Boiler Room website to stream audio and video of Murphy’s entire set.

 

Sasquatch Artist of the Week: Star Slinger

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April 8, 2012
Festivals, Live, New Music
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Nine weeks ago, the Sasquatch Music Festival lineup was released to much fanfare. Like all festivals, some hated the lineup while others loved it. For the more levelheaded, it appears to be a very balanced lineup with a deep undercard. From here on out we will be underscoring the lesser-known Sasquatch artists by highlighting a different artist each week. Beyond delving into each artist’s bio, sound, etc., we will attempt to give some insight into what will make their performance at Sasquatch so amazing.

Manchester is England’s 6th largest city, but is referred to by many as its 2nd city culture-wise. The home of Factory Records, the Madchester period, and more recently, the fabled Ware House Project series. One thing the city is not known for is hip hop, or grime for that matter. Whereas grime, and to a certain extent American hip hop, has dominated urban airwaves in London and Bristol for a decade plus, it has not gained much of a foothold in the North of England. It comes as a surprise then that one of the hottest hip hop producers, not just in the UK, but on the face of this earth is Mancunian (by way of Nottingham).

If you read this blog, you’re probably fairly familiar with Darren Williams aka Star Slinger. After releasing the impeccable Volume 1 beat tape in the Summer of 2010, Williams went from complete unknown to The Guardian’s “best new act of the year by miles.” It’s not easy to place Slinger’s sound (he calls it Booty LSD) as it falls somewhere at the intersection between hip hop and UK bass, taking cues from Chicago footwork and UK garage. It would be easy to clump him in with the maximalists of LuckyMe, but Slinger is influenced more by sample mavens The Avalanches and DJ Shadow. Volume One is a journey through chipmunk soul although Williams slightly deviates from the 70’s R&B line that Kanye West and Just Blaze owned over the first half of this past decade. On “Extra Time,” Slinger samples 80’s English alt-rock band Prefab Sprout’s “Wild Horses.” On album standout “Gimme,” he takes a more traditional route, sampling The Staple Singers’ “Let’s Do It Again” to incredible effect.

Stream/Download: Star Slinger – Volume One

While there are hundreds of producers out there producing “Dilla and Premier influenced” tracks (as my inbox informs me), Williams has differentiated himself through an impressive ability to create complex drum patterns. Taking influence from both British and American electronic music, Williams puts the emphasis on the drum machine in the studio. This is most apparent on the spat of remixes he has uploaded to his Soundcloud over the past several years, most successfully on his remixes of Gold Panda’s “Marriage” and Mount Kimbie’s “Before I Move Off.” Slinger’s samples are the most obvious part of his music, but there is an underlying beauty in his attention to detail.

Stream/Download: Mount Kimbie “Before I Move Off (Star Slinger Refix)”

More recently, Slinger has entered the world of American hip hop, enlisting Juicy J and Project Pat and R&B singer Reggie B for “Chain Dumbin,” a banging party cut that wouldn’t be out of place on Hot97 or any other pop radio station. Last week, Slinger dropped “Bad Bitches” featuring everyone’s favorite based martian and fellow The Pack member Stunnaman, a chilled down track perfect for the impending heat of Summer. We can only hope for more MC accompanied tracks as his remixes for Drake and A$AP Rocky are impeccable as well.

Stream/Download: Star Slinger – “Chain Dumbin” featuring Juicy J, Project Pat and Reggie B

Like most of the acts I have covered so far in this series, Star Slinger will be performing in the Banana Shack (dance tent), along with his either an MPD32, SP-404 or a set of decks. Be prepared for a healthy serving of contemporary Southern hip hop, maximalist bass music, as well as older hip hop cuts from the the Wu, Slum Village and more. Williams has a penchant for wild live shows and recently started up his own club night called Jet Jam, which featured British teens Bondax at the first event. Williams bares a slight resemblance to a Sasquatch so I wouldn’t be missing this one Memorial Day weekend.

Ballroom Dancing and Bass Music at Beat Cinema

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April 5, 2012
2012, Interviews, Live
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Photo by Madeline Feig

The Inland Empire is known for suburban sprawl, biker gangs and not much else. It is the region East of Los Angeles that stretches from somewhere around West Covina to San Bernardino. Despite its proximity to LA, it is about as far a stretch from the beaches of Santa Monica, art galleries of Culver City and clubs of Sunset Boulevard as you can get in the state of California. So it came as a huge surprise when we found out that a beat scene (albeit a small one) is present in the quiet town of Claremont, CA. A few weeks ago I was introduced to Beat Cinema, a hip hop, experimental, beats, funk, soul and psychedelic night at the Hip Kitty Jazz and Fondue Lounge. Claremont is a small college town swimming out-of-place in the extended suburban and industrial sprawl of Los Angeles county. It is known fondly as “the city of trees and PhD’s,” and couldn’t be more displaced from the streets of Lincoln Heights where the fabled Low End Theory takes place.

There was no doubt in my mind that I had to check Beat Cinema out. Low End Theory is a mecca of sorts for people like us, and the idea that Beat Cinema could provide at least a portion of the culture, community and musical talent supplied by LET was enticing to say the least. We spoke with Beat Cinema’s founder, Rick, about a possible interview. This Tuesday, the night’s bill boasted (DJ) Nobody, Portland’s Quarry, Alpha Pup rep Dot and all the club’s usual residents, so we decided to make an appearance.

As we walked into the Hip Kitty around 9:30, we were greeted by leather-wrapped booths and a large upscale bar; the venue was, in fact, a jazz club. The only real indication that this was Beat Cinema was the assortment of turntables, mixers, MPD’s, and APC’s on a long table at the front of the room. We found Rick and walked out to the patio to get the interview started. Outside, there was a DJ playing some Domo Genesis, a black and white film being projected on the far wall and (DJ) Nobody mingling with the crowd. This felt more like it.

Beat Cinema first started out as a movie night curated by Rick and his sister. Rick started DJing in between films as a sort of intermission, and eventually got the idea to combine the two concepts; thus, Beat Cinema was born. Rick says his motivation to begin the project stemmed from fatigue and annoyance after one too many 40-minute drives into LA to see shows. Beat Cinema’s debut featured The Gaslamp Killer and Ras G back in September of 2009 (an event Rick still considers one of the best Beat Cinema’s), and the concept took off from there.

In the years since, Beat Cinema has brought in a wide variety of impressive guests, such as Samiyam, Mono/Poly, Tokimonsta, KNXWLEDGE, Salva and more. Dublab took over for a night and Daedelus, Matthewdavid and more made appearances. Despite the impressive list of artists they’ve brought in, Rick likes to keep the night low-key, preferring to avoid the type of promotional flyers that he considers “litter;” according to him, 90% of the beat scene probably hasn’t heard of Beat Cinema. It really is a hidden gem nestled in the expanse of the Inland Empire. Cult classic films still regularly, but the emphasis is now decidedly on the music.

This is not your average club night, though. The crowd is slightly older than you would expect, and there is far more milling about and socializing than dirty dancing. In one perplexing moment, a middle-aged couple began ballroom dancing in the middle of Quarry’s set. With stuttering bass music blaring, the couple pulled off moves with aplomb as the younger crowd watched from afar with wry smiles. Like I said, this is a far stretch from your typical LA club.

In the middle of the conversation, Rick told us a story about his roommate’s birthday party a few weeks back, where Flying Lotus just happened to play his new album for the party guests. It goes to show that even out here in the desert, the sense of community in the beat scene is still apparent. Claremont is far removed from Lincoln Heights, but Beat Cinema is closer to Low End Theory than you’d think.

Seryn – This is Where We Are

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April 4, 2012
Album Reviews, Live
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I thought it was about time to post on this album. You know when you find that one great song that fits perfectly into your day or week and makes you go around showing it to everyone? Or maybe you keep it a secret because it’s just too good? The former is how I have felt about this entire Seryn album. Seryn was formed in 2009 and is composed of 5 band members who can all play a wide variety of instruments. For any fans of Mumford and Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes..etc you need to give this album a listen. Check out the title track off of their debut album, This is Where We Are below.

Chelsea – violin, percussion, and bird chirps
Aaron – bass, trumpet, cello and bear roars
Nathan – guitar, guitar, geeeter, banjo, and guitar. And some mouth sounds.
Chris – drums, banjo, pump organ, guitar, accordion, bells, earthquake stomps
Trenton- ukulele, banjo, accordion, sings the sung songs

In an interview on Addicted to Shows, it’s clear that these are only half of the instruments that could be put into the album. When asked about their creative process for songwriting and choosing the right instruments,Nathan said;

A song starts with guitar, ukulele, or banjo.  Then we just start adding stuff, and taking stuff away, and then adding it back in.  We try a lot more stuff than ends up in a song, which is why you have yet to hear  euphonium, electric organ, bag pipes, marimba, tin whistle, slide guitar, or hammer dulcimer in any of our songs. Vocals come later, and the harmonies are worked out very quickly, our bassist, Aaron, is a genius.

The wide variety of instrumentation accounts for a plethora of different melodies and harmonics. The masterful and selective use of these instruments can be seen in this live performance of “Beach Song”. They were named best show at SXSW 2011 by Paste Magazine. A very hard distinction to achieve at such a large music festival.  The quality isn’t all that good but you can see the emotion put into the set. Look out for these guys because they will most definitely be on the same path as Mumford and Sons. Expect an EP coming out towards the end of the year combined with tons of tour dates. The entire album can be streamed off of their bandcamp and this is one album that I was very proud to have purchased.

BBNG2 is Here!

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April 3, 2012
2012, Live, New Music
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Happy Tuesday! BadBadNotGood dropped their second LP, BBNG2, today at 9am. If BadBadNotGood is an unfamiliar name check out our previous posts on this jazz trio here. Per usual, these guys go nuts on these tracks. Take a listen to “CHSTR” below to get a feel for the chaotic solos that are integral to BBNG’s music. What I am really excited for in this release is the addition of two feature artists, Leland Whitty (Saxophone) and Luan Phung (electric guitar).

When I first gave the album a spin, the two tracks I replayed immediately were “Earl” and “UWM” both featuring Leland Whitty on the sax. Maybe I am just a sucker for brass, but these tracks show exactly why I love BBNG. Check out the wacky music video for “UWM” (what up chocolate cheerios) below. Luan Phungs’ electric guitar on “You Made Me Realise” is stellar and I hope that BBNG continues to invole these artists in future releases, or even better, at live shows! I can’t wait to see the live renditions of these two tracks as well as the remainder of the album. Typical to BBNG’s style, the album is made of a majority of covers, but we also get to hear five original tracks that the group crafted organically. Covers are what got me so excited about BBNG in the first place, but it’s nice to see what they do to create an original. Another wild track is “DMZ” which showcases Matt’s ability behind the keys.

The entire album is amazing, and of course, it’s free! Which is mind boggling for the quality of the release. I can’t thank BBNG enough for releasing such amazing music and for putting new spins on some classic cuts (be sure to check out CMYK, Limit To Your Love, and Flashing Lights). The album can be streamed in its entirety below but you may as well download it for free here.

BBNG2 Dropping Tomorrow + Preview Of The Album

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April 2, 2012
Live, New Music
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Now this is what I’m talmbout. We posted the preview video for BadBadNotGood’s BBNG2 (tomorrow! tomorrow! tomorrow!) last week, but today we got a new track for you. That’s right. New BBNG. Tomorrow can’t come soon enough. The live hip hop/jazz trio out of Toronto has taken the music world by storm through their covers James Blake, Tyler, The Creator and more, but their original workings aren’t too shabby either. Check out “Vices” below and hold your breath until BBNG2 drops tomorrow.

Sasquatch Artist Of The Week: Purity Ring

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March 31, 2012
2012, Festivals, Live
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Eight weeks ago, the Sasquatch Music Festival lineup was released to much fanfare. Like all festivals, some hated the lineup while others loved it. For the more levelheaded, it appears to be a very balanced lineup with a deep undercard. From here on out we will be underscoring the lesser-known Sasquatch artists by highlighting a different artist each week. Beyond delving into each artist’s bio, sound, etc., we will attempt to give some insight into what will make their performance at Sasquatch so amazing.

Purity Ring is Megan James and Corey Roddick, two twenty-somethings who have been dabbling in a variety of genres since their early teens. Roddick was previously a member of the experimental electro-pop group Gobble Gobble, and James has been trained as a pianist since age sixteen. Not much is known about the duo, but they make music that is unlike most of the material floating around the Internet these days. Though their repertoire is relatively slim, having only released three songs over their year-plus-long existence, their work is complex, intricate, and clearly effort-driven. In an interview with Pitchfork last summer, when asked to explain the group’s few-and-far-between track releases, Roddick explained:

“When you are releasing a constant stream of music, it can cheapen the work– we want each song to linger with people. We also spend an incredibly long time on a track. I have tons of files on my laptop that aren’t finished; sometimes I’ll start something and come back to it later.”

Their style is incredibly unique, and includes rhythmic tributes to Roddick’s love for Southern hip-hop, backed by both purely electronic instrumental elements and fantastic lyrical imagery in the muted, mixed-in female vocals. The lyrics are presented in an almost childlike vocal tone, evoking a sense of discovery and exploration within the hazy verses.

Purity Ring’s releases began with their single “Ungirthed,” back in January of 2011. The track is sticky and many-layered, doused in a brassy bassline and adorned with bits of chime-like treble, all neatly wrapped around Megan James’ sweetly electronic vocals.

Their next track, “Lofticries,” was the b-side on their Ungirthed 7″. “Lofticries” is a work of slow-paced, catchy genius, carried through by a simple drum track and heavy shades of deep, warped synth and almost-vocal melody. This one will get stuck in your head. The lyrics seem as though they describe a dream sequence:

“You must be hovering over yourself
watching us trip on each other’s sides
Dear brother, collect all the liquids off of the floor
Use your oily fingers
Make a paste, let it form

Let it seep through your sockets and earholes
into your precious, fractured skull
Let it seep, let it keep you from us
Patiently heal you, patiently unreel you.”

Purity Ring’s third release came out in August of 2011, and appears on a split 7″ with Canadian art-rock outfit Braids. Fans of AraabMusik and Clams Casino will enjoy the instrumental hip-hop feel of this one, but the chopped-up vocal track gives this a sound all its own.

Somehow both calm and insanely energetic at the same time, Purity Ring’s music is so complex it takes several listens before you feel you’ve heard all the layers in any one track. But the ear-pleasing intricacy of the group’s production style will make you want to listen over and over again. Their Sasquatch performance will take place in the Banana Shack, and will undoubtedly include lots of eardrum-pounding bass and dance-provoking synth and rhythm. Presumably, their set will include more material than the three songs we have heard from them thus far, so you won’t want to miss the chance to hear more from the talent within this group.