Hey everybody! Welcome back to regularly scheduled programing after two glorious weeks off! I was hoping to come back and say, "It such a beautiful day outside, spring is finally here...I feel super accomplished, I got X,Y,& Z done..." But it isn't...and I didn't... but oh well, I still had an amazing time during the past few weeks.
I did get a really big chunk of this article down on paper, and I'd say I'm only a few more writing sessions, a couple of proof reads, and some contextual editing away from finishing. As I had said a week ago, I'm going to try not to stress about it, but it should be done in the very near future.
So I thought I would take today out to do a bit of a grab bag...an assortment of what I usually do in a week here at SCM.
First up are a couple of the tracks I've been jamming out to in the past two weeks:
(Pest - I Heard Yer Bird Moved In)
(Radiohead - Bloom)
(Fred V - Paradise)
(Chase & Status - Hocus Pocus)
(Rihanna feat. Drake - What's My Name [Blackmill remix])
Then there's something a bit funny...
&
A new mash-up...
(50 Daisies)
And an artist to spotlight...Andreya Triana, is the amazing vocalist who was on last years 'Black Sands' by Bonobo. Her debut album 'Lost Where I Belong' was released in late August of last year on Ninja Tune Records, and was produced by Mr. Simon Green a.k.a. Bonobo. I am a huge fan of this smooth, sexy, soulful singer, and just about every track on the album. Definitely worth looking into. Check her out...
Be sure to check Ms. Triana out on all of her social media outlets:
Ahhh...I feel so much better now! Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have more writing to do. So I'll catch you all back here tomorrow, with something fun I'm sure...maybe a new mix. Have as good a Monday as is humanly possible. Peace.
So it's been a week...and I've made strides forward, but no finished product (in hind sight, I shouldn't have given myself a deadline...) What I have done, is write about two pages of outline/topics, talk to just about every musically influential person I know, started the actual writing, and realized that this project is way bigger, and way more important to me than I originally thought. I'm still not telling you what it's about (a few of you know), but I will tell you it spans genres, walks of life, and space & time itself.
I'll keep you posted, but I'm shooting for next Monday as the release...maybe just of part one (cause this might be huge...) & maybe before...maybe after. I'm not going to kill myself to get this done, cause I want it to just flow out. But whether it's done or not next Monday, I'll be resuming regularly scheduled programing, with mixes, and mash-ups, and videos, and spotlights, and tons of other fun stuff.
Hope you all have an awesome week! Peace.
Right now, at just after 12 midnight eastern standard, marks the start of a week of silence in preparation for my biggest post to date. I'm not going to mention the topic, but it's something that I'm sure people will be highly divided on, for it touches almost everyone, and is something that's almost always on my mind to some degree. This will also be the first post of my'n where I'll be having guest writers weigh in with their thoughts.
I'm sure this post will catch a decent amount of flak, but at the same time I hope that it sparks some serious discussion on the subject, To help open the channel of communication for this post, I've found (with the help of jr) how to change the settings on the blog so that anyone can post comments. I'm both looking forward to, and dreading this post...but it needs to be done.
Happy Friday all! I hope you're excited about this weekend, it's shaping up to be a good one! But being that it's Friday, I have some business to attend to first...and all new Artist Spotlight! This week I'll be featuring Derek Vincent Smith, better know as Pretty Lights.
Pretty Lights started producing hip-hop beats back in his high school days in Colorado. Once introduced to the rave seen by artists such as Aphrodite, he began producing his signature glitchy funk/soul infused hip-hop electronica. After a brief stint at University of Colorado he decided to focus on his music, and with drummer Cory Eberhard, they began touring as Pretty Lights in mid 2009.
As an example of his type of sound, check out his track Finally Moving...
Smith's sample based, organic sounding grooves make his tracks very easy to connect with for anyone with a good musical sense. He accomplishes this with the use of a monome, and an Akai MPD32 midi controller. He uses these to control his music production software, Ableton 8 Live.
One truly, amazingly awesome thing about Pretty Lights, is that he has all of his music available for download on his website, for...get this...FREE! All 82 tracks! %100 for free! Now that's not to say he doesn't except donation, cause he totally does, but more than anything, he just wants his music to be heard. So go check the downloads section of PrettyLightsMusic.com right here (<---right there) and go feed your iTunes some great music...everyone will be happy!
He's on tour all over the US and mexico as we speak, and you can check out all the tour dates right here (<--- over there) I've heard that his live shows are something not too be missed, so if he's in town, check him out! And don't forget to check him out on all of his social media outlets.
Happy Thursday everybody! I hope this finds you having got through the middle of the week intact, and in good spirits.
I was on the plus side of M.I.A. yesterday (being unavailable, not on the plus side of the singer M.I.A...that would have been awesome!) Just kinda out of it, busy doing some new mash-up, trying to write for the band, and not enough hours in the day to do the next "Music to Your Ears".
But a few things I did have time for, was finding you some amazingly awesome videos to watch. Lets go!
The first three videos I have for you today, are featuring 4 incredible DJs. This first one is a quick 3 minute video of DJ Sara and DJ Ryusei. Now, they're not mind altering amazing, but give them a break...she's only 9 and he's only 6!!! Check it...
Wow! To be honest, I feel a little weird trying to get technique from watching 9 & 6 year old Japanese DJs. Too Cool though.
Keeping with the Japanese DJ theme, he's one of the best sets ever spun...ever! by the legendary DJ Kentaro.
This was the DMC DJ World Championship winning set from 2002, performed as an encore at a live show in Japan in '08. So damn sick!
Speaking of DMC world winning DJs, here's last years winner DJ Rafik, playing with the Traktor Scratch Pro set up, and my next toy, the Traktor X1 controller...check it
I'd never heard of him before I found this video, but he's nasty...and so is that damn controller! Ya, that slim lookin' thing next to the right turntable that he was crankin' on...that'll be my'n (hopefully) soon.
Switching gears, what goes awesome with great music? Dancing of course! So heres a few awesome clips of relatively awesome dancers...
SaladUK on youtube, creates amazing chopped videos of people unintentionally "skanking" to dubstep. Here's David Brent on "The Office" gettin' down to the dubstep sound...
Here's their coverage of "The Great Iranian 'Skank-Off' of 1991"
And lastly, heres their 1 year anniversary video of Mr. "Double Dream Hands" himself John Jacobson, skankin' out...
I'll leave you with this completely un-musically-related video of the UFO sighting over Jerusalem at the Temple Mount late last month. 3 different videos...what do you think? Real?
Well, catch you all tomorrow with another awesome Artist Spotlight. Peace.
Hey everybody! Guess what?...It's Tuesday! And I'm not sure what that means to you, but for me it ment, "Johnny, get off your ass and make some damn music!"
No flowery language today...no updates on yesterday's accomplishments (cause all I really did was wake up, and swim a mile)...just some new mash-ups I pumped out today.
As with yesterday's mix, I didn't really have a theme, or a vision for what I was trying to go for, I just knew I wanted to make some strange things work together...and I think I just might have accomplished that.
So without further yammering about nothing, here they are...
"Rhymes-Jackson Marriage"
Gold Panda-Marriage + Busta Rhymes feat. Janet Jackson - What's It Gonna Be?
"Caged Up, Doin' Time, Wasting Away"
Alias-Caged Up, Wasting Away + Sublime-Doin' Time
"I Travel On Saturdays"
Mutt-Saturdays + Mos Def-Travelin' Man
Hope you like 'em...cause I sure enjoyed making 'em. Tell tomorrow everyone...I leave you with this jem...Peace.
Hey there everyone, and happy Monday to you (is "happy Monday" an oxymoron?) I hope your super weekend was...well...Super!
My'n certainly was, because among other things it was my brotha Justin's birthday this weekend. So Saturday night we hit up Tasty Burger in Boston behind Fenway Park.
Definitely the best burgers I've ever had in my life. If you haven't been...go! And be sure to tell me, so I can come with. I mean, how can you beat amazing burgers made with real ingredients, awesome beers on tap, cheap prices, and a giant wall sized picture of Sam Jackson
?...That's right...you can't!
So after that amazing dinner I went over to Malden to watch the UFC fight. Anderson Silva's first round knockout was totally worth it!
That was it...one kick! DONE! To anyone that caught the fight, didn't it remind you of this classic Chapelle Show moment?
Caught him with the front! Like BLAWO!
So "Super Sunday" rolled around, and I took part in the creation of one of the most epic snack arrangements in the history of snack food...behold! The Snack Stadium!!!
Guacamole turf with sour cream lines, salsa & queso end zones, slim jim goal posts, hotdog players with olive helmets, kit kat "jumbotron", stadium lighting made of granola bars and hershey's kisses, over a dozen types of pretzels, chips, and cookies, and another dozen or so types of candies and other sweets. Not pictured, is the parking lot, with hot dog tailgaters, and cars made of snack cakes and necco waffers, and the giant lollypop "blimp" covering the game below...amazing, I know!
We topped off our epic night of epic creation, with some epic beer pong, some epic flip cup, and watched some semi-epic commercials...oh ya, I think there was some sort of sports game on too. I don't know,we weren't paying attention...
Well with all that awesome this weekend, there was barely enough time to do any music, but I managed to squeeze some in.
So what I have here for you, is a quick one-shot drum & bass mix I did when I got back from the Superbowl party last night. Didn't really plan anything in particular for this one, I just kinda made it up on the fly (imagine how awesome it would've sounded if I actually prepared it...) but I'm pretty pleased with the results. It was a lot of fun, and just the thing to cap off an awesome weekend.
So here it is...the "Super Sunday Mix" Hope you enjoy!
Super Sunday Mix (<--- click there for the link to soundcloud.com)
Don't forget to download my mixes with the little down arrow in the soundcloud player. Well, that's it for today. See you all tomorrow, hopefully with some new original material, or a mash-up or two. Tell then...Peace.
Happy Friday everyone! Super excited it's finally the weekend, as I'm sure you are. So I thought I'd make it a great start to this awesome weekend by doing one of my all time favorite people/bands for today's edition of Artist Spotlight, Bonobo.
So if you know me at all, I'm sure you've heard me talk about or play you something from Simon Green a.k.a. Bonobo. I've been listening to Bonobo for going on 8 years now, starting with his first album on Ninja Tune Records, Dial 'M' for Monkey. I was first introduced to his music when I bought the Ninja Tune DVD "ZenTV", which was 2 hours of music videos from Ninja Tune artists. I came across this beautiful tune called "Flutter", and I was immediately hooked. Check it out...
A day after I watched this DVD, I went back down to Newbury Comics, to pick up "Dial 'M' for Monkey," and his previous album, "Animal Magic." I couldn't believe there was such incredibly amazing and intricate electronic music being made when I first heard this. The enchanting melodies, swelling basslines, and incorporation of live instruments blew me away. And to think this was all being done by one person! Too cool. But I'd have to wait another year for more Bonobo music...but it was well worth the wait.
Fast forward to 2005, and Bonobo's release "Live Sessions." I picked this up thinking, "Well this will be fun. I wonder what kind of music he DJs?" To my surprise, he had brought some amazing musicians together, to create a beautiful live act. This 6 track CD, consisting of 4 live tracks, a remix, and a new original track, must have stayed on a constant loop on my iPod for at least two years. But as amazing as the live songs were, and as good as Four Tet remix was, it was his track "Recurring" that grabbed me, and to this day has never let go. 6 years later, it's still my favorite song, and most likely will always be. I hope you can see why...
I can't readily describe to you what that song does to me, but it's something truly awe-inspiringly awesome. It's been there with me through laughter and tears...joy, sorrow and melancholy...times I will treasure forever and times I wish I could forget...and has always made me feel more connected to my surroundings and my environment, and to who I am, and who I'd like to be. It's taken me to many magical places over the years, and I'm so very in love with it, that I'm sure it will continue to do so until there is no physical way for me to listen to it again.
Wow! I've never tried to explain my love for "Recurring" before...that was intense.
Anyways, a short time after that, I did get to hear what Simon Green sounds like as a DJ, with his release of "Solid Steel Presents: It Came From the Sea." This hour long 20 track mix of mostly Ninja Tune artists, was very well spun, and has been entertaining guests at parties and events I've thrown/attended since it's 2005 release.
Click Here (<---YouTube channel w/ all 20 tracks from this mix)
Two and a half years later, (while still listening to Recurring nonstop) I was very excited to hear that Bonobo had dropped a new album called, "Days to Come." This full length album of the "Bonobo band" featured a very talented singer by the name of Bajka. Though this was the first Bonobo tracks to have any lyrics to them, I quickly over came my apprehension, and grew to love this album in it's entirety. It's one of those albums for me, that you'd only skip a song, because you were so psyched about the next one. Here's the title track "Days to Come" from their DVD, Live @ Koko.
Bonobo's latest album, "Black Sands" came out in late March of last year, and I was definitely first in line to pick up my copy. This release was a bit of a blending of old and new. Still had the band, added a new talented young singer named Andreya Triana, but on a few tracks got back to the older style of electronic beat production.
If you've heard our Sophmore & Cadet mash-ups, you've probably heard most of Black Sands. Dave and I utilized almost all the tracks that didn't have Ms.Triana on them. If you haven't, then check out "Kiara" (minus Notorious B.I.G...)
As you might imagine, it was my album of the year, 2010, and for damn good reason. There's not a single track on this album I don't completely love. Here's their music videos for "The Keeper," & "Eyesdown."
In November, Dave and I went to see Bonobo perform at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. Absolutely amazing show. Had such a good time that night. Here's a half decent picture I shot with the iphone...
But to give you a little bit more flavor of what it was like, check out this live video of the song, "Stay the Same." (one of my favorites off the album...)
Bonobo's music has truly inspired me, brought me immense joy, and enriched my life over the years. His music has touched many, including my Dad, who passed away late last year. I got to introduce him to Bonobo years ago, and we shared this love of his music to the very end. Recurring was one of his favorite songs to put slideshows of his amazing photography to, and even at his "Celebration of Life" service, Bonobo was on in the back ground.
I will always have incredibly strong emotional ties to his music, be it joyous occasions with friends and loved ones, or amazing memories of time with my father I can look back on fondly. It seems as if Bonobo is and will always be a major contributor to the soundtrack of my life.
He'll be touring around Europe for the next few months, so if you're in the area, and get the chance, it'd be well worth it to go check it out. Also, if you happen to be in or around L.A. on March 24th, you can go see him spin, which I'm sure is amazing as well. Don't forget to check out all of him social media outlets:
Here <--- Official website Here <--- YouTube channel (Ninja Tune) Here <--- FaceBook page Here <--- Twitter Here <--- Myspace page
Well I really hope you've enjoyed this feature, and I hope it shed some light onto my intense love of Bonobo. Have a great weekend everyone! Peace.
Hey everyone! Happy Thursday to you! I hope where ever you are, it's not in the middle of the snowpocalypse. I'm really getting sick of this, and I could totally go on and on about how much I hate winter...but this blog isn't about winter hate. It's about music...but still...
So I'm going to say it was the crappy weather that totally ruined my mood for most of yesterday, and made me miss yesterday's post (which I've been feeling pretty bad about, and for which I'm sorry.) But to atone for this, I bring you a double dose of Thursday's Random & Funny. Let get started!
So have you ever seen TWO rock legend cover a song written by an 11 year old girl? You have now...
Yes...you just watched Neil Young and a very bearded Bruce Springsteen cover Willow Smith's hit song "Whip My Hair" Yikes...what is the world coming to?
Now we get into the amazingly awesome section of R&F. These next three hip-hop flavored videos will blow you away. First up, is the world famous DJ Q-bert. We all know he absolutely kills it with a pair of tables and a mixer...but what would happen if someone super glued his cross fader in the middle? He'd probably just do this...
Sick dude! When I get my new mixer, I'm most likely going to be watching Q-bert videos all day long, trying to pick up some fader technique...not that video though, cause that's just ridiculous. I'm not going to be learning much fader anything from that one.
Speaking of people who are ridiculous with electronic instruments, Dipset producer araabMUZIK is nothing short of mind alteringly amazing with an MPC. Here's a little taste of his skills...
Unreal! I think at one point I couldn't even comprehend how fast his hands were moving. It's stuff like this that make me impulsively drop several hundred dollars on a new piece of equipment. I'd love to even be half that nasty (something to work on for the future.)
We're going to switch to something a little different for the last video of the hip-hop section today. I found this video this morning, and I sat and watched it all the way through...twice! That good!
I mean I'm a huge fan of violin, and also a huge fan of hip-hop, so it seemed like this video was made for me, but it's just too amazing. Paul Dateh & inka one absolutely brought this one together perfectly. This one is going on the iPod for sure...
And now for something completely different! Not a real fan of the music in either of the next two videos (Deadly Rhythm by Refused & Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top) but these videos are worth their weight in gold!
First is The Deadliest Rhythm performed by a guy named Martin, which is a product of police induced bordom.
Some of the best (or at the very least, most energetic) air drumming I've ever seen. Gives you an appreciation for how hard real metal drumming must be.
Last for you today is something so completely awesome, that I couldn't possibly bring you any more videos, cause they would all pale in comparison. This rendition of Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top, performed by Rick K and the All Nighters is one of those great moments in video history. Do yourself a favor, and pretend there's no one else on stage but their "mad drummer" Steve Moore. Enjoy...
Can't stop watching that damn video...too good!
Well that raps up this weeks Funny & Random. See you back here tomorrow for another edition of Artist Spotlight, featuring one of my favorites! Catch you later! Peace.
Hey everyone! It's a really snowy Tuesday here in Boston...and apparently this is the first phase of this storm! Another 14-20" expected...Yikes! As someone said to me the other day, "This is getting really old!"
So all this weather has been keeping me indoors for the most part, but it has been great for exploring the internet for cool music, and music related creativeness. And I've found some really cool things for you to check out.
I ran across this site a few days ago called Recyclart.org (<---which you're totally going to want to check out by clicking there) It's content really does what it says on the box. They features incredible art made from old stuff. There's so much awesomeness on that site, I don't possibly have time to show you all of it, but I'll share some of the really cool music related projects I came across this morning.
Some thing that I absolutely want in my life is this "Boomcase."
You guessed it! Old suitcase + old stereo speaker = Boomcase! %100 recycled, %100 iPod compatible, and %100 pure awesome, I'm totally going to need to make one of these for my first music video...I don't even have a track to make a music video yet, but I sure have my first prop.
Next up is something I'm totally getting for every guitarist I know. It's the "Pick Punch."
Any left over plastic you have (credit cards seem to work the best) can simply and easily be made into multiple guitar picks within a few seconds. Too cool.
So what would be really cool to do with an extra snare drum...how bout turning it into a sound activated light?
Super bright LEDs will pour a soft ambient lighting over your space, and as this video will show you, it won't be constantly strobing out on you when you listen to music or make some noise, because it only responds to the actual snare hit. So damn cool!
Now record collectors would probably object to the thought of recycling vinyl, but they might change their tune (get it!?!) after seeing the "Sound Wave"
Literally a wave, sculpted from hundreds of records. Super creative! This is by far one of my favorite modern art piece out there. But if this doesn't do it for you, and you want something a little more practical than a giant record sculpture, then how bout a clock?
This series of record clock sculptures is something I totally want to make/purchase in the near future. I don't really have much wall space, but I'd totally make room for something like this.
Hope you've enjoyed all this awesome music art! Be sure to check out Recyclart.org there's so many truly amazing things people have done with they're free time. Trust me, it's be worth some of yours.
Well I'm off to take a long walk in the snow, then I plan on writing some piano parts for the cousinz band, and maybe another mash-up or two if I can find the time.
I hope you can find the time to go play in the snow, or play with music...or both! See you tomorrow. Peace.
