Not to turn this into a dead rapper website, but in case you didn’t know today marks the 13th anniversary of the murder of Biggiesmalls, a.k.a. Frank White a.k.a. Biggie, B.I.G. The Notorious B.I.G., etc., the best rapper to ever do it. Apparently, Diddy is throwing a party in Brooklyn tonight to celebrate his memory.
Let’s just be honest, Biggie was my favorite. Not much more to say. Here’s a video of the song “Hold Ya Head” from the B.I.G. Duets: The Final Chapter album, which features Bob Marley signing a sad and mournful chorus. The lyrics are pretty… real. Biggie never compromised.
The Notorious B.I.G. feat. Bob Marley – Hold Ya Head:
Start your Friday off right by checking out this video featuring a new track from Brahms called “Make Me Do Right,” from their performance on January 22, 2010 at Glasslands with Boy Crisis and Apache Beat. Brahms just posted a couple hot new tracks on their myspace page (especially check out “Subtext Is Deadly”), or you can download all 4 demo tracks from their website for the low price of your email address.
Brahms – Make Me Do Right (live):
Oh and what the hell, here’s another video of “Toward the Ghost” from the same show.
Brahms – Toward the Ghost (live):
In fact, we have a bunch more of these videos that we’ll be posting from that show over the next couple weeks, so be on the lookout for that. All the videos were shot in HD by our friend Jovan Todorovic from Belgrade. Check out his commercials for MTV Adria, they’re hilarious!
They may have been almost 3 weeks later than the NYTimes in writing about it, but yesterday Time reported that France had become “the first country in the world to remove transsexualism from its official list of mental disorders.” But while this move by France’s Health Minister, Roselyne Bachelot, has been heralded by some for promoting the rights of sexual minorities, others, especially transgendered individuals living in France, worry that the move is largely an empty symbolic gesture. Such individuals point out that removing “transsexualism” from the country’s list of mental illnesses “will do little to improve their legal or medical rights in the country. For example, transsexuals are still required to have a sex-change operation before they can change their gender in the eyes of the law. And to get the green light for surgery, they must still undergo extensive medical and psychiatric evaluations.” This type of discrimination just seems ridiculous to me, like the idea of denying gay couples the right to marriage (congratulations to Washington, D.C., by the way!!). Why should the state (or any state) care what you do with your junk (or lack of junk)?
I prefer the opinion expressed so eloquently by The Isley Brothers in “It’s Your Thing,” their 1969 funk classic: “It’s your thing/Do what you wanna do/I can’t tell you/Who to sock it to.” Word is bond, Ronald.
Recorded partly as a parting shot to Barry Gordy after the Isley Brothers left Motown Records for what they felt was a lack of love and promotion from the label, it’s also the first Isley Brothers record to feature young Ernie Isley on bass. Check out this funny video of the song, featuring Elaine’s “Little Kicks” dance from Seinfeld.
Two years ago, John Bastone teamed up with another recrod store owner, Stephen Gritzan, to create the “Brooklyn Record Riot,” a giant beer-and-DJ-fueled record sale with over “50plus tables of merchandise from 30plus cool dealers hailing from the USA and Canada.” Those looking to grab the dope records and the “Traditional Polish food” should probably get to Warsaw, in Greenpoint, for the $20.00 early admission from 10 am-noon (only $3 admission for the rest of the day until 8pm).
If the idea of the riot has left you wanting more, luckily for you Syracuse-bred Ra Ra Riot has just recently released a new video for “Can You Tell,” the third video from their first LP, The Rhumb Line. The band was just recently in Brooklyn to play with The Antlers as part of BAM’s Sounds Like Brooklyn Festival.
I first toured the Ace Hotel over the summer and was impressed with the thoughtful layout and design, the general vibe of the place appealed to me right away. We were thrilled when they agreed to let us shoot the upcoming Boy Crisis video there. I can’t say enough about how great the staff was to work with and, as a result of the Ace being so accommodating, I think the video is going to be amazing (more details to come on that soon).
The Ace Hotel, 20 W. 29th St., New York, NY
Owner Alex Calderwood opened up the first Ace Hotel in 1999 in a former Salvation Army halfway house in Seattle. In an effort to accommodate, and appeal to, musicians and artists, affordability was a top priority. Ten years later, Calderwood has opened up three more Ace hotels—one in Portland, one in Palm Springs, and the newest hotel in New York City. The Ace Hotel New York has 12 stories and 260 rooms. The affordable rates make you feel like you know about a secret inside deal at one of the coolest hotels in the city. As you enter the lobby, you can smell the coffee brewing at Stumptown Coffee Roasters, a Portland favorite, that has a small coffee shop set up adjacent to the front of the lobby. Although there are long lines at times, it turns out that the coffee is worth the wait.
The reception area features an apothecary case filled with taxidermy (birds) and reclaimed laboratory tables that are used as the reception desk. The hotel commissioned artworks by local artists to decorate the lobby and many of the rooms. The lobby is a scene —bustling all day and night— with a laid-back vibe where at any given time you could find some hipsters on their laptops next to an eccentric artist sketching and a group of European tourists mapping out their next move. They kept the original mosaic floors and coffered ceilings in the lobby and it’s obvious that great care was taken in the construction and layout of each room, with a nod to the historically land-marked buildings’ origins.
Each room has a somewhat different layout and design; many include vintage refrigerators, chairs, and tables, customized Gibson acoustic guitars, plumbing pipes refashioned into clothing racks, and fur and leather accents and upholstery. These varied layouts enhance the illusion that you are in a cool apartment rather than a standard hotel room. And check out this view:
The event space downstairs, Liberty Hall, is another find. I first saw the space when it was raw, and then went to the Fader/ Levi’s show there in the fall and now it is completely finished and it looks great. You can use the whole space for a large event or break it down into three separate sections. If all of the above wasn’t enough of a draw already, The Spotted Pig’s Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield helm the newly opened Breslin Bar & Dining Room, which is located adjacent to the main lobby in a simple, elegant space.
Red Wire Black Wire has been playing a bunch of shows in NYC/Brooklyn recently since taking a bit of a breather after their tour last fall, and I think that’s probably a good thing for the band, since they seem to be playing really well if their show at Glasslands a couple weeks back with Bridges & Powerlines (perfect! these guys should book shows together all the time!) and Beat Radio was any indication. The audience was jumping around and singing along, and even Doug had to admit that he thought it was one of the best shows they’d played in a while when I caught up with him at their early show last night at Cake Shop.
Here are some photos of the show last night, and also a video of the band performing “Tentacles” from the same Cake Shop show. Keep up the good work dudes.
Earlier today, Broken Bells – a relatively new project from Danger Mouse and James Mercer of The Shins – announced their first ever live performance, going down tonight at the Fold In Bootleg Theater in LA. Unfortunately, it looks like tickets were sold out as of 10:30 this morning.
But hopefully some sort of mini-tour will be announced soon to accompany the release of their self-titled debut Broken Bells, which is set to drop on March 9, 2010. You can pre-order the album now, and I believe that the first single, “The High Road,” is currently free to download as an iTunes single of the week. I’ve been listening to the record for a couple of weeks now and it is really dope. Apart from the single, which is also the opener, stand-out tracks include: the likely follow-up single “Vaporize” (hear the ending bass-line from Grizzly Bear’s “Ready/Able” in there?), which is up on their Myspace page; “Mongrel Heart,” which could be a lost Cure track or something; and “Your Head Is On Fire.” I don’t know whether it sounds more like a psychedelic-rock-meets-hip-hop-beats masterpiece or just a Shins record with better production and more basslines, but either way the whole thing just works. Definitely check it out. Here’s the video for the first single, “The High Road,” which premiered online January 27, 2010 and is directed by Sophie Muller.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been ten years since the passing of Big Pun, one of my favorite rappers of all time. It’s also just as hard to believe how rad that Big Pun/Air Jordan image is right there (re-purposed from the original ad campaign promoting the posthumous release of Yeeeah Baby back in April 2000). But fortunately for all the Christopher Rios fans out there, the 10 year anniversary of his death has also led to a couple of great new tracks featuring previously unreleased material from the Bronx MC.
First up, we’ve got this updated version of “Glamour Life” (from Big Pun’s first record, Capital Punishment), which Big Pun’s son – BABY PUN – put out as a tribute to his dad on February 7, exactly 10 years after Big Pun’s death. If you listen to the original lyrics, Pun gives a shout out to his son in the original. And so it’s only fitting that Baby Pun should add a really nice verse to the remix, showcasing a style and flow that sounds like Big Punisher is spitting from the grave basically. This kid could turn into a major MC one day.
AC, Realm Reality, Termanology & Baby Pun (Big Pun’s son) – Glamour Life 2010 (Prod. By Jet Audio):
The mix — compiled by DJ Soul and G Bo the Pro — is the brainchild of D.I.T.C. member Buckwild. The hip-hop producer, noted for his work on Pun’s ‘N—- S—,’ was eager to praise the platinum-selling Latino rapper’s works in the form of a compilation. After Buckwild met DJ Soul, who last year created a similar tribute project dedicated to fallen Harlem rapper Big L, the two began executing the project. “Pun doesn’t get the light that he deserves when they talk about great emcees,” DJ Soul tells The BoomBox. “But I initially didn’t want to do a Pun mix because there isn’t too much unreleased music out there. Everything that’s been recorded has pretty much been released. So [Buckwild] said what if he remixed some of the songs. I knew if we were to do this project it would have to be with Sean C.”
Sean C., Pun’s A&R during his tenure at Loud Records, and LV, both of Grind Music, join the fold of producers creating beats for the homage.
The tribute was originally supposed to be released on February 7. But to make up for the delay, DJ Soul has already posted one of the tracks on his blog, which you can check out right here, right now. And don’t forget to download the whole mix tomorrow!
Big Pun – Resurrection (Prod. by Sean C. and LV):
-Drew
P.S. You might not believe it, but my father actually saw Big Pun perform live in New Britain, Connecticut back in the late 90s, so Dad if you’re reading this and want to share any memories of the big guy, please drop a comment on the site!
***UPDATE***
From DJ Soul: @EV2BK The mix has been pushed as it is now being released on itunes with all of the proceeds going to Pun’s wife and kids
If you’ve never had a chance to check out the great Scottish band We Were Promised Jet Packs, well, it might still be tough, considering their show tonight at the Bowery Ballroom (with Bad Veins) is sold out. We Were Promised Jetpacks have come a long way since their initial days playing at their school’s “Battle of the Bands,” as their record deal with Fat Cat Records back in 2008 clearly underscores (joining a roster of artists that includes their former touring partners and friends Frightened Rabbit).
The band returns to Brooklyn to play the Knitting Factory on February 15, before continuing on its tour across the country, so if you don’t already have tickets tonight, there’s always next week. But if you happen to live on the West coast, be sure to check them out when Bear Hands joins the tour starting in Phoenix on February 23.
“Roll Up Your Sleeves” is the second single off their first LP, These Four Walls, which was released last summer.
Ernest Greene (a.k.a. Washed Out) was living with his parents in Georgia this summer when he recorded a bunch of laid-back synth-pop songs that became his debut EP, Life of Leisure. When he was interviewed in Pitchfork about it back in September, he seemed surprised about the popularity of his songs. When asked why he was planning to release the songs though a small run of cassettes (only 300 copies) he explained: “Honestly … I was thinking I would be surprised if 300 people wanted to purchase it.” He also wasn’t planning to tour, citing his upcoming nuptials as the reason for not wanting to be far from home. He seems to have changed his mind since the September interview; his tour dates now stretch from March through May with a stop at NYC’s own Mercury Lounge on March 7th. You have to ride the wave while you can…
