Gallery Music Red Bull Big Tune Welcomes Black Milk to Chicago

November 19, 2010 - 12:34 pm

Let’s just get this out of the way: hip-hop shows, more than any other genre, regularly feature an absurd amount of waiting before the headliner you went to see finally hits the stage—often after midnight. Some of the opening acts or DJs you see beforehand might be good and you may even be hyped to have been introduced to them, but when it takes four hours before the main act steps on stage, shit can get old. With this in mind, Black Milk’s last minute, Red Bull Big Tune pre-show in Chicago at Reggie’s Rock Club was as close to ideal as you can get.

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Event Film Gallery Bouncing Cats Screening Party in Los Angeles

November 19, 2010 - 12:23 pm

Tuesday night, a crowd packed into L.A.’s Downtown Independent Theater to show some support for the screening of a very moving documentary titled Bouncing Cats.  The inspirational film follows the journey of a young man, known as Abramz, who has utilized his love for hip-hop, breakdancing, and b-boying, to find a way to improve the lifestyle of the troubled youth of Uganda.

Similar to the majority of Uganda’s adolescents, Abramz experienced a tough childhood.  After losing both of his parents at a very young age, he looked to art, dance, and music as a way to distract him from the troubles of everyday life.  Driven by his personal experiences, Abramz formed Breakdance Project Uganda (B.P.U.), an organization that strives to use breakdance and other elements of hip-hop to promote positive social change and responsibility.

Prior to the screening, I had the opportunity to sit down with Nabil Elderkin (Director), Abramz (B.P.U. Founder), Jolly (Invisible Children/H.E.A.L.S), and Crazy Legs (Rock Steady Crew) to hear fist hand about their experiences with the film.  Here is a brief synopsis of my encounters with each of them:

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Featured Gallery Music Street Drum Corps, Suicide Girls, and Tommy Lee Hit The Roxy

November 19, 2010 - 12:05 pm

A Night on the Strip, Part 1:

Damn you, Roxy. Thus continues our tumultuous love affair, sullied by cheap beer and your decadent, hallowed halls, scarred with the names of your favorite lovers: Guns N Roses. The one and only Les Claypool. Even those devil-worshiping bastards Slayer have had their way with you before blowing town and leaving you sticky, bruised and confused.

But no worry. I  came with some competition — Sam from the Suicide Girls is here to give you some loving. And tonight you’re gonna get the loudest pounding you ever got — at the hands of The Street Drum Corps, 3 guys who just want to blow your f*cking roof off. And who better to split heads wide open than Tommy Lee?

Tommy Lee with Street Drum Core

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Music Music Magic 11/19/10

November 19, 2010 - 11:33 am

White Lies

Hi!  The wonderful day of the week that is Friday is upon us once again and I’m back with my utterly magical music update to make it that much better!

The other day I was perusing through my iTunes and came across The White Lies; I’d forgotten how much I absolutely love them. Their first album “To Lose My Life” is ludicrously good and it’s been a minute since I’ve heard anything new from them and was I wondering when they were going to release some new material. The greatness that is 2010 strikes yet again and what do I come across this week? The video for their new single, “Bigger Than Us”. Check it out Here, it’s an absolute banger of a track.

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Music Ghostpoet: Watch and Remember

November 18, 2010 - 12:49 pm

Thanks to Arcade 44 for sharing this video with ChinaShop.

We first discovered Ghostpoet when his EP The Sound of Strangers happened across our desk back in June. We were struck by the London MC’s talent for storytelling, delivered in a murmured flow and rendered mysterious by his spacey beats. On a bustling but gray afternoon, we caught Ghostpoet at Red Bull Studios in London Bridge, where he explained that his moniker is about “just being in the background, observing things and not really being seen.” With his full-length debut album releasing in February, we’d venture that he won’t be able to maintain a low profile for long.

London Players, catch Ghostpoet in his final show of the year at XOYO December 18 and check out his tune “Ghost Tape Volume 3″ Below.

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Art/Design Featured Gallery Sanrio 50th Anniversary Party Cutes You to Death

November 18, 2010 - 11:28 am

We know to expect impossible cuteness and limitless merchandizing ideas from Sanrio, but what happens when they decide to throw a really big birthday party? A nationwide furor, of course, with parties in Miami and LA, where the Small Gift art show and events spectacular are held! The celebration kicked off with a private VIP event, held at Santa Monica’s Barker airplane hangar.

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Featured Music Midnight Juggernauts release album, fold lots of paper

November 18, 2010 - 11:16 am

Midnight Juggernauts

Not quite sure what they’re putting in the water over there, but Australia seems to have become a distribution hub for the kind of shoegaze dance pop that invariably puts you in a good mood every time you listen to it. What started in the ’80s with groups like Severed Heads continues today with groups like Cut Copy, The Presets and Melbourne’s very own DIY kings Midnight Juggernauts, whose latest full-length, The Crystal Axis, is in heavy rotation over here in the ChinaShop offices. Currently on tour–check the bottom of this post for dates near you–the three scruffy gents with a penchant for vintage synths and paper-folding (check the video after the jump) took some time out from being stranded in Miami to answer some questions about the new record.

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Music Coachella 2011: So who’s playing?

November 17, 2010 - 3:43 pm

As any die-hard desert rat will tell you, it’s never too early to speculate on who will be playing Coachella. But there’s always “that one dude” who just takes it way too far, which is why this video is one of the funniest (and most spot-on) takes on pre-festival chatter we’ve ever seen.

Related Posts:

Scenes from the Desert

Cockblocked from Coachella

Coachella 2010: PHOENIX Resurrects an Exhausted Festival Crowd…

Coachella Backstage With Yo Gabba Gabba

Music Mt. Desolation: Equal Parts Kerouac, Alcohol And Kenny Rogers

November 17, 2010 - 11:31 am

Mt. Desolation 2 0810

During a break in Keane’s tour schedule, keyboardist/songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley and bassist Jesse Quin consumed a significant amount of Guinness and decided that an alt-country side project would be a logical accomplishment, or it would at least give them an excuse to throw back a few pints with some talented musician friends.

To the duo’s surprise, the project actually came to fruition when Tim and Jesse wrangled up a slew of their top-notch compadres, such as Killers drummer Ronnie Vannucci, Mumford & Sons banjo player Winston Marshall, Long Winters singer John Roderick, and Noah and The Whale fiddle player Tom Hobden, to record a few demos under the identity Mt. Desolation.

The venture, which has been affectionately referred to as an indie “supergroup” by fans and critics, released their self-titled album this past October.  The guys hit the road and packed in audiences across North America and Europe, including several sold out dates with Mumford and Sons.  After schmoozing with management, I was able to seize a moment with the Mt. Desolation co-founders to discuss hot topics such as playing a Jerry Springer style show in a Scottish living room, being embarrassed about their stage speaking voices, and whether or not they consider the project to be “super.”

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Music The Grandmaster of Reggae: Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry

November 17, 2010 - 10:52 am

He'll scratch your back...

There’s a credo a few of us could stand to live by — and the main philosophy of a man who’s spent the majority of his life in the studio, either behind the production board or behind the microphone. He’s been dubbed by many the “Grandmaster of Reggae,” and while that may seem a dubious moniker for those of you who believe the genre lives and dies with The Wailers and Jimmy Cliff, it’s hard to argue with tracks like “Dreadlocks in Moonlight”  — songs that, while tongue-in-cheek, are overflowing with the man’s pure and honest love for a genre he helped revolutionize.

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