If you’ve ever seen reels from the early days of cinema — It’s a Wonderful Life or any number of Rat Pack films comes to mind — one thing you might remember are the montages of neon signs, flashing advertisements that enticed potential patrons to buy sex, cigarettes and cheap liquor. Truth is, ain’t many of these gems around anymore — many have been dismantled and trashed, but several others are now at the Museum of Neon Art.
When hip-hop superhero Pharoahe Monch announced he was releasing his third solo album, W.A.R. – We Are Renegades, on the highly revered Duck Down label, the entire rap world rejoiced. The combined stats of these two forces are very impressive. As one half of the futuristic duo Organized Konfusion, Pharoahe released three acclaimed records including the instant classic, Stress: The Extinction Level Agenda.
As a solo artist, he released the phenomenal LP Internal Affairs in 1999 which yielded the ferocious street-burner “Simon Says,” a song that continues to shut down parties and live shows to this day. He followed that up with 2007’s soulful and highly personal Desire, which brings us to his third album dropping this March. And what about Duck Down, you ask? Quite simply, this label is the headquarters of street-driven, underground, NYC rap. Since the early ’90s, it has served as home to artists like BuckShot, Sean Price, Heltah Skeltah, O.G.C., Smif-n-Wessun and most recently, new signees like Black Rob, Torae and Marco Polo, just to name a few. In all, it’s an extremely potent union, and hip-hop heads everywhere have been waiting expectantly to see if the hype would match the outcome.
Sweaty, smelly, hot and cramped—and that’s just the cab ride to the venue. Our second stop of the evening was the official WMC Opening Night Party at the Vagabond downtown, where Frankie Knuckles, David Morales and Hector Romero were spinning house music so deep they should have been handing out free life preservers at the door. If Tenaglia’s set at the National was the appetizer, this was the main course, and the Vagabond did not disappoint.
It’s been three years since I last touched down in Miami for the electronic music smorgasbord that is the Winter Music Conference. For the uninitiated, WMC is a week-long dance party that occupies most if not all the hotels and live music venues on South Beach. It is ground zero for guidos, beat freaks, spring breakers and foreigners who “love zee house music!” There is no shortage of poolside shenanigans and late night club action to be had, and the party don’t stop ‘til 6 in da mornin’. Unless you’re talking about my photographer and I. In that case, the party has to stop at an hour reasonable enough to return to the hotel, upload photos, and recap the night’s shenanigans in a relatively intelligible manner. We will be doing this for the next four nights. Our first stop tonight, on Day One of the festival: the National Hotel for the 4th annual Future Classics Pool Party.
If you love James Franco (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t right now?) you should high tail it over to the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills. The Oscar host, Academy Award nominee, soap opera star, author, painter, male model, film director, performance artist, and Tweeting mastermind has managed to squeeze one additional bullet point onto his resume: an art exhibit titled “Unfinished.”
After Bedouin Soundclash’s drummer Pat Pengelly went his separate ways, the band took some much needed time to regroup and prioritize. The hiatus led to the creation of their very own indie label, Pirates Blend Records, and a distribution deal with Sony Music Canada. With the support and encouragement of bassist Eon Sinclair, vocalist/guitarist Jay Malinowski took the break from the band to launch his solo effort, “Bright Lights & Bruises.” The disc was the first release off the new label venture and tied fans over as they anticipated Bedouin Soundclash’s return to the studio for the follow up to 2007’s “Street Gospels.”
New music, some better than others…Wu-Tang’s Raekwon brings Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang, with its slew of big-time guests stepping it up a notch (Busta Rhymes, Ghostface, and others); good ‘ol benign college alt-rock band R.E.M spits out another one; the fearsome Finnish five release Relentless Reckless Forever. For the punk kiddies, there’s Avril’s new one, Goodbye Lullaby.
Carol Bui – Red Ship
Bruce Cockburn – Small Source Of Comfort
Raekwon - Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang
Parts & Labor - Constant Future
Sara Evans - Stronger
Dance Gavin Dance - Downtown Battle Mountain Pt. II
Dinosaur Bones - My Divider
Riley Etheridge, Jr. - Power Keg
Lupe Fiasco - Lasers
Dam Mantle - First Wave
The Color Morale – My Devil In Your Eyes
Wye Oak - Civilian
Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now
I have a couple of confessions to make. First, when I heard I’d have the chance to play HALO Reach during Social Media Week this year with Ian “Enable” Wyatt, one of the best professional HALO players in the world, I was really nervous! I’m not a gamer – unless you count Rock Band or any game that involves dancing. Then, I will own you. Second, I’ll admit it – I sort of had a preconceived notion of what a “professional gamer” would be like. I mean, I know plenty of awesome geeks who game for fun, but for someone to play long enough and well enough to go pro? Well, let’s just say I wasn’t expecting a charming conversationalist.
When you think about T-shirt culture there are SO many companies cranking out cotton garments season after season. Some good, some bad, a lot of them…pointless. Not so with Tee Library. Perhaps you will at least appear a little smarter without even needing a library card.
Their inspiration comes from books. Sometimes reaching back to the classics, and sometimes the best sellers list, the designers at Tee Library find a story they want to portray and then presto…a fresh take on that story emerges.
