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Music interview Dilla Director Discusses New Stussy Doc

March 3, 2010 - 11:26 am

J Dilla

In 2004, James Yancy (aka J Dilla) moved from Detroit, the city of his birth, to Los Angeles, the place he would call home until his death in 2006. Already a famed producer of chart topping hip-hop acts such as Common, Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest, and The Pharcyde, Jay Dee reinvented himself and his sound in Los Angeles, striving for a rawer style that departed from his neo-soul roots.

Four years after his untimely passing, Dilla reputation has only grown. Last month, to commemorate what would have been his 36th birthday, legendary Los Angeles street wear company Stüssy held Dilla Day events across North America, celebrating the release of their limited edition tee shirt produced in collaboration with Stones Throw and the Dilla estate. The company also produced a mini-documentary focused on Dilla’s “second act” that took place in Los Angeles, and the connections he made with the city. Chinashop spoke with the creator of the three-part web series Adam Jay Weissman to learn more about this reverent project. Read Full Story

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Gallery interview Tempo No Tempo : Redefining Noise Pop

March 2, 2010 - 11:52 am

Despite being unable to see every single band that played the Noise Pop Festival (which was pretty impossible), from what I witnessed, Tempo No Tempo seemed the best candidate for what Noise Pop represents: the perfect blend between the two words (and worlds). As a companion piece to the Dizzy Balloon interview — a band which represented a very different sound, more towards the pop end of the spectrum — I interviewed TNT outside Slim’s our first night there, just to get some insight to the songwriting of the band and the brains behind it.

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Gallery interview Dizzy Balloon Makes Girls Go Wild

March 2, 2010 - 11:49 am

You’d think the guys in Dizzy Balloon were the latest incarnation of Paul, George, John and Ringo the way the girls were carrying on tonight! There was no fainting or ripping hair out of the head, though, which was kind of disappointing — just homemade sign-touting, hypnotized teenyboppers who stood as close as they could to oogle the band and sing along to every word. The perfect foil for Noise Pop’s Tempo No Tempo (see other interview), DB’s musicians looked to the classic rock bands of the 60s and 70s for inspiration, and whose proto-punk-pop sound had the crowd in a craze after a few short riffs.

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Featured Music interview Kid Static: All Over the Place

February 11, 2010 - 11:11 am

kid static throw

Driving around Chicago with hip-hop eccentric Kid Static in his ‘95 Toyota Tercel (with a suped-up engine), there’s no mistaking how connected this adventurous MC/producer is to the people of his city. Going from a meeting at the headquarters of the new artist development resource site Veoba near Wicker Park to downtown and eventually back to his home studio in Humboldt Park, this towering dynamo doesn’t slack off. Admittedly, today is busier than average, but on this overcast afternoon he appreciates the opportunity to move his music forward and just talk with some of the many folks on the scene he has met over the past five years. During a brief stop at Kinko’s, Kid Static reveals that a trip he’s taking the following day to L.A. is actually a precursor for his move out West to expand his recording career. While surprising news, it also makes this day around his city all the more significant.

Yea Big and Kid Static – The Nameless

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4.93 (73 votes)
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Music interview Peter Hook at The Metro

January 4, 2010 - 1:32 pm

Peter Hook 1

The infamous Peter Hook flew into the Windy City this past weekend to talk with Chicago music aficionado and owner of the Metro and Smart Bar, Joe Shanahan. Approximately 50 people attended the invitation only gathering to meet and ask questions with Peter during the session hosted by the Red Bull Music Academy. Former presenters at the Academy and long time friends, Joe and Peter discussed their musical interactions through the years including several precarious hunts down the dark alleys of New York and Detroit in search of new underground, emerging sounds.

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Music interview Mike Posner: Out the Door and Down the Rabbit Hole

November 17, 2009 - 1:35 pm

posner live

If you’d told Mike Posner he was destined to become a hip-hop sensation before he became a college graduate, he might have reacted the way many of us would–a blank stare and a “What the hell are you on?” look as he made his way to his next class lecture. Yet in less than a year, Posner has already been snatched from a somewhat predictable life as All-American college student, and plunged into a wonderland where his recordings are already taking the ‘net by storm– and he’s only begun his senior year at Duke. Posner spent the better part of his 2008 school year walled up in his dorm room and working on what he calls a “mix tape” (read: CD), churning out the best beats and rhythms he could come up with. In January 2009, he released the music as an LP, A Matter of Time, and became one of the genre’s newest hot topics. Within a couple of months, the CD was out, the bidding war had begun, and Posner had become an overnight sensation (albeit through a great deal of hard work and long hours).

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Music interview Fanfarlo Bring the Walls Down

October 15, 2009 - 1:25 pm

Fanfarlo

A song called “The Walls are Coming Downfeatured in an eye-catching new video that spotlights one of the world’s only remaining escape artists? How could that not pique someone’s interest? Catch up on what’s new with London’s Fanfarlo, and delve into their genre-bending, anarchistic plans for world musical domination.

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interview A Snake, A Rose & The Circus

October 12, 2009 - 5:15 pm

Jim Rose - photo by Jeff J. Mitchell

“There are actual segments of this show where you cannot feel any oxygen because it is all in people’s lungs.  There are periods when we are on stage where if feels like a hairdryer, people are screaming and giving you the energy back so much.  There are times in this show where I look around and there is hardly anybody in a seat, they are on the floor laughing.” – Jim Rose, on the audience’s reaction so far to the When Legends Collide Tour.

The legendary Jim Rose has done it once again, this time taking his freak show to the stage and incorporating the legendary and understated, yet controversial Jake “The Snake” Roberts into his theater.  Traveling across the globe with high profile wrestlers, attractive females, and an unusually talented ensemble, Jim Rose continues to make audiences cringe with his latest, When Legends Collide Tour.  According to Jim, this is the best tour yet.  “We’ve got pretty girls, wrestling, amazing circus stunts, and a fistfight.  I mean, who can ask for more? If that isn’t testosterone fueled, I don’t know what is.”

ChinaShop caught up with Jim Rose on a much-needed day off in between shows, as he filled us in on what people can expect from his latest project.  In addition, Jim was accommodating enough to wake Jake “The Snake” Roberts abruptly from his sleep to break us off a little piece of his troubled past and to explain why he really considers this tour to be the launch of his mighty comeback in the eyes of the media.

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interview Tortoise Comes Out of Their Five-Year Shell

August 27, 2009 - 7:52 pm

Tortoise

Not often does a band with almost 20 years of history and a well established presence take such a long break in between recordings, but that was very much the story for Chicago based Tortoise.  Although they have toured here and there, the band just recently release their first album in five years this past June 23.  Beacons of Ancestorship is the band’s sixth official full-length album and has been long awaited by fans and music industry affiliates.

Tortoise, formed in 1990, has thoroughly confused the world with their almost impossible to categorize and exceptionally unique sound.  According to member, Dan Bitney, it can be hard for the band to even classify themselves.  Attempts at stamping a genre on their music aside, it is pretty unanimous that Tortoise is one of today’s more innovative and musically revolutionalizing projects.  With the launch of a new album and the power of the press on their side, the band is out on the road, performing songs off the new disc across the United States and overseas.

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interview Portugal. The Man.

August 13, 2009 - 11:48 am

Portugal. The Man

You might as well get used to the odd name, because you’re going to be hearing a lot about Portugal. The Man very soon.  They’ve played more than 1000 gigs, some of them at high-profile festivals, over the past four years. The press loves them. And their new album, The Satanic Satanist, their fourth in as many years, may well be a defining sound of summer 2009.

When not in the studio, the band spends most of their time crammed up in a van, moving from town to town. But while the road has broken many bands, John Baldwin Gourley, who plays guitar and sings (winning Alternative Press’s Best Vocalist award in 2009), ain’t complaining. “Once you get used to the restrictions of space and of having less around you, living in a van is “not so far out there “

Portugal. The Man – People Say

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But the van is not home. Nor20is Portland, where he lives when not on tour. For Gourley, home was, is and always will be Alaska, where his parents fled to from the east in the 1970s in search of a better life and where he grew up.

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