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August 30, 2005
When They Play That New Jeezy
A bunch of hip-hop-friendly blogs and websites have been buzzing about Atlanta (t)rapper/Def Jam artist Young Jeezy and his new joint "Go Crazy". Partially because of the hot remix featuring none other than the president of Jeezy's label (which reminds me, cheers and celebratory cymbal crashes to Tono Bungay drummer Tony Cenicola for snapping those eye-catching Hova-photos). The other reason all the so-called "dope boys" seem to be goin' crazy for the Jeezy track is its distinctive beat propelled by those soulful horns and tympani rolls. When I first heard the song a few weeks back it sounded really great but seemed oddly familiar...and not because I was somehow thinking of the original source of the sample, which turns out to be "Man Oh Man" by The Impressions. After a few days I finally realized that "Go Crazy" reminded me a whole lot of a song that local rapper Spectac did last fall during the Bandwidth release party at Local 506. Luckily, WXYC simulcasted that show over the radio and eventually made the audio files available online. So I went back and found the live version of a song called "Pushin'", which at the time Spectac said was "comin' off the new album". Here it is:
Spectac - Pushin' (live at Local 506, November 6th, 2004)
The "Go Crazy" beat is a little more handclappy, whereas the drums on Spectac's tune are a little more sparse and empty. But damn if the sample isn't exactly the same. According to the Thug Motivation 101 liner notes, the Young Jeezy joint was produced by Atlanta DJ/producer Don Cannon. I'm really curious as to whether some version of Cannon's beat might have been spread around or shopped around before Jeezy/Def Jam bought it and released it, or whether this is a strange situation where two distinct producers just so happened to independently use the same opening seconds of a lesser-known Impressions b-side from 1965. I need to email that kid Spectac and see what he knows about this.
For what it's worth, the Young Jeezy album sold very well in its first week (176,000 copies), debuting at #2 on the Billboard album chart. Given that today's highly-anticipated new release features a surefire-single ("Touch the Sky") heavily based on Curtis Mayfield's classic 1970 cut "Move On Up", I suspect that the estate of the late great Mr. Mayfield will be getting some major checks from Def Jam this year. If there's a hell below, maybe it has some ATMs...
Posted by Tim at 11:11 PM | Comments (1)
August 23, 2005
Chill With The Virgo
Ludacris turns 28 years old on September 11th. Nas will turn 32 on September 14th. And the original human beatbox Doug E. Fresh hits the magical age of 39 on September 17th. I have no idea how in the hell these three dudes discovered the close proximity of their birthdays in the first place, much less what made them decide to do a "zodiac posse cut". Regardless, I can't help but admire the conceptual brilliance of "Virgo" and the fact that a voice-only song has somehow become one of my favorite new-ish jamz in this era of hip-hop super-producers.
"Virgo" appears on both Nas' double-album Street's Disciple and Luda's Red Light District. And even though "Virgo" is already a really sparse vocals + beatbox cut, there are apparently some 12-inches out there that actually have separate acappella and "instrumental" versions of the song. I don't have one of those, though, so I did a lot of playing around with the full version of the song. Last spring I started mixing "Virgo" with the Pete Rock remix of "Juicy". It wasn't the most interesting pairing ever but I stuck with it since I never seem to get tired of the "Juicy" remix (or the "Juicy" original, for that matter). And really, who doesn't still enjoy hearing Nas spit over a straight-up '94 beat? This particular recording is slightly rough-around-the-edges, but it's definitely time to throw an MP3 of this thing up, it being the start of Virgo season and all.
As one might guess from the title of this mix, Christopher Wallace was not a Virgo. Pete Rock is not a Virgo either. Then again, neither is Slick Rick, and he has already impurified a legit "Virgo" remix with his non-Virgo zodiac sign.
For what it's worth, I was born just a few days too late to be a Virgo. I have chilled with many a Virgo over the years, though, so I guess this post can serve as some sort of collective birthday shoutout to the following fine folks: Stuart, Jesse W., Whitney, Chris W., Ashley, Reynolds, Kat, Carlie, Malcolm, my Mom, and any other Virgos that I may have unwittingly omitted (like Yonni, sorry!!). Sip on merlot, y'all!
Posted by Tim at 11:31 PM | Comments (2)
August 22, 2005
Ricky Dollars - Live On Stage!
Ricky Dollars was living in Brooklyn last fall when I first posted a link to his politically charged take on Jay-Z's "99 Problems". But Ricky D moved back to the Triangle a couple of months ago and that qualifies him to be one of the countless local acts performing in the massive Troika Music Festival that's going on this week. Come see Durham's newest wordsmith at Joe & Jo's this Thursday night at 8pm! It's not the best timeslot or anything, but the Bueno Love Baller Soundsystem will be working the fader and trying to hype up the crowd, so please come out early and catch the madness if you can.
In case you missed it the first time, here's the hit:
Of course there are a lot of other really good and/or totally-new-to-me bands playing the Troika Music Festival. Check out the full schedule for details. While I am plugging my pals, I should go ahead and mention that Tennis & the Mennonites were great when they opened up for Superchunk last month. Tennis is playing the Duke Coffeehouse on Friday night at 8:30pm. Your serve.
Posted by Tim at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2005
Pipe Reunited
If seminal bands like Dinosaur and Gang of Four can somehow come back from the grave to play live in 2005, what's to stop classic North Carolina bands from doing the same on a smaller level? Tonight at Local 506, Pipe is performing with their original lineup of Ron Liberti, Mike Kenlan, Dave-I-T, and Chuck Garrison. Toenes wrote a nice preview of the Pipe reunion in this week's Independent, aptly pointing out that it's the return of Mike Kenlan to the Pipe lineup that makes this reunion particularly notable for some of us. Kenlan left the original Pipe in mid-1993 in order to concentrate on his other band Small (23). No disrespect to subsequent Pipe guitarist Clifton Mann, but I never found myself enjoying the "new Pipe" quite as much as "classic Pipe". So I've been looking forward to tonight's show and a setlist stocked with tunes like "Sonic Scout", "The Astronaut Song", Joy Division's "Warsaw", and "Submariner" (with added Ron handclaps, naturally).
This most recent bout of early 90s Chapel Hill rock nostalgia motivated me to dig through some of my zine/flyer archives and look for some Pipe paraphernalia. I found a couple of pretty funny Pipe interviews conducted by longtime zinester Carrie McLaren, one that was published in Chris Riser's CMC Magazine (Issue #4, 1992) and another from Trash #2 (February 1993). In the Trash interview, the Pipe guys say that their first show was in November 1991 at La Terraza, the second-story club that once occupied the space above what is now Local 506. I didn't see that first Pipe show, but I did see them at La Terraza a few months later when they opened up for Polvo. That particular Polvo show got burned into my memory as "the show where Ash bled on his guitar". As was my habit at the time, I took one of the flyers for the show back to my dorm room and used it to cover up another small chunk of the lovely cinderblock walls that did so much to define South Campus dorm decor. Anyway, here's a scan of the flyer:
I'm not sure who did this flyer, I really don't think it was Ron. Regardless, it is a nice example of cheap black-and-white Kinko's art. And it makes me nostalgic not just for the bands on the bill but also for an era when a lot of local shows only cost two bucks!
Speaking of Ron Liberti and flyers, if anyone out there didn't make it to Branch Gallery for the "Paper Scissors Ron" opening last weekend, you can still check out the show for two more weeks, until September 3rd. As is typical for Liberti's shows, there are a lot of amazing screenprinted flyers from over the years, but this show also has some great newsprint-based collages and a flyer-coated telephone pole that Ron promises to update annually for as long as he is physically able to do so!
Posted by Tim at 05:30 PM | Comments (5)
August 17, 2005
Belly Dancers
If you're looking for something to do in Chapel Hill tonight, come on out to Wetlands Dancehall for what should be a really fun and interesting bill. Sisterna Kali is a local belly dance troupe. I'm not sure how many belly dancers are in Sisterna Kali or how many you need to qualify as a "troupe" (my word, not necessarily theirs), but one of the belly dancers also happens to be the proprietor of one of the area's best-loved hair salons, so you know it's gonna be stylish.
Red Smokes White is the new band led by former Trailer Bride bassist Daryl White. I remember enjoying the band's Wetlands debut back in late June when they opened up for Jule Brown. Daryl's also been working on some long-distance recordings with former Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison, whom he played with in the Bobby Bare Jr. touring band. I'd definitely like to check out those tracks when they come together!
Chachalaca is opening up the show and I know nothing about them except for the fact that I think former Capsize 7 guitarist/singer Joe Taylor is in the band.
I'm going to be spinning records before/between the bands, probably just some hip-hop and dancehall stuff that's a little too chill for Hell.
Things start up a little after 10pm. The cover is six bucks but email me if you want one of my guest list spots.
Posted by Tim at 07:50 AM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2005
Hiroshima
It was 60 years ago last Saturday that the Japanese city of Hiroshima became the first place in the world to have a nuclear weapon used against it. And this past Tuesday was the 60th anniversary of the day on which the United States dropped an even bigger atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki. There have been quite a few Hiroshima/Nagasaki-related articles in the papers over the last couple of weeks, everything from stories about memorials/anti-nuclear rallies to book reviews to an opinion piece arguing that Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb actually saved lives by preventing a potentially prolonged World War II with even greater casualties on one or both sides. But no matter what a retired Army colonel might hypothesize from the comfort of his rocking chair, there's still no getting around the sheer tragedy of these two atomic bombings and all of the horrific destruction that they caused. Especially now, when previously censored accounts of the atom-bomb aftermath have finally been published, a remarkable 60 years after the fact.
I travelled around Japan for pretty much all of February 2002, and during the very end of my trip I got to spend about 24 hours in Hiroshima. Below are a bunch of pictures that I took in and around the city's Peace Memorial Park, which is located between two conjoining rivers at almost exactly the hypocenter of the nuclear explosion.
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One of the main parts of Peace Memorial Park is the extremely sobering Peace Memorial Museum, which could probably turn a few of the most rabid neo-con war hawks against the idea of ever using nuclear weapons again. The museum has lots of profoundly moving pictures and stories and models showing what happened in great detail. It's a pretty heavy place to visit. Some historians might argue that the museum tends to ignore most of the Japanese militarism that preceded and/or indirectly led to the bombings, but I guess I didn't really feel that such debate was the point of the museum. The place mainly just tries to send a powerful "never again"-type message. Which it does quite effectively.
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After visiting the Peace Memorial Museum I walked through the park and took pictures of some of the many different memorials. Some extremely friendly Japanese schoolchildren helped deflate my expanding bubble of American guilt by asking to pose with me for a picture and then getting my name and nationality for a school assignment. I happily agreed and in return they let me snap a picture of them (above left). The striking structure behind them in the photo (also seen in the very top left photo above) is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, usually referred to as "the A-bomb dome". It was designed by a Czech architect in the early 20th century and constructed with stronger Western-type materials, which helped it become the only structure anywhere near the explosion to even partially survive the blast. The A-bomb dome has intentionally been left in ruins as a constant reminder of the bombing.
There's actually a lot more to Hiroshima than the somber Peace Memorial Park. Because it had to be entirely rebuilt after 1945, Hiroshima is a very new and modern-looking city. A short ways away from the park is the baseball stadium (above right) where the Hiroshima Toyo Carp play. I wound up going through many floors of a nearby department store looking for some Hiroshima Toyo Carp gear, but alas, it wasn't baseball season yet and there was absolutely no Toyo Carp merch to be found.
Thankfully, I had much better luck finding one of the many restaurants that serves a notable Hiroshima specialty sometimes called "hiroshima-yaki". The regional version of okonomiyaki, hiroshima-yaki is basically a tasty fried-egg-based pancake made with soba noodles and various other ingredients. Oishii!
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If you're ever in Japan with an extra day or two on your hands, definitely try and visit Hiroshima. The city is only a couple of hours from Kyoto via the bullet train, and the cozy World Friendship Centre (run by friendly peace activists/American retirees) offers very affordable accomodations with a complimentary Western-style breakfast to boot. Scrambled eggs aren't quite the same as hiroshima-yaki, but after several weeks of Japanese-style breakfasts, they totally hit the spot...
Posted by Tim at 12:57 AM | Comments (3)
August 04, 2005
Disco Inferno Redux
Back in October 2003, the Chapel Hill Town Council was weighing a proposed fire-safety ordinance that would've required the bars of 157 E. Rosemary Street (Hell, The Treehouse, and Bub O'Malley's) to be retrofitted with expensive water-sprinkler systems. If the proposal had passed, the building owner and bar owners would've most likely balked at the excessive cost of installing the sprinklers and all three bars would've probably closed. But the Town Council wisely decided to back off a bit by simply grandfathering in the existing businesses. Hell had been saved, so we celebrated appropriately at that month's dance party, which had already been dubbed "Disco Inferno" in reference to the political controversy. We used some fire engine sound effects, we played the aptly named hit from The Trammps, we even looped a very topical Ludacris line ("Damn right the fire marshal wanna shut us down!") from one of the jams of the moment. Of course we also rocked the Rockmaster Scott & The Dynamic Three classic, and Mark even led the crowd in a "roof is on fire" chant for a brief bit. The whole night was way fun for me personally, and it seemed like there were good vibes all around since Hell had barely managed to escape death (how melodramatic that sounds!).
50 Cent's "Disco Inferno" single wasn't released until over a year after that October 2003 party, but I think I've played it at one or two of the Hell parties this year. I actually think most of The Massacre is pretty wack, but I really like that "Disco Inferno" beat - it's just simple and catchy in the same sort of way that "In Da Club" was before it got played ten million times. Anyway, in celebration of the impending start of Hell's monthly "Disco Inferno" party series (August 6th, please come out!), here's a "Disco Inferno" blend that I did earlier this week:
Lampin' In a Lexus Eatin' Beef
I sped up the track and gave it that Wu-Tang style. Rough like Timbaland wear, yeah!
Posted by Tim at 12:16 AM | Comments (0)
August 02, 2005
Random Notes
Rolling Stone magazine gave Chapel Hill/Raleigh/Durham the #2 ranking on their new list of "Schools that Rock" (er, "areas that rock and have schools"?). I doubt RS really crunched the numbers or came up with the hard metrics that might give their top-10-music-scene list the same sort of official weight as all those oft-cited "Best Places To Work" and "Best Places To Live" studies, but hey, it's always nice to see WXYC and CD Alley get plugged in a big music magazine. Too bad the NC piece had to start off with some out-of-date drooling over Duke's now-scaled-back "free iPod" program.
Local 506 wasn't explicitly mentioned as a factor in the Triangle's #2 ranking, though I vaguely recall the club being praised in a similar 2003 Rolling Stone article that claimed Chapel Hill was "the fourth best college music town in the United States". In any case, I'd like to take the time right now to praise Local 506 for experimenting with a new weekly podcast on which a host runs through the upcoming shows for the week, gives some information about each band, and plays some short musical snippets from some of the bands. I'll have to see how I feel after hearing two or three of these things, but my initial suggestion for improvement might be to try and supplement the informative "concertline"-type summary with periodic podcasts of actual standalone MP3s (legally obtained or voluntarily submitted) from some of the upcoming acts. A full MP3 would allow a curious listener to hear a lot more than a few seconds of a band, and perhaps the MP3 could even be tagged with some sort of "playing at Local 506 on August 4th"-type comment.
I didn't change the tag or anything but I will go ahead and use one of my podcast feeds to send out an MP3 of a band playing Local 506 this Thursday, August 4th. Fan Modine is opening up for the Tall Dwarfs that night, and here's a 1999 single that I found online:
Not sure who is playing on this much older song, but Fan Modine's main man Gordon Zacharias is currently supported by an impressive cast of Chapel Hill rock vets, including Ash Bowie (Polvo, Libraness), Chuck Johnson (Spatula, Shark Quest, Idyll Swords, Pykrete), and Lee Waters (Work Clothes, Lud, Cobra Kahn). Should be a solid opener for Knox and Bathgate.
Posted by Tim at 11:56 PM | Comments (2)
August 01, 2005
Disco Inferno!
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For the last 3+ years, Hell dance parties have been semi-sporadic affairs that we planned whenever the timing seemed right. For the rest of 2005, however, the Hell parties will be blowing up on the first Saturday of every month. We're calling this new monthly party Disco Inferno, since that almost sounds like it could be the Latin translation of "Hell Dance Party".
The inaugural blaze is scheduled for this Saturday, August 6th. Our pal DJ Seoul/DJ Tanner is in town from San Francisco and he'll be burning up the turntables with his red-hot party jams. Brown Recluse and I will also be in the building, doing our best to set the roof on fire. Come on out anytime between 9pm and 2am. Admission is free, and the memories are priceless...
Posted by Tim at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)