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April 30, 2006
Apple Chill Post-Mortem
Chapel Hill's annual Apple Chill Street Fair took place on Franklin Street a week ago today. And as most everyone in the area surely knows by now, this 35th Apple Chill will probably go down in infamy as the town's last. Monday morning's water-cooler talk was not about specific festival activities, or tricked-out cars and motorcycles, or even potential jamz of the summer. Instead, people were talking about the fact that two people had been shot in front of Caribou Coffee at around 8:40pm that evening during the unofficial post-festival event known as "After Chill". Luckily the shootings were not fatal, but less than 24 hours later, the Chapel Hill Town Council understandably bowed to community outrage and pulled the plug on future Apple Chills.
Now as the record shows, I have been an enthusiastic After Chill fan/apologist for the last several years. Much like Carrboro mayor Mark Chilton (read his take) and the gentleman who wrote these insightful comments, I vastly prefer the exciting and chaotic spectacle of After Chill to the much more mundane and conventional Apple Chill. That said, I gotta admit that After Chill was getting a bit out of hand and I'm more or less in agreeance with the town's decision to cancel the whole festival as a result of Sunday's shootings. Just in the interest of public safety (not to mention fiscal responsibility), it was the right move to make. But that doesn't mean that the After Chill phenomenon should be forever dismissed as something that never had any cultural or recreational value, or that the hundreds (thousands?) of well-intentioned After Chill participants should be categorically lumped in with the very few gangbangers that caused Sunday night's violence. I certainly don't want to see gang activity or gun violence in Chapel Hill, but I'm still going to miss After Chill next year....not Apple Chill proper, mind you, but After Chill.
Luckily I had the chance to experience this unique event one final time. I headed out on foot late Sunday afternoon to check out the cars and snap some pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:
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Much later in the evening I hopped on my bike (26-inch rims!!) for some extensive cruising around the Rosemary/Franklin/Cameron circuit. The Caribou shooting had already happened by the time I started riding but I had no idea at the time and I can't say that I ever felt threatened or endangered by anybody that I saw. Lots of playful "hey man, gimme that bike!" comments from people stuck in traffic, but no unpleasant interactions of any sort. And nothing that compared to the extremely violent fistfight that I saw a couple of costumed college kids get into on Cameron Avenue on Halloween night in 2004.
Now as for the jamz, I definitely heard my share of T.I. but not nearly as much as I thought I would given his current chart dominance and the undeniable power of that "What You Know" beat. Also heard various Dipset songs, some Jeezy....but the other two really big After Chill winners were "It's Goin' Down" by Yung Joc (it was definitely a big night for the ATL) and "Gettin' Some" by Shawnna. It was a little strange hearing a car full of girls singing along to the Too Short hook in that Shawnna song...but um, hey, here's to female empowerment in all of its forms!
Posted by Tim at 12:07 PM | Comments (2)
April 22, 2006
A-Trak at UNC, April 2002
In 1997, during what might have been the peak of press hype about "turntablism", 15-year-old DJ A-Trak became the youngest DJ ever to win the DMC World Championship. These days, the 24-year-old turntable wizard tours the globe not as a battle DJ but as the official tour DJ for multiplatinum rapper Kanye West. As a matter of fact, A-Trak and Kanye are apparently rocking a coliseum in Wilmington as I type this. Over the next month, A-Trak will be going solo for awhile, touring in support of his newly released Sunglasses is a Must DVD. And that got me thinking back to a time many years ago when I had just moved back to Carrboro...
Exactly four years ago this weekend, A-Trak came to UNC-Chapel Hill as part of an event put on by the Carolina Electronic Music Symposium. Things got started in the Carolina Union with some workshops/talks. For his part, A-Trak got on the overhead projector and started explaining in great detail the written notation system that he had developed to describe scratching. Talk about takin' these muh-f*ckers back to school!! I certainly hadn't taken the prerequisites for this class (Flares and Crabs 101?), but it was fascinating to see someone put so much thought and analysis into the various noises that a scratch/battle DJ can make and the various ways that those sounds could be structured/organized in a composition.
Renowned bhangra DJ Rekha was also in the building, and after she spent some time discussing her experiences in the NYC bhangra scene, everyone adjourned outside for live DJ sets on the steps of the South Building (of all places!). A-Trak went first and tore it up. I'm not sure what everyone expected from a talented turntable virtuouso who had just finished explaining his own musical notation system, but our little stairstep party got rocked by way more than mere technical trickery. A-Trak used all sorts of records to keep the crowd excited, building one really memorable routine around current Missy and Jay-Z hits. "Come on the track like duh duh da-da!". With some pitch control thrown in to make Jay's singing more, uh, Steve Miller-like. The whole set was just ridiculously good. I stood on the top step with a huge grin on my face, taking lots of pictures and marvelling at the skills of this kid who wasn't even old enough to drink.
It doesn't look like I'll get to see A-Trak on this upcoming solo tour, so Sunglasses is a Must may actually have to be a must. In any case, I gotta say that I think A-Trak totally deserves all of the glitz-and-glamour success that he's been having and Kanye deserves some major credit for specifically choosing the kid to be his DJ instead of simply settling for whatever conventional choice (or DAT machine) the industry execs or tour managers offered up. As the AllHipHop.com interviewer suggests in this A-Trak feature, Kanye having A-Trak as his DJ seems like a bit of a throwback to the days when the biggest rappers often had the best DJs behind them. Here's hoping that A-Trak actually gets to put his own DJ routine somewhere towards the end of Kanye's third album!
Posted by Tim at 08:42 PM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2006
Highly Flammable - Hot Picks for April '06
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Five records/songs that are making my month a lot funkier:
1. Afrodisiac Soundsystem - Afroheat #4 12-inch
I became a big fan of the Afroheat 12-inch series when I heard the incredible Fela/Kano blend on Afroheat #2. For the last several years, Los Angeles DJs Haul and Mason (and associate Jed) have been deftly mixing West African funk/"afrobeat" with more Western-style "club music" (pop, hip-hop, disco, funk) and releasing the results on vinyl for the benefit of their fellow DJs. This fourth Afroheat record has a bit of an early 80s old-school-rap theme, what with its use of Melle Mel's verses from "The Message" and Dimples D's rap from "Sucker DJs". But my favorite track on here might be the one where some "La Di Da Di"-inspired ragga rhymes from Shaggy associate Rayvon (?!?) get dropped on top of funky Fela beats. If that sounds appealing to you, download the MP3:
Afrodisiac Soundsystem - Fela Kuti vs. Rayvon
2. Sean Paul - "Temperature"
This heatrock is not only the dancehall crossover smash of spring, it's also Papa D's favorite jam right now. "Hey, are we gonna hear that Sean Paul song tonight? You could even play it more than once." It's always good to please the man in charge!
3. Bonde Do Role - "Funk Da Esfiha"
Brazil's Bonde Do Role are sort of a "next-generation" baile-funk group that Diplo has signed to his new Mad Decent label. I find the trio's Alice-in-Chains-sampling "Melo Do Tobaco" to be borderline awful (uh, listen for yourself), but B-side "Funk Da Esfiha" is pretty awesome. A catchy "Summer Nights" sample + sporadic appearances of the "Push It" beat + lots of Portuguese words I can't understand = uptempo dancefloor mayhem! "Jabuticaba" is also the jam, with its "Doo Wah Diddy" tip-o-the-hat to 2 Live Crew's similarly inspired song from almost two decades ago. Tell me more, tell me more!
4. DJ Green Lantern featuring Dead Prez, Saigon, Immortal Technique & Just Blaze - "Impeach the President"
I'm not sure why it took 5+ years of Dubya being in office before someone finally decided to remake the Nixon-era classic by The Honey Drippers, but this is definitely worth the wait. Good thing Green Lantern has some Sirius connections (er,had?) and a strong mixtape game, 'cause this song certainly won't be getting played on any Clear Channel stations anytime soon.
5. Ghostface Killah - "Be Easy"
This Pete Rock production is 6+ months old by this point, but it's back in my heavy rotation thanks to the official release of Fishscale and a very unofficial "Be Easy" edit that splices in an old Ludacris cameo (to fairly good effect). Between "Be Easy" and J Dilla's extremely intoxicating "Two Can Win" (R.I.P. Jay Dee), it would seem that circa-1973 Sylvers are the act to sample right now. Someone reissue those early Sylvers records already!
Posted by Tim at 03:09 PM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2006
Microphone Fiends
L in Japanese totally killed it as a DJ at last Saturday night's Disco Inferno, so I gotta show some love and put in a major plug for the hip-hop showcase that L's putting on this Monday night at the Cat's Cradle. The lineup includes Chapel Hill veteran Kaze, Raleigh's Shelly B, Durham's K-Hill (who was real nice at the 506 three weeks ago), a few other local acts with whom I am not so familiar, and of course L in Japanese himself. As L is wont to exclaim, "SHOW DAT LOVE, Y'ALL!!!".
Posted by Tim at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2006
Blowfly + Kerbloki + Despot + Ricky Dollars
Ricky Dollars graciously dropped some verbal publicity for my monthly Hell party, so the least I can do is try and return the favor by promo-ing his opening slot on the very strange rap show that's taking place at Local 506 this Wednesday. Blowfly is the oldest of old-school cats, a bawdy 59-year-old jokester who is often referred to as "the original X-rated rapper". Local rap stars Kerbloki make ya shit your pants, most definitely. Despot is down with the Def Jux label. And Ricky Dollars kicks things off, apparently at an extremely early 9pm. So skip Lost and come watch the first live performance of "How Dick Cheney Could Just Kill A Man"!!
Posted by Tim at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2006
DJ Neil Armstrong
Dinosaur was done with their encore by 12:30-ish on Thursday night, so after the feedback faded I scrambled over to Local 506 in hopes of catching the one and only DJ Neil Armstrong. When I arrived, the world-famous hip-hop DJ, turntabilist, and mixtape-maker was totally tearin' it up....in front of about 15 people. As expected, dude was effortlessly going back and forth between original and sample, in his Original and 2 Original style. Edie Brickell and Brand Nubian, Bobby Caldwell and Common, Herb Alpert and Biggie, etc. The few of us who were in the club were way into it, but it's too bad that Neil's highly entertaining history lesson couldn't have been dropped on a full house at the Cradle or Wetlands or even Hell**. Maybe it wasn't such a smart business move to make Neil Armstrong a "pre-party" adjunct to the much more electronic-focused SIGNAL Fest? I dunno, but I for one was psyched to have caught it.
Here's a short snippet from Neil Armstrong's Original mixtape:
DJ Neil Armstrong - "Rakim remix"
Unfortunately, this MP3 ends right before Surface's awesome "Happy" kicks in. That song is the jam!
Oh, and Dinosaur was pretty great too....not nearly as amazing as last summer's show, but whoa....both "The Wagon" and "The Leper" within the span of 20 minutes?!? On the down side, the band did not answer or heed our incessantly repeated calls for "Cats in A Bowl"...
** 4/12 CLARIFICATION: By listing other venues I did not mean to imply that 506 was the wrong place for this event or that they were at all at fault for the fact that it was underattended. I would've loved to have seen a packed house at 506, and I think that would've been very possible under different circumstances. When I wrote the above I had just been thinking about the possibilities of (1) Neil Armstrong opening up a big hip-hop show at the Cradle (say, Ghostface the next night), or (2) Neil Armstrong DJ-ing a dance-club-type venue with a built-in audience of people ready to get down. No 506 slight intended, Glenn!
Posted by Tim at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2006
Highly Flammable: Hot Picks for March '06
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As anyone who reads this blog has probably noticed by now, I've been trying to step my DJ promo game up for a while. The mixtape has been a central part of that effort, and over the last several weeks I've been fleshing out my requisite MySpace profile (hit me up, y'all!).
Now I'm going to start periodically posting a short list of hot new tracks that I am really feeling at the moment....songs that one is very likely (although not necessarily certain) to hear at that month's Disco Inferno. For the time being, this list will consist of very new or at least semi-new-ish joints....though maybe as time goes on I'll start including some classic cuts and oldies-but-goodies that more accurately reflect the old-school/new-school nature of Hell dance parties. We'll just have to see how it goes.
To kick things off, here is my belated "Highly Flammable" list for last month:
E-40 featuring Keak Da Sneak - Tell Me When To Go
Prince - Black Sweat
Bun B featuring Ying Yang Twins - Git It
Edu K - Sex-O-Matic
Djay/Terrence Howard - It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp (congrats, Three 6!)
Much respect to One Duran for throwing several of these tracks on at the March Inferno. April picks will be out real soonish....or just come out to Hell this Saturday to hear the newest picks in the mix!
Posted by Tim at 06:42 PM | Comments (1)
April 04, 2006
9 Years of Hell
April in Chapel Hill is always a "Hell of a Month". And with that phrase I am referring not to the area's typically awesome springtime weather but rather Hell and its annual month-long anniversary celebration. Among the official 9th Anniversary events coming up over the next few weeks: Super Trivia challenges every Thursday of the month, karaoke on Saturday the 15th 22nd 29th, and Iron Bartender on Sunday the 23rd 16th. Wait a minute, what happened to Malt Liquor Mondays?!?
So there will be much celebrating this month. But since you can only really have one official birthday observation per year, we will formally wish Hell a happy birthday this Saturday night at Disco Inferno. There'll be singing, dancing, spanking, the works....not that those things don't already happen at practically every other Hell dance party, of course!
Joining me behind the mixer this month will be local hip-hop jack-of-all-trades L in Japanese. It doesn't matter whether he's DJing, rapping, making beats, promoting shows, or running lights at the Cradle, L brings mad enthusiasm and energy to all of his pursuits. So I'm psyched to have him stopping in to DJ with me....especially since he's planning on dropping a sweet set of disco-funk/80s groove goodness. As for me, I'll be playing some brand new burners, some older hip-hop, and who knows what else. What's most important here is that we're somehow creeping up on the 9th birthday of Chapel Hill's best basement. Nine years! Come out and celebrate, Hellions!
Posted by Tim at 09:56 PM | Comments (5)