MIXTAPE MONDAY BONUS w/ ADAM GONZO!

Everybody associates Baltimore with the legends. Rod Lee, Booman, Scottie B, Jimmy Jones, K-Swift, and so on, and so forth. As well, there’s the newer crop of DJs, led by individuals like Blaqstarr, keeping the traditions alive, and expanding into new markets, generally just doing it REAL big. But, keep looking. There’s a lot more than just those folks in play, and worth a listen.

One of my personal favorite DJs in that entire city is Adam Gonzo. Apparently the Baltimore City Paper thought so too last year, as they named him their “Best DJ in a Club.” The author there stated that they enjoyed his “refreshingly eclectic, populist mixes,” but, Adam’s one of my favorites because of his direct and perpetual nod to history. Lost in the hipster blogosphere DJ revolution is an appreciation for the music that even allowed such a movement to exist. I listen to a lot of club music. My club music roots in Baltimore aren’t from 2007. They’re from like, 1997, maybe even before. My roots in hip hop are from soul samples. As a 30 year old man whose friends and family joke that I’m trapped in a world dominated by people 10 years my junior, the fact that a DJ like Gonzo exists is literally music to my ears.

I’m not even going to sit here and say that Adam Gonzo’s a DJ for an older set of people. No. That’d be ludicrous. Adam Gonzo is simply a fucking great DJ. And one that should be grooved to as much as humanly possible. To facilitate this, I present his “Dance Music For Dummies” collection for download.

Dance Music For Dummies, Volume 2

Dance Music For Dummies, Volume 3

This man is a true selector, not a fly by night who thinks he can get by from downloading off of a few blogs and making wholesale purchases at Turntable Lab. His artistry inspired me so much that I decided to send him a few questions about that which inspires him.

1. Favorite song of all time to play in a club? Did you play it just once, or is it something that you find yourself going back to as a staple in your mixes?

i don’t really think i have one track that is a favorite. i definitely have a few that i go back to again and again– the classics: marvin gaye, prince, stevie, curtis, michael, and classic bmore club tracks from like before 2003. the record i am most grooving on right now is this track “planets” by 6th burrough project. its like a 12 minute vocal house track that is just amazing. i first dropped it in philly at the jang house and it had motherfuckers dancing on the bar. wylin‘ out. its was fucking nuts. and this was on a monday night. but even then it was less about that one song doing it for the crowd and more about the totality of the set. a good dance set can sweep up the crowd up with it before they even realize it, so that it’s less about this or that song and more about the general movement of the mix, or at least thats how i’ve been thinking about it these days.

2. Favorite sample in a song, and why, in how it’s used, do you like it?

I can’t really think of like 1 sample that does it for me, let me answer this in question 4.

3. Favorite club break of all time? (and, since you do a great deal of your spinning in Baltimore, the Lyn Collins “Think” break is excluded :))

As far as samples for club, the sing-sing break is right up there with Think. As far as club tracks, I never play it, but for my money DJ Technic’s “Postman” is the quintessential club track… or maybe griff and booman’s pick ’em up, which i do play from time to time

4. I always tend to note that you try to drop a lot of classic material, whether it be soul, rock, or R & B into your sets. Is that a matter of personal preference, or do you just believe that it really gets people moving?

Both. Most definitely both. I want to play good music that will appeal to a wide cross-section of people, and there is no better way to do this than to lean on the classics a little bit. It’s important not to pander and to put your own touch on things, but there’s nothing wrong with letting stevie wonder and marvin gaye tracks carry you through part of your mix. This also goes back to my love of hip-hop (esp dudes like Diamond D and Pete Rock), which eventually led me to get into all the source material for hip-hop, which is why I prefer tracks that have that old sound.

5. The Dance Party for Dummies mixes are being featured this week. For someone that has never heard you spin before, what about those mixes really gets at what you bring to the table as a selector and turnatblist?

it’s just like the intro on volume 2 says: rocking the music of the past with the touch of today!

6. Where exactly can people see you spin in Baltimore regularly?

I am a resident DJ for the party Tensday at the Ottobar on Wednesday nights. I DJ that about twice a month. I also DJ on the third Thursday of every month @ the Depot for the party “Monkey Hustle.” I also throw a monthly party called Served with my friend Mark Brown (AWNM?!? Wham City) on the first friday of every month at the Windup Space on North Ave in Bmore— in the past we have hosted acts such the Video Hippos, DJ Sega, Todosantos, Johnny Blaze, Flufftronix, and a bunch of other dudes. I also occasionally DJ around DC, Philly, and NY when I have the time.

Special thanks to Adam Gonzo, more info available at myspace.com/culverad.

– Me.

Self Expression is a Motherfucker Series…

So yeah. I have had an enormously crippling bout with writer’s block as of late. I feel semi-cured, but I still don’t feel like I’m writing at 100%. I treat writing as a very intense craft, and have really come to view this blog not even so much as an avenue to advertise and proselytize, but more as truly an avenue of creating beauty, and on a lesser level, written expression. This is art to me, just as much as the music that gets discussed in this space is art to those who so skillfully create it. So, if you’ll bear with me over the next few days, I’m going to throw up a few pieces that I wrote to basically break out of the blahs, and, I actually like them, so, given that this is my space ultimately, I thought I’d share.

They’re pieces about things in this universe that I find heroic, inspiring, or just incredible tools and lessons of life. Given how crippling with disinterest and lack of inspiration I was, I decided to title the series “Self Expression is a Motherfucker.”

– Me.

Self-Expression is a Motherfucker…Vol. 1 – Sweet Sweetback

OK. So I don’t watch movies like the average person watches movies. As with most things artistic, I’m fairly selfish, and tend to watch films that help me visually articulate ideas, theories and concepts about my universe, in my never ending quest for full and honest self-expression. I’m extremely obsessive compulsive about the concept of honest expression, in that I feel that there’s something really truly free when you aim to and come closer and closer to the completion of the concept of full disclosure. There’s something wonderful about seeing on screen something that really appeals to beliefs that have been formatted in my mind, realized on celluloid.

Melvin van Peebles‘ 1971 classic “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” is such a film. The film’s plot is frankly unbelievable, but it’s the eventualities and greater ideas posited by his various victories and struggles in the film that makes it so completely amazing and the protagonist so ultimately heroic to me. The film chronicles the tale of young Leroy, a boy that was left to his own devices and basically grew up alone on the streets of 1940s LA, who comes up in unique circumstances, sordid circumstances even, and triumphs against them, and the various social stereotypes typifying his age and race, and an entire culture of people. That’s pretty epic on a conceptual level, and provides a great blueprint for any individual to live their life.

But it’s the specifics that really catch me. Leroy gains the name Sweet Sweetback as a young boy losing his virginity at a Los Angeles brothel, apparently as a child possessing a penis so large that in it’s virgin performance achieves so much that the copulated prostitute screams “Boy, you got a sweet sweetback!” His life continues to be defined at various key points by his sexual excess, as in his adulthood he works as a sex performer at said brothel, and upon an unlawful arrest by crooked Caucasian cops, is freed in unusual circumstances, as he beats the cops literally to death, then is freed by a helpful woman, who, of course, asks, again, for sex, as payoff. He then is captured by a chapter of the Hells Angels, whose female leader decides to let him go, again, after sex. He ultimately escapes after his various escapades, free from his background, free from his life, and importantly to Melvin van Peebles in HIS conceptualization of the film, free from the man.

But none of that ultimately makes Sweet Sweetback heroic to me. What ultimately does is the fact that throughout the movie, no matter what happens, no matter where he is, or what he does, he’s ALWAYS running. He’s perpetual motion, ducking, dodging, bobbing, weaving and evading, and, whenever he thinks he has the ability to stop, he’s perpetually thwarted, until the point where he just decides that he’s a rolling stone, and that he’ll NEVER. STOP. RUNNING. There’s something there that speaks to me. My life has been unusual to say the least. Not to delve too deep into anything, but, I’ve done a lot, seen a lot, experienced a lot, and, one day, it occurred to me that in order to live without regret, and focus on what I COULD fix, I should also NEVER STOP RUNNING, and thus Sweetback became iconic. In my never ending quest I’ve found that life has continued to perpetually entertain me. In never stopping running, like Sweetback, I have no time to really reflect on my victories, my defeats, my flaws, my weaknesses, all I focus on is the road that lies ahead. Much like in the film, the road is bleak and desperate, but, as long as I keep moving, all of the various blows and slings and arrows of life, the slights, the prejudice, the fear, the angst, can’t catch me.

There’s a song in the film by Earth, Wind and Fire (their soundtrack work is so soulful, so ethnic and so funky, and their FIRST album, and a definite must cop) that repeats the refrain “You bled my mama, you bled my papa, but you won’t bleed ME!,” that just rings so true. You can catch my ancestors, you can catch my friends, you can catch my family, but in my indefatigable energy, the evil of life may be with me, may be near me, may be on me, but it won’t consume.

Sweet Sweetback. Heroic.

MARCUS @ THE COUCH SESSIONS: Reflections on the concept of recorded sound…

As of late (understand that to mean the last 72 hours), I’ve taken a great deal of time to study the concept of sound. Not even so much music, but the creation of what we know as the realm of the musical from the realm of the tone, and how the tone or pitch creates an effect, and creates an emotion, and how that emotion from that tone or pitch creates the musical genre, and how we’ve evolved from tone and sound creating genre to going to subcategories where the sound of a voice on a track delineates it’s genre, to the point where we are now where the lines between rap, rock, country, western, house, club and folk have melded to the point where I strongly feel there is now just pop, or underground, and that everything has the potential to become pop, but mostly everything remains underground, as there are so many variations on sound now that the natural selection and progression of music has been completely destroyed, and anarchy has been loosed upon music, creating delirium that has ruled the roost in our most current musical era.

At this very moment, I’m watching a documentary about the creation, development and influence of the Moog synthesizer. So, like the devout music geek I am, I went to my iTunes, and pulled up my playlist of my favorite songs involving heavy Moog usage. “Roundabout” by Yes is playing at this very moment, and that synthesizer really takes that song, and by farther extension rock music to new places and new emotions that have never been felt before. There’s something about an extended high range note held for about five or six seconds on a Moog that just hits me as evoking 1974, wood paneled basement, getting coked up, and opening your mind to new creative dimensions. Not that I advocate any of this, but that emotion is ultimately so historically relevant, and that tone IS that mood, and if sampled anywhere, you’re pretty much tapping into that emotion, into that feeling, into that expression.

Same goes for the Hammond organ. Have a category for that as well, and, Eric Burdon and the Animals “House of the Rising Sun,” due to usage of the instrument, is Halloween spooky and evocative of the sparse mental space one must occupy in order to venture into such a house, or, on an even deeper plane, the subliminal “house,” that deep mental space where you see fear, where you see your most deep and innermost depression, where those most repressed emotions reign supreme, and absolutely are “the ruin of many a poor boy.”

I don’t write about these so much as a reflection but to spur forth a discussion of the necessity for the acceptance of the introduction of new tones and modalities of thought in our most popular music at this site, hip hop. Hip hop, at it’s popular core, is all about affecting popularity from the effect of sounds. I am a believer in the concept that without Rick Rubin, Run-DMC would’ve been great rappers, but with his sonic influence, they went from great to legendary. He’s the visionary who fused Run-DMC’s streetwise and well crafted rhyme style with frat rock chanter anthems like The Monkees “Mary Mary” and of course, Aerosmith’s “Walk this Way.” I look to a man like Rubin as a visionary, and a man who set the precedent for the blueprint of hip hop’s continued mainstream success.

As much as people may hate it, hip hop is not a set value of beats and rhymes. It’s not the boom bap, it’s not a jazz horn solo, it’s not a guitar riff. To limit yourself to that definition is to show merely your appreciation for that sound, that feel, that particular producer’s iteration at a time and space of a sound, of an expression, of a feel, and your desire to never leave that tone, as it really creates the emotion by which you feel most comforted in your particular life. The producer and artist as combination co-opted something from somewhere that took him to the essence of the meaning conveyed by the rhymed word, and it successfully took you where you wanted to go. For many of my formative musical years, I thought that various songs, from MAARS’ “Pump Up the Volume,” with it’s Kraftwerk aping Euro synth appeal, to Chill Rob G’s “The Power” with it’s electro pop yet bass heavy vibe, to Ed OG and the Bulldogs’ “Be a Father” with it’s sweet sweet sax solo that feels like honey on fresh Popeye’s biscuits, to so many others were the apex of hip hop’s appeal. It was an era where the music progressed slowly, and producers and artists were seemingly allowed to really explored where certain sounds and expressions could progress music.

And then there’s now. We’re so impatient with the music. We’re also so stagnant as well. The autotune, which I think is a wonderful instrument, and the progression of Roger Troutman and Stevie Wonder’s talkbox usage to create an uplifiting and fun party vibe, was stalled for so long as people used it just like T-Pain did, to create fun pop radio ditties and odd sounding hooks. T-Pain, I feel, gets such short musical shrift, as he really is a true auteur, a forward thinker, and, if not for his carnival man vibe and Negroes feeling that he’s discarding a certain upright and respectable “blackness” for mainstream (read *white*) acceptance. All that notwithstanding, he is a certain level of inventive genius.

And this leads to Kanye West. I really feel that my new apex of music was reached when taking my first true end to end listen of 808s and Heartbreak since release. He took the auto tune and used it to express true depression. Given my love for synthesized and unusual sounds as of late, it’s as if this one man has taken an entire history of manic depressive and intensely emotional musical tones and recapitulated them to me in 13 tracks. There are intonations that are so real and so expressive here. From Love Lockdown’s hopelessness in it’s heartbeat sounding drums, to plaintive wails through distorted autotune making Kanye’s cries more confused and strained and sonically accessible, it’s quite amazing.

I feel like people don’t LISTEN anymore to music. I feel like we’ve MTVed, Youtubed, and Blogspotted the ultimate goal of recorded sound out of recorded sound. Music is an expression. The capturing of an emotion, or a time, a place and feeling by the completeness and intense connection between the voice of the artist over that three (or more) minutes and the particular grouping of sounds laid beneath their voice. The goal of music is not “making hits” in my mind. It’s the ability to connect, it’s the ability to know how to manipulate people’s expressions and emotions through tonality.

Reaching that depth often, and understanding and appreciating how varied or linear, depending on your particular level of musical genius that ultimately is, should be the goal of musicians. Just being another idiot with an iced out chain or smooth dude with a hook, well, you’re limiting yourself, and you’re ultimately limiting music.

Just providing something to think about.

MIXTAPE MONDAY (four days later…): DJ CAM JUS – THE BLAST 2

Pardon the lateness, but, Mixtape Monday got delayed this week due to President’s Day. No, not just President’s Day, but more specifically the ineptitude of Best Buy, which took 90 minutes to do something that could’ve taken 10. *end rant*

The mixtape of choice this week is DJ Cam Jus’ The Blast 2 tape. A DC native, DJ Cam Jus, is at present the sole reason I bring my iPOD to the gym. The Blast 2 mix is really quite amazing. He has a way of being an important and significant DJ in our area, without delving too deep into the electro or otherwise house genre, or staying strictly a “hip hop” or “Top 40 pop” DJ. In some ways this makes him an outlier, but, if you actually take the time to listen to the mix, you hear shoutouts from what feels like every major selector in the area, as, he’s clearly on the radar, but not receiving any hype. This is pretty criminal in my opinion, as his blend of Peter, Bjorn and John’s “Nothing to Worry About” over the “Arab Money” track should be getting crazy spins and plays right now, and, well, I don’t think anyone outside of his party has heard it. Sad. He has a flair that reminds me of DJ Sega, and a real local flavor, which I think is sorely missing from having more impetus in the creation of DCs national profile.

From the Peter, Bjorn and John track alone, it would seem as though he deserves more of a spotlight as a DJ, as, well, he’s absolutely inventive, and creating his own blends and developing his own collection and body of work, which needs to be the standard and norm for the area in its entirety. For those interested in watching him make magic on the dance floor, he presently spins at Evolve, on 1817 Columbia Rd in Adams Morgan, and, my boy Stone over at The Couch Sessions swears by the DJ and the party, so, I can’t think of a higher recommendation than that.

(speaking of, expect more discussion of blends and inventiveness in the Mixtape Monday space in the coming weeks. Be excited.)

You can check out the mixtape by clicking this link, or, check out the blog run by him and his crew at http://www.yeahclass.com/ (which features other mixes!), or hit him up at http://www.myspace.com/djcamjus

MARCUS @ THE COUCH SESSIONS: Andy Warhol has finally been proven wrong. (and other "postmodernist" thoughts)

“In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” – Andy Warhol

So I had a topic all set for today. Then, I hit up Twitter and saw that MTV has denied access to Colin Munroe’s “Piano Lessons” video from getting airplay on MTV. I really love that song, and think the world of the talent of Mr. Munroe, and got kind of bummed. That then bled over to a greater moment of reflection, to all of the times that music has really depressed me in the past few months, including the Grammys, and Katy Perry’s subpar performance, and the ultimate ignominity of the evening, that Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, one artist completely irrelevant to popular music in 2009, 1999, 1989, or ever, and another, Robert Plant, who is iconic, but ultimately irrelevant now, were being shoved down my throat, while, ultimately, M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes,” the freshest, sonically arresting, and musically different song I’d heard in quite some time, was passed over.

And then I thought again. It wasn’t. “Swagga Like Us” features Ms. Arulpragasam’s ”Paper Planes” lyric as the entire basis of what ultimately, on first listen, makes the song worthy of a Rap Performance by Duo or Group. If there was no “Paper Planes,” I don’t care how hot the verses were, there would be no “Swagga Like Us.” In Warhol’s future, stated so simply at the head of this piece, everyone was famous for fifteen minutes. Amazingly enough, Warhol’s future is now the world’s past, and that fifteen minutes has become fifteen seconds. And now, with bloggers and tastemakers and their mutated attention whore brethren circulating around the ever expanding digital universe, that 15 minutes is rapidly shrinking to 15 nanoseconds, and, as the Grammy example shows, you may be done before you’re even famous.

I used to find a problem with this. An enormous one in fact. I am a believer in the concept of A & R guys, of DJs breaking records, and so on, and so forth. I believe in spit shined and polished musical artists, the kind I used to study on my mother’s Motown records. Even the Stax artists who were much rougher even dressed nice, as Otis Redding and Sam and Dave’s gospel shouts were accompanied by them in impeccable sharkskin suits. Hell, fast forward to the 80s, and I can go on for years about the work of Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons at Def Jam, or a guy like Timmy Regisford developing the historical background of mainstream friendly hip hop and R & B. In 2009, it galls me that 1,000 22-year olds with keyboards and the ability to download music can seem to approximate and duplicate the work of legends, and propel Wale, Drake, Charles Hamilton, B.O.B., Asher Roth, Proton and any great number of what would’ve been underground emcees years ago to the forefront of the game, and none of them at that point it seems had record deals, stage presence, consistency, or any of the other popular bellwethers of talent and skill in, well, the history of recorded music.

But things have changed. Nobody buys music anymore, in the sense of albums of 8-20 songs linked together, so the need of a guy to come along and sign, nurture and develop and artist to sell is unfortunately nil. This is clearly for the worst on one level, but on another for the best. In these initial days of the internet understanding it’s power, without a label appointed gatekeeper, we, the listening public of dot com, dot net, WordPress and Blogspot and related friends must take our clarion call far more seriously and understand exactly what we’re shaping through our acceptance and proclamations of greatness.

It is my opinion that music is shifting slowly in the mainstream universe, to the point where it seems like the mianstream may just grind to a halt, and the music they play becomes ultimately worthless, bits of sound that are fun, but don’t create anything of permanence or legend. Comparatively, as stated before, in the digital atmosphere, cats are hot for nanoseconds. The most magical thing can develop from this though. Let’s go back to the example of Mr. Munroe. “Piano Lessons,” while unfortunately not an MTV hit, has a video released to Youtube. There’s a ten year old boy that sees that video. He needs to pick an instrument to study in elementary school. That video almost made ME want to play piano, and I’m a lazy 30 year old man. He then goes to iMeem, and hits upon Rye Rye, the 18 year old Bmore wunderkind. He likes that “Shake it to the Ground” song. Then, he exposes himself to an hour of watching MTV and sees videos for Kanye West’s “Heartless,” Vampire Weekend’s “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” and JT and TI’s “Dead and Gone.” After soccer practice, he turns on his iPOD and has three Wale mixtapes and some Minor Threat and Bad Brains. Imagine what happens to that kid in 20 years if his love of music grows? What once took words to do takes snapshots. What once took albums takes songs. What now took songs takes snippets. As the mind expands, the filters grow, and everything becomes, well, everything. Everybody is famous, everything is important, the possibilities, therefore, become limitless.

I may not like it, but I have to learn to love and find beauty in it, because it’s the rules of the roads of the future.

A curious thing is happening in DC this weekend. Thoughts on the Tittsworth/Gavin Holland Ibiza party and its HUGE importance…

So does anybody else notice anything particularly different about this flyer? No. Well, look closer. No, it’s not that the idea of GAVIN HOLLAND AND TITTSWORTH….TOGETHER, is kinda fly. We knew that. No, what’s crazy is that this party, which at one time would be at say, the lavish and incredible LODA in Silver Spring, is at Ibiza. Yes, Ibiza. Incase you weren’t sure if your mind was playing tricks on you, a description of the space from clubzone.com:

“Ibiza, with over $6 million dollars of interior renovations, is a lavish 30,000 square foot oasis, located at 1222 First Street, NE (formerly the Sodibar Systems Warehouse). The stunning interior includes two mezzanine VIP terraces, waterfalls, a state of the art $1 million dollar sound system (the only one of it’s kind in the U.S.), seven bars, gourmet buffet, a 50,000 LED light wall on the dance floor, stainless steel and glass décor, and high definition cameras that broadcast events live from Ibiza on the internet. Ibiza opened to the public in May 2007, and is open five days a week. Ibiza features a 6PM Happy Hour, and 3AM close.”

Really. Is that so?

So, this is it. I know a lot of people say it a lot, and, I get accused of a lot of things here, but this could really create an unbelievably open atmosphere in the city for music and culture, and do so much more than nice articles in magazines could do for making DC the “it” locale in music in general. There’s only so much “juice” that someone can get from selling out a bar. There’s only so much power someone can draw from being incredibly repsected by guys like myself who spend 60-75 minutes three-five days a week avoiding the watchful eye of a boss or furiously typing in their bedroom in gym shorts after a workout. The proof is taking the sound cultivated in a Rock N Roll Hotel or DC9 in front of 300 of your friends and scenesters, teeing it high, and letting it fly in a 30,000 square foot palace of opulence. If a tree falls in a forest, it honestly doesn’t make a sound.While we may think that our internet universe really counts for a lot, it really ultimately doesn’t, given that, let’s be honest here, most of us steal music electronically, and are great deal of the reason for the decline of the musical economy, and would rob Peter to pay Paul to get into a bar for free booze, even if it tastes like orange flavored battery acid.

A lot of people are going to hate this. Ibiza’s waiving their dress code for the night. Yes, the world of Jimmy Choos and Stacy Adams had better prepare for Vans, rare issue Nike Dunks, and some of the fugliest color combinations known to mankind. It’s akin to when Blondie made the crossover from punk gods to new wave icons. Their sound got more polished, they got to be VERY talented, and received the mainstream press and acclaim they deserved. There were kids at CBGB still slaving away every week and who were so engrained in that world who were full of disdain.

But it’s about the larger picture. Not even from a monetary standpoint, but from a cultural one. There’s a sort of musical miscegenation at play here, that is about to get a lot murkier, a lot dirtier, and lot more interesting. Exposing the faux chic to the sordid hipster soundclash is going to be ugly at first. It’s going to alienate a lot of people. Everybody is about comfort, and people choose their nightlife based around feeling comfortable with groups of people. The “hipster” movement for the most part is based around individuals who were, for the great and large definition made to feel like outliers and or pariahs of their social community gaining cache by ironically claiming as their own various subsets of chic culture and couture. To the “cool kids” who hang at Ibiza, I’m sure lot of the folks on Saturday night will look like they either stepped out of the wrong end of the time machine, or from two of the wrong pages of Vogue.

But ultimately, it’s whatever. I know, you know, we all know that Tittsworth and Gavin Holland create electrified magic from their fingers and minds. They are brand new DJs to a lot of the established crowd at this venue, and, after Saturday, with the aid of likely a great deal of their established fanbase, are going to hopefully show and prove themselves as worthy of this calculated risk. This is a move that is a necessity if the leading auteurs of this genre want to step out of the forest of trees shadow of being percieved at large as “wack hipster blog house art fart unusual and unnecessairly weird DJs” into being more widely accepted as leaders of a new, powerful and ultimately important genre where there are no genres, a musical future so appreciative, yet so dismissive of the shackles of its past.

“There’s something happening here, what it is, ain’t exactly clear…”

– KONG

A night @ Feedback, tales of the expansion of the DC "Hipster" scene…

Spent Saturday night at DJ Stereo Faith’s “Feedback” party at Black Cat. For those unaware, Stereo Faith, and his “Sneakers in the Club” affiliated crew of DJs, are some of my favorites in the city for being genre hopping, concept smashing party throwers, as he, Jerome Baker III and Trevor Martin are ALWAYS seem on the concept of “if people aren’t moving, then we must be losing,” and do more for raising populist awareness of the burgeoning “hipster” subculture than most. The average 22 year old semi-conservative Capital Hill employee is not likely to be of the opinion that say, Level Up or the forthcoming 12 Pound Sound is their cup of tea, but, the concept of the guys who normally spin at Wonderland Ballroom doing something, definitely sounds compatible to their sense of a good time. The most curious of aspects of “Feedback,” is that the special guest always takes the relatively “virginal” ears of the average clubgoer somewhere, and, if anything, serves as a musical gateway for the average mainstreamed listener to new and fresh musical sounds.

At the last Feedback, Mad Decent’s DJ Sega killed it. He really went above and beyond what DC was used to and expecting from club music. I suppose you could say that for any major American city save NYC, Chicago, Miami or Philadelphia, because he’s really that talented, but, he did. I fully expect AC Slater to do much the same on the 28th at Nouveau Riche, but, it was fun to see the experimental nature of Feedback, as always, be successful. The experiment this month, Southern rock with a classic twist local favorites US Royalty. Now how this works with a night of club music, not so simple, but it did. It was fun to watch people literally switch their brains into different modes to match the evening, and though I did not stay for the entire set, they’re pretty fantastic. Their laid back feel and jam band vibe, really mixed well with the pre-existing vibe of the room. I eagerly anticipate seeing them at SXSW. Kudos to Stereo Faith for another success.

And, to not end this on a note of sonic simplicity, Nouveau Riche’s Gavin Holland did a really fantastic job of remixing their track Every Summer (link totally jacked from the excellent DC Rap). Definitely download.

– KONG

Big Bang – 2/13 – Hexagon, Baltimore

I could easily start this update by saying something like, “Big Bang was the best party I went to all year.” Or, I could even be funny and say that on Friday the 13th, Jason Voorhees wanted to invade Hexagon, but, upon hearing Mullyman, he broke out in the Spongebob, and accidentally cut off his own legs, which continued dancing. I think I’ve said the former before, so, it doesn’t really need to be said again. But, I’ll say this. The “Big Bang” parties organized by Puja Patel under the Senari banner at Hexagon are THE place to go if you want to hear the DJs you should be feeling, the music you should be digging, and the scene you should be into. This last party featuring Philly Emynd and Bo Bliz, and BMore’s own 2008 Baltimore City Paper “Best Beatmaker” DJ Booman, emcee Mullyman, Mr. “Watch Out For the Big Girl” himself Jimmy Jones, and 2008 Baltimore City Paper “Best DJ at a Club” Adam Gonzo was just as good as the prior throwdown that featured Nouveau Riche’s Nacey, Tameil and Tim Dolla of the Brick Bandits and perennial favorite of the author King Tutt. It’s almost like you put names into an aggregator it seems, and you spit out a hot night. But, there’s something more intellectually insidious afoot. The last time I was there, it was a strictly bass affair. Nacey (and Steve Starks as well) is of my favorite guys in DC at really putting some Earth quaking bass into a set, and going from there to the Brick Bandits to Tutt is like a game of simple one upsmanship in that department. It’s like Nacey’s hitting you with a hammer, the Bandits hit you with a mallet, and Tutt brings the sledgehammer.

Friday’s theme was definitely different. It was, to find a word or two, so so so soulful. It started mellow, got deep, and then finished explosively. Adam’s very eclectic usually, but he was particularly expressive of a deep soul vibe, which only got progressively deeper and heavier with Emynd and Bo Bliz, and finally, DJ Booman, who, well, is the closer because he’s one of the founding fathers of the genre that ultimately spawned all of this crazy hipster mess, Baltimore club. I’d go as far as saying calling him 2008’s “Best Beatmaker” must seem kinda ridiculous to the guy as, at any given time, I’m sure he’s got stuff somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind hotter than 90% of what’s out, that he’s just not put out there. Booman and Jimmy Jones (who did sing “Big Girl” much to my complete delirium and amusement) have this sort of connection like all of the great producer/singer collabos. Booman drops the track, Jimmy falls in step, POW, magic happens. And Mullyman. Wow. I mean, I can’t really be surprised as he’s down with Booman, but, he really impressed and showed fire, passion and emotion, three traits that a lot of emcees in larger markets than Baltimore would surely need to become the artists they believe they already are, or aspire to be.

I’ll say it before, and I’ll say it again. Baltimore club music, when performed or mixed by Baltimore club artists, takes on a completely different life. I’ve heard “Big Girl” in major cities everywhere. It’s one of the seminal tracks in hip hop, R & B, or whatever style of urban dominated music that springs to mind. But, again, you can watch someone wear a sequined glove and do a moonwalk, or you can watch Michael Jackson do so.

No disrespect to anyone who has ever dropped a Baltimore club cut to enliven a set, but, the difference is obvious, and when observed live, absolutely unbelievable.

– KONG

February 28th.

Know what Joey Lawrence would say about all this awesome on one night????

Whoa.

11 DJs between two venues.

One poster reminds me of good pro wrestling friend Salvatore Sincere, and that’s ALWAYS okay.

The other, looks like a greatest hits of Right On! Magazine

I don’t care who you are. If you don’t look at that cover of Right On! and wanna go on a date with Michael Jackson to Dairy Queen, you have no soul.

But yeah. We’re not even a quarter of the way through the year, and DCs out of control. Sometimes I hate writing this blog. Sometimes, like putting all these awesome graphics up, and knowing just how very incredibly diverse and talented both parties are, you just wanna:

http://www.youtube.com/v/0Pga4ax5aus&hl=en&fs=1

That’s what’s up. More on this night in the coming weeks.


– KONG