Monday, January 31, 2011

Los Rakas “Cuanado Hay Guerrapella” - Stereotyp Remix

Moving forward a good 5 years maybe, after I "met" Al Haca, I meet these two (in real life). Turns out Stereotyp remixed one of their songs on their first full length album. How small the world is! Good music knows good music.

Al Haca - Ückeritz Dub

Al Haca Soundsystem was a group (are they still?) that was pretty subliminal/dub/reggae inspired hip hop. They were dope. But they moved on to other projects and their lead rapper is now solo (RQM). It's kinda sad because back in the days of myspace I had a few really dope conversations with them and was sent their first cd.

Tolcha - Neustadt

Playing Jahcoozi is what sent me on this Berlin kick.

RQM - Atomic Fusion

out of Germany. Follow him on twitter @rqm1 or on facebook

Gnarles Barkley - Gone Daddy Gone

Cee Lo does excellent rock covers. This one is a punk cover origonally by the Violent Femmes.

Batman Mystery of the Batwoman - Video Preview

I watched this with my niece the other day, it's now a classic. Batman falls for a Black chick!!! YESSSSSSSSS!
Totally not music related but it's Batman.

An Island

via Coisa

AN ISLAND - 3rd TEASER - Vincent Moon & Efterklang from Rumraket on Vimeo.

White Lies - Bigger Than Us

What if there was an evil government plot to turn us all into candy bars?

Instituto | Seleta Coletiva | Emicida & Pihoman

dopeness in my inbox

The Kills - Satellite (new 2011)

this has a reggae beat. NICE!
The Kills - Satellite by DominoRecordCo

Daid Bowie from Labyrinth - Magic Dance

This is one of the greatest movies of all time!

Jahcoozi - Barefoot Dub

John Legend - Let's get lifted

I've probably played this three times already on this blog.
whatever.

Stevie Wonder - I'll be loving you always

Tiffany - Fake London Boy

LOL!!!!!
She's in Ghana

Charles Limb - Your Brain on Improv

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Mobb Deep - Murda Muzik

Mobb Deep used to be on constant rotation. I was SO mad they fell off.
This album reminds me though, that one day I realized these guys, and most rappers, are depressed and suffering from mild to moderate forms of PTSD. I'm not kidding. Before the era of fake gangsters most of these guys saw real violence and this was their therapy. At some point I didn't want this in my subconscious and it was over for me and rap music. Around 1999 I started seriously venturing out into other forms of music and never looked back.

Puff Daddy - Señorita

Back to my early rap history. I actually bought this album. Yes. I said that publicly. I didn't have the pirate bay back then. But to be fair the instrumentals on this album were amazing, I can't take that away from it.

This is why I hate facebook: Hugo - 99 Problems

This video was recommended to me because I like Jack White.
1) This guy is HELLA not Jack White. In fact if you're gonna run off someone else swag, pay your dues first. (it was an ad that said "Jack White fans you'll love alt-rocker Hugo - stupid links)
2) It's a Jay Z cover. In general I'm not a fan. (he wrote the song Disappear for Jigga's wife)
3) I don't mind "bitch" so much in the original context but it bugs me here. go figure.

It's not terrible. It's actually kind of good.
Just nothing I'd wake up with stuck in my head
Now on the other hand the director of the video is dope. There's an iguana!

Onyx - atak of da bal-hedz

This takes me WAY back lol! In comparison to what I listen to now this surprises me. I was so in love with Fredro Starr when I was like 16. So glad I grew out of that by senior year.

Black Moon - How Many M.C.'s

Black Moon along with Tupac was the sound track to my high school years. I miss hip hop like this.
Good Times.

Prince - When You Were Mine

YESSSSSSSSSSS!
via @alfiesays
Why does Prince have on a speedo and a jacket?!?!?! AND and ascot? How come it's ok because he's Prince? WHY?! (unsolved mystery of the universe)

The first tape I ever bought!

I forgot to post this here. Look how cute he looked! I have always <3 Damian Marley!
I just find this interesting because this is technically where my independent music started. Everything prior to this tape was me listening to something someone played for me. 

BLK JKS - "Molalatladi" Secretly Canadian

This is why Blk Jks are awesome.
I first heard about them because my friend called me to yell at me about how he missed the concert the night before and it was my fault (it totally wasn't I didn't know anything about it or was the reason he didn't make it). But that conversation led to him sending me their album and I was hooked!

What's also dope is you can search my blog and I've played most of the artists from that article already if you want to hear them. Or youtube... whichever you like. I might have posted some info on them though.

Indie Rock Embraces an African Invasion

via New York Times

THE indie record company Sub Pop first earned a reputation as a tastemaker in the late 1980s, when it signed and recorded the Seattle bands Nirvana and Soundgarden and other exponents of what came to be known as grunge. But one of its best-received recent releases is “I Speak Fula,” by Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, an ensemble that plays small lutelike instruments and sings in various West African languages.



The Chicago label Thrill Jockey is another indie trendsetter, whose best-known act is probably Tortoise, the experimental post-rock band. But last week Thrill Jockey released Sidi Touré & Friends’ “Sahel Folk,” a lilting collection of songs played on acoustic guitars and related African instruments like the kurbu and kuntigui.

Everywhere you turn these days, it seems that the indie rock world is exploring African sounds. Labels like Dead Oceans, Secretly Canadian and True Panther have also begun releasing new recordings by African musicians, those acts have begun playing American gigs, and African music regularly gets attention on the indie-minded Web sites of Pitchfork, Mojo and The Fader.

“As a record buyer, someone who consumes music all the time, I buy music in all shapes and sizes, so this is not a big leap for me,” said Phil Waldorf, a founder of Dead Oceans. “The boundaries have been broken down over time, and I think there are a lot of really curious people out there. This is just another kind of music that they will share and talk to each other about, and we’re putting it out because we think it deserves a place in that discussion.”

Part of the joy of discovery for such music fans is the sheer variety of styles to be found on a continent that has a billion people living in more than 50 countries and is the ancestral home of American genres like jazz and the blues. The South African quartet known as Blk Jks favors a heavy rock sound, at times reminiscent of King Crimson, while the music of the Good Ones, whose “Kigali Y’ Izahabu” has just been released on Dead Oceans, is simplicity itself: voices and unamplified guitars, singing and playing in tuneful harmony.

In terms of geography, the African groups that are beginning to be heard in the United States include a handful from countries like South Africa, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Rwanda. But the focal point of the labels’ interest is clearly Mali, a landlocked nation in sub-Saharan West Africa with a population of only 14.5 million, less than one-10th that of Nigeria.


Both Bassekou Kouyate and Sidi Touré come from Mali, as do Tinariwen, the blind Francophone pop duo known as Amadou & Mariam, Toumani Diabaté, Afel Bocoum and older performers who first became known on the world-music circuit, like Ali Farka Touré, Salif Keita and Oumou Sangaré. The country’s reputation as a musical powerhouse has become so strong that Blk Jks is contemplating crossing the continent from Johannesburg to record its next CD there; Jon Kertzer, an ethnomusicologist who oversees Sub Pop’s Next Ambiance label, even wrote a paper titled “Good Golly, Why Mali?”

One answer to that question might be the country’s long history as a crossroads for nomadic peoples, which has resulted in an unusual blend of cultures and musical styles: Bambara, Songhai, Mandinka, Arab and Tuareg, among others. It also helps that the music of Mali is based on a strong tradition of stringed instruments, like the harplike kora and the ngoni, believed to be an ancestor of the banjo, both of which sound reassuringly familiar to Western ears raised on guitar music.

“It’s totally logical that the entrée point should be an instrument you can recognize,” said Bettina Richards, the founder of Thrill Jockey, whose African acts also include Extra Golden, an electric rock-based quartet that consists of two Americans and two Kenyans. “Sometimes things that seem totally disparate, once you dive in and get past the superficial differences, like the difference in language, you see a common approach.”

Ms. Richards also said that she sees parallels between an artist like Sidi Touré, who is about to make a second CD for her label with a full band, and her indie rock groups, including Tortoise. “Sidi is interested in taking traditional Songhai styles and making them contemporary, a hybrid,” she said. “That’s a common thread with all my bands, taking rock and jazz structures and making them uniquely their own.”

Labels like Nonesuch, through its Explorer series, began issuing compilations of African music as early as the 1960s. But executives at indie labels, bloggers and African music fans often date the start of the current boomlet to 1997, when the French label Buda Musique began reissuing what has become known as the Ethiopiques series, which now consists of more than 20 CDs of music from Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Originally recorded in the 1960s and 1970s, those discs feature the keyboard player and arranger Mulatu Astatke, the singer Mahmoud Ahmed and others who emerged from military and police bands during the reign of the emperor Haile Selassie. The music, a bit of which Jim Jarmusch featured in his 2005 film, “Broken Flowers,” shows the influence of jazz, rhythm and blues and Latin music, but also has harmonies, grooves and orchestrations that seem almost otherworldly.

“Ethiopiques was huge, very influential, transformational even,” said Jonathan Poneman, a founder of Sub Pop. “Not only was it great stuff, but it was put out in a way that was high quality, that looked good and was engaging. It was a combination of the exotic and the familiar, the kind of tasteful, definitive assessment of a place and time in global culture that anybody would love to be able to do.”


Then, early in the last decade, Tinariwen emerged, literally, out of the desert, gathering attention when it began performing at festivals like Peter Gabriel’s Womad in Britain. As Tuaregs from the Sahara, the band’s members had moved around Mali, Algeria and Libya, absorbing not only the influence of Arab and Berber music but also Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, forging a powerful, guitar-driven style marketed as “desert blues.”

Curiosity about African music may also be driven by the recent popularity of American bands like Dirty Projectors and especially Vampire Weekend, both of which began as projects of Ivy League students and have embraced African music and incorporated its rhythms and voicings. In Britain a similar process began even earlier: Damon Albarn released the “Mali Music” CD nearly a decade ago, while his band Blur was on hiatus.

“Vampire Weekend is the Paul Simon of the here and now, and I mean that as a compliment,” said Mel Puljic, a South African who heads Mondo Mundo, a booking agency that specializes in African and other third world performers. “They’ve been very healthy in building a bigger interest in the music.”

Some indie music observers even compare the impact of Vampire Weekend to a similar phenomenon in the late 1960s, when the popularity of blues-inspired bands like Cream, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin encouraged crate-digging fans of those groups to delve deeper into the vaults and seek out the music of blues forefathers like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Johnson and Skip James.

“I did that myself,” Mr. Kertzer said. “After I heard John Mayall, I went back and listened to Freddie King. It’s actually much easier to do that now, because the Internet has made almost everything so widely available.”

And just as Bob Marley became a symbol of third world authenticity when he first appeared on the pop scene in the 1970s, many in the current wave of African artists seem to be drawing credibility and legitimacy from their hardscrabble experiences. Both Tinariwen and the reggae-inflected Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars emerged from exile and refugee camps, while the Good Ones are survivors of the Rwandan genocide and Blk Jks come from Johannesburg’s gritty Soweto area.

This is not the first time, of course, that American music makers and consumers have gravitated to African music. In the mid-1980s, two best-selling albums, Paul Simon’s “Graceland” and Peter Gabriel’s “So,” stimulated interest in and jump-started the careers of the South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour and the South African instrumentalists Ray Phiri and Bakithi Kumalo; a quarter of a century before that, the folk boom focused attention on the South African singer Miriam Makeba and trumpeter Hugh Masekela and the Nigerian percussionist Babatunde Olatunji and his “drums of passion.”

But those trends came, had their moment of commercial success and influence, and then faded into the background. So what’s to say the same thing won’t happen again with this latest wave of interest?
“These things always have some sort of apex, and I don’t know if we’re there yet,” Mr. Waldorf said. “I don’t think we are. But when you hit that peak, and people start to move on to something else, the best of it never leaves. There’s an ebb and a flow to it, so it may not always be growing.”

In the past, African artists have complained about their music being packaged as “exotic” and having their creative rights usurped by European and American record companies, studios and management companies, concerns that indie labels seem aware of and determined to avoid this time around. In addition, the current generation of artists is more savvy and plugged in than their predecessors.

“Once you start making deals with artists, as opposed to licensing reissues, which to me has always been a very gray area in terms of rights, that’s when they start to be seen as artists with careers and not as a postcard, oddity or curio,” said Chris Swanson, a founder of Secretly Canadian. “It feels less exotic and challenging now. For a label like us to sign a band from Africa is not so different than signing one from Sweden.”

The heads of the indie labels that have placed their modest bets on African music also point to the conditions that make this boomlet different from those in the past. It’s a cliché, but globalization and the Internet really have transformed what was once distant into something as close as a click, and that is true in both directions.
All a new fan of the music has to do, in fact, is visit the site of Awesome Tapes from Africa, which offers free MP3 downloads, or of labels like Analog Africa, Sublime Frequencies, Soundway and Honest Jon’s, which offer reissue collections with titles like “Angola Soundtrack: The Unique Sound of Luanda (1968-1976)” or “The World Ends: Afro Rock & Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria.” And performers like Bassekou Kouyate now tour the United States, performing at festivals like Bonnaroo and CMJ, or in the case of Janka Nabay from Sierra Leone, even coming here to live.

“There are all kinds of listeners in the world, and many of them have access to all kinds of music,” Mr. Poneman said. “Let’s face it, the way the world worked when ‘Graceland’ came out is a lot different now. I believe in the ‘Field of Dreams’ axiom: If you build it, they will come.”

humanZOO Trailer

I don't think I can embed this so click the link and go watch it. It's a film by friend up in the north east who produces some DOPE music.
I believe this is a Bad Egg Records production.

Advocate Riddim

via my brother

Mos Def vs Flying Lotus - Mathematics

via Juan

Mos Def - Kalifornia

Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove this guy.

The White Stripes - 'Conquest'

This is fucking great.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Thievery Corporation - Nina Simone - Verve remixed - Feelin' Good

Hare Ram Hare Krishna - Dum Maro Dum Mit Jaaye Gum

So like 2 years ago I posted this song on my facebook and my friend freaked out because he remembered this song from when he was little in India and wondered not only how I knew it but how I found it.
I have magical music powers!
Anyway I need someone to help me sample it. I love this song!

Stephen Marley & Mos Def - Hey Baby

I effin love Mos Def. And I can't seem to get past his story about getting married after three days of knowing his (now ex =( ) wife. I thought that was dope though. Anyway I think he's a distant relative of the Marleys. He has to be. And WHY didn't Damian Marley pick him in stead of Nas?!?! Duuuuuuuuuuuuuude I would have been a rodie. Seriously. I can't think of a better tour to tag along. well maybe one... but STILL!

The xx - Islands

Holy Fuck - "Latin America"

Samples from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

This plays a bit from each song Kanye sampled. His picks are always interesting.

The Mojo Men - Shes My Baby

Continent n° 6 - Afromerica

Yes Kanye sampled this song. You have to ask why it wasn't sampled before.

Os Canibais - Quase Ficu Nu

Air - Le Soleil Est Pres De Moi

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Husky Rescue - Sound of Love - Live at the WIlmington Arms

The Clevers - Afrika

Wild Beasts - 'Hooting & Howling'

Kasabian - Vlad The Impaler

Eva cassidy - Drowning In The Sea Of Love

You should know by now I love Eva Cassidy.

Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up

I have to share this with you. It was shared with me. <3

Christian Scott - An Unending Repentance

Adele - My Same (Garbs Remix)

LOOOOOVE this remix

Air - So Light Is Her Footfall

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Wanda Jackson - The Party Ain't Over

I haven't had this much fun listening to an album since... maybe The Black Keys or The Dead Weather, and The Dead Weather doesn't count because they are all over this album. It's so so so amazing to hear old and new mesh up so well. I can hear a lot of Wanda Jackson's rockabilly sensibility but at the same time hear the distortion and grittiness notable from Third Man records. I also want to point out how absolutely amazing it is to have this woman, a 73 year old woman, KILLIN it on this album. It's SO refreshing! And I have to add, it's SO Nashville! I love it.

This album is fun, it's clean and no matter what you think about rock music you can't help but want to dance to this. It's been so long since there was a good dance rock album. This album, obviously, leans in the direction of Elvis type of dance rock but it's so much fun! Jackson completely reconstructs You Know I'm No Good (Amy Winehouse cover) in a way that I think only someone her age could to. To me it meant so much more coming from someone with much more life experience (although it could be said Winehouse has a lot of her own). Nervous Breakdown is another favorite as well as Shakin All Over. I can hear how much fun Jack White had producing this album. They have amazing chemistry. The album title totally captures the moment. I hella recommend this album. It's going to be my summer classic.

Wanda Jackson feat. Jack White 'Thunder On The Mountain'

Song of the day. This album comes out today =)
They have GREAT chemistry! I can't wait to see this show.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

New Audrye Sessions

New Audrye Sessions, an underrated band (that disbanded) from San Francisco.
TABULA MIXER DEMO 3 by ryanaudrye

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Yngwie Malmsteen - guitarra acustica

via my brother

Distant Relatives Jamaican Journey

Via HipHopDX

Part I
"Hope Road is the first film and is the story of that first night. I remember before I even had a chance to set the camera up right Nas was like “Yo, yo film this… “ and launched into the whole speech he gives here about “Smokin' Cubans on the steps of Bob Marley…” from there on I knew I had to keep the camera up and ready to go. Please wait for the little surprise after the credits… Dawn on Hope Road."


Part II
"Dubplates at Tuff Gong, is Part Two. On the third night Damian and Stephen Marley went to work over a new Stephen song called 'Jah Army.' The song is pure heat. Dubplates are the stock and trade of the Jamaican musician. Tuff Gong itself is a place filled with so much history as Stephen explains to Nas at the beginning - even Bunny Wailer made an surprise appearance."

Part III
"Trenchtown Rock is the day of the video shoot. Kassa and his crew were in full effect by the time I got there. To shoot with Nas in Trenchtown is a special thing. We got a tour of the house where Bob learned to play guitar, the kitchen where Ziggy was conceived – barely as big as a closet.  And then there was the faces and people, such a strong spirit. It is really no shock in the end that so many incredible musicians came from Trenchtown."

Who is Maxi Jazz?

Only one of the most underrated MC's in history. Maybe it's because he's not American. Maybe it's because his lyrics are above most people's heads. Here's a guy who has 8 albums under his belt and yet he makes no top ten of all time. Another Gemini Enigma. Born in 1957 in Brixton, England (my favorite English accent) he formed his first group The Soul Food Cafe in 1989.They toured a bit, but it never gave him the notoriety he deserved.

Do you think it's easy being an articulate rapper interested in techno?


this morbid classic is called Killers Lullaby

All these so called "hip hop scholars" leave Maxi Jazz to maybe possibly footnotes. How? Does a techno beat make somthing not hip hop? I can think of a few artists today that defy that... Ludacris. Drake. Nikki Minaj. And in comparison, their Black techno is garbage.

Deep in the shadows of your deepest secrets
I sleep next to the precepts you hold most dear
Your heart is in my province hour upon hour
I shiver when you feel the cold,
Everything you say I hear

Like a bomb and its fuse,
We bring bright light
But I could be a devil to you
I could bite like a tarantula
Right through the skin
And leave my poison dripping
Deliciously unsuspecting
Protecting you from all harm
Except perhaps from these arms
That hold you

His voice is perfect.
Like if he called you in the middle of the night you'd probably agree to hide him perfect. 

My introduction to Maxi Jazz was the song God is a DJ 
This is my church
This is where I heal my hurts
It's a natural grace
Of watching young life shape
It's in minor keys
Solutions and remedies
Enemies becoming friends
When bitterness ends
This is my church (x3)
This is my church
This is where I heal my hurts
It's in the world I become
Contained in the hum
Between voice and drum
It's in the change
The poetic justice of cause and effect
Respect, love, compassion
This is my church
This is where I heal my hurts
For tonight
God is a DJ
God is a DJ
This is my church (x3)

When I came upon the album Sunday 8pm by Faithless, I had never heard anything like it before then. It was 1998 and I used to cut school on Tuesdays when new music came out at Virgin Megastore in San Francisco. I could stay on the headphones all day because they got all the imports and random music. I was stuck in a world between something like electronic hip hop (drum & bass dubstep type) and just branching out in to roots rock. I remember listening to this for the first time really truly captivated by it. Maxi Jazz opens this album in the second song, Bring My Family Back.


Beg you listen me, don't be kissin me til I'm done
unsung champion, a reason like seasoning ah
pepper your thoughts with spice,
and entice you to a space where I dwell with bass players and layers are loops
think what I think with my prayers its nice
my world is everything I've become
contained in the hum between voice and drum
I'm coming from the same place I'm a still running from
but even sitting in the garden one can still get stung

(*the garden is the title of the first song on the album)
 I also have a soft spot or car references, and Maxi Jazz is into import racing. This particular song is so out of pocket: She's My Baby

I'm a slave to your outrage
Rocket rocks stiff shocks and a roll cage
Color-coded alloys, much noise, spoilers are poised
Exhaust note to make me wait for old age
Yes yes. Who got the keys to my RS
We goin' on a road test, hit the M4 and head west
Forever impressed with the sound of my two-liter
We cover ground, engine singin' like Anita Baker
And if I take a corner too quick you get sick, when I do my handbrake
trick
Watch me ride, me broadside's wide like a battleship
Side slip, push, only hip, stick it in gear and give the gas a flip
It never failed to bring a grin to the limb
Baby's equipped
me and she gone clear
I got quick rack reduction on my understeer
I been fairly and squarely described as hairy
People say my baby is scary
Look, you pays your money and you takes your choice
I just love to hear my baby's voice
She's my baby

Now granted some of the instrumentals are out of my comfortable sound range, but in a way I rather enjoy that part. I have to remember I'm listening to English music, and that takes me out of my element. I'd be interested if he'd work in other forms of music outside of Faithless. Would love to hear him on this side of the pond even if it was with Kanye West (which actually if he produced it would be SO dope). So I'm making my case why Maxi Jazz should be on your list of preferred MC's. At least poets.

As for who he is as a person, there's not a lot of that information out there. I will try to get that. In the mean time I'm pretty sure he wants you to know he's Buddhist and a huge Eagles fan (Crystal Palace Football Club).

And yeah I only referenced one album, but the point was you are supposed to go do your homework (not just take my word for it ;)

Friday, January 21, 2011

Groove Armada - Inside My Mind (Blue Skies)

Dan the Automator - Bear Witness III

Via Patrick

Black Cab Sessions Chapter 50: The Cool Kids

I like his facial hair.
(the first one rapping... I don't know their names smh)

The Black Cab Sessions. Chapter Thirty-Seven: Lykke Li

I love artists that can make it happen on the spot.

Nightmares On Wax - Flip Ya Lid

I know I've played this before but I was reminded of it again. It's always a good time for this song.

Nichelle Nichols - Know What I Mean?

Girl Talk - On and On

TV on the Radio - Ambulance

Pomplamoose - Beat It (Michael Jackson cover)

Noisettes - Ever Fallen In Love With Someone You Shouldn't've (Buzzcocks cover)

Imogen Heap - Thriller (Michael Jackson cover)

Frank Zappa - The Gumbo Variations



Fyfe Dangerfield - Call The Shots (Girls Aloud Cover)

Beck, St. Vincent, Liars, Os Mutantes - Never Tear Us Apart (INXS cover)

Thursday, January 20, 2011

K-OS - Crabbuckit

this is one of my favorite albums of all time. (Joyful Rebellion)

K-OS Crucial

I LOOOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE K-OS
I think he's pretty similar to Mos Def, he raps, sings, poets, writes etc... He's simply amazing. (except he's from Toronto)

Interpol - Slow Hands

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Jorge Ben canta "Domingas" - 1970

Menomena - Evil Bee

this is a short film that's dope in concept.

Menomena - BOTE

hell yes.

Tindersticks - Peanuts

I feel like I'm listening to this song in a dive bar in Vegas.

Steve Mason - I Let Her In (Acoustic)

Sharon Van Etten - One Day (Epic)

If You Can't Sleep - She & Him

For all my insomniacs.

James - Tell her I said so

Somebody listened to a LOT of Moby in 2000.

LCD Soundsystem - I Can Change

Children of A Fresher God Vol. 1

A dope project magazine from my friend Scott LaRockwell.

Afro Beatles

Nas Shares His Passion For Hip-Hop Cassettes

Via. Rolling Stone mag
The automatic start up of this video was annoying so click here if you want to watch it, it's pretty cool.

Guillaume Nery base jumping at Dean's Blue Hole, filmed on breath hold by Julie Gautier

Technically not a music video, but it's a video and a whole song + one of my favorite videos of all time.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Monday, January 17, 2011

Dj Shadow - Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt (Nit Grit Mix)

This is a recent remix of a Bay classic. DJ Shadow is from here. If you don't have the album Endtroducing, what have you been doing all this time?

Muse - Knights Of Cydonia (Nostalgia Dubstep Remix)

It makes me sad sometimes when I realize how late America is on dubstep, and then I realize no I was just that ahead of the game.
I used to spin d&b 1999+

Poirier - Sak Te Gen Tan Gen La feat. Imposs (Haïti Carnaval 2011)

I effin love Hatian Creole. I hope Haiti get's their day.

Stripmall Architecture - Radium Girls

I love the typography element to this video as well as the title "Radium Girls"
I guess my biochem past is nerding out righ tnow lol

Foals - Ballons

It's Foals, not The Foals...
on a side note there's a lot of rock songs about balloons.

Nat King Cole - Calypso Blues

Fine calypso woman, she cook me shrimp and rice.

Ballake Sissoko And Vincent Segal's Tiny Desk Concert

My friend Zena plays Kora and I love it! It's a beautiful instrument, one of the few string instruments to come out of West Africa.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Yuna - Dan Sebenarnya

Thumbs up to my Muslim Malaysian sister doin her thing!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Peter Gabriel - My Body is a Cage

Arcade Fire cover

Johnny Cash - Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound

Jack Peñate - Tonight's Today (Leo Zero Mix)

updates

So my blog has undergone some visual changes (finally after like 6 years...) and I lost some of my side links. If I lost you I'm sorry! I'll add you back if you email me or when I realize which are gone.
kisses!

Erykah Badu - Honey ( Captain Planet Remix)

I keep randomly clicking links and finding gems!

One Night Only (snippet) Gabe Bondoc Cover by Nick and NJ

who are these guys? where are they?

Open Your Eyes (Cover) Bobby Caldwell/eebsofresh Nick and NJ

I feel like such a jerk cuz when this started I didn't take it seriously!
And I'm sorry I can appreciate singing off the blackberry lol

MarleyLa (Marley/Fugees/Roots)

hearts

Paris2Dangelo (D'angelo/Lupe/Joni Mitchell)

AMAZING covers!

D'Angelo - When We Get By

D'Angelo, please come back. You have an album out this year, please. Please.

DJ Scotty Doo - Tell Me When It's Over (Portishead, E-40 & Keak Da Sneak)

still on this

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

DJ Scotty Doo - Numb Whistle (Portishead & Too $hort)

damn I forgot all about this album. YESSSSSS! Aw man I need to thank Allen again for this. This is awesome driving down the 5.

you can get the whole mix for free here

Lil' Kim- Lighters Up

Aside from all our differences Lil Kim is a dope mc.

Tupac - Temptations

I just had a MAJOR high school flashback.
(it's not the obvious so get over it)
good times.

The White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl (Live) Under Great White Northern Lights

redhead with a curl
(melt!)

Mos Def - Blue Black Jack

Turn your speakers UP!

Fela Kuti - Sense Wiseness



Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - - Summer Wine

I don't know what it is but I LOVE this song by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood.
"Take off your silver spurs and help me pass the time." #countryswag

Amy Winehouse - It's My Party

This is kind of new, on the latest Quincy Jones album. It's actually the only song I like on there, which is mad sad because I REALLY enjoyed Juke Joint.

Top 50 jazz albums from Elements of Jazz

Their site is here

JazzWeek.com is "the definitive Jazz national radio airplay chart—a weekly report of the top fifty+ Jazz recordings played on radio stations across the United States and Canada."
This isn't necessarily a list of new recordings that are being released this week. You'll notice albums on here that were released 6 months ago.
What do you like on the list? Which albums did you enjoy enough to purchase? I'd like you to share that information so that others can be informed/inspired. Thank you!

1 RUSSELL MALONE Triple Play (MAXJAZZ)
2 CASSANDRA WILSON Silver Pony (Blue Note)
3 THE CLAYTON BROTHERS The New Song And Dance (ArtistShare)
4 CYRUS CHESTNUT TRIO Journeys (JLP)
5 LOUIS HAYES Lou’s Idea (American Showplace) 
6 KEVIN EUBANKS Zen Food (Mack Avenue)
7 JAMES MOODY Moody 4B (IPO)
8 BRAD MEHLDAU Highway Rider (Nonesuch
9 DENISE DONATELLI When Lights Are Low (Savant)
10 CHARLES LLOYD QUARTET Mirror (ECM)
11 BILL O’CONNELL Rhapsody In Blue (Challenge)
12 HOUSTON PERSON Moment To Moment (HighNote)
13 PATRICK WILLIAMS Aurora (ArtistShare)
14 KERMIT RUFFINS Happy Talk (Basin Street)
15 BILL EASLEY Love Stories ()
16 RYAN COHAN Another Look (Motema)
17 MARY STALLINGS Dream (HighNote)
18 CONRAD HERWIG The Latin Side Of Herbie Hancock (Half Note)  
19 STEVE GADD Live At Voce (Varese Fontana)
20 HELIO ALVES Musica (JLP)
21 TAKUYA KURODA Bitter And High (Self-Released)
22 BOBBY WATSON The Gates BBQ Suite (Lafiya)
23 GRANT STEWART Around The Corner (Sharp Nine)
24 TROMBONE SHORTY Backatown (Verve Forecast)
25 DAN BLOCK From His World To Mine: The Music Of Duke Ellington (Miles High)
26 THE MARSALIS FAMILY Music Redeems (Marsalis)
27 STEVE TURRE Delicious & Delightful (HighNote)
28 DAN ADLER Back To The Bridge (Emdan)
29 JOE MAGNARELLI My Old Flame (Give@Go)
30 THE COOKERS Warriors (JLP)
31 ESPERANZA SPALDING Chamber Music Society (Heads Up)
32 JASON MORAN Ten (Blue Note)
33 RANDY WESTON The Storyteller (Motema)
34 KENNY BURRELL Be Yourself (HighNote)
35 JANE MONHEIT Home (Emarcy)
36 PETE LEVIN Jump! (Pete Levin)
37 FREDDY COLE Freddy Cole Sings Mr.B (HighNote)
38 TONY GUERRERO Blue Room (Charleston Square)
39 MASON BROTHERS Two Sides One Story (Archival)
40 VIJAY IYER Solo (ActMusic)
41 PETE MALINVERNI A Beautiful Thing (Saranac)
42 DMITRY BAEVSKY Down With It (Sharp Nine)
43 JESSICA WILLIAMS Touch (Origin)
44 JOEY DEFRANCESCO Never Can Say Goodbye: The Music Of Michael Jackson (HighNote)
45 TAMIR HENDELMAN Destinations (Resonance)
46 AMINA FIGAROVA Sketches (Munich)
47 ANTHONY BRANKER & ASCENT Dance Music (Origin)
48 MATT SAVAGE Welcome Home (Savage)
49 DANILO PEREZ Providencia (Mack Avenue)
50 DAVE HOLLAND & PEPE HABICHUELA Hands (Dare2)
51 CURTIS FULLER I Will Tell Her (Capri)
52 ANDY FARBER This Could Be The Start Of Something Big (Black Warrior)

Sidestepper - Deja

Being separated from my external hard drive is KILLING me. All I have is what's on my iPod. 30 gigs of 1000. Every time I find gems like this one it reminds me of how much is missing.

Madonna - Don't Tell Me

tell me everything I'm not but don't ever tell me to stop.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control

I wish I could buy back the woman you stole.

Bitter:Sweet - Being Bad

Mos Def - Boogieman

The Layabouts feat. Shea Soul - Perfectly (Acoustic Mix)

via Jay

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Bill Withers - I Don't Want You On My Mind

I haven't heard this in AGES!

I don't want you on my mind - Bill withers

TV On The Radio - Satellite

Silversun Pickups - Booksmart Devil

...streetwise angel.

Handsome Boy Modeling School & Cat Power - I've Been Thinking

looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove this song!

Kid Cudi - Pillow Talk

forgot all about this one.
there's one line in here I'm hella feelin... gonna keep that to myself.

Que Viva - with DJ Chilly KEXP

Music That Matters, Vol. 234 – Que Viva by Chilly Radio

*NEW* Likke Li - I Follow Rivers

Cee Lo - Fuck You - Sign Language

because this song is universal.

Terez Montcalm - Sweet Dreams

AMAZING Eurythmics cover

Miles Davis - Generique

Christian Scott - K.K.P.D.

Oh My God.

Christian Scott, born March 31, 1983 in New Orleans, Louisiana is a Grammy Award nominated jazz trumpeter, composer and producer. He has been heralded by JazzTimes magazine as "the Architect of a new commercially viable fusion" and "Jazz's young style God."

The nephew of jazz alto saxophonist Donald Harrison,[2] since 2006 Scott has released four studio albums, and one live recording.

The trumpeter is noted for his use of an unvoiced tone, which he calls his "whisper technique."
via wikipedia

The Coasters - Down In Mexico

Monday, January 10, 2011

Andre3000 - Prototype

This has been stuck in my head for days.
Andre300 is also on my list of husbands. just fyi.
Maybe one day I will list them all out and some scientist can blend them all together and send him to me.

Cory Gunz - Richer Than Richie

SO I know this came out of left field but Cory Gunz is one of my favorite rappers.
Period.
And he doesn't even have an album out. I've got all his mixtapes if anyone needs one. And I LOVE the faces he makes, hilarious! Anyway I hope Young Money treats him well. He'll be the most talented kid on the squad.

N.E.R.D. - Spaz

GHGHGH I hate youtube commercials!
Anyway I had THE biggest crush on Pharrell for like 5 minutes... maybe 10. But for all his genius he never really has anything to talk about unless he's caught off guard. that's kind of annoying. I like opinionated informed people. I think I'm just frustrated by that because that has nothing to do with the fact that he makes amazing music and puts on a DOPE show. It's like how does one happen without the other? Whatever, if you get a chance see him live do it. It DEF lives up to the hype. I also have a crush on his guitarist Ray Ray. He knows who he is. I poked him after a show and made an inappropriate comment. Pretty sure he thinks I'm a crazy person.
So I feel like this song was made for the Bay because it was made when everyone was going 18 dummy. I also love the direction of this video. Very simple very skater very dope.

Jim Hall - I'm Getting Sentimental Over You

I was actually looking for the version Ella Fitzgerald sang but this is good!

Fela Kuti - Teacher Don't teach Me No Nonsense

If I had to pick an origin of hip hop I would probably say it started in Nigeria with Fela Kuti. I learned about him when I was about 25 at a party, this guy randomly gave me a burned dvd of Music Is The Weapon and I SWEAR it changed my life.

Hip Hop's roots in Fela are stronger than anywhere else I can see in history. Fela had swag, stage presence, he was political while still being able to party, he had the governemnt attempting to kill him, he had an insatiable appetite for women, he always had like 100 people on stage and he could jam ALL night. He was one of histories most prolific musicians. So sad I didn't get to see the show in NY. I seriously don't know what I was doing that was more important. But alas it's going on the road and I will see it somewhere close by.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe is my inspiration tonight

Rosetta Tharpe was born in 1915 in Cotton Plant, Arkansas. She was inspired by female guitarists of the time like (my favorite) Memphis Minnie and performed a mixture of gospel and rock n roll in both nightclubs and churches. She was known for her idiosyncratic showmanship with her guitar. Artists like Elvis, Johnny Cash and Little Richard cite her as a source a great influence.









The Noisettes - Sister Rosetta

So this is a song dedicated to the GREAT Sister Rosetta Tharpe, one of the first popular Black American female guitarists. She did some AMAZING gospel music. I think I will post that next. Anyway I LOVE The Noisettes for paying their dues, but then Brit's do that. *Kanye shrug*
By: TwitterButtons.com
By TwitterButtons.com