Fuck a Record Company

Last Saturday I was ambling along and what dulcet tones doth pass my ear? Why only my favorite song ever “Say it Ain’t So.” So I went to the back of the relocated Clare & Don’s beach shack only to find homie from Convoy playing bongos astride a girl who was just killing it on acoustic guitar Baez style. It really takes balls to cover a song like Say It Ain’t So b/c if you don’t lay it all out it the best you can hope for is a pale shadow. This however was a nuanced celebration, if deferent. I stuck around for a another beer and listened some more. She covered Tommy Tutone’s 8675309/Jenny and I have never heard a cover I liked more. It was slow and sultry downright sensuous. Stuff dreams are made of… but I had to jet and didn’t even catch her name for a shout out. Alas.

I was in Falls Church to go to the State Theater and even though they spell it theatre which is downright socializt, I did have a great time. I remember a few years ago I saw Ozomatli there and the place was so energized that the ceiling began to fall. Just cosmetic but it was pretty funny and a perfect emblem for the fun being had beneath. The State reminds me a lot of the 9:30 Club but classier and sans the grime. Large yet intimate. Relaxed balcony and raucous dance floor ringed with beer distribution. Great place to see a Phish show which I pretty much did. My friend Ben is is a band called Strange Design. Much in the way that Dark Star Orchestra recreates Dead shows, Strange Design recreates Phish shows. All the way down to a killer light show and vacuum cleaner solo. Kinda weird now that Phish is touring again, but super fun and a lot less smelly in the crowd. Prior to the show it would have been hard for me to get too excited about - dare I use the word a “cover band” - if I hadn’t known one of the members. But I must say, maybe because I’m not a huge Phish fan, a lot of the songs felt new to me and the musicianship of all four members is astonishing. These guys are fucking good and they have some original songs coming down the pipes too. With any luck they’ll be able to leverage their success in Strange Design to get their new stuff out. In the meantime though the show is great, and WELL worth the price of admission even for the uninitiated such as myself.

I know it ain’t gonna help help his ego any, but the kid is the best DJ in the city. Lookout for him Fridays at the Reef in Adams Morgan.
2009 Demo Mix pt.1

pt. 2

pt. 3

I love Arlington. I always say I’m from D.C. but that is not quite right. A-town. Retroceded in 1847. Arlington will surprise you with how awesome it is from time to time. My man Hendrick runs a fine arts collective called artoutlet based right here. They do these crazy events that take 1 crapton of work to set up and often only last one night. I keep returning the fairly hard-to-grasp analogy of vomiting pure light. Two years ago they did an event called flux at an abandoned garage behind our old studio. This year they did something similar at a sick studio on Columbia Pike. It belongs to Jazirock. He’s a graf writer and photographer and all around madman visual artist. They got some good press about the event. Flex Mathews (who was just voted DC’s number one rapper BTW…ehem and will be putting out future projects on F.A.R.C.) and I showed up and freestyled with DJ seven in from Japan.

The space itself is bonkers. Dripping visuals blend around corners and give a fluid vibe to the whole scene. We’re trying to set-up some all ages shows soon. I know it’s not that useful now, but there was a bunch of other good stuff going on yesterday…

Flex spent the day teaching kids how to freestyle. I spent the day returning from Philly after seeing my best friend’s MFA thesis show at Tyler. I didn’t really get his exhibit until we had a chance to talk about art and how it fits into our collective understanding about the arc of history. He did a whole collection of art inspired by VA luminaries. My favorite was his Arthur Ashe sculpture. 80’s sportswear is so wonderfully hideous.

Later, I happened upon an African music even at 1640 Columbia Rd. It was transcendental… the leader was playing a wooden tonal percussion instrument, and just putting it all on the line with undulating cyclical vocals… truly amazing - one of those moments wherein you can feel everybody’s attention collapse to a singular point. But it was at a church and all these aging lesbians were there to get in touch with their inner negro and, well world music isn’t really my scene, also I had to get over to a flavor tripping party held by DJ V-Roc, so I only stayed for one song. But it kept a smile on my face hour hours - the kind of experience you can revisit for a week or so before taint can besmirch the power of its memory. As I sipped Guinness that tasted like a blended coffee beverage I began giggling inconsolably.

more pics from jazirock

and check out a similar (but much larger spatially and temporally) art event in Crystal City calledInked Souls bigups to Art Whino for pulling that one off

Asheville holds a special spot in my heart. The first time I visited was for a wedding and I fell in love with the place. It’s about as close as I’ve ever come to the shire. In fact, our buddy Forrest actually lives in the shire:

Forrest made this from garbage. With his hands. All found materials and solar panels. True grit. In addition to being a constructve monster (he built a corral for a rescued blind horse while we were there) Forrest is a nasty fire spinner. He and his troupe had a party and invited a bunch of other talented performers. A veritable congress of anomalies, to borrow a phrase from DBL+.



We did some art

The DJ did his thing for the people.

I spun drop of the ol’ hard stuff too.

We spent a lot of time in trees.



Lookout for chach and P-I and a whole bunch of bohemians round Asheville.

Fresh as hell down der

We just got invited to go back down for a festival of sorts. Can’t wait.

The first time we played Chicago was a fucking trip.

We wound up freestyling for like 4 hours backed by an impromptu band featuring Johnny Marks and members of the other bands that played that night.

The owner of the bar was late and left us out in the hail for like 45 minutes. But then he totally redeemed by being huge and drunk staying open and feeding us booze until 5 am.

Comptroller Records hosted us for their Comptrollin’ On a Saturday Night series. And they we’re gracious enough to let us crash with them again this time. Check them out. They run almost everything sweet in CHI (pronounced “shy”) except Hey Champ but we’ll get to them later

This time was a little bit more serious, though narry more fun. We played KEXP’s Equalizer Series @ darkroom which is a dope venue. Half photo gallery, half bar, half music venue. I instantly felt at home when I walked in an saw a 3ftx5ft picture of tits. Gloriously concentric; infinite in their precision yet simple x^2 +y^2 = 1.

The other acts were Doc Watson, Nikki Lynette, and Shala esq. Everyone was held down by Dj La *Jesus. Doc can flow, and Nikki has mastered an indefatigable pop groove, and frankly I thought Shala Esq.’s hype man was more talented that he was.

We stopped by a kickass local record shop called Dusty Groove which as it turns out is much less of a local record shop and much more of a national distribution channel. They’ve got pandamenisonal in stock.

We had some of the dankest pizza ever made. It was from a restaurant that is the retirement project of one if Chicago’s premiere chefs. You have to place your order when you make reseravtions. No kids allowed. Just serious Midwestern pizza feeding. I passed out in the car on the way home.

Your haberdashery are belong to us.

It’s cold in Chicago - cold enough that these weird stratified ice shelves form every night in gutters. Threw this southern boy for a loop.

We haven’t traveled that much with the metaphysical so when he started talking in his sleep it kinda freaked us out. Especially when he intoned “MURDER” twixt snores. He sure can spin a set though…

We spent the rest of the time in CHI hanging with friends. Our friend Dan of Le Loup fame just moved out there and the aforementioned Johnny Marks is a native son. Johnathon Marks is the best drummer of our generation. I say that without any reservations. He is rhythm. If you don’t know what I’m talking about you will soon. Naturally he’s in all sorts of musical projects. The best known is Hey Champ. The other guys in Hey Champ are rad too. I don’t know Saam that well, but his voice is clear and strong yet has an almost plaintiff wail that I find very sympathetic. He strikes me as the perfect front man for Hey Champ, plus he’s a siick DJ/producer (all of them are — be sure to inspect their remix/electronic side). Crazy Pete and Jonathon were both involved with the formation of mathpanda. Ryn and I got serious about rapping after a series of jam sessions involving the both of them. A bunch of good bands grew out of that time and place. Their manager Brandon is a beast too. They just signed with Lupe Fiasco’s Label FnF. Sky’s the limit mane.

The next day we drove up to Milwaukee and played at a bar called Stonefly brewery. Another dope venue; two small opposing stages, microbrews, and cute waitresses. The other acts were Fresh Cut Collective, and some dude who was completely unmemorable except for the fact that one of his hype men had the sickest shades I’ve ever seen. LED Oakleys SO kitschy - pure gold. Fresh Cut Collective however was outstanding. I think there are like 9 of them and every single performer was awesome. The front man Adebisi killed it. They are one of the best live hip hop bands I’ve ever seen. Hopefully we’ll see them east this summer.

After Milwaukee we went out to do a session with Sean and the boys of Daytrotter.

I cannot say enough about those guys and what they are doing… Spread the word - THIS IS REAL MUSIC for MUSIC’s sake; aural meritocracy. I get blissfully lost for hours every time I visit the site. They epitomize indie credibility and have built an awesome collection of recordings and stories. The whole operation feels like home to so many traveling musicians. Thankyou Daytrotter for keeping it blisteringly real

Hopefully our session will be up in a few months. We recorded some freestyle and hearing that esp. months later is always fun. Good little sprint tour.

I know this sounds cliche but you know how you have those bizarre New York moments? Extremely unlikely scenarios made slightly more comprehensible by the fact that some quality of the experiences themselves presuppose you’re in NYC?

Well we had two this weekend. First of all we ran into a famous actress. Apparently she’s on Law and Order, a very elegant african american woman named Alyssa. Her husband is a stuntman. Bitchin. We came astride her walking in to visit a friend then rode the elevator with her. She got cute-mauled by her puppy at her door. She’s my friend’s immediate neighbor. Iconic beauty in relief against pedestrian ambling. Then we got a cab ride from one of those useless geniuses — our’s was a russian guy who could tell you the day of the week of your birthday or any date in the last century. It pained me to think that humanity has no better uses for a mind as sharp and unique as his, but hey man, I know a chess grandmaster who is a parking lot attendant. Mentally I’ve filed these two experiences right next to the time I got in an accident in a cab; the time I got a flat tire in a cab; and the times I ran in to Calysta Flockhart on the street, Brent Spiner at a diner (totally true) and Willem Dafoe in a bathroom.

enough rambling
onto the important stuff
we drove down from RI to arrive in brooklyn. there was no cucumber juice left and I was flabergasted and bewildered by the rucus of a rock concert going on in Stoney’s crib.
The band was called “stab the glitter” or something. I forget. I must admit: I didn’t listen. It’s not that they weren’t good ( in fact I’m sure they rule by transitivity and Stoney’s taste) its just that we had been driving and coordinating all day and we had expected that show to be over when we arrived. The fact that other people were rocking on what we had been anticipating as “our stage” induced some pretty heavy cognitive dissonance. I was also astounded that a loud-ass rock concert was going on in the middle of the day — loud enough that the occupants of every apartment of a whole block could - not just hear it but were obliged to - hear it very well, and nobody gave a shit. What about naps? Had Brooklyn foreclosed on naps? How did we wind up in such a godforesaken place?

We set up, got some grupbs, did a photo shoot and got a brief chance to visit with some old friends.


I posted the following portrait because it’s so rare. Stoney is always taking pictures. Like thousands a day - it’s what he does when he’s not rapping. He has a photograph-the-photographer project but I think secretly that he wants to be the subject more often. just look how pyshced he is to be witnessing the chroinicling of his own witness.

or something

So we had just met Louis Logic the night before but we we all enjoyed each other’s company enough for us to be comfortable asking him to come play with us in Brooklyn. And wouldn’t you know it he accepted.

He brought a friend:
Johnny October
Johnny is an excellent MC.
So at this point ther are at least 17 mega-talented MCs in the house (e.g. Dread Mighty Sine, Optimus from Project Lumens, Stoney Ashes & Mental Stamina, Blak) was only fitting that we had a cipher to get things warmed up.

blak lungz is so fucking talented that during his sets 97% of people watch in amazement transfixed as if by medusa, 2% of people passionately make out and 1% of people spontaneously explode

rosetta killed it look out for the new cubbiebear remix of witchcraft — it’s bonkers

mathpanda in full force is really something to be reckonned with. Sometimes the freshness hurts

I can always tell that I’ve done a good job freestyling when I can’t remember anything said. I don’t remember much from that night, although that could have been the alcohol. I did wind up sleeping on an inviting pile of plywood. fortunately for us both there is video! as the night wound down we got treated to a guest DJ spot by Sinton, and played a dangerous game of indoor skateboard-garbage-polo. after a close brush with new york’s finest a la washerdrop it was time to call it a night.

A pleasure as always Big Apple!

This weekend RynBurnsMC Metaphysical and I headed up to Roger Williams University to play WQRI’s hip hop inaugural quadrennial along with Bad Rabbits, and Louis Logic.

Ryn made new buttons in the car.

The designs are based on fractals generated by code written by David Wallace for Context Free. And their stereoisomers of course.

We met some nice folks. The show was on campus and “dry.” So -claro que si- we went to a dorm room (complete with dude in his underwear playing Xbox) and shotgunned some keystone lights Raphael Style i.e. using the badass lusterous sai that happened to be hanging on the wall next to a totally pro rig for holding beerpong balls made out of a paper towel tube. God I wish I had a picture; it was glorious engineering.

First up was Boston-based Bad Rabbits

Then we played

or rather Ryn got kicked in the balls and I had a seizure.

Louis started off on piano and covered Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend.” It’s quite a rendition — preserves all the innocence and playfulness of the song while adding a degree of musicianship not present in the original. It helps that Louis does it by hand so to speak. Like made by hands on a real instrument. Crafted as opposed to sampled.

But you can’t rap sitting down forever.

I am constantly amazed by how little I know about good music, and somehow Louis Logic was mostly below my radar until the show. No longer. His new surf-rap band Spork Kills has finally achieved that holy grail of indie hip-hop: The tryptych live energy, pop sensibility, and autodisconsideration. I’ve had the rare pleasure of seeing him do a few of the new songs twice now and I can’t wait for the full album to drop.

After the show we waxed philosophic for a while in the palatial apartment the U rented for us.

We discussed professionalism. For serious.

I think it’s safe to say that the co-eds had a good time.

Biggups to WQRI, The Harvard Divinity School contingent, and the crew from RWU

We played a party in DC for our friend Erin’s birthday

The Birthday Girl Herself with Grey Matter

Grey Matter brought a homie from Cab Crew. And let me tell you: Gio sure can make people have fun dancing. He should do it professionally. Seriously. That’s actually a real job. My friend Darcy used to do it at bar Mitzvahs and whatnot.

Grey Matter

Metaphysical smoked his spinach and managed to make the creepiest face I’ve seen in a long time

Blak Lungz joined us. He and Maroo harmonize like phase shifted sine waves

fun party