Shad - When this is over

Download...this album because it has good music inside of it.
http://www.mediafire.com/?kcgsmeg1z3e

One for the old schoolers

Recommended classic!

A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels [1990]
http://www.mediafire.com/?c4azwmlxys9

Rainydayz Remixes

"After a cease & desist put the breaks on Amplive's Radiohead In Rainbows remix project, the online music community reasonably wondered if the tracks would ever see the light of day. Well, here they are.

While the Oakland producer/DJ acknowledges that he probably should have contacted Radiohead (who were not involved in the project) to seek approval prior to making his interpretations publically available, an agreement has been reached between all involved parties and Amplive has been granted permission to release Rainydayz Remixes for free to the general public. Effective immediately, the eight-track record is available here.

Rainydayz Remixes is composed exclusively of source material pulled from In Rainbows, re-envisioned by Amplive and complimented by vocal work from Too $hort, MC Zumbi of Zion I, Chali2na of Jurassic 5, Codany Holiday, and Del The Funky Homosapien"

Tracklist
01 Rainydayz
02 Video Tapez (ft. Del The Funky Homosapien)
03 Nudez (ft. Too $hort & MC Zumbi
of Zion I)
04 Weird Fishez
05 All I Need
06 15 Stepz (ft. Codany Holiday)
07 Reckonerz (ft. Chali2na)
08 Faustz

Download Link

7954. Almost ready for release

Here is a link to a painting i've been working on. It's nearly complete. It's called 7,9,5,4. Probably gonna try to introduce to the non internet artworld soon. Still in preparation tho.

http://www.abstractschwartz.com/7954spin.html

Seems like everybody trippin

Zion I is coming to town (again). I like these shows. I plan to attend. It's tomorrow night and it's 14$ for anyone who is interested - Lamplighter.

Here is a great song with a funny video.
Trippin - Zion I

I Shall.........

....as I regained consciousness this morning a song echoed in my head. This often happens to me. Usually it's not the whole song. More so it's just one or two lyrics that repeat themselves endlessly until I finally wake up and play a real song on my computer or whatever. I'm sure this happens to a lot of people but I've never asked so I won't assume anything. But I digress. As I woke up I was pleasantly pleased to find that todays morning tune was Proceed from the Do You Want More?!!!??! album. Not a real shocker that a Roots track would play in my head but what did surprise me was the timing of this particular event.

The specific lyrics in question were the following:

"I wake up early in the morning, I mean early afternoon
Break a lyrical hymn of the stem like boom
I'm flyer when I'm higher put my shit up on a tomb
I represented on the 28th of June
I'm representing philly on the 28th of June"

I wasn't fully on my "calendar game" but I did have an inkling that today was in fact June 28. Strange shit indeed if you ask me. Even my subconscious internal calendar is in tune with the 215th. I was equally amused as I was pleased.

As usual, here is the accompanying vid - the line starts at 2:26


Also, here is something else from the Legendary that I feel like adding for no other reason than your listening pleasure. They played this song at the last show I saw and, since I don't listen to D'Angelo, I didn't recognize it but I fucking knew I liked it when my brain started sizzling. I finally found it online (hello youtubes) after searching for months.
The Roots Live @ The Gibson Theatre: Brown Sugar

Good video here from Wale


Here are a couple links to two new Lupe Fiasco songs

Recommended Podcast

Stop Podcasting Yourself

My friends have a funny podcast. They've done 17 so far.
...and this is Abby's dog Grampa getting ready to see Kanye perform

Jiz'm Gramma

A little background is in order. In this episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm Larry and some of his colleagues become co-owners of a new restaurant. This is the opening night. Everything goes smoothly, that is, until the head chef's turrets kicks in. A crafty Larry comes up with a pretty crafty solution to an otherwise disastrous situation.

TV TV TV that's what you like to do...READ A FUCKIN BOOK

A cure for people with 2 left feet!

I was worried that after the first 4 were all right feet that things were mathematically too skewed to be legit but the emergence of this 5th foot, a left foot, has restored my faith and trust in statistical variance.

I'm going to pee and poo in my pants you see

I have no real comment for this other than it's awesome Rudy. Jello Pooooding!!

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Momma don't want me to play any skiffle anymore.
This is incredible footage of a young Jimmy Page before he kicked the locks and before he let the led out. Pretty crazy to see him this way.

From that....to this [note* One thing I always like to quiz people on when the Rain Song is playing is to ask them to identify all of the seasonal references that Plant sings about in this song. The first one is easy.... "It is the springtime of my loving, the second season I am to know"]


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A couple TVotR vids for your viewing pleasure. "You're fired!"


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The treble was level - I like it like that

PokerPosters

Made this recently. Probably gonna make a few more. Any ideas are welcome. I am brainstorming ideas for things that i can hide/embed in the images so that people have to search closely to find them all.

Talent don't matter

This is direct from the Roots myspace page. These videos express a lot of their views/concerns/ideas about the music industry in general and how they have and will continue to meander through it. Pretty interesting.

?uestlove and Black Thought sit down with the Heavy Hitter DJ Enuff for this 10 minute interview. They get right into the ever present question of why The Roots never get the respect they deserve, the climate of today's music industry, and the international Hip-Hop scene. Part 2 of this interview coming soon.

Part 2 of ?uesto and Black Thought's interview with Heavy Hitter DJ Enuff. Here they (BT especially) discuss: working with Peedi, the creation of the Money Making Jam Boys, what music they check for, how they prepare to go on stage before a show, and more.

...and for that - I won't Apologize

Some backstage Roots videos. I always enjoy these. Not so much for the video/partying content but just to see the band jamming and practicing



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Rising Up (on Letterman)
This song is growing on me. Originally it wasn't on my top 5 off the album but it has been climbing the ladder recently.



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Rising Down ft. Styles P [DJ Green Lantern] Live on Sirius

This, on the other hand, is permanently holding the fort down at the #1 spot for me off this album - especially live. I am hooked in by the grimy and dark production sound.

"it aint hard to tell that the conditions is drastic
just turn on the telly check for the news flashin
how you want it bagged paper or plastic
lost in translation or just lost in traffic
yo I dont wanna floss I done lost my passion
and I ant trying to climb yo i lost my traction
they makin me break my contents under pressure
do not shake I'm workin while the boss relaxin
here come Mr. tax man he leavin a fraction give me back some
matter fact next pay check it's like that son
I'll f**k around and have to hurt a few men
They probably chalk it up as a disturbing new trend
hellohellohellohello"


Ronald Jenkees remix needed - "Hello Hello Hello Hello Youtubes"



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The Roots - Rising Up (Live on Sohh.com's Run That Back)



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The roots - get busy ft dice raw & peedi crakk (akuma remix).mp3

From best to worst...

Today, as I sometimes do, I was perusing the Okayplayer.com forum boards and I came across a thread titled Top Five Roots Show. I didn't spell it wrong, that's straight copy and paste right there. It's an interesting thread but what I enjoyed most was when Questlove chimed in (as he sometimes does) and gave everyone a list of his Top 10 WORST Roots shows.

Full thread

The following is copied from his post
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lol....

1. Oct 1996, Lincoln U. i always tell the story of how we ran away from home after kurt cobain died. i kinda described it as us running for cover from a hostile environment (the gangsta marketplace) until the smoke cleared. we were the fat kid who got picked on in junior year who spent the whole summer in the gym and came back senior year a MONSTER. europe was the gym. and our return in mid 1995 after a year over there made a new unstoppable monster.

or so we thought.

we spent that year opening for the beastie boys and doing small clubs. we thought we were cool. and then our hometown station power 99 booked us for a show at the homecoming with kid capri, the lost boys, and us.

man.

lemme preface with lincoln u is the projects of the edumuhcation system. that one show taught me EVERYTHING i needed to know about what i was about to face for the next 15 years of my life.

black people will NEVER feel us.

i mean we brought our A Game

we were jazzing it up.
scatting and shit
rahzel was in rare form beatboxing his ass off.
i could do hip hop breaks on drums like "top billin" and "mona lisa"

man...it was like we were onstage getting blow jobs from kittens in front of the spca.

and then...tariq was like "wtf?!?! this is our hometown!"--

"do a show in philly niggas wouldn't applaud...nobody know your record nor who you opening for....."

them mofos boo'd us.

thank god rahzel was making jokes about it backstage. we truly thought we were done. kinda weird that we were making "adjustments" so that we can get the "white beastie boys" crowd...."but go back to normal" when we go home...when all the while that "white beastie boy crowd" was home.

2. Providence RI, 1996. The last day of The Roots/Jeru Tha Damaja tour. We were all sick. i mean on reflection? we were kinda bratty. since then we've learned that the show must go on. but being newbies we were like "why should we give you energy when yall standing there like mummys. so riq turned his back to the crowd on some "fuck yall" there were some jeers and we stopped the show.

3. Sept 1996, NYNY after being on geffen for 3 years the ENTIRE brass decided to see what the hoopla was about concerning this great group they signed. this is a rock label. and we are their guinea pigs for hip hop. so we wanted an exemplary show. rehearsed all hard and shit.....all i gotta say is: open bar and old dirty bastard equals "!@#%$^%#!@$"

i wasn't even mad that he ruined the show. i was mad that this show was witnessed by the president of geffen and he never got to see us in our glory. just saw a bunch of niggas onstage brawling.

4. Nice Jazz Festival 1999. they wanted our db level down to 80. cause it was "jazz festival" our normal shit was 130 dbs. we almost got arrested.

5.Milwaukee Wi 2001, sprite liquid mix tour. a speaker fell ontop of a crew member and killed him after a show

6. Chicago House Of Blues 2000. Scratch had an asthma attack and ran across the street to get his medicine. thinking he was a chicago thug the po po outside was like "yeah nice try the band is onstage" when scratch tried to gain re entry.---he was like "my solo is coming up please let me in" he had no pass and he didn't wanna face my wrath. so he was like "fuck it"----and RAN. but obviously not fast enough for they rodney kinged him to the floor and noone could verify if he belonged onstage. meanwhile we were clowning him like "where the fuck is scratch?!?!"--man i was like "im docking the SHIT out this mofo" i was so mad i didn't even pick the phone up from a random philly number (his parents) that whole night. lobby call was 8am and we were like "we cutting him off son"....we were on the road when i was checking machine only to find out...."ahmir....my son needs you to bail him out!! help!!!"

damnit!!!!!!

7. Goodie Mob and The Roots House of Blues Chicago 1998. Outkast came out to do a mini set and set that stage ablaze. so we about to suffer from crowd exhaustion (crowd was on they feet all night) so it was clear that Goodie was gonna win this one. then to really add insult to injury, me and kamal have a near fist fight argument over his girlfriend standing onstage. so he walks off stage right on our triumphant one/two "clones"/hip hop 101 punch and the only savior was Common who played his "gaining one's definition" on piano. it was so anticlimatic. we got banned from the hotel across the street after we stormed that mofos room hurling tables and coffee machines and tvs. im shocked we aint get arrested. next night we were cool again.

8. Beck Tour 1996. Iowa. we were at a masonic temple slash concert hall. and he had the brilliant idea of doing the entire show in white ninja tshirt masks. (think ghostface on cover of first wu album) all because we heard the klan started in this particular town. the natives weren't too happy. someone hurled a bottle on stage.

9. RCMH, NY NY 2006 show 1. i won't say it was "the worst" show...but i had waaaaaaay bigger plans for that show than executed. Ghost and Rae stood us up. Nas forgot all his lyrics (so i cut "One Love" and "New York State Of Mind" (and then Tom B from status aint hood had the nerve to snark on tariq saying he could learn a thing or two from Nas (negating the fact that a well publicized beef with the biggest mc of 2001 was so newsworthy it actually gave his career a new light) Kweli was on nigger time coming all late forcing me to put common on waaaaaaaaaay earlier than when i wanted to. our "host" of the evening backed out last minute (hello dave!.....his night two appearance was a "kiss and make up sorry ahmir gesture") and not to mention the wolfers blew out. we pretty much were left holding the ball all because noone in our field had the same seriousness and professionalism we did. night two more than made up for it.

10. Paris France, 1995. The headliner MC Solaar INSISTED that we headline (see that Roots/Erykah Greek Theater post) instead of him. He pulled a fast one on us with some "flatter them" type ish saying we are headline worthy and we will murder him onstage.

DUH!

next thing we knew. we are in a Red Rocks type of venue. overlooking the sky. so beautiful. 4 acts came on (one dude i swear to god did like 4 cuts from ODB's just released Return To The 36 Chambers like it was HIS record.---well...Solaar (whom back then was pretty much the Kanye of his time) comes onstage with his big ass production (we NEVER seen a video screen as backdrop before)--well this dude is a teen heartthrob and the reason they all came. next thing we knew we were getting pumped backstage and ....


the entire stadium emptied.....

7000 people.

and now there were about 480 standing in the front.

bastard.

after that i NEVER EVER headlined a show.

and even when it was our show i came up with the format of mix n match so you had 0 clue as to who was coming up next. that shit was traumatic son.

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and now for some perfunctory visuals

This is some graphic design work I did from a photo taken at the corner of pacific and seymour.

Celtics win

A day after the Celtics earned their 17th title, we get the podium aftermath talks. The happy and the sad. I have to say that personally I went into this series completely indifferent and hoping to bare witness to an exciting series. This did happen and for that I am greatful. There were 3 epic comebacks but only one of those lead to victory. There was drama, there was (officiating) controversy, and there certainly was widespread interest as two of the larger American sports markets were involved.

As the series progressed however, this Celtics team really grew on me. I am a fan of Phil Jackson and what he brings to a locker room. I am a fan of Kobe Bryant's talent and athleticism. But what really impressed me in this series was the play of Paul Peirce and he rightfully deserved MVP honours. He brought his game to the next level on both sides of the ball and proved to the world why he felt that being drafted 10th overall was a mistake by 9 teams.


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Here are some other interesting clips and links that I feel like sharing today:

Ronald Jenkees: The powerful amalgamation of goofy and gifted.
"Hello Youtubes!!"

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The clean version of The Big Lebowski as shown on the USA Network is one of those rare moments in life where something hovering on comedic genius is completely obliterated by network censorship yet still manages to add to the overall hilarity. Often this is not the case. I think what makes this so great is that John Goodman is actually doing the overdub and he just says the most inane shit imaginable. And somehow it just works.

"When you find a stranger in the alps" somehow replaces "fuck a stranger in the ass".


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This clip oozes of Ron Burgandy and teleprompter reliance. It makes me laugh each time I watch it even though the content is so gruesome and sad. Might be worth a couple views to really appreciate the great beauty of this news anchors inadvertent comedy.


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Upcoming Vancouver concerts (that I plan to attend):

June 23: Pigeon John & Luckyiam. [Lamplighter - 15$]










June 25: RZA [Richards on Richards ~$30]
June 30: Zion I [Lamplighter - $14]










July 19: The Roots [Whistler Music Festival - ~$60]
Aug 27: GZA [Richards on Richards - $24.50]
Sept 6: Mogwai [Commodore Ballroom - ~$30]


Before it all comes together - ThingsFallApart

Tip off

What up world?

This is my first post on what I hope to be an informative blog for people who enjoy music, art, sports, and any other broad nouns/labels that I haven't mentioned which cover the vast majorities of basic interest. So yeah, it's a blog for people who like stuff and so on.

I guess (but don't yet know) that most of what I will post here will be in regards to concerts (upcoming/reviews), clips of vids, and whatever other crazy links I happen to stumble upon.

Being in a job that requires me to do a lot of scouring of the internet often leads me to these ends any way so I figure it's time to start sharing these hidden treasures on a larger scale.....well, larger than just the people I constantly send links to while I'm online.

I will start with a link to a video of my favourite group in music. The legendary 215th.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and predict that several more links of this variety will follow suit.



Fresh cut, with the thick black velour
With the black Louis sneaks
Headin out for tour
Looking out the limo window up at the billboards
For 200 miles, Pussy the only thing I saw
Promoting everything from the liquor, to the nicotine,
cell phones, antihistamine, chicken wings.
You gotta show a little skin to get them listening, for real
Yawl know the world is a sex machine
Full of, pretty freaks in designer jeans
Who go to extremes to conjure all kinds of schemes
Half the time it ain't even responsibly
Trying to take me some place I ain't tryna be
GHETTO sin city where the P is free
You catch a bid far worser than a 1 to 3
All up in the after hours on the 2nd floor
For that good thing that keep em comin back for more


Before it all comes together - ThingsFallApart