Joan Jett - I Hate Myself For Loving You (Music Video) HD

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drink em up, it's time to go...

yes really, that's my last song for the night. yes really, i will not play one more song. why?? because the state of colorado says we must have everyone out of the bar by 2, and if i play another song it makes it that much more difficult to kick your drunk ass out by 2. when choosing between keeping the bar from being shut down due to a liquor violation and keeping you happy with one more song, i'm going to choose the former. "but i've paid good money to be in this bar." did you just say you paid "good money" to be in here?? really?? did you pay a cover charge to get in here? i said, did you pay a cover charge to get in here??? no? oh, but you say you've paid a lot for your drink. you realize you are drinking coors lite don't you? you realize you paid 2 dollars for that beer don't you? so because you paid 2 dollars for your beer you want me to endanger the liquor license of this bar? no. no, i'm not going to play you one more song. go home.

ahhhh, the end of the night can be so fun some nights, but some nights it can be soooo annoying. some nights it ends with cheers, hand slaps and shoulder bumps, and some nights it ends with people being mad at me because they aren't ready to stop drinking. if the state's liquor laws are not conducive to your drinking habits at 1:45 on a thursday morning, please don't get mad a me, i just work here.

well wednesday night was 80s night, which means that all week i've had a random mix of 80s jams stuck on repeat in my head. good god, what a crazy decade!! full of crazy music, crazy denim, crazy colors, crazy hair, and crazy words. er, radical words. and how crazy to have lived through it as a hormonal youth!! how did i ever survive??

well here's a few pics from wednesday night. thanks to everyone who came out and thanks to akinz boardwear for the shades! the outfits were awesome!!

RIP Guru...

well shit. i think there are many ways to approach an autobieulogy, but i've personally noticed two dominant approaches. one is to talk about the life of the recently departed. the positive impact the person had on life in general. the good things the person did. basically, the happy times.

the other approach is to recognize and verbalize that the fact that the recently departed has in fact recently departed, in fact sucks. no nostalgia. no reflection on the happy times. just a simple recognition that it simply sucks to lose someone who was good people.

i guess i gravitate towards the later approach. i think it's a family trait. at my uncle's funeral (who also succumbed to cancer early in life) , one of his (5) brothers got up to the podium and the only thing he could say was, "well (long pause) this sucks".

well, this sucks.

if you know me well, you know I gravitate towards the jazzy side of hip-hop, to which Gang Starr pioneered. R.I.P. Guru.

I know Gang Starr has been defunct for a while now, but dag, these are a few of my favorite tracks...

gang starr - mass appeal

gang starr - full clip

gang starr - jazz thing

spirit of apollo yo...

what do over 40 different artists ranging from Tom Waits to Ol' Dirty Bastard have in common? specifically what do Kanye West, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), David Byrne (Talking Heads), RZA, Lykke Li, George Clinton, Method Man, Tom Waits, M.I.A., Chuck D, E-40, KRS-One, Sizzla, Lovefoxxx (CSS), Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Fatlip (Pharcyde), Slim Kid Tre (Pharcyde), Chali 2na (Jurassic 5), John Frusciante, Nina Persson (Cardigans), Gift of Gab (Blackalicious), Spank Rock, DJ AM, The Cool Kids, Seu Jorge, Kool Keith, Ghostface Killah, Scarface, Z-Trip, DJ Swamp, Barbie Hatch, Amanda Blank, Santogold, Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Kool Kojak, DJ Babão, DJ Qbert, Ras Congo among a few others have in common?

A crazy musical collaboration project called N.A.S.A. that's what.

N.A.S.A.'s spirit of apollo album released a little over a year ago, so it's nothing super new. however, it's definitely worth bumping to the top of your playlist if you haven't listened to it recently, or acquiring it if you're a slacker.

I play at least one track off of it on any given friday night FUNK'd and happened to give the whole album another play through today while working away. dag. nearly every track is crazy good. i think spacious thoughts (with Tom Waits and Kook Keith) is the only track i don't like. i'm not a big Tom Waits fan, but it is interesting to hear him growl over Kool Keith.

in case you are in fact a slacker, N.A.S.A. stands for North America South America and is the creation of Sam "Squeak E. Clean" Spiegel of North America and Ze "DJ Zegon" Gonzales' of South America. as Sam Spiegel is the brother of this movie maker guy named Spike Jonze (born Adam Spiegel), you can imagine the videos were pretty creative. here's a few of my favs...

gifted - N.A.S.A. (featuring Kanye West, Santogold, & Lykke Li)

money - N.A.S.A. (featuring. David Byrne, Chuck D, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge, & Z-Trip)

hip-hop - N.A.S.A. (featuring KRS-One, Fatlip, & Slim Kid Tre)

way down - N.A.S.A. (featuring RZA, Barbie Hatch, & John Frusciante)

what's new yo?

so it's not really new news that most artists do their best work early in their careers. why? success is a huge game changer. i guess in short, that's my theory and I'm not going to expand on it much tonight as i'm freakin fried. a 2 hour final exam and 7 hours spent on a final paper today leave me with little left in the left lobe.

anyway, i've heard a lot of new music lately by artists who've been around the block (a few times) and overall i'm pretty disappointed. the new rjd2 is pretty lame compared to his older stuff; the new gorillaz is just ok even though it has a really diverse mixture of artists guesting it; and even the new pretty lights is rather boring.

finally this week I heard something interesting. It's not mind blowing, but definitely worth the purchase. James Mercer and Danger Mouse have decided to combine their powers for awesome into a new band called Broken Bells. James Mercer is the lead singer of a pretty rad band called The Shins. and Danger Mouse is probably most well known for being one half of the duo Gnarles Barkley, but is also worth checking out in his collaboration with MF Doom (Danger Doom), and on his solo act perversion of Jay-Z's black album and the Beatles white album (the grey album). I think he even produced the Gorillaz demon days album (which didn't suck).

anyway, Broken Bells is pretty catchy. if you like the shins you'll probably think it's a rather experimental version of the shins. though nothing too crazy. it's not like going from rattle and hum to achtung baby. cause yea, that was crazy.

here's a taste...

the high road - broken bells

the ghost inside - broken bells

maybe the hokey pokey isn't what it's all about...

but popin and lockin is. maybe? i think so.

ahhh. what is it about a deliciously funky hip-hop beat that gets a b-boy to bop and wiggle as he crosses his feet? or her feet? with fuzzy white boots on. gettin her groove on. movin to a beat cuz i got the roots on.

dag. what a night.

big ups, palm slaps and nuckle bumps to all the b-boys and b-girls that came out last night. sometimes I get burnt out, fried out, and forget what it's all about, but watchin you all movin on the floor reminds me what i do this for. thanks. really. thanks yall.

here's a jam by one of the most real skool rap acts around that sums friday night up better than I can.

b-boy - crown city rockers

and as an encore, here's raashan battling max, words vs. drums.

please settle down...

have a drink, and relax. I mean, you're at a bar. you should be havin' fun. there's no need to get in my face with your request. no need to get agro with me. yes. yes, i understand that you are very passionate about whatever it is you are trying to tell me when i have headphones blaring in one ear and a monitor blaring in the other. what? what??? sorry i didn't catch that. oh, now you're REALLY frustrated with me. seriously. look. i'm sorry. i'm sorry your mother didn't hug you enough. i'm sorry your girlfriend didn't love you enough. i'm sorry that you don't know how to have a good time in a bar, and i'm sorry i don't play requests. now please. please settle down, have a drink and relax...

ug. some of these dudes need to lay off the muscle milk and red bull.

anyway, on with the subterranean beats of the week. this week's blubeats come from a bus driver turned producer turned super hero with british accent. part hip-hop, part funk, part rock, part jazz, part soul, part james brown incarnate and all awesome, dj format makes some of the best beats this side of a fried egg, and collected here are his collaborations with some seriously sassy mc's.

we know something - dj format & jurassic 5

3 feet deep - dj format, abdominal & d-sisive

viciuos battle raps - dj format & abdominal

separated at birth - dj format, abdominal & d-sisive

the place - dj format, chali 2na & akil

the hit song - dj format & abdominal

beats from the underground part 2

dag. it's been a minute since i've been able to post something. actually it's prolly only been a few weeks, but it seems like months. been a busy couple weeks to say the least. anyway...

so let’s continue part 2 with another underground hip-hop artist that has way more to rap about than just goin from rags to money bags. This week’s featured underground artist is the lyrically venomous miss Jean Grae. Jean is the real deal ya’ll, and it’s been fun to watch her progress in popularity over the last decade or so.

this first track is the one that got me hooked on Jeanie many years ago (i think it was 1999). back then she rapped under the moniker “What? What?”, and this particular track was done with The Herbalizer.

bring it - the herbaliser (featuring What? What?)

continuing on with some more early jean and another colab with the herbaliser, this one has one of the sickest base drives. love it.

let it go – the herbaliser (featuring What? What?)

now on to some newer stuff. this one's prolly my fav jeanie track, but not a big fan of the original vid, so unfortunately you get more cool tracks with lame vids.

the jam - jean grae

this last track shows of JG's ability to rap about nearly everything, even some of the most difficult subjects to talk about. here's one of her more serious tracks...

taco day - jean grae

hot fun in the summer time...

well the first week of february is coming to a close and the snow is finally beginning to melt away. this has been one of the coldest winters i've ever experienced. after several weeks where the high temps didn't get over 10, and months where high temps don't get over 30, i think i'm over this one. this winter can go take a hike. i think there are parts of my lawn i haven't seen since november, which seems like decades ago. and this winter has been the polar opposite of last winter. pun intended. last winter i was riding 2 to 3 times a week. on the trail. with temps in the 60s. this winter, the last time i was able to ride was thanksday.

now i generally detest small talk about the weather, but damn, can i get a day over 50 sometime soon? i was looking out the windows at work today, at all the snow that has been there for months, and the only thing i could think of is that within a few short months it's going to be 90 degrees. and i'm going to be complaining about how hot it is. and i thought, "how is this possible?" how weird it is that i live in a place that can go from one extreme temp to another within weeks and months.

maybe i'm getting to old for this. maybe i should start plotting and planning for my florida retirement home/villa/grave site. or maybe i should win the lottery and buy a winter home in arizona. or maybe i should just shut the hell up as there are probably children in minnesota who's dinners are colder than mine.

or maybe my spirit is simply drained. maybe this winter has been especially taxing. maybe the temps this winter have simply amplified the already taxing times. maybe i just need a little sunshine in my life, because right now i feel like joe banks. right now i'm ready to buy some ridicules luggage, drink some orange soda and attempt to throw myself into a volcano.

or maybe right now i should just throw on a sweater, some warmer socks and shut up...

edited to add that within an hour or two of writing this, it snowed again. dag.

beats from the underground part 1

MCs, rappers, lyricists, hip-hop artists, whatever you want to call them, first and foremost the ones i dig the most deliver their social/cultural commentary to a funky beat. a beat to which you can't help but get out of your seat and move your feet. secondly, the ones i dig the most don't spend the whole song rapin about how fly they are, or how tall their rims are, or how gold their teeth are, or how hot their girls are, or how deadly their guns are, or how expensive their drinks are, or how fashionable their cloths are, or basically how thug they are. that was original a long, long time ago. as in like a couple decades ago.

so with that in mind the next few week's posts will feature/highlight some of those artist who don't spend their whole rap trying to say the same thing in a new and clever way. these artists have something new to say, and they spit it in a completely unique way.

the first post in this series is dedicated to a small collection of artists from rhymsayers entertainment. rhymsayers is an underground hip-hop label based in minneapolis, MN, and is probably most notable for the duo atmosphere. though there are many artists on this label, i've only got time this week to feature a couple. however, stay tuned for future posts containing reviews of the new felt album as well as eyedea and abilities.

given that the "state of the union" address was last night, i feel it's appropriate to lead off with a few brother ali tracks, specifically "uncle sam goddamn". yes, Brother Ali is not actually a "brother". Yes, he is actually albino. and yes, that doesn't matter one bit...

uncle sam goddamn - brother ali

continuing with brother ali, these next few tracks show off not only his lyrical skill, but also his ability to disassemble/reassemble/retell a sociopolitical/cultural story.

truth is - brother ali

us - brother ali

next up is a couple atmosphere tracks. these first two are off the new album and are definitely a little dark.

your glass house - atmosphere

shoulda known - atmosphere

you - atmosphere

and the alternate video of you that i like better

and ending on a lighter note, here's a track off of atmosphere's free download album strictly leakage. this album is much lighter and funkier than the usual stuff they do as you can hear from the following track. enjoy!

domestic dog - atmposphere

do you take requests...

requests? uh, no. no i don't. you can make a suggestion, and if i have it, and if it would work with what i'm currently doing, or if it will work into something i may be doing later, then i'll do my best to work it in. but no. no. i won't play just anything that is requested. briteny spears? toxic? no. no i'm not going to play that. why? because i don't own it. yes, really. why don't i own it? because it sux. and no. i don't have a list or book of music you can look through. i'm not that kind of dj. and no. no. i'm not having a bad night. i'm not trying to be an a-hole. i'm not trying to offend you by refusing to play what you request. i'm just not that type of dj. oh, so you want me to "play something good"? so i guess that means what i've been playing isn't good. but all the people dancing right now seem to think what i'm playing is good. and didn't you just request that i play britney spears. have you heard the expression "it's all relative"? obviously what i think is good, and what all the people dancing think is good, is not the same as what you think is good. because if i play your request right now everyone dancing will stop and look at me with an expression like i just dropped the worst ass gas ever. I'd probably make a smelly fart face myself. so to recap, no, i don't take requests; no, i won't play briteny spears; and aside from this conversation i'm having an excellent night.

so usually i get a couple people a night who want to make a request. usually it's a request for something i intend to play later or already played. however, sometimes it's a request for something i have no intention of playing, because i can't, because i don't own it, because i think it's crap. usually the requester takes the request rejection with a smile. but this friday i had a couple girls get really bitchy with me when i rejected their request. or maybe i got bitchy with them. whatever. their shock at me refusing to play their song combined with my shock at the stinky request they made resulted in a bitchy conversation.

aside from a couple bitchy conversations, this friday was killer. i found myself playing a lot of dancehall, house and mashups instead of the usual collection of hip-hop-etc. it apparently went over pretty well as, just like last week, the dance floor was packed from about 9:30 on.

so the following blubeat collection includes some of the new and old tracks i've been digging this week, and i believe all of them were played this friday. enjoy, and if you come down next week, be sure to come down early as i heard the line to get in was pretty long this last friday.

i know kanye = a-hole drama, but damn, homeboy can make some good music. here's a couple older kanye tracks i've been diggin' lately.

heard 'em say - kanye west featuring adam levine

touch the sky - kanye west featuring lupe fiasco

this next track is by nextmen et al. good stuff and prolly influenced my tendency towards a dancehall vibe this last friday.

blood fire - nextmen featuring dynamite mc

how 'bout some dj spinna? ok. cool. this guy has produced some of my favorite tracks. this one is classic spinna. super smooth.

Intergalactic – dj spinna featuring phonte of little brother

and this last track has a bizarre/bad video, but i dig the track. seems like i've been digging everything from santigold, but all the vids are weird/bad. anyway. enjoy.

creator - santigold

oh, what a night...

well that was another one for the books. the dance floor was packed last night from the word go, and by the word go i mean about 9:30. four hours later the nectarites were still going crazy. what a great crowd. and not a single hater in the bunch. thanks to all who came out last night. epic!

i started the night off with some new People Under the Stairs, and by People Under the Stairs i mean the LA based hip-hop people, not the Wes Craven scary movie people. i've been a big fan of this duo for many years now (and have a stack of records to prove it). their style is 100% about the party at hand. missing from their raps are any mention of their cars, money, guns, girls, etc. their dedication to the vibe of the music as well as the raps make nearly every track they put out capable of moving the dance floor masses.

this first track was the lead off batter last night and is from their new album, Carried Away

down in LA

this next one is also from their latest album and features a pretty goofy video. don't think i played this last night, but pretty sure it's going to end up in steady rotation soon.

trippin' at the disco

lastly these next few are some of my favs from their second album, O.S.T.

suite for beaver part 1

suite for beaver part 2

Intro

change is the only constant...

the beginning of the year is a peculiar thing. one day you're buried under all the afflictions you've brought upon yourself over the last year (and beyond), and the next day you've forgiven yourself in hopes of shedding your personal demons. THIS year i resolve to fill in the blank. THIS year i resolve NOT to fill in the blank. so silly. it's like the beginning of the new year is the only time for introspection/self evaluation. like the new year is the only time to do something about the things your conscience has been nagging you about. or is it?

i personally believe that stagnation is one of the most evil things that afflicts humans. and it's not just me that thinks so. apparently "sloth" is one of the 7 deadly scratch and sniff stickers (sins) in the christian moralisphere. so, i challange myself and i challange everyone else to, as Heraclitus said about 2500 years ago, "make change a constant". this year, resolve to be dynamic; resolve to by flexible/ply able; resolve to not get stuck in the muck; resolve to "make change a constant". if you do so, come NYE 2011, you will have nothing left to resolve. to me, as MS says, "that's a good thing".

i guess, given this soapbox lecture, i should resolve to be dynamic about something. so, in the spirit of the new year, and it's obligatory resolutions, i resolve to continuously evaluate my judgmental attitude this year, with the intention of constantly changing it. however, this resolution shall not pertain to musical taste (or lack thereof). if you request i play briteny, miley, ludacris, or whatever crap music you like, don't expect me to let you down easy. i have a pretty open mind to most any music, artist, song, but even i have limits.

in a superficial demonstration of change, I've changed the blog look and feel a bit. feel free to comment (honestly).

as i mentioned in the last post, besides the resolutions, the other thing that happens this time of year is "best of" lists. SO, i'll leave you with some of my favorite blubeats this year. this list contains some of my favorite tracks acquired in 2009. enjoy and have a happy, fruitful and dynamic 2010!

Lovin It – Little Brother (feat. Joe Scubba)

Way Down – N.A.S.A.

Illasoul – Illa J

The Field – Sound Providers

Another (BBQ) – People Under The Stairs

All Praise Due – Cesar Camanche

Alright – Thes One & Raashan Ahmad

Anything’s Possible – Zero dB

Roof – Wale (DJ Ayres mix is also sick)

Illa Noyz – Boot Camp Clik

Dop Transmission – Sound Providers

Finally Moving Remix – Pretty Lights

1940 (Amp Live Rmx) – The Submarines

Are U Ready? (feat Slum Village) – DJ Jazzy Jeff

Keep it Lit – Oh No, MED & Wildchild

Take Me Home – Polyrhythm Addicts & Pharaoh Monk

Mind Transit - Y-Love