Kanye....Random Eye Candy

First I have to apologize.  My friend sent me a link to the Kanye short film, "Runaway," and said it was amazing.  I still haven't watched it and that was going to be the main reason for this post.  Instead I got distracted and found these other videos.  I swear I will get to it though, for now here are some links to the film.  On Youtube, and on Vevo, not sure if those are better quality but I'll embed another version I found that doesn't seem to be HD and when I embed it isn't widescreen. You might have better luck at those other links. Anyway, I apologize for my inability to focus on the task at hand.  I should also apologize for only posting random music videos.  What can I say they are easy filler posts. *Kanye shrug*   

KANYE WEST - RUNAWAY (30 MINUTE FILM SHORT)
- Watch more Music Videos at Vodpod.

Not sure how this matches up with the Kanye video in terms of artistic merit but this is pretty amazing. I know everybody is a fan of the legendary group from my youth, "4 Non-Blondes," right? Yeah I only know that one song too but that's not important. What's important is that He-Man is familiar with them and that one song. I laughed, well done SlACKCiRCUS.

Fabulous Secret Powers from SLACKCiRCUS on Vimeo.

Kind of cool.

Light-Paint Piano Player from Ryan Cashman on Vimeo.


Do you guys like Darwin Deez? Does it make you uncomfortable how much of a hipster he is? I thought about posting this before but thought it might be too weird. That Deez is persistent though. Persistence is rewarded around here. Besides, I am a fan, as evidenced by him appearing on the first indie mix I made.  I will Deezifiy my hair by the next time you see me.

Darwin Deez - Constellations from Lucky Number Music on Vimeo.

Uh this video has some music in it. Is that enough reason for it to be posted? I just love Dieter Rams designs. He was the designer for Braun back in the day where he made some amazing products including record players. Like my profile picture, the SK55 or "Snow White's Coffin." Ha! Another reason to post it. You can see his influence in all of the current apple products and all over the world of design. Ooh one more reason to post this, Snow White's coffin is at the top of my Christmas list. You guys should coordinate so I don't end up getting multiples.

And Newy Scruggs does a pretty good job of summing up San Francisco for the people back home in the Dallas, Fort Worth area.  This does not relate in any way to music.

I have some mixes in the works too;

The whistle one needs to be sequenced. A soul one is done. There is a finished hip hop and also a completed indie. So I just need to get those uploaded and ready for your consumption. I'm sure that will happen sometime soon.  *Wanders off to google Care Bear dance videos*

Eye Candy

Mike Giant & Derick Montez get busy at Ameoba on Haight.  Giant is a legend and Derick is super skilled, but I can't help but feel bad for all the people they just went over.  I guess it's better than getting buffed or painted over by a toy.  Might as well get wiped out by a legend right?

"Amoeba" | Mike Giant & Derick Montez from Justin Gallagher on Vimeo.

The Morning Benders, who I just saw last Saturday have a newish video for their song "All Day Day Light."  It was a great show, they sounded amazing and it was a nice set, just some complaints not related to the band's performance.  A much better writer did a review of the show and you can check that out at her site located here.

The Morning Benders - "All Day Day Light" from Jack Ferry on Vimeo.

I thought this was entertaining.  I also make jewelry out of found hair and practice the ancient art of fire dancing, so take from that what you will.


Flying Lotus - Kill Your Co-Workers from Warp Records on Vimeo.

Nice beat on this one.  Talib always flows nice, on beat or off beat and it's not a bad video from Reflection Eternal with their song, "Long Hot Summer."



El Mac puts in some work in Vietnam to a nice track.  Does anyone know who that's by?  Does it say somewhere in the video and I spaced for that part?


This is scary as shit. Why would you do such a thing Japan?

Upcoming Shows

Breaking these down by month.  Seems to make the most sense.

October

Uhhh not sure why you would pay $15 for this but if you are bored tonight and happen to be near the Independent why not go watch the Air Sex Championships?  Actually I can think of a lot of reasons why not to go, but I won't judge you if you do.  Tickets are available here.  I expect a full recap and re-enactment of the championship routine if you do in fact venture into that darkened dungeon of pelvic thrusting stage humping madness.

Lyrics Born, Chali 2na, and Rakaa of Dilated Peoples have a show at The Independent on Friday October 22.  Tickets are kind of money but that's a pretty solid trio of underground hip hop.  These guys meant a lot  to me back in the day.  Doors open at 8:30, the show starts at 9:00, and $25 tickets can be purchased here.

Murs, Moe Green, and J. Billion will be at the Shattuck Down Low on Saturday, October 23rd.  The show starts at 9:00 and $17 tickets can be found here.  Huge fan of Murs, one of my top emcees, witty, great delivery, and solid beats.  If you don't know about him you better axe somebody.   

The Best Coast will be at The Great American Music Hall on Tuesday, October 26.  Doors open at 7:00 and the show starts at 8:00.  $15 tickets can be purchased here.


 

DeerHunter will be at The Great American Music Hall on Friday, October 29th.  Doors open at 8:00, the show starts at 9:00.  Tickets are $17 and are available here.  If you can't make that show they will also be at Slim's on Saturday, October 30.  Doors open at 8:00, the show starts at 9:00.  Tickets are $17 and are available here.

November

Stars, who have the first song on this mix.  Have a show at the Fillmore on November 10th, which is a Wednesday.  Doors open at 8:00 and tickets are $39.50 once the extra fees have been slapped on.  Grab them here or save yourself $12 in fees by going to the actual box office.

Zion-I, Locksmith, Hold Up, Bayliens, and DJ Kevvy Kev will have a show at Slim's on Saturday November 20th.  Doors open at 8:00 for the 8:30 showtime and tickets are $20 advanced sales and $23 at the door.  Grab them here.  If you can't attend that one you can catch them the following night with Eligh and Scarub, Bang Data, Hold up, and The Oakland Faders, on Sunday, Nov 21st at the same venue, same showtime, and same price.  Pick your poison.  Tickets for that show can be found here. 

Souls of Mischief, Candlespit Collective, Broken Complex, Uephoric, and DJ Pause have a show at Slim's on Wednesday, November 24th.  Doors open at 8:00, the show starts at 9:00.  $21 tickets can be purchased here.  Local heroes, underground legends, Souls reps the Bay Area underground scene to the fullest.  This will be a real hip hop show that people shouldn't miss out on.

December

People Under The Stairs  or P.U.T.S., will be at Slim's on Friday, December 3rd.  Tickets are $19 and will be available here on Sunday, October 24th.  These dudes are some underground icons.  They have that golden age sound with beats constructed from actually digging for records, what!!!??  Who does that anymore.

The Grouch, Brother Ali, Eligh, and Los Rakas will be at the Independent on Wednesday, December 15th.  Doors will open at 7:30 with a showtime of 8:00.  Advance tickets are $20, $22 at the door.  They will be on sale on Friday here.

R.I.P. Eyedea (1981-2010)

 Eyedea and Abilities peppered a ton of my hip hop mixes when I was in college.  Them and the entire Rhymesayers crew, were played in heavy rotation during those years.

Although Eyedea could be too abstract for me at times, he was an undeniably gifted emcee.  His studio stuff was experimental, harder to grasp, almost too high brow and poetic for my taste.  Where he really gained my respect was his ability to freestyle.  He could come off the top harder, faster, wittier, and more skillfully than 99% of the people in the game today.  Guaranteed he could smoke your top ten emcees in a battle.

When I say battle I don't mean you spit a written, I retort with a written that I have had in my pocket for the last couple of months.  I mean battle in the true sense of the word, what it used to mean.  Two dudes coming at each other actually freestyling, no rehearsed shit, just real, on the spot rhymes.  I am not sure when the meaning of "freestyle" changed but in my eyes it has always meant spitting whatever you could come up with on the spot, and you would be hard pressed to find someone that could do this better than Eyedea.  It used to be if you couldn't rock a cypher you couldn't get on.  People honed their skills, learned the culture, appreciated all of the elements of hip hop.  I bet you a lot of the rappers on the charts now couldn't even jump in a cypher without looking foolish.

Eyedea was hip hop through and through.  A freestyle battle champ he paired up with award winning turntablist and God like DJ, Abilities for their first release, Firtsborn, in 2001.  Eyedea stormed the freestyle scene at the young age of 16, was signed to Rhymesayers which was a label chock-full of underground royalty and really left his mark on the hip hop world.  He was a large part of my college soundscape so the news of his passing was unexpected and tragic.  R.I.P. Eyedea.

From Billy Jam, “Emcee and renowned freestyle battle champ Eyedea suddenly passed today (Oct 17th). Actual cause of death is not confirmed yet but reports all indicated that the rapper born Micheal Larsen was found dead by his mother, Kathy Averill , earlier today. He was only 28 and a few weeks shy of his 29th birthday.” 


This is from a post on The Giant Peach.

"His mom posted on his Facebook page today, “It is with great pain and sadness that I tell you my son Mikey (Eyedea) has passed away.  At this time we kindly request your respect and our privacy as we process this devastating loss.

We do, however, welcome your kind words, memories, and positive thoughts. We have created a Paypal account and are accepting donations towards the cost of his services. If you would like to make a donation, you can do so by accessing this link:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DZ3EEMCVL6BG4

On behalf of Mikey’s family, close friends and fans. Thank you.

-Kathy Averill"

Check out his insane skills.  Eyedea and Slug from the Wakeup Show

Yes Homo Pop Princess Mix 4

My friend introduced me to the "Maintenant" album by Gigi  awhile back saying, "I think you will like this."  Well they were right, a thank you to them and a little bit about the album from The Line Of Best Fit.

"Several years ago Vancouver grassroots studio-meister Colin Stewart (Cave Singers, Black Mountain, Destroyer) got hold of a pair of vintage plate reverbs – as used to produce the distinctive sound of the late 50s and early 60s Motown and ‘Brill Building’ classics. Those lush productions were enhanced by injecting the original sound into large metal sheets and picking up the reverberations to merge into the mix. With a nice piece of kit begging for a sympathetic project, Stewart teamed up with singer/songwriter Nick Krgovich to source a couple of appropriate tunes. As befitting the spirit of the era, these were laid down in single takes in one night by a group of friends and fellow travellers at the Hive Studios. The buzz generated that night then inspired a series of sessions and new songs from a collection of artists (e.g. Owen Pallett, Zac Pennington of Parenthetical Girls) over the next few years. Finally they see the light of day under the name of Gigi. via"

There are two tracks from the album on this mix.  One of those is, "The Marquee," with Kate Eastburn. 

Check out the samples behind the jump.

Eye Candy

Pretty awesome video of San Francisco. Makes it look miniature. Ooooh.

San Francisco: The Miniature City from MINIMUS on Vimeo.

Nice little video by the Satin Dolls covering, "Whatever Lola Wants," from the musical, "Damn Yankees."

The Satin Dollz in "Whatever Lola Wants" from Dan Blank on Vimeo.

I am not sure if he is serious or not with the segways. All I know is someone who can rhyme rockstar with pornstar is a fucking genius. The only reason I found this song was because I was looking for whistling songs for an upcoming mix. The only reason I posted this was because he has segways in it!!!

Juan Magan Verano Azul from Manel Andilla on Vimeo.
This video has been getting passed around a lot.  Mostly because it has lots of boobs.  Is it worth it if the rest of the video is a complete head fuck?   No fucking clue what is happening in this thing. My favorite part is the guy in the shower with the panda bear doll and the gun, no maybe it's a tie between the girl that smashes the eggs on her head, and the movie theater full of furries.

EL GUINCHO | Bombay from MGdM | Marc Gómez del Moral on Vimeo.

This video is awesome.  It was up for best animated video in Europe when it was released.  Guess what else was released that same year?  The first Gorrillaz album, yeaaah bad timing on that one.


Holy shit Conan is young.  Another stumble upon whilst searching for whistling.  Mainly posted because holy shit Conan looks young!!


Frequent contributor to the Yes Homo Pop Princess mix series, Clara C!, has an official video for, "Offbeat."  This will be on her new album, "Art in My Heart."  That's a cheesy album name, but I can let it slide.  This time... 


Rocky Rivera's official video for, "Trick Habit" utilizes a sample that I approve of.  Not sure if I approve of murderous scorned women attacking, what happened to angry aggressive emails, or stalking from afar?

Ipod Shuffle: Blackout Edition

The whole neighborhood's power was out for several hours the other night.  I headed up to the roof with my ipod to relax and look out at the darkened quadrant that was my neighborhood.  I was only alone momentarily though, a meandering stream of neighbors soon made their way up to the roof as well.  There is quite a random smattering of characters that are housed in my building.  One piece of sample dialogue, "I was a freebase guy so I freebased it."  Alright, thanks for that Mr. building manager.  Once talk devolved into the correct way to deal with an addiction...boooring!!  I headed back inside.  I set up some candles, put the ipod on and just relaxed for awhile.

The only problems facing me were the facts that my ipod had super low battery life, and my phone had one bar on its battery.  So I couldn't text anyone, I was afraid it would die from extraneous use and I would need it for an alarm if the power didn't return before the morning.  My only viable option for entertainment was to ride my ipod into the ground, suck out whatever music I could from it before my entire apartment went back to the dark ages.  I should invest in a hand cranked record player.  So here is a small mix of what I listened to sitting around my candle lit apartment before my ipod died and I decided to damage my eyes by getting my Johnny Tremain on and reading by candlelight.

Grab the mix behind the jump.