This is the best $5 I've spent on music this year. It's a chiptunes tribute to Miles Davis' "Kind Of Blue". There is some legitimate jazz improvisation going on here, with several homages to the themes of various 8-bit video games from my past. Get it.

Posted by Dennis at 12:50 (Central) | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Playlist for the Vinyl Frontier, 16 December 2008 to follow later when I have computer access. Sorry about the delay; the holidays are driving me crazy. Tune in on Tuesday for a special guest edition featuring DJ Theory holding it down for me. Old school cats will remember Theory as one of the two co-hosts of the 12" Sub before I took over and the show became the Vinyl Frontier.

Update (8:54 CST): playlist below the fold.

Continue reading "playlist [16 December 2008] + return of the 12" Sub" »

Posted by Dennis at 15:04 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Another DJ mix for Obama. Check the nice artwork either by or in the style of Shepard Fairey as well.

Posted by Dennis at 11:57 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Matthew asked me to give a talk at BandCamp on the 19th at Caroline Collective. I kept my remarks as short as possible in the interest of time, but I'd like to use this space to recap my talk, mention a few more things, and further expound on some of the points that I already made.

My talk was about "professionalism" in the music industry. And by that I don't mean wearing a suit, but rather how to build and maintain relationships and protect your rep. Simply put, don't be a dick. The music industry is called that for a reason - it's a business. And businesses are built on relationships between people. While a lot of people get into music to express themselves, have fun, party, and so on and so forth, if you want to be successful, you have to develop positive relationships with other figures in the industry.

Continue reading "BandCamp - professionalism" »

Posted by Dennis at 13:29 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've never heard of this DJ (King Most), but if you need a little hope, an uplifting message in these trying times, definitely grab the mix. And if you haven't already, register to vote! Tomorrow (Friday, 3 October 2008) is probably the last day to register (you might be able to register on Monday, but don't count on it) as you need to be registered 30 days before the election (Tuesday, 4 November 2008). If you live in Harris County, go to HarrisVotes.com for more information, or to check up on your previous registration.

O-Dub trainspotted the track list.

Posted by Dennis at 16:59 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just saw these guys the other day, and I have to say, it was the best $5 show I've seen in a long time. I only wish the sound man at the Continental Club was better. The lead (in the center) has a voice that evokes Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding among others. The band is tight - maybe not as tight as the Dap-Kings, but tight nonetheless - and they're playing a style that so few people are doing anymore - the classic blues/soul sound, but with new original cuts. I think these guys are based out of Austin, so if any Texans reading this have a chance to see them, you definitely need to check out Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears.

Posted by Dennis at 20:01 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the radio promotion companies that I deal with on a regular basis recently ran a contest. I was just informed that I won a T-shirt. This is how the contest went; I pose the question to my readers.

SPECTRE and Ghostly International recently sent you DABRYE's sophomore disc TWO/THREE.

Taking the next logical step in his evolutionary hip-hop album cycle, Dabrye has rounded up a formidable crew of MCs including MF DOOM, J DILLA, WILDCHILD and BEANS to intensify his moody, propulsive take on the genre. The Blade Runner-esque beats help cage rhymes ranging from world events to the street, with little chance to catch your breath. The producer-MC pairings often result in a dizzying narcotic rush stronger than a back alley glue hit.

So we would like to ask YOU who your dream musical collaboration would consist of. When you're totally dorking out and listening to your music at the maximum level, which musicians do you put in the studio together? Who, in your opinion, would make the most boner-rific song of all time?!?!?!

My answer is below. For a short time, you can go to this page to see the other winning answers.

Dude! I would totally put Run-DMC and Aerosmith together... no wait, that's been done... DJ Shadow and some random guy from A&R... no wait, that's been done too...

Seriously, though, I think My Bloody Valentine + Brian Eno would be awesome. Wrist-slittingly, eat a bottle of pills and collapse type awesome. The dense wall of sound would probably induce a short burst of euphoria caused by the sheer brilliance of it all, but leave you in a long bout of clinical depression.

Posted by Dennis at 14:38 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

While I was setting up for my show yesterday, I found an album in the studio that really has no business even existing.

I'll be honest, I haven't even listened to the remix album yet. But honestly, was this necessary? I mean, I like the original album - I even own it on vinyl - and who doesn't like to look at pretty young things covered in whipped cream? But this is taking the whole remix thing to a level of absurdity.

Posted by Dennis at 15:29 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This was one hell of a party. Peanut Butter Wolf came through and dropped a two-hour DJ set at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston as part of the Beats of Basquiat series. My best guess is that probably about 1000 people showed up. For those of you who are familiar with the MFAH, they cleared the main lobby area of the Caroline Wiess Law building just past the admission booths and stairs for a dance area/bar area. The DJ booth overlooked the dance floor, sharing the second floor with the works of Basquiat. Patrick of Microcinema was also up in the booth, projecting visuals on the far wall.

PB Wolf killed it; he rocked a great set of funk, soul, and latin music for most of the evening, throwing in the odd early 80's rock and dance tracks, and he finished with a straight up hip-hop set for the last 30 minutes. Not too much in the way of flash, although he did throw in some juggles and scratches at the end. I didn't expect him to bust out the turntablism anyway - it's tough to rock a party vibe when you're juggling beats.

Also present in support were Cee Plus (I missed his set) and The Digging Deep Quartet (Prince Klassen and JJ Lopez; I'm not sure if there are actually two other people who weren't present). DDQ also rocked a very tight party set.

I believe there are two more parties left in this series; one in January (featuring Shepherd Fairey) and one in February (featuring Grandmaster Flash). I highly recommend going - it's a pretty good chance to take a look at some great artwork, and party down at the same time.

Posted by Dennis at 17:56 (Central) | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

You may or may not have heard about Kanye West's impromptu remarks about George Bush that he made during a Red Cross telethon the other day. (the video is here) Well now he's gone and topped himself with a new beat for Houston's own Legendary K.O. (formerly known as K-Otix). Damien and Big Mon rip Dubya a new one. Update: I should have paid more attention on the first listen; it's a flip of the beat for "Gold Digger" feat. Jamie Foxx. So, it's not a new beat, it's just been re-used by Damien and Big Mon. You can get both from this torrent I packaged up. (Assuming I packaged it up correctly.) Kanye vs. Bush (video from Red Cross benefit, plus new song feat. the Legendary K.O.)

Posted by Dennis at 15:09 (Central) | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Austin MC Bavu Blakes was apparently selected as a top ten finalist in Scion's "Nextup" contest by a panel consisting of DJ Premier, Green Lantern, and Sean Cane. And then he was promptly disqualified for "political lyrics." Check the press release over at HoustonSoReal for more information.

Posted by Dennis at 09:25 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are the last tracks: * Track 14, Thanksgiving feat. Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Toby Hill * Track 15, For The Foundation feat. Liz Vaughn and Toby Hill

Posted by Dennis at 20:54 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are the next two tracks: * Track 12, Da Crib * Track 13, No Fear feat. Liz Vaughn

Posted by Dennis at 19:21 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are the next two tracks: * Track 10, Get It Up feat. Flow Factory * Track 11, Rap Star

Posted by Dennis at 18:27 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are the next two tracks: * Track 8, Intermission * Track 9, What Is A Man feat. Chip Fu & D. Rose On a related note, head over to my man Frank's site. FWMJ is putting up one new track a day for the next month; all underground hip-hop artists that he knows. Already up are a track by K-Otix and one by Chip Fu.

Posted by Dennis at 14:42 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are the next two tracks: * Track 5, The City feat. PZ of Ideal and Nicole Hurst * Track 7, Serious Track 6 was not originally available for download.

Posted by Dennis at 14:35 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are the next two tracks: * Track 3, Tonight feat. Cozmos and PZ of Ideal * Track 4, Hop Back feat. PZ of Ideal On a related note, there's a new discussion starting over at criticalbeatdowns.com about Houston hip-hop. Go over and say your piece. Also, don't forget to check out Matt Sonzala's blog, HoustonSoReal. He's one of the hosts of Damage Control on Wednesday nights over at KPFT.

Posted by Dennis at 15:58 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While I'm waiting to hear back from Frank, I'll put up a link to the latest song to embed itself in my head irrevocably. That track is "Van Nuys (Es Very Nice)" by Los Abandoned. Los Abandoned is an outfit from the L.A. area that is just bursting onto the scene. They've got a unique style, largely resulting from the blending of pop-punk and Latino influences. This particular track is tremendously bubblegummy, but they've got some darker and harder stuff as well, although everything is rounded off a little bit at the edges by the dulcet voice of Lady P. They have a few additional songs for download at their website, so be sure to check it out!

Update: Just in case you're not paying attention, I'll be removing the link in a week or so. Standard policy for audio blogs.

Posted by Dennis at 14:34 (Central) | Comments (2)

Just to help get the word out, Houston-based hip-hop collective The Foundation has made their album available for download in mp3 format. Cozmos, one of the founders of the DJ crew I used to be in (The Phonographerz), is part of this collective, and my friend Frank (FWMJ) is responsible for the graphic design/photography and general motivation. This is some good stuff, somewhat in the vein of The Foreign Exchange or Science Fiction (Wale Oyejide). The live instrumentation lends a sound that few hip-hop groups today have. H-town hip-hop seems to be stronger than ever... Oh yeah, an astute Houstonian observer might recognize the locale pictured above... Update: Apparently the album may no longer be downloadable from their site. I'll contact Frank and see what the deal is. Update 2 (3:07pm 050804): They pulled it because some labels approached them about distribution. However, I've been given unofficial permission to link some songs, so I'll try putting up one or two tracks per day. Links will only remain active for a week or so. Here are the first two tracks: * Track 1, Intro * Track 2, The Movement feat. D. Rose

Posted by Dennis at 12:57 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A couple of weeks ago Amar put up a very interesting post about the intersection of video games with hip-hop culture and music over at a new group blog that he's starting up with some other folks. In response, I thought I'd point out a couple of other tracks that also use some video game samples. I'll be deleting the audio files in about a week, so download them while you can.

Saafir, "Smart Bomb," Qwest Records 1996

This track was first released on a promo 12" for the album "The Hit List" which didn't actually end up getting released until 1999. It uses a ridiculous number of video game samples - I've never been able to identify them all. This was probably the last track Saafir put out that I really loved.

Scram Jones, "64 Bit," Sure Shot Recordings 2005

Scram Jones is a new up-and-coming producer/DJ/MC and this new track off his EP "Loose Cannons" takes a portion of the theme to one of the Super Mario Bros. games (number 3, maybe?) and explodes it. He's been featured as a guest on a few tracks in the last year, but it looks like he's finally making his move to get his name out there.

I'm not entirely sure that this is really a major development in hip-hop; rather I think that the concept of hip-hop has always been that producers have sampled sounds from popular sources. First it was disco, funk, and jazz; then it was film, and then producers started reaching for more obscure sources, yet still recognizable to many people. Video games have now thoroughly permeated their way through pop culture - everybody can recognize Super Mario Brothers, or Zelda, or Metroid. They are a part of the zeitgeist; an indelible anchor in the minds of the youth. It is only natural that they would be incorporated into hip-hop.

Posted by Dennis at 22:28 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The other day in the car, C. asked me how much of my iPod was hip-hop. She thought that it must have been at least 70 or 80 percent, but I was sure that it was less, probably closer to 50 percent. She was adamant that it must be more, so I did the only thing possible (as a complete and total nerd) to resolve the issue. I decided to find out definitively what portion of my library fell into each musical genre. The above graph illustrates the breakdown of my iTunes library, excluding the archives of my radio show. On the left is a stacked bar graph of the genres by number of songs, and on the right is a stacked bar graph by total file size. Total file size gives a rough estimate of the actual time for each genre, although it's not perfect due to the fact that not all the files in my collection are ripped at the same bit rate. There are about 60 or so genres in the graph, but that is because I have exerted a level of granularity over my collection that very few people do. For example, I have a House category, _and_ House/Deep and House/Disco categories. I have tried to color genres that could be lumped together - Alternative & Punk, Pop, Rock, and a few other categories are all yellow; most electronic styles are gray, hip-hop related categories are red, etc. As you can see, approximately 40% of my library is hip hop-related, and about 30-35% of my library is rock-related. Jazz accounts for about 8% of the total number of songs, but fully 12% of the archive's disk space. This is to be expected - jazz songs tend to be longer on average than other genres. Rock songs tend to be shorter. That's all well and good, but it doesn't answer the original question - what percentage of my _iPod_ is hip hop? I mean, I guess it's possible that I've disproportionately loaded it with hip hop, right? Well, it turns out that that is not the case. It turns out that the distribution of songs on my iPod nearly mirrors that of the main library. If anything, it's actually heavier on the rock. Interestingly, electronic music takes up a fair bit of size on the iPod without making its presence felt in the number of songs - most of those are DJ sets, which are around an hour long each. There is definitely less jazz as well, which makes sense - I don't usually listen to jazz in the car. Anyway, this is a gross misuse of my time and Excel, but I have definitively laid to rest the question. Only 40% of my music is hip hop. (Although I'm sure that will change dramatically if I ever get around to archiving all of my vinyl...)

Posted by Dennis at 16:47 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Update: The show is tonight! Come out to Rudyard's (2010 Waugh) to rock out!

For those of you who are in Houston, I helped put together a show that's going to happen in a couple of weeks. The Oranges Band (Lookout! Records) will be playing at Rudyard's on Wednesday, 16 March 2005. That's right before all the showcases start in Austin for SXSW. Also appearing will be The Heavenly States and Taylor Hollingsworth. This should be a pretty rockin' show, so consider showing up.

Posted by Dennis at 16:50 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

When D.L. asked me to start contributing to this site, I think both of us expected I would write about music more often. In fact, I haven't posted anything about music at all. Part of the reason, I suppose, is that if I write a review, I want it to be cohesive, coherent, and contain an opinion worth reading. That takes time and energy I haven't had much of. Well, regardless...I feel compelled to share a few words about this album. Though I've been a reggae listener for a long time, there are still many artists I'm trying to become more familiar with. This is especially true for the rocksteady style (the more uptempo, romantic, smoother precursor to the roots reggae of the 1970s). I knew little more about Alton Ellis than his name, but after recently downloading and enjoying a couple songs of his, I bought Sunday Coming on a whim. Wow. All these incredible songs floating around out there which I had never heard. The music is terrific - tight, funky, fluid. But it's the vocals which really put this one over the top for me. It's got the soaring falsettos, beautiful harmonies, and interesting chord changes reminiscent of the best Chicago soul music. I'm only 35 years late, but I definitely recommend this for any reggae or soul fans.

Posted by Will at 21:28 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Ha ha. Sub Pop Records has a great parody of Pitchfork up at their website. It's true, the people who write for Pitchfork are a bunch of hipster elitist music snobs with some really weird levels of rating things. I admit that I check Pitchfork out every now and then, but rarely if ever pay attention to their numerical ratings. Mostly they're good for bringing the 'hipster' releases to my attention. They have basically no idea of what they're doing when they review hip-hop or electronic music, but they do seem to always know what the next trendy thing is in rock. Not that the next trendy thing is actually any good, but whatever...

Posted by Dennis at 09:34 (Central) | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The Onion just published their article about the least essential albums of 2003. I don't think that there can be much argument about their list. Next week I imagine that they will put out their top albums list, so definitely check back. They tend to have a definite slant towards indie rock in their lists, but it's not as bad as Pitchfork's slant.

The Reputation listserve asked for a top 10 albums of 2003 (released in 2003, no re-issues or re-releases). Here was my 10, in arbitrary order:

• Madlib - Shades of Blue: Madlib Invades Blue Note - Blue Note Records
• Akrobatik - Balance - Coup d'Etat
• Lyrics Born - Later That Day... - Quannum Projects
• Hydroponic Sound System - grids/loops/intersections - Alternate Take Records
• Micatone - Is You Is - Sonar Kollektiv
• Various artists - Mic Planet Sessions - Insomniac
• Sleep Walker - Sleep Walker - Especial
• the Minimal Effort - As Sequenced By Humans - Bank of India
• Trüby Trio - Elevator Music - Compost
• Cat Power - You Are Free - Matador

To be honest, this is a pretty arbitrary top 10. Most of the best stuff I got this year was either released as a 12" single or was a re-issue of old material. Full albums were something I didn't really buy a whole lot of this year. Other notable albums that probably deserve to be on this list just as much include:

• Atmosphere - Seven's Travels - Rhymesayers
• Ugly Duckling - Taste the Secret - Emperor Norton
• McKay - McKay - Go Beat
• Push Button Objects - Ghetto Blaster - Chocolate Industries
• Jaylib - Champion Sound - Stones Throw

I really paid pretty much no attention to indie rock this year. So many ridiculous electroclash bands, so many bands that just seemed bland, so much crap. The only indie rock I really listened to this year was local stuff at shows - The Jonx especially. Speaking of ridiculous electroclash bands, I saw Single Frame the other night at Rudyard's. Pitchfork has given them a review of 8.5, and of 7.4. Figures. They were good, but they sounded (and looked!) like they were airdropped right out of Manchester, 1983. Give them a couple more years, and they'll have the Flock of Seagulls hairdo perfected. They have a lot of energy, though, and the live set is fun to listen to. I guess I just feel like the whole retro-new wave thing is boring now. Fuck, if I really wanted to listen to New Order or A Certain Ratio or Information Society, I'd just fucking stay home and put on a record.

Nikki Texas (or NTX and Electric Set), on the other hand, were really pretty interesting. If for nothing else, because everyone in the band is really hot. But they're actually working the whole focused noise aspect of electronics-based bands into something at least marginally novel. Their sound has a lot of texture. Not much else, including structure, but hell, when you're going experimental, go all out.

Frox Noxon opened, and well, they were just sort of bland. My friend Danny has been sitting in as their drummer for a while (his term is ending this week; he has a much better band in The Jonx) and though I could see him pounding on the drums, I could rarely actually hear him. The guitarist was just way too loud. Anyway, they have a couple of decent songs, but they weren't terribly spectacular.

My conclusion of the night was that I need to go to shows more often. Rudyard's is a great venue for seeing small shows. Plus they have reasonable prices on beer. Always a plus.

Posted by Dennis at 18:43 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Now that Apple has released iTunes for Windows, it seems that a lot of people are picking up on the fact that Apple designs some good shit. However, there's been some bitching that you can't resell your tracks. That's a bunch of bullshit, as this guy has shown that you actually can, although it might not be practical. It suggests that you'd probably need to sell a batch of them at a time, to make it monetarily worthwhile.

Whatever. I use iTunes because the goddamn thing is really well designed. I haven't even used the store yet. The smart playlists are where it's at. Current smart playlists of mine include:

• DJ sets - time is greater than 35 minutes (I rip my mix cds as one continuous track to eliminate the gap problem)
• tag-editing - Artist, Song Title, Album Title, Comments (I put the label info here), or Year is empty
• never played - Play Count is zero (currently trying to whittle away at 12 days worth of music never played as an mp3)
• recently played - Last Played within two weeks
• most played - Play Count is greater than n, where n is an arbitrarily chosen integer that keeps the number of songs on this list less than or equal to 250; sorted by descending order of Play Count
• highest rated - I don't often rate songs, so this one may go the way of the dodo
• recently added - mp3 added within the last four weeks

I have a few others, but you get the idea. And all of these update in real-time. Beautiful.

Posted by Dennis at 20:47 (Central) | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm probably going to initiate radio silence until I get my thesis done. (Not that I've been terribly communicative with people lately.) I think I may even clear out my bedroom, pad the walls, and just drop a power tap in and lock myself into a completely austere environment for 10 hours a day to get this done. I'll probably continue to post my playlists, but email and phone are going to go dead for a while.

But before I go, there are some random things I'd like to tell you about. My old flatmate and some other friends who are now in the Bay Area made a CD this summer - As Sequenced By Humans by the Minimal Effort. It's pretty fucking good. I'm not sure if it's available for distribution, but it damn well ought to be, so I'm going to find out for you. The breakout single is clearly "Carpool Lane," but all seven songs are solid. Laura has a disarmingly sweet voice which fits the music perfectly, although clearly she's not a pro. Post-production is pretty good; there are some nice effects thrown in on the instrumentals, along with some slight crispy distortion on the vocals on a couple of songs.

Cory Doctorow has a new book out; it's a collection of some of his short stories, including 0wnz0red which initially appeared at Salon.com and was my first introduction to Doctorow's brand of sci-fi. He's also very cutting edge; you can download a lot of his stories for free; he's experimenting to see how the Internet might actually help his sales. His entire first novel is available for free, and it's pretty good. I'm planning on going out and buying his books and then possibly donating them to the library.

I'd comment on politics and other news events, but that would probably just make me angry. Let me leave you with this: take a look at the first definition of fascism to appear. Except for the dictator part, it sounds like the U.S.A. under Dubya right now, doesn't it? Replace terror with intimidation, and racism with racial profiling and it's exactly where we are...

Posted by Dennis at 11:11 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The problem with cutting yourself off from the world is that you miss out on some good shit. Apparently, King Britt was in town on Saturday night, and I missed the show. King Britt! Josh Wink was in town, too, but I don't really care. King Britt! I found out about it at around 1 am on Sunday morning, as I was flipping through the Houston Press with my Guinness in hand. Damn.

Mondro's party Friday night was... interesting. Mostly because he lives in an interesting neighborhood, and all sorts of weird people just kept showing up. The party hit its second wind at around 2:30 in the morning, and was still going pretty strong by the time I left at 4 am. My set was pretty mediocre. Hit the groove with the house music, but my experimental stuff leading up to it was a bust. Scratching over beats was fun, but there was little room to move and it was set up in the reverse of what I prefer so I had to cross-arm it; then while I was scratching my fader hand kept hitting the hamster switch on the mixer (very inconveniently designed, that). Oh well. Can't win 'em all.

Oh yeah, Saturday was Geschwinday. The site is down right now, but my sister is going to ask around to see if the original files still exist, and then maybe I'll be hosting the official information for Geschwinday. Also, if anyone feels like playing host to me on my US tour after I graduate, please let me know.

Posted by Dennis at 08:55 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Right now I'm listening to Wish and Wait by Del Cielo. Ellen recommended it to me. They're a trio out of the D.C. area, and they're pretty good. Solid songwriting; I wish I had seen them when they toured through Houston. Oh well.

If you're interested in local rock, you should check out The Jonx. It's my friend Danny's band. I finally got a chance to see them play a couple of weeks ago and they rocked it, even with a few mistakes. The songs are great, and the band plays with some intensity. They'll be playing at a large upcoming festival next Saturday.

Posted by Dennis at 15:50 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Shit, I shouldn't have had that Coca-Cola.

Anyway, lots of stuff to report on in the last week or so. Many thanks to those people who came out and supported the crew last Friday at Firestation #3. Not as many people showed up as we would have liked, but it seemed like everyone was having a good time. One guy who just moved to Houston from New York asked me why there weren't more people at the event, as something like this in NY would be jammed with people. I just looked at him and told him this was Houston...

Still trying to rehab my ankle. No game this weekend, so it'll get almost a full week of rest. Hopefully that will help.

In other news, the Supreme Court ended its most recent session with some amazing rulings. I'm glad to see them rule on affirmative action with a majority opinion that recognizes that the strength of the union depends on having a diverse leadership, and that we don't currently have that now. They also ruled in Lawrence vs. Texas that the state has no right to legislate rules governing private adult consensual activity. I'm glad they did this, and I'm rather surprised to see that there are people out there who still believe that gays shouldn't have the same level of rights. Senator Frist (R-Tennessee, current Senate majority leader) has come out saying that he would back an amendment barring gay marriage. That's ridiculous. The religious right should remember that the U.S. is supposed to stand for equal rights for all, and that marriage is no longer solely a religious pact between a man and a woman. Hell, you can get married down at the courthouse by a JP, so it clearly doesn't have to be based in religion. Marriage is no more than a social contract between two people - there is no logical reason that I can find that suggests that the two people have to be of the same gender. In fact, I would argue that allowing gay marriage is to the advantage of corporations. Right now, corporations are pressured to extend benefits to partners in same-sex relationships. One of the arguments against extending benefits has been that is prone to abuse by fraud. Who's to say that those two people are really dependent on each other? If same-sex marriages were legalized, there would be no reason to extend benefits to domestic partners. It would be, to put it bluntly, a situation where the corporation could say 'put up or shut up.' It would force gay partners to get married in order to get those benefits. A possible side effect of this would be the subtle social engineering of the gay relationship. Another complaint by the religious right has been the promiscuous behaviour exhibited by many gay people. If you force gay people to get married to get benefits, well, that also opens them up to divorce and the whole load of other crap that comes along with marriage. It may actually encourage monogamy in the gay community, which then might lead to a decrease in diseases spread by sexual contact. Win-win for everyone!

OK, enough about politics and sociology. Last night I went to see a local Houston vibraphonist (Roman Skakun) with Jason Marsalis on drums. I spent a lot more money that I expected to (the show was moved from Cezanne's to Sierra Grill, causing an estimated 30% increase in my bar tab) but it was worth it. The quartet started off a little rough, but progressively got tighter. Jason Marsalis is an amazing musician - he even brought along a pair of finger cymbals that he busted out near the end of the night. Roman Skakun had some nice four-mallet work, although I felt he wasn't playing loud enough. The guitarist was talented, as was the bassist, but I felt neither of them really stood out. I am, however, slightly biased as a fellow percussionist, having played both vibraphone and drums in my earlier years...

Posted by Dennis at 03:16 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've finally got the last few weeks worth of shows encoded, so here they are.

• the Vinyl Frontier, 29 April 2003
• the Vinyl Frontier, 6 May 2003
• the Vinyl Frontier, 13 May 2003
• electronic music show w/ Ahypnos, 16 May 2003; mostly techno and house. Not so good mixing on my part; I hadn't actually listened to any of those records before.
• the Vinyl Frontier, 20 May 2003 - this show kicked ass. I had some good moments, and the mixes felt right.

Still working on reformatting the stupid punchout photo blocks. I don't have easy access to IE/Win, though. All of the Mac browsers I've tested so far work correctly. Stupid Windows.

Posted by Dennis at 15:32 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I've finally gotten up the last few weeks worth of the show. 128Kbps joint stereo mp3s. We'll see if I start making the switch to AAC now that Apple has announced their new service.

• 8 April 2003
• 15 April 2003
• 22 April 2003

Posted by Dennis at 16:38 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It was fun opening for the Triple Threat DJs (Apollo, Shortkut, and Vin Roc) on Saturday. We had some technical difficulties early on, so we didn't really get a whole lot of time to spin, but I got some nice pics. Here you can see the ridiculous quantity of gear on stage - three Technics 1200s, two Pioneer CD decks, one Akai sampler, a laptop, two Rane mixers, and two Vestax mixers. I'll post some more pictures later, but I thought you'd all like to see this one...

Apollo was working the Final Scratch, and apparently he's been designated the official spokesman of the trio because he did most of the talking. I was surprised to see the CD decks, but they made the absolute most out of the decks by compiling all of their scratch samples and drum breaks in order on the CDs, which allowed them to be unbelievably tight in the transitions. After about 45 minutes of fun, they each stepped up and did solo routines. Apollo first, then Shortkut, and then Vin Roc. Vin Roc absolutely killed it during his solo routine. I guess he's a back to back champion for a reason. You could see that he was having fun; and he pulled off some tight body tricks. I'm absolutely going to have to work on my juggling now...

Posted by Dennis at 15:32 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night, the Phonographerz (that's Baby Cee, Cozmos, Dave 1, and myself) played at Helios. Big ups to Cee Plus and Samplistik for having us out there. It was fun; we tag teamed on four turntables and two mixers. My cutting is getting better, plus it helps that the music was so bloody loud that no one could really tell what the hell I was doing. And of course, inevitably half the crowd found their way behind the decks and we had a hell of a lot of guest DJs cutting for a couple of minutes each. My only complaint is that Samplistik is too tall - his setup was the one we ended up cutting on, and it was really uncomfortable to be doing crabs with my wrist higher than my navel. I'm excited, though, because everyone seemed to have a really good time, and we're learning each other's idiosyncrasies. I'm also excited to be opening for the Triple Threat DJs on the 26th at Fat Cat's.

I was somewhat surprised that a good chunk of my friends managed to make it out to the show - we didn't start until midnight. It was a good turnout, though, and amazingly enough, Debbi managed to convince some of her trendy B-school friends to come out to Helios. Mondro was good enough to come out and support. We're really going to have to start dj-ing together... six turntables. That'll be hella crazy.

For those of you who might actually have been waiting, here's the mp3 of the last show. I didn't manage to get last night's performance recorded. Next time.

Posted by Dennis at 21:36 (Central)

Here is the mp3 of the last show. Looks like I solved the CoreAudio problem. Now it's just regular problems with distortion. Plus grounding problems. It's time to replace the RCA cables on those Technics...

In other news, the US is going to shit. Check this article, this editorial, and this article. We appear to be destroying the very liberties that are the reason we are fighting the "war on terrorism." (How one uses guns to fight a concept still escapes me. What is the victory state of that war, anyway?) While you're at it check out Saul Williams' new track, "Not In My Name." The DJ Goo remix is the really hot one.

Also, I've just now realized that half of my pages are completely broken. My CSS mojo is very low right now. Most of the pages render fine in Chimera (my primary browser) but there are issues in IE and other browsers. Expect a major overhaul of the site soon.

Posted by Dennis at 22:47 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've encoded the set from last Friday's show. You can download it. However, both it and the set from the week before have distortion and pops. It's too bad, because they were decent sets. I believe the problem is with CoreAudio. I just upgraded my software (hah!) and of course, it fucked things up. Hopefully I've solved the problem. We'll find out when I try to record tomorrow night's show...

Posted by Dennis at 15:14 (Central) | Comments (0)

So the mp3 didn't turn out so well. I'm going to see if that's a problem with the source, or with the encoding. You can get the current version of the set here while I try to fix the problem. The set went reasonably well, considering I haven't actually listened to most of those songs in a while, and some were brand new to me. I guess I need to start practicing again...

Continue reading "electronica [21 Feb 2003]" »

Posted by Dennis at 16:24 (Central) | Comments (0)

Well, I'll try to post a playlist, but I'm going to have to trainspot the whole show. This week I had the Phonographerz turntablist crew (of which I am sort of a member) up on the show. Three turntables, tag team style. You can download the three hour set. Baby Cee, Cozmos, and Dave killed it. I tried to help.

Tonight, I'll be hosting the electronic music show on KTRU from 9pm to 11pm. I'll probably be spinning some house, some broken beat, some nu-jazz. Next Friday I'll be hosting as well, and Leigh will be the guest dj, so expect some dope jungle breakbeats...

Posted by Dennis at 15:01 (Central) | Comments (1)

Another fan (Mary Ralph) recently posted this to the Reputation listserv:

"Maybe Avril Lavigne is like the gateway drug of female rockers... which would make the Reputation crack cocaine..."

Here is my response. Let's just say I had an inspired moment.

Music dealer: Pssst! Hey kid, come here!

Teenage kid: Yeah, what?

MD: I hear you're into that Avril Lavigne shit.

TK: Yeah, so?

MD: Well, I got some stuff here that'll totally take you to a new world. It's the hard stuff, man, the real deal, it's the Reputation.

TK: I hear you can't fileshare that stuff, though - I'm not sure I'm into that...

MD: Naw, kid, you can try the first three tracks free. You can walk away after that if you don't like it.

TK: Well, I guess it can't hurt.

(45 minutes, 16 seconds later - including some 163 seconds of silence)
TK: Fuck, I need that. Here's my $10 bucks. You got any more?

MD: Naw kid, that's it for the Reputation, but I got some Sarge - it's a lot like that but a little more raw; and I've got some other stuff I bet you'll like, too...

Posted by Dennis at 02:26 (Central) | Comments (0)

Two quick reviews of hip-hop cds that I did for KTRU:

E Da Boss, Catchin' A Buzz, Slept On Records

This is a nice little EP of breakbeats; it's a good showcase of where sample-based music in hip-hop is heading, while still keeping some old school flavor. All tracks are clean, all tracks are good.

1. (3:15) Intro + Nt#2 - short intro rap by Gift of Gab on the telephone, beautiful, ethereal, syncopated instrumental breakbeat
2. (4:30) Bop T Bop (DJ Platurn remix) - chunky beat with a far eastern tinge, some spoken samples, lots of scratches.
3. (3:57) Sucka DJs - female MC (Dimple D?) kicks it over an old school breakbeat with a lot of reverb
4. (2:50) E's House Party - soulful, slow, sad instrumental. crispy hi-hat in the breakbeat. some female background vox.
5. (3:05) 50¢ Breaks - conjures up the old school R&B jam. some scratches and juggling.
6. (6:00) Sooth Your Soul (Montags Dust Remix) - shuffling triplet pattern on top of the 4/4, laid back groove driven by the walking bass line. some minor harmonies woven in...

Various artists, Plug Tunes vol. 1, Metatronix

I like the vibe here; it's pretty good progressive hip-hop. However, these are mostly instrumentals, and I know for a fact that some of these songs have vocal parts. As a result, a lot of these tunes drag on way too long. It's one thing to have a five minute song composed of 16-bar loops if people are rhyming over them, but to just have the loops can be a bit repetitive and dull. It's a nice look into a particularly underrepresented aesthetic in hip-hop, though.

1. (4:46) Supersoul - Almighty Dub (feat. Juliet) - dubby breakbeat, lots of reverb. some chopped up/distorted female vox
2. (5:30) Calamalka - Ten-9 Volts - synthesized flute-like intro. fuzzed out bass with crispy top end. this beat goes nowhere.
3. (2:42) Eternal Golden Void - Witch Finder - slow spooky feel
4. (5:40) Digital K - Coming Dub - nice breakbeat with a dubby feel - almost feels like it's going to break doubletime but it doesn't. short vocal samples embedded.
5. (3:52) Brimstone127 - Espionage - tense beat with building samples leads into that dark unknown corner...
6. (4:47) Mike Pre-Amp - Calaloo - heh. clever name for the artist. erratic, circus on downers sort of feel to this instrumental break.
7. (3:48) Supersoul - Sound Clash [Fat Jon remix inst.] - this is a beautiful track. Nice piano line. Fat Jon is the man.
8. (4:20) Jake Mandell - Die Kleine Hexe [Supersoul remix] - spaced out, soundtracky. sweeping synth resembles wind blowing
9. (4:58) Supersoul - Klinga [Push Button Objects remix] - plodding pace, but has a very nice progression to the loops.
10. (4:41) Stratagy - Splinters In The Mind's Eye - some scratching over an orchestral beat in some minor tonality
11. (4:41) Supersoul - Feel The Cold [illicit version] - bleepy intro, picks up the pace with spaced out sounds throughout; some vocal samples.
12. (5:59) Supersoul - Sleepwalker [DJ Vadim remix] - vocal intro. Vadim flips this one into a spectacular exploration of texture and mood. Breakbeat feels almost extraneous, though.

Posted by Dennis at 00:41 (Central) | Comments (0)

The Sound Exchange in Austin is closing its doors. Dan and I made a road trip into Austin today to pay our respects - and buy whatever we could find (30% off everything!).

I picked up a lot of random stuff, from blues to jazz to pop to hip-hop and back. But the one cd I picked up on a lark has turned out to be fantastic. It's the newest album by Jenny Toomey, formerly of Tsunami. Titled "Tempting," it's a fine melange of pop, lounge, and more with some amazing guest musicians on it. (Did someone say Calexico?) Anyway, pick it up if you find a copy. It's worth it, I promise.

Posted by Dennis at 02:22 (Central)

An assemblage of links for your entertainment, education, and edification.

• A remix of Doujah Raze's "Irish Cream" from H-Peh from Germany.
• The Mountain Brothers have some new tracks out. At least one (Microphone Phenomenal) sounds super dope. I've been waiting a long time. 2003 is the year my yellow brothers will take over! Yao Ming, the Mountain Brothers, who's next?
• If you're a student, this store has the cheapest price I've found for the Adobe Design Collection (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat). Even this poor grad student managed to afford it.
• A low point of Asian-american subculture.

Posted by Dennis at 14:48 (Central)

This is the moment you've all been waiting for - the release of the downloadable mp3 of the hit R&B single, "Sweaty Sweaty" by Dr. G and Jimmy Jamz.

You know what, girl?

You know what.

Posted by Dennis at 23:06 (Central)

The mp3 recording of the interview I conducted back in November with Sleep and Onry Ozzborn from Oldominion, and Qwel from Typical Cats is finally online. You can access it here or from the audio archive page. It's a decent interview, and I got a nice little exclusive track from Onry, but I've encoded at a somewhat low bitrate to discourage piracy.

Posted by Dennis at 19:01 (Central)

I suppose I never mentioned it, but I'm officially part of the Phonographerz Crew now. Baby Cee and Cozmos asked me to join, along with DJ Dave. I'm still not entirely sure why I'm in the crew, because I don't cut or juggle nearly as well as they do. The only things I have going for me are my obscure records, impeccable taste, and blinding good looks, I guess. ;-)

In any case, we had our first performance as a crew last Sunday (the 29th of December) at the Proletariat (yeah, it's kind of a pretentious name for a bar, isn't it?) with absolutely no practice together. It went pretty well, although it was a little odd doing short little sets in between bands. We settled into the groove at the end when we got an hour for ourselves. The weirdest thing, though, was watching my worlds collide. Several of the staff members from the Gingerman and one employee of the Briar Shoppe showed up. It's strange seeing these people, whom I only know from very specific locations in my life, out in a social capacity. I don't mind it, it's just weird. On top of all that, my good friend A. is back in town for a while, and we've been doing way too much drinking.

Perhaps weirder, though, is that I seem to be getting more gigs as a dj now by not trying than I did before when I actively sought them out. Karma, perhaps? Some sort of weird Zen exercise? We'll see how long this lasts...

Posted by Dennis at 00:25 (Central)

In no particular order, here are the top 5 albums that I got that were published in 2002.

Continue reading "top 5 albums of 2002" »

Posted by Dennis at 15:10 (Central)

Here is the playlist for the vinyl frontier, 19 nov 2002.

Continue reading "playlist [19 nov 2002]" »

Posted by Dennis at 18:44 (Central)

I've uploaded two more mp3 files, both from past prologue sessions. The first is Baby Cee and Cozmos on 08 June 2002, and the second is myself and Chicken George on 26 July 2002. The first is a 192Kbps stereo mp3, the second is a 160Kbps mono mp3.

• Download Baby Cee and Cozmos' set, 08 June 2002.
• Download my and Chicken George's sets.

Posted by Dennis at 19:00 (Central)

Here is the playlist from the vinyl frontier, 12 November 2002.

Continue reading "playlist [12 nov 2002]" »

Posted by Dennis at 13:52 (Central)

I've just put up three more mp3 mixes; they're promotional mixes that I made in a half-hearted attempt to get gigs. I don't really have the stomach to go pound the pavement and pimp myself out to club owners, though. It's not like my style would really fly in Houston anyway. Chicago, New York, London, San Francisco, yes; Houston, no. Click on the link to the left to get to the main audio archive page.

Posted by Dennis at 01:38 (Central)

I'm making mp3 files of the prologue archives available on the web. Please be kind to my server; I'm only hosting on my cable modem at home. So be patient - the files are encoded at 192Kbps stereo, so considering that I only get upload speeds of around 128Kbps, it should take longer to download the files than the actual length of the sets.

The first two available files are from the most recent session (the first of November). I've got about one hour of Leigh's chill jungle set, and about an hour and a half of Baby Cee and Cozmos' set.

Download Leigh's set.
Download Baby Cee and Cozmos' set.

Posted by Dennis at 02:47 (Central)

Woo! Technology (specifically a Mac OS 9 application called SoundApp) saves the day. I managed to recover the data from last Friday's prologue session. I'll mp3 it and put it up on the site at some point. It was a good party, for those who missed it - Leigh dropped a tight set; Baby Cee, Cozmos, and Fast 4ward wowed the crowd, and I trainwrecked badly my three turntable set. At one point we had four turntables and five mixers on the table, all of which were being used. Bad signal routing on our part. Hopefully next time we won't be following Microcinema - that way we can get everything set up ahead of time.

Wednesday night I rocked out to the sounds of Calexico at Mary Jane's. They were amazing. I kept acting like an idiot, dancing and shouting and drinking... It was the most fun I have had at a show in a long, long time. I missed K, but I heard she was good. Destroyer was all right, but something of a one-trick pony. I couldn't tell when one song ended and the next began because they were all in the same key, at the same tempo, with the same chords. Sheesh. They had a nice sonic texture, but I didn't really get into them.

Posted by Dennis at 16:37 (Central)

Less than a week until the party. I've got to get my set together. Anyway, I've been dramatically influenced by a few different CDs, all of which have 80's tracks on them. Rjd2 has a short promo mix cd out, Spinbad of course, and Z-Trip and DJ P.

What I really need, though is a new mixer. It's tough to do multiple turntable sets with daisy-chained two channel battle mixers. I was totally floored by Rjd2's ability to do it during the Def Jux tour.

Good stuff to look for: anything on Strut, Jazzanova's "In Between," and the DJ Cam compiled "Honeymoon: The Key Love Songs of My Life" on Chronowax.

Posted by Dennis at 17:23 (Central)