Bomb It is the explosive new documentary from award-winning director Jon Reiss investigating the most subversive and controversial art form currently shaping international youth culture: graffiti.
Through interviews and guerilla footage of graffiti writers in action on 5 continents, Bomb It tells the story of graffiti from its origins in prehistoric cave paintings thru its notorious explosion in New York City during the 70’s and 80’s, then follows the flames as they paint the globe. Featuring old school legends and current favorites such as Taki 183, Cornbread, Stay High 149, T-Kid, Cope 2, Zephyr, Revs, Os Gemeos, KET, Chino, Shepard Fairey, Revok, and Mear One. This cutting edge documentary tracks down today’s most innovative and pervasive street artists as they battle for control over the urban visual landscape. You’ll never look at public space the same way again.
Bomb It was shot in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tijuana, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, Berlin, Cape Town, São Paulo, and Tokyo.
Anyone who knows R. Crumb’s work as an illustrator knows of his passion for music. And all those who collect his work, prize the Heroes of the Blues, Early Jazz Greats, and Pioneers of Country Music trading-card sets he created in the early- to mid-1980s. This collection coincides with those sets and was selected and compiled by R. Crumb himself. A characteristically idiosyncratic tribute by an underground icon to the musical innovators who helped inspire him, R. Crumb’s Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country is a must-have collection for Crumb aficionados and music lovers alike.
Man…or Astroman?, one of my favorite bands ever and the band I’ve seen perform live the most in my life (The Woggles and The Robustos following closely behind), is reuniting for a select amount of shows in Atlanta, Birmingham and Austin next month. Read Chunklet magazine’s reunion interview here.
Getting in the mode of thought that I was actually going to be able to attend the shows, I started diggin’ in my limited surf crates and came out with the tunes I’d use to get psyched about it.
Regretfully, I was still in the phase of exchanging records when I was heavily into surf music and many vanished from the crates. I did hang on to my favorites though and was able to recover some via blogs. Hadn’t listened to these tunes in a long time, and, upon revisiting them, it took me back to the days of high school and remembering some of those amazing surf and garage shows at the Wreck Room, Cotton Club (original location on P’tree and 11th), The Point, The Star Bar, Echo Lounge, Somber Reptile, Masquerade, The Bottletree, inside WREK 91.1 FM studios, and the 40 Watt.
In the 1970s, Philadelphia’s sound of Philly Soul was successful throughout the world with many groups such as the O’Jays, Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes and The People’s Choice achieving hit after hit. The Sound of Philadelphia traces the origins of this Philly sound in the late sixties and early seventies featuring artists who went on to worldwide success and those who never made it out of the metropolitan area. Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, the songwriters and producers responsible for most of the hits in the 70s are behind many of the songs here. Harris, Baker and Young, the team responsible for MFSB, the most successful studio band in Philadelphia as well as a hugely successful group in its own right, are also featured here. A number of tracks feature their big orchestral sound that became synonymous with Philadelphia in the 70s and later Disco. Dig in to these stellar East Coast vibes.
The new studio album from the legendary Mulatu Astatke. The session finds him exploring new directions in the fusion of Western jazz and Ethiopian modes, a natural development of the innovative, intoxicating sound that he pioneered in the 60s and 70s. The album was recorded with personnel from Boston’s Either/Orchestra, with further contributions from traditional Ethiopian musicians in Addis Ababa, members of The Heliocentrics and some of the UK’s finest Jazz and African-music players.
The first ever compilation of Cuban funk: Si, Para Usted: The Funky Beats of Revolutionary Cuba, Volume One. An unprecedented combination of socialism and artistic freedom flourished during the mid-years of Castro’s Cuba, enabling musicians to create an innovative body of music based on traditional styles like those made famous by the Buena Vista Social Club. Si, Para Usted captures the spirit of this time. The music ranges from son, beat, jazz, and funk, and abounds with psychedelic influences, electronic experimentation, and a heavy dose of soul. Communist funk may seem unlikely, but here it is.
Compiled by Dan Zacks of Waxing Deep Radio in response to massive listener demand for the Cuban music played on the show. Outside of the Waxing Deep archive, the bulk of funky Cuban music is virtually unobtainable. Cuban recordings were never widely distributed and few have been reissued. Utterly committed to sharing good music, Dan took it upon himself to make these fantastic tracks more widely accessible. Almost all of the tracks were re-mastered from the original tapes kept by the Cuban government in a dusty Havana warehouse. Given the poor quality of Cuban vinyl, this means the music on Si, Para Usted has a quality of sound previously unavailable. Quite simply, the music has never sounded this good.
In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly-mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin; Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.
Note: I made this post back in December, looks like the links are dead now and I don’t have any to re-up. Nonetheless, you should check this movie out one way or another as it’s an excellent documentary.
Just picked up The Bamboos’ 4 and The Souljazz Orchestra’s Rising Sun. Didn’t know the Bamboos set was comin’ out, and comes as a very welcomed surprise, and I’ve been waitin’ for the Rising Sun LP for the better part of a year now. Can’t wait to digest them this evening.
Paris DJs serves up a delightful mixtape titled Make the Mix by Digging from DJ Tommy TNT, guitarist extraordinaire for the likes of Menahan Street Band, The Budos Band, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Bronx River Parkway, and El Michels Affair.
Found Silhouette Brown’s sophomore effort appropriately titled Two while grabbin’ the links for this post. Didn’t know it was scheduled and there’s little doubt that the Broken Beat and Nu-Jazz vibes will be equally as nice as the debut album sounded.
Also found Shapes 10:01 from Tru Thoughts while doin’ this. Looks like it is filled with more exclusive tracks from their exceptional roster of artists. Pick it up in three parts: Pt.1, Pt.2, Pt.3
Johnny Cash’s American IV: Ain’t No Grave represents the Man in Black’s final recordings before his death in September 2003. This one is essential, as are all the other volumes in the series.
Stopped by Wat Komniyaket, the temple and school next to my house, a few weeks ago to check out what all the activity was about. Turns out they were having a “Field Day” for five schools in the area. Brought back good memories of me doing the same thing when I was their age. However, one noticeable difference was the lack of shoes on all the kids. Classic Thai style.
Checked out Avatar recently. Definitely awesome in regards to the visuals…even when watching a bootleg copy on my laptop. Can’t imagine how killer it’d look on the big screen…or IMAX for that matter…or in 3D…or with psilocybin in the system! Overall, it was an entertaining film, story was a bit formulaic, visuals were stunning to say the least, running time was rather long, deserving of special effects awards, but certainly not deserving of any “Best Picture” awards. As for the complaints regarding the Papyrus-font subtitles, I couldn’t comment on it as my bootleg DVD contained Verdana typeface and the translation was in German! Still have no idea what the meaning of all of the Na’vi dialogue was. Oh well, I wasn’t overly glued to the storyline anyways.
Films that left a much more satisfying impression that I watched recently were The Men Who Stare at Goats and The Informant.
My co-worker told me she had a dream that she found me in my office on the brink of death with blood coming out of my mouth and in a pool around me. After telling me about the dream, she asked me what my age was, so I answered. I asked why she wanted to know and she told me that it was a lucky dream and she was going to play my age in the underground lottery in her village. Thoroughly confused in regards to the link between visions of my death and the luck of the lottery.
Took another trip out to the Similans, a group of nine islands about 60 km offshore from where I live. Never fails to amaze me when I go out there. Stunning!
Flippin’ through my Thai crates just got way fuckin’ easier thanks to ThaiTunes. Here’s what the crates looked like before and here’s what they look like after. Should’ve hunted that script down years ago. Som boom baep!
Holy shit was the NBA Slam Dunk Contest a huge letdown this year. Weak! Totally fuckin’ weak! I’m gonna refrain from getting’ on my soapbox for this one otherwise this’ll run on for far too long. Here’s to hopin’ next year’s event will be totally opposite of this year’s. On a better note, the Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown, showcasing the finalists who won throughout the states in local competitions, was awesome. Super sick jams from those cats and The Air Up There’s 360 reverse two-handed flush was beyond nasty. Plenty of other sick dunks in the mix too. Message straight to David Stern’s head: Check your league before hittin’ L.A. next year, revise the rules, and let these amateurs (read “professionals” when it comes to dunking) put on a show. You be the judge. Hella easy to see the Association blew it this year for the Slam Dunk Contest.
Cheers to Esperanza for the heads up on The Morning Benders “Excuses” video. Totally out of touch with the indie rock world and this was a nice refresher. Just picked up the full length, Big Echo, to see how the whole set sounds.
Stussy will be releasing a three-part J Dilla documentary this month to honor the legendary producer who passed away four years ago this month. Check Part One below and be on the lookout for Part Two on 17.02 and Part Three on 24.02.
A small collection of pictures from last weekend. Took a ride up to Thap Tawan, Baan Nam Khem and Koh Kho Khao which are all about twenty minutes to the north of my house.
Another stunning Khao Lak sunset, fireworks on the beach, cabaret show, drinkin’ Leo brew in the yard, buffet of Thai/Chinese dishes, 10,000 Black Cat fireworks strung to a bamboo pole, Muay Thai fights on Channel 7, lucky drawing for “Ang Pow” envelopes for nineteen kids, hilarious dance shows by the kids before getting their envelope, shooting coconuts out of trees with a rifle, hiking up into the rubber trees in Natoey and a blanket of stars above with a strikingly clear view of Mars. That’s what Chinese New Year was like here in Phang Nga. Gong Xi Fa Cai! All the best to everyone in the Year of the Tiger.
The first of a two-part series, Dta Wan Awk Jer Dta Wan Dtok: Cha Bap Nueng showcases lost 45s, dating from the 60s and 70s, that have been unearthed here in The Land of Smiles. This session features sounds ranging from Luk-Thueng, roots-funk grooves from Isaan to Morlam-influenced arrangements played on the phin, khaen and sor to offbeat-disco dance scorchers to who knows what is coming out of my speaker. Thick horn lines, traditional percussion and string elements, deep bass lines, and intriguing vocals. The tunes are originals, covers, and adapted covers that were formed by the hybrid of Western-influenced sounds and instrumentation, and the native, traditional sounds of Thailand.
This massive collection features every track Bob Marley & The Wailers recorded for Lee Perry’s Upsetter label and features fellow Wailers Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingstone on lead vocals as well as Reggae legends U-Roy, Dave Barker, Big Youth and more. The cigarette-style flip box includes all known vocal, Dub, DJ, instrumental and alternative versions and clocks in with 110 tracks spanning 6 discs.
Collective Efforts is a crew out of Atlanta, GA that was formed out of the ashes of Live on Arrival and has been laying down positive hip-hop vibes for the better part of a decade. The crew originally consisted of three MCs and a DJ, but they’ve recently expanded their entourage to include an eclectically-influenced backing band where each member brings something unique to the table giving the crew a more dynamic and full sound.
Check the free single, “Crazy Things”, off their upcoming full length, Freezing World, set to be released on February 16th on 1320 Records. (Simply add the free track to your cart, sign up, then select the download preference of your choice.)
Check the mash-up of “The Dream” feat. Senor Kaos, off Freezing World, and “Sleepyhead” by Passion Pit mixed by Athens, GA DJ and Collective Efforts member Immuzikation.
The crew made an appearance on the 11Alive (Atlanta’s NBC affiliate) morning show last week to perform a few songs. Check the video below and be on the lookout for the unedited footage to come out sometime relatively soon.
Diggin’ the vibes you heard above. Don’t sleep on two of their earlier works. Crucial additions to your crates.
