Archive for the 'blogs' Category



25
Apr

Jesse Thorn has some stern words for Alec Baldwin

Apparently, Mr. Baldwin is leaning towards leaving 30 Rock. If you’ve seen one second of his performance on the show, you know that this is horrible, horrible news.

Over at The Sound Of Young America blog, America’s radio sweetheart takes Alec to task.

20
Apr

Your taste in music sucks. This will help.

Stop trying to convince yourself–and me–that Justin Timberlake is actually a recording artists worth paying any fucking attention to.

Stop watching MTV thinking, “They have to play something good eventually.” They don’t.

Stop trying to remember the names, faces and music of the latest blue-eyed soul sensation. They’ll be gone in a year.

It’s time to find out about some new music. Rather, some old music that you don’t know about.

WaxPo7
Wax Poetics
(Full disclosure: I wrote something for these guys that has yet to be published.)

But the reason I pitched them in the first place was that it’s just an amazing, amazing magazine. Here’s what the folks at the Utne Reader had to say when the gave WaxPo the 2005 Utne Independent Press Award for Arts/Literary Coverage.

This lovingly rendered bimonthly recaptures those grooves that were lost, both literally and figuratively, when jazz, funk, and hip-hop went digital. Like the vinyl recordings to which it pays tribute, the magazine’s mind-altering illustrations and kinetic photographs beg for a frame, while the prose crackles with truth and soul.

Remember when you were a kid and your parent’s friends came over for those grown up parties? Things started off calmly enough, but eventually your enjoyment of The A-Team was disturbed by their loud conversation, the blaring of the record player and that strange smell coming from the patio. This is the kind of music they were listening to.

Take it for a test drive with some of their free online content.

Soul Sides
Soul Sides

Oliver Wang–aka DJ O-Dub–started this audio blog which led to the production of the instant-classic CD compilation, Soul Sides Vol. 1, in 2006. Vol. 2 is coming soon. He’s also the editor of Classic Material: The Hip-Hop Album Guide.

My wife and I had the pleasure of seeing DJ O-Dub in action at Star Shoes recently. There aren’t a lot of things that could cause us to brave the traffic nightmare that is Hollywood Boulevard, but it was worth it. Any idiot can cue up a few James Brown songs and call themselves a DJ. Wang has that special knack that all good DJs share of being able to play the song that you don’t technically know , but once it gets going, it feels like it’s always been one of your favorites.

A perfect example, The Impressions: We’re A Winner.

20
Apr

Architecture is dope, yo!

Not to get all “back in my day”, but I really have fond memories of the television from my childhood. Before it became all about selling children toys and breakfast cereal, most of the shows we watched were actually educational. And nothing got me fired up like 3-2-1 Contact.

Thanks to the folks over at Curbed LA, I’ve had this song stuck in my head for a week now. I can’t think of anything more good natured and earnest than late 70s-early 80s children’s television.

And the rap singers in this video are actually pretty damn good!

Bonus video:
I couldn’t talk about 3-2-1 Contact without including the opening credits of the show. “Hey kids! Science is awesome!”

10
Apr

The family that blogs together…

Live in Los Angeles? Like stuff? Then you’ll love my wife’s blog, Blackburn and Sweetzer. What’s that, you say? You don’t live in Los Angeles? Well, don’t you like stuff? What kind of person are you? Who has a problem with stuff? Listen, let’s finish this later. Right now, just go check out my wife’s blog. She’s only been at it for a couple of weeks and she’s already gotten mentions on Curbed LA and LA.com.

The blog focuses on lifestyle and culture from the perspective of a resident in our little corner of Los Angeles, West 3rd Street. Yes, she talks about fashion. No, it isn’t sassy.

04
Apr

The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

While those moderately talented American Idol graduates sell millions of albums, these guys are grinding away on the street corners of New York. Obviously, my love of jazz and hip hop makes me their target market. But I can’t help but think there would be a lot of people who would pay good money to see/hear this.

There are plenty more clips of them performing on YouTube. Including a nice New York Times video story.

You can find more about them at their blog or their MySpace page.

06
Mar

My new favorite blog.

What Jeff Killed.




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