Austin360 blogs > Almost Urban > Archives > 2007 > January
January 2007
An Almost Urban midweek mix
From time to time, in addition to offering loose commentary, entertainment options and, well, inane chatter, I’m going to start posting audio mixes streaming through the 360SoundCheck player. I’m excited. It’s another way for me to share my genuine love of Austin music with you. I like it.
Today’s offering is a blend of hip-hop, club jazz and Latin groove.
Track by track breakdown
Young Nick - “A Few Thoughts” One of my favorite tracks from an ATX up-and-comer who’s definitely on the rise. In four minutes Nick tackles everything from the war in Iraq to questionable parenting. He intelligently dissects a slew of issues without seeming preachy.
NickNack - “Aqui En La Playa” Inspired by NickNack’s travels in Barcelona, this track leads with a funky beat then eases into a Latin groove infused with Euro-cool.
Element7d - Blow Easily the most undersung emcee in the ATX (everything the man touches is golden), Ele comes out blazing on this explosive track. He deftly twists fierce verse over an irresistibly anthemic groove. Seriously. My hands are up. Way up.
Mirage - “Brand New Day” Over a sunny beat (engineered by Element7d) longtime East Austin emcee and community organizer Mirage makes a call for unity and progress in the hood. A feel-good cut all around.
Bavu Blakes ft. MC Fatal - “Hold On, Stay Strong” It comes in with layered harmonies and a bangin’ groove that sets the head bobbin’, but the real power of this amazing cut is in Blakes’ first person narrative, embodying the true story of Jesse Lee Owens, an East side youth who lost his life in an altercation with the APD back in 2003.
DJ Chicken George ft. Take - “Dream Over” CG refers to this style of music as “jazztronica” a smooth blend of lush orchestration, club groove and, in this case, lucid emotion.
D Madness ft. Yadira Brown - “Where Did You Come From” Composed in the uncomfortable months after 9/11/01, this song about reaching, desperately hoping for love vividly captures the ubiquitous uncertainty of the moment in time. The aching vulnerability in Yadira’s voice as she slides from spoken word into the first chorus tugs at my heart every time.
Dubb Sicks ft. JudahFly - Once Upon A Time In Mexico A White boy emcee goes to Mexico and gets played by a conniving chica. Sure, it’s a cliche, but an easy story-telling style and a catchy chorus make it a fun track.
Grupo Fantasma ft. Ragah El - “Peligrosa” With a sense of impending superstardom already in mix, the lead track off of Grupo’s second album is absolutely dangerous.
Shake it like that!
Don’t even be surprised if you catch me cuttin’ it up like these fine chicas in a club someday very soon. (via Idolator)
Weekend picks: Free Fantasma, fashion finds and funky grooves
Re-scheduled MLK Day Celebration with free Fantasma
If you’ve been reading this blog at all, you already know that Austin’s all-terrain cumbia-funk outfit Grupo Fantasma is about to be very, very famous. For that reason alone, I highly recommend dropping by Huston-Tillotson on Saturday afternoon when the group will be dropping a free set to honor Dr. King. In a sense, Austin’s favorite Latin dance act is a living example of King’s famous dream of racial unity. The band, performing entirely in Spanish, can easily coax hip-switches and sassy twirls out of blacks, Latinos and gringos alike. It’s a beautiful thing.
The King Day festivities begin at 10 a.m. with an hourlong program of reflection. The cultural festival will commence immediately afterward, with music by Boombox, Grupo and Les and the Funk Mob, fronted by soulful crooner Ter’ell Shahid. More info.
Grupo Fantasma in 360SoundCheck
Also worth checking
Friday-Saturday: ‘She Speaks’ at the Victory Grill. E. Christopher “Cocktails” Cornell presents a performance piece that fuses hip-hop, jazz and poetry at the historic home for African-American music in East Austin. Featuring three talented females, the piece forges a desperately needed new image for women in hip-hop. I caught these cats spinning verse on KAZI on Wednesday morning. It was mad inspiring. $8
Friday-Saturday: Le Garage Sale at Palmer Events Center. Ladies, it’s time once again for the most fabulous shopping experience the ATX has to offer. Twice a year, fancy fashion boutiques from all over the region converge on Austin for this fantastic liquidation event. Last time I scooped organic cotton tees for $10 a pop, high-end designer jeans for $35 and a very cute pair of mint green Italian heels for $25 — marked down from $225. If you go, keep in mind that most sales are cash only and there are no dressing rooms on the premises. I recommend wearing a close-fitting tank to pull tops over and a full skirt that you can wiggle a pair of jeans under. $10 daily, $15 2-day pass.
Friday: Mike and Ike at the Whisky Bar. We introduced you to the throwback hip-hop sound of ATX duo Mike and Ike earlier this week. If you enjoyed the 360SoundCheck listening party, odds are you’ll raise the roof at the live show. $3
Saturday: Swoll at the Beauty Bar. DJ Mel presents another edition of his booty-centric dance party down at the Beauty Bar. Mel gets as nasty as he wants with Miami Bass, House, and other danceable jams. Cover unspecified.
Saturday: DJ Klever and Prince Klassen at the Whisky Bar. Meanwhile, back at the Whisky Bar is DJ Klever, a two-time DMC Champion with a solid knack for balancing his technical tricks with good ol’ fashioned party rocking. Klever draws influence both from hip-hop’s NYC founders and the skate spots and booty clubs of his native Atlanta. His sets veer from old school hip-hop and crunk to electro, new wave and hard rock. He’s joined by local danceable indie mix specialist Prince Klassen. $5
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360SoundCheck listening party: Mike & Ike
In 2006, the hip-hop duo Mike & Ike seemed to slip onto the ATX scene under the radar then slowly rise on of a wave of steadily building buzz. Featuring the combined talents of UT graduates emcee Mic Flow (Michael Richardson) and emcee/producer Alpha 2020 aka Ike (John Isaac Ramos), the group’s debut album “Introducing Mike & Ike” circulated in Austin’s indie hip-hop underground and beyond, receiving high acclaim for its lush, soulful production and consistently intelligent rhymes. Meanwhile, Mike & Ike themselves began storming stages all over town, becoming regular fixtures at the Whisky Bar’s hip-hop sessions and landing a coveted opening spot for hip-hop legend Rakim at Emo’s.
“Introducing Mike and Ike” is a solid offering and a breath of fresh air for those of us who miss the late ’80s/early ’90s, Native Tongues era of hip-hop. Rejecting the gangsta aspirations that plague so much of today’s commercial scene, the entire album resonates with a deep and personal love of true-school hip-hop culture. It’s intelligent, politically savvy music that never ceases to inspire a head bob.
360SoundCheck is pleased to present a full-album listening party of “Introducing Mike & Ike.” To round out the occasion, we hit up the artists themselves for a little insight on the work.
Almost Urban: Give me three adjectives to describe “Introducing Mike & Ike.”
Mike: Honest, sharp, soulful.
Ike: Soulful, honest, intelligent.
What’s on your mind at the beginning of 2007?
Mike: Staying focused. Staying dedicated to my goals.
Ike: Sacrifice and work.
On the track “Real Talk,” you call out “fake cats who are offending you.” Can you name names?
Mike: I wasn’t talking about anyone specifically. I believe many people in the industry, at all levels (underground, mainstream, CEOs, promoters, etc.) and in all regions, are being dishonest to others and themselves. “Real Talk” attempts to shed some light on that dishonesty by honestly telling y’all how I feel.
On the track “Time Traveler,” you talk about taking hip-hop’s sound back in time. What’s your prognosis on hip-hop today? Is it really dead?
Ike: Hip-hop is well and alive … The average person just isn’t exposed to enough of a variety, unfortunately.
Name three classic albums you draw influence from.
Mike: “Midnight Marauders” - A Tribe Called Quest, “Moment of Truth” - Gang Starr, and “Things Fall Apart” - The Roots
Ike: “The Low End Theory” - A Tribe Called Quest , “Reasonable Doubt” - Jay-Z, “The Main Ingredient” - Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth
When you’re not rocking the mike, where in Austin do you get your groove on?
Mike: We’ve been doing shows at Whisky Bar recently and I like the vibe they got over there. Also, I went to UT and I’m from Houston, so anywhere I can watch a UT or a Houston Rockets game while having a beer is cool with me.
Ike: I like to kick it at Whisky Bar, Plush, Red Fez or wherever my man DJ Diamond Tip is spinning.
What’s up next for Mike and Ike?
Ike: We are still promoting, selling and doing shows off the album. I also sent a batch of new beats to Mike recently, so you can definitely start expecting new material from Mike and Ike.
Mike: We’re gonna stay on our grind and try to take it to the next level. We started working on the next Mike & Ike album. We’re gonna continue doing shows with DJ Diamond Tip, and also with the band In the Pocket.
Any shout-outs?
Ike: The list is too long, but I definitely have to shout out the immediate family, DJ Diamond Tip, Poise, Global, Checho, The Projeckt, Abe, Chopsteak and In The Pocket. I also have to give a shout-out to everyone out there in the hip-hop community, whether they are supporting, doing or living it.
Mike: I gotta give a shout-out to my family, my homies at UTMB in Galveston, my people in Houston and Austin, the Soul2020 crew, In the Pocket, and everybody that has supported the music. We appreciate y’all, for real. Peace!
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Weekend Picks: Beats, rides and sexy surprises
As Austin emerges from the ice-induced shutdown that effectively froze out all early-week entertainment options, Almost Urban’s weekend picks return with a plethora of cabin-fever-kicking event suggestions. This week’s picks really run the gamut. In addition to my regular listings of DJ gigs and live hip-hop I’ve thrown in sexperts, fancy rides, tasteless animation and more. A little something for everyone. Enjoy.
Friday-Sunday: Custom Car and Hotrod Show at Palmer Auditorium. Harboring great dreams of pimping your ride? Drop by Palmer Auditorium this weekend to peep classic cars from Hollywood movies, hotrods and custom jobs while rubbing elbows with automotive aficionados from across the state. Cover unspecified.
Friday-Sunday: Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation at the Alamo Drafthouse. Through the years, this fest has premiered a wide variety of unorthodox, uncouth animation generally deemed unfit for mass consumption. Southpark and Beavis and Butthead shorts both received early screenings at S&M’s. The fest’s philosophical bent is straight up shock and guffaw. Expect grotesque hilarity full of pornographic insinuations, and much, much more. $8.75
Friday: Treacherous Tats at the Whisky Bar. Scratchmaster, mix specialist and all-around turntablist extraordinaire, DJ Tats holds down the front room of the Whisky while Hannibal Beretta bumps hip-hop and dancehall in the back. Get your groove on, it’s free!
Saturday: Table Manners Crew vs. Chicken George. Table Manners Crew spices up its regular Saturday gig with a turntable showdown against fantastic musical innovator Chicken George. As he prepares for the release of his second vinyl joint on European label Swedish Brandy later this month, CG finds himself a rising figure on the international DJ scene. Expect a little avant jazz and new school Euro-soul thrown in with tasty underground and old school hip-hop cuts. Free early, $5 late.
Saturday: Austin Soul Club at Emo’s Lounge. The fine folks from Waxploitation join forces with the Friends of Sound DJs to put on a slammin’ dance party fueled by “Garage, Soul and Danceable Psych 45’s.” If it’s anything like the average Waxploitation Soul Happening, expect a funky, groovy, sweaty mess by the end of the night. Free.
Saturday: KLBJ’s Pleasurefest at La Zona Rosa. OK, I’ve never listened to Dudley and Bob and I’m guessing the music at this shindig will be a little rockier than my general preference, but I am pretty charmed by the idea of browsing naughty adult novelties while being entertained by Nicole of Frisky Fitness. Kitty Kitty Bang Bang Burlesque will be on hand, as will sex therapists and “sexperts.” Besides, there’s no photography allowed at this free event. What happens at the Pleasurefest stays at the Pleasurefest. Free.
Saturday: Austin African American Firefighter’s Ball at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Have I been pandering to the guys a little with my recent naked chick picks? If so, this one is for every lady who’s ever deviously considered tossing a kitten up a tree to craft an excuse to call a fireman. Cool out to smooth jazz and r&b from All You Need while mixing it up with dashing men and women of the AFD. $35 for dinner and show, $10 show alone. Dress is semi-formal.
Sunday: Public Offenders at the Red Eyed Fly. Public Offenders are the pride of Reagan High School, a collective of streetwise Eastside hip-hop kids relentlessly engaged in a struggle against social injustice. With great energy and mad charismatic stage presence they put on a hype live show that makes you bob your head while forcing you to think.
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2007: Year of the Fantasma
My prediction for 2007’s great Austin music success story? Grupo Fantasma, the little cumbia band that could, blows onto the international music stage in a very big way. Back in November, I told y’all about how Austin’s favorite border-town funk outfit had picked up a residency gig at Prince’s glitzy Vegas nightclub, 3121, as the Thursday night house band. Well, not only has that residency been extended through March, but apparently the Purple One has taken to sitting in on the band’s sessions, astounding the bandmates at their most recent Thursday gig.
“He just grabbed a guitar, jumped on stage and played a song,” guitarist Adrian Quesada said, understandably awestruck.
And in the freshest piece of “local Latino dance faves hanging out with international supercelebrities” news, the band played at Prince’s Golden Globes afterparty to a packed audience of Tinseltown A-listers. Thrown together at the last minute, the shindig (which took over the top two floors of the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills) was essentially a high-powered house party with Grupo Fantasma functioning as Prince’s backup band.
“We were just improvising, and Prince would lean over every so often to ask what key we were playing in,” says Quesada, trying to describe the surreal scene. Mary J. Blige, Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas and Talib Kweli all took turns sitting in on the set. Meanwhile, out in the audience the band peeped P.Diddy and Justin Timberlake breaking it down while the likes of Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise milled about. When J-Lo walked in, the Latina diva marched directly to the front of the stage and spent a good part of the Grupo’s set shaking her famous derriere a few feet from the band. Her hubby Marc Anthony jumped on stage. Cuba Gooding Jr. reportedly “lost his (mind),” and climbed on top of a speaker whooping before the party was over.
Whaaa … ?!
2007: Grupo Fantasma is in the MIX!
To celebrate the band’s success, 360SoundCheck is hosting a Grupo Fantasma listening party. Comprising 13 tracks from all three of the band’s releases, we invite you to settle in, turn the music up and get ready to groove with Grupo Fantasma.
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Welcome to 360SoundCheck
I’ve been running the Music page at Austin360.com for a year now, and I’ve been keeping this little blog about my Almost Urban experiences in the ATX for a good 6 months, but I recently realized that I’ve never really taken the time to fully introduce myself, and explain my connection to the Austin music scene.
Hi, I’m Deborah.
In a lot of ways my Austin music story differs little from that of thousands of other Austinites. I moved to the city, fell in love with the music scene, formed a band and lugged a good 200 pounds of gear around the late-night club circuit for a couple years trying to “make it.” When my band broke up (as so many of them do) I found myself both heartbroken and with a mess of spare time on my hands. Surrounded by talented artists who moved beneath the radar of mainstream media and increasingly homogenized commercial radio, I was also frustrated.
This was back in 2000 when home production tools were cropping up everywhere, and suddenly artists I knew were able to cheaply produce quality material that easily rivaled most music moving on the national scene. The problem? They received no exposure whatsoever. The answer, I decided, was the Internet. So I began building Web sites chronicling the music of my Austin. In time, what began as a personal project supporting the ATX hip-hop scene led to a local music show on KOOP radio and a job working for the newspaper’s entertainment Web site. Fast forward a couple years to 2007, and here I sit (surrounded by like-minded media types and a very talented tech team) watching the culmination of these experiences come to fruition in a very exciting way.
Welcome to 360SoundCheck.
360SoundCheck, an extension of the Austin360 music page, is an online music player dedicated to local musicians. This is a free service and any Austin band/artist is welcome to submit material using our online form. 360 staff members including yours truly will use the player to create local music playlists, host online listening parties for new releases and supplement our online music features with full length audio tracks. 360 visitors can peruse the player by artist or by genre. While listening to an artist’s track, visitors can read the artist’s bio, link to the artist’s Web site and rate the artist and the track. (Music in the 360SoundCheck player is available as streaming audio content only and can not be downloaded.)
We at Austin360 and the Austin American-Statesman view 360SoundCheck as a fantastic tool to harness the power of the Internet and explore new and innovative ways to engage our readers with the vibrant music scene that’s made our city famous.
With great pride, I invite you to spend a little time exploring the 360SoundCheck player.
Explore 360SoundCheck:
- All tracks
- Country playlist
- Hip-hop playlist
- Rock/Alt-rock playlist
- Soul/Funk playlist
- Pop playlist
- Jazz playlist
- Add your band to 360SoundCheck
This is only the beginning. Stay tuned!
If you like free music …
If you’re reading this blog, odds are you’d probably appreciate a slammin’ new hip-hop mixtape delivered directly to your desktop. Do yourself a favor and drop by rappersiknow.com and download the fantastic new EP “Uphill Piece of Mind” by Houston-based producer The ARE. Best known for his long allegiance with Houston’s K-Otix (The Legendary KO), The ARE ups the ante on himself with this piece. Full of lush arrangements anchored by crisp beats and verses, soulful vocals and smart rhymes, its a solid offering. Plus it’s free! Go get you some!
Oh yeah, and while you’re over at rappersiknow, be sure to scoop the new Talib Kweli and Madlib “Liberation” EP too.
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Records, rain and racism: Holidays in London
Almost Urban is back. In truth, I’ve been back since the middle of last week, but between the jetlag and the relentless assault of the cedar pollen (why does Central Texas hate me so?), it’s been a struggle to get my head straight enough to write anything.
England was wild. My camera died a horrible death outside a record store off of Oxford Circus in London, ruining my great promise of hitting y’all with a mess of pics from the trip. Not cool. In any case, trip highlights included kicking it with my British family, clubbing in Brixton— the Caribbean/African enclave in South London that might be my new favorite part of the city, shopping (and bartering) in the amazing open air market in Central London’s Camden Town and rummaging through vinyl bins at countless record stores throughout London.
My family is doing very well, thank you. I presented both my mother and my uncle with copies of that fantastic picture of my Grampa (their father) tipping a belly dancer at Ararat in Austin (posted above) and now it adorns my uncle’s refrigerator and soon will be proudly framed in my mother’s house in Florida.
Our greatest record store score from the trip was a vinyl box set featuring the works of afro-jazz pioneer Fela Kuti. It’s a 2002 French release on the Barclay label that contains 6 unreal LPs. I bought it for T. for his birthday and we’ve been listening to it nonstop since we got back. It’s mind-bogglingly good. Seriously. Barclay released 4 of these Fela box sets. Ours is number 4. You better believe we plan on digging up the other three.
The club we went to in Brixton was called Plan B. T. knew the DJ, Mr. Ben, from the six-month stint he did in London a few years back. Right as we walked in Ben was cuing up that new Ghostface/Amy Winehouse track “You Know That I’m No Good”. Now, I told y’all that song is my new favorite jam, but how did he know? Later in the set he also dropped my favorite early ’90s house jam, Crystal Waters’ “Gyspy Woman” (la-da-dee, la-da-da), the new Jay-Z joint “Show Me What You Got” (which received a lukewarm response) and Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved” (the crowd sang all the choruses). The crowd was extremely diverse, and the vibe was positive. It was a great night.
The downsides to the trip were the abysmal exchange rate, the weather and the pervasive racial tensions.
If you’re thinking about a trip to England keep in mind that the dollar is extremely weak against the British pound right now. In past years the exchange rate has been somewhere around $1.50 to a pound. These days it’s $2. And in Britain 1 pound has roughly the same buying power as a dollar. You have to force yourself not to do the conversion in your head or you’ll spend way too much time aghast about the fact that you just inadvertently spent $50 on a casual lunch or $20 on a couple drinks. It’s like that.
Naturally, since we were visiting England in the winter it rained. It rained a lot. Piddling rain, torrential rain, sheets of rain—-we saw it all.
The racial tensions threw me. Britain is kind of a trip, because on the one hand it’s one of the most diverse countries in Europe, and better integrated than many. On the other hand there’s an angry white backlash that doesn’t even attempt to conceal itself. My father, who is Indian, met my mother in England in the late ’60s. He had been working in the American medical system and only went to England to obtain an advanced degree. He says he never considered staying in England because he felt intimidated. Sometimes, growing up in lily-white Northwest Ohio, I resented this decision. My British-Indian friends at least knew other Indians (and other half-Indians). They had community centers, they had specialized grocery stores and there were lots of them. Sure they might face more outright, targeted discrimination than I did in Ohio, but the kind of institutionalized Americanization (including unyielding attempts to make me into a good Midwestern Christian) that was forced on me was ill in its own right.
On this trip however, traveling with my black boyfriend, I found the British racial tensions exhausting. There was little stuff— an accidental drop of the n-bomb from a friend of a friend and countless hostile glares from black women (way more than I ever get at home). And there was huge stuff. On two nights we stayed in London later than the train service runs, so we caught night buses back to my uncle’s flat. The London night bus, it turns out, is like some twisted reality TV show, where drunken club-goers act out their asinine urges on the way back home. On our first late bus, T. actually broke up a fight between 3 black girls and a group of 4 Turkish students. On the second one, on New Year’s Eve, a young white soccer hooligan type came upstairs and sat behind T. and I and another young black chap and ranted about how he loved killing Africans. No fight was instigated, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort on this fool’s part.
It left us with a strange feeling. There’s much that I love about Britain, but I really understand now my father’s reluctance to raise his multiracial family there. While most Brits enjoy the diversity of their society and integrate easily, those who don’t are extremely aggressive about their opinions. Their sense of entitlement is insidious, scary. That’s true here too, I suppose, but I’ve never experienced anything on the level I felt in London in 10 years in Austin. It was kind of crazy.
In any case, I’m happy to be home. I have a lot of very exciting business on the plate for 2007. I’ll hit you with more details soon, but trust me, it’s going to be off the heezie y’all. Stay tuned.
