The Faith of Graffiti
A classic book about street art gets rereleased and serves as a reminder of how much the form—and the public's reaction to it—has changed in the past three decades More »
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Hua Hsu teaches in the English Department at Vassar College and writes about music, sports, and culture. More
A classic book about street art gets rereleased and serves as a reminder of how much the form—and the public's reaction to it—has changed in the past three decades More »
Just because you have talent doesn't mean you have good health care. An overview of the struggles recording artists have faced. More »
Attn: New Yorkers!A last-minute announcement for the world debut of Dave Tompkin's upcoming vocoder opus:Hello.I'll be doing a vocoder talk for my book How To Wreck A Nice Beach at the Goethe Institute as part of the Unsound Festival. Goethe is located at 5 E. 3rd at Broadway in the Wyoming Building. It takes place at 5:00, this Saturday, February 6, (also known, in the blizzard immediate, as tomorrow). I apologize for the last minute notice. We've been… More »
Some more mixes.Via Good Records: a mix of 60s and 70s-era Haitian heat from Captain Planet.Elsewhere on the planet: Mike Simonetti of Italians Do It Better with "Back to Africa," a special mix for the Cosmic Disco site.More wit and scathing insight from Andrew Weatherall, guest DJ-ing with Steve Lamacq. More »
(An amazing Madlib/Lootpack moment, spotted on TTLECE)From Soul Persuasion: more Bay Area soul, jazz, funk, everything.Mallet Rock: some vibraphone, marimba and xylophone jazz gems from McCoy, Hutcherson, Jackson, Tjader et al.John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees etc with a mix for TFDBradford Deerhunter/Atlas Sound with his latest blissed-out Micromix.More "ancient school" and 80s from Mao.For all you UK rap enthusiasts: this mix from Superix on Southern Hospitality. More »
(Available here) (Available here)In the days after Katrina, Soulstrut.com, an online "community" (if such a term applies) of record collectors/obsessives, held an auction to benefit the relief efforts in New Orleans. Everyone was supposed to give a prized record up as a humble, modest, symbolic tribute to those who had lost everything, with all profits going to charity. (I got this. I gave up this.) Soulstrut is at it again with "Heatrocks for Haiti," with… More »
Around the Pacific world in a couple of clicks: over at Discontent, "New Weird Australia" and an indie rock/punk-leaning, television-hating China mixtape. Always great to hear more from the inscrutably named White. Doc Delay and DJ B. Cause with Jukebox Wizard, a fun hour of remixes and blends (e.g. "Love in This Club" over a loop of "Where Did Our Love Go?"). Survivor over "Crazy"--with a faint whiff of "I Can't Go For That"--is readymade for your next college… More »
1. Mark E Smith of The Fall on why he supports Manchester City. Includes this brilliant anecdote featuring the Icicle Works: The Fall used to have a team, we'd play university teams before gigs. We played the Icicle Works when we were both in this hotel in London. There were eight or nine in our team, the group and couple of roadies. This guy called Big Dave from Lincolnshire, who was like the fattest lad you've ever seen, went in goal. And they turned up in… More »
A fairly entertaining capsule from the heyday of Chicago hip-house, house-rap, club-rap, truly-fast-rap, whatever you want to call it, "it's a thousand ways you can explain it." 1:44 - "A lot of the house artists love the rap," observes Rocky Jones, flasher-costumed boss of DJ International Records.2:17-2:38 - A dream deferred! And then completely and utterly forgotten.3:15-3:54 - Splitting hairs, microgenre microskirmish, the very definition of… More »
Yesterday, on the generally astonishing Zamboni Sountrack: this tape from the night of December 22, 1967 featuring legendary UK DJ Johnnie Walker, alone on the Radio Caroline offshore rig, paying tribute to the recently deceased Otis Redding.The effectively named OLD SCHOOL HIP HOP TAPES with a treasure chest of XMAS-themed/referencing old school hip-hop tapes.Via Skull Kontrol: Can doing "Silent Night"Not as timely as the aforementioned, but via TFD: Four Tet's… More »
O-Dub's killer ARETHA soulcast.Recloose shines a light on ANTHONY "SHAKE" SHAKIRBEST OF Big Daddy Kane.1990s RETROSPECTIVE MIX "A BOOM BAP CONTINUUM" which grows stranger by the years.Aquarium Drunkard's LA BURNOUT MIX of songs by/for/about Los Angeles.Local legend Frank's latest HEAVY AND NASTY NIGERIAN FUNK MIXA spazzy, eclectic Thizz Face Disco podcast.Change of pace from Southern Hospitality: "SOME RECORDS I LIKE," featuring Rob's favorite soul and funk records. More »
A logjam of strange, inspired questions and calm, measured answers, Nicolas Cage praise and hypnotic wit: Werner Herzog on Tom Ashbrook's "On Point" right now (should be posted under "Past Shows" shortly)* * *Two fantastic takes on Up in the Air: J. Hoberman's comprehensive ethering and Hyphenblog asks for stronger "Asian jokes" (+ create-your-own-dialogue contest!) More »
@ Soulman: two impeccable new mixes, Beautiful and Come to Me Softly. @ Grandgood: DJ Hot Day--a Queens LEGEND--with the remarkably classy "Music to Be Thankful For"@ Thizz Face Disco: Bethany Cosentino of the Best Coast shares a playlist of songs to awake to.@ Good Records: Into the Fire, an Afro-Funk mix courtesy Dreams in Audio.@ Dreams in Audio: Brazilian mix by DJ Ferrari.@ Wayne/Wax: A Lecco's Lemma megamix, a grail of early Boston rap rarities. More »
Some thirty+ years after Norman Mailer and others first floated this idea, it's somewhat heartwarming that graffiti writers--especially ones who get up 10,000x a month--are still abiding by this logic:"I don't see other graffiti writers as my competition anymore," B.N.E. said. "Now I'm going up against the Tommy Hilfigers, Starbucks, Pepsi. You have these billion-dollar companies, and I've got to look at their logos every day. Why can't I put mine up?"From a piece… More »
Cantab--they of the underground Providence, R.I. cartography--has been posting some amazing photo sets of abandoned abodes out in rural(ish) Massachusetts. The latest is of an abandoned prison farm house in Billerica, which looks stark and beautiful in daylight but probably absolutely terrifying at night. (Related, via Cantab: Dave Schubert's photo set of 1990s San Francisco graffiti legend Twist.)If you happen to be in Philadelphia this weekend, try and support… More »
Requests only: a for-the-people soul podcast from Soul-Sides.Laidback swagger: Mao's latest mix is all mid-tempo soul, funk and disco nodders.The Sparkle Motion duo of DJs Tobe$ and Yoda with Flight School, an hour+ of 80s groovers.Spooky "goth-n-screwed" mix from SALEMSouthern Hospitality's 12 X 12 series rolls along with a great random-ish rap mix from Drew Huge.Mary Pearson from High Places makes a mix of favorites, inspirations, inputs, etc. for the No… More »
"I hope that the rest of the country feels the same way." (via Footnotes of Mad Men) More »
