A Tribe Called Quest rehearses for the Rock the Bells tour. Intimate. Awkward. Awesome.
Category Archives: video
Public Enemy: Rebel Without a Pause at Pitchfork
I feel a little less peeved about not being able to make it to Chicago this year for the Pitchfork Festival now that the blossoming media conglomerate is offering high-quality videos taken from its live feed of the event.
Man, I wish Public Enemy, performing It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, would take this show on the road … um, well, not that they’d really want to ever come back to Arizona.
This looks just awesome, even if Flavor Flav is just a caricature of himself … whatever that self used to be.
The Pharcyde: Runnin’ (Philippians remix)
One of the Pharcyde’s best songs gets the remix treatment as part of Delicious Vinyl’s RMXXOLOGY series (eMusic), which also includes mixes of Bust a Move, Wild Thing and Slaughtahouse, among others.
I honestly don’t know much about the Philippians, but I feel like they treated this coming-of-age track with the proper respect it deserves by not butchering the original flow of the verses, which, frankly, are some of the most fluid the Pharcyde have done. Fatlip’s opening verse is top notch.
Incoming: Born Ruffians, October 18
When I think about some of my favorite albums of the year so far, I keep finding that Born Ruffians’ Red, Yellow & Blue (available at Insound) sneaks up on me.
It’s full of disjointed, poppy energy. The hooks don’t immediately reveal themselves – until later, when you find yourself chanting their call-and-response choruses.
We enjoyed their opening set for Cadence Weapon in March, so I’m happy to see them come back for an Oct. 18 show at Modified with Plants and Animals. Tickets ($11) are on sale here.
(Mind you, one of the most ridiculously/hilariously titled songs – say it out loud! – but also insanely catchy.)
Video for I Need a Life:
Video trailer for new Calexico album
Raising the anticipation for Calexico’s new album, Carried to Dust (out Sept. 9), Touch and Go Records has put together a video trailer that features some clips of Tucson. I especially like the drive-by shot of the sign: “Ugly but honest.” That kinda sums up the Old Pueblo – a very down-to-earth place that doesn’t necessarily want the bells and whistles of big-city life.
Calexico on iLike – Get Sidebar
Wale: The Artistic Integrity (video)
Here’s the video for Wale’s Artistic Integrity, which comes off the much-talked-about, Seinfeld-themed The Mixtape About Nothing.
The video was directed by Rik Cordero, who also was responsible for the Roots’ video for 75 Bars (among a boatload of others).
DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist: The Hard Sell intro
My next music DVD purchase undoubtedly will be The Hard Sell at Hollywood Bowl, a live performance of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist using all 45s.
Here’s the intro to the DVD – a brief history of the 45 that is both informative and amusing: “Those big holes can really wreak havoc when you’re cutting it up.”
Cadence Weapon on Daytrotter
Rollie Pemberton – aka Cadence Weapon – and DJ Weez-l recorded a session for Daytrotter, performing four songs off 2008’s Afterparty Babies.
Wanna know more about DJ Weez-l and his coonskin cap? Yes, you do. Go here.
Also, Cadence did an interview with Russell Porter for BoingBoing TV (thanks, Jose). Check it out:
Frightened Rabbit: Keep Yourself Warm (live in Phx)
Scott Hutchison, singer of Frightened Rabbit, had to feel eerily vindicated when, on Tuesday night at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix — miles and miles and at least one major ocean from his Scotland home — a venue full of fans sang back to him the chorus of the biting break-up song Keep Yourself Warm.
“You won’t find love in a, won’t find love in a hole / it takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm.”
Depression never sounded so cheerful. I imagine for Hutchison that moment – both corny and cathartic – being a tipping point in his career as a musician – here, a group of strangers banded together, telling ex-boyfriends and girlfriends near and far to, well, fuck off. And just like that, words he wrote out of desperation and loneliness became a rallying cry. Even if people weren’t singing it for their own well-being, surely they were doing it for Hutchison, whose ex’s ears probably were ringing somewhere. But, hey, without her we wouldn’t have this masterful album, The Midnight Organ Fight.
Below is a video clip of Keep Yourself Warm that I shot with my digital camera. It’s just the second half of the song, but it captures the mood and energy, I think. (Mike Pace of Oxford Collapse guests on guitar.)
The Baseball Project on Letterman
The Baseball Project, a Scott McCaughey- and Steve Wynn-led band previously discussed here, appeared on Late Show with David Letterman recently. The resulting performance is below.
Also, McCaughey and Wynn chatted with, naturally, MLB.com. See the (pretty brief) interview here.