City Pages, the mixtape

About a week after my "Mixtape, MN" article ran in City Pages, somebody emailed me a link to Emazin's MySpace page, which advertises his latest mixtape titled The City Pages, with The City Pages Vol. 2 on the way. Stay tuned for audio of the track "City Pages."

Meanwhile, Melissa at Spin sent me this blog she found of my dad's 1966 "Missa Bossa Nova" single, which Recordrobot's Tony posted after buying the 45 at (of all places) the Uptown Cheapo in Minneapolis, maybe 15 minutes from where I live. Makes me want to put the gas on helping my parents reissue this thing, along with the album.

Lastly, read "One Year After Katrina," a vital antidote to the usual media narrative of pluckiness versus incompetence. This is an urgent and ongoing issue. Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch outlines in damning details America's scandalous failure to rebuild, and credits some of the people actually doing something.

Speaking of, I'll be taking a couple weeks off from this blog to see family and work on a book with Love Bug Starsky; I'll come back full steam on September 18. In the meantime, New Orleans greats Rebirth Brass Band (whom I wrote about here and here) will be playing the Maple Leaf in their hometown tonight to mark the anniversary of Katrina, and will play Harvest Fest in Minnesota on Friday, September 8, opening for Arrested Development. Don't miss them.

Bonus: Wu Orleans: Wu Tang mashed up with New Orleans music. And Cocaine Blunts' Bounce for Relief compilation of rare, X-rated New Orleans rap is available again to download. Send the money you would have spent to New Orleans relief.