August 2006

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.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at August 29, 2006 3:50 PM | Comments (0)

Head Trama

If you love rap music and live in Minnesota, read my City Pages profile of Trama (official site, MySpace), and go see his CD release party tonight with Sadat X at the Fine Line. There's also a nice piece on Trama at DUNation. Above is a photo by Dan Corrigan of the MC on West Broadway in front of last year's posters--still sticking, like his music.

Update Sunday: Trama's response to my article at DUNation.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at August 25, 2006 12:26 PM | Comments (1)

Heat, the Monks, TC Hip Hop, and Sound Unseen

Two articles in today's City Pages:

Cold Rock a Party: Why Heat rap better without men

Living Like a Monk: How Minnesota musicians revived '60s rockers the Monks

As you can imagine, it's a good week to go out in Minneapolis...

WEDNESDAY

Sound Unseen opens (official site) and runs through August 24.

THURSDAY

City Pages 27th Birthday Party at the Cabooze. Maybe meet the new music editor?

FRIDAY

5th Annual Twin Cities Celebration of Hip Hop at First Avenue, a three-day festival with the official site here, more on Maria Isa here, and on last year's event here, here, and here. More at DUNation.com. DJ Pablo/DJ Verb X reggaeton afterparty in the VIP Room. (Blue Worm Records showcase in the Entry, too--official site.)

Heat (MySpace page), the subject of the above article, play a CD release party later the same night with Desdamona, Double Shot, Protegee, and many more, so club-hop over to the Spirell Bar.

SATURDAY

Sound Unseen madness. Sound Unseen Freeride, a public bike ride (complete with a "Bike DJ"), kicks off at the Cars R Coffins coffee bar and bike shop at 4:00 p.m. (3346 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612.822.4130, www.crccoffeebar.blogspot.com) and makes several stops at various parties before winding up at the Soap Factory (register for free beverages via email at evemarcellus@gmail.com). The festival's late-night dance party begins at the Soap Factory at 9:00 p.m. the same day, with Austin, Texas, electroclash band Ghostland Observatory, themed make-out rooms, films everywhere, and a collaboration involving Doomtree's Lazerbeak (21+, $15 includes complimentary drinks, 110 5th Ave. SE, Minneapolis; 612.623.9176, www.soapfactory.org).

More TC Celebration of hip hop.

SUNDAY

More Sound Unseen: A noon music and bowling event at Bryant-Lake Bowl--"Bands Vs. Fans"--allows you to compete on teams against Revolver Modele, National Bird, the Haves Have It, Friends Like These, Mystery Palace, the Alarmists, STNNNG, and Mel Gibson and the Pants (810 W. Lake St., Minneapolis; 612.825.3737, www.bryantlakebowl.com).

MC Lyte at the TC Celebration of Hip Hop (going on at about 9:45 at First Avenue). Then club-hop to...

Bushman at the Lounge.

NEXT THURSDAY

Gary Burger of the Monks performs at the Bryant-Lake Bowl with members of the Conquerors as part of Sound Unseen.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at August 15, 2006 7:42 PM | Comments (1)

Closing night at the Viking Bar

Where very talented and cool musicians mingle with the hard-living-into-old-age, I guess. Loved the dancers. The fight (at least the one almost on top of me) was a reminder that this place could be pretty hardcore. "That bitch burned me," said the old guy at the bar, his walker next to him. "Shoot, that must hurt," I said, just saying it. And then he grabbed her arm. For what? And then her husband, saying, "He grabbed by wife," grabbed him by the neck with a one-handed, well-practiced choke grip. I'd like to think I could learn this. Willie Murphy and company was wonderful.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at August 4, 2006 10:06 AM | Comments (2)

Minnesota Mixtape links

Did I leave out any Minnesota rap mixtapes from my City Pages roundup today? Oh, sure, just a few. Click that link for the DUNation thread with plenty of links. And here's a list of MN mixtape sources or contributors--still by no means complete:

A-Z Tek MySpace page (more here and here)
http://www.myspace.com/labronguage

Big-G MySpace page
http://www.myspace.com/biggogizzle

C.I.C. MySpace page
http://www.myspace.com/cicmixtapes

Cheap Cologne
http://www.broke-ass.com/

Digital City Music MySpace page
http://www.myspace.com/digital_city

DUNation thread on mixtapes

Father Mack MySpace page
http://www.myspace.com/fathermackmusic

Fifth Element record store
http://www.fifthelementonline.com/

Fiction/FIC MySpace page
http://www.myspace.com/musicbyfic

Freddy Fresh
http://www.freddyfresh.com

Golden
http://www.golden-mc.com/

Hiphopwest.com
http://hiphopwest.com/

Illuminous 3
http://www.illuminous3.com/

Joe the DJ MySpace page
http://www.myspace.com/joethedj

KCDR Radio (HipHop Station Via CD)
http://www.myspace.com/kcdronline

Maniac Insane
http://www.myspace.com/southsideconvicts

Mixtapedealer.com
http://mixtapedealer.com/

New Trendz Entertainment
http://www.newtrendzent.com/

Purest Form
http://www.purestform.com/

RockCity Productions
http://www.myspace.com/rockcityproductions

Street Kingz Entertainment
http://www.streetkingzent.com/

Street Kingz MySpace page
http://www.myspace.com/thestreetkingz

DJ Stage One
http://www.dunation.com/pages/news/djstageone.shtml

TFOM II: Hip-Hop
http://www.301studios.net/

Unknown Prophets
http://www.unknownprophets.com

Web$tar
http://www.myspace.com/webstarnmn

Yung Truth MySpace page
http://www.myspace.com/darealyungtruth
__________________________________

The comic that Sandez Rey was drawing when I wrote about him has just been published in Blowjob #18, and it's hilarious.

Recently posted elsewhere:

An art crawl on the North Side (cpculture.com 7/25/06), Sound Unseen August 16-24 (cpculture.com 7/26/06), Local musician's website hacked (cpculture.com 7/26/06), Twin Cities Caribbean Festival (cpculture.com 7/28/06), Viking Bar closes after tonight (cpculture.com 7/31/06), City Pages 25 years ago: "Stevie Vaughan at Union Bar" (cpculture.com 8/1/06), T.I. mashed up with Jimi Hendrix (cpculture.com 8/2/06), Mixtape, MN: Local hip hop gets mixed up with the trend (citypages.com 9/2/06)

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at August 3, 2006 3:26 AM | Comments (3)

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