Friday, November 17, 2006

Acknowledgment

Writers - Part 1 (Subtitles kick in after a few minutes)


Writers - Part 2
Writers - Part 3

Apparently it's graffiti appreciation week. If you open your eyes when you walk around Philly you've no doubt seen Vatoe's handiwork. Not much to look at as a single tag, but even people who hate graffiti have to be impressed, Vatoe is up over the entire city. Next time you're walking pay closer attention to bus stops, newspaper dispensers, poles, telephone booths... does this guy ever sleep? Facinating.



Taking on a life of graffiti writing requires a kind of acknowledgment of the futility and pointlessness of the act; a point that resonates in Style Wars and Bomb the System. I see a lot of energetic people with an incredible passion for something they can't quite put their finger on. I see a lot of lonely people trying to reach each other in the simplest form of communication possible: A single word written on a wall.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Style Wars

Classic piece of graf history: Style Wars. I love graffiti, but I understand why people were so pissed off at the community back then. When the trains are completely saturated with tags upon tags upon tags, things get kind ugly. gotta respect the roots though.



My favorite moment in this document is the press conferance where a new anti-graffiti poster campaign has begun: "Make your mark in society, not on society."
A reporter asks, "Realistically, do you really think this will work?"
Mayor Edward Koch answers, "Well you say realistically, I'm hopeful it will work ... Time will tell."
"Mr. Mayor are those posters graffiti proof?"
"...Time, will tell."

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Bring Em out ! Bring Em out! Bring Em out!

Hey all. Jay Simplefly here. Dan is doing his thing thing down in the Braza. South America is a must yo! Not like I would know shit about that, I did see that movie with all the crazy gangs and the favala's or whatever tho, that shit was crazy yo. Anyways in a drunken state Dan Fiddyone agreed to give me free reign of this here blogger. bad bad move dude. Me being the opportunistic bastard that I am, heres some promo for ya....



This Thursday night is the launch of a new weekly at Bamboo Lounge. DJ Brendan Bring Em on the decks, Gravy cuddling the microphone, and myself and Mr. Up from PaperStreet holding down the bottles of Patron. This one should get pretty ugly. Did I mention complimentary booze from 10-11 if your on the list? yea...its true.

so yea. Bamboo Lounge this Thursday, next Thursday and every god damn Thursday until forever. 20th & Cherry. SAY WORD!

ez all
-Jay Yoooooooooo
simplefly.net

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Feed the Fishes

King gave me a handful videos to feed to you over the next few days. I'd post them all at once, but I don't want to overfeed the fishes.
First video:
French graf artist "Sens" puts up a dope piece atop a high-rise.



This reminds me of my favorite graf film, Bomb the System, which I guarantee will make you look at graffiti completely differently. If you're not already into the scene, or if you want to see a great artistic film on the topic, go rent that shit.

- Seg

Monday, November 13, 2006

Digitaldubs presents Curimba Riddim

Ok, so I found this, they're from Brasil and I'm killing time before I leave. I've found some other videos that Seg will post up later.



Digitaldubs Sound System - Lone Ranger
Sylvia Tella on Diaspora Riddim by Digitaldubs Sound System
Digitaldubs on MySpace

Friday, November 10, 2006

What it Do?

Yo, so I'll be on vacation for over 2 weeks in Brazil and Argentina. I plan on picking up lots of new music, taking lots of pictures and not posting until I get back. Hopefully Seg will get back into posting more and I may ask Jay Simplefly or Tommy Up to do some guest posting as well. I might play around with mobile blogging, but we'll see how that goes.

Friday
  • Hip Hoppers
  • Hipster Smashdown
    • Click at Fluid with Dave P and Adam Sparkles
      • 25 cent PBR's til 11!!! (THAT'S 4 FOR A DOLLAR!!!), $1.00 PBR FROM 11-12!!! $2.00 Well Drinks til Midnight!!! No Cover all night long!!!
    • Hands & Knees at M Room
      • Open Bar 10 - 11 - Free pbr and vitamin water and vodka
  • Shelltop drops with AJ Ready Right every Friday at 700 Club (700 N. Front Street)
  • Ill Vibe at Khyber Upstairs (56 S. 2nd street)
Saturday
Sunday
  • Sundays Were the New Black - Last sunday night party at Walnut Room
    • This is the end of PaperStreet & Simplefly's Sunday night party series at Walnut Room. It's been mad fun and we've had a blast dancing and getting drunk with you every week, but nothing lasts forever. We are just kind of out of superstar DJ's to bring through every Sunday. There's no names left on our superstar DJ rolodex, so whatever. We figured we'd go out with a good one. No guestlist, $5
  • Seclusiasis Radio with Justice - get it at RadioVolta.org or gtownradio.com (more info)

Whats Up With Brick City Club?


Dirty South Joe talked with DJ Tameil out of Brick City aka Newark, NJ in his weekly Whats Up With? column over at the Philadelphia Weekly. Tameil and Tim Dolla have been making Bmore style club music and have branded it Brick City Club.

Our styles are real similar, but the difference with the Baltimore club is they like a lot of horns, while we use harder kicks and chop the samples up a lot more. I’ve got the okay from all of the big dogs in the game.”

On Brick City Club: “Me and Tim Dolla of the Brick Bandits are pretty much the only ones putting out the CDs up here with the Baltimore style. We call our style Brick City Club here in Jersey.”

The product: “We just did a joint release between Unruly and Hollertronix. I did a remix of Kraftwerk’s ‘Trans-Europe Express.’ That’s coming out really soon. Stay tuned for a whole lot more.”
Hit up Tameil on MySpace to pick up one of his mixtapes. DJs join the record pool and pick up 2 CDs every week.

Whats Up With DJ Tameil? at PW

aCIDhAUS


While at Making Time I ran into an old friend Kev1 that let me know about his latest venture aCIDhAUS. Checking the site, I've seen plenty of people wearing his designs including Dave P and now Justice who absolutely killed it. Casi G was blown away by their opening track, a remix of Black Sabbath. I meanwhile was dancing my ass off throwing glowsticks about when they came near.
TURN ON TUNE IN TO THE ACID HOUSE

Loyal friends, fans, & family: Here is DJ Lord Hastings Chesterfield, III's latest original line of precious silkscreened ACIDHAUS T-shirts -- never-before-seen, limited edition, 100% cotton, 100% guaranteed to elicit stares of bewilderment, curiousity, and psychological disturbance from passersby.
They're obnoxious. They're threatening. They're hypnotic. But above all they were conceived with love.

T-shirts for Flashbacks
Uniforms for Party Train Trackstars
Outfitting for Public Sound Throbs & Primeval Pulse Mobs

These t-shirts can be found:
  • hanging from the racks at Grasshopper boutique (8th & Walnut)
  • covering the torsos of Optimo, DJ Dave P, and DJ Mike Z (Making Time, Sorted).
  • come December, gracing the walls of Cafe Loftus (15th & Sansom)
Pick them up here or get in touch with Kev1 on MySpace if you want them hanging from your exclusive boutique in ...

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Jarabe de Palo - Bonito

I don't even care that its raining. Really incredibly catchy track that was theme music for my trip around Europe couple years back. It is a few years old, but its still good.


Pick up the CD here.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

RE:UP 12 Out Now

RE:UP 12 is now out featuring a number killer articles including our boy Curtis Vodka. The feature spread is about ego trip "the last word in independent hip hop publishing" from their humble beginnings as a zine to their foray into TV with VH1.

Thomas and Eric of Rub N Tug, Stones Throwers Aloe Blacc and Exile, Eric San (the Canadian scratch musician better known as Kid Koala), DJ Shadow, Chromeo's Dave 1 (aka A-Trak's broham), and cut and paste dance wizards In Flagranti. Also has a nice little profile section on up and coming artists like Curtis Vodka, Aaron LaCrate, Escort and then some. Did I mention the design and art in this issue? From coverage of cute meisters Friends With You, spreads by Dave Kinsey and Grotesk, to throwback reggae covers and hand made signs from Latin America.
The magazine is packed with a ton of info. Pick it up directly from RE:UP or over at Turntable Lab.

Apples and Hand Grenades

Under normal circumstances, I loathe female singers. In my experience most of them get so caught up in developing a 20 octave range that when they get to singing they end up spewing lyrics of the "Ohhh where's my love?" variety of bullcrap. I'm sure you've heard that kind of pop music that's so unstomachable the only way to counterbalance the contrived happiness is by stabbing yourself in the face with a discount corkscrew. Well, loft those masochistic tendencies into the closet and come meet Arrah & The Ferns. It's pop to my ears, but its got the aesthetic equilibrium of a Geisha with a battle axe, intersparcing cute keyboard plinks, playful guitar riffs, and laid back drumming with bitter cursing and the occasional death threat.

Arrah & The Ferns - Emo Phillips
(5 Stars)
"Oh and gee.. did you look outside? I can't believe its snowing... now i really F'in hate my life."
I love her temper tantrum near the end.

Arrah & The Ferns - science books (4 Stars)
"Should I kill you while you're sleeping? I'll give you drugs and drag you through the street."
Cute.

[Update: This CD is fantastic. If you like the above songs, don't hesitate.]

Big Big Car is another surprising find. Imagine taking a folk music apple and injecting it with a syringe of SCALDING HOT indy rock. Imagine what that would DO to THE APPLE. It would warp the FUCKING SHIT out of the apple that's what it would it would do! The same applies here.
Folk music infected with a sinister infusion of indy rock: It's juicy fruit that will rot your teeth.

Big Big Car - Oh Lets Race (5 Stars)
This song has the kind of calamitous breakdown that makes people blow up their houses with joy.

Big Big Car - Raspberry Grandpall
(4 Stars)
Dynamic changes like this should require caution signs.

- Seg

Thanks to Mark for sending us the tracks! (Standard Recording Company)

Queso Fresco: Philadelphia Weekly in Mexico

Kate Kilpatrick, A&E editor at the Philadelphia Weekly, is reporting straight from Mexico City on the new PW blog Queso Fresco.
She's currently living in Mexico City, aka D.F.—learning Mexican barrio slang and blogging about art, music, fashion and street culture in "the last surrealist city in the world."
First post was November 1st and so far has covered Dia de Los Muertos dunks, Santa Muerte Streetwear, the limited edition Mitlantecuhtli prints featured above along with breakdance competitions, sticker / stencil / wall art and more.

Link

Friday, November 03, 2006

What it Do: November First Friday

Hipster tendencie are really seeming to come out as I was torn between going to the Clipse and then to Making Time for Justice. Luckily, the Clipse have been rescheduled for December. I really just want to see Justice but seeing as there are a whole snapload of ironically cool bands, I think I'm going to bite the bullet. I'll totally make up for it somehow, hmmm...

Friday
Saturday
Sunday

Killer Mike : In Stores Now


Dare I say one of the most important albums of the year? Damn right I say it. Jay is for show, Clipse got crack rap, Nas might be close because he's hungry and still has something to prove and Game can't keep other people's name out of his mouth. (Seriously, is it possible for you to do a verse without mentioning someones name? Please, just try it once.) Anyways, Killer Mike's double alubm I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind is out now. Buy this and support this man. He's not afraid to tell like it is. His lyrics span from talking about the Superdome and a scathing critique of just about everyone in That's Life to typical rap braggadocio on Juggernaut (Flamin Hotz album with Trouble and Bass remix out soon) to incredible storytelling on Deuces Wild. Killer Mike is my favorite rapper by far. No one can touch him right now.

A couple videos are in order:
Here is Dope Story, an incredible machinima video with story rap at its best.



Deuces Wild - Another story rap this time using a sample from 1 is the Loneliest Number, not really a video but its still worth posting because the track is just that good so just scroll past and download the mp3 offered below.



All That Jizz - Maybe this will get him on MTV, Adult Swim special, just guess what its about. (Right click and save as so Deuces Wild keeps playing)

Pick up I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind at IAP or your local record shop.

Grind Time Rap Gang Bang! Bang! Bang!

Previously: Killer Mike is Killing It, Club Bangers

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Last TWNW - $5 Open Bar - Simplefly Bday


Last TWNW ever. Cobra Kai's Krames is back once again to kill it.

From Simplefly:
We got 400 Glow Sticks, a laser machine, a fog machine, and 2 DJs that will make your fucking face melt. These DJs will make you re-evaluate your life... its that fucking deep inside medusa tonight. get on the guestlist for the $5 Open bar right hurrr

Tonight IS the last TWNW @ Medusa Lounge....Lets burn this bitch down.
Do it! Do it! $5 Open bar. Jay Simplefly birthday party.

Bonus:

More Bounce: Pi

Back once again with More Bounce. We've got 12 tracks for your perusal from house to bmore to hip hop. Enjoy.