videoblogging cmj 2007: q-tip @ gramercy.

Welcome to my first and only attempt at video-blogging CMJ. I know I'm a week late, but deadlines don't exist when you work for yourself. And when I say work...let me clarify-- I ain't gettin' paid for shit!

This post focuses on the October 16, 2007 Q-Tip show at the Gramercy Theatre, divided into four parts in chronological order. The last one is the best, so don't sleep.

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FEVER (SOMETHING NEW)

I've been jamming (and geo-targeting) to "Work It Out" in my cubicle from the moment it was made available as a free download on myspace, so I was a bit surprised by it's curious absence from last Tuesday's set. Given that it is the lead single off of his upcoming album The Renaissance, you'd think he'd be promoting* it, eh?

Instead, we got the alleged second single "Fever", which led into "Higher" from the solo album Amplified (more on that later). If I were more familiar with the entire Q-Tip repertoire, I might have been able to distinguish whether there was more new shit. Color me Lupe...

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EXCURSIONS

Q-Tip made it a point to reach out to the older fans in the audience, bringing out bits and pieces of early songs by A Tribe Called Quest. We got a little bit of-- "Can I Kick It?" + "Bonita Applebum" off of People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, "Scenario" + "Excursions" + "Check the Rhime" off of The Low End Theory.

The closing number was "Award Tour" off of Midnight Marauders, speaking of which...I also saw this white dude jamming out to "Sucka N***a". Problematic!

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LET'S RIDE

Now this show was all about the fans, but not in the sense that it isolated those of us who have a heavy appreciation for Q-Tip's work circa 1997-1999. As you can see above, the 1999 solo album Amplified was not forgotten, as Kamaal jumped into a performance of the album's unappreciated, less commercial single "Let's Ride". Knowing very well that younger fans would be present, the album's other two singles "Breathe and Stop" and "Vivrant Thing" also made an appearance in the encore.

He even did us the favor of including his guest verse from Janet Jackson's "Got Til It's Gone". The line "Now why you wanna go and do that love, huh?" led straight into "Find A Way", the lead single off of the Tribe's 1998 album The Love Movement. I anticipated this transition and immediately gushed at the moment it was made. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one.

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CHECK THE RHIME

"Q-Tip knew what he was doing when he entrusted half the lyrics on “Check the Rime”** – the half that was once the jurisdiction of his partner Phife Dawg – to an enthusiastic woman near the foot of the stage. Thankfully she also knew what she was doing: she nailed it, and was rewarded with the biggest cheers of the night. It was a feel-good moment, a reminder that someone out there – a fan, one of us – felt the fever for something, after all." -- Nate Chinen, NYTimes

And hell yes. Michelle Cooper, the enthusiastic woman mentioned above, was probably the highlight of the show. Four rules were given to the fan who'd rap Phife Dawg's parts. If my memory serves me correctly, they were...

1. You got to be on beat.
   
2. No freestyling.
3. No shout-outs to your crew.
4. And DJ Scratch then chimes in..."Don't fuck up like Lupe." You got to know the words.

I was giggling like a little school girl at the reference to Fiascogate, which I got my scoop on thanks to Nah Right and Idolator. For those who aren't in the know*** is a reference to rapper Lupe Fiasco's lyrical fuck-up of "Electric Relaxation" at the VH1 Hip-Hop Honors.

I was waiting for someone on stage to reference this the entire night. God bless DJ Scratch.

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* Well if he ain't gonna promote it, I will!...Go buy it on iTunes. ::End promotion::

** It should be noted that Nate Chinen didn't use the right spelling here. Honest mistake? Or is this the makings of NATEGATE???

*** Or for those who didn't just click either of those links...

j-la: mgmt remix.

J-LA apparently went to school with me.

I say "apparently" because I didn't know who he was until I met him on a roof...months after we had graduated. I'm pretty sure that I had never even seen him prior to this interaction, which mostly consisted of him shaking my hand and me awkwardly dancing to Daft Punk. I don't get out much.

I also went to the same school as MGMT. Their new album Oracular Spectacular just dropped, and admittedly I wasn't too enthusiastic about the songs that had been leaked before its release. They were good and all, but they weren't the MGMT I grew to love...they weren't The Management. For some reason, their name change from "The Management" to "MGMT" somehow correlated with a harsh realization that I was going to have to share "Kids" with the entire world. This was difficult to admit to myself, given that "Kids" is my mind's soundtrack to every pleasant moment I spent at Wesleyan University. It was my secret theme song that the non-Wesleyan world didn't know or fully understand.

Now I am encountering another realization that needs to be fucking realized--- I need to let go. I've heard 3-4 different versions of "Kids" and each one sounds further and further away from the one that first touched my ears so many years ago. MGMT are growing up. They're actually getting kind of...good?

Yes. I've said it. I may like this album. I may even like the new version of "Kids". I feel dirty saying this, yet I also feel somewhat liberated. Fuck.

Wait, wasn't this post about J-La? Honestly, I don't even remember who this post is supposed to be about, but J-La's remix of "Electric Feel" reminded me to go cop this album on iTunes. Also, it's the shit. 'Nuff said.

[REMOVED BY REQUEST OF CREATOR (NOT GOD, J-LA)]
dl: MGMT - Time to Pretend (YSI)
(remix + album track)
- space it / buy it - site it - space it - hype it -

she is so beautiful/she is so blonde.

SHE IS SO BEAUTIFUL/SHE IS SO BLONDE is the solo project of Elliott Kozel, the guitarist of Sleeping in the Aviary. Much like Cars and Trains, this is exactly the type of music I like. But in a totally different way.

I want to call it "atmospheric" but any time I hear that word describing music, it turns me off more than a herpes-ridden vagina dentata. Which is a lot. So to save you from such trouble, let me just tell you a story about this album:

Once upon a time, I received three packages. One contained several promo mixtapes. Another contained an album by an extremely offensive white rapper with a weak flow. And then there was She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde, a self-titled album by a member of a band I already knew I liked. Given that my iPod/CD boombox had been stolen by my older sister so she could play Wonderpets for my nephew while he falls asleep, I had no way to play this disk. So I stole my shit back. Sewiously.

I suppose I could have just listened to the CD on my computer, right? Wrong. I was stuck in my basement cleaning off a shelf full of jewel cases from albums I have purchased since I was 13 years old. This process reminded me of looking through a stack of elementary school yearbooks-- reminiscing about how something so stupid meant so much to me back then, regretting my mistaken purchases, and reveling in the music that guided me through my teenage years. As I pushed aside my water-logged liner notes to Sisqo's *second* album Return of the Dragon, it suddenly occurred to me-- the music playing behind me was perfect for this moment. I savored it. And then I had to pee, so I paused it and listened to more later. THE END.

After several listening sessions of She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde, I came to a conclusion that it was an amazing album for doing things. This is incredibly vague and makes it sound as if I am accusing the album of being nothing more than fabulous background music, but no. I actually feel a need to do things while listening to this album...it's like my personal aural adderall. Is that weird?

She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde will be released November 6, 2007 on Science of Sound. Perhaps it will make you want to do things too.

dl: SHE IS SO BEAUTIFUL/SHE IS SO BLONDE - Days (YSI)
dl: SHE IS SO BEAUTIFUL/SHE IS SO BLONDE - Played Your Guitar (YSI)
(mellow stuff to do things to)
- space it -

nina martine: en a leke med

NINA MARTINE. Oh shit. Oh shit.

I think I may be in love. I have no idea what she's saying in "en a leke med", but her and producer Zingone have stolen my heart with this jam. Like, my heart popped out of my chest and ran to Europe just to tell them how fucking good this song is. I hope that is a reasonable explanation for how mind-blowing this tune is. Perhaps you just need to listen.

In "Kick It", I totally know what she's saying. It's a very simple tune, with a bit of a UK grime tinge. For some reason this doesn't bother me because Nina isn't a dude with a British accent.* The song is accompanied by the type of video you'd expect, and once you see Zingone and Nina's dance moves, you won't feel so bad about completely dorking out to this. Just make sure you're wearing your Adidas pants...or your dominatrix ensemble?

She should totally be a bigger deal on the internet. Other bloggers take note. Just sayin'

REMOVED AT REQUEST OF ARTIST
(the best shit ever.)
- site it - space it -

* Confession: I have nothing against British peeps, but I'm a bit biased against people with British accents in music. Britain should not invade my ears when I have headphones on. This is an entirely aural preference, and there are certainly exceptions.

cat ciao!: part dos.

CAT CIAO! stormed onto my cheap-ass speakers a few weeks ago, and they've been turning my Party Shuffle into a true party ever since.

Some time since then, they've popped a new track called "Lemonade" onto their space. The chorus is simple enough-- "Do the lemonade girl, twist it like a lemon", but this is the number one neglected summer jam. It is now autumn, and doing the apple cider or the pumpkin pie just doesn't sound as catchy. But fuck that, it's warm enough. Grab yourself a glass of lemonade and twist your hips like it's still summertime.

On another note, my sister was just saying how the baby name "Lindsay" is ruined for her because of Lindsay Lohan. I guess she doesn't like girls who don't wear their panties, eh? Well, Cat Ciao! member Josh (Owl Meat/Figure) also did an incredible mash-up of Pase Rock's "Lindsay Lohan" and Cat Ciao!'s "Cat Fight". You can hear/download the original "Cat Fight" on their space. This stuff is too good to not escape the walls of Evansville, Indiana...so get it in your ears NOW.

dl: CAT CIAO! - Lemonade (YSI)
dl: PASE ROCK, SPANK ROCK - Lindsay Lohan (Cat Ciao! remix) (YSI)
(sexygirl hip-hop + hot mashy)
- space it - space it -

kill to win: bear gryllz.

KILL TO WIN is the brainchild of two different-colored brothers.

They are from Fre$hlando, FL, which is like Orlando but...uh, fresher. Duh. Their mash-ups and blends range from Peaches vs. Young Dro to Spank Rock vs. Mylo to Chromeo vs. The Pack, and there's certainly nothing wrong with these, but I'm much more impressed by their original production "Bear Gryllz". I am totally doing robo-gyrating dinosaur dances to it as I type. Well, technically I just did a robo-gyrating dinosaur dance before I typed this. In any case, it's that good. Dinosaur good. Why are they not producing for some up-and-coming Florida dance musician or rapper? Or are they? They should be.

Also, "New Spells" is not a track to miss, featuring a sample of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You". Because you're miiiiine. Okay, so you're totally not, and I don't even want you to be (no offense, yuck). But these MP3s can be yours, and that's what matters.

dl: KILL TO WIN - Bear Gryllz (YSI)
dl: KILL TO WIN - New Spells (YSI)
(DJ duo deliciousness)
- space it - virb it -