Countdown to fun (and a little Grime as well)

The most important week of my life (thus far) is almost upon us and, let me tell you, I'm so stressed out I've got cartoon birds flying over my fucking head. All the last minute shit is enough to make your brain pop... for those of you not following the story this far, my songwriting partner Sam and I are going to Miami for the Winter Music Conference is hopes of someone signing us (at least for a single, huh Ghostly International?)... our little outfit called State Crime will hopefully be your favourite non-genre defined electronic duo by this time next year! It's going to be a lot of fun but I'm also having so many panic attacks that my chest breaks out in hives and I feel like I'm dying and all the other fun things that come with being a total worry wort... hopefully in a couple weeks I'll have SOME good news for you folks!

I don't have a lot of time to do this post... so I'm just going to throw up some dope grime joints I found on Myspace. One of the coolest things about Myspace is getting these songs (most of which never end up getting an official release)... for example, Klaxons posted their demos on Myspace for a short time and those were the coolest recordings I had heard in a LONG time... way to connect to your fans! (BTW We will be doing that with our Myspace soon once we have all of our tracks sorted out)... tell me what you guys think of these...

Demon- "Eyes Wide Open"

Kano- "Fucking Wid Tha Team"

Skepta- "Ace And Invisable Present"

I like to post some cool footage when I do these grime/dubstep posts... so here's Kano vs Wiley (complete with Mortal Kombat screens)...



AND BY THE WAY, Speaking of fun stuff... FADER Magazine has a new digital issue and podcast out and I thought I'd throw that shit up here so you can get your "cool" on... I love the Fader (as you very well may know)... in fact I think they should sign me to their label (wink wink)...

Here's some info:

"THE FADER MAGAZINE PRESENTS THE 'SPRING STYLE FANTASTIC' ISSUE

Annual Spring Style Issue Presents Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Gang Gang Dance And The Season's Fiercest Looks, Available on Newsstands and iTunes

New York, NY: The FADER magazine, the definitive voice of emerging music, releases its 44th issue, steamrolling into Spring 2007 with an exploration of the give and take between music and style through the most vibrant and relevant musicians, designers, scenes and looks currently bubbling. The 'Spring Style Fantastic' celebrates the reemergence of one of hip-hop's most innovative groups of all time, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, as well as the emergence of one of rock & roll's most forward thinking and fashion-forward outfits, Gang Gang Dance.

Also inside the book is a feature on China's effervescent underground rock scene, a look at the hip-hop coming out of Washington DC that seamlessly incorporates the capitol city's traditional sounds of go-go, a feature on Austin's emotional instrumental rockers Explosions In The Sky, and a Lite Brite meditation on some of music's most interesting collaborators like Pete Doherty & Mick Jones, Princess & Diamond, and Becky Stark & Devendra Banhart by visual artist Ian Wright. The jam-packed issue also includes an incredible fashion feature blowout shot on the streets of Dubai, India, by photographer Andrew Dosunmu. As always, F44 will also be available via iTunes in its entirety, with corresponding audio podcasts, as a free download at http://www.thefader.com/blog/articles/category/podcasts

Highlights Include:

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

"We heard MC Ren flipping over the beat really hard one time and it just stuck with us...We started speeding up and before we knew it we was doing something new and we didn't even recognize it no more. We didn't even know it was that different because we was so secluded with each other."

In the '90s, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony were the originators of a totally new sound in hip-hop: they combined their fast-rap, sing-song flow with dark tales of ouija boards, the Other Side, murder and redemption--and sold millions upon millions of albums in the process, making them the darkest crossover stars on the charts. They've never gone away entirely, but now they've signed a major label deal in partnership with A-list super-producer Swizz Beatz, aligned themselves with all the right people including Akon, Mariah Carey, Three 6 Mafia and more, and have created a new batch of songs that pushes their innovative sound even farther forward. Bone Thugs never lost their cult fan base or their status as icons, but few people could have expected them to explode back into relevance on this grand of a scale.

Gang Gang Dance

"I started meeting thugged out house producers and thugged out gay dancers and everyone was just rocking out and I was the one playing drums and there were dancers hanging off poles and lesbian MCs who hated my guts because I was this white dude, but slowly I started to win them over and they were in my face freestyling like, 'Uh! Keep it tight!" -Gang Gang Dance's Tim DeWit

Gang Gang Dance is probably the most sonically forward-pushing band on earth, constantly evolving and pulling more and more sounds into their extremely weird universe while never straying far from a bottom heavy, danceable club beat. Yet while their music is incredibly diverse, what makes them so important is their stubborn insistence on chasing down all of their interests and impulses no matter what the cost. Starting with the band's de facto leader Brian Degraw who is also an extremely accomplished visual artist and DJ, every member of the band has innumerable side projects always at play, and while it might be holding the band back from the international success it craves, it also keeps them inextricably tied to downtown New York City in a way that is inspired, revitalizing and totally, unthinkably cool.

Also between the pages

The Chinese Beat: Millenial Beijing and the lost art of rock & roll

Explosions in the Sky: The carefully plotted emotional outbursts of instrumental rock's best band

Washington DC hip-hop: Raised on Reganomics, go-go and the neverending pursuit of freshness, Wale and Tabi Bonney rap for the capitol

It Takes Two: A tribute to collaborators by visual artist Ian Wright featuring: Becky Stark (of Lavender Diamond) & Davendra Banhart; Pete Doherty (of Babyshambles) & Mick Jones (The Clash); Princess and Diamond (of Crime Mob); Youssoun N'Dour & Cheikh Lo.

On The Corner: Street style and Dubai, India, photographed by Andrew Dosunmu, styling by Mobolaji Dawodu

And of course, The FADER's own Gen F section where the most essential artists bubbling up from the underground make their debut appearance. This month's artists include Amy Winhouse, Fam-Lay, Voxtrot, No Age, Mr Vegas, The View, and Chrisette Michele."

They've got The View, so there's your vaguely British connection... also got some info on my man Fam-Lay (who's back I more or less had to jump on top of when going with Pharrell and the Star Trak gang up to VIP @ Dragon Room in Chicago) who's new joint is going to bring the beeper back...

FADER PODCAST AND NEW ISSUE OF FADER MAGAZINE

So yeah... that's that... feel free to leave comments as they are always appreciated! I was trying to get a contest up here to win a free 7" but I never heard anything.. if I do I will post it up so make sure to check back!

The word on The Streets...

SO I'm really surprised to see there is a (possibly) new track by The Streets on the Internet? I mean it's a little confusing... because there are a few tracks here and none of them are STRAIGHT Mike Skinner tracks... they are with his singer Leo The Lion and himself... and sometimes with grime MC Kano.

There is a groovy live version of Leo singing the hook to Gorillaz "Feel Good Inc" on Radio 1 with Kano, and then there is a track called "She's Got It All Wrong" that has Leo singing and Mike (and someone else) rapping (this is the one I would imagine is a Streets track), and then there is a song (that is a Kano release) called "Nite Nite" that has Mike Skinner, and Leo from 2005. They are all really cool (especially if you are a big fan of The Streets like I am).

All of these are (or perhaps 'were' by the time you get to them, as these things tend to go) for download over at Leo The Lions Myspace. OR if you rather RIGHT HERE ON ARCADIA! If anyone knows the origins of "She's Got It All Wrong" let me know so I can properly label it.

Kano- "Nite Nite (feat The Streets)"

The Streets- "She's Got It All Wrong"

Leo (from The Streets)& Kano- "Feel Good Inc (Live @ Radio 1)"



Leo (for those of you who don't know) has sung on many of The Streets tracks ("All Goes Out The Window" for example) and sings on ALL of them while on tour. Generally speaking at some point during his performances he also exposes his near perfect physique by taking off his shirt... which probably makes sense in England (where Grime/2step/etc is just like hip-hop here) but did't make so much sense in America when he did it to a crowd full of scrawny indie kids *cough Intonation Festival 2006*.. to each their own I suppose.

Anyway.. go add Leo on Myspace... check out Vice Records for more info on The Streets and make sure you keep checking back for more music here at Arcadia!

Where do we go from here?

Sorry I haven't been posting loads over the last couple weeks. I mean I've been posting but not everyday like I was. Why? Well... I'm kind of confused as to were music is going. HEAR ME LOUD AND CLEAR: I am very well acquainted with what magazines want me to think is music is going. I think they would say it's roughly the sound of the summer still (The Kooks, Lily Allen), the old guard (Muse, Razorlight, Babyshambles, Dirty Pretty Things), the young bucks (The Fratellis, Larrikin Love), the egotistical 'working man's band' (Kasabian), and the rotating NME invented genre of the last 6 months (Thamesbeat.. just kidding! New Rave!) and the bands within that label that pretty much make up the whole things (errr... Klaxons?).

Don't get me wrong. I like every single one of those bands. Am I'm kind of poking fun because I use the 'New Rave' tag every five minutes. But it's also like... I feel like we are reaching the end of the line right now. Like something mega is going to break thru or... or... or... things will keep going the way they were at the end of the 'britpop' explosion... just, I dunno, staring around looking at the guy next to you wondering where to go or writing a bloated mess (see 'Be Here Now). I kind of balked at Lily Allen's assertion that DPT and The Kooks were writing the same old bullshit we've been hearing for years, but after thinking about it, it's close to the truth. It's not THOSE two bands but rather the bands that are surrounding them that are creating this problem. I liked "Two Left Feet" by The Holloways, but "Great Britian"? Not so much (maybe I'm totally off base.. if you really feel this is the case then alert me and I will investigate further.. until then I stick with this)... I don't think those guys are going to save British rock. I really liked Boy Kill Boy's "Last Of The Greats". But the whole of "Civilian"? Errrr no... they aren't going to do it either. And it's bands like that who are making up the bulk of the scene right now. And those bands want to be the aforementioned bands, and those bands cannot handle the burden of carrying rock music (as a whole) on their own.

In order for things to work going forward we have more innovation. Maybe that is 'New Rave'... and maybe my concern is unwarranted. But in my heart of hearts I think new rave is really just a novelty tag that revolves around the Klaxons, a handful of Van She remixes, and bands/duos/producers that are actually just dance music (Digitalism, Justice, Soulwax). I feel like what we really need right now are a couple of 'mature' albums (see Supergrass-'In It For The Money'), a couple of progressive albums (see Radiohead's-'OK Computer'), and a couple crazy classic albums (The Verve- 'Urban Hymns' and Massive Attack- 'Mezzanine'). SOMEONE PLEASE WRITE THE CURRENT EQUIVALENT OF 'THIS IS HARDCORE'!!! We need that.

Frankly? I've been listening to grime and dubstep recently. Those are two similar genres that are constantly breaking the mold. Unlike the coke-and-champagne-induced-insane-sugar-rush-spazzoid-sound of 2 Step Garage (circa summer 2002), where every song sounded the same, grime and dubstep songs are dramatically different from record to record. I mean fucking all over the god damn place. But in a good way!

I've been a big Dizzee Rascal fan since 'I Luv U'. I (unlike a lot of critics) also really liked Showtime despite the fact that it didn't sound like it was made in someone's bedroom. He's obviously the STAR of the whole game. He is like the Jay-Z of grime. Untouchable. I mean I liked So Solid Crew a lot but look where they are and look at where he is. He's the fucking master.

Dizzee Rascal- "Round We Go"

Also been digging some Kano recently. He is one of the artists who was kind of the in the periphery when I was listening to this stuff a lot and I never really got the time to get into him. I've been playing the shit out of a couple singles of his that I've got. I need to get the whole album!

Kano- "Mic Fight"


OBVIOUSLY I fucking love Es-Oh-Vee and will keep blogging about her until I pass out... so I will post something from her too.
Lady Sovereign- "The Broom"

Lady Sovereign- "Cha Ching (XXXChange Remix)

Then there is the crown jewel of the dubstep legacy thus far... of course I am speaking of 'album of the year' contenders Various. The World Is Gone is perhaps the most new school shit I've heard all year...

Various- "Hater"

And then as the icing on the cake is the So Solid Crew remix of Playgroup's electro-disco club pleaser 'Number 1' chopped and stripped like a dead hooker in a woodchipper. I know, I know. That was harsh. But that is how hardcore this song is. It even makes my words GANGSTAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Playgroup- "Number One (So Solid Crew Remix)"

I would have put videos up but I'm tired and YouTube was down... enjoy though!

p.s. Why are you sitting at home when you should be out purchasing the new Clipse album! THAT SHIT CAME OUT TODAY! PUSH IT TO NUMBER ONE! There is no fucking duo out there spittin more fire than them!