Beat Authority playlist: 3/27/09

You can listen to this show on-demand - whenever you want - starting on Monday. Listen to last week's show via streaming audio here. Que tengan buenisimo fin de semana!

How High's The Water Mama?

Add this one to the list of twentieth anniversaries coming around: De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising. Man what a record. It's the record that single-handedly converted me to a hip-hop fan twenty years ago. I'm gonna choke up here...

Freddy Anzures is both a designer and DJ (just like Delany Flushboy) who publishes a blog named p-r-o-p-s which is devoted to both of his passions. Each week he drops a new radio mix on his site which I urge you all to check out. It's definitely prime Beat Authority fodder. A couple of weeks ago he devoted a show to the brilliant samples that Prince Paul used on 3 Feet High and Rising. That Prince Paul, good guy, but he still needs a haircut.

Earth-shattering Beat Authority news!!! Listen anytime!!

Easily the most frequent comment I get from listeners is: "I really love the Beat Authority, but I can't always tune in Friday afternoons. Can you podcast it?" Sheepishly, I'd always answer, no, sorry the record industry doesn't let us...blame the RIAA.

Well, today I'm here to say you CAN listen to the Beat Authority *anytime* with our new on-demand stream. It's not a podcast; you can't download it. But you can listen to the most recent show anytime you want!

Next week, I'm going to have a permanent link where you can find the Beat Authority stream, but for now, it's here. Listen, let me know what you think. And thanks to our web guy, Dale Hobson, for making this happen!

BBB live!

Balkan Beat Box, the band that's been on repeat in my world lately, is getting crafty with the promotion of its new CD of remixes from the stellar Nu Med from 2007. First, a free download, then another, and now a streaming online concert to watch. This is the first time I've heard them live, and they rock as much as they do in the studio. But I'm disappointed they don't have a real tuba onstage.

Beat Authority playlist: 3/20/09

Fresh.

They're just giving it away

More and more record labels are releasing free downloadable singles, in the hopes you'll love it and want to buy the whole CD, or at least other tracks. Six Degrees, a fine world and ambient record label based in San Francisco, is making it easier than ever. Just bookmark this page, come back every once in awhile, and you'll be rewarded with their latest free downloads.

Noise, Brought

As advertised, PE played with The Roots last Monday. As expected it rocked. Can you imagine a bigger rush than being Chuck D's back-up band? Turns out that Monday was Flavor Flav's 50th birthday. Happy birthday Flav!

The extent of love for MEINHEKUTARU!

I had heard that Google's new translation service has taken translation software to a new level. It supposedly takes a whole new approach to the problem of translation by comparing millions of examples and basing the translation on that rather than translating words and concepts.

So I decided to take it out for a spin.

I took a certain James Brown song, translated it from English to Estonian to Korean to Slovak to Arabic to Italian to Japanese and then back into English. And here is what I got:

Has!

I do not want to worry about the past
Would like to continue our love
I do not blame the kids
I want your heart

Ohio State

If you kiss me
If my house
I hold her hand
They Bikige

However, to escape my - cold sweat management

It! Oh! It!

Never mind
I do not want to talk
Regardless of the extent of love for MEINHEKUTARU!
Gold, I understand

Ohio State

If you kiss me
I will miss the future
I may have been closed
Are all measures

However, he has a break in the morning - it was cold sweat!

Interestingly, my attempt to do this with Dylan's Visions of Johanna resulted in lyrics that were not too far from the original, although somewhat more abstract.

NPR picks up Kutiman

Nice interview with Kutiman on All Things Considered last night. Especially good idea to put together the same samples K-man uses in a less-than-aesthetically-pleasing way, by way of comparison.

But you gotta watch the youtubes to really appreciate the genius...

More Brotherly Love

I'm not exactly living in a bubble, but I do live in Sweden, and I don't really follow much TV, so I was very surprised today to learn that The Roots are the house band for a new late night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon. This news chilled me to my bones. I was thinking about Paul Shaffer, I was thinking about Doc Severinsen, no mater how I played it in my mind, I just couldn't reconcile the coolness of The Roots, with the lameness of being a house band for a late night talk show. Folks, it was bad. Then I found this video on YouTube and heard how they rocked the tuba.



Then I found out that they're playing with Public Enemy TONIGHT, March 16. The Roots. Playing back up for PE. I'm nearly ready to fly to States tomorrow just to watch this on TV.

But wait. Hold the phone. The Roots, and Antibalas, are going to be playing back up for PE again this summer at The Roots own Picnic festival on June 6, in Philly. AND they're going to be playing all of It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. How cool is that?

PS Speaking of late night talk shows, what ever happened to Arsenio Hall? Did he get disappeared by Pinochet or something? Is he in hiding out in a smoky bar somewhere with Bo Jackson in some alternate universe where it's always the early '90s and the soundtrack is supplied by Naughty by Nature?

Beat Authority playlist: 3/13/09

Sunny days sweeping the clouds away.

Philly Phlavor

I saw a documentary on Tuesday about a singer named Billy Paul, and I'm ashamed to say that it was the first that I'd heard of him. I'm always amazed how much music there is in the world. Just when you think that you have a handle on it you discover something new that opens up a whole new world.

Billy Paul is a singer who recorded for legendary soul label Philadelphia International Records in the 1970's. His big hit was "Me and Mrs. Jones" which won a grammy in 1972. The bet part of the documentary were the interviews with phellow Philadelphian Questlove of the Roots. He explained, in the coolest way possible, how many black vocalists have their musical roots in the church (Aretha, James Brown, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder) but that he has a sweet spot for black vocalists, like Billy Paul, with their roots in Jazz.

The documentary, named Am I Black Enough For You with HRH Billy Paul, was made by Swedish filmaker Göran Hugo Olsson and has yet to be picked up for distribution in the US. Call your congressman or favorite movie studio exec and request that it be distributed Stateside. You'll enjoy it. Here's the trailer:

Wheels of steel get sentimental

Here's a subtle turntables performance by Montreal's own Kid Koala. Props to Dennis M. for finding this...

Free mp3: BBB x2

Last week, I threw up a link to a free download from the Balkan Beat Box's new remix cd. Well, here's another, from one of my favorite DJs, Nickodemus.

Free downloads: Phish Phood

It was fun reading the NYT's review of the Phish reunion shows at the Hampton Coliseum. It definitely captured the aura of the Coliseum in jam band lore (nice grab on the 1989 Dark Star).

Big props to the band for offering free downloads of all three shows. They'll still make a mint on the shows themselves and sales of higher quality CDs, but it was a kind gesture to their fans who couldn't get in to the Coliseum (or afford the reported $1000+ ticket prices).

Beat Authority playlist: 3/6/09

Here's today's playlist. DON'T MISS Kutiman, and free downloads from Balkan Beat Box and Extra Golden below....

Meta. Blog.

So, no, David and I didn't know that we were each posting about Kutiman. Looks like this one is a true internet tsunami.

Remeber the "I Kiss You Guy"? I'd love to get a list together of internet tsunamis. Suggestions welcome.

Kutiman: So cool, it's crushing

The Israeli musician, Kutiman, has come up with an "album", Thru-you, so mind-blowing and genre-shattering in so many ways, the server where the "album" lives is down due to "overwhelming traffic".

Here's the deal: Kutiman "video samples" all these youtube music clips to create funky-ass songs. Kutiman briefly explains what he does here. A hat tip to alert listener, Sean P., who likens it to DJ Shadow's "Entroducing" of the Internet.

But they're only songs in the sense that they're videos. I can't find any actual audio "songs" in the traditional sense. So Kutiman has: a) used youtube to "video sample" in the way DJs like Shadow or Cut Chemist sample audio, b) released what appears to be an exclusively "video album", and c) released it using the medium he samples, youtube.

The whole world is raving about it, and why not? Here's a functional link to the whole album. But this here's the one you GOTTA watch now...

The Golden Age: further proof

Here it is: further proof that we live in an artistic golden age thanks to the internet. Israeli musician Kutiman has created an album (a word which gets more and more abstracted every day) composed entirely of remixed YouTube clips, kind of like DJ Shadow's Endtroducing for the twenty-first century. The album -- it's called Thru You -- exists as a set of videos on a website. This embedded video is from YouTube but please, please, please (spoken in the pleadingest, most soulful voice ever mustered by The Godfather himself) go to the Thru You website and check out the project. It's a mind-blower.


And if you still doubt that it's a golden age, you need to sit down and listen to what Louis C. K. has to say on the topic.

Free MP3: Balkan Beat Box

BBB's Nu Med was one of the best CDs of a couple years ago. I still listen to it over and over, and I'm dying to see the band live. Today, they're giving away a track to their new album of remixes, with cool DJs like Nickodemus and Soulico doing the production work. Right-click here to download it!