So, I have two entries drafted on Almost Famous and Sonic Youth’s cameo on last night’s Gossip Girl. Now, I could finish one of them and rush it to publication for you kind, attentive readers. But, I started watching season one of Friday Night Lights this weekend and some profound race relations stuff is going down and I intend to finish disc four tonight. If you’ve watched the show, you understand. If you haven’t, then I highly recommend starting, especially if you’re like me and grew up in a rural Texas suburb.

That said, two dude-friends pointed me in an interesting direction this morning and I thought I’d write a quick post on it. Peter reminded me of one artist I forgot about and David pointed out another act I didn’t know existed (but whose work I had heard sampled on Fergie’s “Fergalicious“). Thanks, guys. That these artists were obscure female rap artists who got support from members of rap group N.W.A. should not be overlooked, especially alongside the widely-held belief that N.W.A., and the subgenre of gangsta rap that they helped pioneer, were sexist and misogynistic (and also homophobic). And I don’t want to discredit those claims, as they have considerable merit. Barring examples from Ice-T, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E’s solo careers, and Dre’s assault on Dee Barnes while still in the group, I don’t think we have to look much further than “One Less Bitch” and “She Swallowed It” off Efil4zaggin). 

That said, I think this argument gets challenged by the presence Tairrie B, who was signed to Ruthless Records, who also housed N.W.A. for a time, and was mentored by Eazy-E. It gets further complicated by J.J. Fad, who originally used their initials to form the group’s name, whose debut album, Supersonic was produced by Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, and Arabian Prince’s production credits. Now, this isn’t to overlook the gendered dimensions of the mentor-protégée relationship (though it would behoove us to remember that N.W.A.’s records often contained samples of records by female artists like Lyn Collins and E.S.G.). It also isn’t to overlook Tairrie’s normative white, blonde good looks, or that her metal career further temper the waters.

Tairrie B fronting My Ruin; image courtesy of pauljorion.com

But it does emphasize the oft-overlooked presence women and girls of multiple racial and ethnic categories have always had in hip-hop and the support some men in positions of power in the game have given. It may not forgive a statement like “bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks” or level the playing field, but it sure as hell complicates standard conceptions of gender roles and racial norms in hip-hop’s industrial practices.

J.J. Fad, as of 2008; image courtesy of simplydopeculture.wordpress.com

Husband: Would you like to see a tsunami?

Me: Would I like to see . . . a . . . salami, did you say? Why, is it an unusual salami? Can it do tricks-

Husband: No, a TSUNAMI!

Me: Oh. Mm. Really? Ok. Oh actually – wait. Did you say ‘TSUNAMI!’? Hey! That would be AWESOME! To be humbled by a raw, first-hand glimpse of the tremendous might of Mother Nature.

Me: <rolling internal mental footage of the final scene from ‘Deep Impact’ where Tea Leoni’s face melts off in the pre-force of a supersonic 3 mile high megatsunami caused by a comet striking earth because Bruce Willis wasn’t available and you can bet your ass Elijah Wood wasn’t about to pilot a spacecraft to the face of the comet, drill a hole and nuke the fucker moments before it is due to erase mankind forever>

Me: We’ll have to go to a beach with a really big hill-

Andrew: Well, it’s only a meter high.

Me: What? The TSUNAMI!? But- but that’s pathetic! I make bigger waves farting in the bath!

Andrew: And if we go to one a west coast beach, it’ll only be 40cm-

Me: 40CM? How are we expected to distinguish the TSUNAMI! from other waves? I saw the Queen Mother give a bigger wave from her deathbed! I make bigger waves doing the dishes! Your turn.

Andrew: Er. Mexicans give bigger waves.

Me: Yeah, well, um. Ok.

Yet an event like this does not happen every day, so we decided to drive to Piha to observe this natural phenomenon. Despite myself (I’ve seen bigger waves on a stale perm etc.) I was quite excited. As you can tell from the frequency of recent posts, our life rarely features exciting events (although you will be glad to hear we have no shortage of Magic Moments).

Immersing myself in the spirit of the occasion, I made coffee to go, packed snacks, the camera, and swimming togs. I would have fired commemorative mugs with a big roller and ‘Tsunami Simon’ inscribed on them except I ran out of time.

We arrived at the lookout point above Piha with plenty of time to spare, regardless of Andrew’s pessimistic predictions that we had ‘missed it’. And then we stood there staring intently at the sea for fifteen minutes, until around the time Andrew said it was scheduled to hit Christchurch.

So we didn’t miss it – not that we noticed.

So you might say, the TSUNAMI! was a wash-out, as limited to the metaphorical sense.

We went home.

This is the exclusive Live-Audio of the first Dance these Sounds juggled together ever! Handed to me by Sentinels Uli Nefzer.

Hear this classic piece of german soundsystem history, never released before!

Air France Concorde lands at Washington Dulles International Airport on its way to its new home at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

When you visit the Udvar-Hazy Center and see the Air France Concorde on display, it’s hard to believe such a beautiful “bird” is no longer in service. I remember the day it flew into Dulles Airport on its final flight in June 2003, and how modern and elegant it looked as it landed. Once on the ground, it was parked for a while next to the Boeing Stratoliner and the Boeing Dash-80, two of its predecessors from the 1930s and 1950s respectively. The contrast among the three airliners was striking.

The Boeing S-307 Stratoliner, left, the Air France Concorde, center, and the Boeing Dash 80, right, at Washington Dulles International Airport before going on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in 2003.

So why did the supersonic Concorde have to retire? It all boiled down to money.

In January 1976, the Concorde began flying to the United States. The Concorde would cruise at twice the speed of sound between 55,000 and 60,000 feet — so high that passengers could actually see the curvature of the Earth. Transatlantic flight time was half that of conventional jet aircraft, with the average flight taking less than four hours.

Eventually, however, the Concorde became too expensive to operate. For instance, it was only capable of carrying 60 passengers from Paris to Washington, D.C. – 40 shy of its maximum capacity of 100. Furthermore, many of these flights operated at half full, making matters worse. By 2003, Concorde ticket costs averaged around $12,000, and needless to say not many people could afford that!

With an average of one ton of fuel consumed per seat, the already small market for the Concorde gradually grew smaller. Routes were cut back, leaving London to New York and Paris to New York as the only routes. The unfortunate Concorde accident in 2000 added to the aircraft’s problems.

Air France Concorde service ended on May 31, 2003, and British Airways ceased operations on October 24, 2003.

Isn’t it frustrating to think that the technology exists to whisk us across the pond in less than four hours, but no such service is available!

Kathy Hanser is a Writer-Editor in the Office of Communications at the National Air and Space Museum.

I do not know what made me think of this song but yesterday in my car I started singing it in my head….I recorded on my VCR back in the day and watched it, a lot. Kimmi, please tell me you remember this!!!!

Now there are several things about this video that I am in love with,

1. I love the sweaters, I really want one
2. I love the random rollerskating
3. I love the really bad amazing graphics
4. I love the dance moves.
This video and song made my day, I hope you enjoyed it!

Albumcover

Heute war eigentlich gar nicht viel los. Aber eine tolle Sache gibt es zu berichten: Neue Musik ist am Horizont aufgetaucht! Seit heute steht das neue “Pearl Jam”-Album “Backspacer” in den Läden. Gleich heut morgen bei Itunes (Klick mich!) erworben und nach mehrmaligem hören kann ich nur sagen: Respekt! Da ist wirklich ein gutes Album auf dem Weg in unsere Ohren, was meiner Meinung nach sogar an “Ten”, das wahrscheinlich meistgelobte “Pearl Jam”- Album, heranreicht. Aber am besten ihr hört es euch mal selber an.  Die temporeiche erste Single “The Fixer” könnt ihr auf der offiziellen “Pearl Jam”-Homepage sogar gratis hören (Klick mich!).

Meine persönlichen Anspieltipps sind “Supersonic” und “The End” (sehr gefühlvoll gesungen von Eddie Vedder)

UPDATE: Ich hab keine Ahnung wie es bei den anderen Vertriebsformen des Albums aussieht, aber wenn man das gute Stück für 9.99 Euro bei Itunes erwirbt bekommt man sogar (mit Hilfe des “Digital Booklets”) zwei Mitschnitte von recht aktuellen “Pearl Jam”-Konzerten mit dazu. Angesichts dieser Tatsache ein ziemlich fairer Preis, da man so gleich rund 70 Lieder von “Pearl Jam” erhält!

Next Tuesday, Fuck Buttons bring their joyful noise to the Hare & Hounds. Louis Patterson reviewed their new single, Surf Solar, in the Guardian at the weekend and labelled it ‘a 10-minute epic of hoover-rave that sounds like the rocket ship finale to My Bloody Valentine’s You Made Me Realise sweeping through Gatecrasher circa 1998 and turning everyone in it to candy-coloured skeletons.’

Perfect. Their second album, Tarot Sport, is released next month on ATP Recordings and sees Benjamin Power and Andrew Hung further crank their modulators to bliss mode. The tribal shrieks and claustrophobia that haunted the first LP have been exorcised; right now Fuck Buttons, with just two laptops and a box of beaten-up toys, are making complex, galloping, euphoric dance music that references noise bands as much as ambient production. It’s the ideal soundtrack to numerous movie montages: each track builds before hitting and holding an unfathomable, transcendental, theatrical crescendo. And then, in multi-angled slow-motion, Protagonist X turns everyone into candy-coloured skeletons. Well, that’s just one scenario. Sorry, Louis.

Sounds a bit like: Warp records, Lightning Bolt, looking into the sun, loops.

Tickets available from TheTicketsellers .

Details: Sat 26th Sep 2009, 9pm – Late @ Oxford Art Factory (38 Oxford St)

Music: original 80’s electro, b-boy breaks, & classic hip hop & anything in between

DJ’s: Arabian Prince (Proferssor X) of N.W.A, Def Wish Cast (Live),James Dela Cruz (Ex-Avalanches), Stolen Records, tha Fizz, Cassette, Typhonic.

Tickets: Discounted @ Moshtix with ‘COMPTON’ codeword

Info : E-mail : anita@onthefly.com.au Phone: 0292111610

Facebook: Event Link

Mixtape: Available to download HERE

on the fly presents…

ARABIAN PRINCE (N.W.A.)

Saturday 26 September

Oxford Art Factory 9pm

A certified legend of urban dance who evokes passion in hip hop and electro/dance fans around the globe! As a founding member of N.W.A. (with Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren and DJ Yella), Arabian Prince participated in the birth of the gangsta rap genre and cut electro classics like ‘Something 2 Dance 2‘, ‘Panic Zone‘ and ‘Dope Man’, plus their first single the title track to the movie Boyz-N-The-Hood and one of the “top 50 greatest albums of all time” (according to Rolling Stone and Billboard magazine), Straight Outta Compton. He left the group after the release of that record due manager Jerry Heller’s “creative accounting” that left the group out of pocket.

As a producer he cut the classic ‘Supersonic‘ for JJ Fad (that was reworked by Fergie in 2006) and a slew of other hits on Dream Team Records and Macola. As Professor X he extends his electro legacy with 12s ‘Saga’ and ‘Statix’ on iconic labels like Techno Kut, Street Dance and more recently Clone. As a solo artist he has released albums such as Brother Arab and Situation Hot, plus the Stone’s Throw anthology of last year Innovative Life.

Arabian Prince is back in 09 – or perhaps he never went away – with a live DJ/MC throwdown that covers his electro rap catalogue with a nod to the past, present and future.

Support: Def Wish Cast, James Dela Cruz (Ex-Avalanches), Stolen Records, tha Fizz, Cassette, Typhonic.

Links & Media:

Propellerheads Interview 2007

Red Bull Music Academy Session

Info @ Onthefly.com.au

Arabian Prince @ Westcoastpioneers.com

Arabian Prince @ Myspace

Tickets: Discounted @ Moshtix with ‘COMPTON’ code

Facebook Event Link

Mixtape: Available to download HERE

Um pouco de rock n’ roll.