Origins

I found a pretty cool article on the origins of Old Crow Medicine Show.

Here is an excerpt which references their old timey sound, relative to other styles...

In fact "old-time" music is so called because it predates the recording industry that named it. To the modern ear, old-rime sounds a little like sped-up, drunken children's songs-it plunks and scurries and trips. It's a little dirty, clumsy. It falls apart just enough. If bluegrass is a sturdy, groomed horse, old-time is a mule. (New hot country would be a painted carousel pony.) It's akin to punk rock; it has the same sophisticated lack of refinement, the same defiant authenticity.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Da' Show!

This past weekend marked the opening of Studio 23's Mixtape Art Exhibition, of which T-15 was a humble, yet kick ass contributor.

The location of the exhibit is at in an industrial section adjacent to downtown richmond in an old converted warehouse call plant zero. It's a pretty cool setup as they have parsed the warehouse into a number of 50 or so smaller private studios for local artists. Our stop was at Studio #23 (as if you couldn't have guessed that already).

There were a handful of folks taking in the exhibit which included 34 entries, one of which was an actual mixtape (as opposed to the 33 other mix CDs). I am pretty sure the entry instructions called for a digital format, so I was shocked that an artist failed to conform to the requirements.

Artists!

The entries were as varied as their creators, but mine was clearly the best (not that I am biased or anything). I really wanted to execute against a concept that was more than just a bunch of songs I like and some artwork. That would be too easy and boring. So after kicking some idea's around with trick tickla, the Nobody loves Billie Jean concept came to be.

1 Song done 10 different ways and in a somewhat logical progression (i.e. starting with the original R&B, followed by a New Jack Swing version, followed by a Hip Hop version, followed by a Dance club version, followed by an electronica version, followed by a dub/reggae version, followed by a jazz version, followed by an alternative version, followed by a bluegrass version, followed by folk version).

The artwork mimic the replication/progression theme by tiling the original cover art from the single and progressively applying color filters.

And finally, the basic idea itself, of there being so many different versions of that song is pretty provocative in its own right.

Despite my leanings towards my own work, there were some pretty cool submission not born of t-15's creative loins.

My personal favorite was an album called "Dang! Songs Drunk White People Love." I will list the tracks in another post, but I bet if you are white, you like music, getting drunk and getting drunk & listening to music you could probably guess what all is on that list. The cover art had a bunch of whitey's dancing and was very fitting.

There was also a CD full of songs about pirates, scallywags and seagoing tales. Pirates = automatic win.

Another noteworthy entry featured acoustic versions of a number of songs. Great idea. I would have liked to seen them dig in the crates a bit deeper beyond Foo Fighter's Everlong (acoustic mix) though.

NET net was that it was a good time and I'm looking forward to next year's exhibit already.

I am sure I am a fan...

I stumbled across Deadmau5 (pronounced dead mouse) on I-tunes and think he's got some pretty decent tracks.

Here is a link to a collaboration with Kaskade that has a haunting familiarity to a nice techy house track that for the life of me I can't remember the title. I think it was something that they used to play the living bejeezus out of on pandora. Anyhow his album Random Album Title has some nice selections that I will be downloading quite soon.

I am sure I am not a fan...

WTF PETA?!?!?

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.

I am gonna go throw up in my mouth now at the prospect of my next pint of Chubby Hubby being made from some tree hugger's knockers.

Gross. Just plain gross.

I'm not sure I am a fan...

But I'll share anyways...

Deja vu?

I can't remember if I posted this previously or not. For sure I referenced it once or twice, but now I have the actual quote...

"When you tell somebody something, it depends on in what part of the United States you're standing in, as to just how dumb you are." Bo "Smokey" Darville (as played by Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit).

That quote is as simple as it is profound, as it alludes to the importance of context and the cultural value placed on knowledge.

Respect Yo Self!

One more piece of information with regard to the post below. The night before the OCMS show we watched a documentary on the Stax record label called Respect Yourself.

It was decent and informative, but the really cool part was the linkage between the documentary and the concert. In the documentary, they tell of how all of the Stax artists would stay at the Lorraine motel in Memphis. And while many of their hits were penned there, that is not what people know the Lorraine for. The Lorraine was also the site of the assassination of Dr. MLK.

OCMS has a song, probably on their new album called Motel in Memphis and it is a ballad all about MLK, but it does not mention MLK. Thinking man's bluegrass? I like it!

On a totally unrelated note, I have a feeling that I will be totally lazy and unoriginal when it comes to my halloween costume this year. And this pretty much guarantees it.

Old Crow Medicine Show

Old Crow Medicine Show is an interesting concept and a killer live show to say the least. As described by some as alternative bluegrass, they consist of 5 guys plucking various string instruments and singing folksy songs. The only atypical thing I can think of that qualifies them for alternative bluegrass vs plain ole vanilla bluegrass would be their age. They are relatively young and would look more like Good Charlotte than a bluegrass band.

Regardless their show was awesome and they have a new album dropping this week, so be sure to check it out.

Hurm. Maybe Hip Hop is not dead after all...

Check out this group MHZ. Very nice. Very nice indeed.

Brings to mind a bit of the ole Pharcyde...




In other news, Onyx of all groups just had a new album drop. Who knew?!?!?

You have to see it to believe it...

John McCain's wifey is nutters for drifting...



Michelle, you better start working on your DJ skills, as Cindy just raised the bar on being the coolest potential first lady.

Billie Jean gets around!

So, the honorable Trick Tickla sent me this link to an Art exhibition honoring the art of the mixtape and suggested it was the sort of thing that might be right up my alley and ya know what, he was right.

We kicked around a few random ideas and he thought it would be funny to submit a mixtape with the same song over and over again. I admit, I like the concept, but chances are the artistic value of playing the same song 10 times over might be lost on some of the more low brow judges.

However, I saw the potential and I executed against what works and addressed the issue of sameness by locating no less than 10 different versions of MJ's Billie Jean, ranging in genres from R&B to Bluegrass and covering pretty much everything in between.

I then did my best AW knock-off of the album cover and SHAZAAM! I had an entry!

I'm not sure if they will accept my submission, but who knows. T-15 could very well be on the way to being a high faluting art house exhibitor.

Holla!

Gummi bears, bouncing here and there and cutting off ears...

we are the absinthe gummi bears.