Beasties - Then & Now(ish)

So I don't know if you know this, but the Beastie Boys are definitely on my top-whatever list of favorite music groups.

As far as my love for GOOD hip-hop goes, I give a substantial amount of credit to the Beasties for leading me down the path of how I should judge so-called hip-hop heads. Their debut (debut mind you) album License To Ill remains this historic production that completely turned hip-hop at the time on its head - I mean listen to it, it's like Nostradamus made a rap album about how rap music (and hell, countless other genres and fusions, etc.) would become during our present time. This is also the album that made me believe that Rick Rubin was less of a producer and more of a genius.

So anyway, I've been scrounging the Internette for Beastie material I haven't yet heard (with the exception of 2007's The Mix-Up, as I vowed not to listen to it until I eventually buy it on vinyl), because I got no life like that, and have recently happened upon a couple REALLY TASTY MORSELS of Beastie Boys history that I have to say was thoroughly enjoyable.

The first of which is a bootleg released under the title Original Ill. Original Ill is the demo tape of what would later become their groundbreaking first album. Yeah I know it doesn't sound that great (especially because it was literally ripped straight from an actual TAPE circa 1984), but the reason that it is something worth checking out is the fact that some of the tracks on here have new verses (like whole fucking bars of new shit!), new mixes, and even jams that didn't make it to the album (!!!!!), which includes a Beatles cover (!!!!!!!). Yeah dude....

Ch-Check It Out

So the next great find was this bootleg from '87 when the Beasties went on tour to pimp Ill. Now the quality of this recording is shasty as hell due to shasty 1980's bootleg technology, which I'm convinced means that someone came in the place with Talkboy. However, the reason you should cop this boot is the fact that (A) they bring out suprise guests RUN DMC, and (B) they sound drunk as hell...like shit-faced drunk...and apparently it's because it was Ad Rock's birthday, but who knows. Definitely worth checking out...

RIGHT HERE

And to conclude this post, as I've mentioned previously in my cool ass blog, I had the chance to witness the greatness that is THE Beastie Boys live, in person, posse in effect, in 2004 at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans - easily one of the best concerts of my entire life. I tend to look around the 'Nette after I go to a show that I know was most likely bootlegged, and luckily for me, I happened to find this very show! Thank god I downloaded it then, because ever since then (and I've searched) I can't find it anywhere. Apparently there was also a soundboard version SOME-fucking-WHERE that the guy who I got this from wouldn't give me (and I tried, that cunt). So for those -3 people who read my blog, here is the Beastie Boys, Live at Voodoo Fest 04 (and my first megaupload upload):

FUCKING AWESOME SHIT

now be sure and compare the two bootlegs - kinda eye-opening aint it? special thanks to It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold This Sac for the links.

Hey! Another Video Post!

So my life is really boring right now...it sucks waiting around to hear about two jobs, when there's a good chance I may get both and then I'd have to make a decision. Well anyway, this video is for Melissa, who is going to be (maybe) moving into her first apartment by herself in Hattiesburg
(more like Shattysburg)....here you go, some tips for you!

Batman

So the new batman is about to come out and when it does,
everyone's gonna die............with excitement!

...and now i have to post this.

Ok this guy wins...i obviously lose





Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.





I get all tingley every time I watch this...

i have to post this

I love memphis...

Well I just got home from a two-week getaway from the piles and piles of work that I'm ALWAYS stuck having to do (has anyone picked up on the sarcasm yet....does anyone even read this blog?). It was great, as going down to the gulf coast is currently my only outlet for alleviating stress.

Late last night, I finally arrived from driving back for 6 hours only to be greeted with a note placed on my bed(!).

The note was written in what looked like orange Sharpie in the style of, hmmm, drunkenness? Anyway the really shitty part was what it said, and I quote:

"IF WE WANTED TO WE COULD GET YOU BY NOW"

What the fuck does that mean? I certainly don't know - my perplexity only made more vexed by the fact that absolutely NOTHING seemed (seems) to be missing, or moved around for that matter. So like any stupid idiot, I called 545-COPS, the Memphis police chat line, and after being transferred to three different people, they sent a cop over. (un)Fortunately, the cop, using his high-tech CSI latex glove, confiscated the letter for "evidence" so that they could "dust for prints"...ok cop settle down, you get your A for the night...

Anyway, he asked if I knew anybody that I could've pissed off enough to, you know, break into my apartment, leave a note, apparently vomit in my toilet and leave it, then leave without taking anything. I said no.

Oh I forgot to mention that whoever did it pried off the screen to my bathroom window (which is about 10"x 20" when opened) and crawled through, and apparently it looks like THEY went out the same way. Yeah what the fuck indeed.

This whole debacle just further improves my theory that Memphis is full of nothing but CRAZY ASSHOLES. It just sucks that I didn't take a picture of the thoughtful note, and probably won't ever see it again, as it will surely fall through one of the many cracks down at 201 Poplar.

Woohoo its great to be back.

Aphex Twin

What can be said about Aphex Twin.....

Well Richard D. James is the British mastermind behind this and other handles of electronic music....and he's pretty much unstoppable.

Really I just wanted to post a link to Melodies From Mars - an unreleased "album" that, apparently, he produced, then recorded to a ridiculously limited amount of C90 cassettes in 1995 to give to recording executives and close friends/associates.

From what I've read, due to shitty P2P programs, there's a couple "versions" of the album floating around.....I'm pretty sure this is the most complete and best quality version.

Melodies From Mars up your ass!

An interesting side note - a couple of the tracks (as they are appropriately "tagged") are early versions of tracks that would later appear on 1996's aptly-titled Richard D James Album - which is a really great place to start if you aren't familiar with Aphex Twin.

Edit: This is actually where you should start.

Clean Up the TRASH

I had to post something so my drunken stupidity was not the first thing one would see upon viewing my blog... so here's a painting I did last year....





ps I stole the concept from another artist because that was the assignment...which apparently makes me a good artist so it works out

My thoughts about current art shows in Memphis...

As of 5/30/08, THE art galleries of Memphis, TN have a couple things thrown up on there walls - all of which are respectively different from one another.

Damask III - Kat Gore

The David Lusk gallery, located in East Memphis (THE art center of Memphis, and hey, it's right next to Sears!), is showing two artists - Kat Gore and J Ivcevich. Gore's paintings are immediately surrounding you as you enter. They decorate the gray walls with patterns that appear to be ripped from grandma's doileys, slightly off-centered and painterly/artistically washed with whites and even more grays dripped and drizzled and layered and wiped and re-layered upon their surfaces. Unfortunately, that's as far as I think they go - conceptually and otherwise. Unfortunately, they will all probably sell in ridiculously little-to-no time to the uber-shiek elite - those people grasping to be hip and decadent over in East Memphis. If you turn around, there are a series of smaller paintings that are brown with what appears to be paper cut-outs of black silhouettes - all of which depict objects in different degrees of technological advancement (or lack thereof). Again, the ball stops rolling there.

one of Kat Gore's aimless silhouettes

In the back of the gallery is a completely different story. Ivcevich's paintings focus primarily in depicting urban objects and settings - traffic cones, traffic barriers, graffiti, clothes on a line hanging from a loft.

Untitled (Roadwork) - J Ivcevich

These paintings aren't necessarily realistic, but they offer more to hang on to visually than Gore's meanderings. The colors that Ivcevich has chosen to use are, for lack of a better word, fresh - solid pastel blues and reds, vibrant orange, greens, and purples. There is also a bit of stylized technique enforced, as subtle raised outlines make the objects more present and less 2-dimensional. In addition, a bunch of ceramic, prototype-gray remotes to television sets pile up in a corner, while a white painted sign post reads something in Arabic in the other - a sign displays even more Arabic text in lights plugged into an outlet and hanging over a doorway. The atmosphere as a result is very modern and urban (again for dire lack of vocabulary) and also very fleeting, but at the same time I am able to relate to its "street" credibility.

Congee - J Ivcevich

Moving onto another Memphis center for art (or in this case art marketing/arm, leg removal), the Perry Nicole artstore is displaying a lovely array of rural landscapes from an artist named Barth (Eric Barth?). Basically, I stop seeing these pieces and focus more on their prices which range from something like $800 to a couple grand. Again, the ball stops abruptly. It is unfortunate that the best pieces in this "art space" is in the back, packed away.

Barely Heard by Eric Barth...$1000

The final show I've seen recently is the Glen Ligon installations/paintings at the Powerhouse downtown. The Powerhouse is a unique place - they get "internationally known" artists to come to Memphis, observe Memphis, and inevitably make art about Memphis. In this case Ligon holds nothing back as his show pokes holes in a town that, from the outside, is a great southern CITY. Memphis, as us "insiders" know, is mostly comprised of black people - not necessarily a bad thing at all (for all of you whose red flags have told you to start shouting at me). However, its inherent "blackness" has been less about empowerment as a race and more about indifference to racism, lack of economic structure/infrastructure, crime, and most importantly electing incompetent "leaders" that fail to care about our city. Ligon creates a commentary of Memphis through reappropriation - the genius of this work. He has silkscreened lines from Richard Pryor sets onto gold canvases - completely taking them out of the context of comedy and pointing them directly at the African American race. On the bottom floor of the gallery, Ligon has painted quotes that he supposedly heard from walking around Memphis:


The power in this comes from the act of writing these things down and displaying them - they have more weight, more meaning(?) when they are right in front of your face as text. It isn't hard to tell where these quotes came from - let's just say he wasn't hanging out by David Lusk or Perry Nicole. Ligon also takes a shot at the art world - more specifically the presence of black people within - with a piece that situates the same civil rights-era sign next to itself:


On the left is the original infamous sign. On the right, it seems a "critic" has circled "craft issues" and made notes (I chuckled when I saw a fingerprint circled with the statement "finger smudges - from the artist?"). This ridiculous dissection of what was once a powerful statement and object further juxtaposes what is REAL and what is ART - two things that maybe should be more closely related, but often couldn't be further apart, as the previous shows (with the exception of Ivcevich's pieces) have definitely proven in various anti-climactic ways.

god i'm so bitter...

The ArtForum Introduction to Caleb Johnson - artiste (with references added by Caleb Johnson)

Every so often, an artist (see Viggo Mortensen) comes along that takes what has long been the norm in the arts (see Bureaucracy) and turns it on its side (see Beerfest). In our current era, that artist has come to us in human form as Caleb Johnson. Caleb Johnson is not just a painter (see John Wayne Gacy), a master draftsman (see Wesley Willis), and an installer of new, other-world experiences (see Disney World), he is a prophetic revolutionary (see Jim Jones). As he has been premierly outspoken about the “lull of society these days” (see Fox News Channel), Johnson sets out to challenge what has long been accepted as social norms (see Friendster) and political necessity (see HotOrNot.com) by creating images and environments that can be described as ironic (see George W. Bush), satiric (see U.S. Government), and exposing (see Weekly World News) with tongue firmly planted in cheek and eyes pried widely opened (see The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Leary, Timothy and Metzner, Ralph; Alpert, Richard. 1964). Through his creations and our inevitable witnessing of sheer poetic magnitudes (see Two Girls, One Cup *editors note: google it if you're not squeemish*), Caleb Johnson’s work will surely bring peace to our divided nations (see Hatfields vs. McCoys) and meaning to our pathetic lives (see The Bible).