SXSW '07 Revisited

The link to my SXSW blog within Okayplayer's archives seems to change about every 3 days. So here's a screen grab to keep my exploits available to my adoring fans. (Thanks for reading Dad.)

Before The Music Dies

I caught the afterparty for this film's premier a couple years back and just recently got the opportunity to finally see the film itself. If this film doesn't disseminate enough information to incite revolution then I'm quitting the business to sell vacuums door to door.

Read my Okayplayer review here. Watch the preview:

 

Buy the DVD, and log on to join the revolution.

Secretary - Secret Life of Secretary

The Aggrolites - Reggae Hit L.A.

Tim Buckley - My Fleeting House (DVD)

Sage Francis - Human The Death Dance

The Rosebuds - Night Of The Furies

El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead

4Hero - Play With The Changes

Rich Boy - Rich Boy

Serengeti - Dennehy

VA/Sound Chronicles - Volume 1

photo by Angelo

I spent this past weekend trolling for SXSW freebies. Without a $600 badge or a $160 wristband a fellow has to start hustling a little. In all honesty, folks did most of the hustle for me. Ginny from Okayplayer made a few dozen calls. At one time me working as load crew for El-P was discussed. Guest list for Amy Winehouse? But SXSW authorities got all jumpy and finally she called Tayyib Smith, general socialite and industry insider, along with his own journalism and soiree endeavors.

Ultimately I just hung close to Tayyib and he handled the VIP hookup for me, Jill, his friend Sara, and anyone else who was nearby. Thanks Tayyib for the wave past the velvet ropes.

I spent most of my time at day parties because they seemed to be more accessible for industry related shows than the population doubling night bills. Monday, OKP posted my thoughts about the weekend on their blog. Check it out here. (Scroll to the SXSW 2007 headline.)

Two shows I wish I had seen, were the 50th Anniversary Stax Records Reunion, and Charles Wright with the Watts 103rd. (For some reason he's abbreviating the name now.) Both of those were at Antones, but Jill and I got crazy sunburned at the Stubbs Ghostface/Rakim show and slept right through the late afternoon and Charles' performance.

My first freelance rejection slip:

Hi there

Thanks so much for your proposal for the 33 1/3 series. I’m afraid that yours isn’t one of the proposals we’ll be signing up, but we really do appreciate that you took the time to send it in – we enjoyed reading every one of them.

Very best wishes,

David

I submitted a proposal to write a book on D'Angelo's Voodoo for Continuum Publishing's 33 1/3 series. Last year there were 170 proposals and of those 20 books were signed. This year, in order to fill the same 20 slots, there were 449. Sweet. I guess I was a year late.

When I was about 13 I heard this track called "Jazz (We've Got)" on a sneak preview of Groove Productions VG2. When I got back to Waco I couldn't find that song but I did find the artists newest release, "Beats, Rhymes & Life." I still remember pulling it out of a box below the display shelves in Wherehouse Music. That record is probably the earliest root of my musically elitist and snobbish tendencies.

It just so happened that A Tribe Called Quest emcee Q-tip had a cousin named Consequence he brought in on that album. Quence appeared on about half the cuts including helping to co-write one of my favorite songs to this day, "Stressed Out." Then Tribe broke up and a decade passed. Last week I got to talk with Consequence about his second chance at fame in a long quest to realize his dreams.

Here is the interview.

Lewis Taylor - The Lost Album

Jewels - The Self Outside Project

Bassline - Elevator Music

Burnt Sugar - Chopped and Screwed, Vol. 2

Jordan Miche - Phantom of the Operation

Wu-Tang Clan & Friends - Unreleased

My choice for Okayplayer's 2006 Best of list. Read my comments here. My editor tagged my entry with a line from an email I sent her about Amy, but I guess they are still my words.

It's a UK release still unavailable in the states. I ordered the Canadian version from Dusty Groove and it is missing the last track from the UK version. I've heard rumors of a March release in the US.

Big Wille Green - The Proof

Lady Sovereign - Public Warning

The Insomniaddicts - Eventide Revery

J Xavier - Young Prince Of Tha South

Lexicon - The Rapstars E.P.

Owusu & Hannibal - Living With Owusu and Hannibal

Youngblood Brass Band - Is That A Riot?

Zion I & the Grouch - Heroes in the City of Dope

Here's a few new OKP posts from September.

Baraka Noel -The Mixtape Philosophies of Mushroom Black

Kid Koala - Your Moms Favorite DJ

DJ Kayslay and Greg Street - The Champions

Two more recent OKP reviews to bring us up to date.

Jern Eye - Authentic Vintage

Super System - A Million Microphones

A long overdue posting of all my previous Okayplayer record reviews. I can highly recommend Aloe Blacc's "Shine Through," which is a fantastic album and I raved about it so much that Aloe actually wrote me personally to say thanks.

Aloe Blacc - Shine Through

Myself - Protest in Disguise

Quantic - An Announcement to Answer

Dabrye - Two/Three

V/A - Kings of Diggin

Rebel and tha Peacemaka - Return Uv Tha Essence: The Antidote

Shabba Ranks - Shabba at Showdown: Reggae Showdown Vol. 4 (DVD)

Wu Tang Clan - Legend of the Wu Tang: The Videos (DVD)

X Dash - Workaholik

Balance - Young and Restless

Bronze Nazareth - The Great Migration

Vernon Reid and Masque - Other True Self

Santero - Arawaks and Maroons

V/A - Inside Scandinavia Vol. 2