The curtain is always up

Friday

Over the weekend, I went to check out Citizen Cope at BAM theater in Brooklyn. To be honest, I almost fell asleep but that could have been from the wine earlier during the night. The crowd was nuts over him though. It’s probably just me but 70% of his songs sounds almost in the same exact format.

Tuesday

Tomek of Fat Beats got me on the list for Fat Beats All Star event at Highline. I was so tired that I overslept on my nap and ended up only making it to see JRocc spinning and performances by Mr.Lif and Akrobatik. Christine sends me a text letting me know it was poppn at Snapshot and Jen was there…so what the hell, I got on the bus and made it there by 12am. Good times.

Wednesday

Fiona Bloom, a regular blogger and event planner in association with FUSICOLOGY, who also runs her own marketing consultancy threw an event at the 205 club on Chrystie St. The show displayed two artists from Houston and two from Atlanta who were on URB’s next hot artists list to watch out for!

I arrived at 8:30pm to help set up but Fiona got it well handled by the time I got there. Fiona introduced me to the folks from the TASTEcrew, Rebel Crew and folks from Atl/Houston. I spent the rest of the night getting to know Karina of StarlightBeats and her friends until the show started. They are most definitely some down to earth people.

The show started off with Joe B, Karina, Proton and then GripplyAZ. They brought their energy on stage for sure battling it out to represent their city to the fullest. Fiona hyped up the crowd with the craziest drunken speech ever in between. If only I had caught it on tape…

Thursday

The only thing with some shows in New York is that…they don’t start until 1am which is ridiculous. Just and I arrived at 11pm and I got to meet Nicole Nelch who’s name has been popping up on my radar screen for a few weeks now. This girl has done everything from music to film (The Hip Hop Project) which I actually saw at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006 and apparently knows everyone in the industry. Having the history of working with Pete Rock, Rich Medina, Dj Spinna, Geology, Waajeed, The Root Down, etc.. most of which are my favorite DJs, she quite possibly could have the life of a rockstar.

I’m not a big fan of Club Midway as a venue but with a lil inspiration, the space actually looked pretty nice. There was art everywhere and a few artists doing their work in the space on the upper level. Free margaritas were being handed out throughout the night. I also ran into Mona again along with Mel D of Village Slum who does some great photography. At 12:30pm, we crammed in the basement level and waited for practically an hour for RES  (pronounce Reese) to come on. I don’t know why I haven’t heard her name before as she’s been coming out with albums for awhile now and even had Nas featured on one. The main thing is that she is pretty good live on stage. Rocking it with only a drummer and a guitarist, they still sounded like a full band. She did a number of hit songs and then Talib Kweli came on stage to perform a couple with her. Her sound is a bit of R&B and rock, a great mix of genres.

As we called it a night at 2am, the snow started. This morning looks amazing outside but DAMN, it’s going to continue to around 10 inches of snow? Isn’t it suppose to start getting warmer?

Tonight

The Roots Show at The Apollo. I saw them a few months ago at the Nokia Theatre and boy, they are DOPE. The Roots are a group you have to see at least once in your life. Can’t wait.

Four Mixtapes Giveaway

 

 

Some things are just that good and it’s true… 

In honor of Black History Month, DJ Parler, a FUSICOLOGY favorite, has cooked up several ill mixtapes to bless us with. Lucky for our FUSICOLOGY readers, we will pick one winner to receive all FOUR mixtapes, which covers all the sweet blends of hip-hop and soulful R&B with their original samples.

Namely a huge J Dilla fan, DJ Parler tributes one of his samplology to the late legend titled the J Dilla Chapter. The samplology series also includes The Philly Intl Chapter (covers tracks from P.I.R., the 1971 label formed by pioneers of Philadelphia soul, Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff), A Gangsta Chapter (inspired by Jay Z’s American Gangster soundtrack), The K. West Chapter (featuring material that Kanye West has appeared on as a producer and/or MC). To peep more on DJ Parler, check out www.myspace.com/djparler or give him a shout at djparlerbooking@gmail.com.

To win: email us your name, address and phone number to submit@fusicology.com.

Be on the look out for 2080s!

Valentine’s Day recap

My friend met up with me at my work. He surprised me with two Ugly Dolls which I absolutely love. Back story: When I was moving to our new apt, I lost an entire bag of contents somewhere along the way. All my stuffed animals and fedora hats were gone… man that was sad. It took me a few days to get over that shit.

We grabbed a quick dinner at Thai on Clinton after he snagged a spiffy bowtie from a new favorite store next door, then headed off to see Amel Larrieux. Thanks to Alex of SOBs who hooked it up again.  Without a doubt, Amel is beautiful. She’s better live than on tape or cd or ipod whatever new gadgetry we have nowadays. That’s what artists should be about.

Amel came on stage with this adorable 1960s red dress in spirit of Valentine’s Day and knocked the crowd off its feet with her delivery from the beginning. With her wide range of melodic tones, her voice a bit breathy coupled with a old school sound, I completely fell in love with her. Throughout the night she played to the crowd and even had a few members of the audience sing into the mic. I loved that. She sang her own love story of how she met her husband of 14 years and it was a cute story. Almost made me wanna go snag a love one myself… almost.

The show ended around 10:45pm where we then hopped in a trusty yellow cab over to LOVE where Qtip and DJ Spinna was dj-ing. The line was around the block when we got there but thankfully didn’t have to wait for long. It was mf-in cold outside. The venue had an interesting set up. You walk down into a lower level and the walls were rocks jutting out imitating a cave throughout the space. It’s definitely a different feel from the normal club/lounges I go to. There was the front room with a bar and restrooms then u go into a hallway where another small room splits off. That room looked dope but it’s hard to describe what it looks like. It reminded me of a cavern of sorts where you can sleep in. Pass that, you step into a dark hallway where you can almost bust your face because there are steps you can’t see.. then into the back where the djs were and a decent sized dance floor. By 12am the place was packed with people getting their groove on. The whole night they were playing the top 40s songs from 1990s to early 2000s. It was alright I guess. We weren’t feeling the songs too much so we called it a night around 1am.

All in all, Valentine’s was eventful and more memorable than I’ve experienced in a long time. I am grateful to have loved ones around me.

In support for Barack’s campaign by Will.I.Am