Dyn-o-mite! Its Miller Time!!

It was almost a full weekend of spookyness, but unfortunately DJ Spooky's Rebirth of a Nation was sold out at the Alamo Drafthouse downtown. I should have realized this was going to happen, especially since there was a medium sized crowd at his Mohawk show on Friday. I held off on buying tickets in advance because I wasn't to sure if I was going to be able make it the Alamo thing since I made plans to visit family in Victoria. Sometimes I have trouble gauging when shows will sell out. When they do sale out, it makes me o' so angry. I do make the right decisions on occasion to buy tickets a head of time for some shows I wanna see. I did buy my Lykke Li ticket early which saved me some hassle since that show sold out too.

Even though I did miss the screening of Rebirth of a Nation, its not a total loss since I got to see DJ Spooky's Friday night Mohawk show. Paul D. Miller, aka Spooky, seemed like a really nice and chill person. When watching the opening acts Delicious and Golden Arm Trio, I would occaustionally see him mingling with the crowd and watching the different acts on stage himself. He seemed like a "down to earth" kinda of guy and willing to converse with whom ever about whatever.

Delicious:



Golden Arm Trio:



When Mr Miller got on stage, he said that this would be a teaser set since he is in the middle of three unfinished projects. Its sounded as if he was going to be pulling from each to share a little. He started off with some wicked video with flags of the world flashing on screen which seemed kinda subliminal. Next, as in Back to the Future, he then took us into the unique world of Wattstax, in which a majority of the music spun was 70's slash 60's funk and soul using music and video footage from Stax records. He did more Wattstax material then I thought he would since he said it was a teaser set earlier. Some parts of the show seemed off while some of the music and video mixing where dead on and pretty cohesive.

DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid video-montage:

(FYI-The volume on this video is loud and the video has some choppy sloppy editing. I did my best with footage I shot to create this)



Spooky Pictures:





After the Wattstax experience, he began shifting to Hip hop which which then lead into a Rage Against the Machines song(this was one of the last bands spun). The crowd seemed to be pretty easy going and enjoyed the set. At one point, two guys tried to make a mosh pit(during the Rage part) but it looked more like two drunk baboons ballroom dancing instead.



People where just having fun, being goofballs, and just trying to have Good Times. The crowd was a mixture, and their ages probably raged anywhere from the mid 50's to twenty somethings. When I first got there, there was this older black man who was sketching the opening band Delicious. I've never been to a show and seen this before. It really was an eclectic group of people.

Because of the noise ordinance, the show ended around 12:30am because supposedly cops showed up. I think they show up at every show really. I felt like the show should have gone on for another 15 to 30mins to end on a more satisfying note. It just seemed like someone suddenly ripped the plug out of the socket for both the projector and the turn tables midway through the show. I have no regrets about the cool laid back evening though, and I hope to see the finished product for the Wattstax remix soon.

¡Xtra! ¡Xtra! read all bout it:



Locals deejays, Richard.Gear and Joshua Distance, will be hosting the monthly Wild Life part-yay at the Parish once again. Lots of local deejays and it will be lots of fun, so bust a move!

Spoo...keey Ki Key Ki-key and Black History Month

For the most part, I feel racism is lessened in larger cities then in the rural areas of Texas, and it is still prevalent and can be felt to this day in small country towns. Some of my African American co-workers have told me about their own personal experiences with racism in Texas which just makes my jaw drop. To my knowledge I've never experienced racism against myself. I really am a product of my environment with Texas and Mexico being neighbors, with my ethic background being a mixture of Hispanic(Mexican) and Anglo(English) ancestry. When doing a little genealogy, I even came across family members in my own family history that owned slaves and participated in disenfranchisement of African Americans and prevented them from obtaining other civil liberties and rights as well; this is quite eerie if you ask me!

Outside my immediate family, my Grandparents are the individuals that still expose me to forms of racism. My Grandmother Martinez is the only one, while in my presence, which throws around the "N" word. She also likes to call Hispanics that attempt to come across the border "wetbacks". I've tried to ask her to stop talking like that and to be more considerate, but she just shrugs and laughs it off as if its a joke or something. My Grandma Farrow use to use the "N" word in her everyday speech too, but she has stopped in the last couple of years and has toned it down greatly. Even my Grandpa Farrow, who lives in East Texas, last year sent emails having a propaganda like text that denounced President Obama and called him the Anti-Christ(!WOW! Anti-Christ, wtf).

This is so sad and amazing that people actually really do feel this way about Blacks and about the newly elected President Obama. You can really see the racist rural community come out in force in the President election this last November. All the major "progressive" cities in Texas i.e. Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio all voted for Obama, while a majority(not all) of the small towns voted Mccain. In my opinion, this shows a serious undercurrent of race tensions which still run deep in Texas. I even came acroos it when I went down to Cuero TX this last weekend to visit my mother. I stayed at my Grandma Farrow's house when some company came over. While I was there, her friend Barbara started using the "N" word when speaking about Obama. I didn't say anything and just ignored her ignorance out of courtesy to my Grandmother and I said, "I voted for him this time and I'm still voting for the man next time too!". I swear, this is Texas and you can't deny it.

Although, Texas is a Republican or blue state, I can't say everybody that lives in small towns feels this way. It really might have been just partisan politics and nothing more then a choice made due to their affiliation with the Republican party. My thoughts that the votes where cast for Mccain because of past prejudices views, and that they had nothing to do with conservative or liberal beliefs, will hopefully be disproved by these people(rednecks).

In conjunction with Black History Month,on Sunday February 15th at 2pm, DJ Spooky The Subliminal Kid will be in attendance at the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater with a special screening of his multimedia remix called Rebirth of a Nation, in which it deconstructs and transforms the 1915 silent movie The Birth of a Nation into a different piece of cinema then what was intended.





It is Black History Month, and this an interesting way to celebrate, show respect, or acknowledge the amazing perseverance of a people that lived so long under such staunch oppressive conditions.

I heard about the movie The Birth of a Nation in history class but I never watched it. I found some freaky pictures which are pretty shocking to find that this was part of pop or entertainment culture back then.







I've never seen the original, but from clips off You Tube and these pictures, I definitely get a taste of how The Birth of A Nation really does glorify white supremacy by using dramatic "here I come to save the day" music, along with themes of knighthood(chivalry) and bravery(fearlessness). The Ku Klux Klan(KKK) is America's Al-Qaeda and is really really spooky.

I first came across DJ Spooky by way of the movie Slam(1998). He did the soundtrack which really sets the mood in the movie by weaving in hip hop joints, trip hop licks, and sprinkles in drum and bass to set the pace. Its an independent flick which really blew my mind back '99. From the previews, I thought Slam looked cheesy(I'm lactose intolerant, so I stay away from the cheese), but you cant deny the poetry by Saul Williams and Sonja Sohn. It is so powerful and moving that it will leave you in awe...

Saul William's poetry in motion:




I still to this day am a big fan of Saul and Spooky who continue to make great work. I wish I kept up with their current works fanatically, but I'm out of the loop, so I'm going to see the Spooky show at the Mohawk in a fresh light. I think he is doing something else with music and a multimedia remix of a documentary about Wattstax '73, which is the equivalent of a "Black Woodstock", Friday the 13th.

Wattstax '73:



Isaac Hayes - Shaft - live at Wattstax 1973:





Damn right!

We Rrrr...Your Fwends!

So...I got a couple shows in the works that I plan on going to in the next few months. I've already purchased Tickets for each show and I'm pretty siked...

- Lykke Li at Antone's Austin TX February 19th.

- Cut Copy with Matt & Kim at Stubb's Austin TX March 6th.

- Mates of State with Black Kids at La Zona Rosa Austin TX April 28th.

- Animal Collective at Stubb's Austin TX June 5th.

I may go to the DJ Spooky show in mid February at the Mohawk, but I haven't bought the ticket yet.

I was back and forth on deciding whether or not to go to the Lykke Li show. I continued to browse through her music, and I figured from alot of her video footage of live performances, that this is going to be a must see show. I found this really neat video of a seemingly spontaneous ho-down performed in L.A. which eased my nerves about going to the show. Its a really special vid and I think everyone should see it.




Lykke Li & Bon Iver doing 'Dance Dance Dance' in L.A from Lykke Li on Vimeo.

A funny side note, one nite I was watching this video and my sister was a sleep on the couch next to the computer. When I was playing this video and Lykke started singing, my sister suddenly rose up(like Nosferatu) with a grin on her face, which I will never forget, and with her eyes all squinty. I said "whats up, you liking this song or what", and she just giggled and said "yeahhhh..."(in a goofball kinda way). She then passed out again immediately and was out like a light bulb.

Sister snoozing with glasses on (like mother like daughter):



Mother sleeping with glasses on(like daughter like mother):



It was so hilarious because my sis is not a Lykke Li fan, and she has never even heard of her which was the funny part. Lykke's voice just rocks, and my sister's immediate reaction to it confirms this.

So since I've posted the Lykke vid showing a band doing live material which is pretty great, I like to also point out this video blog, blogotheque and their You Tube site. Some of its in French but don't let that stop you. They seem to make very good videos of bands live, raw, and unplugged. These are two of my favs I just came across:

Yeasayers - No Need To Worry





Fleetwood Foxes - Blue Ridge Mountains - A Take Away Show



by lablogotheque