Category: music

You’ve probably heard it already but the legendary hiphop D.J. and producer Jam Master Jay of Run D.M.C was murdered Wednesday night while taking a break from recording at a studio in Queens. Apparently Jay (real name Jason Mizell) was relaxing and playing video games when a masked man entered the studio and opened fire. Jay was shot once in the heart and died almost instantly. He was 37 and left behind a wife and three children.

What the Beatles were to rock n’ roll, Run D.M.C was to hiphop, not only bringing the music to audience whose size no one had quite imagined but elevating it artisically as well. Much up hiphop until Run D.M.C’s breakthough single “It’s Like That” were rap vocals laid over synthesized disco beats. Run D.M.C pioneered the use of rap over hard rock samples and heavy electric guitar, paving the way to their historic 1986 collaboration with Aerosmith, “Walk this Way.”

I first heard Run D.M.C in 1985 when half the kids in my 6th grade class were singing “King of Rock” in the hallways. That spring, Chike McCleod, the coolest kid of all, showed up to school wearing a Run D.M.C T-shirt. A half-dozen more followed.

That spring made me a hiphop fan which I continue, proudly, to be to this day.

Sadly, much of the press thus far has focused on what a peaceful man Jay was, a social activist who avoided the gangsta posturing of some hiphop stars, and shouldn’t have met such a violent end. The truth is, none of us should die this way but we have a notion in this society that hiphop and its listeners are a culture soaked in violence. Just last week, an article in USA Today tried lamely to link the Washington D.C. sniper suspect to a separatist hiphop act as if rapists, murders and thieves have not drawn inspiration from rock n’ roll, country and classical music (they all have).

I hope we recognize the subtle racism embued in feeling like we have to justify that Jam Master Jay wasn’t a violent man. Most hip-hop performers, producers and consumers are not violent people. But if we can look at the deaths of Jay, Notorious B.I.G, Tupac Shakur, DJ Scott La Rock and others as endemic to the culture of hiphop rather than tragic anomolies, we can somehow explain it away as a freak subculture of young black men. The truth is hiphop is now a worldwide cultural phenomenon, with African-Americans influencing the way young people across the globe dress, dance, and communicate. The significance of that is both enormous and as American as jazz, baseball and apple pie.

Hiphop is our American culture now as much so as the sitcom. Get used to it. It’s not going away.

My friend Lars Kongshem is an education journalist by day and an amateur composer by night. He wrote this instrumental called Calla Rain in honor of the birth of his friend’s new baby and gives a moving little explanation of how it came together. Check it out (real audio format).

“If the future’s looking dark,
We’re the ones who have to shine.
If there’s no one in control,
We’re the ones who draw the line.

Though we live in trying times,
We’re the ones who have to try.
Though we know that time has wings,
We’re the ones who have to fly.”

–“Everyday Glory” by RUSH

Songs with “29” in their title:

“April 29, 1992” by Sublime

“Episode 29” by Mushroomhead

“$29” by Tom Waits

and my favorite…

“29” by the Gin Blossoms which contains the lines

Time won’t stand by forever if I know it’s true
And I’ve learned not to say never
Or else I’ll seem the fool
Twenty-nine you’d think I’d know better
Living like a kid
When my lies may seem less than clever
Is when I fall for it

Scott Matthews, the creator of Andromeda saw my last post and emailed me, overing guidance on installing it. That’s really very nice of him.

I’m still unpacking so I shouldn’t have been wasting time this morning getting jacked about Adromeda, a new multimedia program that allows you to stream your MP3 and video collection from a remote server. Imagine being stuck at the airport with your laptop and being able to listen to your whole music collection imprisoned back at home. The possibilites!

Forget it. I tried to download the thing after reading a profile of it in Shift. You get a line of script that you’re supposed to slap down on a server somewhere or plug into your site or something like that. Then there’s some business with IP addresses I didn’t get either.

*Pfffffttttt*

Brass Tacks: I’m don’t ask every piece of consumer software to be aimed at the idiot demographic I occupy. But for pete’s sake, somewhere in 800 words of adulation, you can squeeze in “basic server knowledge and your own web site required.” It’s not too much to ask.

Major music labels Sony and Universal Music have significantly relaxed their stance on digital music distribution, allowing customers the right to burn music on to blank CD’s and lowering the price of songs to 99 cents a pop. This a very big victory for consumers, music lovers and those who knew all along that policing demand instead of embracing it and treating your customers like the enemy is very poor business practise. Hopefully the others will follow suit.

Though I’ve been known to engager in an occassional music download myself (*wink*), I don’t want to give the impression that it should be one giant free-for-all with no one having to pay for anything. Artists need compensation and independent record stores are in many cases the last guardians of musical diversity in an increasingly consolidated music world. But it’s too late to go back to the way it was. Shouldn’t this titanic shift in the way music is distributed be seen as an opportunity instead of the end of the world?

My buddy Mena did a schtick about her favorite Pixies Album over at The Morning News that I rather liked. Suddenly, several people I know, are contributing to this publication. Can anyone? Or do you have to be special?

My buddy Justin arrives tonight. Mix Weekend has begun!

Every spring since 1994, two of my closest friends from college and I get together. We each bring a tape/CD of music that meant something to us that year, organized in a way that tells our story. We go somewhere beautiful, play each others music and talk. Talk bout where we are and where we’ve found ourselves a year later.

Dave and Justin are arriving in San Francisco next week for “Mix Weekend.” I have all the songs lined up for my presentation but haven’t organized them yet. Usually I wait for a sign, something to tell me when the moment is right.

It just told me. I’m going to do my mix now.