Ovals for Obama in the Oval Office

A Dem primary that counts in Massachusetts? Featuring the most, yes, inspiring candidate for president I’ve ever had the hope to behold? Count me in. Count my vote. Count em up. Let’s gO! Just adding my voice to the chorus. A chorus which is increasingly musical. I’ve already pointed to some Obamaton, to that Yes […]

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Ready for the Road (and the Remix)

With carnival jumping off in T&T over the next week — & Mardi Gras a week from today — tis the season for Trini artists to roll out the big guns: tunes so massive that they run the road once the marching begins (not to mention before and after all is danced and done). The […]

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What Chew Know About Down in the Hole?

I’m not really a TV watcher. Really. I mean, sure, I’ve watched something like 2000 videos on YouTube over the last couple years (and I don’t think that even counts videos embedded in blogs, etc.). But I probably watch OldTube only a couple hours a week at best — like if, say, a big Bawstin […]

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Baby New Year

It seems natural that babies are such common symbols for the renewal and growth promised by a new year, but for Becca&me a baby is an especially appropriate symbol for the new year, since this year — indeed, this month! — will bring us an actual baby of our own. I’ve been waiting to make […]

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Refried Pasteles

in the xmas diggin spirit, /jace offers up some fine aguinaldos y villancicos // including a couple MIDI files ! // & so i couldn’t resist spending part of my xmas tuesday morning doing this — w&w, “refried pasteles” [audio:http://wayneandwax.com/music/refried-pasteles.mp3] i can imagine a number of other ways to make mashed pasteles, and it’s begging […]

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Eat a Rum (Cake)

“Drink a Rum” = a Trini Xmas favorite. Composed by his highness Lord Kitchener, but also given various chutney soca parang upgrades, among other countless variations and personalizations. Another Trini Xmas fave, with even more personal/family/local versions — plus more broadly diffused throughout the (Anglo-)Caribbean — is the rum/fruit cake often referred to as black […]

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Just Call Me Mr. Meme Maker

when i say that ghislain poirier is one of my favorite global ghettotechies®, i think i mean that unsardonically, but i’m not sure where that leaves us ghislain’s music, however, usually leaves me grinning if not spinning keep it blazin, g —

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Sonidos Aburridos Bastardos!

If I thought something was poppin in the state of Denmark, I have no idea que pasa en Argentina. The ol’ blogosphere radar has been registering lots of blips from that southmost outpost in South America. I mentioned the Frikstailers a little while back, for instance. And of course, there’s the whole cumbia rebajada movimiento, […]

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The People in Your Neighborhood

Something is poppin’ in the state of Denmark. Troels (of Firehouse Sound) recently hipped me(space) to Lady Smita, a Roxanne Shante song-embedding dancehall diva who makes punaany-power traxx with digital Danish producers like Maffi, uses Boba Fett for her profile pic, and starts her heroes list like so — Which made me think: the MIA […]

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Gyp the System

Not surprisingly, Timbaland is back in the news — and in the courts — again facing charges of outsourcing the orient unauthorized sampling. This time he’s being sued, for the second time, over the use of elements from the Egyptian composition “Khosara” (most famously recorded by Abdel-Halim Hafez back in the 50s) for Jay-Z’s “Big […]

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Dancefloor Friktion, Almost From Any Font

The Frikstailers first came to my attn via DJ Ripley and Stu FatPlanet, both of whom seemed to admire their “fidget groove” (thx, stu!). I too was instantly enamored with their glitched-up, tech-housey (blog-housey?), syncopated dance traxx. They helped me to imagine Argentina in a different way, hearing Córdoba as another outpost of the EDM […]

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Labor Day Special: End His Career!

The NYT published a long profile on Rick Rubin yesterday. It’s a innaresting piece and Rubin’s a helluva producer, executive producer, A&R man, and new-age exec — but he’s not gonna save the music industry. DJ Nate (via s/fj), on the other hand, provides a good glimpse at the new non music industry. On his […]

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I&I’m a African

Sorry for the silence here of late. It’s been crunchtime for fall semester, which I’m v excited about. What’s more, I thought I’d leave the “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” post up for a while in the hope of getting more feedback for me and Boima both. (Thanks to Lamin for sharing his thoughts & the […]

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way Back to Boston

Everything was going according to plan. We slogged through Chicago (natch), cruised through Gary and the rest of Indiana, and were hoping to roll along I-90 all the way back to the Bean. But shortly after crossing the Ohio border, our ol’ trusty Honda — so clutch over the years — no longer would shift […]

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It’s Time for the Blog U Later

Sorry for the silence. It’s that time of spring — all mango-con-chili in the park and classes to finish up and articles & anthologies to tie together and whatnot. More soon, tho, I promise. Meantime, for an early summer bubble fix, I meem you Cajmere‘s classic Chicago house, maximinimal, proto-juke joint, which was apparently a […]

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From Scratch to Sprinkles

A couple remixes I cooked up are now available (again) for listening and/or other forms of consumption — and in context at that! 1) Mick Sleeper continues his deeeeeep Scratch Perry podcast with an episode collecting a number of remixes of Scratch recordings, including my mashy take on “Bird in Hand,” which brings together a […]

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Wasp a Buss the Place

Gwaan Wasp!! w/ a nice video medley by Endless — a likkle background here >> & here are a couple tracks I recorded with Wasp and his bredrin Dami D back in ’03 — wayne&wax ft. Wasp & Dami D, “Highest Grade” [audio:http://www.wayneandwax.com/music/highest-grade.mp3] wayne&wax ft. Wasp & Dami D, “A It Dat” [audio:http://www.wayneandwax.com/music/a-it-dat.mp3] (fyi, that […]

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Keep It Movin Like the Zunguzung & Other Uprock Narratives

JC on JB Back from Seattle, which was a blast (see below). Off to Boston tomorrow. Gonna be in the Bean (and the Bridge) for a spell, presenting a revised version of the Zunguzung tale I told this past weekend, weighing in on the White Rapper Show alongside some hip-hop(-studying) ethnomusicologists, and delivering what have […]

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Calculater, Termigrader

Given my own pet peeve around encountering holidayaganda too well before — or at all directly after — one of our days of nationally ritualized good cheer, I’m sorry to leave that last post up so long. If you’re asking, “Did you have to let it linger?,” in a light brogue falsetto, well, yes, I […]

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