Dig This: Vote Beat Research

I’m happy to report that our modest Monday throwdown, Beat Research, has been nominated for best Monday Night club thing in the Weekly Dig‘s 2009 Dig This Awards. We’re honored & flattered to be considered for this, as we do our best to hold it down for “experimental party music” here in the Bean each […]

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Pass the Pod (Like They Used to Say)

I’ve been working on a talk/chapter called “Skinny Jeans and Fruity Loops” and while part of that has involved tracking floggers and tecktonik across Latin America, another part has required that I dig into LA’s similarly day-glo/geeky youthtube dance scene: i.e., jerkin. More on all of this research later. Meantime, I just want to share […]

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[val’er] vt+vint+vpr 1 to value, be worth

Tonight at Beat Research we’re happy to host another cosmo-bass booster from the Great North. DJ Valeo from Toronto is perhaps better known to readers here as DJ Khiasma from Montreal, also known as Guillaume, one of the bloggers and radio hosts at Masalacism. Whatever he’s calling himself at the moment, Guillaume has been one […]

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Music Per Se

Ah, music (departments). Here’s an excerpt from an email I received this week from the academic administrator in my dept here at MIT (which, in case you didn’t know, is Foreign Languages & Literatures, not, as some might assume, Music & Theater Arts): In order to justify [cross-listing your course] to the Music Faculty, they […]

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Battre la Recherche

Hot off the heels of a couple gigs in Sao Paolo, and en route to rock CMJ in NYC next week, le gran Poirier touches down in Boston this Monday to share his latest concoctions with the Beat Research massif. I never quite know what to expect from Ghis. First time I heard him play, […]

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Masala Mini Mix

I’ve been listening to the MasalaCISM radio show for years, so it was a thrill to finally make it over to the studio when I was in Montreal last weekend. Extra bonus: Poirier and Dub Boy (in from Bristol for Karnival v.1) were also Bendude‘s guests that evening. Benoit started red hot with uptempo dancehall, […]

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¿Como Se Dice “Talking Head” en Español?

I’m excited to announce, for a couple reasons, that next week PBS will begin airing the 4-part series, “Latin Music USA.” Episode 1 (Latin Jazz, Mambo) and Episode 2 (Salsa) will air on Monday, October 12; Episode 3 (Chicano Rock, Tejano, Norteño) and Episode 4 (Latin Pop, Reggaeton) will air the following Monday, October 19. […]

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Hit Dat ___

Not sure what to make of the casual misogyny (metaphor?) at the heart of this — a generalizing of hoe — but, that aside (if I may), I gotta say that I can’t get enough of dudes dancing lithely on their front lawns (wait for 1:10 in the video below). Apparently, this joint’s on some […]

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Sounds Physical

wheel it back, selector I’m going to take a page from MBQ’s playbook and reblog a rather interesting post on sound cannons (aka LRADs, Long Range Acoustic Devices™) by fellow ethnomusicoloblogger, Ben Tausig, who is writing a very engaging blog about the “politics of sound.” I find Ben’s thoughts particularly revealing against the backdrop of […]

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Mobile Music & Brass Culture

photo by julie_chen The annual HONK! Festival is going down this weekend, making Somerville the joyfully cacophonous meeting ground for an international bloc of brass bands (and related ensembles). I missed HONK! last year, out of town, so I’m looking forward to taking it in this time around, especially with the girls, who will no […]

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Still Fighting Back

Team Tenenbaum has filed an OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR JUDGMENT AND DEMAND FOR INJUNCTION, which pretty much means what it says — or in my attempt at non-legalese: they’re asking the judge, rather than entering the judgment recommended by the jury (which, interestingly enough, she has yet to do), to fundamentally reconsider the validity, […]

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Arab Face, Second As Farce

Thx to the ever-vigilant Ted Swedenburg for bringing to my attn the latest episode in the surreal and surprisingly sustained saga of “Arab Money” (click the non-HD version to stay here) — Video Games | GTA IV: Ballad of Gay Tony | Yusuf Amir Trailer XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii So there […]

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Pop Goes the Meme, Yo

I’m headed north this weekend to take part in the Pop Montreal conference. I’ll be speaking/playing on a “DJed Lecture Series” alongside such keen observers / boosters / makers of “World Street Music” as Guillaume Decouflet (aka Khiasma / Valeo from Masalacism), Brian Shimkovits (of awesometapes fame), Sao Paolo’s Dago Donato, and 90210’s favorite hip […]

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