Hungry Hosts

photo by Max Shay for The Hoot Nettle’s residency at Brandeis — a series of revelations for yrs truly — is now over, but we’re not done hosting geography-defying beatbreakery just yet. Tonight at Beat Research, we’re celebrating our 5th anniversary (!) with the help of Grey Filastine, pictured above playing percussion with Nettle, who’ll […]

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Clap Yr Hands

Tonight at Beat Research, we’re happy to host Boston techno mainstays Soul Clap! The Soul Clappers are a vibrant part of this city’s music/dance scene, playing nearly non-stop, blogging and prolifically podcasting, keeping the flame aloft for (weekly) techno in Boston/Cambridge (including some great parties on the Charles when the weather’s right), supporting a broad […]

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Music Unites Us, Gets Under Our Skins

I couldn’t be more thrilled to announce this — At a time when the arts community at Brandeis is feeling rightly beleaguered, it brings me no little satisfaction to know that we will be putting on a rather art-ful residency later this month, sponsoring the US premiere of such an exciting, provocative, and relevant group […]

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But One Book of Poetry to Contain Them All

Longtime readers know I’m quite the devotee of those dear local philosophs / civic superheroes / transcendentalist romantics, Emerson and Thoreau. I’ve quoted them at length and composed songs inspired by their fiery oratory. So I was excited to stumble upon (hat tip forgotten) a blog dedicated to posting Thoreau’s journal entries, pegged to the […]

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Re:Wine Wine Wine Wine Wine Wine Wine (We Like It)

As things ramp up for carnival, the strains of soca seem increasingly in the air (& my inbox). Believe it or not, there actually is a likkle soca in the air here in Boston. One key source projecting the strains of carnival into the city’s soundscape is BIG CITY FM, my fave “pirate” reggae/soca channel […]

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Tonight at Beat Research: DJ Pace

via the Beat Research webpage — Friend, Party Rocker, Bassaholic DJ Pace (aka Pacey Foster) is a multi-instrumentalist with deep hip-hop roots, he was the turntablist in the Franc Graham Band and the experimental live electronic act Elk which included members of Count Zero/Think Tree. He has performed as a club and party DJ for […]

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We Be Ilvin

since fruityloopy music by multiculti youngstas has become all the rage, i figure i’m sitting on a goldmine, having run many an FL session with kids in boston and lowell, MA and, kingston, JA from 2002-04. one of my favorite students — b/c of his enthusiasm and aptitude — was a lil dude aptly named […]

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Penultimate Warrior

The Adventures Of Soul Clap Podcast Episode 42: Eddie Neal Brings It Back To 88 | The Soul Clap Blog – House. Techno. Dance. Music. Boston. a little local DJ history (and a mix!) c/o the Soul Clap dudes & Eddie Neal :: pull quote — 'Back then [late 70s / early 80s] the Boston […]

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Babylon Spit Shine

c/o Ivanna B (aka DJ Philomena), one of my fave “local” DJs / dancers / artists / people, don’t miss this month’s stateside / tri-city showing (NYC, Boston, Providence) of politically & culturally charged art (drawings, prints, sculptures, photographs, mixed media, video and more!) from Chile & Argentina — more info: www.glaciersofnice.com/labestia/ escupidodelapanza@gmail.com

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Vulture Shark Sculpture Park*

A few weekends ago, me & B & the Neeks visited the Decordova Museum in nearby Lincoln, MA. It’s a favorite spot of ours for taking a stroll or having a picnic, and we were gassed to bring Nico to a place filled with such marvels. I was pretty amused, actually, by her bemused reactions […]

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Flee Market

Ninjasonik – Tight Pants (The Rap Remix) – Chunnel o u mad? :: tight-pants wearers of the world, unite! (tags: brooklyn fashion video hip-hop EDM af-am race sexuality critique) Literary Encyclopedia: Mirror Stage, The 'It is a well-attested fact that one day, usually between six and eighteen months, a child that has not been able […]

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Atenção!

Cabide DJ has landed. He’s here in Massachusetts. Met the man last night, who blessed me with a couple of those lovely shrink-wrapped CD-Rs so common in Rio. Don’t know bout you, but i CAN”T WAIT FOR SOME LIVE MPC COM NARIZ ACTION!!!11!!1 As Gregzinho details, you can catch Cabide at all sorts of venues […]

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Shake It Like Onomatopoeia

Beat happening – The National Newspaper jace offers less a review than an extended essay on the sounds, significations, & marketing of a west african / "islamic" hip-hop comp: "Populist, ecumenical, Muslim, fun: Many Lessons is good, right? Yes. … None of this diminishes the fact that the label releasing Many Lessons (Piranha) is using […]

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Bean Research

Longtime local pal and fellow Riddim Methodist, the mighty Pacey Foster, has been working on a history of hip-hop in Boston — a project that began as a commission to write a chapter for a book on regional hip-hop scenes and which has gradually expanded into something much larger as musical-social networks have led him […]

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Ida y Vuelta y Boombap

Tonight @ Beat Research! Fresh back from Granada, El Canyonazo and Gnotes will present their findings from a Fulbright-sponsored research project into the multicultural roots of Andalusian music. sez ñ — We’ll be using the Akai MPC to recreate a thousand years of musical confluences produced by Andalusian ida y vuelta, re-imagined through the prism […]

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Inadequate Blackmail

McCain’s Daddy Yankee Endorsement – The Caucus Blog – NYTimes.com 'Daddy Yankee called Mr. McCain “a fighter for the Hispanic community” and “a fighter for the immigration issue.’’ Mr. McCain, who noted that his wife, Cindy, had gone to Central High School, said, “I just want to say thank you, Daddy Yankee.’’ ' :: (thx, […]

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Are You On MyFace?

Library Of Vinyl Experience: Beantown Boogie pacey — friendly neighborhood riddim methodist, lover of vinyl, and boston hip-hop historian — seeks to rightly re-center the bean in the boogie universe, offering up "a collection of (mostly) 1980's Boston electrofunk, boogie and breaks" and ending with a rare, schooly-D style bit of ol-school boston brash c/o […]

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Goodness Gracious

Great bailes of fire! Watch Cabide DJ rock the sampler de fogo — Can you imagine how that machine would go over in Jamaica? If all works out in the forbidding world of international travel, Cabide will be touring the US this fall, including stops at such Boston-area bastions of Brazil as Club Lido and […]

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