Amoeblog

AMOEBA'S MONDAY MOVIES @ SPACE 15TWENTY: THIS IS THE LIFE

Interview with director/producer Ava DuVernay about documentary that screens tonight for free


This Is The Life: How The West Was One, the award winning documentary about South Central Los Angeles' legendary early nineties hip-hop spot The Good Life Cafe, is being screened tonight at 8PM (Monday, March 9th) as part of Amoeba's Monday Movies @ Space15Twenty at 1520 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Tomorrow, March 10th, is the official release date of the film on DVD, but it will be available today exclusively at the Amoeba screening. I just recently watched This Is The Life and must say that it is a truly excellent hip-hop documentary, one that tells its story with careful, loving detail. That story is of the special place that was the Good Life Cafe, a health food restaurant in South Central, that began holding hip-hop nights once a week at a time when NWA, the area's biggest rap ambassadors, were at their peak.

But the type of hip-hop being performed (a lot of it freestyled) at the Thursday night hip-hop gatherings at this South Central  cafe could not have been further from the prevalent macho-gangsta posturing of Niggaz With Attitude (NWA).

Started by the conscious African American woman Bea Hall and her musically minded son R. Kain Blaze with the objective "to shun the pervasive West Coast gang culture of the time and cultivate a robust,
chali 2naprogressive artist community," the hip-hop venue was not only insistently non-violent, non-sexist and non-discriminatory, but it also had a strict no cursing policy. This policy, which surprisingly was embraced rather than resented by nearly everyone, resulted in a higher level of creativity in the music. 

Posted by Billyjam on March 9, 2009 at 04:08am | Comments (1)

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? STEINSKI: THE AMOEBLOG INTERVIEW

Cut and paste master chops it up with Amoeblog

Last week the label Illegal Art did the world a great favor and released a nicely packaged comprehensive retrospective of the best of hip-hop cut-n-paste pioneer Steinski -- something that has never been easily available before, and not all nicely presented together like this.

But this great collection beautifully showcases the legendary producer who, both along with studio partner Double Dee and as a solo artist, directly influenced so many artists, including most notably DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist and Coldcut

Steinski: What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective is something that belongs in every music collection.  The 2 CD set comes with a nice booklet and liner notes by Hua Hsu that include Steve "Steinski" Stein's comments on each of CD 1's fourteen tracks. Included are the three legendary "Lessons" with Doug DiFranco (Double Dee) -- the first one originating as an 1983 entry in a Tommy Boy Records remix contest -- plus the artist's most important solo outings and remixes including the JFK assassination-themed "The Motorcade Sped On," recorded under the name Steinski & The Mass Media that came as a track on a free 7" EP compilation given away with UK mag NME in 1987.

The second CD is the artist's relatively recent Nothing To Fear mix made for BBC London's Solid Steel radio show a few years ago, with song titles for all 28 tracks in the CD booklet.

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Posted by Billyjam on June 2, 2008 at 11:22pm | Post a Comment

M.I.A. INSTORE TO INCLUDE GIVEAWAY OF BANDANAS SHE DESIGNED

FURTHER PROOF THAT THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE

Another recent victim of visa problems entering the US to perform, UK based and Sri Lankan singer/rapper and designer M.I.A. has apparently overcome her American immigration issues this time around and will be performing all scheduled shows, including a highly recommended free instore at Amoeba Music, Berkeley this Saturday at 2pm!

Yes, the scheduled Saturday afternoon show with the artist often associated with Diplo is due to kick off at 2PM, but, as regulars to Amoeba Berkeley already know, space is somewhat limited when it comes to instores at the East Bay location, so get there early if you want to secure a good vantage point -- especially for this artist, who will most likely attract a large turnout.

The performance will be followed by a meet-and-greet/signing session with the artist, who just celebrated her 30th birthday last week. No doubt she will be performing tracks from her last album, the critically acclaimed 2005 Arular, which launched her unique blend of hip-hop, ragga, grime, and baile-funk Stateside and probably also some tracks from her soon-to-drop new album Kala (due out August 21st), featuring the song "Boyz." (Check out the colorful, mutli-cultural music video for this new single below.

Good word has it that if you buy either the vinyl 12" or CD version of the new M.I.A. single at Amoeba Berkeley on Saturday, you will receive a certificate good for two bucks off Kala when it drops in August, plus a limited edition bandana designed by the musician/designer herself (while supplies last). For full details/restrictions, click here

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Posted by Billyjam on July 27, 2007 at 06:42am | Post a Comment

PAINTING BY MUSIC: FOREST STEARNS' INTERACTIVE ART

Interview with artist known from Amoeba Music instores

If you are a regular at Amoeba Music you may have already seen the silk screened poster art of Forest Stearns, who has done several pieces specifically for Amoeba events. Or maybe you've been lucky enough to catch Forest doing his art live at one of the interactive music-and-art Amoeba instores he has been a part of over the past year.

Instores Forest has been involved with include one with DJ Shadow (San Francisco Ameoba instore) and two with Cut Chemist (San Francisco and Hollywood Amoebas). He has also done live interactive art with hip-hoppers such as Z-Man and at other events such as Reggae On The River.

Additionally, the NorCal artist designed the poster for the Noisettes instore at Amoeba San Francisco, which reportedly everyone loved, including Universal. Forest says the label wants to take the poster and flesh it out to make an animated versions of the band based on the illustration for clothing and more. I recently caught up with the artist to chop it up about life and art, and art and life. For more information visit his website: draweverywheredotcom.

AMOEBLOG:
What inspires you to make art?

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Posted by Billyjam on July 25, 2007 at 09:56am | Comments (2)