For all the art, click this link.

Saturday, Gavroche and myself got out for SanDisk’s Rock the Bells tour at Shoreline. If you’re in Denver on 8/23 or Washington on 9/6, don’t miss this show. Rock the Bells continues to set the standard in terms of large scale festivals bringing together a fantastic line-up that often doesn’t happen with hip-hop. Whereas some tours or shows will have one or two big names with a bunch of unheard of artists (not that they’re bad!), Rock the Bells this year features one of the most star-studded hip-hop line-ups I’ve ever seen. Even if you’re not a huge fan of hip-hop, this show features enough classics that it can serve as a tasty introduction to some music you haven’t heard and might enjoy.

Furthermore, one of the major plagues of festival shows, the lengthy and crowd-angering set changes between acts, was completely eradicated by the crew of this show. Utilizing a simple stage set up with a DJ above a large black screen with the name of the act, it took very little to get in and out of sets, and towards the end of the show it was 10-15 minutes between every performer. When you look at the Kanye fiasco (no matter who’s fault that was) at Bonnaroo and some of the problems that always come with numerous acts, the artists and the crew of this show have a lot to be proud of in their speedy set changes.

The event started with SanDisk’s royal treatment in their VIP lounge. They had an open bar and food served all day, as well as scheduling meet and greets with Supernatural, Dead Prez, Murs and De La Soul. The event is sponsored by them along with their new product, the Mobile Ultra Mini SD card, which gives your phone 2 gigs of memory. Seems to me the type of thing anyone with a love of music or movies needs. All I can say is that I hope the fans appreciate what SanDisk did in compiling this artist line-up and sponsoring the show.

The show kicked off around 11 with a short set from Wale, who is gearing up to release an album off Interscope. He was followed by MURS, who, despite being a kick-ass rapper, somehow got stuck with a mostly empty amphitheatre. But he brought energy to the stage in his quest to promote not only the free internet release of Sweet Lord, but also his upcoming Murs for President. With shorts, a concert promoted t-shirt and his signature dreads, MURS carried with him less pretension and more of a laidback aura than you might expect from a rapper of his caliber, but he’s truly about the music and the fans. At the meet and greet after his set, he not only posed for pictures with fans, but I even saw him take a girl’s cell phone and talk to her friend to convince the friend that this girl was actually backstage with him. Seeing him chat it up with some girl’s friend on the cell phone, just to help her verify she was there was one of those fan friendly moments that most artists will never get involved in. Murs seemed happy to.

MURS gives a fan's friend some proof (and continues his Presidential campaign)

Following Murs, it was a surprise to see Blackalicious released so early in the show. Between Chief XCel and Gift of Gab, they’re one of the truly gifted hip-hop groups that can take difficult songs straight off the album and reproduce them flawlessly live. More than that though, Gift of Gab is just plain fast. When you hear a song like “Alphabet Aerobics,” you don’t think there’s any way it could be performed live. It’s just too fast with too many tongue twisters. Gift of Gab makes it sound easy. At one point in the set, he did a fantastic mixmatch, using an old Puff Daddy beat to rap “To Know You” from 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up. To close the set, they freestyled at a frenetic pace, just to prove it wasn’t all just a stage show.

M-1 of Dead Prez

After Blackalicious, Dead Prez took the stage and put together a set that got the steadily growing crowd energized. They played about 6 songs, finishing with “Bigger Than Hip-Hop” which pumped life into the stage just as they were leaving it. One of the great things about Dead Prez was that they, like Murs, were extremely accessible to the fans backstage. M-1 set up shop on a couch with a bottle of Patron and stic.man spent most of his time talking to people. They’d pose for anyone that came up with a camera for them. Very friendly.

stic.man of Dead Prez

Immortal Technique followed Dead Prez with a set that I think pleased every Tech fan in the crowd, and shocked everyone else. I’ll start with a thank you to Immortal Technique and his crew over at Public Wizard as they set up the interview with Tech and put us in touch with the press department for this festival. For people who don’t know Immortal Technique’s music or message, hearing him on stage for the first time could have a very jarring effect on someone chilling on the grass drinking and smoking at a hip-hop festival. But as anyone who’s a listener knows, and as he told everyone at the show, he really doesn’t give a fuck what you think.

Immortal Technique

He’s far more politically oriented than any other rapper at the show, and he delivers his lyrics with an uncompromising style that doesn’t care if the audience likes it or not. He played a great set with “Industrial Revolution,” “The 3rd World,” “Harlem Streets,” “Point of No Return,” and “Peruvian Cocaine.” More than any rapper I’ve seen in concert, he never truncates his lyrics or songs, which makes sense for someone with that kind of power in the message. If Tech is in your town, check out the show. He’s intense.

In between Immortal Technique and Raekwon and Ghostface, Supernatural took the stage and ripped one of the longest and most interesting freestyles I’ve ever heard live. With people at the edge of the stage, he freestyled solo for about 5 minutes, rhyming about whatever random objects the people in front of him handed to him. He talked about the San Francisco Giants, Trident gum, a bracelet, anything. It was like watching an extremely gifted improv actor who knew how to rap. I hadn’t seen Supernatural before this concert, and I was blown away by the depth and length of his freestyle.

Following Supernatural came, in my opinion, the weak link of the show. Raekwon and Ghostface took the stage and fell flat. Despite having a large bottle of orange juice and a blunt on stage with them, Raekwon and Ghostface just don’t deliver live like other members of the Wu-Tang Clan that I’ve seen.

Raekwon and his OJ

It’s not that they’re not solid rappers in their own right, major contributors to the Wu-Tang crew, and fantastic studio rappers, but live they just don’t perform like GZA and Method Man. While other artists at the show were able to engage me with songs I hadn’t heard before, I couldn’t get into any part of the set. I also took some issue that these guys forgot where they were, thanking Los Angeles at the end of the set. Some people thought they said, “The Bay,” but I know I heard them say, “L.A.”

Next up was Rakim who unleashed solid song after solid song. The crowd was heavily invested in this one as a rapper so old school that he’s referenced in an old school 2Pac song called “Old School” ripped through an energetic set in which he rapped with enthusiasm, skill and what seemed like an urge to have everyone in the crowd feel what he was feeling when he let it out.

Rakim enjoying the music

I hadn’t heard any Rakim other than his work with Eric B., and I was thoroughly impressed with how natural he sounded even removed from the sound of the ’80s. What’s more is that you can see in his reactions to the music and his delivery how much he loves the genre. This was one part of the show I wasn’t sure about going in and was very pleased with coming out.

When De La Soul took the stage, the passion from the crowd poured out. Posdnuous went off stage and into the crowd and was immediately surrounded by the fans. The entire set was upbeat and very strong for a group who has been dealing with numerous release and record label issues over the past 8 years. Along with Murs and Dead Prez, this group was the most accessible backstage, taking time to joke around and take pictures with Pharcyde.

Dave of De La Soul

De La Soul’s grind was followed by the rowdy duo of Method Man and Redman. From the minute they ran on stage to the time they left it, these two brought the show and the crowd to a new level. While some people not too versed in hip-hop may have thought The Wire’s Cheese was trying his hand at rapping, there was no question to a listener that Method Man showed up.

Redman opened up a shook can of Coke on stage and then did an interesting dance trying to avoid the spray. But the cameras in the photo pit had no such luck as the box of bottled water on stage quickly became projectiles for Meth and Red to chuck into the crowd. There’s usually a 5-6 foot space between the photo pit and the seats near the stage. Method Man invites the crowd to come up and they quickly fill in the gap, providing him a place to dive off the stage and into them. These two slammed through their set of well rehearsed fan favorites such as “Y.O.U.” and “Mad Crew” with incredible precision despite the crowd surfing and water hurling antics. There were several excellent moments throughout every artist’s set, but for the passion of performance and raw energy, no set rivaled Method Man and Redman.

The Pharcyde took the stage next. The DJ gave them a little flak for the length of time since their last album, and they got the “with special guest” billing from the tour. The set was good, and of course closed with “Passin Me By” and included “Runnin” which had the crowd enthused. For a group who hasn’t been together in years, it didn’t show in their on-stage chemistry. The set was well done and while most know Slimkid3 and Fatlip, there wasn’t any sense of animosity between them or competition for stage time.

Tre of Pharcyde

The always eclectic Mos Def followed, coming on stage in a shirt from a Louisiana coffee/beignet shop, sunglasses, a trucker hat and an 80s windbreaker style jacket.

Mos Def

This changed throughout the set as he lost the jacket and hat, traded them for a bandanna and gradually got more relaxed with the crowd as the set went on. Up to this point in the concert, the sun had been on the other side of the stage, so it fit perfectly as the sun started raining down on the front side of the stage for Mos to perform “Sunshine.” Although it’s still hard for me to separate Mos Def the rapper from Mos Def the Def Jam Poet and Poetry MC, he carries a stage presence and swagger that just works.

Nas was next. While Method Man and Redman put on the performance with the most juice, Nas had the best set of every artist at the show. He started with “Sly Fox” off his new album (we’ll leave it to other outlets to decide whether to call this one Untitled or the N-word Nas originally wanted to slap it with), and then went on an all-out retrospective of his work with varied length pieces of “New York State of Mind,” “The World is Yours,” “Life’s a Bitch,” “Street Dreams,” “If I Ruled the World,” “Nas is Like,” “Got Yourself a Gun” (complete with an interlude featuring Dr. Dre’s “Still D.R.E.”) and then doing a heartfelt rendition of “One Mic.” One problem with all the favorites is that rappers will drop out and let the crowd do some of the work…they paid to see YOU rap it! If they wanted to listen to themselves rap, they’d do it in their car or at home or at a karaoke bar.

Nas

Regardless of this fact, Nas’ set was more complete than any other in that he gave a taste of his new music but threw out all the favorites to remind the audience of his lyrical supremacy, and sometimes more importantly in rap, his longevity and ability to continue evolving while maintaining a quality of lyrics that rarely suffers from repetition even eight albums later.

To close the show, Q-Tip did three songs with Mos Def before he was joined by the rest of A Tribe Called Quest to finish out an excellent afternoon of hip-hop. Q-Tip initially seemed very agitated, angry almost that the crowd volume was not what he expected. He yelled “LOUDER” several times and was obviously frustrated. He of course performed “Vivrant Thing.” As for Tribe’s set, it was a throwback worthy of the concert, playing a host of fan favorites that had everyone dancing and rapping along. But why go through the setlist when I can simply show you?

A Tribe Called Quest Set List

So that was that, 2008’s Rock the Bells. With 2 more shows left, there’s still a chance for people to get out and see it, and if you don’t, don’t forget it when it comes around next year.

Keywords: Electronic, Deep, Minimal Techno
Via: www.galaktikarecords.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/inaquimarin

Iñaqui starts at the begging of the 90´s trying to make music like his idols with Jupiter second hand synth and an Atari computer. In some months, he received a good offer to work in a studio with some good professionals and it’s a nice time to learn technical production and starts to release some techno pop tracks in different labels.

In all his life, he was interested in all the possible styles related to electronic sounds (E.B.M, synth pop, acid, etc etc) arriving to now, when he is manufacturing a personal fusion between some influences, in Regular we say he makes E.B.M: Electro Body Minimal.

His productions see the light in Regular in 2004 with Regular 04. and shows what can offer to the world, and now is his consecration with the release of Klinischtod, the first album of Iñaqui showing all his influences and his strong personality. An album released at the end of February 2005, and sure it will be in the charts for the dj´s over the world.

Iñaqui is a part of the Regular crew since a lot of time a go. Iñaqui and Jaume are friends from they were childs, and also together will offer a new live act for final 2005, with Jaume singing some tracks and with other surprises. We will see…

The release of his album Klinischtod around the world is every day bigger. The track “U Can´t Scape” is for example inside the new Fabric 23 compilation mixed by Ivan Smagghe, and the tracks are included in the best charts of dj´s over the world.

Actually he has a new album, “19” that will make him to grow up with a tour over the world.

TRACKLIST

01. Plastikman - Slow poke (Twilight zone)
02. Seth Troxler - Relationship (Spectral sound)
03. Samuli Kemppi - Vagel (Ostgut)
04. Function - Burn (Sandwell district)
05. Iñaqui Marin - Mirage (Galaktika records)
06. Christian Bloch - Broken cycles (Subtrak)
07. Error Error - Gompac (Sender records)
08. Audion - Against all odds (Spectral sound)
09. Mathew Jonson & Adam Beyer - Big Dipper (Wagon repair)
10. Marc Romboy - Lost (Ovum)
11. Raul Parra - Dark Dynamics (Helvet Underground)
12. the Horrorist - Wire to the ear (Music Man)
13. Human resource - Dominator - Is Hell The One And Only Dominator (DJ Hell Remix) (Noom records)
14. Kink - Traffic (Rush Hour)
15. Telepopmusik - Don’t look back (Lory D metamorhic remix) (Refuge)

Download (right click, save as) (71MB, 160kBit/s)

MP3

Aug 16th: A select crew of NY's dripping-in-black art and music elite slink to the dim lit sticky floored cellar of the rock and roll club, LIT LOUNGE, to check out Nick Zinner's new photo exhibit. Lit's the only place in NY where grunge hasn't died. Or at least if it died, you can still smell its decomposition on Lit’s floor. One of my friends passed out on the bench in the basement of Lit and awoke to find a rat walking on his face. It's as charming as nails stapled into black leather. But on the days you want to revel in a shit hole, this is the best rock shit hole there is. That said, the Fuse gallery in the back of Lit was perfect staging ground for the Yeah Yeah Yeah's guitarist extraordinaire, "It’s OK, Don’t Look at the Road."

Zinner, who studied photography in college, is into streamlined minimalist photography- with a bit of Dash Snow street grit. He highlights things unkept- the beauty in the unbeautiful and vice versa.

In this particular exhibit, he's got 100 or more photos of used beds from all over the world. Bangkok, LA's The Standard.... You can't match bed with place or date if you tried. Instead, it's a motley maze of used and consumed bedroom detris, highlighting the mundane trial of touring, a place with no name, a bed with no identity, save the constant reminder you ain't nowhere near home sweet home.

There's also bigger pictures of a guy showing off his lip tattooed with the word punk, woman's asses in short shorts. In explanation Zinner says:

"I have become more fascinated with the ambiguity of an image. If you remove the facts and the dates and are just left with the image, that image to me is strongest, when each viewer can attach their own meaning to it."

Check it for yourself if you happen to be rolling in the east village of NY. It helps they're also fairly reasonably priced- you can buy a pict of the bed for $25 and the bigger pieces for ~$500.

ohhhh and pssst...Vice Mag also has a cool clipping of work by Nick and his charming girlfriend Aliya Naumoff who's an uber-talented photog on her own right: http://www.viceland.com/int/v15n7/htdocs/way-out-west-146.php.

"It’s OK, Don’t Look at the Road" (Photographs by Nick Zinner)
August 16-September 13, 2008
Fuse Gallery
93 2nd Ave
(between 5th & 6th Sts, 2nd Ave stop on the F)
NYC, NY

In the summer of 2007, Rihanna’s “Umbrella” was the inescapable song of the season, booming from car windows and city parks long past Labor Day. This year there has been plenty of competition for the crown: Lil Wayne has two contenders, “Lollipop” and “A Milli”; Rihanna is back with “Disturbia”; and Katy Perry ignited ChapStick sales with “I Kissed a Girl.” Other songs might have dominated the summer charts in a bigger way, but for the artist Andrew Kuo, whose visual music criticism can be found at nytimes.com/music, no song better captures a lazy afternoon on a city stoop than “Lookin Boy,” a hilariously detailed insult-fest from the Chicago rappers Hotstylz.

source

Martijn ten Velden is touring the US for the very first time. Though this is definitely not the first time you have heard of him. Paired with Mark Knight, the team pumped out over fifty remixes over a short 3 year period for everyone from Steve Lawler and Shapeshifters to Natasha Bedingfield. Going solo, Martijn released a hugely successful Toolroom Knight mixed compilation and continues to produce and remix extensively. Will his recent move from UK to Dubai change his sound?

DJ Ron Slomowicz: Have you been to Dubai before?

Martijn Ten Velden: Yes, I've been here loads of times. I play here at this club called Peppermint, like twice a year. I moved here six weeks ago.

RS: So you're no longer living in the UK, you're living in the Middle East?
Martijn Ten Velden: That's right.

RS: That seems like a really interesting move. What inspired that?
Martijn Ten Velden: It's because my girlfriend lives here already. It's also because I lived in London for eighteen years, and I just wanted something new and challenging, like a new, little adventure, for the inspiration. It doesn't really matter where I live because I travel all over the world, literally. So Dubai is the same thing.

RS: How do you think the Dubai music scene is going to affect your musical output?
Martijn Ten Velden: Well it's not, really, because I literally travel every week to a different country. It won't make a big difference because I'm always on the road anyway. I've got my DJ friends on the instant messenger, so I'm getting all the new stuff still. I actually think that living here will increase my production output for sure, because the apartment I have here is five times bigger than the one I have in London, so I have loads of space. It's going to be good.

RS: And I guess there might be fewer interruptions?
Martijn Ten Velden: Yes, yes, exactly.

RS: You're coming to the US for the first time for this tour.
Martijn Ten Velden: Yes, it's long overdue, really. I get a lot of messages on MySpace from people – when are you coming to the US? We want to see you. And of course I had the track "I Wish You Would," out on Robbins, last year, so there's a lot of things in the US. I joined the Vital Talent Agency last year, formally Chaotica, and it's finally time for the first tour. I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be really cool.

RS: What are you expecting?
Martijn Ten Velden: I'm expecting clubs with a really good sound and party people. I'm expecting something really good. I'm not really sure. I've been in Miami, but Miami's not a reflection of the US. It's one tiny, little corner. It's a huge country, so I think it will be different in every city. I don't know yet how it's going to be different. I might be surprised. I might like Denver more than New York. Who knows?

RS: Your Toolroom Knights CD last year did very well. How do you go about putting together a compilation like that?
Martijn Ten Velden: First I make a short list of maybe thirty, thirty-five tracks, and try to get a licensing clearance to make sure that I can use them. Then once I've got the news back from the labels about which tracks I can use, I start choosing which tracks are really going to go on. I think on the tour I ended up with about fourteen tracks, but the initial selection was about thirty. So you end up using about fifty percent of the selected tracks. You just go over it, like with your DJing, just try to make it an interesting mix.

RS: Do you ever make original tracks for these compilations?
Martijn Ten Velden: Actually on the tour compilation I did, the very first track is a special, unreleased version of "I Wish You Would" which is only on the compilation. I put new beats, I changed it all around, so I guess that was a new track for the compilation, like a special intro.

RS: "I Wish You Would" – the vocalist on that was Luciana, right?
Martijn Ten Velden: Yes, Luciana, the same girl who sang on Bodyrox.

RS: It seems like she worked with a lot of different people in that time period. How did you meet up with her?
Martijn Ten Velden: The one I did with her, "I Wish You Would," was definitely the first collaboration she did. Before that she was the lead singer of this band Portobello. Mark Knight and me did a remix for Portobello about four, maybe even five years ago, which came out on Eye Industry, in the UK. So I was already aware of her vocal talents. I made the backing track and I sent it to her, and she came up with this great chorus. I loved it the first time heard it. So that's how it came about, because I already knew her voice.

RS: Very cool. You also worked on a project with Mark Yardley from Stanton Warriors, right?
Martijn Ten Velden: Yes. That's Splittr, the project. We released one track so far, "All Alone." That's been doing really great, actually, in a lot of different territories. I don't know if that is released in the US or not.

RS: I don't think so, not yet.
Martijn Ten Velden: No, not yet. But that did really well in places like Australia. It was on MTV a lot. We did a video for it as well, and that was really good. We've got about eleven tracks on the go right now for an album, which is going to be very interesting and eclectic. It's not all going to be dance. It's going to be down-tempo, a lot of different influences. It's going to be a really interesting album.

RS: How do you – who is someone more like an electro-techy guy – meet up with someone who is more breaks-orientated?
Martijn Ten Velden: We're old friends, basically. He's also done some house music in the past, like seven / eight years ago, but obviously he's most known for his breaks. But he's very versatile, and we did this project because we both have a lot of different musical influences. I mean, yes, I make house, but I don't listen to house all week long, every day. There's so much music out there. I love funk and soul, I love a bit of rock, I love all kinds of music. With this project we tried to broaden our horizons and try new stuff, instead of just doing club arrangements, if you know what I mean.

RS: When the two of you work together in the studio, what do you do and what does he do?
Martijn Ten Velden: We take turns. We both take turns programming, sitting behind the screen, controlling the mouse. We both play the keys as well, and we take it in turns. And then Mark plays some extra guitar somewhere, and he does the vocals. But we write the vocals together as well. We write the melody lines together, we write the words together and he goes in and sings it. So it's very much a 50/50 collaboration.

RS: Is that somewhat how you collaborated with Mark Knight over the years?
Martijn Ten Velden: With Mark Knight I play all the keys, and I did more of the programming, a lot more.

RS: So how did the two of you work together then? Did he sing an idea or…?
Martijn Ten Velden: Oh, just getting the fit, you know, just getting on the vibe basically. He would come with a lot of ideas, like DJ ideas, playing these songs, playing beats and grooves – "we can do something like that, or we can do something like this." So it was more of him having the ideas, but I would be the one carrying it out, playing the keys. For instance, if we do a bassline, how we're changing the sound – there might be a good bassline and then he says, "Yes, that's the one." So then we go with that bass sound. He's less hands-on than Mark Yardley.

RS: How long did you and Mark Knight work together?
Martijn Ten Velden: About three years.

RS: Because like every week there was a new Mark Knight MTV remix coming out.
Martijn Ten Velden: Yes, I know, loads. We were locked in the studio, like a married couple. We were in the studio five days a week, for three years, just churning them out, trying to make a name for ourselves.

RS: Looking back to that time period, what would you say is your favorite remix with Mark Knight?
Martijn Ten Velden: "Sandcastles" by Jerome Sydenham & Dennis Ferrer on Defected. And of course our remix of "Strings of Life," just because it did really well and it did so much for us. I think those two.

RS: Looking at your current work, what are you working on right now in the studio, remix-wise or production-wise?
Martijn Ten Velden: I just finished a remix a couple of weeks that is doing really well on Beatport. It's the new Shapeshifters "Chime." That's number two on the Beatport house chart now. I just finished that a month ago, actually. I'm working on two new productions. They're both almost finished. One is an instrumental track called "Together,"and I'm doing the final mix down next week. And then there's another track, which is a full vocal with a girl singer called Kelly. She did most of the vocals on the last Roni Size, so she's a drum and bass vocalist. It's a really nice mix – very techy, electro-y backing track. She's got these really cool drum and bass urban vocals over the top. That's a really interesting little project as well. That one I just recorded last week. I still have to put the whole thing together. So, there are two tracks in the pipeline. The first one, the instrumental, should come out real soon – I think we're going to release it digitally, maybe in about a month. The other one is planned for October, maybe November. Then there are a couple of remixes in the pipeline as well. I didn't remix for quite a while because I've been so busy DJing and traveling, but I'm back in the studio now. I've got a new computer, so I'm doing another remix for Defected. And I might be remixing Delirium, "Silence."

RS: That's a running joke with me and my friends – "Oh look, it's July, it's more mixes of Silence," because they seem to come every three months.
Martijn Ten Velden: I know, they keep coming. I might do it. I'm not sure, because it's such a known song. I do love it even though it's kind of cheesy. There's something about it. But I'm not sure yet how I'm going to go about it. I want to really change it and make something new out of it.

RS: I heard a rumor that you did some production with Roger Sanchez. Whatever came of that stuff?
Martijn Ten Velden: It's true. We never finished it.

RS: Will it ever see the light of day or it just …?
Martijn Ten Velden: I think it will eventually. It's one of those things, because we both have such busy schedules. We started it two years ago, in the summer, in Roger's villa in Ibiza, and we spent the day there. Then we both went our separate ways. Nine months later he was in London for one day, and came to my studio to work on it. We didn't have months and months of time, because we were both in different cities and it kind of fizzled out, and we never got around to finishing it. But it's actually a cool idea; it's a very nice groove. We're still friends, so who knows, one day we might finish it. I think we will.

RS: When you DJ out, are you on CD or laptop or vinyl?
Martijn Ten Velden: I'm on CDs now. I used to be vinyl, but it's too heavy when you travel. I like CDs because you still have to mix, and I love the thrill of mixing, keeping it all in time and looping. You have to be on your toes. For me, mixing on Abelton is hard, it's not as much fun. I use Ableton for my radio mixes because it's easier to program your mix, to shorten songs. On radio mixes, everything has to happen much quicker, and you can edit the songs down in Ableton. But I don't use it live.

RS: When you're mixing music on the computer, are you using Logic or ProTools?
Martijn Ten Velden: I use Logic. Sometimes in the beginning for my beats, I work with it on Ableton as well, but then I transfer it to Logic.

RS: Do you carry your laptop on the road with you? Do you work on music when you're touring?
Martijn Ten Velden: Always, yes. I love – after a really good session, and it's been a really good club night – I love to come back to the hotel and make beats. So I need my laptop there, and my Logic key. Sometimes when I go on a long tour, like a three-week tour, I take my little mini keyboard with me as well, so I can play the keys and write stuff. So yes, I take it with me all the time.

RS: We met at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) a few years ago. What does ADE do for you?
Martijn Ten Velden: Well, ADE is a very big conference, but everything is near to each other, so it's very easy. I think ADE is very good to get business on. For all the conferences at the moment, for house music, it's just a very good get-together and it's very easy to meet people. At ADE, a lot more deals get done these days than in Miami.

RS: I always ask the Dutch DJs this – why do you think Amsterdam produces so many great international DJs and producers?
Martijn Ten Velden: We have a very long culture of dance music, for sure. We were there in the 80s, when it first exploded. It was already big here, when it first started at the end of the 80s. So it's been in our blood for the last twenty years at least. There's a long history of music lovers. Why they are so popular – I think there are a lot of quite commercial DJs from Holland. They've got very good management, who really know how to do business. I'm not sure if it's real quality, but I do know there are a lot of commercial DJs from Holland, which is why they're big. I'm not sure if I like them all. I'm being diplomatic.

RS: I respect you for that. What would you like to say to all your fans out there?
Martijn Ten Velden: Oh, please come to the shows so we can get it on all night. I'm so looking forward to playing in the US. I've played all over the world, done tours everywhere, but the US is the only place I haven't. It's such a big, important territory and there's so much music coming from the US, it's got so much history. So I'm really trilled to see what it's all about.

• http://www.myspace.com/martijntenvelden

Related Items:

• Video: The Shapeshifters - Chime
• Shapeshifters - Chime (Martijn ten Velden Remix)
• Martijn ten Velden video interview

Good Cop: As you’ve probably figured out, we’ve been experiencing technical difficulties, sorry about that, we’ll make it up to you.

Bad Cop: You don’t have to make it up to anybody. This is the blogosphere, after all, there are no rules, no obligations.

Good Cop: But we promised these good people a new front page post every day, something that at the very least should be entertaining and possibly informative as well.

Bad Cop: Look, everybody has computer problems. That’s why they have IT departments, because computers are programmed to screw up, if they didn’t all the IT people would be out of a job. I don’t think anybody’s counting if we miss a few days between posts.

Good Cop: But we don’t want to give people the indication that we’ve lost interest and given up just like practically every other music blog out there.

Bad Cop: I don’t think anybody’s paying attention. You just want to be famous.

Good Cop: We will be famous! Why do you think I’m spending so much of my free time here?

Bad Cop: I dunno, because you’re a masochist.

Good Cop: We’re gonna be bigger than pitchfork!

Bad Cop: In your dreams. We were born too late. All the popular stuff now is trendoids and trust fund scum.

Good Cop: Not true! Look at Sharon Jones! The whole gypsy music thing, Gogol Bordello. There’s a huge audience for the kind of stuff we cover!

Bad Cop: I’d like to know where.

Good Cop: You’re just cynical. You’ve been spending too way much time in Williamsburg.

Bad Cop: Don’t I know it.

Good Cop: Can we have our editorial meeting now?

Bad Cop: Editorial meeting? This is the blogosphere, why should we?

Good Cop: Because we agreed when we started working on this thing, we should do stuff that’s interesting to people besides us, we planned the whole month in advance.

Bad Cop: Subject to change.

Good Cop: I know, subject to change, but so far this month doesn’t look anything like the way we planned it.

Bad Cop: The way you planned it.

Good Cop: Hey, you didn’t object when we agreed that this was what we were going to do.

Bad Cop: I have a role to play. I’m the wild card in the deck, remember?

Good Cop: Now you’re breaking the fourth wall. Stop it.

Bad Cop [reaches into his backpack. Pulls out a flask, unscrews the top and takes a long drink]: AAAAAAH [offers it to Good Cop]. Here. Good for what ails ya.

Good Cop: Put that away. You can’t drink when you’re on duty.

Bad Cop: You got me to stop smoking pot so I could remember what happens at all these shows, but there’s no way you’re going to get me to stop drinking [takes another slug].

Good Cop [cynically]: I guess that’s a start. Can we start with the meeting now? I think Bachata Roja Legends was a really good choice. And the Points West Festival thing was smart even though you intruded on my turf.

Bad Cop: Your turf? Excuse me?

Good Cop: I’m supposed to do the calendar and you’re supposed to go out to the shows, remember?

Bad Cop: So what. I did it. You didn’t. And if you did you probably would have recommended it.

Good Cop: No way! Tickets were $800 or something like that.

Bad Cop: That’s the VIP ticket, it gets you in to hang out with all the trash with the really big trust funds.

Good Cop: All right, just next time tell me you’re going to do something like that, ok?

Bad Cop: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. That one got a lot of hits.

Good Cop: OK. But what happened to the Wu Man show, did you go?

Bad Cop: Bad sound. Can’t blame an artist for that. There were other problems but I don’t want to get into that.

Good Cop: How about El Ritmo Southside afterward?

Bad Cop: Bad experience. Doesn’t reflect on the band though. I revised your listing in the calendar.

Good Cop: OK. The Sloe Guns and Toneballs, ok, that’s done. And the Jenny Scheinman, that’s a good find. Just so you know, we’re running 60/40 male/female with the reviews so we need to beef up our coverage of women artists.

Bad Cop: So that means all sisters for the next year.

Good Cop: No, nothing so obvious, but you know what I mean. Now Elaine Juzwick, that was a good one, how did you discover that?

Bad Cop: On the way to the Brooklyn What show. I needed a drink and they had wine. The art just happened to be good.

Good Cop: What happened to the Brooklyn What?

Bad Cop: Running behind. Not the band’s fault. I had stuff to do, couldn’t stick around til after midnight in the middle of Brooklyn.

Good Cop: And you snuck another organ concert in there too I see.

Bad Cop: I thought you wanted women artists. This was a whole series of women performers, I think we covered three of them and I would have done a fourth if it hadn’t been so awful.

Good Cop: But can we please not make this organ music central? It’s a tiny, tiny subculture, I don’t want to get pigeonholed. Plus most people think it’s creepy.

Bad Cop: It is creepy! Plus it says this [raises middle finger] to anybody who’s too much of a wuss to handle it.

Good Cop: C’mon, let’s not alienate the whole world, huh? Can’t you get over this high school rebellion thing? You’re older than I am.

Bad Cop: Don’t I know it.

Good Cop: OK, I see the Sex Pistols thing bombed. I said this once before, I think we should stay out of the archive unless we have something that’s really going to generate traffic. And I think we shouldn’t go back more than 10 years, it dates us.

Bad Cop: But that’s where all the good stuff is.

Good Cop: Actually, I’ve looked through and there’s a lot of great stuff from 7, 8 years ago. That Sonic Youth show that you put up a couple of months ago, I was in second grade then. And it didn’t get us hits either.

Bad Cop: It’s more than just getting hits, remember, this whole thing becomes an archive after awhile.

Good Cop: Dude, this is the blogosphere, blogs come and go in a nanosecond, it’s all happening in real time. I say if it isn’t a big name we shouldn’t do it. The Village People thing stiffed too.

Bad Cop: But it’s funny.

Good Cop: It is funny. But nobody knows anything about the Village People. Growing up, I knew the songs, YMCA, Macho Man but I didn’t know anything more about them, the outfits, you know.

Bad Cop: Now you do.

Good Cop: That isn’t going to make us famous.

Bad Cop: You wanna be famous, shoot me.

Good Cop: That would be a role reversal.

Bad Cop: Look who’s breaking the fourth wall now.

Good Cop: Can we get back to the blog? How about the Daniel Bernstein show?

Bad Cop: I had a family obligation.

Good Cop: You don’t have a family.

Bad Cop: OK, a social obligation.

Good Cop: Drinking, I suppose.

Bad Cop: Traveling. Obligations, like I said.

Good Cop: You can’t keep blowing off assignments or deadlines like that, it throws everything off and you end up having to work twice as hard. Or I have to bail you out and that’s not really my problem.

Bad Cop: Not to worry. Somehow I get it done.

Good Cop: Sort of.

Bad Cop: Hey, shit comes up and we have to deal with it. Thank you Isaac Hayes for expiring.

Good Cop: Ewww, that was tasteless. I hope you’re joking.

Bad Cop: Hey, it’s what they pay me the big bucks for. Start paying me the big bucks and I might clean up my act.

Good Cop: That’s down the road. Right now we have to suck it up. I see you finally got to write up 9th Wave, you’ve wanted to do that for awhile. And Eli Paperboy Reed, that was a great choice. [pause] And I see you’ve got Edward Rogers and System Noise done, that’s important, good work.

Bad Cop: See, I’m not so bad. What have you done lately, big boss?

Good Cop: I did the live music calendar and the Custard Wally review.

Bad Cop: Whoooeee, two posts in a month.

Good Cop: Actually three if you count the first calendar. That takes twice as much work as what you do anyway.

Bad Cop: It wouldn’t if you could figure out how to get the site and the computer to talk to each other, that’s what you yunguns are for, isn’t it?

Good Cop: Actually you’ll be proud to know I have and I can show you.

Bad Cop: I’m all ears.

Good Cop: OK, later. What concerns me now is that we have a big stretch coming up and not much planned, if the second half of this month is anything like the first, we’re going to have to scramble for posts to get us hits.

Bad Cop: Relax. It’ll all work out [drains his flask]

Good Cop: And I think we should lay off the jazz.

Bad Cop [mystified]: Huh?

Good Cop: They have their own world. It’s vastly different from ours. Different language, too: ostinatos and obbligatos, what it all means I have no idea.

Bad Cop: Which is why we need to bring jazz back to the people! In the 1930s the top 40 was all jazz, people forget that. It’s dance music. Jazz got its start in whorehouses which is all right with me!

Good Cop: Unless you speak the lingo you’ll come across as an amateur.

Bad Cop [gets up and walks to the door] I’d rather be an inspired amateur than a pretentious professional.

Good Cop: Hey, we’re not finished yet! Where you going?

Bad Cop [holds up the empty flask, upside down] Three guesses. [On his cellphone] Hello, Discount Liquors? How late are you open? 

Just got off the horn with area bartender and musician Stephen Benavides a little bit ago, and he had some interesting news to share: Seems Russell Hobbs has brought him into the fold to help book some shows to the Prophet Bar, the alcohol-serving extension of the The Door down in Deep Ellum (y'know, the one housed in the old Gypsy Tea Room spot).

Anyway, Benavides, who most recently worked as a bartender and part-time booking agent for the now-closed Lucky's Roadhouse on Lower Greenville, says he's been asked to do what he can to change the Prophet Bar's squeaky-clean, The Door-tainted image.

"They're trying to do--I'm not gonna say less Christian shows, but they're gonna move those," he says.

With Hobb's The Door franchise now expanded out to a jaw-dropping four North Texas locations (Dallas, Ft. Worth, Canton and the just-opened Plano location), Benavides says most of the youth-oriented, suburban teen-aimed Christian rock shows that The Door hosts will be moved to the new Plano spot (which I'm sure has these guys just super-stoked). And, if that's right, that will open up the bigger room at The Door to more Prophet Bar shows.

(This gets a bit confusing, so let me explain: The Door is an all-ages, alcohol-free venue. The Prophet Bar is a venue that sometimes houses all-ages shows, but always serves liquor to those of legal drinking age. From time to time, The Prophet Bar is able to move its shows to The Door's stage when its available. Such a move allows for a bigger crowd and, yes, for alcohol to be served in The Door's room. Those shows, however, are not, well, at least from management's standpoint, considered Door shows; they're just Prophet Bar shows held in The Door's space. Got it? Good. Moving on...)

As I see it, The Prophet Bar's always been pretty secular. (OK, aside from The Door's affiliation with it). It does a decent job booking non-Christian-affiliated bands as is, and every now and then is able to bring a decidedly non-Christian touring act to The Door's bigger room (as it did back in March when Muslim albino rapper Brother Ali played there). Still, bringing in Benavides (who, granted, is a bit of a no-name) is an interesting move.

Says Benavides of the rules that will apply to the bands he'll be booking: "If they wanna cuss or do things like that on stage, it's no problem."

Not that as much ever was a problem at the Prophet Bar, but, again, I digress. If The Prophet Bar really is trying to change its image as a Christian venue, it might want to look into another option. Like say, changing its name from The Prophet Bar.

But what do I know, I'm Jewish.

Local acts interested in playing The Door can contact Benavides here. --Pete Freedman

Read more!

I wonder if Leonard Nimoy is a fan of the Smiths, because he understands the fact that some girls are bigger than others. In his latest photography book, "Full Body Project," (check out the interview with Stephen Colbert up top) the former Dr. Spock cherishes said bigger girls with a collection of provocative nudes. Models from Nimoy's book are scheduled to appear at the next Suite Jesus at 111 Minna Gallery on Aug. 22, if you'd like your book signed. Click 'More' for more information. --Oscar Pascual

special book signing event
In conjunction with ArtNowSF and Juxtapoz magazine,
Last Gasp Books presents the models from
The Full Body Project
by
Leonard Nimoy

In his provocative new book, photographer and actor Leonard Nimoy captures images of full-bodied women, some of whom are involved in what is known as the "fat acceptance" movement. "The average American woman," Nimoy writes, "weighs 25 percent more than the models selling the clothes. There is a huge industry built up around selling women ways to get their bodies closer to the fantasy ideal. Pills, diets, surgery, workout programs. . . .The message is 'You don't look right. If you buy our product, you can get there.'"

"They are fleshy and proud, celebrating their girth, reveling in it.
It is, Mr. Nimoy says, a direct response to the pressure women
face to conform to a Size 2."
-New York Times

"Society has agreed what beautiful is:
blonde, thin, big tits. This is questioning
what society has agreed upon…an incredible book!
The photography is beautiful."
Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report

""The Full Body Project," is an arresting collection of black-and-white nude photographs featuring full-bodied women who stare into the camera, practically daring us to judge them on their nakedness or their size."
Salon.com

The Full Body Project has received a multitude of media coverage, including recent television programming:
Wednesday, July 23rd: Daily Comedy's LateNet program aired an interview with Leonard Nimoy about The Full Body Project.
Friday, August 1st: EXTRA TV aired an exclusive interview with Lady Monster and Leonard Nimoy at his home in Beverly Hills regarding The Full Body Project.

Suite Jesus! is a monthly party presented by ArtNowSF and Juxtapoz magazine.
Last Gasp Books presents the models from Leonard Nimoy's Full Body Project for a special book signing event not to be missed!
There were three photo shoots using different sets of models - this is the first time that the models will have all gathered together.

Suite Jesus!
Friday, August 22nd
111 Minna Gallery,111 Minna Street (between Howard and Mission @ 2nd Street)
Downtown San Francisco

Art reception: 9pm - 11pm
(book signing during reception)
Dance party: 11pm - 2am
Admission is $5 before 11pm, $10 after 11pm

http://www.myspace.com/fullbodyproject
http://www.myspace.com/suitejesus
http://www.lastgasp.com
http://www.111minnagallery.com
http://www.juxtapoz.com
http://www.artnowsf.com

Models are available for interview.

Lady Monster is a burlesque dancer, writer, model, actress, speaker, performer/singer, sex-positive educator and producer.
www.ladymonster.com
www.myspace.com/Lady_Monster
www.flickr.com/photos/ladymonster

Jukie Sunshine has her MFA from CIIS. She is a burlesque dancer, model, actress and San Francisco's "It Girl".
www.jukiesunshine.com
www.myspace.com/jukiesunshine

Roni Gallimore is a classically trained vocalist, including performing for the 100th anniversary of Carnegie Hall with her college choir from Arizona, with Big Burlesque & The Fat Bottom Revue, Candye Kane and a model in The Full Body Project.

Ginger Virago is a burlesque dancer, model, and advocate for HIV knowledge and sex worker rights, including extensive work with the St. James' Infirmary.
http://www.myspace.com/gingervirago

Chavé Alexander has a featured role in Beach Blanket Babylon as just one of her many theatrical credits. She is also a burlesque dancer with Margaret Cho's The Sensuous Woman and Harlem Shake Burlesque.
http://www.myspace.com/alotta

Pam Dore is an award-winning cinematographer, editor and director, including the highly acclaimed eXposed documentary. She has an extensive list of film credits.
http://www.myspace.com/mrpam

Kat is a burlesque dancer including with Big Burlesque, Big Moves and now the artistic director for the troupe, Dangerous Curves.
http://www.dangerouscurvesgirls.com/

Shyly is a highly sought full-figure model based in the LA area, including featured in the documentary, The Beauty Project by Steve Gatlin.

Heather MacAllister (1968-2007) was the leader of Big Burlesque & The Fat Bottom Revue, among many other credentials. She was a leader for many, and her voice continues to be heard in the hearts of all that had a chance to be in her presence.

"Any time there is a fat person onstage as anything besides the butt of a joke, it's political. Add physical movement, then dance, then sexuality and you have a revolutionary act." -- Heather MacAllister.

Humble Pie were a rock, rhythm and blues band from England and were one of the first supergroups of the 1970s. The original band line-up featured Steve Marriott (former lead singer, songwriter and lead guitarist of Small Faces), Peter Frampton (former lead singer and guitarist of The Herd), Greg Ridley (former bass guitarist of Spooky Tooth) and seventeen-year-old drummer Jerry Shirley.

Although successful in America, as a band, they remained much loved in Britain. They are best remembered for their dynamic live concert performances in the early 1970s and songs such as "30 Days in the Hole" and "I Don't Need No Doctor".

In late 1968, Peter Frampton was eager to escape The Herd, as well as his teeny-bopper image. The young guitar prodigy played on a Small Faces recording session in France that year and had become close friends with Marriott, who himself was becoming frustrated with creative restrictions. The Small Faces' frontman suggested a drummer for Frampton — Shirley, whom he'd known for several years, most notably through his work with the mod band Apostolic Intervention.

Nothing really came of the project, though, until New Year's Eve 1968. Marriott walked offstage during a disastrous Small Faces gig, rang Frampton at his home later that night and asked if he and Ridley could join his new band. Humble Pie was born.

Because the members had all previously played in high-profile groups, many viewed Humble Pie as a "supergroup," although the band loathed the term and the expectations that came with it. They started secretly rehearsing at Marriott's home in Moreton, Essex (Beehive Cottage), in early 1969. The objective was to hone the act away from media and public scrutiny. After signing with Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate Records, the band had planned to launch its first single and album in the spring, but were delayed after an injunction was filed by The Herd's management.

Eventually, Humble Pie released their debut single, "Natural Born Bugie", in July 1969. It was a No. 4 hit in the UK Singles Chart, and was quickly followed by the album As Safe As Yesterday Is, which peaked at No. 16 on the UK album charts.

In the 2006 documentary Heavy: The Story of Metal, As Safe As Yesterday Is was recalled as the first album to have been described by the term "heavy metal". The mention occurred in a Rolling Stone magazine review written by journalist Mike Saunders.

Their second album, Town and Country, was hastily released in the UK in November 1969 while the band was away on its first US tour. A collective effort that featured a more acoustic sound and songs written by all four members, it did not sell as well as As Safe As Yesterday Is, and financially-strapped Immediate sank deeper into debt.

Recent tape archives show the band recorded around 30 songs in its first nine months of existence, many of which remained unreleased for decades — including a cover of Ray Charles' classic "Drown In My Own Tears."

The winter of 1970 saw the collapse of Immediate, a switch to A&M Records, and a change in band management. Humble Pie was now focused on the United States market. The band's new management, had the band scrap its 'unplugged' set and crank the volume up. He also pushed Marriott to take more of the on-stage spotlight.

While these moves would improve the band's commercial standing in the States, they were blows to Frampton, who had been building up confidence and material as a songwriter.

The group's first album for A&M, Humble Pie, released later that year, was heavier than the previous two, alternating between progressive rock and hard rock excess. An attendant single, the funky, Stax-flavored "Big Black Dog," failed to chart, but their management's strategy was starting to work. The band became known for putting on one of the most popular live rock shows in the U.S.

Rockin' the Fillmore

Humble Pie released its most successful record to date, Rock On, in early 1971. A concert supporting that record at the Fillmore East was captured on  Rockin' the Fillmore in 1971. The live album reached number 21 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and both Rock On and Performance were certified gold by the RIAA. The loud-quiet-loud epic "I Don't Need No Doctor" was an FM radio hit in the United States (peaking at No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100), propelling the album up the charts.

This hour-long set boasted only one original song and a handful of cover tunes, beefed up and presented Humble Pie-style. Peter Frampton's guitar playing was at its most melodic and Steve Marriott's vocals are captured here in essence and preserved.

"I Don't Need No Doctor" was the biggest airplay hit from the album (having been issued as a single in edited version, and reaching #73 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1971). But some consider the biggest highlight to be the Doctor John cover "I Walk On Gilded Splinters". It stretches out over almost 25 minutes; one can even hear a bottle drop in the menacing intro.

The song listed as "Four Day Creep", and attributed to classic blues singer Ida Cox, bears no melodic or lyrical resemblance to her self-recorded composition of that title. The single version of "I Don't Need No Doctor" was backed with another live recording from the Fillmore East not contained on the album, "A Song for Jenny", which Marriott wrote for his first wife, Jenny Rylance.

There is a story that, during the mixing of the album, the band presented what they thought to be the finished product to their manager, Dee Anthony. Upon listening to it, he made one comment: "Great, but where's the audience?" It turned out that Marriott and drummer Jerry Shirley were stoned and had forgotten to include the sound of the audience in the mix - so it was back to the mixing desk.

Shortly before the album's release, guitarist Peter Frampton left due to growing friction between him and Marriott. His departure hurt Marriott greatly, though he would never admit it to the other band members.

The album's steady sales helped Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore to become the band's first RIAA gold record, and its popularity helped the band's previous album, Rock On, to reach gold album status as well.

In 1991, Marriott and Peter Frampton began collaborating again, with another Humble Pie rebirth possibly in the offing, but on Saturday, April 20, 1991, a house fire took Marriott's life before anything could materialize.

Two recorded songs from this collaboration, "The Bigger They Come" and "I Won't Let You Down", with Steve Marriott on vocals, appear on Peter Frampton's album Shine On: A Collection.

Reunions and The Marriott Tribute Concert

Jerry Shirley has participated in a few reunions with original Humble Pie members in the last few years, including an appearance at the Steve Marriott Tribute Concert in London in 2001 — commemorating the 10th anniversary of Marriott's death — which featured a lineup of Peter Frampton, Clem Clempson, Greg Ridley and Shirley. This performance was later released on DVD.