Musica: Downloads of all kinds

On September 10, 2012 By scenebyginaIn music, New York, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Musicnolife — Image via http://sfgyc.com/for-the-love-of-music/2011/11/09/

Hello amigos. I’m back with some music recommendations:

Heavy Hitter DJ Yonny (NYC) just posted this great remix of Alex Clare’s “Too Close,” otherwise known as the song in the Microsoft IE9 commercial. Cop it while you can. We all know Soundcloud caps the number of downloads.
This World Carnival #3 mix posted by Hipsters Don’t Dance has been my gym music since I downloaded it last month. It’s an incredible hip-shaking, tropical bass mix. Download it, play it, close your eyes, move yo ass and pretend we’re drinking something with rum at CARNIVAL!
Speaking of Hipsters Don’t Dance, their party for World Carnival featured DJ So Shifty, who is responsible for one of my absolute favorite salsa mixes here.
My Argentinian-from-the-Bay Area homeboy Juan Data, who frequently picks his favorite mixes for Remezcla, has given us a new remix! Download Gloryhole 2 (heh!) here. For this mix, Juan Data says he wanted to “focus mainly on current releases, modern stuff … to give a promotional extra push to all those record labels who truly love music.”
Keeping with the Bay Area theme, Los Rakas (and AOL Spinner) are giving away a free download for the bass heavy banger, “Bien Ribetiao.” Cutie Raka Rich explains, “Bien Ribetiao’ means ‘swaggin.’ It’s a Panamanian slang word.

“The beat is a style of hip-hop originally from Oakland, California. Songs like Drake‘s ‘The Motto’ and Tyga‘s Rack City,’ which have been popular over the last year at a mainstream level, are drawn from a Bay Area-sound. One example is E-40’s ‘Tell Me Where to Go’ from 2005. This style has never been done in Spanish, so we wanted to do it really well and visually have it rep all our styles being born in Panama and raised in The Bay.”

Finally, for you ROCK fans, cop a free copy of Outernational‘s single, “Empty Lives” here via American Songwriter. My favorite thing about this song is that it was created as a homework assignment (sort of) by Tom Morello, who produced Outernational’s latest “Future Rock” EP, and it has a link to Metallica!

Lead singer Miles Solay tells American Songwriter:

“In the beginning of our working relationship Tom was fond of giving ‘assignments’. In essence, these were creative devices intended to jumpstart the process of writing a song or a way of focusing on a musical element to lay the foundation for the jam to come. With this song we were instructed to take the bass-line from Metallica’s ‘Seek & Destroy’ and make it the bass-line of our song with the exception being that it would be played backwards. That’s right, the same bass-line note-for-note but with the notes in opposite order. The song was also to be fast tempo and needed a gang vocal saying ‘BO!’ in the chorus.”

By the way, Outernational’s “FUTURE ROCK” EP release party in New York City is this Friday. I’ll be there. It’s an all ages show and features a hot opening band: The Skins. You don’t want to miss it!!!

What do you think of No Doubt’s new song?

On August 29, 2012August 29, 2012 By scenebyginaIn musicLeave a comment

By Spin‘s Marc Hogan:

The title track of No Doubt’s first album in more than a decade, Push and Shove (due out on September 25) has premiered via Ryan Seacrest, and once again, it’s hella good — or at least, much better on early listens than we would ever have expected back in 2001. “Never play it safe / No relapse,” Gwen Stefani sings with a Caribbean lilt in the ska-flavored opening verse, and that about sums up a genre-shuffling track that bassist Tony Kanal described to Rolling Stone as “our ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.'”

Personally (this is Gina here) I love it, although it’s very different from what I’m used to for this band. Sure, as a solo artist, Gwen Stefani played with a variety of different genres, but this is all of No Doubt on a dance song I can hear at a club. Sort of.

Read more about the track via Spin here.

[kyte.tv appKey=MarbachViewerEmbedded&uri=channels/388452/1693917&tbid=473116&p=&height=436&width=416]

Weekly Underrated!

On August 29, 2012August 29, 2012 By scenebyginaIn music, UncategorizedLeave a comment

This Weekly Underrated! by musicalmusingsbysima is great because it’s from the Revival Tour, one of my favorite annual concerts! It features Hot Water Music’s Chuck Ragan, Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon and Alkaline Trio’s Dan Andriano.

via Weekly Underrated!.

New videos: Juan Bago and O

On August 15, 2012August 15, 2012 By scenebyginaIn music, New YorkLeave a comment

Cannot. Stop. Laughing.

Uptown Manhattan’s spoofmeisters extraordinaire are back with three new videos.

“Hooked on Hookah” has me bopping at my desk. (Update: This is a spoof of a song called “Papa Dios Me Dijo” by a Dominican artist who goes by Secreto. I’ve seen Secreto’s name on flyers of the various clubs my brother and his DJ friends spin at, but I wasn’t familiar with his music.)

The chorus is so damn catchy:

“Están esperando que se apage este fuego, pa prender el otro.
Prende la hookah; dale mas plomo!”

I think my favorite part of the song is O’s sheer passion when he sings about hookah flavors. Ha! He is SERIOUS about his manzana y tamarindo.

And fresh off Dominican parade Sunday, enjoy “Quisqueya,” which has Juan Bago displaying some Zumba-like dance moves.

Finally, this duo has become quite astute at spoofing Kanye West songs. Here, they share their version of “Theraflu” with an ode to the Latino cure-for-all, Vicks Vapor Rub. But we Latinos don’t call it that. It’s “Vivaporu.” Read an interview with Bago and O on Univision’s Tumblr here. Video below.

Watch Bago and O’s other spoof videos, including favorites, “Pan con Queso” and “Dominis in the Heights,” on Vimeo, here. A link to the pair’s YouTube channel is here.

Musica: Mixes of the week

On August 14, 2012 By scenebyginaIn musicLeave a comment

(Smut Lee at Que Bajo in 2011. Ignore the person in the foreground.)

It occurred to me today that although I’m one hell of a SHARER when it comes to music, they aren’t always easily found. I typically share using Twitter and Facebook and although the internet is FOREVER, my posts can get lost down below since I continue to add to my news feed and timeline. (We all know I’m addicted to social media.)

So, in an attempt to become a better curater, I’ll post a roundup periodically on this blog. Here we go:

Grab some remixes of Los Rakas by San Antonio super producer, Sonora, here. (And check out Los Rakas while they’re on tour. Link to tour info in the Sounds and Colours piece by me.)

Watch this awesome Q&A with Thornato by my amigos up north at Dos Mundos. Then download Thornato’s mix because it’s VERY good.

What haven’t I said on Twitter about London’s Smut Lee!?!?? I first heard the smutty one at Que Bajo in the summer of 2011 and I’ve been a big fan ever since. His dancehall mixes are always the shizzzzz *and* this one samples Lonely Island character Ras Trent (by Andy Samberg.)

Finally, K. Sabroso, the Indianapolis DJ and producer shared an exclusive mixtape with Sounds and Colours. It includes Colombian electro/champeta groups Palenke Soultribe and Systema Solar alongside salsa greats Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe and Celia Cruz.

Lyrics: ‘Keepsake’ by Gaslight Anthem

On August 10, 2012 By scenebyginaIn family, music, PeopleLeave a comment

I’m very fortunate to have grown up with both parents. I didn’t always see it that way. As a kid, I can remember sometimes wishing they’d divorce when they fought because I hated arguments and I figured I’d be allowed to hang out with friends more that way! (They were strict about letting me go anywhere without my brothers.)

I feel guilty for even thinking that way. But I was young and naive. I definitely cherish having them both together and around to this day.

I’m going to assume Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon grew up, in part, without his dad. The lyrics to Keepsake give me goosebumps:

It’s been thirty-one years
Since she’s been in your arms
But don’t worry about Mama
Mama’s got a good heart

And I’m not looking for your love
I’m only sniffing out blood
Just a little taste of where I came from

And at the bottom of this river
Is where I put you down to lay
So I can live with it
And in my heart there are these waters
Where I put you down to lay
While I learn to live with it
Until I’m free

And it’s been all my life
I’ve been wondering on the inside
What we could’ve had
If you’d had a part in my life

Buy the album, read the rest of the lyrics or just listen to the song, here. And in this interview with AOL Spinner, Fallon discusses honesty in his songwriting.

Outernational on ‘jumpstarting the next wave of revolutionary culture’

On July 31, 2012July 31, 2012 By scenebyginaIn music, New YorkLeave a comment

Outernational Desert by Ashley Noelle_13 (1) — Photo by Ashley Noelle

“… that’s kind of the essence of Outernational. We’re a band. We’re not a political organization. We may be involved with different things, but as a band, we’re trying to jump start … a next wave of revolutionary culture among a new generation of young people and people all around the world.”

-Miles Solay in the RiverfrontTimes

‘Go to church, work hard, don’t swear.’

On July 31, 2012July 31, 2012 By scenebyginaIn musicLeave a comment

Photo by George Tice/New York Times

I’ll admit I’m a bit obsessed with the Gaslight Anthem, but this New York Times magazine profile on the band by Lizzy Goodman is just too good not to share…

[Brian] Fallon is an only child, born and raised in Red Bank not far from where he lives now. His mother works for a local hospital, and his stepfather worked in a factory. The family rules were simple: go to church, work hard, don’t swear.

Recently [Fallon] said in an interview with a German music magazine that he believes in creationism. People “started freaking out, saying I don’t believe in dinosaurs and I’m such a fool,” he said. “But you say you’re a religious person, and it’s on, bonfire is lit. I thought we’re supposed to live in a tolerant society.”

What distresses Fallon the most is that people assume he’s intolerant. Fallon’s wife, Hollie, is a Jewish girl from the Bronx, and he is a vocal supporter of gay rights and women’s rights. “Bruce has this expression he says all the time: ‘Nobody wins unless everybody wins,’ and I really think that’s true,” Fallon says. “When I was working construction or in a gas station listening to Bruce Springsteen songs, I felt like I’d won, too.”

Read more here.

Ondatropica at Lincoln Center ‘Out of Doors’

On July 28, 2012July 29, 2012 By scenebyginaIn Colombia, family, music, New York, PeopleLeave a comment

Ondatrópica made its US debut at the Lincoln Center Out Of Doors Festival on July 27 and it was awesome, mostly because I was able to shoot photos right up front. Read Jon Pareles’ (New York Times) review of the show here.

This all-star band featured greats from the golden age of Colombian music including Michi Sarmiento, Alfredito Linares, Pedro Ramayá Beltran, Markitos Micolta and Wilson Vivero, alongside the two musicians who started this wonderful project, Will ‘Quantic’ Holland and Mario Galeano with their bands, Combo Barbaro and Frente Cumbiero.

I got to meet the very humble Quantic as he was manning the merchandise table, where I purchased the band’s self-titled debut album. I told him that his “Original Sound of Original Cumbia” and “Cartagena!” CDs mean a lot to me because my dad loves them and they help to transport him back to Colombia at a time when it’s not easy for him to visit his beloved home country.

My dad has had Parkinson’s disease for more than 10 years now and is quite immobile. He is the person who introduced my brothers and I to Colombian music as he’d blast his records every Saturday when we were growing up. It’s why my younger brother started DJing at 14. It’s why my older brother and I are insane fans of la musica de la costa. It’s why this music is in our blood.

One of the things my dad misses most in life is dancing to the wonderful music from his home country. So I was very happy to tell Quantic his CDs are on REPEAT at my parents’ home in New Jersey. He can’t quite dance; but he sure can bop to it and occasionally digs out his maracas when doing so.

Now my dad will have the opportunity to experience this new Colombian sound. Ondatrópica fuses old with new to create a progressive sound which mixes traditional Colombian styles such as cumbia, gaita and champeta with boogaloo, ska, beat-box, MCs, dub and funk. And we were quite blown away when they played a song with bits of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” in it!

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Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto & Geko Jones at LPR

On July 27, 2012July 27, 2012 By scenebyginaIn Colombia, music, New York, PeopleLeave a comment

Masters of Colombian folkloric cumbia, Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, played Le Poisson Rouge on July 26 and it was a thing of beauty. Lead singer Juan “Chuchita” Fernández may be in his 80s, but he shows no signs of slowing down as he consistently charmed the crowd throughout the nearly two hour performance. And, yes, that front row full of YOUNG LADIES.

Geko Jones, one of the New York tropical scene’s hottest DJs, kept the crowd bailando with sets interspersed with classic Colombian tunes and, of course, various remixes that put a modern take on this amazing music. Check out his latest mixtape here.

A second set by Los Gaiteros included special guest musicians, including some from M.A.K.U. Soundsystem, a Queens based, afroColombian punk, funk and jazz supergroup that I’ll be profiling in Sounds and Colours in the near future.

All photos by me.