Beats and Beers with FDR

As we all sit yearning for the impending onslaught of fall releases our good friend FDR, has graced us with a blink and you'll miss it preview from a project a little farther out. Broken Hearts & Blank Faces while without a release date has all the ingredients to raise anticipation. Produced entirely by Wesley Opus it consist of all Wesley Opus and Captain Midnight beats except for the track we're previewing this weekend. I Could Be is a beat made by FDR himself and fitting with the rest of the ep it is "a depressing, yet uplifting album with ranging topics from finding love, to losing love, being lied to, cheated on." We can't wait.

I Could Be by FDR

More FDR:

Facebook

Twitter

Bandcamp

FDR also graced us with his recommendations for the top ten places in the Twin Cities to drink up. With humidity levels on the rise nothing hits the spot quite like a cold one.

10. Dubliner (No tv. All drinking.)
9. Kips Pub in Minnetonka (The most Cheers-esque bar I've ever been to)
8. Herkimer (Come play bags with me. You'll prolly lose haha)
7. American Burger Bar (Minus my outrageous bar tabs there)
6. Country Bar (Cause....why not?)
5. Cause (The patio is where its at..and you can't argues with the scenery
4. Honey (Something about the glowing bar is beautiful)
3. Pizza Luce (Either uptown or downtown..I have no problem going to either)
2. Leaning Tower (And the macaroni and cheese is bomb)
1. Liquor Lyle's (2-4-1's almost all the time..on anything..how can you go wrong?)

And of course if you happen to reside in the Twin Cities we highly recommend checking out FDR as well as good friends Botzy and Wesley Opus at Honey on August 18th. It's 18+ and FREE with Megan Hamilton and I Colossus.

Prize Packs

Since we had a number of responses to contribute to the funds we're raising for the prior post, Salina and I decided to make two prize packs. They will include:


Prize Pack 1:
Culture Cry Wolf, The Wesley Opus Sessions
Mac Lethal, Love Potion 6
Sims, Bad Time Zoo (signed with box knife)
Shabazz Palaces City Arts cover

Prize Pack 2:
MF Doom, MM..Food cd/dvd (rse rerelease)
Cenospecies, In Definition
Limited edition Doomtree screen print book by Ben LaFond
Pearl Dragon (of Champagne Champagne) : Sacred Heart; 03-05 on Cassette Tape.

Also, each will come with lots of stickers and other goodies for you to enjoy.
Again, each 1$ you contribute will enter you for a chance to win one of the above.


Thanks again for all your contributions.

We'll be drawing winners Saturday!

Friends Helping Friends

We love our friends :)

A dear friend and supporter of ours, Eric, is making the big move from the Mid-Atlantic Region to the mecca of indie music in the Mid-West, Minneapolis. This modest gentleman always offers help to his friends in need and is there to comfort and support us when we've been at low point in our lives. We thought it only proper to help him with his travels. Yes, the hard economic times have hit all of us, but its never too terrible to spare a dollar or two to a great friend who would otherwise give the shirt off his back to help another out.

So Salina and Izzie are raising funds to donate as a gift.

With hefty gas prices and rising tolls, a little extra cash should help lighten the load.

Miss Salina and I are putting together a totally rad Hip-Hop Prize Pack!!
Each 1$ you donate as a gift to our friend will go towards a chance of winning this awesome prize.

98% will go to our dear friend, Eric.
(The other 2% will cover shipping the grand prize out ;) )

Entries must be in by 11:59pm 5/20/11
The Prize Drawing will take place on Saturday 5/21/11.

Thank you for your donations!

PayPal donation email: ehuyet1@students.towson.edu

No Weak Heart Shall Prosper

I think the best kept secrets are those passed along by friends. That's how I first came to know about The Pirate Signal. While word of mouth whisperings and mixtape emails are all well and good I'd have to say that these days the secret is out. Begging to be blasted at maximum volumes to fully unleash its full genre bending mashup of awesome, this is most definitely not your kid sister's favorite emo indie rappers. So when given the opportunity to review The Pirate Signal's "No Weak Heart Shall Prosper" album, like any juicy secret, I couldn't resist sharing it with Miss Izzie and since two sets of ears are better than one this is our collaborative take on the album. As my friends can attest, I consider the word "review" to be a dirty word. A task I only perform when really truly warranted (No Bird Sing/Soulcrate.) While I've been a fan for a while this was Izzie's first introduction to The Pirate Signal.

For me personally, it was an acquired taste, but one that I grew increasingly fond of after each listen. From bits of drum & bass to rock, to auto-tune, scratches, guitar, banging drums.. the beats are unpredictable. At times I knew I was listening to something modern and cutting edge, while others I'd think I was hearing a blast from the past- late 90's rap-rock era. Yonnas has a distinct voice and tone. Lyrically he stands apart, darker than your average flow- layered with poetic lines. The female vocals on some tracks set it over the edge. I think Digital... Rock sum's up what you're in for; hip hop/digital rock/pop. But it still can't prepare you for the diverse hodge podge of musical elements.

The whole album feels like a hurricane in my headphone, taking you through a whirlwind of genre bending tracks. Songs that echo back in your brain for days. I admittedly get really attached to albums for extended periods of time. Crescent Moon is in Big Trouble? No Bird Sing? When I love on something I love on it hard. This is one of those albums that has yet to leave my playlist and I don't foresee living without it anytime soon.

Though I chose a different career path, as a musician at heart, I always dreamt of creating an album that could not be categorized into any genre. I wanted to create music period; therefore I wanted to make each song sound completely different than and unrelated to the next. With the P S, you kind of get a sense of this. If you were to leave this album playing straight through and carry on with whatever you were occupied with prior, you'd probably forget that you were listening to the same group half way through. Now, sometimes too much could be overwhelming and in turn, be a turn off. In this case, the P S gives you such variety that it keeps you interested; gives you a feeling of a book left open.. You can never quite put your finger on what you're hearing, so you continue to listen. Izzie gives two thumbs up.

Fellow friends here in the West can catch Pirate Signal live this week 8/31 @ Baby Sale in Boise, 9/1 @ Ash Street Saloon in Portland, 9/2 @ El Corazon in Seattle, 9/3 @ Hidmo in Seattle, 9/6 @ Hubwize in Huntington Park and 9/9 @ Black Market Goods in Albuquerque. "No Weak Heart Shall Prosper" can also be purchased digitally on itunes.

-Izzie & Salina

Jamee launches IRISandALICE!

Well, here it is. I have spent years working on my craft and building up the courage to put my stuff out into the world in a commercial manner. So here it is:

IRISandALICE

my new Etsy store!

(click the image to check out the store)

411 on 042410

"The Rape"

Its a Baltimore thang.

In the words of those involved...

"Calling our crew, Label, Show, "The Rape" has nothing to do with the sexual meaning and we are not on some insane clown posse shit. It started from promoters, booking shows, and how people acted & treat each other here with the money situation of music or just in general as people. We all have our own definitions but to keep it short it stands as a reminder not to take that shit from them and to help our friends and hard workers around us out."


The Maryland natives have gained the respect of their peers up and down the east coast. This year, the 5th annual "Rape" has expanded and is including a couple of friends from New York and New England.

Cubbiebear will be performing songs from "The Rape" and from his forthcoming album: "Force Back To Sleep." Teddy will be performing songs from "Apple Juice" as well as "You Can't Un-Chop Trees." Oz will be performing songs from "Ain Soph Aur."

WHO is Performing?
Cubbiebear
Teddy Faley
dj AddiKt
OZ
Educated Consumers (Washington, DC)
Poorly Drawn People (Providence, RI)
Eleven & A.M. Breakups (New York)


WHERE/WHEN?
Start Time:
Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 8:00pm
End Time:
Sunday, April 25, 2010 at 2:00am


Location:
Sonar
Street:
407 E. Saratoga St.
City/Town:
Baltimore, MD




HOW Much?
Cost: $12 Door/ $10 Presale

Earth Day Amnesia

When I was a small child, I had a firm belief I could communicate with animals through my mind. I wept for fallen trees and my mother had to cover my eyes if we passed any roadkill before I'd lose it. I read every encyclopedia article I could get my little hands on that had anything to do with animals and the earth. I was an avid "Zoobooks" reader, I was glued to every nature show I could find.

When my mom and dad dragged me to the Kennedy Space Center one summer, I was miserable and bored out of my mind. Amongst the huge structures and impressive space artifacts and towering space shuttles, these ginormous reminders of man's conquest for technology and conquering of new frontiers, I became enthralled with an alligator in a nearby pond. Leaning over the ledge I watched in awe as this animal, millions of years of evolution and survival, merely existed the only way it knew how. A couple bystanders peered over with me, and I started spewing every Alligator fact I could recall, and when my parents returned to check on me, I had a crowd of people gathered and asking questions.

I have always been a deep-feeling person. I have this quality that has turned out to be a curse and a gift. I feel everyone around me, soaking in every anxious thought, every sorrowful expression, every joy and every loss. Something moves me and reverberates in my soul. I have found this trait to be of great aid in my career as a Habilitative Specialist for those with disabilities. But this quality keeps me up at night, brings me to tears and my worries ebb and swell. It pains me to see all this destruction, all this hate, and worst of all, all the indifference of what is REALLY going on.

Earth Day is more to me than a day to plant a tree or pick up garbage. Corny as it sounds, every day should be Earth Day. Where have we gone that we don't remember our roots? This earth has molded and strengthened our species. Our cultures used to be wrought with folklore of the wind, the sun and the leaves, spiders and the stars. How have we gotten such amnesia? Where did we turn away from our heritage? How do we go days without feeling grass between our toes, or looking up at the clouds? This isn't just some hippie shit; I'm talking about what we inherited from our past.

This Earth Day, and every day hereafter, I challenge you to do those things. Walk up to a tree and study the knots. Look at the years that have molded the scars on the bark. Feel the leaves between your fingers and watch the ants that scale its trunk. Observe the deep connection species have with each other, and question where yours have gone. Thank that tree for devoting its WHOLE life to creating air to fill your lungs, then think of football fields worth of forests of these trees being clear-cutted and destroyed like they're merely products. Since when does that tree not matter? That tree you see struggled through drought, fought the wind, soaked up the rain and persevered.

Getting to know yourself is getting to know your past. And your past is all around you.

I've provided some ways for ya'll to make a difference!

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• YourTree.com allows you to pay for a tree to be planted
• Click HERE for a "Supermarket Scorecard" to see where your favorite grocery store ranks in supporting sunstainable fishing.
• Click HERE to donate to Greenpeace, an INDEPENDENT organization dedicated to saving what matters!
• Google your city and find a city-wide cleanup!
• Click HERE to go to Care2.com and just CLICK and it instantly donates to an organization/fund you choose. For FREE!! NO COST TO YOU!!