One day to go till our Sixth Birthday Party so here's a look at the main event. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. Sit back and watch these two incredible videos, starting with his new single Trumpalump, which has unbelievably all been created with paint, no effects.
Trumpalump
And here’s the HD video for previous single Shapeshift, with vocals and production from Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard. The guy’s a genius and you can see him for free this Saturday at The Swan. Birthday parties don’t come better than that.
The countdown is on to Uprock’s 6th birthday party, this Saturday at The Swan.As a special treat we’re bringing you two amazing live acts, Dels and Ed Sheeran.
We’ll start with Ed Sheeran – if you haven’t seen or heard him before then you seriously have to check out this video – more than 270,000 views, all done live and understandably winning Ed friends in high places.
It doesn't take a genius to see the guy is gonna be huge.
Next Saturday (23rd Oct) at The Swan Stay Tuned will be presenting JFB. He won the DMC UK championships in 2007 - So he's a pretty big deal. Entry is free. Here he is reconstructing one of our favorite tracks.
Last week I was down about the whole N.E.R.D, Daft Punk Let down. Things are a better this week, and I've been Helped along by the following:-
Bernard Sumner + Hot Chip + Hot City = I didn't know what love was. I heard this for the the first time earlier on this week. It's pretty old Skool. I also attached the new Ratatat for you to check out too.
Converse + Bernard Sumner = Bernard Sumner talking about the Manchester music scene. I can just imagine the guy from converse saying "Pipe down about the hacienda! We need a shot of you in the shoes!!"
Jeremy Messersmith + Eric Power = Tatooine (Star Wars was good wasn't it. But do we need it in 3D?)
Another cover?!! DJ Fingerprints sent me the link to this collaboration between John Legend and the Roots. Looks like it could be a good album - Take a look
We posted Aloe Blacc's "I need a Dollar" a few months back. Here he is again taking on a MJ classic. It's sad but my favorite part of the video is the vintage (thats two uses of the word vintage this week) Sony microphone.
Sadly with our 100th post I am going to tell you about something that I found disappointing. It also proves a theory of mine that something cool + something cool, sometimes equals something lame.
Tonight I read a tweet from Pharrell Williams saying that if I followed this link I could see N.E.R.D. perform their new song produced by Daft Punk on Letterman. being a fan of both acts I thought surely this is going to be the best thing thats happened to me all day. Wrong! I still hold out hope for the actual track - Maybe the studio version will have a little more Daft Punk magic on it?!
Here are other times that I have been let down by people that I thought I could trust:-
Adidas + Star Wars. Were any of them any good?
Cartoon Allstars to the Rescue - Who ever came up with this needs to calm down. Incase you don't have 27 minutes to see how many of your favorite cartoon characters have been crow bared into this, expect to see Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Garfield, Michelango (TMNT), Winnie-the-Pooh, Muppet Babies, Smurfs, ALF, Alvin, Simon and Theodore, Huey, Duey and Louie and Slimer from Ghostbusters.
Heard this on the radio the other day. The lyrics confused me - Are these guys serious? But like the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell track that Ric posted a while back I liked it. Interesting video too.
I was supposed to put these tracks up after last week's Uprock (it was well busy). I've had a tough week so here they are for the weekend
The Jamie Lidell Tiga Remix is like listening to a 1980's Prince if he owned a laptop. You may have heard the Cee-lo track on the radio - the one I've added is the original version, they can't put this one on before the watershed.
Jamaica used to be Uprock favorites Poney Poney (They made the loudest record i've ever owned).
We played two new Kanye West songs last Saturday. James Severy hated the one featuring Beyonce so much he told me on the night, and again when I bumped into him on the way to work. I have attached the other one to keep him happy.
It looks like being a pretty nice weekend in Suffolk, so here's a handpicked tune to soundtrack whatever it is you'll be getting up to over the next couple of days.
BTSTU is one of my songs of the year so far and suggests big things for Jai Paul in the months ahead.
And if you want to hear it played in perfect conditions* then come down to Uprock at the Swan this Saturday night.
Steve
* Unless DJ Onion blows the new speakers on Friday
I’ve been a fan of Michel Gondry for a while now, from his incredible videos for Daft Punk, Bjork and the White Stripes through to the dream-like beauty of his movies. When I got married my wife even walked down the aisle to our favourite song from Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
So on my birthday last year, when my brother told me that he had commissioned Michel Gondry to draw a portrait of me I was pretty excited. The only downside, Ric explained, was that he was busy directing films and stuff so it hadn’t arrived in time for my actual birthday.
Turns out Gondry stayed busy (although he sent nice apologetic update emails) and by the time my birthday this year rolled around the picture still hadn’t arrived.
To make up for it, Ric made me this video of his imaginary trip to California tracking the picture down…
A couple of months later an airmail envelope finally arrives in Suffolk from Beverly Hills, with an amazing portrait immortalising a midriff-baring moment from Uprock's New Years Eve party:
But in a surreal twist, also slipped inside the envelope was a note from Gondry himself, who had somehow found Ric's video message online and taken issue with at least one bit of the content:
So the lesson from this story – always respect the Gondry. And if you can’t be kind, rewind.
As a nod to the great man, here are three of my favourite Michel Gondry videos – enjoy.
The Chemical Brothers return with a track that sounds like a sequel to Star Guitar, until the drop comes in and makes everyone in earshot stand up and say 'what's that?'
Few artists successfully continue to produce stunning return singles - think It Began In Africa, Salmon Dance and the whole Battle Weapon series, normally released as 12" teasers.
And then there are the videos. The Chemical Brothers have produced some classics, including the aforementioned Star Guitar which came courtesy of Michel Gondry - who we have a very good story about to share with you shortly.
But best of all....still has to be Spike Jonze's Eletrobank, which remains a masterpiece.
Reading Steve's blog on Janelle Monae's appearance on Letterman reminded me that I had seen a tweet today saying that M.I.A. had had a great performance recently as well.
UPROCK on Saturday night was good fun. It's always nice to hear/see people react to the music we play - a friend of a friend posted a Facebook status calling it 'immense', we had a drum n bass dj pop his head under our window to say hello, and there was some impressive dancing from a trio of women in the pub.
One of the issues (used in the lightest possible sense considering what real issues there are in the world) we have is on how dancable we should make UPROCK. In the Cock & Pye days we had a dance floor and it was great to gauge that instant connection with what we were playing - but it also meant we could get stuck in floor filler mode.
On Saturday I played TEETH's Stolen Spaces and it reminded me of this quandary.
One of the enthusiastic dancers told me it was too dull and requested something more danceable, like The Jackson 5's I Want You Back.
We all love the Jackson 5, and still play stuff from them, but a big part of our original aim for UPROCK was for eclecticism, the joy of not being confined to one genre and the freedom to play what we want. At the Cock & Pye, once people were dancing it could be difficult to move away from classics.
At The Swan we get the best of both worlds - the laid back atmosphere means groups are often comfortable dancing amongst themselves, but we don't have the pressure of keeping a dedicated dance floor happy all night and so we can jump between genres and tempos to our hearts', and hopefully all of those present, are content.
So we get to play stuff like Wu Lyf:
Which I think sounds amazing but appreciate it can sound harsh or out of place for people wanting a good time on Saturday night.
So if we leave you disappointed, we apologise. We don't do it out of spite or to be pretentious.
And if you stick around, there will always be a song come along soon after which will make you dance.
And finally, we had a rare disagreement in music on Saturday, with Andy calling this track rubbish.
A few weeks back I got a copy of every episode of Ren and Stimpy from a friend. I first got into the series back in the 90's as it was on after The Fresh Prince of Bell Air. Watching back some of the episodes I could understand why Nikelodeon had such a battle with the writers as this stuff shouldn't be shown to kids.
Eventually the fun had to stop but some of the creators went on to do SpongeBob SquarePants.
Whilst finding clips for this post I came across the picture below. For part of Stussy's 30 year celebration they brought out this Ren and Stimpy Shirt. Although it was only released in June I fear that I may be too late.
If you found us via the QR code, welcome along. If you can make the above, which will be an excellent night of music from 8pm to 1am, come say hi and we'll give you a badge for being special.
If you found us via Facebook, a bookmark or any other way, interacting with the above image could send you on a neverending loop back to this very page (you can also have a badge).
I think that this is just a concept design, but as I have been using an Analogue Holga for a few years now I found it interesting. Holgas are Chinese plastic cameras, that were given away as cheap prizes at American fair grounds in the 80's. They have been resurrected in recent years by the lomography company. Despite being poorly built they produce images like the one bellow.
The digital concept by Saikat Biswas is a more compact version with the same plastic lens of the original. This is perhaps the obvious way to create a digital version but the interesting twist is this - it doesn't have a view finder at the back. So like the analogue version you can't see what your pictures are like until you develop/download them. This is the most exciting part of using a film camera. It would be nice to try one for a day.
The week before the festival Uprocker Steve said that he had booked us a table at the Giant Robot restaurant at Latitude. It was the first time the festival had had a proper restaurant. I thought - great, I'll write a blog on that.
It was great to sit down at a proper table and use a fork and spoon (that's how I eat spaghetti). It was also nice to sit down with friends to discuss what we had all seen so far. It was lucky that we had so much to discuss as we had a long wait. The service was pretty bad, they had sold out of quite a few dishes, and it was only Saturday. The food was good though when it did come. Hopefully they will sort themselves out if they come back next year.
As this was the case I was unable to give Giant Robot my award this year for best festival food. That accolade goes to Pizza to the People. They take your order and freshly bake your Pizza in 5 minutes. The queue was long and people were complaining. As soon as customers got their pizza they quickly realised that they had just purchased the best item of food they will have all weekend, and all was forgiven.
Woo! Latitude! Got to love it. See you again next year hopefully.
Lots went on this weekend, plenty of good bands and odd stuff going down. We'll get round to writing up our experiences soon.
First though, the song of the weekend for me proved to come courtesy of a band who weren't playing but still seemed to follow me around.
A couple of times after watching the comedy a mix cd was thrown on, and on both occasions a mellow track with children singing on it kicked things off.
The first time I heard it I noticed a woman singing along. I was struck by a feeling of inadequacy for having never heard this song that was obviously so close to her heart.
I'd soon enough forgotten about it until after Emo Phillips's set, when it came on again. Shazam was called into action but sadly the reception wasn't strong enough to send the track off for identification.
Back at work today and I suddenly remembered the track, checked Shazam and it was still stored, waiting to be sent off.
A few seconds later and it came back as the below.
It's as nice as I remembered it. I read up a bit and found out that Ryan Gosling's in the band.
That's a pity, I thought, I really hate him as an actor. I then looked him up and realised it's not actually Ryan Gosling I dislike, but Ryan Phillippe.
I don't actually recognise Ryan Gosling, but see he was in Flashforward. Poor old Benford.
A little while ago we were talking to BLU about coming to Ipswich to paint a big wall for us. It was looking promising, but sadly he was too busy working on his new animation to come to the UK.
Well, the new film is here and it's absolutely mind blowing.
Funny, poignant, incomprehensible...do yourself a favour, find 10 minutes to sit down and immerse yourself in Big Bang, Big Boom.
I just started to follow Nigo creator of a bathing ape/BAPE on Twitter. I was pleased to see that he is going back to his roots for their 17th Birthday by offering T-Shirt printing classes at some of his shops.
Whilst looking through some of his pictures I saw some cross promotion that the BAPE brand is famous for.
Did anyone actually use this for a wrestling match?
Hello Kitty Meeting Milo! Thats almost as big as when Superman met Muhammad Ali
The first Saints Summer Street Fair is this Sunday on St Peters St. Expect craft, vintage and food stalls. Look out for Kluck, Jessica Lucking and Mister Millerchip - who will be doing live drawing on the day.
Mix Medium Art Action at the Foundation Art show at Suffolk New College. Opening times are:-
23-25 June (9am-4pm)
26 June (10am-1pm)
28-30 June (9am-4pm)
Finally. Local artist Nick Sinclair has come back to Suffolk with his Country & Eastern photography exhibition, at the University Campus Suffolk water front building. The Exhibition Includes some of the last pictures of Johny Cash and his wife June Carter.
Earlier this week I heard this song on an advert for T4 on the beach. I remember when it first came out in 2001, I thought it was so stupid it was a sure fire hit. I was wrong.
A friend of mine who had studied music said "this is ridiculous, the whole song is just a chorus". It was nice to hear it again.
I was on Holiday last month and whilst taking photos I noticed that our friends on the continent are not afraid of the word Disco. Here it's a bit of a dirty word that conjures up images of afro wigs and flared trouser. Recently I have been listening to some selected Disco that I thought I would share with you.
If you have not listened to decent disco I would say it's worth checking out, especially if you are in to acts like LCD Soundsystem, any indie band that have used a cow bell, or House music (I thought the Duck Sauce track was genius until I heard "I can do it" and realised it was more like a re-edit).
Studio 54 DJ booth
This is in no way a definitive list, but if you have a BBQ coming up in the next few weeks stick them on a play list.
P.S. The Native New Yorker track has a terrible intro but keep with it.
Hey look! It's Uprocker Andy and boy does he look happy.
We took a lunchtime trip to see Pixelh8's Childhood Remixed project/exhibition/toy fetish event at the Town Hall Galleries and were impressed enough to write this blog.
On show are a range of circuit bent toys to play with, showing how 99p car boot sale purchases can be turned into musical instruments.
You can have fun watching a friend get into an NES version of Mario before you ruin it by playing around with Pixelh8's added image and sound distortion controls, which meant Andy fell down a hole and got angry.
He's actually really good at Mario.
Best of all though are Pixelh8's centre pieces. Literally speaking, a group of toys are placed in the middle of the room.
A big button is pressed and the drums, operation patient's red nose, xylophone etc play along to a chiptune beat...whilst Raphael and the Battle Cat look on.
We got most carried away, though, with the machine that Andy is pictured playing. It's a computer hooked up to a toy (also pictured), and you can loop each individual element, bell, balls etc and make like you're in Hot Chip.
Words can't do it justice. Certainly not these words anyway.
So...check it out. Pixelh8 will be eating Haribo there most of this week, so go say hello. He's very friendly.
I quite like Mark Ronson. I loved "Ooh Wee" when it came out a few years back. Then the production for Winehouse and his own Versions album were very different at the time. But it all got played and copied to death.
When my good friend James e-mailed me the new song and said it was really good I was skeptical. I listened to it and now I can't get it out of my head. It also guests Ghostface for the first time since Ooh Wee (or was Ghostface on one of the Winehouse tracks?). The track bellow sounds like it may have been taken off the radio but gives you an idea.
Bellow is the video for Circuit Breaker which is also on his new album. I am playing the new Zelda at the moment - This is a Fanboy's dream.
Out of all the artists that I listen to on a regular basis I would have to say that Busta Rhymes is the most inconsistent. He either releases a great club tune or something terrible, that is usually a duet (Janet Jackson, Linkin Park). On the occations that he is on his game he produces magic. One time Zane Lowe premiered one of his tracks whilst I was driving - I got so pumped I almost crashed my Car.
The other week I was once again listening to the radio when I hear that the new Busta track is about to be played. What would it be? 100% great or a lame turd. I was in the kitchen so was in no danger of crashing, but decided that I should put down the knife I was using. This was a good move as I thought it was a hot track - Stop The Party. production by Swizz Beat.
I also added the track that I almost crashed my car to.
Drum and Bass has always been a genre that I have lacked knowledge in. I used to work in a record shop a long time ago and this guy always came in on fridays to pick up the new 12 inches. Each week I managed to blag my way through our conversation before he left with his new purchases. The purpose of me telling you this is so I don't come over as authority on the track bellow from DJ Die and Interface - I just like it.
I think it's the chorus that gets me the most. It sounds like it could be from a D'Angelo song. With that being the case I hope you don't mind if I slow things down right now by embedding a classic video.
We've mentioned our love for both LCD Soundsystem and Spike Jonze in previous posts.
But seriously...if you're making videos and then stumble across this, you'd probably consider giving up. -- *I googled this title thinking that someone else must have already used it. They had
Zane Lowe gets a bad press sometimes but, to me, it's lazy criticism.
To me, he really understands radio and every now and then he manages to create a perfect moment on air.
I've gone from listening to him every night to being an occassional listener - but tuned in the other day to find him switching from a hectic 15 minutes or so to bringing the mood down with a new track from Sage Francis.
Gilles Peterson's probably the master of this, but Zane's good too.
Anyway, the song is good in itself. But its chronological acount of growing up reminded me of Jeffrey Lewis's more detailed effort in Back When I Was 4, which is well good.
So having a blog to hand, I thought why not post both songs. Job done.
Also, in case you haven't seen Jeffrey's tribute to Rough Trade...
A few weeks back I was asked to DJ at the I Make Fun Stuff craft market. I was excited about this for three reasons - It is a great craft market - I enjoy DJing during the daytime - It was upstairs in the town hall.
Just over 5 years ago we were upstairs in the function room at the town hall for Uprocker Rics wedding reception. We were DJing on the same stage. Behind where we were DJing was the picture above. Standing at over 7 foot (est) it was pretty striking. We didn't know who it was of but we decided to use the image for the 3rd Uprock poster.
When I heard that I was going to be back on the stage for the craft market I thought great, I'll get a another picture with my new camera. Unfortunately when I arrived I found that our old friend was semi wrapped behind the stage curtain, where no one could see him.
What a waste. If anyone knows who the picture is of please let us know.
This is some of the dumbest s**t I've seen in a long time.
At the time of writing this iPads have not been released in the UK. So I was surprised to see in CEX (computer exchange) that you could sell your iPad for the "best prices paid".
If I had managed to get an iPad during a weekend break to the U.S. I probably wouldn't have got bored of it yet. If I had got bored of it I would probably sell it on ebay for 2 grand to one of the thousands eager people who want one.
Surely this advert is only aimed at the thieves out there.
I read today that Mario Kart is almost 20 years old. That's quite a scary thought, but it got me to thinking how great this game is.
In some ways it parallels how life is and should be - When you're down on your luck you should be helped out by an offer of a mushroom boost, and on the flip side when you're on top you should prepare yourself for a red turtle shell up your back side.
It also reminded me of an outing we all had back in 2001 when we went to visit Uprocker Ric in Leeds and went to see a new band called The Strokes. After what was a great gig, Ric's friend said that he was going to a local pub because he had heard that The Strokes were going to be there.
Uprocker Steve and myself said "whatever buddy - they're not going to be there. Let's go home and play Mario Kart on our new Gameboy Advances (that we all had just bought)"
It turned out that Ric's friend did get to have a drink with The Strokes, but we played Mario all night and all the way home on the train. Ric is still a bit sore about the story.
Location-based-social-networking might not sound fun but we’ve got into it in a pretty big way.
Uprock has been hard at work on Foursquare, adding places of note in Suffolk and competing to become their mayor.
And it looks like Foursquare is set for bigger and better things – its user base is growing at a crazy rate (22 million check-ins so far), companies like Starbucks have rushed to sign up and offer discounts, and Vodafone is stealing ground as the first UK network to promote it heavily.
As a pointer towards the next stage of its development, check out how search engine bing has added Foursquare data to their maps so that you can easily view check-ins, badges and tips left by other users.
We’re playing our part in this brave new world by adding locations worth finding in Ipswich, like The Swan, which Andy was mayor of until landlord Damian got in on the action.
Ric is clinging on as mayor of WHSmith though, so it’s not all bad news.
Stussy (a favorite of ours since school) has teamed up with Stones Throw to bring out this J-Dilla T-shirt. Looks pretty fresh and will be at size soon.
And linking back to the previous post - Here is an originally J-Dilla produced Pharcyde track remixed by Hot Chip. It's pretty haunting but I quite like it.
Last Thursday 18th March - The Swan, Ipswich. Gift of Gab of Blackalicious & Quantum. Doing Alphabet Aerobics at Rapsploitation Sessions. With Chrome & Ill Inspired warming up the crowed. Another great night.
P.S. Gift of Gab looks like Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince
Sometimes I browse youtube watching a load of rubbish and suddenly an evening has disappeared. The other night I remembered to look to see if they had some clips of the 1997 DMC championships that I thought I would never see again. Like most things they were on youtube.
They are quite contrasting. First up is a 15 year old DJ A-Trak of Fools Gold Records, Kanyes tour DJ, some great remixes and brother of the tall one in Chromeo. He won the world Championship with this routine - Youngest ever.
The second clip is from the same year at DMC. When I first watched DJ Nike from Italy I couldn't believe this guy made the final. From his Ali G look (this was 1997) you may think that it's a joke. You need to go to 1:45 to get the full effect and also the irony that Dj Nike is wearing Adidas.
The track below is a little old, but a great remix by A-Track for Sebastian Tellier. I tried to find a DJ Nike track but no luck.
It was one of those nights where things were as we hoped they would be when we started over five years ago - eclectic music in a pub full of people enjoying themselves, wearing what they want, and adding to the overall atmosphere.
All of which should be a given for a night.
Anyway, I was going to start a regular blog entry about songs which went down well (working title), but then stumbled across LCD Soundsystem's website.
James Murphy and LCD are genuine Uprock heroes. His mix of MIA's Paper Planes and LCD's Watch The Tapes sounded as fresh as ever on Saturday, and it's exciting to hear that a new album is only a month or so away.
James Murphy is a modern day Brian Wilson - a visionary with an amazing talent for bringing the sounds within his head to record.
Seeing LCD live you can't help but feel for his band, as despite being accomplished musicians themselves they're continually given instructions by their leader - who sometimes even takes over playing their instruments.
His determination not to compromise and steer away from his vision is admirable.
Anyway, for the new album he seems to have rented out a mansion and turned it into a studio. Nice videos.
And going back on topic of songs that went down well at Uprock, the Rock mix of Audio Bullys' Only Man sounded great. I think it could be one of the year's biggest tracks.
The Cads are also continuing to impress - new single This Place is Havoc sounded good, and is available to download soon.
We've been playing The XX v Florence and the Machine for a while and still love it - not sure if the Very Best's reworking will stay with us for long, but happy it came along.
But for me, Jimi Hendrix's Bleeding Heart, all 6 minutes of it, was track of the night.
Finally, props to Andy for playing General Levy as the penultimate track. Class.
If any of you have been to Uprock you'll probably agree that we concentrate more on the tunes that we play than the way we play them (Oh well you can't have everything). Anyway some of people stare at the laptop next to us and wonder what we using that for. Some have figured out that we are playing MP3's but not sure how this works with the turntables.
Below is a video tutorial from Serato that makes the software that we, and many other swan DJ's use. As you know we don't use it for the scratch possibilities. It does enable us however to find new MP3's that would not be coming out on to vinyl and play them through the decks. I think there are about 4 or 5 tutorials in total. look for them on YouTube if you want to learn more.
Last Weekend I was in Norwich Arts Centre with my friend Mister Millerchip (check out his blog) we were there for Clutter City craft market. We set up our joint Millerchip and Kluck stall and then checked out what else was on offer. It was one of the best alternative craft markets I've been to (and I've been to a few).
Anyway you may be thinking I'm about to say why don't we have this sort of thing in Ipswich? Well we do. This month I make Fun Stuff is back. The first one at the end of last Novemebr showcased the best of local craft and the next one on the 27th March is looking to be a bigger event. It is well worth a visit.
Happy 3rd Birthday to Rapsploitation Sessions. They celebrated in style last Thursday with Stig of the Dump and Syntax, Jack Flash and Millionaires by Morning (pictured above). Some of the best nights in Ipswich in the last three years have been thanks to these guys.
Make sure you pencil them in for the 18th of March when Gift of Gab of Blackalicious fame comes to perform for them at The Swan. Get your tickets quick.
In other RAP related news Rapsploitation affiliate Jimmy Green has released another mixtape on his BLOG. His Marvyn Gaye mixtape got me to work on many mornings late last year. So I was super excited to hear that he had done a Beastie Boys Mixtape. If you think that you own all the beasties back catalogue so you don't need to have it mixed together your wrong. Its much more than that - go take a look.
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