Insecticide

One day a man decides to call time on his career in TV advertising, choosing instead to don a ringmasters outfit, round up a bunch of acrobats, dress them as beetles and ants and then take the show on the road as an insect circus.

Then, in an act of artistic/OCD genius, he sets about creating an insanely detailed back-story for the project, designs beautiful old bill posters, costumes and props, and showcases them all in a converted Bedford van as a travelling insect circus museum.

This weekend the circus came to Woodbridge.

(Buy Passion Pit 'Manners')

"An old record is a good record" - but free ones are best

A few months ago I was at the Swan for one of the action packed multi DJ nights that happen every so often. As I was waiting my turn DJ Paulo played a song by Roxanne Shante that I had never heard before.

I had not heard a lot of the songs that had been played that night but this one stuck out. It was an old acid house track but had a sound that I felt could sit comfortably next to a lot of new electro and hiphop.

I enjoy finding old tracks that are able to cross over into a newer sound. Paulo was busy but luckly Ben Marr (aka Skeema) was on hand to tell me that it was produced by Brandon Cooke Featuring Roxanne Shante. Ben (who puts together all the vinyl in Blacksheep) said that he could get me a copy.

I had almost forgotten about all of this until today, I popped into Blacksheep to find that Ben had left me a 1988 promo copy on 12” vinyl for free. What a nice man.

Anyway here’s the track. It reminds me of stuff Mr Oizo and Uffie do now. It even has So-Me-esq video.

p.s. If you walk through town holding a piece of vinyl old people smile at you

Nuthin' but a "T" Thang

After Good.New.Music one of our other collective passions here at Uprock are T-Shirts. Personally I like T-Shirts because they let people know what you like without having to talk about it. It's body size advertising space where you can share anything from favorite acts to personal ideologies.

Here are two shirts I would like to share with you.



Back in the the early 90's this shirt was available everywhere (my friend got his in Coco Pops). In 2009 it took me a while to track down, but finally found it online.

I hope you know who Dr Dre is. If not check out this video out from the album advertised on the shirt. Fingers crossed for the Detox this year.



Shirt number two was kindly given to me by Uprocker Ric. Ric knew that my favorite artist is Jean-Michel Basquiat. I was very grateful to receive a shirt with some of his work on.





Here's an interview with Basquiat with some of his joint work with Andy Warhol.



Watch out for more T-Shirt news soon.

Andy

A Good Ice Lolly in Disguise

Rubbish movie tie ins may not be a regular part of this blog, but just when it looked like Transformers couldn't get any lower along comes the Nestle Transformers Ice Cube.

Stumbled across this in Ibiza and had hopes that it would be like the Spiderman and Jurassic Park lollies, two good examples of how to base cooling treats on a film.

But disappointment set in almost instantly on unwrapping.

For a start, at the equivalent of £1 it was more than twice the price.

Secondly, look at it. Why's it square and so small?

The first Transformers film was probably one of the worst ever seen so I've no plans to see the sequel. But I do wonder what role the cola and lemon flavoured cube will play in the storyline.

Worst.film.tie.in.ice.cream ever.

Nestle's full range of Transformers merch

More like fidget house, yo!

If we filed records in order, this would go under F for floor filler (love or hate sub section).

AC Slater - Jack Got Jacked (Jack Beats mix)

Dream UPROCK

'I remember the time when the Organics smashed it up at Uprock. The kids went crazy.'