Dee Lilly: "Aqua"
Chicago producer Dee Lilly dropped this track, a sampling of what is to come on his upcoming beat tape, "Black Diamond." Lilly has made a name for himself around the Chicago scene by pairing his production with acts such as Daryn Alexus, Nick Astro, Legit and Murph Watkins. Check the track below and keep an eye out for Black Diamond coming soon.
Dee Lilly: "Aqua"
Chicago producer Dee Lilly dropped this track, a sampling of what is to come on his upcoming beat tape, "Black Diamond." Lilly has made a name for himself around the Chicago scene by pairing his production with acts such as Daryn Alexus, Nick Astro, Legit and Murph Watkins. Check the track below and keep an eye out for Black Diamond coming soon.
[Video] Sasha Go Hard: "Spaz Out"
Southside MC Sasha Go Hard is back with a visual for her latest single "Spaz Out" off Nutty World directed by APJ Films. The song is harder than what we;ve seen from Sasha in the past, with more pointed, sharpened lyrics. The video features a baby dancing alongside Sasha and co, as well as some special effects and is bookended by live performance footage.
http://youtu.be/AP9AO63zNos
First Netflix-for-Ebook App
Oyster has launched the first viable subscription service for E-books for your favorite handheld device. Comparable to a Spotify or Netflix, services that allow users to access millions of media items with the click of a mouse, Oyster's app will allow users to read from over 100,000 e-books for just under $10. Currently, the company is in the process of raising the necessary funding for the behemoth undertaking and plans to unveil the app to the public soon. For now, it is available on a first-come, first-serve, invitation-only basis. Who knows, it could be a game-changer: think of the kid who knows everything about Heisenberg suddenly having access to Chaucer. Pictures below.
[via Mashable]
[RH Photos] North Coast Festival 2013 Day 3
Photos By: Bobby Reys
Making it through the entirety of any festival is a workout at the least and a survival game for some, but by the end of my three-day adventure across Union Park I was in need of a pick me up. After taking in the tail end of an inspired performance and North Coast debut for local artist Psalm One, I found just that around two o'clock as the funky vibes of fellow Chicagoans whysowhite took the Coast stage for what may have been the best performance of the day had they not been competing with Wu Tang , Cherub and Gary Clark Jr.
Leading twins Charles and Davis Haines kept the crowd moving in the neon pants while Nick McMillan MC'd and danced his way into oblivion, sending the steadily-building crowd dancing well after the set ended in the early September heat. Next, it was off to Danny Brown, who performed on a similarly-placed stage to where Lil B performed a month earlier at Pitchfork Festival. It was a similar experience with the sea of fans bopping up and down to the squeaky vibe of Brown's vocals. It was Danny Brown as you would expect him although without his pants down onstage.
From there, a bit too worn on the EDM tip I took in Rebelution, who's jammy, soulful rock tunes were the perfect break from the scattering computers sounds of the DJs that dominated Day 2. Gary Clark Jr, festival king himself, picked up where Rebelution left off, keeping the easy, cool sounds coming, eventually handing the baton to Cherub whose falsetto 80's-inspired electro-pop kept listeners moving and criss-crossing their library.
All in all, though, the festival ended as it began. As headliners Wu Tang Clan and Lotus took the stage, drops of rain could be felt and a general groan could be felt across the park. Wu Tang ran through the classics with Cappadonna, U-God and RZA setting the pace for the rest of the present members while Lotus' Miller brothers gave the Last Stand Stage crowd all they could in a limited set. They played the hits, and got off the stage-twenty minutes early. I'm suggesting bubbles over music festivals in Chicago moving forward.
Mad Decent Block Party: Q&A with Big Gigantic
The Mad Decent team has been steadily criss-crossing the country with an also-steadily changing group of performers. As the summer begins hitting the homestretch, Mad Decent heads to Texas for an all ages performance at the Whitewater Music Ampitheater before the festival series heads off to the west coast for a pair of final dates in Los Angeles and San Diego. The New Braunfels stop includes headlining sets by Major Lazer, Bauuer, Dillon Francis and Flosstradamus, as well as Big Gigantic who we were able to catch up with before they hit the Lone Star state for a brief Q + A. Check out the interview below with drummer Jeremy Salken and head here for tickets if you'll be in the area this weekend.
Jake: Last time I talked to you two, you were preparing for New Year's Eve in Chicago. How have things been since?
Jeremy: Wow that was a long time ago! Now we’re prepping for this tour and New Years in NEW YORK!! Things have been freaking incredible. We literally just finished up our summer festival season and it couldn’t have gone better. We didn’t play as many festivals as last year but we headlined a few which was a huge step up for us! Cant wait to be back in Southern TX though! Things tend to get a little crazier down there!
Jake: What's the experience playing Mad Decent Block Party so far?
Jeremy: We’ve done 2 so far and they’ve been great!! Its an earlier show and the music literally never stops. It goes hard from start to finish and is always insanely entertaining!
Jake: Where is the direction of the music headed/plans for a new album?
Jeremy: The music is constantly growing and evolving. We were hoping to drop the new album this fall but are pushing things back to the beginning of 2014 to really get it where we want it to be. Dom has been working endlessly night and day writing, producing and working on putting this masterpiece together. He has the vision of what he wants it to be and you just cant rush that kind of thing. As much as we wanted to put it out as soon as possible, it’ll be better to take a little more time with it and get it perfect (or as close to perfect as he can get). We’re dropping a few tracks here and there for kids to check out to hold everyone over until 2014!
Jake: You two have been touring incessantly for a couple years now, any burnout? Going strong?
Jeremy: Stronger than ever!! The more we do it the more we figure out about how we want to do it. We used to just hit the road endlessly and tour tour tour. Now we kind of do it in chunks and take little breaks in between to recooperate. I think that’s one of the tricks to keeping it fresh!
Jake: Plans for the rest of 2013?
Jeremy: We’ve had a mellow summer so we’re hitting the West Coast for 2 weeks now, then we have a break before ROWDYTOWN at Red Rocks!! That’s like our hometown throwdown. It’s the most beautiful venue we’ve been to and just such an epic place to play and have all our friends and fam come rage with us! We have a break after that then we do a month long tour of the rest of the country in October! November/December is pretty much open to finish album stuff then Mayan Holidaze w/ the homies and 2 Nights in NYC for New Years! Then we get a short break and things start right back up again! I Guess we don’t take off as much time as I thought! Haha, good thing we LOVE playing music!
[Interview] North Coast Music Festival 2013: Jesse Miller of Lotus
Photos by Bobby Reys
Lotus has carried the flag for their own genre for awhile now. "Jamtronica", the band's signature blend of electronic elements paired with a creatively unique jam band aesthetic that has kept them at the forefront of both genres for close to 15 years now. Lotus' ability to master a wide range of disciplines musically has allowed the Indiana-based group to constantly tinker with it's sound and evolve the band's dynamic. Lotus is a fully adaptable animal, with the ability to go from rock to dance to hip hop all in one rocking set and, largely without vocal aid. I had a chance to catch Lotus frontman Jesse Miller while backstage at The Last Stand Stage, check out the interview below.
Jake: Welcome to Chicago, what are the feelings about playing at North Coast and what do you all have in store?
Jesse: Our set is always interesting. At a festival, I feel like Lotus tends to stretch things out so ours sometimes we have to take it down to this package but this is a young crowd at this festival so I'm sure we're going to keep it on the dance tip. So we're planning on dancing and rocking out.
Jake: I know you all have a new album coming out as well that is tailored more towards a hip-hop aspect?
Jesse: Yeah, Monks. It's more of just a project for the album. We actually had started working on a track with Mr. Lif in maybe like 2011, maybe even a little bit before and we were working on it while we were working on other tracks and we didn't really feel ike we had a great place for it, we didn't want to drop it in the middle of another album and have it feel like it was this totally different thing so we were going to release it as a single but then started doing a few more and then we got Lyrics Born on for a track and Gift of Gab on there. So we just sort of built it out and said "Ok, what can we do with this" and then we ended up going back through it and weaving in the whole story, recorded some instrumentals and the whole project really came together really organically.
[RH Interview] North Coast Music Festival: Jesse Miller of Lotus
Photos by Bobby Reys
Lotus has carried the flag for their own genre for awhile now. "Jamtronica", the band's signature blend of electronic elements paired with a creatively unique jam band aesthetic that has kept them at the forefront of both genres for close to 15 years now. Lotus' ability to master a wide range of disciplines musically has allowed the Indiana-based group to constantly tinker with it's sound and evolve the band's dynamic. Lotus is a fully adaptable animal, with the ability to go from rock to dance to hip hop all in one rocking set and, largely without vocal aid. I had a chance to catch Lotus frontman Jesse Miller while backstage at The Last Stand Stage, check out the interview below.
Jake: Welcome to Chicago, what are the feelings about playing at North Coast and what do you all have in store?
Jesse: Our set is always interesting. At a festival, I feel like Lotus tends to stretch things out so ours sometimes we have to take it down to this package but this is a young crowd at this festival so I'm sure we're going to keep it on the dance tip. So we're planning on dancing and rocking out.
Jake: I know you all have a new album coming out as well that is tailored more towards a hip-hop aspect?
Jesse: Yeah, Monks. It's more of just a project for the album. We actually had started working on a track with Mr. Lif in maybe like 2011, maybe even a little bit before and we were working on it while we were working on other tracks and we didn't really feel ike we had a great place for it, we didn't want to drop it in the middle of another album and have it feel like it was this totally different thing so we were going to release it as a single but then started doing a few more and then we got Lyrics Born on for a track and Gift of Gab on there. So we just sort of built it out and said "Ok, what can we do with this" and then we ended up going back through it and weaving in the whole story, recorded some instrumentals and the whole project really came together really organically.