Solid birthday, which ended like this…

Was eating ice cream with cold drinks in the park on Xingfu Lu (by Dada/Chongqing Restaurant) this morning around 1:00am.All was quiet. Suddenly a middle-aged woman grasping a big flashlight came down the stone path, then walked up, down, and around the rocks surrounding the pond, pointing the light around the water.

She climbed to the highest rock, looked around frantically, and yelled “出来了” (“come out!”), then ran back in our direction, looking distraught, yelling “你在哪里!?” (“where are you!?”) before disappearing back down the path.

I thought she had lost her child. This was number two in a series of strange circumstances in this outing, the first being the policeman hat lying on the sidewalk just in front of the park’s entrance steps.

Auntie returned five minutes later, this time with an eight-foot long pole with a net, and a man with a bucket. They ran back up the rocks (which look scarier at night); “刚刚在这里!” (“it was just here!”).

I asked “你找什么东西?” (“what are you looking for?”) – got ignored the first time and asked again, louder.

“找好玩的东西.”(“Looking for a fun thing”)

A new character appeared on the left side of the pond, smoking a cigarette with a bucket and flashlight in hand.

Really started to wonder, so just pushed the question like “are you looking for fish??”

[begrudgingly] “是抓鱼的!” (“yes catching fish!”)

“…是很大的鱼吗?” (“A really big fish??”)

“螃蟹.” (“Crab”)

Seems Ayi saw giant claws moving around the pond and ran back to the neighborhood to round up the seafood gang for a good old fashioned moonlight public-park crab hunt.

They crept around the pond for fifteen minutes, pointing lights, waving nets, and arguing. Sometimes yelling”Let’s go home” and “There it is!”

After a while, the auntie and a dude climbed atop two opposing rocks ten feet apart, each with a net extended, the third man pointing a light around the water. I caught a climpse of the baskeball-sized crab in the murky water, the flashlight beam bouncing off its shell. The seafood gang made their move, but he ayi nearly fell off the rock and the pangxie darted away into dark corners of the pond. The hunt finally ended, with no crab… but they already had three huge fish in the pail.

Where will these fish be served? On family tables in the broken bricks hood? Or in restaurants…?

Heatwolves can’t help but dive deeper into the dark intrigue of Xingfu Lu park and The Seafood Gang…

———–

Music time.

Pictureplane’s “Dark Rift” is one of my favorite vinyls. If you’ve been in my living room, you’ve definitely heard it at one point or another. He’s from Colorado and does some of the best electronic music around. Sounds like 90′s rave, with trance samples, singing, lots of emotion. That may sound extremely wack but he pulls it off with class. And he stepped up the production quality noticeably on this (claims to make all his music in his bedroom, on a really old computer with no vocal booth or anything; some previous tracks, while great, couldn’t really be played in the club due to mastering quality).

His new album Thee Physical just dropped last week on Lovepump United. Get it.

Pictureplane – Sex Mechanism

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yeah today’s my birthday. not one to make a big deal of birthdays. as long as i:

a) don’t have to go to work

b) can eat some fried foods (OR mexican food)/cake

c) go swimming

and all of that is about to happen.

My favorite song about birthdays, “Birthday” by Shanghai band PAIRS

“I spent my birthday with a bunch of cunts!!”

PAIRS – Birthday

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But this still won’t be as good as my 21st birthday, when my friends and I got way crunk and (pause) got into a ketchup and mustard fight at a burger restaurant. I got mustard all over my madghetto argyle NY cap (class). Luckily, the bro at LIDS also sold me on some “FITTED CAP CLEANER,” which lifted the mustard right out. I left the hat out on my back porch to air out, cause you know, FITTED CAP CLEANER be toxic.

Well I tell you what, I came back not one hour later and that hat was gone. I knew that someone out there had taken a dirty shortcut to upgrade their swagger. I hoped the mustard stain was still there.

Oh and it was. You see, this wasn’t the last time I met my argyle NY fitted cap (pause).

About two weeks later, I went to CVS (mid-sized pharmacy/supermarket chain) to buy a pound of red Twizzlers and Vitamin Water. The store was crowded, as many sought refuge from the summer sun in the cool cool air conditioning of CVS. As I stood behind nine people in line, debating whether to open my pound of red Twizzlers, a haggard old black man walked through the door to my left.

He was wearing my argyle NY fitted cap.

I walked over to him and said “hey what’s up?” and looked for signs of mustard penetration on the cap. Oh yes, mustard indeed.

“That’s a nice hat you’re wearing. Where’d you get a hat like that?”

At this point, several customers had focused their attention in our direction, some looking mildly concerned.

“I got this hat down at the mall.”

“Did you? Well check it out man. I know the deal. I know what’s up. Now, I’m not gonna make a big scene, and I’m not gonna take the hat back, but I just want you to know, that I know what’s up.”

“I don’t know what you talkin bout.”

“Oh I think you do. I KNOW WHAT’S UP.”

At which point I went back in line and bought my pound of red Twizzlers and Vitamin Water. No one said a fucking word.

And that was the best birthday ever. Mexican food and swimming here we come.

Monday morning. Big weekend. Big up to the VOID crew, who threw down proper at Shelter on Saturday. Techno isn’t really my thing, but I’ve got a ton of respect for VOID because they clearly do parties for the love and not the money. They’re some of the realest dudes in this city. Also shout out to the Clap Clap kids (Adrian, Nate) holding it down at Lune on Saturday. Too bad about Lune’s sound system, but fun party nonetheless.

Oh and shout out to that dude who fixed my air conditioner this morning, and my landlord for suddenly not being a bitch.

Negative shout out to the crazy dude outside my apartment. The one with the giant scar across his head, who always shouts “bu bei, bu kang! bu leng bu re! hahaha” (“not cold, not hot!” – first in Shanghainese, then in Mandarin). Actually this phrase expresses lukewarm feelings toward a person rather than weather. Him yelling this phrase and expecting me to repeat it has become a daily ritual. Dude may have undergone a lobotomy at some point, no joke; hence the scar.

Anyway, yesterday I was outside, sitting on a stool literally six inches high, sweating and eating a Transformers popsicle. Dude walks up with a small cardboard box saying “look, i have a little friend here. he likes to fly. he likes to eat mosquitos,” then slides the lid open a crack and a bat sticks its beak out. That’s right, a motherfucking bat.

At which point I’m like “what the fuck!? get that shit away, bats have diseases!” and dude starts yelling back “no! bats don’t give diseases!” and the neighbors are shaking their heads, some visibly disturbed, and dude gets ready to release the bat from the box, in broad daylight (no idea how a bat would act in the daytime). Everyone else ran away and I ran inside, and dude just stood there laughing to himself.

Flying rats. Not chill.

Anyway, I’m starting a bi-weekly radio show called Beat Buffet over at U-Dance. Every other Saturday from 8PM – 10PM, starting next Saturday, August 6th. More info coming soon. If you live in Shanghai and want to be a guest, send an email over to heatwolves@gmail.com and we can start the nine-part interview process.

Monday = Hip Hop

Outkast – SpottieOttieDopaliscious

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Nas – The World Is Yours

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Charizma & Peanut Butter Wolf – Fair Weather Friends

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If you’re in Shanghai this weekend, you need to see Doshy tonight at Dada. Serious, serious dubstep producer. Randomly saw this dude play in Hong Kong last year and I was blown away. Plus the homies Cavia and Nate on deck, always solid.

Anyway, what up world – thanks for reading! record numbers lately.

Anyone want to comment? Cause I got 12,623 robots writing shit like this:

“Simply wish to say your article is as astounding. The clarity in your post is just great and i can assume you are an expert on this subject.”

A lot of robots working for Microsoft too; pushing Zune hard…

I haven’t really been doing shit at work lately. Mostly just wandering around eating snacks in the AC, talking to my Indian colleagues, and reading blogs. Came upon a few nice ones so I’m adding some links to list this week, starting with Shanghai Scrap.

This bro is on that real journalism tip. He’s written for The Atlantic and National Geographic, amongst other fine publications, and has mad knowledge on the global recycling/scrap metal game. But for real it’s quality writing and the archives run deep.

Remember, there is real shit going on in d world! Life is not all chicken sandwiches, massages, mixtapes, and ice cream. Easy to forget sometimes in d land of hedonism.

It’s hot as fuk outside but The Avalanches gwan fix dat for you. One of the best things to ever come out of Australia…

The Avalanches – Electricity

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The Avalanches – Since I Left You

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And yo, to the DJ at The Apartment last night – great selections but learn how to fucking mix. Playing house tracks from start to finish is not a good look.

Oh and I should be getting my camera fixed this weekend. Surely you’ve noticed the decline in photo quality lately…

Just woke up and bagged a copy of Sicko Cell on vinyl. Been waiting for that since January…massive track by Joy Orbison (recently revealed; artist was unknown for months). It’s only on limited vinyl so grab it like today if you want one. Big, big 808s.

Here’s some more Charlie Brown’s Teacher music for you.

Been meaning to play this first track out for months, but always forget. Not the easiest track to mix; better to just drop this one. Really love almost anything Lando Kal does.

Lando Kal – Further

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And this one by a dude who posts on a forum I frequent, coming out on Mad Decent. Just wanna say one thing about Mad Decent – fuck Diplo, and I’m not feeling 90% of what the label puts out. Diplo came to Shanghai last month and he’s not a cool dude. He’s cocky, spits game at inappropriately young girls, and yells shit like “holla at me on my Twitter” to wack groupies. I still had a lot of fun at the show, but not because of Diplo.

DJ Wordy, who warmed up, played a much better set.

But I like this track on his label. This dude Derek Allen wrote, composed, and sang all the tracks on his EP.

Derek Allen – Shoulda Listened

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The roots of dubstep?

This used to be Logo Bar, on Xingfu Lu. If you just moved to Shanghai this year, that means nothing. But this was a special place.

Aside from the crowd who frequented it, what made Logo special is that basically anyone could go there and play music, and there would usually be someone to listen. Saturday nights were a guaranteed dance floor till at least 5AM, no question.

Logo closed last fall, and I understand why. I felt bad for the elderly neighbors who lived above and dealt with the…externalities on the daily. It’s a legitimately disconcerting feeling stumbling out of a den of sin, into the sunlight, and crossing paths with people my grandparents age just starting their day.

So this space will soon be a fruit shop. I’m not mad about that. The fact that this space is two minutes from my house and now provides fruit instead of gateways to excess has immeasurable implications for my good health. I’m just fucking happy it’s not turning into a real estate office. I’d probably have lost it, no joke.

No, the new Logo isn’t like the old Logo. It’s in a yuppie neighborhood (Taikang Lu) and looks like a cabaret. But the spirit of the old Logo is still alive. If you wanna go play music there, just ask Maxime or Taipei, and you probably can if you’re not half-retarded. There’s convenience stores two minutes away and the sound is much better than Lune too.

Just remember that Shanghai is a revolving door, and that goes for both people and buildings. There’s not a ton of places in the world you can just walk in and get a show, so be thankful.

As I get a bit older, this band makes more sense.

The Walkmen – The Rat

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The Walkmen – Wake Up

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The Walkmen – Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone

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Just a brief post this morning to share a track and some Engrish.

I saw Nosaj Thing play at Logo a few years ago. Was one of the best shows I’ve seen in Shanghai, and maybe ever. Super late pass on this, but I just found his remix of “Forever” by Drake yesterday.

My friend described Drake like this: “Drake is not even a rapper. He’s a Disney character. Literally everything he does has been decided in a boardroom, based on up-to-the-minute market analysis.”

True, Drake did come up on the teen show Degrasi and I heard he doesn’t freestyle, just reads lyrics from his Blackberry. And one of his mixtape covers shows him sitting on a hotel bed alone, wearing sunglasses, looking at his Blackberry.

That’s all wack, but I’m feeling this remix and some of his other cuts. Expect more crossover tracks from him with UK producers like Jamie XX and SBTRKT this year. Sorry about the 128kbs on this track, it’s not an official remix.

Drake – Forever (Nosaj Thing Remix)

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big, big thanks + mad love to everyone who came out to Dada on Saturday for Love Bang #8.  also want to thank Mache from Layabozi, Tom and Greig from Shanghai 24/7, the homies at uDance, Michael and the staff at Dada, all the breakers, peeps from social interwebs, and of course, Caution, hBd, and Chuck D.

that party felt like a giant house party. Caution and hBd reminded everyone what a real DJ is, which is not some der playing boring house music with their head down.

With a few exceptions, DJs in Shanghai seriously need to step their game up. I’m included in peeps who need to step up said game.

a lot of people move to Shanghai, get caught up in the electro/house scene, and forget about hip hop, rock, and the other genres they grew up with. we’re trying to remind people about that music, and why it’s so good (e.g. you can actually dance with someone instead of spazing around them, girls like it…)

even when the police came around 2:45AM (too many peeps. too hype) and the music basically went off for thirty minutes, almost everyone stayed and talked until the beats returned…

we’re doing it again on August 20th, with Ceezy and another special guest. Plus, Love Bang meets Sub Culture at The Shelter on Saturday August 6th.

so thanks again, cause everyone who came out knows that was something special.

proper space disco refix of a classic Stevie Wonder track from 1966. poor boy meets rich girl story.

DJ Raw Sugar – Uptight (Space Disco Refix)

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and if you haven’t peeps it yet, the interview I did with DJ Caution on Shanghai 24/7 is classic.

don’t worry yo, we still gonna play some dubstep tomorrow. on the late nite tip (after 2:30 or 3:00AM)

Tes La Rock – You And I

sorry, no player on this one right now. no time to change the file name; just open it in a new tab or download. track is big.

To get you in the mood for Love Bang this Saturday, a special New Jack Swing mixtape by DJ Caution. “Glam Rock for the Ethnic Community.”

He’s playing this Saturday @ Dada from 10:00 – midnight. Heavy warm-up jams, don’t sleep!

The New Jack Mixtape Vol. 1 (KILLIONAIRE DJS LOS ANGELES)

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Tracklist:

1. Soul II Soul – “Back To Life (However You Want Me)”
2. Tara Kemp – “Hold You Tight”
3. Troy Taylor – “The Way You Move”
4. Skyy – Love All The Way”
5. Bobby Brown – “Every Little Step”
6. Pebbles – “Giving You The Benefit”
7. Keith Sweat – “I Want Her”
8. Bell Biv DeVoe – “Do Me!”
9. Joe Public – “Live And Learn”
10. Portrait – “Here We Go Again”
11. Karyn White – “The Way You Love Me”
12. Jody Watley – “Real Love”
13. Bobby Brown – “She Ain’t Worth It”
14. Guy – “Groove Me”
15. Bell Biv DeVoe – “B.B.D (I Thought It Was Me)”
16. Teddy Riley w/Tammy Lucas – “Is It Good To You”
17. Hi-Five – “I Like The Way (The Kissing Game)”
18. Color Me Badd – “I Wanna Sex You Up”

DJ Caution – The New Jack Mixtape Vol. 1 (KILLIONAIRE DJS LOS ANGELES) by HeatWolves

Went to eat some fine Xi Bei food last night. What you know bout oat noodles, homemade tofu, and lamb everything? SmartShanghai did a full writeup on the place here.

As my friend described it, it’s on the 5th floor of a “really ghetto shopping mall.” No exaggeration there. And what would a run-down shopping mall be without a really hood arcade?

Note the shanzhai name “Sigga” instead of “Sega.” This should tell you what you’re in for.

Only about 70% of the games work. Unfortunately, wack-a-mole does not. Nor does this dog-walking game.

The air hockey table only produces small, random bursts of air. This makes the puck leap off the table, causing potentially serious hand injuries. No joke, that shit hurts. The worker dude said “you need to pay attention or you’ll get hurt!’ like wtf this is air hockey not a chemistry lab.

The place was full of Chinese dudes in their 20s and 30s. Some of whom were clearly there for days on end. Note the compulsive Double Happiness cigarette smoking and lack of blinking in these subjects. I saw one dude go get tokens – RMB1,000 worth! That’s like $150…

Despite the hood-ness of this place, I’d go back. America has almost no arcades these days so we’re lucky that we can still play Street Fighter II, Time Crisis, and bizarre music games outside of our homes.

Zomby – U Are My Fantasy (Street Fighter II Theme Remix)

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Jam City – Aqua Box

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Jam City has been one of my favorite producers since his massive Night Slugs white label came out last year, and of course, “Magic Drops.” His Waterworx EP just came out on Night Slugs and you can cop it here – it’s really, really good.  He’s got a great all-vinyl podcast available for download over at disko404 as well.

Joining Love Bang #8 this Saturday at Dada, and representing Shanghai, the two time DMC champion – hBd. He’s playing from midnight – 2:00am, don’t sleep!

I’ve seen this kid spin a few times and he’s insane on the turntables. Great selections and serious technical skills. Expect hip hop, funk, party jams, and even some dubstep.

Here’s a video of him and the rest of the Lab crew scratching around one afternoon, upstairs from KIN on Maoming Lu. hBd is the dude in front of the window wearing black, in between the two dudes with hats.

My favorite chips lately. Ethnican Flavored Inca Chips. Light and crunchy with lots of that famous Ethnican love baked in.

Defintitely a better name than “Mayan Chips,” after the whole 2012 doomsday prophecy ordeal.

I Googledbroed “having ethnic friends is cool” and a site called “Ethnic Friends of Barbie” came up. Barbie realized that having exclusively white friends is not a good look. She has a lot of cool Asian/Hispanic/Island friends but does not hang out with Blacks much. Or maybe “Ethnic Friends of Barbie” practices historical revisionism. My favorite writeup is about her Hispanic friend Teresa:

“Cool Times Teresa, 1989 – this doll is
one of those in the 80′s that developed
UGLY stains on their legs, and BOY did she?”

Cool Times T, I don’t care about your stains, girl. I just wanna party with you and your ethnic friends. We can drink juice, eat graham crackers with peanut butter, and roller-blade all day. When night comes, we can dance to New Jack Swing, and Cam’ron.

The Diplomats – I Really Mean It (feat. Cam’ron and Jimmy Jones)

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If you like Pictureplane, Nosaj Thing, and Tri Angle label ish, you’ll love this. AraabMUZIK usually produces beats for rappers like Cam’ron,  but on his new album Electronic Dreams, he flips cheesy 90s dance/rave tunes into a dark world filled with heavy kick drums and raining hi hats …One of the best albums I’ve heard in a long time. Serious headnod shit.

The second track sounds like a dance party in the movie Hellraiser.

Dude just makes destroys the MPC in this video. Samples Cannibal Corpse amongst others…

Go cop the album here.

Araabmuzik – Streetz Tonight

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Araabmuzik – Underground Stream

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.
Saturday morning, trying to get some fruit but all the fruit stores done closed. Turned into real estate office. Just like the Hunan restaurant next to the crib where we used to eat before shows at Logo.

No idea what this fruit is. It’s blue and black. Looks like the character Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat. Tastes like a peach, but I’ve been told it’s definitely not in the peach family.

Went to Dada last night and saw Santo Chino play. He killed it. Dude is now on my short list of DJs in Shanghai I like.

Blaise Deville dropped this classic track the other night at ROM. I knew the original by Midnight Star but hadn’t heard the version by Kurious. Both tracks, so solid.

Not sure why Midnight Star have nine people on their album cover cause it just sounds like an 808 with some melody laid over it.

Midnight Star – Curious

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Kurious – I’m Kurious

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The week flew by. If you like song…

“Yeah…lemme get a fruit cocktail, I ain’t too hungry…”

Prince – The Ballad of Dorthy Parker

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Fantastic Mr. Fox – Over

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Slugabed – Rockin U

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If you’re in Shanghai this Saturday night, definitely make it down to Shelter for this. Two of my favorite crews in Shanghai, Sub-Culture and ROM meet for one party. Dark, heavy cyberpunk ish (nightmare hip hop, dubstep, ??).

And peep the ill flyer by Cheeri, who’s killing the hand-drawn flyer game at the moment. All ya’ll wack, photoshop-usin’ mo’fuckas keep doin yo thang main.

Speaking of dark, weird music, I’d been meaning to check out Hype Williams for about six months. Finally did yesterday, and damn..amazing.

Hype Williams – Badmind

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we need some god damn animal crackers in Shanghai. proper animal crackers, not just cookies shaped like animals. another example of companies putting japanese characters on some shit that tastes like fake butter/chemicals and acting like it’s straight.

what’s up with the emo packaging on the kittyland biscuits? we go from “dinner is ready everyone” to “it’s lonely sleeping alone,” then back to “sounds great!” lithium, holla.

just need the classic bag of generic animal crackers, not even asking for Barnum’s.

this is what economists call a “market gap,” and I shouldn’t even be blogging about it but I don’t have any connections in the cookie/biscuit game so i’ma let ya’ll clock that loot, import/export bros.

so hot. dangerously hot. hot enough that yo mind might start playin tricks on you.

Geto Boys – Mind Playin Tricks On Me

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Black Sabbath – Paranoid

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People always tellin me, “yo Heatwolves, you always tell me where the ill party be at, but I’m blind/my Ayi broke my glasses/my cab driver drove off with my bag, which contained my passport and glasses/I want ‘smarter’ frames,” or some shit.

Lucky for you, the folk at the Yanjing Shichang (Eyeglass Market) can make new glasses for you in about thirty minutes. Should cost about RMB150 ($25) or less, unless you want some fancy German turtle-shell, hounds-tooth titanium, but really though?

Just bring your prescription (English is fine) and take Metro Line 1, 3, or 4 to Shanghai Railway Station (NOT South, NOT Hongqiao). There’s no English sign, but across from the train station there’s a large fruit store on the first floor (peep the sign in the picture below). You can also enter the market from the second floor of the KFC. Take the elevator to the 5th floor and dey it go, glasses everywhere. Some peeps even speak English. Lots of bootleg makeup and electronics on the 3rd and 4th floor, and again, delicious KFC on the 2nd floor. If you get lost, just ask peeps “Yanjing shichang zai nali?”

Remember – frames cost almost nothing to make here. Bargain hard, but keep in mind that if you have really bad Mr. Magoo eyes, you will need to pay a bit more for thicker frames. Feel good about your bargaining skills if you walk away with two pairs for RMB300 – 400 total.

For my contact-wearing peoples, don’t let anyone remove/insert contacts for you. Bring your own contacts case and solution too.

Some rock musics. This brings me back…way back.

Modest Mouse – A Life of Arctic Sounds

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Spaced out listening to the Eddie C, Tiger & Woods, and Javelin albums today and drew this.

More on this later, including mixtapes from DJ Caution and myself (and hopefully hBd). We just gwan play some party jams on a Saturday night, cause Shanghai wants to hear it. We’re not too cool to play “Poison” by BDP or some Biggie. And without a hint of irony.

Little hip hop throwback track here…

First Wu-Tang track I ever heard. Sixth grade, backseat of my Indian friend’s older sister’s car on a ride home from school. Cassette single.

Wu-Tang Clan – Triumph

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