busy week. dungeons and dragons tonight..

tuesday = FIST OF THE NORTH STAR @ Dada (seriously one of the most violent feature-length animes ever…exploding heads galore). 9PM with the Sub-culture fam.

wednesday @ mao livehouse w/French Horn Rebellion and Rainbow Danger Club

French Horn Rebellion – Beaches and Friends [edit: fuck these dudes]

friday @ mao livehouse w/MC One Consciousness, Ceezy, and Das EFX

saturday @ Lune for Pop Party then Shelter w/Kode9 (!!!!!!!)

will post some tracks soon, but you need to cop that new Juicy J mixtape “Blue Dream & Lean.” Shit is epic.

ate some soup last night cause i’m sick. i couldn’t afford the double boiled deer penis with ten treasures but was assured that it would “enhance masculinity,” i.e. it’s “good for man.” But honestly I ate some “good for man” soup one time (cow balls…) and I had sex like four times that night so I don’t necessarily doubt this.

some Friday tunes for you.

Das EFX – The Real Hip Hop (Pete Rock Remix)

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Sepalcure – Breezin (this track gets so good like four minutes in)

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Das EFX are coming to Shanghai next Friday (Mao Livehouse), supported by an 11-piece orchestra (!!) led by Theo Croker and my good friends MC One Consciousness and Ceezy. More info here.

People love to fuck in Shanghai. Sometimes people act like condoms aren’t necessary and that’s fucked up. Think about all the people who come in and out of Shanghai everyday on planes and trains from who the fuck knows where, and with what history. Think of the bros who fuck hookers in Cambodia then come back here and sleep with their girlfriends like it’s all good. And the girls who let random dudes bust in them cause they’re on the pill or plan on taking some day-after meds. And all the mutual friends and how interconnected this place is.

You prlly know someone in Shanghai with an STD, even if they don’t know it. AIDS is on the rise in Shanghai, where it’s on the decline in other parts of the world. Not just AIDS but Hep-C and lots of other viruses that will kill you or at the least make it so you can’t have sex anymore or have to take lots of medicine every day.

I’m lucky that my mom worked at an AIDS clinic when I was four or five. I met a lot of her patients and saw them die, and my parents told me why. A lot of office ladies have bowls of choco on their desk – my mom always had a big bowl of condoms. Not everyone’s lucky enough to go to a school with good sex-ed.

So use condoms, and don’t sleep with people who don’t think they’re important cause they prlly do that on the reg. It’s like Snoop Doggy Dogg said, “ain’t no pussy good enough to get burnt while I’m up in it.” I would love to quote a female rapper who said something similar but nothing comes to mind..

Here’s some songs about STDs.

Javelin – STD Fury

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Lil B – I Got AIDS

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Charizma & Peanut Butter Wolf – Jack The Mack

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yo. remember Logo? parties with bands and DJs together?? elderly women busting through the door at 4am, wielding hammers and ready to smash the DJ mixer??? BEAT BUFFET gwan come back from d dead at some point i promise, but until then…

it’s going down this Saturday. really excited about this as these are my friends’ bands. it’s only RMB30, not bad for three bands and one DJ (I’m playing four sets…one Motown, one Dubstep…don’t know about the others).

but fuck DJs, there’s actually people playing music – come down at get messy on Saturday; you know there’s street beers on every corner…

flyer by Ivan from Death to Giants -

Internets really been fucking up lately. I heard networks get hacked frequently here, like there’s some program called “password get” or something and shady types just cop dat mima and eat your bandwidth. not chill.

Saw mogwai at mao livehouse last night. Had never heard any mogwai songs before but people made them sound life-changing so i said fuck it and went in with a totally open mind.

It reminded me of how when i DJed at Shiva that one time, i had to find the most boring house tracks on my computer and people went nuts for those, like “..so goooood.” mogwai do the whole play-really-chill-then-explode thing, but when they did [kinda] rock out, i couldn’t help but think back to seeing Tool when I was sixteen and how much harder they rocked.

Or to pick a more recent example, Shackleton last Friday at the Shelter. Obviously it’s one dude and not a whole band of museum pieces (Mogwai dude’s banter did not go past “hi, we’re from Scottland. Thanks, xiexie…” and if that’s post-rock protocol, ok fine, not mad), but his live performance also lacks singing and deals heavily in restraint, though his “down times” are far more interesting. Shackleton builds really complex [and danceable] rhythms from strange percussion, unsettling vocal samples, and other hypnotizing elements – no big basslines or kicks – and then after ten minutes and a bit of silence, drops just punishing bass. My friend was like “I never felt speaker make my ass move before.” Really like “wtf, this rhythm is mental…” The encore, through a monotone computer voice, told the story of a dragon than had to be slayed.

At that show, totally sober, I didn’t leave my spot next to the subwoofer for like an hour and a half. I wandered outside during the Mogwai show and left early to flyer outside and wasn’t upset that I missed the encore. On the front stairs, I gave a girl our mixtape and hope she listened to it; hope those dudes from Suzhou found some noodles or KFC too… Also thought Mogwai’s show would have been wayyyyyyy weaker without their contemplative videos looping in the background, and that says a lot about the music. I can’t remember any visuals or VJ at Shackleton; I don’t even think the booth camera was on.

So for me, one dude brought it much harder than a whole band. Just sayin. These are also the only two shows I’ve spent money on recently, another reason for the comparison.

The one and only Three 6 Mafia…

“Don’t sleep at night we comin through your motherfuckin windowpane….”

Triple Six Mafia – Sleep

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First off, wanna thank everyone who came to Love Bang #11 on Saturday. Was our biggest party yet; the place was packed by 10:30. Thanks to DJ Cavia for warming up the dance floor, my Super Ayi Cleaning Team fam, and all the old & new friends who came through and danced. We’re doing it again on Dec. 17th.

Also played at Dada on Friday. Strictly Latin jams for three hours…

I guess the last time I listened to Latin music was in 11th grade, in Spanish class with my teacher Mr. Braun. He always seemed a bit off, telling tales of his wild times in Mexico (which i can totally understand now, after living in China for four years).

One Sunday afternoon I saw my Spanish teacher in Barnes and Noble with our class president, a really pretty girl with lots of problems. I thought that was weird. Later, I heard rumors that she came over to his house and his Windows 98 desktop background was an enlarged photo of her eyes. Really weird. I quit Spanish around the same time, but not because of that.

So for three years of DJing I totally ignored Latin music, except Baile Funk. When the homie Sal invited me to play at his Popasuda party last Friday at Dada under the pretense that I could only play Latin jams, I had to do a lot of digging. Glad this happened though cause I found some great reggaeton, cumbia, and more. Big up to Don Vic, the sister Mache, all the cats on a certain web forum I frequent who helped me out, and that lady at the CD market who sold me those dancehall, roots, and booty compilation albums.

latin jams = girls on the dance floor.

Here’s some of the tracks I dropped:

Sabo – Kuff Kumbia

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Big Punisher – You Came Up

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Las Rakas – Borracho (Culea)

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Arcangel – Pa Que Pases Bien

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That “Borracho” track comes from a blog I recently discovered – Mixtape Riot. Great site by a dude who also produces some serious heat under the name Captain Planet.

I know I keep pushing shows on the site, but there’s so much good music going on lately… If you’re around tonight, The Shelter is the place to be.

It’s Sub-Culture’s 4-year anniversary, and they’re bringing in Shackleton, one of the biggest names in dubstep (who apparently almost never travels outside of Europe).  So you get a really trippy, heavy live set by Shackleton, plus local heavyweights Drunk Monk, Steven Lorenz, and others on a big soundsystem…all for RMB60 – a much better deal than paying like RMB120 for a “DJ Set” by some hack like Steve Aoki on a shit soundsystem.

Shackleton rolled through town last year and a lot of folk said it was the show of 2010. Don’t sleep on this tonight. Peep this cut from his FabricLive mix to get an idea of the dark vibes you’re in for.

Shackleton – Massacre

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Just a real quick post on this cold tuesday morning – some hip hop gems from back in the day. Really weird knowing that there’s kids out there now who didn’t grow up listening to “Doggystyle” or “Ready To Die,” and possibly haven’t even heard those albums. So these are for the seeds.

Nas – Life’s A Bitch

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Mobb Deep – Shook Ones Pt. II

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The Super Ayi Cleaning Team loves you Hangzhou. Had so much fun playing at Code Space last night. Big up to Tam, DJ Seen, Stephen, and the rest of the Elements crew, my Super Ayi Cleaning Team fam, Cici at Codespace, the homegrl Jodi, the boi D Roc, and everyone who came out and danced.

Tonight, after I finish this “boy gotta eat” gig at a really intense club my friend described as full of “factory owners and models” + birdcages, I’m headed to Shelter for the ROM album release. Peep one of the tracks here, and catch my interview with Ice Nine over at Shanghai 24/7.

Ice Nine – Interface

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will try to post some birdcage photos after tonight…

real quick post this morning, just wanna put some music up for ya’ll. Some dubstep and some…i don’t know but this mz. bratt track is really hype.

just downloaded so much music I shouldn’t have on my hard drive for a commercial gig on Saturday night at Ruby’s Club in Jing An (ladies drink for free…) MC One Consciousness and I used to skateboard in front of that club, back when it was CD Club. Pretty sure it was a mafia spot. Anyway I’m gonna play a lot of Nicki Minaj, and possibly (likely) some tunes I’m ashamed to play but no matter how much they pay me I will not play Black Eyed Peas. Even if the mafia dem come at me with their knives, gleaming in the lazers and sweat.

Dro Carey – H.R.

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Mz Bratt - Selecta (Pasteman & Tanka’s ’88 Booty)

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more on this picture later…gots to get on dat train.

There’s great music there over the next few days – get down there tonight and Friday for sure.

Tonight = [another!] album release, this time by friends Boys Climbing Ropes, doing a split album with X is Y. I don’t know anything about X is Y but it’s my friends’ label [PAUSE:MUSIC] and their quality control is mega-high so I’m sure they aight.

Boys Climbing Ropes, a classic Shanghai band (for me). Think they’ve been together as long as I’ve been here. Just really good rock and roll. I stole this track from another website..apologies go out to a certain Desert Fuck Eagle.

Boys Climbing Ropes – Grow Up Stop Fucking Around

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And this band, who I haven’t seen since 2008 – Demerit. Really in the top, top tier of Chinese bands I’ve seen here, both live and on their excellent “Bastards of a Nation” LP that came out in 2008. It’s punk (think Anti-flag) with a lot of metal influences (everyone else said it but yeah, Iron Maiden). Was wondering what happened to them and apparently they just got back from touring around the US including gigs on the Vans Warped Tour.

They’re fucking good, on an international level. Like, I really can’t think of many Chinese bands that can fuck with them. I posted this track two years ago and I’m posting it again because a) it’s great and b) i lost the CD and have no idea how to buy it again so this is the only track I have. If anyone has it holler at me, I want it. Sorry this song cuts off at the end but you get the idea. Peep more of their tunes at their MySpace. Unfortunately I’ll be in Hangzhou for this show, but those in Shanghai on Friday – don’t sleep on this.

Demerit – Beijing is Not My Home

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found this boombox in the hood last week. really wanted to cop but it’s RMB900. possibly worth it…mint condition, loud and clear, PHONO inputs, mic hookup for karaoke…  bought my vacuum cleaner from the same lady last year, still works..

there’s a LOT of albums/EPs getting released in Shanghai these days.

this is awesome.

REMEMBER – almost all cabs in Shanghai have a CD player, and I’ve never met a driver who wasn’t happy to let me rock my own tunes. so carry those discs in your bag yo. actually cab drivers have been the biggest test audience for the Super Ayi Cleaning Team remixes of Chinese pop.

speaking of the hood…

Bobby Womack – Across 110th Street

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What up though. Hangzhou we are coming this Friday night – our first time doing Love Bang outside of Shanghai. So pumped to throw down at Code Space, one of the better venues I’ve seen in China. It’s a renovated warehouse with glass floors and a train that actually rolls around through the club. You can ride the train.

Big up to Elements for bringing us out there. I went out to their Halloween party (same venue) a few weekends ago and they got 350 people out on a Sunday night (!!!)

It’s DJ Caution, MC One Consciousness, and myself rolling out there on Friday evening. If you wanna make the trip to Hangzhou with us, holla at me – we’d love to have some friends from Shanghai join us.

If you don’t know what a Hangzhou is, it’s a “small” city (still like 6 million + i think) about 45 minutes from Shanghai by high-speed train. Round-trip train will cost you about RMB175 and you can get a cheap hotel or even stay in a bathhouse for less than RMB100 a night (with massage!). People say West Lake in Hangzhou is one of China’s most beautiful places, but the lake is too dirty to swim in so I don’t understand this..but regardless, the city is chill, and not a bad place to spend a much-needed weekend outside of Shanghai.

Some rap for you this Monday, starting it off with the second track from Slugabed’s set last weekend at the Shelter. When he dropped some Dipset I knew it was on. Produced by Araab Muzik.

Dipset – Salute

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And a track off the new Drake album. Haters gonna hate, whatever. Drake comes pretty correct for a commercial rapper and I feel like he’s got a lot of creative control for a major label artist (he’s got Jamie XX producing one of the tracks, The Weeknd on a couple others..) Dude sums up his attitude pretty well in this Just Blaze-produced track when he says “Know that I don’t make music for [dudes] who don’t get pussy/so those are the ones that I found diss me or overlook me,” which goes pretty well with my friend’s comment “the biggest ‘get the fuck outta here’ goes to kids who act like rap died in ’96.” Fuck the backpackers.

Drake – Lord Knows (ft. Rick Ross)

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sunday evening… just wanna say thanks to everyone who came out to Yuyintang last night for the Friend or Foe album release. that shit was really fun. props to Momo at the merch table even though no one bought that t-shirt i made.

been on this track for months, big up to grasshoppa for this one.

DE DE MOUSE – My Favorite Swing (Hudson Mohawke’s Cobra Slice Rework)

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this is where i’ll be tonight. big, big night at Shelter. peep the interview I did with Vibronics in SmartShanghai.

really need some chill vibes after the HEALTH show last night. I liked their set, and I’m really happy they played a Pictureplane song + “USA Boys,” but…

- Shanhai needs to step it’s sound system game up in a big way before anyone can consider it a legitimate venue for live shows. for real my ears were hurting during their set and i had to leave early. the speakers clearly couldn’t handle what was going through them, hence all the hisses and pops. Where are the fucking subwoofers??????

- both opening bands really, really sucked. giving a few Chinese hipsters synths and drums and letting them jam out to open for a respectable band = not chill. I feel really bad if that was anyone’s first rock show.

- less smoke machine. smoke machine does not make shitty bands better. also 8:30PM is too early for smoke machines unless Danzig is playing.

- why does that convenience store close at 10:30????

But for real HEALTH put so much energy into their set, and when they came off stage they were completely soaked with sweat and looked like they’d been through war. Pretty sure the drummer is cousins with a grizzly bear or is a viking.

Also, the BBQ on the corner (the spot with tables and chairs)  is the best BBQ I’ve had in Shanghai. Hands down.

So yeah, come down to Shelter tonight. It’s singles day in China (yes that is a holiday) – AND it’s 11.11.11.

I hung out with the dub legends Vibronics and Echo Ranks and dem are super nice dudes who’ve been making quality dub/reggae/steppaz tunes for decades. Fucking decades, mang. Plus the whole Uprooted Sunshine crew including Cha Cha – her last performance before she dips to Madrid for Red Bull Music Academy.  There’s an exclusive track by her and Vibronics up for download over at the Sub-Culture Shanghai site, but only for 24 hours so get on it!

Got to DJ at the world’s biggest skatepark last Saturday, and got paid. would have done it for free.

Only weird part was that all the winners of the skate competition, who looked 18 years old or under for sure, received a free bottle of Absolut Vodka. Like, “hey kids, keep doing awesome at sports! here’s some drank!”

But there was also free Harbin beer, like hundreds of cans, for everyone there and it’s not like kids were walking around all crunk or anything. I did get pretty crunk and chatted up some Harbin model girls who moonlight as KTV waitresses. Dem not so bright though.

Was a great day, despite the rain. Gonna post some of my favorite tracks from skate videos (I used to skate for like thirteen years, until I shattered my leg/ripped some tendons when I was nineteen, and pretty much called it quits).

Misfits – Night of The Living Dead

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Misfits – Skulls

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Metallica – Seek and Destroy

Iggy & The Stooges – Search and Destroy

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there’s ATMs in almost all the subway stations in Shanghai. at least half of them don’t work. lots of stores/small restaurants don’t take bank cards either, nor do McDonalds and other fast food friendz..

but you don’t need any money to see HEALTH this Thursday at Shanhai, early as fuccck at 7PM. you do need a ticket though, which requires registering at the Converse website (didn’t have any luck there), going to a Converse store (apparently not many tickets left), hollering at the promoters (STD), or possibly talking your way in, etc..

but hopefully that works because they’re really good..been listening to them for about four years now and play out tracks from both HEALTH//DISCO albums on the reg. never seen them live but heard it’s great. noise rock you can dance to. They’re also on the Lovepump United label, home to another favorite – Pictureplane, who’s remixed some HEALTH tracks too.

HEALTH - Tabloid Sores (Nosaj Thing Remix)

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HEALTH - Perfect Skin (Curses! Remix)

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HEALTH - Severin (Small Black Rmx)

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finally got all the computer drama sorted.

so much great rap coming out these days. bad economy = good rap music, so it seems. not the case for that Soulja Boy/Lil B mixtape…so bad.

but this kid from Harlem, ASAP Rocky, is bringing it for real. crazy how his style changes up so much even within one verse. plus he’s got the best new producer behind him – Clams Casino.

peep this then search the interwebs for that LiveLoveASAP mixtape real quick.

ASAP Rocky – Bass (produced by Clams Casino)

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DJing at the world’s biggest skatepark on Saturday. my 14 year-old self would be like (!!!)

so i had to reformat the mac and my FTP is all fucked up, hence no updates lately. should be back tonight or tmmr, but peep this in the meantime.

MOONBEAM RIDER EP TICKLER by SLUGABED

i’m playing with Slugabed this Saturday at The Shelter. gonna warm up from 10 – 12 then getting crunk and listening to dude’s beats. come on down. Drunk Monk and Blaise also on support, gonna be a huge night.

update: ALL GOOD FAM. FileZilla FTW.

Somehow made it through that weekend. Desto and Drunk Monk killed it at Shelter on Friday. I stayed till the end and slept four hours, ran to the mall to host a DJ battle for Pioneer and met a bag of ten Big Mac’s and a cordial, elderly Japanese boss wearing a white suit. He was not feeling my public-speaking-on-no-sleep skills.  Unfortunately all but one of the scratch DJs sucked. One dude like drummed out the piano lines from Linkin Park “In the end,” super offbeat and not in a cool way. Painful.

The one dude with skills didn’t win – but he is gonna come through COME CORRECT on Wednesday @ Shelter to play a special set. DJ Casper, straight from the slums of Xiamen.

Rooftop party, also legend status. Big up to the Ice Cream Truck for having me play at 8PM and 12:30AM. And the lamb party at Rico Rico…god damn. Speaking of lambs, and this has been done before by some cats i know, but i wanna get like fifteen – twenty people together to throw down on a WHOLE lamb or sheep at a Xinjiang restaurant. It’s about RMB1200 but I reckon that could easily feed twenty of us. Holla if you’re interested.

And really pumped about this – SAMIYAM, from Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label, coming to Shelter on Thursday with the Beat Conductorz fam (Ceezy, Hamacide, and SIG). Dude also has releases on Hyperdub and lots of other top-tier labels. Glitchy as fuck, syrupy rap beats. Something like the music from this #ghettoasfuck bootleg nintendo that my friends and i found in an abandoned building last night. We fought a feral raccoon for this but felt bad when we found out it doesn’t work. Peep how the controllers are attached to the system. Also, it’s “100% Ninteno compatible” [sic] according to the box.

SAMIYAM – Return

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SAMIYAM – Roller Skates

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If you’re in Shanghai tonight, come down to Dada for a classic 80s horror/comedy flick – Fright Night. Free.

And I’ll be in Beijing this weekend. Big things coming in November so need to dip out of Shanghai for a minute. What’s good in Beijing? Holla.