Archive for February, 2008

Music on my Mind 02.25.08

February 25th, 2008 by Daron

J Dilla, check out his discography and check out the compression on these beats. It makes my head feel funny. two can win

Around 5 or 6 years ago someone gave me a copy of a mix CD by Freddy Fresh called Still The Joint. It’s FF mixing only Sugar Hill records. I still play it, I still enjoy it. Here’s part 1 of 7. 1 still the joint

Bad Brains Live @ CBGB 1979. Watch H.R (the singer) duck a flying object at .17 without missing a beat.

Hello Goodbye

February 25th, 2008 by Daron

As is apparent, we’ve worked on a lot of the Target Advertising Music.  Mostly it been through Peterson Milla Hooks (aka PMH) , who are great and super talented.  Dave Peterson (their creative director) is by far one of the most talented people in this industry.

Bryan Hanna and I collaborated on the first version Hello Goodbye (the one with Sophia Shorai singing).  The second we finished the demo we knew we had done something  special.  There is a sincerity about the track thats hard to create or even plan for, and I can’t say enough good things about Sophia.  She is a great talent.  Here’s the 60. hello_goodbye_60.mp3

So, on to what’s happening now. Bryan just finished another Hello Goodbye for Target Home.  It’s super cool.  I cant publish it because it hasn’t aired yet. Super double extra top secret stuff.  I can say that its kind of Dexys Midnight baroque guitar pop with Allen Clapp from The Orange Peels singing.

Regionalism – Hip Hop Flavors

February 24th, 2008 by Daron

I read an article somewhere a couple of weeks ago that said hip hop was shifting from national acts with massive sales to more regional flavors. I did some investigating of various regions and stumble across B-More, a style of clubby/party hip hop out of Baltimore. It’s great. It sounds kinda like Detroit “booty”, “ghetto house” and old school hip hop mixed together. Mid tempo club bpm 120/130, 808’s and dirty lyrics. Like this…. shake it to the ground

I’ll write more on regionalism later. I have much more to add.

Ardennes

February 20th, 2008 by Daron

My brand new Hed Ardennes came in the mail today. I’m super excited. I have spring fever so bad I am about to lose my mind, and getting new bike wheels doesn’t help !

Its -1 degree right now at 10 pm in Minneapolis. This morning on my commute to work I rode past the TCF tower and it read -9 degrees. I was cold. I’ve bicycle commuted for 3 years now and I can safely say I’ve never been as cold as I’ve been over the last couple of weeks. Last thursday while coming home the wind was blowing really hard, the wind chill was insane and my head felt like it was going to split open. It was like a giant brain freeze that wouldn’t go away. I was told it was because my sinus’ were freezing. ….good times.

Speaking of Brain Freeze here’s todays musical offering. A collaboration between DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist live mixing 45 records. Brain Freeze

Ok, I just did a you tube search for DJ Shadow and came up with this one.

Music on my Mind 02.19.08

February 19th, 2008 by Daron

Three music things I’ve really been into lately.

1) podcasts. Specifically the WGBH Classical Performance Podcast. Its live from the studio and really great. My other fav is the Official Streetlife DJs Podcast. These guys are amazing!

2) Electro House Music. especially this track Better World Part 1 Thomas Gold Remix
I love the crazy sped up sincere vocal.

3) Henry and I watched this six times the other night. He’s 5, I’m not.

What a Weekend

February 19th, 2008 by Daron

Friday, Barth Ward (producer extraordinaire) and I went to the Hed Cycling Event atOne on One bicycle studios. We had a really good time, met some new people from Hed and Litespeed and some nutty dude who collects Italian Racing bikes from the early 20th century, drank some beer and looked at vintage bikes with wicked carbon aero wheels. (soon I’ll get used to this blogging thing and I’ll take pics while I’m there). The Litespeed guy told me their newest thing is making the titanium frame for the next Mars rover. I asked Mr Litespeed (can’t remember his name) how they came to make the connection with NASA, he said that the engineers were bike geeks and were well aware of Litespeeds expertise with titanium, and instead of NASA replicating their design, they just gave them the contract. Cool stuff.

Saturday, I Dj’d my god daughters (Sadie and Lena) 14 th birthday party. I’ve Dj’d for many years now and have had few gigs where I’ve had no idea what to play… but this was one of them. I had no clue what 14 year olds listen to, so I asked them to give me a list of what they like. I played for 3 1/2 hrs. The girls and there friends are so much cooler than I was at 14. They danced the whole time … boys and girls.

Sunday (thanks to JMatt), we had the second annual rock-n-roll dad and sons snow tubing day at “green acres“. We all had a fantastic time. What a great bunch of kids. Snow/Snacks and tow ropes, what a good way to spend a Sunday in February at 45 degrees latitude. My son Henry was beside himself, he had so much fun. He wants to go every weekend now.

I took Monday off.