A cinematic portrait of the controversial comic book writer/artist and his traumatized family.

A Portrait of Madness and Genius.

Robert Crumb drew Keep On Truckin’, Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in the genesis of underground comics.

Through interviews with his mother, two brothers, wife, and ex-girlfriends, as well as selections from his vast quantity of graphic art, we are treated to a darkly comic ride through one man’s subconscious mind.

As stream-of-consciousness images incessantly flow forth from the tip of his pen, biting social satire is revealed, often along with a disturbing and haunting vision of Crumb’s own betes noires and inadequacies.

We gain a little insight into this complex and highly creative individual.

Previous episodes of your favourite online tv section: The Long Play On A Lazy Day:

Before Music Dies
Big Fun in the Big Town
Bill Hicks - Sane Man
Good Copy Bad Copy
Our Latin Thing (Fania All-Stars)
Devil’s Playground
American Pimp
Wattstax
Marvin Gaye in Ostend - Ostend Transit
Blaxploitation Cinema - The Rise and Shine of…
Dark Days
80 Blocks From Tiffany’s
Children Underground
Style Wars
Born Into Brothels - Calcutta’s Red Light Kids
Sun Ra: Space Is The Place
Maestro
Quadrophenia
Grizzly Man
Fela Kuti Documentary
Louis Theroux in Saint-Quentin Prison

And more…

Tune in next Sunday for more!

‘Heavy Metal in Baghdad‘ tells the crazy story of the only heavy metal band in Iraq. VBS.tv (Vice’s television concept, right) followed the band over a period of three years.

In the late summer of 2006, filmmakers Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi traveled to Baghdad to meet and interview the only heavy metal band in Iraq, Acrassicauda.
The filmmakers have collected glimpses into the struggles of Acrassicauda as they try to stay together and stay alive.

Their struggle is the untold story of the hopes and dreams of an entire generation of young Iraqis.

Needless to say this looks like must-see material to me:

Right, click trought, tap through, as you wish:

Videos:

• Keating Economics
• The Hidden Cost of War
• Jay Electronica
  
• Tom Trago in the studio (Dutch)

It’s not a gadget:

• Wake me up, lick a shot

On-Point family going for the update:

• The Word Magazine New Site

Digging deeper into the question on exactly how big an influence Myspace is in today’s music industry and in what ways, my man Ricky - Üdio - asked me to participate in this thesis that he’s doing.

The title is “MySpace.com: A Contemporary Manifestation of Adorno’s Culture Industry?” 

It was essentially a meditation on Theodor Adorno’s critique of the culture industry and the way mass-culture can be actively and passively consumed by society, but I used MySpace as a framework for this

People involved include DJ Vadim, Domu and a range of undoubtedly highly interesting music afficionados, including yours truly, of course.
These are the questions, below you’ll find my thoughts and those of broken-beat maestro Domu.

1. Roughly how often do you use your MySpace account? Can you briefly describe your motivations for using the website?
2. How far do you think MySpace is able to influence your taste in music as well as change your listening habits?
3. Do you tend to purchase some of the music that you discover on MySpace?
4. Do you feel that music has become cheapened by MySpace?
5. To what extent do you think that MySpace has its own culture?
6. Do you think MySpace users are in control of their own taste and listening habits, or music industry marketing specialists?

This is arguably the most lengthy blog post you’ve ever seen on on-point, but it’s good thinking exercice.

You don’t necessarily have to read your way through the answers below, but do take some time out to share your experiences with ‘myspace versus music’. I’m sure Ricky will be very much appreciating that.

1. Roughly how often do you use your MySpace account and can you briefly describe your motivations for using the website?
   

   I check it everyday. Mostly I guess people hear of me and is a first port of call for many to get a look and listen at what I’ve done and am doing, like releases and gigs. From here hopefully they could redirect to my label website for more music and info.

   Myspace is fairly easy to maintain and is now considered an essential tool for independant and established musicians, although when I first started many years ago it was just for a laugh.

2. How far do you think MySpace is able to influence your taste in music as well as change your listening habits?
   

   It has turned me onto to people to sign to Treble O or if not start to follow their careers. I think it has given opportunity to many artists from remote places you may not have bumped into them in person or stumbled across their website. But I don’t actively search daily for anything particularly.

3. Do you tend to purchase some of the music that you discover on MySpace?
   

   Never.

4. Do you feel that music has become cheapened by MySpace?
   

   It is free to listen to and if people put things up at full quality, it can be easily bootlegged. But the cheapening of music stems from the ease of obtaining a PC and crack programs. Also the quality of dance and house music has dumbed down greatly over the last few years, wasting most of the effort of the late 90s and early 2000s.

5. To what extent do you think that MySpace. com has its own culture? To what extent do you think that MySpace has its own culture?
   

   Young people are fickle, so as long as it remains interesting to them they will check it out. It became very cool and normal to be “over” myspace a few years back, especially for the late 20s early 30s who found Facebook more interesting and interactive.

   For those of us with music and gigs to promote it is still very useful and worth updating, even for those fans or normal people for whom the novelty hasn’t yet worn out. It is a multi million dollar company and I am sure the brains behind it are continually conscious of keeping it interesting, with the addition of celebrity endorsement and video channels.

6. Do you think MySpace users are in control of their own taste and listening habits, or music industry marketing specialists?
   

   Yes if they are savvy to spamming and don’t accept all bands friendship requests out of contexts.

   If they want to find someone they can google them and they will find their required page very quickly and become updated and introduced to the artist almost instantly.

   I doubt many smart people are affected by the spamming and adverts, they would usually hear of someone in a mag, on the radio or TV then actively search for them, rather than being intruded upon and being pleasantly surprised to find they like it.

   That said, the recent addition of grouping to style can be helpful for networks to spread knowledge on artists known and unknown.

   I hope that is helpful

   Domu

1. Roughly how often do you use your MySpace account and can you briefly describe your motivations for using the website?
   

   One of the first things I do in the morning is firing up the computer and check my myspace. First is the email, second is myspace, so it’s quite important to me yes. I use myspace really in a portfolio type of way, for on-point tv, for my artwork and for the articles I write.

   I also keep contact with a couple of people through myspace, although after a while I tend to take that to email, which I trust a little bit more (I don’t want to loose all contacts if ever myspace would crash).

2. How far do you think MySpace is able to influence your taste in music as well as change your listening habits?
   

   Being a dj I’m a regular visitor of the oldschool records stores (not as much lately though), myspace did change my listening habits though, as a dj and as a journalist, since it allows me to discover new artists, new tracks, remixes, exclusives, sneak preview snippets, etc. etc.

   Especially with the recent myspace update that shows when people have added new songs or pics, I’m keeping track of quite a lot of artists, I think that’s one of the biggest features to myspace, discovering new names

   Plus, on myspace, artists are easy to contact directly, no manager interfering, straight to the artist, that’s changed a lot in the world of music journalism, I’m guessing…

   Also, artists now get instant feedback on their work, which must have an influence on their way of working. (maybe more for older artists who’ve known the business before myspace, for the new generation they’re used to sharing and getting kudos or critique over them)

3. Do you tend to purchase some of the music that you discover on MySpace?
   

   I do purchase a lot of music, but I’m still oldfashioned at it. Being a vinyladdict, I wouldn’t purchase any music online on itunes, imeem, myspace or anything, I need to touch the product, but I think most people don’t feel that need as much as I do, dunno…

4. Do you feel that music has become cheapened by MySpace?
   

   It depends on how you look at it. Back in the days you had Soundclick.com, where people could upload their music as well, there was a lot of crap on it, as we see on myspace nowadays too, because anybody thinks he’s a producer nowadays.

   I think the music making software has cheapened music more than sites like myspace.

5. To what extent do you think that MySpace has its own culture? To what extent do you think that MySpace has its own culture?
   

   Myspace has its own culture, most definitely. And I think that also explains the success of Facebook, who is more appealing to a different public, that is often less active in the cultural fields, I’d say. A lot of friends of mine aren’t big fans of myspace but love facebook, because on myspace you need to make yourself stand out more and they kind of like how on facebook all profiles look the same (more or less).

   On myspace, more than on other networks you have the whole ‘thanks for the add’ thing, which is funny, a bit useless, but it was usefull before, when you couldn’t know if somebody accepted your friend request or not, now with the updates you can see your ‘new friends’, so it’s more a formality now, a lot of people still thank others for adding them

   Then there’s the kudos you can give on blog posts, I had never heard of the word kudos before, but I do give a lot of kudos to people nowadays, it’s just an appreciation thing, which is always cool to do. Although a good old Facebook poke is brilliant in its own right as well.

   You also have the myspace bulletins. A while ago I noticed some friends of mine using bulletins as some sort of status updates, posting ten bulletins a day, how they felt that day, where they were going and if somebody would join them, bulletins about a film or artist they’d just discovered, etc. etc.

   That has been replaced by the status updates on facebook, and services like twitter, I guess.

   Right now bulletins are used mostly for promo uses, I do check them out every day, like I do with my rss reader. Matter of fact, I also plugged a lot of myspace blogs in my rss reader, which is handy. (the rss icon should be indicated more properly on the blog sections on myspace, it’s not very well known there actually is rss on myspace)

6. Do you think MySpace users are in control of their own taste and listening habits, or music industry marketing specialists?
   

   I’d say a lot of peoples tastes are in hands of the industry yes. However, I do see a big part of the myspace community are people with strong tastes, but maybe that’s just my friends

   It’s still fascinating to see how on myspace people who have a relatively mainstream taste in general, plug some unknown underground artist’s music in the music player on their profile.

   That does illustrate the music travels throughout myspace and people are open to that, whether it comes from marketing folks or from the artists themselves.

   Some people on myspace change their music player song every week, which is a way for them to profile themselves as active listeners, I guess. Although they might not actually be paying for music, they show love and support to the artists like that…

Ow, how I’d love to install the On-Point HeadQuarters in one of these: the abandoned and terribly mistreated ‘UFO houses’ of Sanjhih, Taiwan:

I love how the series ends with a view from outer space, straight out of Google Maps, brilliant.

No worries though, get with it:

Music:

• Video: What is FatBeats?
• Video: Beatbox to MIDI
  (control mpc w/ your mouth)

Anticipated movie of the season:

• Synecdoche, New York - Trailer

Reflection:

• Going to the Googles
• A Guide to Choosing Colors for Your Brand
• Mexico City Emos

After Jazz Neversleeps and NuJazzSpirit it’s my turn to put you onto some music, it’s new nor exclusive but still unknown to a lot of people: HayZee’s 8-bit sound:

Lloyd Pointdexter presents: Hayzee:

Listen to Fall In Love (8 bit remix)
(used with the permission of the artist)

It was FS Green who first put me onto Hayzee’s sound, I remember hearing this 8-bit version of Slum Village’s classic Fall In Love at Nalden’s site launch party in Bitterzoet, Amsterdam.

Shortly after that, FS informed me it was his partner-in-crime who was responsible for that banging sound and how there was more to be expected from this young Amsterdam producer in the months to follow.

Now those months have passed and we’ve seen Hayzee teaming up with Nalden to release the ‘Next Level’ ep, up for free downloading pleasure.

One could write an essay about this sound and how you’ll probably love it or hate it, but the video to ‘Press Start’ gives you a proper idea of the vibe.

Deluge/PunchDouble on the character design, Bob Mayata & Boy Wonder on the editing: watch it:

Hayzee was recently signed to Appletree Records, read more about that, right here.

Previous Mid-week’s Music episodes:

Mayer Hawthorne
Miles Bonny

As crazy as it sounded to me, I was quite fascinated by the videos that were already online at the time.

So I figured I should… shine my light on this ‘rolly’ thing:

The Rolly is a pretty neat gadget though.

Basically what you do is plug it to your pc with a usb cable, transfer some mp3s, and either start making a choreography to the song, or let the program generate automatic movements.

Personally I’m not the biggest fan of this type of gadgets, as the speakers are quite small, I’m lacking bass, and the moving wings cause some natural flanging effects. Which is funny at times, but not always.

(You can play music without the movements though, of course)

I would have added a stereo output, or some way to plug it into a bigger soundsystem, so that it could function as a simple carrier as well.

But then again, who am I, right? On the gadget level, the Rolly seems to be ace.

In the above video you’ll see the Rolly dance to HayZee’s Spacedoll, in an automaticly generated dance. The Spacedoll track is a free download as it is part of HayZee’s ‘Next Level’ ep, up for grabs at Nalden.net.

More info on HayZee in the post to follow, yes indeed.

Ow, and have a look at the Rolly going all out to the sound of a horse (amongst other soundscapes) in this uncut demonstration, it’s pretty impressive to see, seriously:

Shout-out to Mark at Immediate Future and to HayZee!

There’s a story to tell here, but let’s get into that in the near future, expect more about Marc Moulin over here, in text and video.

But mostly: who wrote this?

I’m guessing fans of The Fast Show will highly enjoy this.

(via)

The documentary is a actually on the dvd that comes with the Rack Gaki book, which showcases Japan’s graffiti culture - as you may have guessed already.

Anyhow, love the vibe:

(via Gunter)

Previous episodes of your favourite online tv section: The Long Play On A Lazy Day:

Before Music Dies
Big Fun in the Big Town
Bill Hicks - Sane Man
Good Copy Bad Copy
Our Latin Thing (Fania All-Stars)
Devil’s Playground
American Pimp
Wattstax
Marvin Gaye in Ostend - Ostend Transit
Blaxploitation Cinema - The Rise and Shine of…
Dark Days
80 Blocks From Tiffany’s
Children Underground
Style Wars
Born Into Brothels - Calcutta’s Red Light Kids
Sun Ra: Space Is The Place
Maestro
Quadrophenia
Grizzly Man
Fela Kuti Documentary
Louis Theroux in Saint-Quentin Prison

And more…

Tune in next Sunday for more!

]]> http://www.on-point.be/?feed=rss2&p=1115 http://www.on-point.be/?p=1115 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/on-point/~3/403701539/ http://www.on-point.be/?p=1116#comments Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:46:18 +0000 lloyd@on-point.be (on-point.be) the latest Links http://www.on-point.be/?p=1116 The internet died on me this week. Must be the autumn blues…

Anyhow, here is some interestingness to end the week with:

Video:

• The Future of Music Journalism - Part One
• The Future of Music Journalism - Part Two
• Letterman rips McCain

A Little Designthought:

• Rounded Corners

Music:

• video: Flying Lotus - Parisian Goldfish
• videos: Blackstar - skits
• download: Common - Like Water For Chocolate - Originals

I had hoped this would allow me to speed up the editing process, unfortunately with this first episode, I quickly found myself running from the headquarters to the NoNewEnemies hide-out and the A.L.I.C.E. vaults. On the run for exclusiveness.

Will Barras and Mr.Jago were in town almost a year ago, installing a series of work at Mr.Ego’s. I had the chance to meet with the guys over a couple of beers for several days in a row.

Sundaymorning I caught Will on the phone, too tired to give an interview. A cup of coffee can do wonders, I argued. And with that, the vibe was all set for a nice chat.

The music in the video is provided by Brussels’ finest LuiGi of InfinitSkills fame. (except for the second tune)

Mr.Jago’s ‘Cloud Talk‘ exhibit is currently running at StolenSpace, London. Be quick, the exhibit runs until Sunday 28th of September.

Will Barras’ work is to be found at The Don Gallery, Milan, together with the work of Jeremy Fish in the ‘Pants vs Trousers‘ exhibit.

‘2nd Hand Smoke‘ - NoNewEnemies - Brussels, Belgium (2007):

‘In the vicinity of a location‘ - A.L.I.C.E. Gallery, Brussels, Belgium (2005):

Thanks: Will, Duncan, Harlan, Raph, Alice, Jazz, LuiGi.

Still, I’ve highly enjoyed watching ‘B4MD: Before Music Dies‘, for it’s a proper documentary, with a genuine story to tell, and the DIY aesthetic shines through. The intro might be a bit to American though, but then again, American music culture is what the movie is all about.

A critical look at the homogenization of popular music with commentary by some of the industry’s biggest talents like The Roots’ ?uestlove, Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews, Elvis Costello, Erykah Badu, Branford Marsalis, Bonnie Raitt and more.

Inspired by the death of his brother, director Andrew Shapter and his crew traveled thousands of miles, visiting dozens of cities, speaking with hundreds of fans, journalists, record executives and musicians while searching for “real” American music.

What they found were mega-talents without a major label, including one artist Eric Clapton believes is “the real thing.”

Previous episodes of your favourite online tv section: The Long Play On A Lazy Day:

Big Fun in the Big Town
Bill Hicks - Sane Man
Good Copy Bad Copy
Our Latin Thing (Fania All-Stars)
Devil’s Playground
American Pimp
Wattstax
Marvin Gaye in Ostend - Ostend Transit
Blaxploitation Cinema - The Rise and Shine of…
Dark Days
80 Blocks From Tiffany’s
Children Underground
Style Wars
Born Into Brothels - Calcutta’s Red Light Kids
Sun Ra: Space Is The Place
Maestro
Quadrophenia
Grizzly Man
Fela Kuti Documentary
Louis Theroux in Saint-Quentin Prison

And more…

Tune in next Sunday for more!

Earlier this week you may have found the fifth issue of The Word magazine in your mailbox.

This being ‘the delictable food issue’ I was asked to contribute an article focussing on Brussels’ mobile fish selling men.

Not used to writing an article with such a casual ‘human interest’ approach, the writing process caused me several headaches and sleepless night, but after all of that, we pulled it off.

One learning experience this was though.

Doing an interview with an artist who has a dozen of promo stories prepared in the back of his head, is one thing, trying to touch the soul of men who get up at the break of dawn to go and cruise through the capitol selling fish in their van, only to come back home fourteen-fifteen hours later…

That’s a different story all together.

Anyway, enjoy: Mister Fisherman.

Previous articles in The Word:

Prison Break.
Lefto, the Early Bird.

Popular misunderstanding:

As of January 2009 The Word will no longer be sent to your mailbox for free.

However this doesn’t mean the magazine won’t be free anymore, you’ll just have to get your copy at the local distribution points, some of which you’ll find below.

By getting the $18/year subscription, you will get the magazine delivered to your doorstep. And you’ll get a limited edition USB issue. Which will feature on-point content which will make you go weak in the knees.

An Incomplete List of Distribution Points:

Antwerp:

Chagalystore - Lombardevest
Fish&Chips - Kammestraat
IMS - Melkmarkt
Copyright - Nationalestraat
Zurich - Vlaamse Kaai
Farine - Vlaamse Kaai
Bouffe Bollinger (stadschouwburg)
Horta (stadschouwburg)
Princess Blue
Revista Volksstraat
Fotomuseum Waalsekaai

Ghent:

Vooruit
Pain Perdu
Limits
Hoet Bekaert Gallery - Rodelijveken 28
S.M.A.K.
S.M.A.K. Café
Greenway
Illyshop
Design Museum
Vintage
Café Theatre , Schouwburgstraat
De client
Bar des amis

Brussels:

A.L.I.C.E. Gallery
Mama Roma (Flagey - Chatelain and Jourdan)
Cook and book
The Coffee club
The Coffee Company/Itsup
Pain Quotidien
Berts

Bruges:

Lumière Cinema

Music:

• Cleo - Look at Me
• Questlove’s Digital Digging
• Mr. Scruff - Music Takes Me Up

Videos:

• Deathbowl to Downtown - Trailer

Article:

• Bring back Babar

Brother vic being a quintessential part of this 12-piece counting dj orchestra, he sent me some exclusive laptop photos from the rehearsing process of the last months.

Catch the bigband getting their groove on together with Erwin Vann on the saxophone and Monique Harcum on the vocals.

Live Dates:

Sept. 19th - Kortrijk, Belgium - Schouwburg.
Sept. 26th - Rotterdam, the Netherlands - Jazz International.
Nov. 19th - Brussels, Belgium - KVS.
Dec. 6th - Agen, France - Florida.
Feb. 5th - Ghent, Belgium - Vooruit.
Feb. 28th - Brest, France - La Carene.

Not only is the ep released on Billy’s own record label, together with Gusto Producto he is also the main man behind the boards.

The reason I’m this excited about this release, is that I’ve been following it from the first steps. From begging Billy to share the first demo version (which you’ve heard on the infamous ‘Pick You Up At Midi‘ podcast), to discussing on whether or not to go vinyl/cd in today’s music business, having remixes or not, having cover artwork or not, etc. etc.

Many beers were involved in these late-night brainstorming sessions, agreeing, disagreeing… Me, mostly working Billy on his nerves. But Bill put his foot to the ground and did the do to make this happen. Seriously, it takes some balls to release music today, especially on vinyl, going internationally, basically competing with… the world.

And I’ll be damned if the Babyspace E.P. didn’t result into one banging release.

Featuring remixes by Cris Prolific, Georgia-Ann Muldrow and Mitsu The Beats, I personally still think the killer track here is the bonustitle ‘City at night’. Of which you’ll see a moodpiece video on on-point tv very soon.

Stay tuned for that.

Find the Babyspace E.P. just one click away, on i-Tunes, order it through RushHour, or find it in your local record store any time soon.

Meanwhile the U.K. seems to be digging MadeInJapan, Babyspace is in heavy rotation on BBC’s Deviation (Benji B) and on Simon Harrison’s Basic Soul Radio. That’s simply brilliant.

NujazzSpirit presents: Miles Bonny:

Listen to “Yes I do”
(Used with permission from the artist)

For a full indepth interview with mr. Bonny check out the exquisite NuJazzSpirit feature (Parts 1 and 2). For an introduction on the man and his music, enjoy a couple of excerpts:

“When my group - SoundsGood - which I produced, stopped creating, I began to sing over my beats. In 2006 I released a solo demo called ‘Smell Smoke?’ which was noticed by DJ Day in California who sent it to Melting Pot, his label. The contacted me and now things are moving forward.”

“Recently, I’ve realized how great of an impact growing up in New York with a father who was a professional musician has helped shape my relationship with music. My dad played and continues to play trumpet on Broadway. I grew up attending rehearsals for jazz, latin, symphony, church events, and musicals with him. I attended riverside church in NY which has a huge organ.

All of these sounds continue to influence my appeciation of honest, authentic music.

I never started making music for the girls/money/fame that it seems many others do it for, I’m interested in AuthentiCity and the potential of music. I make music for two main reasons at this point in time:
- To better the lives of others.
- For my own entertainment and health. If I didnt create, I’d probably go crazy.”

Check the whole interview on NuJazzSpirit: Parts one and two.

Miles Bonny (born November 7, 1980) is a record producer, soul singer, jazz trumpeter, and DJ, currently residing in Kansas City, Missouri (USA).

His first LP “Closer Love” featuring “Yes I do” received radio support by Gilles Peterson and Michael Ruetten (Compost/Soulpatrol).

It seems like I haven’t been all that clear about it, but these posts will mostly be written by a team of guest writers carefully selected and invited to join the extended on-point family.

Not to say yours truly won’t join in from time to time, but basically I’ll have to bow down to the team because they’re way heavier when it comes to unearthing today’s musical gems.

Last week, JazzNeversleeps brought to you Mayer Hawthorne.
This week, NuJazzSpirit (Paris) is stepping in.

It’s been a while since I’ve discovered NuJazzSpirit (through this amazing post). The blog is in French, so it might not be appealing to all of you, but still it’s worth your attention for it is a dive into a vault of music gems, presented in words and videos.

Genrewise covering everything ranging from jazz over soul to funk and even some disco, it is ranked high in my blogs-to-read list.

Still catching up on some articles I left unread in the rss reader, meanwhile, here’s mostly music for you and yours to vibe along to:

Music:

• Q-Tip - Gettin’ Up
• Erykah Badu on Okayplayer tv
• Theo Parrish, Skymark, Om’mas Keith practising in the studio
• Pharell on his knees for DJ Premier
• Prince, Michael Jackson and Prince - live on stage

Random Video:

• The Turtleman

Updated On-Point Family Site:

• Laid-back.be revamped

Jazz Neversleeps:

I’ve played it over and over again and it’s just a beautiful song really. Timeless soul music.”

Jazz Neversleeps presents: Mayer Hawthorne:

Listen to “When I said goodbye”
(Used with permission from the artist)

Mayer Hawthorne, otherwise known as Haircut (of Athletic Mic League) is a 28 year old Los Angeles based producer, vocalist and dj. On the move from the Detroit area to LA, he bumped into the guys from the Stones Throw record label at the infamous Do-Over club.

Noelle Scaggs (The Rebirth) introduced him to label boss Peanut Butter Wolf who was happy to receive a demo tape with a couple of Mayer Hawthorne tracks.

Three months of silence followed. Until Wolf got back to Haircut, convincing him he wanted to release a complete Mayer Hawthorne album on Stones Throw. There were no plans at all to record an album when he made the demo tape, but from then on, shit was real!

To this day, Haircut is recording songs…
Haircut plays most of the instruments on the album, as well as singing all the doo-wop vocal parts himself (which was apparently immense fun to do). Thank you, Wolf! I’m putting the album right next to my Gil Scott-Heron and Al Green records.

The “When I said goodbye / Just ain’t gonna work out” single on Stones Throw should be on the shelves in the very near future, while the full album won’t see daylight until mid 2009. That’ll be just in time for a release party on me and my girls wedding, Mayer!

Trivia time: the Mayer Hawthorne logo for the debut single was designed by Hermon Weems, a legendary Detroit drummer and painter who created the Funkadelic logo!

Links:
myspace.com/mayerhawthorne
myspace.com/haircut
myspace.com/aml

Presenting: Mid-week’s Music Discovery, every Wednesday from now on focussing on the musical discovery of the week, presented by a team of killer guest bloggers.

The team will consist of three guest writers, all well renowned for unearthing musical diamonds. The next weeks I’ll introduce you to the team, starting with…

Jazz Neversleeps (Brussels, Belgium)

Soon to be unleashing ineversleep.net to the world, my man jazz has been a thorough support to numerous on-point tv classics (Martha Cooper, José James, Flying Lotus, Sozyone a.o.), and above all has been a musical guide for years now.

The first to have put me on to the sounds of Flying Lotus, José James, Christian Prommer, Ben Westbeech, Soil&Pimp Sessions, Trus’me, Dorian Concept, etc. Needless to say mr. Neversleeps goes all the way down to the roots of the on-point family tree.

A nostalgic mind genuinely passionate about all things beats, console games, sneakers and pez candy.

Built on a solid knowledge of the classics that are, his eyes on the future classics to be, there’s no doubt about the goodness he’ll bless us with.

Jazz Neversleeps’ first Mid-Week’s Music coming up… right after this post.

E-ink cover? Don’t ask, look:

Is this the future of print? Unlikely if you ask me, but I’d love to get my hands on one of the 100.000 e-covers printed up.

Then again, batteries only run for 90 days, so in the end it’s just an add to the mountain of e-waste we’ve produced already, right?

Clearly, this new technology raises quite a bunch of issues, the main questions:

“Will it be just another electronic gadget, leading to new cycles of consumerism and waste?”

“Or will it end the processing of trees into short-lived periodicals?”

More insight on the e-ink topic is properly presented by the exquisite Treehugger crew.

]]> http://www.on-point.be/?feed=rss2&p=1102 http://www.on-point.be/?p=1102 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/on-point/~3/386110251/ http://www.on-point.be/?p=1101#comments Sun, 07 Sep 2008 22:25:20 +0000 lloyd@on-point.be (on-point.be) the latest Video http://www.on-point.be/?p=1101 Now here’s a documentary I would have loved making: Up On the Roof, a portrait of Brooklyn’s pigeon keepers: urban wildlife, right on.

Click the image for the trailer:

Up on the Roof follows several devoted pigeon breeders in one predominantly Latino section of Brooklyn through the rigors and rewards of a quintessential New York tradition.

All along the waterfront, and throughout blue collar Brooklyn, pigeon fancying has been an active pastime for centuries, handed down from one group of residents to the next, and Williamsburg has long been the center of the action.

But as with so many once blighted and now hip districts throughout the world, Brooklyn and Williamsburg in particular is being scrubbed of its old world character to make way for a new urbanism.

This colorful, urban-wildlife doc considers what we lose in the process of urban renewal and treats the audience like an insider in an unseen and in many ways vanishing world.

(thanks Bart R. for the link!)

Marcel Van Thilt will for ever be a hero for having made Big Fun in the Big Town.

Director Bram van Splunteren went on to make a documentary about Ice T, while Marcel made a short move overseas to work for MTV and is now a mainstream television personality in Flanders…

(thanks Falk!)

Previous episodes of your favourite online tv section: The Long Play On A Lazy Day:

Bill Hicks - Sane Man
Good Copy Bad Copy
Our Latin Thing (Fania All-Stars)
Devil’s Playground
American Pimp
Wattstax
Marvin Gaye in Ostend - Ostend Transit
Blaxploitation Cinema - The Rise and Shine of…
Dark Days
80 Blocks From Tiffany’s
Children Underground
Style Wars
Born Into Brothels - Calcutta’s Red Light Kids
Sun Ra: Space Is The Place
Maestro
Quadrophenia
Grizzly Man
Fela Kuti Documentary
Louis Theroux in Saint-Quentin Prison

And more…

Tune in next Sunday for more!

]]> http://www.on-point.be/?feed=rss2&p=1099 http://www.on-point.be/?p=1099 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/on-point/~3/383931417/ http://www.on-point.be/?p=1091#comments Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:36:26 +0000 lloyd@on-point.be (on-point.be) the latest Interviews Music http://www.on-point.be/?p=1091 Mad Mats. To a lot of you the name might not ring a bell, but please do trust me when I’m saying the man’s one heavy dj/label boss.

Over three years ago I had the honour to sit down the Mats for a long talk on his work as a dj and the success of his Raw Fusion label (at the time I was asked not to refer to G.A.M.M. in any way… now, I didn’t say anything…)

Anyway, Mad Mats is back in Belgium: tomorrow, at Spectakulo in Halle (big up OndaSonora family).

For those who’ll have to miss out, Mats is spinning Brussels’ finest Strictly Niceness December 13th.

Now, back to the topic. Mats was in Le Tavernier, Brussels, three years ago. Put on my freshest t-shirt on, got vic a photo camera, pulled out the list of questions and, well, got some answers. But not before the t-shirt got noticed though…

Mad Mats: Hey man, I have the same t-shirt!
Lloyd: Cool, thanks, but I don’t think so though…
Mad Mats: Seriously, with the mullet … the love handlebars…
Lloyd: Yeah, I know, but this one is quite local. Unless you’ve been to Roeselare, shopping for Cunt shirts, I don’t think…
Mad Mats: Roeselare? Nah, I do have a similar design, it’s dope!
Lloyd: Thanks. Plus, it’s printed in one really, really thick layer, one solid mullet this is!

True story. Anyway, the interview was nice, but I never managed to sell it to any magazine or site, it gathered digital dust in my personal archives. Only to be reveiled for this very special occasion.

Read along:

With recognition in charts and clubs around the world, Swedish label Raw Fusion seems to have writing quite a successful story. Started in 1996 as the Fusion club down at the Stureplan club area of Stockholm, Raw Fusion is celebrating it’s ninth anniversary in October (2005). More than a decade of Sweden getting down to the grooves of Raw Fusion big man Mad Mats.

MadMats: The club was successful from the first night. But after a while it became just too big, so the wrong people started showing up; trendy people started coming, which is not good, you know. So we sort of drained the club and took the decision to move to another venue and to take it more underground. From then on we called it not just Fusion, Raw Fusion was born.

About that time I started thinking about starting a label. I was already helping people with a&r. But I wanted to start my own label. So in 2002 we had our first release on Raw Fusion (A Bossa Eletrica). And in 2003 we started a sub-label, Jugglin’ which is more hip hop and soul orientated, rather than club-orientated.

Touring around the world isn’t it hard to combine your own DJ-career with the responsibility of running a club and label?

MM: When we started the club we were three. The other two quit but now I run it together with another guy, Jasper. He and I run the club, once a month, the last Saturday that is. So it doesn’t take that much time. I have children as well, so I don’t have much time left (laughs).

Talking about time left, let’s go back to the very essence. What is it that makes Raw Fusion sound so distinctively fresh?

MM: I think European labels usually sound very European. When you listen to Compost Records, you can hear it’s European. While as Raw Fusion doesn’t sound like that. I’m an old b-boy. Freddie (Cruger, a.k.a. Red Astaire) is an old b-boy too. Hip hop is really big in Stockholm and we’re all children of the crate digging generation, you know. Even when we come up with a jazz-thing, the b-boy aesthetic shines through.

Is Raw Fusion as big in Stockholm as it is in New York?

MM: In Stockholm we’re quite big. Everybody knows about us. At one time, though, we were considered ‘the jazzy club’. Even though we played hip hop, funk and drum ‘n’ bass we still got labelled ‘a nu-jazz club’. For some reason, nu-jazz became very untrendy in Sweden and we got pulled down by that. Now it’s getting better. Much because of the Jugglin’ label people started realising that we’re into hip hop too. Even if we play house it’ll still be very b-boyish.

You can see it in our artwork even! Our designer is an old b-boy/skater. I remember when I started the label I told him: “I don’t want it to look clean or Scandinavian. I want it to look dirty and funky, just like hip hop, you know.” Scandinavian music is usually very clean and polished, I didn’t want that.

As a label boss, are you patiently waiting for the postman to drop the next obscure cd-r big tune in the letterbox? Or will you go out, scooping new talent?

MM: We hardly ever signed anything that comes from the demo’s we got sent. 99,5% of them is really bad. I’m often surprised by how many bad demo’s we get sent. I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing but we get the sort of people that send for example a cd with a note that says: “I love your label, I have every single record you’ve released. I’ve done this track and you’ll probably like it. Check it out” Then you listen to it and it’s the most boring lounge-music you’ve ever heard… Therefore most of the releases comes from friends of mine or people we ask to do something for us.

There’s a lot of talking before the release. I sit down with the artist and we’ll talk it over. “No, you have to change the snare-drum, it won’t work like this”. I can talk to people like that and they’ll listen because in Sweden I have some authority. I’ve been DJ’ing since ’85 so I can give advice on how drums should sound or where a breakdown might work. It’s different with DJ’s or producers from abroad. They’re a bit stronger on their own point. Which I respect as well.

Sounds like your inner-producer is yearning to come out.

MM: No, I’m not producing. I’m just helping out, giving tips, you know. I’m a DJ by heart, I’ve been spinning for quite a time now, so I know what will work in the club. A lot of these guys are producers but might not be DJ’ing. Although I must admit sometimes I’m wrong (laughs).

Seriously?

MM: Yeah, I’ve been wrong many times. I won’t tell you when though (laughs). I’m the one that takes the tracks to the mastering studio. There are a few exceptions but usually it’s me mastering and some has been done really bad, I take that on me. Some has been really good too but …

Doesn’t the artist get pissed off when the mastering isn’t as on-point as it should be?

MM: The artist is usually very cool with it, it’s just me who isn’t happy with it. It’s a tricky thing to do. When you go to a mastering studio in Sweden, nine out of ten times the engineer is a rock ’n’ roll guy. Rock ‘n’ roll guys don’t understand how to get that raw sound. They always want to clean it up but I want it to sound dirty (laughs).

Not many know it but you’re a former Swedish b-boy champion, right?

MM: In 1986. But back then, if you could do a backspin, you were a champion (laughs). Up until 1989 me and a guy called Patrick had a group called Throw Down. In ’88 I was already DJ’ing at Swedish hip hop jams. I played everything from Kool and the Gang to electro and Public Enemy. I was digging for breaks quite early, because I was also making hip hop in the early nineties.

There’s your inner-producer coming out!

MM: Well, we had one group called Boogaloo, which was actually released on GAMM Records. But that was an old track, it was released in 1995. Later on I was in a group called ‘Three Pieces of a Puzzle’. We even had a radio hit in Sweden, it wasn’t really good though (laughs).

You’ve been DJ’ing across Europe, crossed the Atlantic and even did a small tour in Japan. Do you still have dreams to fulfil as a disc-jockey?

MM: No, no, no. I’m still not an artist. I’m just a guy running a good label, that’s it. Ordinary people care about artists, they don’t care about the label. Only the heads care about the label.

Bottom-line: you’re big with the nerds!

MM: Yeah the nerds dig me (laughs)!

That’s not to say, Mats stands for one solid party, proof of evidence? Well, here’s what caught vic’s eye last time Mats was here: