Music

Juiceboxxx Talks Nu American, Huffington Post and Business As Usual

 

 

I saw Milwaukee Rapper Juiceboxxx perform last year as an opener for Jeff the Brotherhood. He was wearing a denim jacket, and walked this line between Kid Rock and James Chance in terms of a rap-metal presentation that was somewhat grotesque but obviously literate in the cooler aspects of proto-punk rock and good Hip Hop. Almost in a manner that you either want to tell him to go take a piss, or go be his friend because you know you can completely relate to him.

 

At his merch table Juiceboxxx was selling his own energy drink called “Thunderzone.” I thought the idea of selling DIY energy drink next to 7inches and other merch was a clever artistic statement in some capacity. Energy drinks sponsor so many things in music that it was almost saying, ‘if energy drinks drive an underground economy; why not make your own.’

An Open Letter to Tom a Columbus Guitarist

 

 

Dear Tom:*

   I am writing you this letter on behalf of not just myself, but on behalf of several present and former bandmates and the many people within the local music scene who like and respect you. After a good deal of hint dropping and argumentative banter, we have determined that this letter is the only remaining vehicle by which we can communicate our concerns about a serious problem: to wit, your continued use of the Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal. 

   Initially, we all think you are a damn fine Guitar Player. Sometimes we actually go out to see a band you are playing in just to see you play guitar. Put aside the false modesty and accept this as truth – knowledgeable individuals actually will take an evening of their life and cough up $5.00 just to see you play guitar. Let that sink in.  OK, now hopefully you are ready for more truth…..

GRRRL’s Rock Columbus to hold benefit Friday

I met with two of the organizers of GRRRL’s Rock Columbus Music & Creative Arts Camp Mickey Mocnik and Marlena Bowen last week to learn about this amazing opportunity for Central Ohio girls. Mocnik spoke on the values of the GRRRL’s Rock Camp, “Building confidence in girls and musical expression. Giving them a space to take creative risks. Fostering an environment where what we do is more important than how we look. Supporting each other. Working together. Instilling values that I don’t think we get growing up as girls.” Mocnik’s band Nervosas just toured America successfully and has received adulation from DIY mainstay publication Maximum Rock N Roll. Mocnik is the product of an Athen’s Rock Camp which wasn’t a GRRRL’s Rock camp but still an example of what happens when there are outlets for people to assert themselves available. GRRRL’s Rock Columbus Music & Creative Arts Camp will provide workshops, lessons, band forming, lunchtime concerts and rocking out for girls, and gender variant youth ages 12-18 at the Methodist Church located at 82 E. 16th Ave Columbus, Ohio.

Night Mode might be the best newish dance party thingy

I attended the initial Night Mode dance party at the Summit last December, and was elated at how packed it was, and the fact they were playing obscure music and people were still having a blast. The actual visual presentation from outsiders perspective might have looked uber-hipster. The last Night Mode on March 9th had retro palm trees and video screens playing lo-fi video collages. The guest deejay was Sofia Stone from Ultramajic Records. Everyone was stylishly dressed and basically looked really cool. But the feeling was super warm, inviting and off the cuff. It looked good but I felt no pretense. This is because the people who put on the quarterly event--DJ’s Noelsferatu, Ethan Eschelon, Dustin Knell, Conner Campassi , and Curator/Think Tank Shirtless Midnight aka Gilberto Covrraubias are really great dudes. There is another Night Mode, May 16th, at the Summit so I met up with the boys to find out why I enjoyed myself so much and why the room was stacked. Noel explained why the party had such a good feel to it, “It’s extremely organic. I think that’s a really important thing. All the stuff we do while mixing is organic.

A tale of two Saturday nights

I have three main claims to fame, such as they are: 1) Jeff Beck, the English superstar guitar player, once sought me out and hugged me on his tour bus after a local show because of a scathing Kenny G review I wrote many moons ago. He even read parts of it to me from his computer. Guess he really liked it. Then we talked shit about Eric Clapton. 2) Joan Jett once winked at me from the LC pavilion stage as she was performing. I was in the photo pit taking pics, wearin' my new groovy Puerto Rican race track hat. But she clearly winked at me. Me. Not my hat. Me. Well, maybe my hat. Ladies love a man in a sharp-dressed hat, to paraphrase ZZ Top. I felt all kinds of special all over. I winked back and then licked my eyebrows, my customary return of salutation, here and in Puerto Rico. And that was that. Never heard from her again. Sigh. 3) G. Love was in my record store the day of one of his shows at the Newport. We bonded over a sweet vintage double-LP John Lee Hooker album I'd brought in from my own collection which he bought. That night, again in the photo pit, he saw me and nodded affirmatively, clearly acknowledging my humble shutter-bugged presence. But no wink.

Dominique LaRue is poised to be the next Queen Of Rap

Earlier this month NPR.com posted an article by University of Richmond Hip Hop Culture educator Erin Nielson which poised the question: Where Did All The Female Rappers Go?

   Well, Columbus emcee Dominique LaRue is having her Ohio release party for her album with DC/Indianapolis producer Maja 7th entitled Grand at Double Happiness Friday April 4.

   I asked her about the current marginalization of female rappers in Hip Hop.

   LaRue listed off a quite a few female lyricists, “We are here. Just getting recognition on a mainstream level has been an issue. But you know, Rhapsody, Boog Brown, there are other women ­­­ Ra the mc, In Silence, Nikki Linette, Psalm One, Invincible, Miss Corona, Apani, Jean Grae.”

   On instagram I often see the phrase, “Be the change you want to see”, and LaRue is working hard to put more women on the map starting with herself.

   When I met up with her and her manager Buka, LaRue had just returned from out of town shows. She had a release party for Grand in Indianapolis and also performed at a Women’s History Month Festival in Chicago.

Legendary Mixmaster Speaks On Hip Hop History

Whether you speak on his work as UTFO’s deejay,his influence on the technical development of the scratch or current presence in deejay culture Mixmaster Ice is a Hip Hop legend. The Harlem born, Brooklyn Bred deejay has been an Ohio resident since the Mid 90s so we have had the good fortune of seeing him at concert halls performing with other legends like Rakim, as well as rock dive bars and ratchet clubs. I spent most Sunday evenings from 2002-­2006 listening to Ice’s Old School Mixes during his stint on Power 107.5. So I was stoked that Ice came to my space in the Skylab building downtown last week. His hair was freshly braided. True to Hip Hop, Ice stays fresh so it cracked me up to walk him past a couple people in Death Metal t­shirts that were crashed out on the living room couch next to crushed beer cans. The best part is Mixmaster Ice made small talk with one groggy degenerate before taking a seat on my office’s couch and immediately took me back to the day he battled for the Mixmaster part of his moniker in 1982. “I used to be DJ Ice. There was a guy in the neighborhood calling himself Mixmaster Wood or Mixmaster John something like that.

Sucking up to Johnny Thunders' ghost and other tales of woe

As Cleveland's sadder sister city to the west, Detroit, has been struggling to be reborn so it can rejoin the great American Midwestern civilization. Does one of its newest bands, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., indicate there is vital life and future left in the crater once proudly known as the Motor City?

   Cheekily named after America's premier NASCAR champ so it "could musically go anywhere it liked" (according to its founders, Josh Epstein and Daniel Zott, does cut new ground with itsindie­synth­pop­crashing­percussion and generally disarmingly happy­go­lucky lyrics and danciness. Read: girls love 'em.

   At the A&R March 15 the quartet did what only the British seemed able to do in the 80s, namely take electro­styles and customize them so tastefully that style pretty much became substance, a viable if not pragmatic alternative in the pop universe.

John Petric interviews Columbus' own Zachery Allan Starkey

Zachery Allan Starkey will go down as one of Columbus's stranger home­grown musical exports. A black­haired, Hitler Youth haircut­sportin' dude who embraces the latter ­end of British post­punk electro­pop, he can sing off­key for hours and yet can get a dance floor filled at will. Could it be he's one of the nicest guys this city's bratty/catty music scene's ever produced? Quite possibly, quite possibly. I do know this: you can take the Zac out of Ohio, but you can't take the Ohio out of the Zac. Our loss is the Big Apple's gain, where he moved in 2010. High Street hasn't been the same without him. We talked recently. ZS: I've missed you, Johnny Go, what have you been up to? JP: Why, thank you, Zachariah's Red­Eye Saloon! I've been finishing my life's work, a book: "How To Get Bitches To Do What You Want On The First Date," by Tony Redunzo, the Make­Out Man." That's the whole title, too.
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