Music

Christina C. (aka DJ ORORO) spins Funky/Disco/Soulful/Deep House. DJ Ororo is one of four people who, along with all their house heads, form ReStart, which they do at a lovely little spot called Brothers Drake. It's located at 26th E. 5th St. They are there the second and fourth Monday of every month. Brothers Drake has the best mead in the city, has awesome people to hang with, it's free and most of all....they have great DJ's and great House Music. And her DJ name? She collects X-men comics and Storm is her favorite character – her name in them is Ororo. 1) Put together your fantasy band - it can contain any musicians dead or alive: My fantasy band includes Marvin Gaye on vocals, Prince on vocals and every instrument known to man and Sade on vocals with Sweetback as the house band. 2) Tell us about the most exciting musical concert/event you ever attended: Best Show I've been to? Seeing Ghost Face, The Roots and George Clinton was one of the best shows I have been to.

It wasn't supposed to be this way, it really wasn't. You've GOT to believe me, I beg you. But what you're about to read is the first negative review of a Christmas benefit in the history of this fascist construct of white male supremacy called The United States of America. Like I said, though: it wasn't supposed to be this way. "Not So Silent Night" at the Lincoln Theater last Saturday night, I thought, was going to be a program of Christmas music by locals. Fair enough. I was so in the mood that even several days prior I thought without reservation, hey, I don't care who they are or how much they mangle Rudolph The Red -Nosed Oppressed Reindeer, EVERYBODY gets a good review. Everybody. Sort of my personal 'give-back' to the community I abuse the other 50 weeks of the year. Hey, you didn't build that amplifier! I even found one of my Santa hats to wear. I even stuffed my pocket full of candy canes.

R. Stevie Moore transformed Double Happiness into a grandpa’s living room Friday. Before settling into a mixture of warm but warped melodies and stream of consciousness poetry the revered, and influential outsider musician walked around the stage, peered out the window into Front Street and waved at whomever was outside the window in the Brewery District. After a surveying and claiming of his surroundings, R. Stevie Moore took out a phone and called who he claimed were the Columbus Police, and had a brief discussion about the fact he was going to perform. If you aren’t familiar with R. Stevie Moore; he is a 61 year-old man from Nashville, Tennessee whose output of 400 plus home recordings places him as a godfather of “lo-fi” music. He is Ariel Pink Haunted Graffiti’s dad for sure. From the stage at Double Happiness he busted out random mutterings that sometimes mixed hip hop referencing like “word is bond” with vague but succinct statements of fears and resonating aspects of the human condition mixed with almost commercial phrasings. Next, R.

Happy Chichester’s musical interest began with drumming, which took over around age seven when a friend of a friend sat down at his dad’s kit and played Batman. He claims drums and drumming are a lifelong obsession. From Batman, to Mad magazine, to Kurt Vonnegut books and the Kinks, Happy has “always appreciated stuff that could humorously satirize culture, though it seems to be getting harder to do.” Happy was part of the infamous local band Ray Fuller and the Bluesrockers and was bassist for one of the most successful bands to come out of Columbus in the ‘80s, the Royal Crescent Mob, which signed with Warner Bros. subsidiary Sire Records in ‘89. When the Mob broke up, Happy joined Howlin’ Maggie, which signed with Columbia Records. Happy is currently a solo artist and runs his own record label, Pop Fly, with his wife Laura. He is now a songwriter, arranger, keyboard and guitar player in addition to bass and drums.

Don't ask me why or even why now but allow me to say I feel like I'm obeying some unseen giant cosmic force that is haunting me with the following command: "Bring Bunny Wailer's two albums, 1977's magnificent "Protest" and the nearly equal "Blackheart Man" from 1976, to light for they have been too long ignored by the Marley-gorging reggae-loving public. Do it now, do it this week and don't blow your deadline, dummy." Not exactly 'God said to Abraham, kill me a son,' I know. But I also don't know why I have been returning to these two fine albums so much lately. I mean, I wouldn't be caught dead listening to Bob Marley because he was a peace-mongering pothead who eventually blew his mind out in a car-sized bong, partying til his brain turned to cancerous mush. Sad, really. Seriously, I haven't listened to a Bob album in years other than a deluxe copy of Exodus half-a-decade ago. I ponder. I know. I listen to Neville O'Riley Livingston, original member of the Wailers along with Peter Tosh and Marley, because these two albums are distinctly soul-reggae.

And now in at the end of 2013, Canadian Dan Boeckner is once again paling around our fair city. At least that was the aura of the unveiling of Operators, a new project Mr. Boeckner has with Sam Brown, the Columbus Minister of being a professional drummer and a musical Statesman as well. To create repeated anomaly context aside from saying the Divine Fits have spawned a project now that a new Spoon record calls Brit Daniels away; Dan Boeckner’s other projects include Wolf Parade, and the Handsome Furs. When I say Sam Brown, of course you must also think Gaunt, New Bomb Turks, V-3, the Sun, RJD2, and Anna Ranger. When I say Devojka you should say, “how do I pronounce that,” and ask “whom” and then will later say ‘oh the tall female keyboardist of Operators.’ I say all of that to say this: Double Happiness felt really intimate, and almost “house partyish” for the second performance of Operators.

DJ Rich NYCe, used two recent Hip Hop events, Elevator Music’s (614) Summer Jam and the Second Annual Polar Showcase as the framework to make a documentary about a couple of our city's Hip Hop scenes. “There are 11 stories of various lengths. I fused some live performance footage and a couple videos to make one major project.” DJ Rich NYCe is a Columbus Hip Hop veteran, so he has a vantage point. NYCe was born in Guyana and grew up in New York but he has lived in Columbus since the 90s. He is a founding member of Usual Suspects DJ Crew whose membership boasts DJ O-Sharp, J-Rawls, Krate Digga, King Sev and Brooklyn Butcher. Rich currently deejays at Republic on Fridays. You don’t have to be an OG DJ to be familiar with some of the film’s main subjects: King Vada, J. Rawls, Rashad and the 3rd, P. Blackk, Exec Gang, Cocky Club, Luxury League and Fabrashay A. But Rich also wants to introduce you to a few new faces such as Ceezer, Ella Star and Armond Wake Up. The project developed from the documentation that Rich’s online radio station, Pulse Radio, was doing as a media co-sponsor for both events. Rich is the station manager of Pulse Radio.

I first hung out with Rochester Native and Columbus based producer Maggz aka Jon Rogers at SXSW because he and Bustown mainstay, Zero Star were performing at the Project Blowed Showcase in Austin. It’s always bonding when you hang out with someone from Columbus out of town. The first thing I was noticed about Maggz is, he takes his art seriously. He explained me his value system this past weekend, “I create music for life. A lot of people look at music like a movie or a video game. For me it's like 'naw, this is my art. Meticulous. This is color.” Maggz recently released a low-end thumping, jazz instrumental album “(Complex)ions: Mauve” that has been getting some love on the underground hip hop blogosphere. “Mauve” reception has been built off the momentum from his 2012 fall release “Fragments of Mind” on Feelin’ Music, a label owned by Swiss beat maker Chief. Feelin’ Music releases downtempo, Dilla-influenced hip hop from artist such as Chief and Moka Only. Maggz started off his relationship with the label just from a fan standpoint. “Another buddy of mine in Rochester was just posting stuff on Facebook, videos from Moka Only.

Take 5 with Donna Mogavero Donna Mogavero is a singer, songwriter, acoustic and electric guitar performer in central Ohio. Some of her music awards include Outstanding Acoustic Solo Performance, Outstanding Folk & Rock Singer Vocalist, and Best Female Vocalist. She has shared the stage with the likes of: Warren Zevon, Osbourne, America, Jessie Colin Young, Livingston Taylor, Ellen DeGeneres, and many others.

The past weekend was pretty jovial because two ex-pats had performances scheduled around Thanksgiving family visitations. Disco-house deejay Garrett David played music at the Rehab Tavern, Friday. Anna Ranger was able to have a release show Saturday at Ace of Cups because its core member Nathan Snell was home. Garrett David was in town from Chicago. When Garrett was in High School in Columbus, he made a name for himself under the moniker Adulture. Garrett was a key figure in the rebirth of the dance party in Columbus by playing a pivotal role in Scott Niemet’s Sweatin’ Party, and also took part in a few classic shows including one in 2009 with Diplo at Skully’s, Garrett moved to Chicago shortly thereafter. Chicago is the home of House Music. Things have gone pretty well for him, Garrett does a weekly show with House legend Derrick Carter and Michael Serefini called Queen at the Smart Bar. He is also the music buyer at Gramaphone Records, a revered record store in Chicago. Garrett has put out a few records including a recent release under the name BellBoys with his roommate Adam Rowe.