blog
The Western States + Sweden
Alright. After a wild weekend of shows and revelry in Colorado, Grieves and I are currently in Lund, Sweden. Jealous? You should be...save for the intense wind and borderline cold that's making it feel more like an Eastern European winter week than a summery Swedish wonderland. Ah well.
The shows in Colorado were wonderful. Last thursday, we had the pleasure of playing with our dear friends Macklemore, Solar One, and the Pirate Signal. It was the first time we've headlined in Denver in almost a year and a half, and the turnout was really amazing. Everyone on the bill put on an amazing show, and Ben and I did our best to leave a good impression. I'm rarely fully satisfied with how a performance has gone, but Thursday's show was an exception. We killed it!
Saturday saw Grieves and I take the festival mainstage for a 45 minute set. The show went well, but due to oppressive temperatures, afternoon sun, and a less-than-desirable time slot, we didn't see quite the turnout we were hoping for. Nonetheless, the 6-700 folks that did turn up were awesome! After the show, we celebrated with a little bit too much wine, resulting in an earlier-than-anticipated bedtime...though it seems that the rest of town took things to a slightly greater extreme, with Fort Collins falling victim to its first ever full-scale riot. No one seems to know exactly why students were roaming the streets, turning over vehicles, and starting fires, but regardless of the impetus, the S.W.A.T. team was in full effect, with tear gas and billy clubs taking center stage for a bit. Exciting!
Sunday was a day of recovery, Brazilian BBQs, and friends.
Monday was a day of 16 hours of travel, transcontinental flights, and confusing sleep.
And now we're in Sweden! Had the pleasure of spending last night with Supreme of the infamous Looptroop Rockers, enjoying wine and conversation in the courtyard at his brand new home. We ventured out a bit later into the Malmo night, made some questionable decisions, and hopped a cab for the 15 minute ride back up to Lund.
After a late breakfast today, we got some time to explore the Domkyrkan, a massive cathedral built in 1145 ad. Beautiful lofted ceilings, tapestries, and candle-lit walkways led us down to the basement of the building, where a wishing well filled with coins seemed to beckon a bit of whimsy. Our tourguide, Johan, informed us that some childhood friends of his had robbed the wishing well as kids, only to be caught attempting to exchange over 10,000 sopping wet Swedish Kroner at a nearby post office.
Tonight, a calm dinner. Tomorrow, we play the Malmo Festival! Sounds like our stage is built to accomodate a couple thousand folks...I hope some fraction of that show up, or we could have a pretty lonely hour.
Evidence and Alchemist in Russia
Sort of incredible to see the faces of those kids at the in-store. Most folks in the states lost that passion and excitement for hip-hop a long time ago.
M.anifest - Festa Dos Mundos, Spain
Yep, that's close to 100,000 folks watching him. Yes!
Update
A quick update: The Grieves record is almost done! Just a couple more tracks to mix, then mastering. And then the hard part begins, looking at marketing, release schedules, and planning, combined with a solid dose of patience as we wait for the pieces to fall into place, to make sure it hits as well as it possibly can. Fingers crossed. Grieves and I have a couple of shows coming up before we "officially" head back out on the road. We're playing next Friday, the 18th, in Denver at the Marquee with Macklemore, The Pirate Signal, and Solar One. The following Sunday is the New West Fest in Fort Collins, followed by a lengthy journey to Malmo, Sweden to play the Malmo Fest on the 26th. Phew.
Aloe Blacc
Might be my favorite artist of the past 8 years. What began as a beautiful exploration of rap quickly became a beautiful exploration of music at large. This dude can sing. His cover of "A Change 'Gon Come" from 2006's Shine Through was good, but his new record, Good Things, is incredible. Like, truly incredible. Like, timelessly incredible. Not sure when it drops officially, but do every one of us a favor and buy it when you can. Music like this deserves to be supported.
See what I mean HERE
J. Pinder - 3 Words
Pinder is the super homie, and this video captures my favorite song from his Code Red EP perfectly. Enjoy.
SOTA
This video is incredible. Seattle is killing it. Im proud of my city.
SOTA - "Extrahelladope" (Official Music Video) from Stephan Gray on Vimeo.
Success!
Thanks to your support, M.anifest and myself have been chosen as finalists in the Alternative Apparel Unsigned Artist campaign. We're scheduled to perform our re-interpretation of "Brighter Than Sunshine" in front of a panel of judges in New York next Thursday...sadly, I have a previous engagement in San Francisco, but 'Fest will hold down the fort and, I'm confident, bring home the prize! Thanks again for all your help. It worked!!
Atmosphere Tour
Grieves and I, along with Blueprint, will be joining Atmosphere on their upcoming fall "To All Our Friends" tour. Amazing. It's a full national run, and we'll be hitting mostly smaller towns and cities, which should be awesome. A ton of theaters, an Expo hall, and a fair grounds show in Bozeman to round it all out! I'm excited. Check out the events page for more info, and catch us in your town in September/October!
Mixing
Sitting here at Blast Off Studios in NYC. Starting Day 1 of the mixing process for Grieves' upcoming record. We're so close to being done. Can't believe it. We've been working on this record for close to 2 years now, and it's amazing to hear how far it's come. It's scary to put a cap on a process like this, as there are always better songs to come...tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year...but at the same time, I know we've got a good thing here, and something that feels complete as it is. Can't wait to start sharing it with you all...
Krukid w/The Roots crew this Sunday!
Krukid, my musical brethren, fellow A.R.M representative, and all-around good dude, will be rocking with the legendary Roots crew this Sunday at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The event itself is an OkayAfrica production, presented in conjunction with the upcoming World Cup finals down in South Africa, and used as a platform to celebrate African and African-American music and culture. Dope! Doors at 4, show at 5. No cover charge, and Kruk and the Roots will be joined by the likes of Talib Kweli, Blitz the Ambassador, and a number of other guests. Come kick it.
New Paper Tiger Song!
Grab it HERE and, if you're in the Minneapolis area next week, be sure to check out Paper's release show, with an opening set by yours truly!
Sol - Dear Friends
I'm a bit late on this (read: I'm a couple months late on this), but better now than never. The homie Sol dropped an impressive project this past spring called Dear Friends Vol. 2. The EP has been on repeat for me since downloading it a couple days ago, and I highly suggest you hit the link HERE and grab it for yourself. No excuses. It's free. Oh, and the cover art is super dope.
That's all!
Drake in Blast Off
Check out this footage of Drake recording at Blast Off Studios, the spot owned and operated by super fam Frank and Josiah Hendler, along with the rest of the BO crew. Oh, and it also happens to be where we're tracking the new Grieves record.
Star Tribune names A.R.M - “2 Africans and a Jew” best album of 2010
Yep! The illustrious Minnesota Star Tribune has named the debut A.R.M EP "2 Africans and a Jew" as one of its top 3 albums of the year to date. We're super grateful for the look! Check out the article HERE and, if you haven't already ordered the record, you can buy it right HERE
Florida!
As I type this, I'm wrapping up a three day stay down here in the sweatiest state in the union...except maybe Georgia...and South Carolina....and Louisiana. I'm not built for the south. Not even a little bit. That said, we had a great time down here, thanks in no small part to the incredible hospitality furnished by our hosts from Footwork4Self, as well as the general kindness of strangers. After a relatively painless flight down here on Saturday (and by "painless" I mean to say that I didn't miss the plane this time!!) and a brief nap at the hotel which, for whatever it's worth, was located a mile or two from both Daytona Beach and the oh-so-famous PGA course, we headed down to Lake Worth for load in and sound check. Sound check took place in front of about 75 people, roughly the same headcount in attendance for the show itself several hours later. Hmmm. Awkwardness aside, we settled in and got ready for the show. American public health policy is rife with contradiction and hypocrisy BUT the recent (read: over the past 10 years) move to ban smoking indoors has been an undeniable victory. Florida, along with a couple other remaining brothers in solidarity including Montana and South Dakota, missed the fucking memo. Smoking inside sucks, and it sucks even more when you're trying to play a show. Believe it or not, jumping around on stage for an hour or two requires a modicum of physical endurance. Smoke makes it harder to breathe, thus smoke makes it harder to perform. Additionally, any and all merch leaves the venue smelling like....smoke! Great.
Rant aside, it was good to get back on stage with Grieves after an extended hiatus, and we got a chance to play a couple of new songs. It was hard to tell exactly how well they went over, but we had a blast either way.
Toki Wright took the stage shortly after our set, and put on a hell of a show. He had traveled down here sans DJ, and asked me to fill in on turntable duties. I agreed, but only after making it abundantly clear that my prowess as a DJ is more or less non-existent. After an early-set-hiccup (I accidentally left the "warp" setting engaged on the intro track to his set...30 seconds of painfully slow audio later, I discovered my error, fixed it, apologized profusely, and we were on our way). Fun stuff. It turned in to a relatively late night at the club, as we didn't finish the show until 2:30, but it was a good time nonetheless.
Yesterday was spent cavorting around on a boat. Anchored at a spot called Peanut Island. Insane shit. Lots and lots and lots of Maori tattoos. I think that pretty much sums it up. Oh, and I currently have the worst sunburn that my poor Northern European-sourced skin has ever felt. The perils of UV, I suppose.
All told, an entertaining and enjoyable jaunt! Flight back to JFK at 2:30 today, and then back to the grindstone!!
Brighter Than Sunshine
M.anifest and myself just put together a remix of the song "Brighter than Sunshine" for an Alternative Apparel contest. They're a dope company with a pretty progressive attitude towards sustainability and environmental responsibility, and if we garner enough votes, we get a chance to do some cool things with em. If you like the song, do us a huge favor and hit the link HERE and tap the VOTE button?
|
|||||||||||
