Thought hip-hop was dead?

Check out Cyne (Cultivating Your New Experience).
The intelligent hip-hop group every FR*A reader must check out.

Cyne has established a reputation for producing tracks with love and knowledge. They are easily one of the best hip-hop artists out there today. Don’t be afraid to be challenged politically, spiritually and culturally by the music of Cyne. Their genuineness (I don’t care if that’s a real word or not) in music will resurrect your love for hip-hop.

CYNE recently completed the recording of their new album, Pretty Dark Things. No release date has been announced yet, but download a free song “Catharsis” from Project Mooncircle’s Wisdom In Chains EP, until it comes out.

Official Website: http://www.cyne.net/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/cyne

Cyne - Haze

courtesy of brucepapoose

Cyne & Nujabes - Lady Brown (Unofficial MV)

courtesy of TheNewYamato

Bet you guys are thinking.. NOT ANOTHER FIFTY’ POST!!
I just wanted to get your opinion about 50’s new music video “Ayo Technology” featuring JT & Timbaland.

courtesy of: 50CentMusic

Personally, I’m not feeling this song at all. I think the theme, rhyme, lyrics are all played out.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect 50 to come out with anything deep anytime soon..
but the move was cheap to use JT/Timba hype to promote the new album.

Before I start getting hate mail, I do listen and enjoy some 50 Cent songs.

So let me know what you think. I just wanna hear your opinions.
No hate mail!  Just your opinions.

Who:
Rise Against, LagWagon, Strung Out, Comeback Kid and more…
When:
Saturday, September 15 2007, 8:30ish…
Where:
Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, CA

“Sometimes you get booked in this giant venue, and you’re like, ‘What are we doing here? This is going to bomb. And when it doesn’t bomb, you’re like, ‘Whoa, what happened?’ ” — Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath.

With that in mind, I attended this show with no expectations due to the lack of press a band with this much passion contrives, and a venue asking so much of it’s headliner with a max capacity nearing seventeen thousand. But once again Rise Against blew me out of the water just like they did with their most recent album ” The Sufferer & The Witness.” LagWagon & Strung Out brought to the table exactly what they’re notorious for; loud fast, solid performances allowing just enough time to cheer, shout, maintain your breathing and dive head frist back into the darkness that is the pit.

And may I say this with as much passion as the band’s at this show, “LONG LIVE THE PIT!” A personal saying of mine, that always rings true when the music and stage presence of a band like RA take the stage. All the openers brought a great performance ( at least the two that mattered to me) and got the crowd only that much more roweled up for the main course. Rise brought it from start to finish with a truly amazing performance that had the same energy level from the first chord until the lights went out; and even through their slow songs in which they were accompanied by a full string section of what looked like a violin, cello and bass. It was truly a sight to be seen, when punk rock collaborates with classic instrumentation and it emphasizes the heartfelt music and lyrics that much more.

This show was a success and true testament to the fact that punk rock is alive and kicking! As Tim stated at the show, “They told us punk rock couldn’t fill the long beach arena. Well thanks to all of you we just proved that theory wrong!” And as long as there are bands this passionate about their music taht are talented enough to keep bringing it to this level, punk rock will keep kicking and screaming, all the way past it’s vacated grave.

Please visit: Rise Against, LagWagon, Strung Out to support their music and cause. Freedom of the mind is to beautiful of a thing to waste.

Check out this video from the show. This is live and the audio recording isn’t epic, but trust me they’re awesome live, as I’m about 20 yards diagonally to this gents right.

Went to Kazuo HQ last night to see the Methamphibian show. Curated by Mr. Kim and co., the setup was amazing. Black, black, and some more black gave the backdrop to the moody pieces. It’s interesting to see these pieces coming from the famous sneaker head… when one gets so attached to seeing a certain style from one artist it always seems to take some time to readjust to a new style, let alone a new canvas.

See a taste of it for yourself:

I was pretty excited when I first heard about Heima, the upcoming documentary about Sigur Ros and their homeland of Iceland. I’ve loved the band for years now and have always wanted to visit the country so to have the two together on the big screen…well that’s just fine by me. Then I saw the trailer and I got even giddier…

Not only do we get to hear the unreleased song, Lagid-i-gaer (fast becoming one of my favorites), the trailer also shows just how beautiful the Icelandic countryside is. I almost went to one of these concerts and now I wish I had.

But wait…it gets better.

As of 12pm this afternoon, I am the happy holder of 1 ticket to not only see this movie as part of the New Yorker Festival…but the screening will be followed by a live set with Sigur Ros. Yeah…I’m a happy camper. For once, tickeetmaster didn’t screw me.

New Yorker Festival

“The FRA was passed to mitigate the hardship of the principle ignorantia legis neminem excusat in an age when much ‘law’ takes the form of executive or administrative action not to be found in the statute book.” United States v. Aarons, 310 F.2d 341 (2d Cir. 1962).T

The Federal Register Act won’t let you get away with saying you didn’t know about an published administrative law that applies to you.

But with all this local, state, and federal laws, why aren’t we all in jail?

Ok, if I ever have kids, f*ck the traditional Asian kid thing and piano lessons. They’re going to be like these two absolute bad asses in the making. DJs Sara and Ryusei, aged 8 and 5 respectively. For the non DJs in the house, the techniques they’re showing here are quite advanced and used amazingly fluidly. Also the video definitely isn’t a fake–watching their record and fader hands, it’s absolutely in synch with the audio on the video.

Check em out, they have several videos up on Youtube it seems.

Amazing.