Feed Your Soul – Noise In The Basement Music Festival

Hey Baltimore: Feeling the sorrow of another year the O’s wont bring home the pennant? Ease your soul with the Noise in the Basement festival, featuringsome of the best in soul and hip hop, including Janelle Monae, Nappy Roots and One Block Radius, featuring my old frined MDA from my Music Plus TV hosting days. MDA, youse is blowin up my friend!

 

The festival takes place September 17th-20th…more information below.

 

MUSIC MONITOR NETWORK BRINGS YOU NOISE IN THE BASEMENT – A FOUR DAY CELEBRATION OF MUSIC, FILMS AND GAMES FEATURING SOUL, R&B AND HIP-HOP ARTISTS SEPTEMBER 17-20 IN BALTIMORE 

Los Angeles, CA- Baltimore is bringing you a four day festival filled with rock, soul, R&B and HIP-HOP music. 

Noise In the Basement is a massive gathering of indie-record stores, representing over 700 stores from the 

US and Canada, in Baltimore, MD. 

Soul and R&B acts on the bill for September 17th are K’NAAN, One Block Radius, and Nappy Roots 

amongst a host of astonishing artists. 

My Crew Be Unruly presents a Tribute to K-Swift on Friday, September 19th at Fletcher’sBar. DJ K- Swift 

was best known as the Queen of Baltimore Club Edgerton’s radio show Off the Hook Radio which aired on 

92.3 WERQ-FM. K-swift masterly orchestrated the rise of Baltimore’s club music onto the airwaves. She was 

also the founder of Club Queen Entertainment, a group focused on creating signature graphics, production 

and management within the music industry. 

The festivities will wind down lavishly at the Sonar Lounge at 407 East Saratoga Street in Baltimore 

featuring Kindred Family Soul, Eric Robeson, Janelle Monae, Noot d’ Noot, and Ndelible, along with 

local celebrity DJ’s and special music industry guests. The event will commence at 8PM, Saturday, 

September 20th. 

Ticket and updated artist info for all events is available at http://www.cdjoint.com/nitb 

Music Monitor Network convenes twice a year, once at the annual NARM meeting and again at a 

separate Music Monitor Network Convention and Creative Conference, called Noise in the Basement, which 

is held in Baltimore, MD in September. 

Music Monitor Network was formed in June of 1997 to benefit both mid-sized independently owned music 

retailers and record labels/distributors. As retailers with 2 to 30 stores, Network account chains are large 

enough to deal direct with the major labels and are considered to be very important accounts in terms of 

breaking artists. By combining the marketing efforts of mid-sized chains across the country, the Music 

Monitor Network allows labels to save time and money by enjoying economies of scale in the execution of 

innovative promotional/advertising campaigns.

DJs and Turntablism – are hipsters and laptops killing the art form?

Hey Mr. DJ, put a record on…no really. I mean a fucking record. you know, those vinyl thingies that old timey people used to play?

While having dinner with Ian last night, the topic of dj culture came up. The electro, hose, nu-rave scene has burst like a serato pinata here in LA, and in NYC as well. Now, I’m always a champion for new music and creative outlets…but it seems to me there is a glut in the market. It’s like that Jack Black joke in the Tenacious D pilot, about aspiring musicians… (paraphrasing) “if you suck, and we ask you to stop, you must stop!” Lately I can’t walk into a bar without screaming FOR THE LOVE OF KRISHNA, PUT THE I POD DOWN!

It seems that with the nightly dance parties in heavy supply, anyone, and I do mean anyone, with a laptop and i tunes is now a DJ. So where does that leave the DJs who have been doing it for years? What does it mean to be a DJ? Is it style? Are you a DJ if you can scratch? Is it substance? Does being a DJ constitute having a good selection and crate digging your heart out? Or can you get by if you get the crowd to dance by playing Thriller and Justice off your Nano? And is it any great feat to get a bunch of kids cracked out on Sparks to sway and slam to a beat? Ugh.

Does a good music producer make for the best DJ? Or is it shiny stickers spelling out your name on the back of your laptop? I’m an on air radio DJ and I spin at some of the local clubs, in between bands. I spin mostly rock and punk, so I don’t get asked to be on the hipster club bills. Does this make me less of a DJ? OK, don’t answer that last question.

Ian mentioned that some of these club promoters/indie label owners/hipsters in American Apparel DJs, have their own booking agent. And big time bookers too. What makes someone pay thousands of dollars to have a specific DJ flown in for a party? Is it name recognition? Does a lot of website party photo ops constitute recognition? Or do you need to be seen walking the red carpet with the Good Charlotte boys? And why do some of these hipster dj duos think that they’re famous?

One unnamed duo, who have recently gotten a bit of local hype, claim that their fame is wearing on them. Heavy is the head that wears the black leather fedora. Woe is the electro boy in a Members Only jacket. Too much fame! How do they get up everyday and lace their free Puma kicks? Now I’m sure you couldn’t pick them out of a line up. Nor are they gracing the covers of any magazines. In fact, if you took them out of the insular LA/NYC scene, no one would know who they are. But they behave that their lazy re-mixes are an art form so great that they should be given the VIP treatment wherever they go. I smile as I wonder how long these ‘famous’ guys would last in a spin off versus someone like Pete Rock.

Which begs the question: Is DJing an art form? What does it take to make something art? By playing someone else’s music, are you then too a musician? How much do you have to change a piece of music to make it your own? How many seconds of a sample can you use in order to patchwork together a song? Is cutting together a track of samples any less artful than editing sound of instruments being played in a studio?

In my moonlighting as a clothing designer for Rock-N-Role, I take vintage cast offs, de-construct them and make them into something new. I consider that designing, but I’m sure the people at Parsons would consider it cheating or whatnot. One of my favorite artists, Banksy, often takes pre-existing works and adds his own cheeky flair. Is that not real art?

If you’re a DJ with your own album out, ala Junkie XL, or Cut Chemist, does that set you apart from the popular kids who speed up a Justice track and call it a new mix? Where does the line get drawn? I believe that the great Steinski is an artist the way he blends together bits and pieces of old movie quotes, Zapruder film audio and beats…but he can’t legally sell The Lessons. So sales and charting can’t be the only measure of a man (or woman).

Someone like Shadow, who can keep a crowd going and has a flair for ‘spinning plates’, certainly earns the respect and worship of many…but is his art form cheapened by an up and comer serato spinner in a hyphy crunk hoodie and neon wayfarers? Or is there room for both?

A lot of the old school dj/turntablists that I’ve interviewed are very careful not to slam serato. “It means I don’t have to carry 80 pounds worth of records on the airplane with me.” said one. But they do say that you can’t polish a turd; meaning if you kill on the decks with 45s, then you’ll be great with serato. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you will still suck. Technology can sink or swim you.

I personally give more respect to the record collectors, or ‘vinyl trekkies’ as Kid Koala calls them. Spending hours and hours at odd hours, digging through dusty crates connotes a certain commitment to the craft, as well as an obvious love for music and sense of musical history. But is any of that important when faced with 200 electro/emo hispters who ‘just wanna dance’? What do you play to those kids…what you like or what they want to hear? And whatever happened to street cred?

I’m just playing hipster’s advocate here, trying to get a discussion going…

…but it seems to me that a lot of these new DJs are in it for fashion…or perhaps because it pays better than working at Urban Outfitters and the hours and drugs are the perks they’re looking for. How many of the new DJS consider what they’re doing an actual craft or career, and how many are just in it to be pimped by Scion or Nylon. If we could send a camera crew to each of their homes, would we find them listening to music in their off hours? I mean really listening to music. Pushing their boundaries and searching for the next sample that will blow our minds.

Speaking of blowing minds, I couldn’t discuss the tables without including this from Kid Koala…he plays a record like it were a violin. And he spins without headphones! If this is an art form, Koala is masterful: