The Raw Blog

Sunday August 15th @ Beauty Bar

ZZK Records, Raw Word Records & Peligrosa Present:
ZIZEK CLUB WORLD TOUR – Buenos Aires, Argentina

ZZK returns to North America for a summer 2010 tour filled with Digital Cumbia & Digital Folklorico.

“No wonder Clarín, Argentina’s largest newspaper, had nominated Zizek as one
of the best parties of the year — it was awesome.” – New York Times

$5 with RSVP @ www.PeligrosaBlog.com/RSVP // $7 @ the Door // 18 and up! // Doors @ 8pm

Performing
ZZK: El G / Chancha Via Circuito / El Remolón
PELIGROSA: Dj Dus / Orion / Manolo Black / Hobo D / Pagame

ZZK is bringing a global dance sensibility to digital cumbia, dubstep and electro-reggaeton cuts. Hypnotic beats with influences from Colombian cumbia, cumbia villera (cumbia from the slums of Buenos Aires), reggaeton, dubstep, IDM, and minimal techno, inspiration from afro-dance, murgas (marching bands), minimal dub and down tempo. Computer bleeps share sonic space with folkloric chant. Candombe drums are accompanied by the sample of a machete splicing the air and a vocal line of indigenous bebop is layered over hints of dub.

DJ sets are powerful showcases of ZZK music: past, present and future. B-Sides, mashups, bootlegs, official and unofficial releases plus the newest music from the ZZK label is tested on audiences during their fiery, eclectic and intensely fun DJ sets.

And of course local party crew, Peligrosa, will be there in full regale to bestow an insurmountable array of Latin heaters.

El Remolon – Pangeatico EP by zzkrecords

So my boy Cauze One and I had a brilliant idea recently to throw what is going to be the ‘ghettoest’ party Austin has ever seen. Together with Knuckle Rumbler and us here at Raw Word Records, on July 30th the Scoot Inn will host what will be an epic amalgamation of everything No Limit with a taste of Bounce. But i’m not here to promote the event. When we first came up with the idea I immediately knew that I wanted the flyer to look and feel like the old No Limit records covers. I felt a wave of excitement over come me, “that’s it” i said – ‘ghettotastiklade!!”. This is how i interpreted what I grew up seeing on Cash Money, No Limit, Big Boy and Suave House record covers:

I added my own flavorings with Big Freedia’s gator shawl and bedazzled Cauze One and Orion’s shirts with real diamonds (couldn’t have a No Limit flyer without tanks, cars, asses and shit blowing up either). But it got me thinking. Although nostalgic and, might I say, awesome, my art work isn’t original in concept by any means. I knew I was replicating the throw back album covers but who was responsible for those covers? I may not be the most ethical of internet users but i felt like i needed to find the culprits responsible for an era of crazy photoshopping and give them props.

Upon researching, I not only learned of the history of this ‘bling-bling’ stlye of artwork but I think I have become enamored as well. Shaun Brauch may be the most influencial man of late 90’s hip hop.

(nevermind the silly british guy)

I hope to catch an interview with him soon. With over 19,000 album covers under his belt for his years as Pixel & Pen (note: Pen & Pixel was sold and is no longer owned by Shawn) and two new ventures (Smart Face Media & Creative Resource Management) the man behind it all admits that it was he and B.G. that coined the term “bling-bling”.

The Pen & Pixel story from what I’ve seen Shawn post on several blogs:

The company was sold in 2003, 911 caused major problems for the entertainment field all around, that combined with napster was the final straw. The company at it’s peak (1998-2001) was billing almost 6 million dollars a year and was producing more that 23 covers per week. Yes, some were cheesy, some were insane and some were amazing…but the main thing to remember was PPG was a business enterprise, it’s function was to please the customers…we had thousands of maverick ideas that would have pushed and developed Hip-hop graphics further and faster…but the clients demand for the “same ol’ Bling Bling, Ho’s and cars kept the monster fed.
There is a company out there now that have taken the Pen and Pixel Graphics name, but they are not PPG! There is no one there that has worked for Pen and Pixel. For more information on this company and it’s history…get it form the person that founded the company back in 1992. -Shawn Brauch

There are a lot of question I have about Pen & Pixel and how it ended. There seems to be some controversy regarding the current owner of pixelandpen.com, a company called AKA Studios and Shawn Brauch himself. I hope to get to the bottom of it with some good old fashion conversation but in the mean time I highly recommend you read an interview Shawn did back in 2009. It will motivate you.

So I thinks it’s the summer of production with all the new awesomeness i’m getting in my inbox. I have a couple dope things for you so sit tight.

First up, our man Panchitron from San Antonio. I have no artwork or tracklisting but here’s the download link:
Knights of Pythias EP download link
http://www.zshare.net/download/77907321532359ca/

Next Up Richard.Gear (Austin, Tx) just dropped Starz EP and it’s free to download from:
Dropbox
SoundCloud
BandCamp

NOW OUT ON EXPONENTIAL RECORDS!
follow his ass on twitter too.

Introducing Silky Boys, the new DJ project from Rob Pollinate (Squared) & Shaun Bass (Neon Skullz) joining forces. Made a crunk tight mix for your face to promote their new night.
Pure Silk Vol.1: Moombahclart! by Silky Boys
They have a new night in London too:
Silky Boys present
BRITS ABROAD LAUNCH PARTY [LOVEBOX TROPICAL AFTER-PARTY]
with
WARRIOR ONE
ISA GT
SUMSIN
MOROKA
SILKY BOYS
NASTY MCQUAID
TRAWLERGUY
at
KORSAN BAR, 161-165 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, London

You can visit www.deadprez.com and download the mixtape for free!

Connecting with soundclouds’ api is not that new. I’m not exactly sure on the date soundcloud released it but I know it was after the oAuth push. For those of you who don’t know OAuth is “an open protocol to allow secure API authorization in a simple and standard method from desktop and web applications.” Its’ archives go back to October of 2007 and they recently amped up their push for OAuth after who know’s who realized that the “Authenticate with Facebook” api was going viral and that Facebook wasn’t/isn’t about to open up their source code for this authentication method. So in short OAuth is a response to “Authenticate with Facebook” and everyone is embracing it (everyone except Facebook that is; i said in short).

I’m pretty excited soundcloud is letting developers have a go at their API aka Application Programming Interface. According to soundcloud, “The SoundCloud API makes it possible for a third-party app to act as a SoundCloud user, but then the app needs to be “logged in” as well.” I still haven’t seen anything that I would find more useful than soundclound itself I did come across a few developers who have started work on what looks to be exciting progress.

First Muxtape.com

Here’s a look at Dan Deacon’s page. It’s not even up and running for the public and it is invite only (if it ever gets started) but it looks promising, runs off of HTML5.
Mextape says:
It’s currently a work in progress. When it’s done,

* bands will be able to sell downloads
* anyone will be able to make mixes of music on the site
* labels will be able to manage their bands in one place
* developers will be able to build on our API

Regardless the music is pulled from soundcloud on to a very clean player.

Next is Tracks On A Map.com which displays soundcloud uploads from a map. I don’t believe it to display every song but as they say “On Tracks on a Map you can listen to SoundCloud tracks from around the world from any genre. Just click a city to start the fun!” I learned that it was written at Music Hack Day in Berlin (which I didn’t even know exsisted, which looks pretty cool, which SoundCloud, Last.fm, RjDj and Songkick all participated in).

In addition to these, soundclound is promoting two other methods of incorporating the API. You can use Scup, a Mac/PC based desktop application, to upload multiple tracks to your SoundCloud account and create a set on the fly. As a dj I don’t see the need to be able to create a mix on the web (I’ll use my technics thank you very much) but I can see where this is going.

Lastly a company named Audiofile Engineering, LLC, quiet some time ago, created an app for the iphone called FiRe. FiRe is pretty tight, i use it from time to time when my hacked iphone isn’t acting crazy. “Audiofile Engineering’s FiRe application is by far the most advanced stereo audio recording application we’ve seen for the iPhone and iPod Touch, going far beyond the limitations of previous go-to apps…” and guess what you can upload directly to your soundcloud account.

All this being said I am still looking for a soundcloud like player that I can run on my own server. Not sure if that will ever happen but here’s to hope.

Big Boi is teasing with all these video of tracks from his forthcoming solo album.

Every now again I’ll go on two or three binge on internet searching for new design ideas, strategies or technical tips for using photoshop (illustrator sometimes). It’ll usually, as in this time, starts with a visit to one of my bookmarked sites like ffffound, bittbox or Signal Noise. I pay close attention to detail looking at the shapes, colors, layout mostly on the flyer tip cause that is most of what design. On this occasion I came across something i find quite intriguing and since I it probably wouldn’t use it for any flyers i thought it would be nice to share them.

I want to credit the artist and I think it’s David Pope but you can’t go around trusting the web.

Verano Azul (Orion Edit) by dj_Orion

Jump Guarachero (Orion Edit) by dj_Orion

So I’ve reached the limit on downloads on soundcloud….but you can download it HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Such a great party!

For more information visit: www.kunklerumbler.com

I thought I was a coffee guru or at best an Aficionado but when I went to Frank (www.HotDogsColdBeer.com) yesterday to eat the Bubba Gump (A Housemade pork and jalapeno sausage topped with fried scrimps, spicy cocktail sauce, grilled slaw, yummy!) I found out that Barista and Friend Tyler J Wells had made in into the top 60 Barista’s to represent the United States in the World Barista Championship. Only one person from the United States will be chosen to represent the U.S. Wish him luck if you know him, if not here’s a video you can get personal with. Good Luck Tyler!

Here’s a little promotional video about what makes our coffee so dang delicious. Starring Tyler J Wells, the first man to qualify for the USBC from a hot dog restaurant.

Starring: Tyler Wells
Direction: Matt Muir, Revelator Productions
Cinematography: PJ Raval
Design: The Decoder Ring
-one day i’ll be on their team!
Motion Graphics & Editing: David Hobizal
Music: Tody Castillo, “Sooner” (from The Windhorse)

GO AUSTIN!!!