Kalup Linzy

Just about everyone in the DA camp will be in Austin this week for SXSW… everyone except /rupture who will be holding down NY in our absence. If you have the privilege of time/cashflow to get down to Austin- come say whats up- if not- I’ve got a nice new treat for you. Chief Boima, whose African By The Bay E.P. absolutely took the world by storm a few months ago has a got a new E.P. entitled “Techno Rumba” set to drop at the end of next month.

DJ /rupture took the instrumental remix that he and Matt Shadetek did of the title track “Techno Rumba” and invited one of our favorite artists, Kalup Linzy, to add his magic vocals on top. This is straight post-breakup soul-searching material. If your not familiar and DOWN with Linzy’s work- act like you know. NEXT LEVEL.

Chief Boima “Techno Rumba (DJ /rupture & Matt Shadetek remix feat. Kalup Linzy)”

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Catch Boima down south this week.
Wed: Bersa Discos party 9-10pm
Fri: at Creekside 1-2am
Sat: in San Antonio at Lava Lounge

It feels practically useless telling anyone to go see anything in Austin- since the flux of people just moves along with its own brownian motion. But you can catch me tag-teaming with Mosholu Park Thursday early at Bersas, Friday night afterhours at the Green Owl Ranch, and Sunday out at Dubbel Dutch’s spot. Follow DA on twitter for more real-time updates.

The myth that once propelled bands to pay out of pocket to come out for events like SXSW and CMJ was of a label A&R discovery- and a consequent big signing bonus. Now that (hopefully) no one is waiting on that dream- we can all just admit that events like this can just be about celebrating quality music and finding some time to spend with your extended musical family.

Check the post below for JD and Matts SXSW damage.

“There are so many Africas, and so many arts of Africa. Picasso and Matisse thought they had hit on the essence of Africa during the first decade of the 20th century. The African masks and sculpture that influenced such works as Les Demoiselles D’Avignon (1909) seemed to be the very embodiment of a youngish Spaniard’s priapic idea of the primitive: wonderfully, savagely stylised; bursting with a toe-curlingly alien erotic charge. How patronising of Picasso to think that that’s what African art amounted to. Well, perhaps that’s a little unfair. The point was that Picasso, ever grasping, ever restless, was seeking out new ways of representing the female body.

Yes, anthropologists quickly began to prove that Picasso was either wrong or telling just one tiny part of an immensely complicated story. In 1910, the first major excavations took place at Ife, a site in what is now south-western Nigeria, not too far from Lagos. (The walled city-state of Ife, legendary homeland of the Yoruba, flourished for 300 years, from about 1100-1400 AD). Thirty years later, in 1940, another great cull of objects from the same site hit the headlines again: “Worthy to rank with finest works of Greece and Italy”, shrilled the Illustrated London News.

Many of the works that those anthropologists found are now on display in this major show of north-west African sculpture, and the works here lend credence to that headline writer’s claim. At the same historical moment that Andrea del Verrocchio was doing his wonderfully painstaking, high-Renaissance drawing of a female head which can be seen elsewhere in this building, anonymous artisans in Ife were working with brass, bronze – yes, these Africans knew all about bronze casting long before the Europeans arrived to show them how – copper and terracotta to produce a series of exquisite heads that are not only the equal of Donatello in technical brilliance, but also just as naturalistic in their refinement. So much for African primitivism.” – Michael Glover (The Independent) reviews Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa, British Museum, London – read the full article here.

Tomorrow I’ll be DJing at a benefit show along with DJ Small Change for an art project which two of my long time friends, including former collaborator Zack Shadetek have been working on. The show is a benefit to raise money for Swimming Cities trip down the Ganges river in India.

From the press release:
Taking a new waterway each year our projects create a vivid community of artists floating into towns to present an interactive environment which encompasses art, sculpture, music and performance. The uncommon talents of our members interact in an organic design process in a unique form of living art. Our previous projects include THE SWIMMING CITIES OF SWITCHBACK SEA on the Hudson River for Deitch Projects and THE SWIMMING CITIES OF SERENISSIMA across the Adriatic Sea for the Venice Biennale.

Basically they build these crazy ass art-boats and float them down various rivers while living on them and doing performances and freaking people out.  There are a bunch of good artists, many who are also friends who will be having a silent auction of donated works to raise funding for the project.  And there’s an open bar.

FRIDAY MARCH 05

56 Walker St, Tribeca
7pm-1am, $10 Door, Open Bar
DJs Small Change and Shadetek

If you happen to be in the greater Boston- or have a British style pension for traveling great distances to hear electronic music and turn your brain to mush- then next week should be fairly pleasant. Together Boston is a freewheeling many venue, many genre festival whose schedule looks kind of like a regular week in Berlin, but an absolutely exceptional one in any North American city. Check the website for a ton of great lectures, workshops and parties… After the cut is my ideal schedule for the week with venues and times.

For a quick summary- Rupture on Monday, Kingdom on Tuesday, Untold and myself (at different venues unfortunately) on Wednesday, Sinden on Friday, and an all ages showcase that Ill be playing a special noisy turnablist set at on Saturday. Come say hello!

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John Lupo Avanti is the brilliant artist behind the cover for Chief Boima’s African By The Bay EP (and I know folks have been praising and asking about the cover.) He is a painter, illustrator, and creator of the intriguing and grim Monster Myths comics. Check his site, get familiar with his work, and if you’re into spending money, show some class & buy some.