first up, today is a Very Special Edition of Mudd Up! Radio on WFMU, because I’ll be going from 6-8pm. It’s always nice to do a double shift (two hours instead of my usual action-packed 60minutes). Tune in early!
then get ready for the following week:
DAS RACIST! We’ll be broadcasting live from the combination Pi… I mean, Das Racist are rising rap stars, post-meta, consisently awesome, endlessly quotable, and “super credible.” Their 2010 output of next-level mixtapes, videos, and video games is simply astonishing. So – mark yr calendars and alert yr Social Networks: next Monday, October 18th, I catch up with Das Racist to talk about Ford trucks, apple pie, and bald eagles!
If you haven’t heard Sit Down Man then remedy that. Here are 2 jams from it:
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Omega El Fuerte running things in Washington Heights last night.
The great thing about Omega fandom is that it requires no explanation. Either you haven’t heard of him (in which case, read the Omega profile I wrote for The Fader last summer) or you have, and his bad-assness is utterly self-evident. It’s simple: this former reggaeton choreographer is “El Fuerte”, one of the best musicians around in any genre right now, period, the undisputed dark king of Dominican merengue urbano / mambo. Plus he’s kinda scary – we’re not fooled just because he dropped the “y su Mambo Violento” from his name. (When you find an Omega fan, ask ‘em about Rita Indiana — they’ll have an opinion on her too.)
Omega El Fuerte plays twice this weekend in NYC – as I tweeted: “all NYC’s latin ‘cosmopolatino’ websites that *didnt* mention OMEGA’s gigs here this weekend: #FAIL” ….
Aaah, Rita Indiana. I feel weird explaining what’s up to people since the easiest thing would simply be to wait — soon enough she’ll be as well-known in the US as she is across the Dominican Republic. But here we go-
Rita’s a former model who first enjoyed fame as a writer. Her two novels, La Estrategia de Chochueca and Papi, enjoy cult status among fans of contemporary Caribbean lit. Her innovative writing straddled pop and street, leading to her current stint as screenwriter for Grammy-winning reggaeton group Calle 13′s upcoming movie. But she’s spent the last year taking over her hometown of Santo Domingo via a musical project, Rita Indiana y los Misterios. With effortless swagger, Rita has achieved the holy grail: cutting edge musical & lyrical innovations that draw on local roots and enjoy populist success (read: capacity crowds at 1000 person venues).
[Rita Indiana y (algunos de) Los Misterios]
Rita’s powerful sound – which includes choreographed stage dancers, daring outfits, and a 5-person band – creates a space where old school merengue fans, new-school mambo thugs, hiphop kids, rockers, and fashionistas can all party together.
to continue reading this post, head over to Mudd Up!
Dutty Artz is very pleased to announce the debut official release from Dominican underground superstar Rita Indiana. For those unfamiliar with Rita’s vibe download her La Hora De Volver here, courtesy of Remezcla. Perez Hilton is a fan saying: ”Super caliente! We are obsessed with it – and HER!!!!!!!”
Her Dutty Artz single features two songs. One, called ‘No Ta Llevando El Diablo’ (translated as ‘The Devil is Taking Us Away’) is Rita backed by her band Los Misterios. It’s an angry blast of punk mambo with Rita singing about grannies smoking crack over distorted guitars, guira and 808 boom added by Shadetek and Rupture. The second track ‘Los Poderes’ is Rita solo over Shadetek and Rupture’s rework of a Bannana Clipz riddim (Bannana Clipz is Dutty Artz own Chief Boima and Bersa Discos Oro 11). Over a mix of digital and live hand-drumming contributed by Ivory Nunez playing an interpretation of Dominican Palo over Bannana Clipz 4×4 beat Rita sings a haunting tropical voodoo ballad.
The release will be available July 6th in all fine digital retailers including iTunes, Juno, Amazon and Boomkat. In the meantime, soak your eyes in these:
Or, Rita Indiana is taking over Santo Domingo and the Dominican Republic. We’re wrapping up a bunch of tunes, but until then, here she is injecting voodoo-mambo-punk into the television itself…
interview style
playing ‘live’ with Los Misterios in a bizarre TV studio
Checking in (from backstage at a capital-J jazz festival in the Austrian Alps) to say — cop La Yegros now and brace yourself for heat to come, because we’re putting the finishing touches on an EP from Rita Indiana y Los Misterios.
what to expect? As she sez: “musica tercermundista con drummachines mal manejados, sintetizadores hechos en casa, bent toys y mucho mambo.”
F%#k translations, let’s dance!
here captured live in sultry mode, best use of gardening metaphors:
