Too Legit

The Wake's S&V Blog is now official: http://www.wakemag.org/category/blogs/s-v-blog/



All posting will be done there from now on. Peep the website, and take it easy.

[edit: The above link is the home to my writings for The Wake Magazine. This blog has, since this post, continued from its initial purpose to become the personal MC Harv blog]

City On The Make - 9/12 at 400 Bar

Local band City on the Make has put out the following press release (I love when someone else does my work for me):

"City on the Make will be headlining a show on Friday, September 12th at the 400 Bar. This night will be the culmination of a long summer full of fun and mischief, packed shows, not so packed shows, sweat soaked parties, a new EP, a first tour, new joints that rip off the Jefferson's theme song, hard working days, long nights, and the literal and figurative bumps and scrapes of another hot summer done passed in our lives.

This will be the last City on the Make show in the Twin Cities for a couple months, as Mischa Kegan, our guitarist, is moving to Chicago to pursue a master's in the art of lovin'. The band is by no means on hiatus, but will not be playing too many local shows in months to come.

This past year has been incredible for us, as we have received so much support here at home, and despite the stress and setbacks of a year in the life, we feel really lucky to have so many friends in Minneapolis. Every person who has come out to our shows, copped a CD or an E.P., requested us on the radio, or brought their friends out to see us has made this more than worthwhile. I feel confident in saying that we as a band, have as much as anybody in this town, and that we strive to provide the same to our friends and fans. We hope you can make it out to this one to get down with us before the winter comes.

Expect a LONG rock and roll set from City on the Make (we believe in long sets), high energy funk and soul from the Capitol City Soul Tones, and tight fit together indie rock from local new jacks Modern Fonts. An utterly danceable evening, bound to move the heart and soul.

For more information:

cityonthemake.net
myspace.com/cityonthemake
cityonthemake@gmail.com

Thank you for your support.

Love and Sincerity,

Michael Massey and the Boys"

Their new EP entitled $1,000,000, which is not nearly as expensive as you'd expect it to be, can be heard in its entirety on their website, cityonthemake.net. If their infectious song stylings are not enough to tempt you to attend their show on Friday, you can watch a taping of an earlier performance over at Empty's Tapes, the excellent local blog which showcases a variety of torrents of live shows. If you're still not convinced to go, what the hell is wrong with you? You don't like rock and roll or something? For fans of local rock, this show is a must-see, and their last performance for a while, so make sure to get your ass out there and prepare it for some serious old-fashioned whiskey-tinged shaking.

City on the Make
with the Capitol City Soul Tones and Modern Fonts

400 Bar, 400 S. Cedar Avenue
Doors 8pm/Music 9pm

$7 advance/$10 door
18+

Big Quarters + Mux Mool - 9/3 at the Turf Club

Local hip-hop duo Big Quarters have just released a new 5 song EP with fellow beat architect Mux Mool entitled Fall In Love EP, which they have so generously made available for free on their website, bigquarters.com. Tonight, Big Quarters and Mux Mool will perform together at the Turf Club in St. Paul to celebrate the release. The collaboration stems from a long-standing friendship between BQ and Mux: Medium Zach worked together at a video store in high school and wiled away days sampling the thousands of available movies for use in beats. "We wanted to sample videos and make a project using nothing but videos," says Zach of their early work together. Mux Mool did a remix of the song "Test" off Cost of Living, as well as provided a beat for the song "Ladies Know", and eventually they began collaborating on beats, which became Fall In Love. The trio will perform the songs together for the first and only time at the Turf tonight.

Medium Zach (left) and Brandon Allday (right) have been hard at work lately; in conjunction with the new EP comes Big Quarters Direct, where a measly $5 a month gets you 5 brand new, unreleased songs sent to your inbox - essentially a new album every month. Zach talks about the advantage of using the internet to distribute music: "The reason we're doing this subscription service is because we can do everything ourselves," Already out on the service is the construction kit (instrumentals and acapellas) from their last full-length, Cost of Living, and coming on the 5th is the next installment, featuring "Barter System", for which Zach recently shot a video, his second after storyboarding/directing the video for "August".



On top of all this, Big Quarters joins DJ Nikoless every third Thursday of the month for Last of the Record Buyers, an evening for local producers and beatmakers to showcase their beats and get in touch with others in the hip-hop community. "Our angle was, it's like a beat exhibition, like an open mike for producers," says Brandon. "We're just trying to do entertaining things production-wise, something that hasn't really been done in the Twin Cities as far as emphasizing on production." Since November of '07, the monthly event held at the Dinkytowner has been a place for unknown producers to spin some tracks and get their name out there. The event builds off events like Run Ya Jewelz and Scribble Jam: "Last year was the first production battle at Scribble Jam... We got some crates of records and we had everybody bring their drum machines and their samplers and they had to make a beat on the spot. There's a round where they just play a beat, if they get past that, there's a round where they do a Brother Ali remix, and if they get past that, there's a round where they make a beat live. When we got back from Scribble last year, we [figured] we should do something... We started doing the Last of the Record Buyers night. We got a lot of people that were interested in production to come out."



Those who have beats simply come down, put your name on the sign-up sheet, and then spin your joints for 2-3 minutes in front of a crowd of beat enthusiasts. DJ Nikoless spins each night, and every month a different guest performer does a set answers questions regarding their production process. "We added having a featured guest because I can't think of any other venue or avenue in the Twin Cities where veterans are helping out and giving tips to people that're coming up," says Brandon. "Producers across the board, a lot of 'em are antisocial, you know, homebodies, stay at home working on music; even the veterans don't get the recognition they deserve. People might know the album and know the rapper, but not necessarily know who produced it." Though Big Quarters both rap and produce beats, their love of producing came first, and they wanted to help support up and coming producers by devoting a night to the production side of hip-hop. Every night, local producers live up to that by playing solid tracks and living up to the potential of the night. The night is for anyone interested in the producer side of things: If you're a rapper looking for beats, or simply want to hear some fresh shit from untapped talent, this is the place to be.

If you're a lazy punk who isn't willing to hoof it to St. Paul to go see these guys (it's a measly 4 bucks, you cheapskate), you can always catch them on campus at Coffman Union when they play with Brother Ali, Usual Suspects, Illuminous 3 and the Green Sketch Crew on October 2nd.



Big Quarters + Mux Mool
Wednesday, Sept 3, doors at 10 pm, $4
Turf Club, 1601 University Ave St. Paul

-----------------------------------------

UPDATE: Check the recently added "Barter System" at bigquarters.com or on the YouTube.

Concert Highlights - 9/2-3

With the RNC is bringing a whole slew of terrible, terrible people to our fair cities, at least we get visits from some pretty great artists here to protest. During the second day of the convention, September 2nd, Anti-Flag, Dead Prez, Matisyahu, I Self Devine, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Wookie Foot, B Dolan and Prolyphic will be at the capital making their voices heard. The music is free from 12 to 7 on the state capital lawn and includes speeches from Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin and global warming activist Will Steger.

Later that night starting at 7 PM, even more politically-conscious music at the Fitzgerald Theatre with the Provention Concert, featuring Nellie McKay, Dan Wilson, The Honeydogs, The New Standards, Haley Bonar, The Twilight Hours, Jeremy Messersmith and Maria Isa, and hints at the potential of "super-secret guests".

The show costs $20 and promises to leave you feeling more hopeful for the future than watching protesters get beat on television.

Oh, and as long as we're talking politics, Rage Against The Machine plays at the Target Center on the 3rd. This is, of course, just a coincidence, and the band will certainly keep silent about the concurrent convention. The ticket will cost you $60, but it'll be worth it to be surrounded by like minds rather than riot police and cigar-chomping suits.


While it is not particularly nice having the Republicans storm our cities, it's clear that the artistic community is in full swing and willing to stand up against the onslaught. There's a lot to take in this week; be sure to catch something positive.