In the dark recesses of the late 90s and early 2000s, a tremor ran through the music industry as more material made its way to the web. Amidst the uncertainty, people questioned what would happen to the music and if creativity would die along this new avenue.

What could not be foreseen was the way the internet and the digitization of media would open the door to a more democratic way of making and experiencing music. Through its floodgates have come (sometimes questionably) talented stars such as Souljah Boy and venues such as MySpace and iTunes.

Fast-forward to 2008 and the ever-talented, ever-ingenious, self-acclaimed analog girl Erykah Badu, has also appropriated the digital world to her own ends. Looking for a remix to her latest non-album single, “Real Thang,” Badu has launched an internet-based remix contest open to any creative body with beats on the mind.

Proving the fast-pace of the web and the ability of its plethora of users to turn out a quick download, you can find a number of remixes to the track already up on the paean to self-promotion, YouTube. The remixes are diverse with sounds that range from dub with 80s Barrington Levy samples, to spacey electronic tracks to a mellowed out Madlib groove (remixers, breathe — Madlib produced the original track and cannot be a part of the contest). Don’t feel limited to “urban” types of sounds either — creativity is key so if you think you can make “Real Thang” rock, literally, go for it.

Sound good? Then plug in and get it poppin’.

For “Real Thang” vocals, grand- and runner-up prizes and more information on the contest, click here.

Deadline for entry: July 31.

July 18-20 (this Friday-Sunday) is the 10th Annual Harlem Book Fair. For a full list of events, go here.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008, 7:00pm
B&N Tribeca (97 Warren Street)
Michael Ian Black: My Custom Van

Michael Ian Black will be at the Tribeca Barnes & Noble Tuesday to read from (or discuss, or make fun of, or something) his new collection of essays, My Custom Van: And 50 Other Mind-Blowing Essays that Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face. Sarah Silverman says it’s “Fun to read while you’re pooping.” That’s good enough for me.

Wednesday, July 16, 7:00pm
B&N Tribeca (97 Warren Street)
Grandmaster Flash

Two B&N events this week because they’re so good. Grandmaster Flash has a memoir out, Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats, and he’ll be at the Tribeca B&N Wednesday. Do I really need to say more than that?

Thursday, July 17, 7:00pm
McNally Robinson (52 Prince St. between Lafayette and Mulberry)
Dzanc Books and Friends

Dzanc Books is an upstart indie publisher. On Thursday Aaron Petrovich of Hotel St. George Press will host a reading by the contributing authors of Best of the Web (Dzanc Books), including Garth Risk Hallberg, Cara Hoffman, Sarah Sweeney, Justin Taylor, Tess Taylor, and Claudia Zuluaga. Joshua Kornreich will read from his novel The Boy Who Killed Caterpillars (Marick Press) and Peter Markus will read from Bob, or Man on Boat , published by Dzanc Books.

Have you ever made love to a weirdo? Odds are, you probably have but won’t admit it. Well, 2008 is the year to start fessing up because being as out there as possible seems to be everyone’s new goal.

A music group bringing new flavor to hip hop, Hollyweerd, is also raising the question of whether or not you’d make love to a weirdo, and gaining much attention from the online community. Self proclaimed as the New Wave/Rap/Ghetto Tech Music genre, Hollyweerd brings a hip new swag to the south. Dreamer, The Love Crusader, Tuki and Stago Lee came together in mid-November of 2007 and have since worked to produce a fresh sound to Hip Hop with and electronic/alternative vibe.

To experience their flavor for yourself visit Hollyweerd here.

If you find yourself in or around London for the next three days, set your radio dial to 87.7FM to catch an aesthetic explosion airing live from Abbey Road Studios. Presented by Showstudio and Swarovski, Fashion DJs emphasizes how fashion and music are constantly interlinked by putting top designers, models, and musicians behind the turntables. A few of the rumored names set to play are Naomi Campbell, Lily Cole and Giles Deacon.

And if that isn’t music to your ears, video footage and live radio content is available online here and here.

“Primordial Punk,” reads their mission statement, “represents what’s been missing from the cultural dialogue of beauty. It calls upon the talents of professional artists to challenge, confront, rearrange, and revisualize the standard against which AFRICAN-AMERICAN beauty is measure.” What better way to celebrate a new aesthetic for beauty than with some funky pictures and a party?

The Pictures: The 1st-ever BLACK PUNK PIN-UP CALENDAR 2 Primo Pin-Ups, Tamar-kali, Imani Coppola, Sylvia Gordon, MilitiA, DJ Reborn, dj.shErOck, Ife Mora, Nneka Bennett, ninja.bot.body.rock, Josiane, Lesley J, and Bailey Davis. Each model was styled after song lyrics written by a Black rock artist or band. The Calendar ships out in October with proceeds benefiting the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls and the Black Rock Coalition. But until then, we can satiate our punk pin-up cravings by sinking our teeth into…

The Party: Primordial Punk’s 1st Annual Debutante Ball runs in conjunction with the 4th Annual Afro-Punk Fest in Brooklyn. The event will feature 4 hot numbers by our loves, Brown Girls Burlesque with live accompaniment by Mackie Riverside & the Street Pushers, live sets by Apollo Heights, Betty Black, Chewing Pics and Sweetie, DJ Tjade on decks, and live painting by Fly Lady Di. Information will be on-hand to pre-order the Black Punk Pin-Up Calendar for $10.

Debutante Ball Launch Party
Friday, July 11th
Galapagos @ 10PM
70 North 6th Street in Williamsburg
FREE and open to the public

Thursday, July 10, 7:30pm
Solas Bar (232 E. 9^th Street btw 3^rd and 2^nd Aves)
St. Mark’s Reading Series featuring Ed Park and Leni Zumas

More Ed Park (Editor of Believer Magazine and New-York Ghost, and now author of Personal Days), along with Leni Zumas (Farewell Navigator: Stories).

Friday, July 11, 7:00pm
McNally Robinson (52 Prince St. between Lafayette and Mulberry)
David Browne & Thurston Moore

It’s Sonic Youth night on Friday at McNally Robinson as founding member Thurston Moore and writer David Browne (Goodbye 20^th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth) come together to discuss the New York underground scene in the 70s and 80s as well as the band. The website says there might be audio and video. Moore is the author of several books, most recently No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York 1976-1980. and the eponymous and brief moment in music in New York. Browne is a journalist and author, and his book gives the history of Sonic Youth and its influence on the scene.

 
Monday, June 30, 7:00pm
Housing Works Used Bookstore & Café (126 Crosby Street, South of Houston)
BOMB Magazine presents: Victoria Redel and Honor Moore

BOMB Magazine presents BOMBLive from time to time, and this Monday there will be a talk between Victoria Redel (The Border of Truth) and Honor Moore (The Bishop’s Daughter) “about fathers and daughters, fiction and memory.” With a Q+A and signing. Should be interesting.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008
McNally Robinson (52 Prince St. between Lafayette and Mulberry)
Marcus Reeves & Alec Forge on Hip Hop and Radio

In case you missed the last Marcus Reeves’s (Somebody Scream!: Rap Music’s Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power) event that I mentioned, here’s another, equally interesting. He will be talking with Alec Foege, author of Right of the Dial: The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio, about hip-hop and commercial radio on Wednesday.

Here’s one for all you DIY photogs, lomos and designers out there: the Lomographic Society International is partnering with the tee-shirt company Threadless on a contest to design some gear inspired by Lomo’s 10 Golden Rules of Photography.

Rule 1: Take your camera everywhere you go
Rule 2: Use it any time — day or night
Rule 3: Lomography is not an interference in your life but part of it
Rule 4: Try the shot from the hip
Rule 5: Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible
Rule 6: Don’t think
Rule 7: Be fast
Rule 8: You don’t have to know beforehand what you captured on film
Rule 9: Afterwards either
Rule 10: Don’t worry about any rules

Known for supplying the recent resurgence in plastic, “toy” cameras like the Diana, the Holga and the Lomo — cheap-bodied, high-saturated, medium-format relics of the American 50s to 70s, Soviet Russia and good Commuists worldwide — the Lomographic Society was founded in Vienna in the early 90s by a couple of guys who accidentally rediscovered the magic aesthetic of these cameras. The society’s guerrilla style and rules of irreverence quickly outgrowing its supply, Lomo expanded to Berlin a few years later and held simultaneous inaugural exhibitions in New York and Moscow.

Watch out of your design wins! Besides the 2,000 Dollars in prize cash, you could also gain a heap of Lomo camera tricks. With those in your pocket, you’ll soon find yourself in a vast global network of street photogs and creatives who will nod knowingly every time you snap off a little plastic shot.

More on Lomographic here and on the contest here.

Stephanie’s got soul. So much soul that it moves through her lyrics, erupts uncontrollably with the unique alto in her voice, and leaves a deep resonance in the minds of listeners. Her soul is fresh and according to her, marks a “reincarnation for the new generation.”

This Bronx-born native makes no mistake when it comes to producing lasting music. With influences from greats such as Betty Wright, Lyn Collins, Margie Joseph, Roberta Flack, Candi Staton and Mavis Staples, it’s only expected that the rasp-jazz songstress bring music back to its feel-good roots.

July 21st marks the expedition back home, with the release of her forthcoming album Tell It Like It Is. When asked about the hiatus between this album and her 2003 self-titled debut, Stephanie McKay responded with a quote from Q-Tip: “Record company people are shady.”

Fortunately, she’s worked through the industry struggles to put forth a solid album. With its distinct title, Tell It Like It Is speaks to the people on their own level. Her latest single “Jackson Avenue” is a hip revival of the classic ‘day on my block’ theme and brings listeners on a journey of what she says focuses “good times, good friends, and Sergio Valente’s.” Stephanie describes this album as “more organic, less electronic” than her debut.

With inspiration stemming from family, life and love Stephanie indulges in the art of storytelling, and she’s had the opportunity to work with some of our times most acclaimed storytellers — Mos Def and Talib Kweli. She describes the two as “poets and masters of their craft. Dedicated to the betterment of their community and proud of their culture. These are things I aspire to do as an artist.”

With her ability to grasp an audience with her music, Stephanie has set herself in the right path to achieve this goal, and been marked her as an artist to be reckoned with.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
Blu may be one of my favorite street artists working today. His work, as instantly identifiable by style as it is by sheer scale, has also been humming a high current through the world art net recently, culminatingin an invitation to do a piece on the side of the Tate Modern in London and a solo show at the Galleria Patricia Armocida in Milan, which opened last week.

Like a global graphic novel, Blu’s tenuously allegorical grotesques and often mythological figures appear on building-sized panels dispersed from Saõ Paulo to Berlin and from Nigeria to Palestine. There isn’t a narrative that binds them to be “read” together — at least not one I see — but each sketch is also a skit, a scene acted out in the borderlands of comedy and drama. A little bit of surreal life sliced out of a dreaming child’s acidic nightmare by a sure, clever surgeon.

The life that Blu gives his creations is what sets him apart most and nowhere is that life more evident than in the epic stop-animation above that he made last winter.

More Blu here.

Blu (June 18 - July 25, 2008)

Galleria Patricia Amocida

via Bazzini n°17, Milano