Music Frees All Festival - June 1-3, 2011

From June 1 to June 3, check out the Music Frees All Festival in NYC! This Festival will feature funk, afrobeat, soul, hip hop and reggae tunes. Each night will be held at a different venue with a different line-up. Admission tickets are from $5 to $10. The most important night will be on June 3rd, when all admission proceeds will go to the Scotty Hard Trust. Scotty Hard is a music producer and performer who was hit by a stolen vehicle in 2008. His friends and family made a trust fund to help with Scotty's medical expenses. The making of this Trust shows how influential and how many lives he has touched around him, especially in the music world.

June 1: South Paw (125 5th Ave., Park Slope)
Featuring - Turkuaz, Melanie Charles & the Journey, Top Shotta and Super
Osei & Money Jungle
Admission - $5
Doors @ 7:30PM, Show @ 8PM

June 2: Public Assembly (70 North 6th Street, Williamsburg)
Featuring - Ikebe Shakedown, Gato Loco, Brooklyn Soul Survivors and
Underground System Afrobeat
Admission - $10
Doors @ 7:30PM, Show @ 8PM

June 3: Drom (85 Ave. A, East Village)
Featuring - Mago (John Medeski/Billy Martin), EMEFE, Ben Perowsky's
Moodswing Orchestra, Mokaad, Nyle vs Naysayers, DJ Afro-Marc and more
Admission - $10
Doors @ 7:30PM, Show @ 8PM

Hope y'all come out to see the amazing line-ups!! My personal favorite is Melanie Charles & the Journey. She'll be on the stage on June 1st. Her vivid and brilliant voice earns her an entry into the jazz sphere.

We can all use a little soul in our lives.

Darn-song-playing-in-my-head of the Week, Like a G6. Literally.

It takes quite some effort to keep a driver awake after a day of zip lining and jumping from tree to tree up by the Catskills. But we did it indeed and got home to our beds safe and soundly, haha. One of the many techniques to accomplish this, is to sing your FREAKIN heart out no matter how bad you are. Or talk about something smelly in your fridge. Not mine. Since Lady Gaga has been overplayed to death, the radio stations decided to move on to something just as good and perform the same overkill as well. But might as well enjoy it before it becomes a dead horse. And now it's stuck in my head, for who knows how long. "Now I'm feeling so fly, like a G6. Like a G6, like a G6."

This is by Far East Movement, a Los Angeles based quartet that encompasses hip-hop, pop and dance music. They are possibly one of the first Asian musicians(sorry, Utada) to hit it big on the music billboards! Yes, yes, I know it's the music that matters. I'm just glad that their songs are such big hits now. And hoping they don't fall into the one-hit-wonder category. It's catchy, poppy and will go pretty far. Last week, "Like A G6" was #2 on Billboard Top 100. Well, I guess it did go far. Congrats! Watch out for their next single, which is free this week on iTunes: "Don't Look Now ft. Keri Hilson." Far East Movement's first album Free Wired dropped yesterday(10/12/10)!

Hard To Say - Vonnegutt

Here's one of Vonnegutt's songs. The beginning sounds like a squeaky Linkin Park. But they're not trying to be anything but themselves. Then it gets pretty mellow...well, my version of mellow. I like them. =)

Follow Them

Big Boi has been quite busy working with other singers, lately. The other half of OutKast collaborated with Janelle Monae on one of her new songs, Tightrope. He also teamed up with a new and little known band named, Vonnegutt. I heard their new song, "Follow Us" when they were performing on David Letterman, maybe like a week ago. Love Big Boi's style. He was the only one in NYC (I'm pretty sure) who had a floppy and furry hat with ear flaps on in this 90+ degree humid weather. Even though he was indoors, keeping your style is a must. I totally enjoyed their performance. The song 's hook was crazy catchy.

Well, I'm sure you all know about Big Boi(!), so let's chat about Vonnegutt(<= link). Vonnegutt started in 2007. They're also signed(since 2008) to Big Boi's label, Purple Ribbon Entertainment. The group has been working behind the scenes for a while with guitarist/singer, Neil Garrard doing session work and front man, Kyle Lucas doing mixtapes. Vonnegutt's music is a mix of hip-hop and rock. Their songs reminds me of Linkin Park and a peppier version of Coldplay. They've got potential. Their first full album comes out in 2011. Look out!

"The ArchAndroid" - Janelle Monae (is back)

Here's the arrival of Janelle Monae's second album! The ArchAndroid. This Kansas City native has not backed down from her sci-fi influenced style. All her videos portrays such interesting stories but all of them pertains to the androids oppression by humans. Kind of like Battlestar Galactica or Matrix? I'm a sci-fi junkie as well and I continue to look forward to see what Janelle has in store for us. Below is her new video with Big Boi. I can't get enough of how good she looks in those shoes!
She's definitely one of a kind. Though, in my previous post about Janelle, I said that I hope she does not get too commercialized. Unfortunately, that happens with too many talents. But it's also another way to have mass appeal(and the big bucks!). I recently read an interview of Janelle by the Chicago Tribune. Janelle reassured us this won't happen. She ended the interview with, "You have a choice: You can be yourself, or you can follow the pack. It's very important to represent the many sides of us that are out there. I want to redefine how a woman can dress, how she can wear her hair. It's sad when you feel you have to change who you are to get your voice out there. We can have a better, happier society when people are accepted for who they are." Love it.

Em and Ri's New Controversy

I absolutely LOVE this song and video. It's so full of love and hate, but in the end its about the pain that both bring. For one thing, not all relationships are sunshine and unicorns. And not all relationships are as destructive as what Em and Ri are singing about. There's been a slight uproar on how this video, featuring Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan, glams up domestic abuse. I don't think so. This video is telling a story. The story is how destructive a relationship can be to both parties. Of all people, Eminem and Rihanna can relate. It doesn't offer a solution in the end. It shows how it can become a continuous cycle. I think it is brave of these artists to make this video. If this controversy can bring light to the seriousness of domestic abuse, then so be it. This also prompted Megan Fox to donate her salary from this video to help women recovering from domestic abuse.

It hurts to know that you are hurting the one you are supposed to love. It's even sadder to see that sometimes, these people can't help themselves. At this point, a lot of strong support will be needed to separate(the only option left) the 2. Hopefully, in time before everything burns down. We live in a society with so much knowledge of the past that we can only hope to learn from it. But because we are humans, we also never learn until it happens to us.

For domestic abuse information, please go to http://www.ndvh.org or call 1-800-799-SAFE(7233).

Janelle Monae and her Many Moons

I can't for goodness sakes remember how I first heard about Miss Monae. But anywho, somehow I ended up at one of the CMJ Music and Film Festival concerts last year headlined by her. Woo! She is absolutely great live. This girl can sing, rap and dance until her poof un-poofs! Her energy goes on and on and on.... I loved cheering for her after her performance. One of the best live music performances I have ever seen.

Her first CD, Metropolis, is popular for the hit "Many Moons." I also love the song, "Sincerely, Jane." She's going through this phase where her songs are about her being an android from outer space. Ya. Besides that, her music is very indie hip-hop and her style is a throwback to the glamour of 1940's. I love it!! Especially, how she gets her fashion style AND the concept of her as an android tied together so naturally. I must add that her poof is pre-Snooki. But I'm not sure if she or V.V. Brown had it first. Great people think alike. She's so raw and talented.

Her songs start out so pumped up and let's have party, run, fly, etc. But they almost always end so emotionally sad. Like at the beginning of “Many Moons,” the singer acknowledges that there is so much going on that she realizes to herself that she is “free but in your mind. Your freedom is in a bind.” As much as you strive and strive, there will be an end. And the only hope is to “go home” to Shangri-la. Or maybe I'm just checking the lyrics too much.

Before you even walk in the door, you know that Bad Boy Records has got her COVERED. Her posters (I mean the fancy huge kinds), were everywhere. Including a huge cut-out of her that was tacked onto the train station closest to the venue. An entourage was on the look out so no one took and ran with it either. As much as I like Janelle, I think she's dancing on thin ice of becoming too commercialized. Might be taking this android thing a tad too far. She has 3 more CDs to produce with this concept. She doesn’t need to be a product of anyone else’s but her own. Janelle Monae is doing great by herself.