Fool’s Gold takes a page from the Jack White play book
June 30, 2011
Photo by Brook Bobbins
A-Trak and his Fool’s Gold Records team seem to have taken a page from the Jack White play book and opened their very own record store/swag store in Brooklyn, NY. I shouldn’t have to say that I’m a huge fan of just about everything Fool’s Gold and/or A-Trak does, and this just makes it even better. You can bet I will be paying them a visit next I’m in the Big Apple. One thing is pretty clear here- the similarities between what Jack White has done with his Third Man Records here in Nashville and what A-Trak is doing with his Fool’s Gold Records in NYC. I feel like A-Trak is headed for a similar status in the hip hop/dance/DJ realm as Jack White has built in the rock realm. They both have opened storefronts in their respective cities with an exquisitely curated style and vision, but also their respective labels consist of top-notch talent and everything about both of their brands has a sense of organic, home-grown quality to it. Next in line: Mac McCaughn and a Merge Records store in Chapel Hill, NC?
A fun and simple homemade smoke bomb recipe
June 28, 2011
Part of my intense nerdyness comes from my childhood when I was obsessed with fire. Yes, like many young boys, I was a pyromaniac. And I still am. I’m just a much safer, more cautious pyromaniac. Every year for the 4th of July I like to indulge my inner 14-year-old boy by buying and even making my own pyrotechnic devices. I thought I would share one recipe/method for making a homemade smoke bomb. It’s pretty simple and safe- provided you follow these directions very carefully.
Ingredients: Equal parts sucrose (aka table sugar) and potassium nitrate (aka saltpeter or KNO3), a container, and a fuse. (Just pull a fuse out of a bottle rocket.)
Saltpeter is relatively easy to come by if you know where to look- it can usually be found in small mom & pop drug stores (never chains like Walgreens for whatever reason…) or in hardware stores where it’s sold as stump remover. There are several different kinds of stump remover but the one you need is usually called “stumpout.” Just check the label and shake it to make sure it’s really potassium nitrate in powder form. I used stump remover in the one I made last year and it worked great.
Mix the KNO3 and sugar (equal parts) together well and put them into a saucepan or pot. Heat the mixture in the pot VERY SLOWLY on an ELECTRIC stove eye. Let me say that again- heat it VERY VERY SLOWLY on an ELECTRIC stove eye. DO NOT heat it on a natural gas stove as it will greatly increase the risk of accidental ignition. The electric stove eye provides a slower, more gradual source of heat. Obviously, the best place to do this is OUTSIDE on a portable heat plate, and be sure you wear some kind of eye protection. Carefully monitor and stir the mixture and as soon as you notice it starting to melt, turn the heat back down just a bit- you want the bare minimum amount of heat necessary to melt the mixture. It will begin to turn a brownish orange color- keep stirring and monitoring the temp. Once it’s all a gooey liquid, pour it into whatever container you’ve chosen and insert the fuse. Simply allow it to cool and harden and you’re good to. Don’t try to make a really huge one, either- if the chunk is too big it will burn too fast and potentially explode. Here’s a great video of the final product in action:
The powder form of this mixture (pre-melting) will burn quite well and produce a lot of smoke, but the melting allows the fuel and oxidizer to blend in a way that the powder form can’t. This is why the melting method yields a steadier, smokier burn.
The most important thing here is safety:
HEAT SLOWLY- VERY VERY SLOWLY
USE AN ELECTRIC STOVE
WEAR EYE PROTECTION
MELT IT OUTSIDE IF AT ALL POSSIBLE
Recommended shows this weekend
June 24, 2011
Gotta keep it short and sweet today. Pretty slim pickin’s this weekend but here are a few shows around Nashy this weekend worth checking out:
FRIDAY:
Natalie Prass, Andrew Combs, Matt Campbell @ The 5 Spot. 9pm $5 21+ (I know, three first-name/last-names on a bill, but these are better than your average Nashville first-name/last-names.)
The Long Players performing The Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers @ the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. 6-9pm. Check out the Frist website for prices. This is an especially cool event becuase it’s the opening for the Frist’s premier summer exhibit Warhol Live: Music and Dance in Andy Warhol’s Work. The Long Players will also have a special guest saxophonist- Bobby Keys, who played on the Stones’ tracks “Can You Hear Me Knockin'” and “Brown Sugar.”
SATURDAY:
Heypenny, PDA, Sleepy Vikings @ The Basement. 9pm 21+ $10
Alcohol Stuntband, The Black Faces, Satan’s Youth Ministers, and The Fastboys @ FooBar. (No idea about the price because their website is down/under construction.)
Have a great weekend!
New BURGERS mixtape: Summer 2011
June 23, 2011
A little late for the technical first day of summer, but it’s finally here: the BURGERS summer 2011 mixtape. Grab it or stream it below. I’ve been assembling this mix over the past week or so and decided to make it flow like most dance parties do- kinda chill at first then ramping up to a few full-on bangers toward the end. Yes I know I include Bit Funk and Breakbot in just about every mix I make, but they’re two of my faves and they’re constantly coming out with awesome new shit; I just can’t help myself. Listen and love.
New Bad Cop video from Seth Graves/Chrome Pony is good
June 20, 2011
My friend and former bandmate Seth Graves just keeps crankin’ out rad music videos. His latest is probably his best work to date, and it’s for local garage-punkers Bad Cop. This is a music video as it should be- its own work of art. (Make sure you watch in full HD!)
In other Nashville music news, I recommend checking out the two demos from a brand new band called Chrome Pony. All I know about them is that drummer extraordinaire Jerry Pentecost is involved (I’m assuming on drums, but he’s a talented dude and might play something else). These two songs are both quite infectious, and dare I say “Rock N Roll” is capable of being the anthem of the summer for Nashville indie rock. They’re playing a surprise last-minute house show this Wednesday at a new-ish house venue called The Parsonage with Diarrhea Planet, Big Surr, and ri¢hie. ri¢hie is a new project from Richie Kirkpatrick of Ghostfinger. Details can be found at the facebook event here.
Happy Monday.
Weekend shows/New Breakbot video
June 17, 2011
Here’s a quick rundown of good shows I recommend seeing this weekend in Nashville.
FRIDAY:
The Spits, TV Ghost, Cy Barkley, Diarrhea Planet, Hans Condor @ The End. 9pm $8.
Chubby & The Dots w/ Brown Chicken Brown Cow String Band @ The Basement. 9pm 21+ $5. I’ve no idea about the latter, but the C & the D’s feature members of the Non-Commissioned Officers playing the swingin’ sounds of the 30’s and 40’s.
SATURDAY:
White Denim w/ Ghostfinger and ??? @ The Basement. 9pm 21+ $8
Shoot the Mountain w/ Chrome Pony @ the 5 Spot. 9pm 21+ $5
KORT in-store performance @ Grimey’s. 5pm- FREE
Breakbot is a DJ/producer from France and is signed to Ed Banger Records. It should come as no surprise that I’m an avid fan, since his tracks or remixes have appeared in just about every mix I’ve made as DJ Burgers over the past couple years. His latest track “Fantasy ft. Ruckazoid” is an instant floor-filler and the video for it just hit the interwebs. Scope it out below. Dare I say it’s not quite as awesome as the one for last year’s jam “Baby I’m Yours,” but it’s entertaining and fits the song perfectly.
Have a great weekend!
Miami Horror tomorrow night at Mercy Lounge
June 15, 2011
Miami Horror at Beauty Bar Backyard, SXSW '11. Photo by Steve Cross
Tomorrow night (6/16) Miami Horror makes their first Nashville appearance at Mercy Lounge, with How I Became the Bomb and Cherub opening. I’ve been hoping for at least a year that Miami Horror would come through Nashville, and it’s finally happening. They come from the land down under, but I’ve heard rumors that they’re making a move to the states. Their debut album Illumination was one of my favorites of 2010, and I caught their live show at the Beauty Bar Backyard at SXSW this year. It was easily one of the best shows I saw the whole festival. They have impressive stage energy and showmanship which easily brought the crowd into a sweaty dance-frenzy in no time.
This show at Mercy will be easily as good, if not better, than the SXSW show because they can flesh out their set and do it “their way” instead of having to setup quickly and rush through their set like bands usually have to do at SXSW. The openers are perfect for the bill, and at a mere $12, this is a really good deal. The band is also doing a DJ set later that night at MAI for the official afterparty. Seriously, get your tix now! Why pay more at the door or risk missing it entirely because of a sellout?
Download:
Miami Horror-Holidays (ft. Alan Palomo)
Listen:
Miami Horror-Holidays (DCUP Remix)
I’ve been waiting since the end of May for this:
(Click to enlarge) Credit: NASA/Paolo Nespoli
THAT is something that has never been captured on film before. It may not seem like a big deal, but the opportunity to to photograph a space shuttle docked to the ISS from space has never happened before, and never will again. The schedules happened to line up so that a Russian Soyuz capsule undocked from the ISS carrying three astronauts home while Endeavour was still docked. This gave astronaut Paolo Nespoli the opportunity to take photos of the shuttle/ISS combo from the window of the Soyuz capsule as they floated away. They paused the Soyuz some distance away and the space station actually performed a “flip” maneuver to allow for more angles. Please click through to the NASA image gallery and see the rest of these amazing images.
Think the idea of humans boarding a massive spaceship headed into the cosmos for 100’s or even 1,000’s of years (a.k.a. real-life Star Trek) is completely in the realm of science fiction? Think again. Last fall DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the highly secretive experimental arm of the Department of Defense who happened to invent the internet, released an official Request for Information regarding a “100-year starship plan.” Basically, they want people to come up with a fully thought-out plan for forming a team of researchers/engineers/scientists to investigate the technology necessary to build such a spaceship. Needless to say, this is one tiny baby step in a project that could cost many billions of dollars and require decades of advances in propulsion technology, but it’s still rather amazing that there is real, serious effort being put into something that has always seemed so far out of reach for humankind. As pointed out in their RFI, there will no doubt be unanticipated discoveries and technological advances as a “side-effect” of this research. So the actual spaceship itself is not the only purpose of this initiative. It really makes me happy to see something like this happening because I think manned space exploration has been quite stagnant for the last couple of decades. We need this kind of spark to really push forward the technology needed to extend our presence beyond low-Earth orbit. (Via Universe Today)
Ok, that’s really it for this week. Probably. I can’t fathom any more posts because tomorrow morning I will be heading to Manchester with the rest of the Scene/Cream team to photograph Bonnaroo. Keep your eyes on the Nashville Cream for updates on our shenanigans, and to see some of my photos.
91.1 WRVU sold to WPLN- my opinion
June 7, 2011
*Disclaimer: The following statements are my personal opinion and in no way reflect the views or opinions of my employer Vanderbilt University.*
The news broke today that Vanderbilt’s student radio station WRVU had its FM broadcast license sold to Nashville Public Radio for $3.35 million. The governing body for WRVU is Vanderbilt Student Communications (VSC) which is a separate entity from Vanderbilt. VSC was created long ago so that the student media could be editorially independent from the University to avoid possible conflicts of interest, though VSC is still financially tied to the University. The sale was first mentioned back in September 2010, and VSC stated that it was “exploring the possibility” of selling the broadcast license and going to an online-only format. They solicited public comments and opinion on the possible sale. The full timeline of what transpired can be found at savewrvu.com.
I have stayed mostly silent on this issue, just watching, and supporting the efforts of the Save WRVU campaign, which is now an official non-profit organization. I can no longer be silent. They way VSC handled this was downright wretched, vile, and disrespectful to the students, the DJs, and the Vanderbilt community in general. They had been secretly working out the details of this deal with Nashville Public Radio all along, and according to a comment from WPLN President Rob Gordon tweeted by the Nashville Scene’s Steve Haruch, a letter of intent for the sale was signed in March of this year. The VSC board held its final meeting of the 2011 spring semester and claimed they’d made no final decision on the sale and also stated they would not be making any decisions over the summer. Well, they lied. To everyone. And to make matters worse, they basically ignored the fact that almost all of the solicited public opinion on the sale was in support of keeping WRVU as it was. Today they simply cut the station off the air without giving the DJs or the listeners any warning that the deal had been done. This is possibly what hurts me the most about this horrible situation- the fact that many good DJs never got a chance to give a formal goodbye or have an official last show. As a former college radio DJ on MTSU’s student station WMTS, I can’t imagine how horrible it must be to have your beloved show ripped out from under you with no warning. The move was also disrespectful to the students, because they did the deed during summer, while most of the students are away. I am literally appalled by how VSC handled this, and they should be ashamed. Save WRVU is going to do everything they can to fight this, and I applaud their efforts. They’re an official non-profit, though I have no idea what means that gives them to fight this. They’ve said themselves that it’s not over. I’m no legal expert so I’ve no idea what options exist at this point, but I’ll keep an eye on savewrvu.com to see what they’re up to.
While I’m devastated that this sale happened, after reading the press release, the outcome is honestly the most tolerable circumstance I can think of. If it had to happen, this is probably how I would want it to happen. In a nutshell, 91.1 FM is now owned and operated by NPR and will be is an all-classical music station with the call letters WFCL, and WRVU will remain on the air via WPLN’s HD3 channel (and remain online as well). Honestly I don’t know that much about HD radio, but it does seem like a viable option for WRVU to remain on the air. The problem is not many people have HD radios. I just don’t know if HD radio is really going to catch on unless the FCC forces it like they did with HDTV broadcasts. But that’s a whole separate issue. The fact is, this deal is not nearly as bad as it could have been. I still hate it, but I hate it less than I ever thought I would.
In the end I have a much bigger problem with the way VSC handled the overall situation than I do with outcome of the sale itself. This is my opinion given what I know right now. If I learn something new regarding either side of the issue, my opinion may change slightly.
Next Big Nashville becomes Soundland- my thoughts
June 7, 2011
If you’re a Nashvillian and even remotely connected to the music scene, you’ve probably heard by now that the annual Next Big Nashville festival/conference has changed their name to Soundland. Or at least Next Big Nashville Presents: Soundland. Click that link to visit their website, and you’ll notice that most everything still includes “Next Big Nashville” in the name, and the old logo is on the banner in the new logo. The event will become somewhat more focused on one area of the city- 8th Ave South. That means Mercy Lounge/Cannery/Third Man Records/The Basement/Grimey’s, but also 12th & Porter, MAI, Station Inn, Public Square Park, and others, with “fieldtrips” and artist-led workshops/seminars. There will also be a larger-than-ever outdoor main stage. All that and more can be found on the website’s FAQ.
All of what they’re doing sounds great- it’s exactly where the festival needs to go IMO. But I’m not sold on the name. Soundland sounds like a game to me. More specifically, a board game. I guess that’s because of Candyland. It just doesn’t sit right with me. Don’t get me wrong, I love this festival and city/music scene and will support them/work with them however I can. And I hope I’m wrong about the name… but I just can’t say “Yes, Soundland is a good name for this event” at this point in time. I look forward to the announcement of more details, especially the lineup. Make sure you follow them on twitter and Facebook for the latest updates.
Oh, and apparently Jay-Z is a fan of JEFF the Brotherhood.
As usual, I will be photographing this year at Bonnaroo for the Scene/Cream, so I will not be posting this Thur.-Sun. I may or may not have something worth blogging about tomorrow, so we’ll see. If not, I bid you adieu until next week.
steve cross loves music and science 