Charles Haynes: Drummer at large

Charles was in town for Outside Lands and hit us up. He took some time out to meet with us right before he jumped on the kit with MIA. Everyone who knows this guy knows what kind of chops he has. The man has been busy, touring extensively with Kanye West. He has also flexed his muscles onstage with Me'Shell and you know she only rolls with the best.

Outside Lands starts today!

If you are in the SF bay area, you will know of the Outside Lands Festival. Unfortunately super headliner Beastie Boys could not make the festival due to illness. All our prayers are with them. Tenacious D will fill their slot.

DJ TechTools in the house!

We've just received word that DJ TechTools has reviewed both of our EFX series cases and it's RaViNg!!!



"If your looking for a stylish alternative to the popular UDG producer bag, then you may have run across the San Francisco based company, Mono. The EFX series (above) is Mono’s first line of DJ specific products from a company otherwise specializing in guitar and cymbal cases. The 365 is the flagship DJ backpack and the Producer Bag is geared more towards mobile laptop producers but both bags are well suited for today’s digital DJs."

Phil also writes:

"These bags are great looking, well built, and highly functional in different roles. For digital DJs, the 365 is certainly the way to go, as the Producer lacks the size to fit most controllers plus accessories. If you use an APC-40 or VCI-300, the 365 is one of your few soft shell backpacks options, and it’s certainly not a bad one at that."

Read on for a full review…

Ableton Live: In Action!!!

Ok, now I am starting to understand this...effing Ableton and the APC40 is going to revolutionize the way music will be bumping in the clubs. I bet you the revolution has started.

This demonstration was brought to you by TET (The Extravagant Traveller), an electronic musician based out of LA. This is truly musicianship, you have to watch this.

B I G phony

Biography

Big Phony loves to sleep, steep, drink beer, kick down doors… repeat.

If you like Top 40, you’ll hate Big Phony.

Born Robert Choy, Big Phony is a singer/songwriter born and raised in New York City. His latest release “Straight to Bootleg, Volume 01″ is a collection of songs mainly recorded in bedrooms, livingrooms and kitchens of friends and family that would have him in the past couple of years. Off stage Big Phony is simply known to those friends and family as “Bobby.”

Bobby’s family relocated to Los Angeles when he was only 14, leaving him in New York City so he could attend the legendary School of Performing Arts and Music and Art, which has produced a long list of celebrity including Al Pacino, Adrian Brody, and Bela Fleck. Living alone at such an early age, Big Phony devoted his time to writing in his New York City apartment.

With strong religious conviction, Big Phony left for Boston to attend a Christian college to study to be a pastor. He quickly realized that this was not the life for him and returned his focus to his music. After college, he moved to Los Angeles to be closer with his family. It was in Los Angeles where Big Phony began his pursuit to be a singer-songwriter. He quickly built a devout fan base with his songs and performances. He then returned to New York City early 2006 to build that same kind of following. He currently splits his time between both cities crashing on couches and aerobeds.

by Yours Truly

Indie filmmaker yourstru.ly with his footage of Cut Copy during their performance in San Francisco at the Mezzanine.

Cut Copy Two by Yours Truly from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

What Do Men Really Want???

The 365 is getting some love on Cool Material.

Shawn Chrystopher: A City With No Seasons

Inglewood based rap artist Shawn Chrystopher with his highly anticipated album "a City With No Seasons" has just dropped...and it's FREE. Make sure to pick this up and blow your speaks.



Growing up, Shawn Chrystopher (Born Shawn Christopher Garrett, II) fell in love with music at a very early age; taking a liking to Kriss Kross, 2Pac, Puff Daddy, and Michael Jackson--to name a few. As a kid, Shawn would take a small radio into his backyard and pretend as if he were performing for a sold out stadium, using his television remote as his microphone.

“I remember having one of my 'performances' in my backyard one afternoon, and glancing over and seeing my mom watch me. She kind of had this 'what the hell is this boy doing?' look on her face.....but I still finished my show.”

Fast forward to 2009 and he's already on his way from backyard to the front porch to your speakers, spilling his newest...

Shawn Chrystopher - And I Present from The Mighty Fifty on Vimeo.

Director(s): Charles Yi, ILL JACKSON
Director of Photography: Mark J. Sebastian
Editor: Charles Yi
2nd Camera/Grip: Justin Fong
Production Assistant: Michelle Kim

She & Him

There's something iconic about this duo. Maybe it's the fact that Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward are the creative force behind this band. Their sound can often be referred to as Indie Folk, but I don't know if I like that so much. Maybe just plain old Folk would do it. I am not throwing the Indie label out, just thinking there is a better way to describe them. They are Quirk Folk.



Volume One, their very first LP, was released after a year of Zooey sending Matt some of her home demos. The two pieced together this album and found early success with "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here" rolling into #64 on the Stone's 100 best songs of 2008.

Volume Two is on it's way and we are hearing it's even better than ever. Look for it in 2010.

Callowhill Instruments

If you've got to get your junk on, might as well pick up a Callowhill Junk 4, 5, 6? There's a philosophy at Callowhill that can be described in a paragraph taken straight from their site:

"The initial goal was to build light-weight, well-balanced (tonally and physically) instruments with premium electronics and a thick, authoritative, well defined voice. The end result is a bass that surpasses all of the initial goals."

Technically these basses are absolutely superb, craftsmanship is unmatched. The attention to detail gives these instruments a truly boutique low end experience.

You can hear a Callowhill bass for yourself every night on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show.