On March 8th 2007, there was an evening of deejaying and a mix of live
hip-hop and reggae performances above Back 2 The Grind café
at a place called “The Studio Downtown.” A feature of the night was a performance by Rumour Rumour featuring Andrew Bees, formerly a lead vocalist of seminal reggae group Black Uhuru. Rumour Rumour is a group consisting of rotating members that play instrumental sounds that reflect an amalgam of styles primarily one would find in regions in the Carribean and along its U.S. coastline. On the night of March 8th, it was their reggae music that was playing throughout HMS studios downtown.

It was close to 1am when the featured music of Rumour Rumour featuring Andrew Bees began. Their set lasted for approximately 30 minutes and it was a mix of material, much of it apparently coming from Andrew Bees’ solo material Hardest of Andrew Beez, as songs such as “System” caught my attention while other remaining tunes were made up of a few classics like Black Uhuru’s “Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner.” The multimember band Rumour Rumour provided tight musicianship. There was a cross section of players/musicians: drummers (drum kit, djembes), rhythm guitarist, bassist, keyboardist (w/effects), saxophonist and vocalist (backup vocals). Andrew Bees’ voice was clear and strong on this night and was able to carry the surrounding music to a harmonious place. Andrew found himself dancing (mashing it up) on stage at moments when the band bridged or jammed intermittently on certain songs and it helped people also feel the music and move around a bit more as well. It was good for people to receive and give the energy.
In final, the set was solid and a good intro for new and local comers to reggae music.

Respect.

A list of players that were apparently in the band lineup on the evening of the March 8th show were: Andrew Bees (lead vocals), Cherith Neely (backup vocals), Json Hedge (drum kit), Juan Carrasquillo (keyboard), Mike Cazares (guitar), Chritopher Bryant (guitar, back up vocals), Tim Newkirk (bassist), Kevin Hooper (percussion, djembes), Joey Hernandez (Saxophone).

To listen to the KUCR field interview with members of Rumour Rumour and
Andrew Bees, click below.

 

[mp3]http://kucr.org/audio/kucrpodcastandrewbees.mp3[/mp3]To download the KUCR Podcast of this interview, click here.

For more information about the artists:
http://www.myspace.com/rumourrumour
http://www.myspace.com/officialandrewbees

This is Armando here with exclusive some footage from the recent Aggrolites show at the Barn, shot by the one and only Dex.

watch?v=WQMm4C9S3zw

For those of you unfamiliar with the song, you really need to get out from under that rock you’ve been living under for the past couple of decades. I’ll let it slide this time and let you know, it’s the classic song, ” don’t let me down”, by none other than The Beatles. Looks pretty intimate doesn’t it? You could probably give Jesse a high five if you felt like it.

This is just a taste of what’s to come next quarter as we continue to bring you shows at the Barn. We’ve got some good things coming up that you definitely won’t want to miss. Can’t tell you too much about it now though, but expect some more info as we get closer to the start of the Spring Quarter Barn series, presented by KUCR and hosted at The Barn (thanks, Housing!). I can tell you this much however, next quarter’s barn series will kick off April 9th. Same day and time, Wednesdays from 6-9 for those of you just tuning in, so bring yourself and we’ll bring the music. To stay up to speed, look for us on facebook, or check out the unofficial KUCR myspace.

Good Luck on finals everyone!

For those of you who got locked out* of the party in The Barn on 20th February: things was bananas in there. Watch:

This, of course, was from the smash success Zion I / Mistah FAB concert put on by ASPB. Dude may have shown up over an hour late, and I don’t know about those yellow bus sneakers, but the young man did put on a show. Of course, there’s some Zion I footage up in here somewhere that I have to dig up as well. Feel free to post this all over your corner of the internets.

And as the video intimates, big things coming in 2008. Watch this space.

*seriously, kids, The Barn is only so big. When we say get there early, we mean it.

As the title should imply, this is a list of some of the better music videos that debuted this year; one which was apparently marked by an efflorescence of color not felt in music for a long time. We could get used to this, though. The list starts out, appropriately enough, with the video for the new Daedelus single, Fairweather Friends. It begins in an animated world which has gone “101 Days Without Color” before sprouting into an extravagant spectrum. The colorful trend transcended genre boundaries, gracing everything from hip hop to indie rock with some much needed happiness. Let’s hope we haven’t seen the last of this.

Daedelus - Fair Weather Friends

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRJ2YvRv3N4[/youtube]

Daedelus’ catchiest song yet is an expression of joy unlike anything he’s offered up before.

Abe Vigoda - All Night And Day

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Mcj4UXIyY[/youtube]

This year saw the emergence of several important releases from the LA underground scene. Bands like No Age and Silver Daggers (who are also included on this list) released albums on Fat Cat and Load. Abe Vigoda, originally from Chino and frequent Smell performers, are in the midst of recording a full length this very minute. All Night and Day is a track culled from the Animal Ghosts 7″, out on PPM. The video makes the list partially because it’s built on such an amazing song, but also because the video itself is so much fun. What face paint, fake blood, catholic iconography, and food have to do with each other I don’t know, but I’m not sure it really matters. Check out Abe Vigoda’s new songs.

Escort - All Through the Night

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqRDct1IDI8[/youtube]

You probably didn’t know that you needed to witness the entire extended cast of the Muppets take part in what might be the greatest disco extravaganza of our era, but until you do you couldn’t possibly understand.

Black Dice - Kokomo

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9WSNMKf_Vw[/youtube]

Black Dice are easily the most abstract band on the list and it comes as no surprise that their video is its most abstract contribution. The video for Kokomo, one of the more accessible tracks on the new Load Blown album, is comprised of collaged found footage from Saturday morning kids commercials and any number of other sources. The whole thing ends up looking like what you might expect to find if you stumbled in on a kindergarten class stuck in a transdimensional feedback loop.

Dan Deacon - Crystal Cat

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFlBJ1xZK10[/youtube]

Dan Deacon became a household name this year (well, maybe not in everybody’s house) based on his spastic performances of a style of music which is entirely his own. He’s been often quoted describing his music as “the kind of music really cool six year-olds would make” and I couldn’t pin it any closer that. This video is all neon and as ADD as any kid who’s grown up on Firefox tabbed browsing. You should also see this video in which Dan Deacon improbably manages to perform a song of his on the Savannah, Georgia NBC affiliate morning news program. With his zipper down.

M.I.A - Boyz

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZv-G7IISgs&feature=related[/youtube]

Pretty much anything that can be said about M.I.A has already been said, so anything here would more than likely be superfluous pixel space. Suffice to say that Boyz is an amazing track with an amazing video. Ms. Arulpragasm is also the only artist to have more than one entry on this list.

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