The Barn Series kicks off with some hip-hop featuring Nocando and DJ Nobody

The Barn Concert Series continues for the Winter of 2011

As always, KUCR 88.3 FM will be present creating a great atmosphere to relax to and have a drink while having great conversation before and in between the acts.

Tune into KUCR 88.3 Fm for more information on the series and for chances to win tickets!!!

I mean, you were there, right?

Daedelus came in and absolutely tore the house down. I think everyone at KUCR is a pretty big Daedelus fan (which is why we decided to bring him through, courtesy of ASPB funding), but I don’t think any of us saw what was coming:

As glad as we are to have any video of this event (hats off to dj geo), the one thing you unfortunately miss is that the crowd by this point was going absolutely bananas.

And really, Daedelus even said himself that he was a little surprised that a university would bring out crazy people like himself and opener Nosaj Thing (UCR at the cutting edge – who’da thunk?). The packed crowd at the Barn took full advantage, though – I never thought I’d be dancing to Daedelus, but there I was. And as iffy as the acoustics may seem at the Barn, there’s something to be said for having a free show on a stage so low and close that the audience can (and often does) reach out to shake the performers’ hands.

Seriously, kids – anything we recommend on this blog, it’s for good reason. Trust us. We know things.

Moral of the story? When we throw a show – come.

As an aside, if you were wondering what that weird glowy thing was that Daedelus was toying about with, it’s called a monome. I’ll let you do your own research on that if you’re interested. Or you can be all 2008 and just watch this video for ten seconds until something else distracts your attention:

Oh, bonus – there are a few more videos in the Daedelus at UCR series – check them out here. And if for some reason you missed this show – if you ever get a chance to see Daedelus, do so.

And now that I think of it, I think we recorded this show. Make sure to stay tuned in to KUCR 88.3 FM (tune in now on your computer!)- you never know when you’ll hear our archive of the concert!

Ryan, I’ll see your U. Srinivas and raise you one Dokaka. Wait, what:

Apparently this Dokaka dude was involved with Bjork’s Medulla album. Which is bully for him, but seriously I got two minutes into that record and got very very frustrated and angry. That’s mainly because there was too much weird and not enough good.

Enough about me, more about ???, or Dokaka, which translates from the original Japanese as, well, I think it’s just onomatopoeic, so probably “Boom-bam-bam” or something. This next video is the cornerstone of my “I am better than Ryan at writing about World Music” argument:

I’d say a good 60% of what makes this video awesome isn’t even the music, it’s the reactions of the people walking by. Dokaka pretty much sets up camp in front of some kind of bean shop. A man that could well be the proprietor of said shop comes out several times during the video to passive-aggressively shake his head. That’s so Japanese, dude.

It’s also important to note here that, well, this is a 50 year old Japanese man. If this were the States, see, people would probably recognize the Nirvana cut as at least being familiar. The chances that this poor old dude would even recognize Smells Like Spirit, however, are pretty much nil. So in his mind, there is a stark raving lunatic squealing absolute gibberish into a microphone in front of his place of business. And he does absolutely nothing. This, my friends, is awesome.

Also contributing to the video’s epic factor is the fact that the videographer is clearly a student of the mid-80s MTV school of filming. Rushed pans, zooms, whole nine.

You, of course, can do your own research by looking for more Dokaka on Youtube (I would recommend checking out Part 3 from this series – the zooming spaceship sounds really frighten passersby), but I’ll leave you with one last video, which is also my favorite. This is appropriate because this is my post and not yours:

This video is not great because of crowd reaction or weird zooming (though that is also good here): the song itself is really cute. The melody line he picks up at 2:14 is absolutely magical, and if you disagree, you lose.

Ryan, I have a feeling that if Dokaka and U. Srinivas got into a fight, then Dokaka would win. And even if Dokaka got beat up I would step in and beat up U. Srinivas with his own mandolin (because I am strong) and then that would mean Dokaka wins because he is on my side.

I challenge you to come up with a better post.