2nd half of the week preview

THURSDAY

Hip-Hop Thursdays at Spring Street Tavern: I'll be DJ'ing with Big Trey at the Spring Street Tavern from 10 to close. Holler at me for some free stuff!

Last of the Record Buyers presents Content Under Pressure: a very dope concept where randomly selected producers and emcees will be thrown together in a studio and have a few hours to create something. They then perform the song mere hours later. This all goes down at IPR. For an in-depth run-down peep the video:

FRIDAY

High Energy option:

BOMP V: Already in it's very successful fifth iteration, the BOMP! party keeps the formula simple. They bring in DJs that get people dancing no matter their style. It all ends up working because the young, hipster crowd is open-minded and just wants to shake their ass. Come through for partying without any pretenses.

Low Key option:

Treehouse Records Night at King & I Thai: I've been meaning to get to this music night at King & I. The music nerds at Treehouse Records will be taking over the sound at King & I all night and will be playing records from their personal collection. Deep crates are guaranteed.

SATURDAY

Twin Cities Battle League MC Battle Round 2: I've been meaning to get to one of these, but I haven't. I can't vouch yet for the quality of the contestants, but the fact that it's lasted 2 and a half seasons means that it can't be bad. Will there ever be anything like the Loring Pasta Bar battles? No. But at least people are keeping the freestyling art form alive and well. Come through to catch emcees cut their teeth and maybe even catch the next big Minneap rapper. I know that Sean Anon came up through this and caught the attention of Big Zach. It goes down at the Blue Nile off Cedar.

I almost forgot and this is what I'm looking forward to the most this weekend. Digitata is a Minneapolis electronic band with melodic instrumentation almost as sexy as the absolutely sultry and smokey vocals of Maggie Morrison. Their sound is hard to describe, but the experience is like being shrunken down to the size of a flea inside a cotton ball laced with LCD and fiber optics running through each magical cotton strand.

They will be performing and releasing an EP after being on hiatus for over a year and a half. The show is free and, even better, there will be awesome art from Eric Lee, David Jensen, and Chance Orth at the First Amendment gallery. For more details check out the City Pages article. It starts at 7:00 with Digitata performing around 9:00.

Digitata, "What's Cookin'"

Let the weekend begin!

It may be a little early but when Santigold comes to your town it makes the weekend official.

THURSDAY NIGHT

FRIDAY NIGHT

SATURDAY NIGHT (Last Show at the Dinkytowner)

HEADS UP!

Mux Mool, June 6th at the Uptown Bar!!!

...much more to come.

BOMP! tonight

Come out and BOMP! to a combination of your favorite club heaters and peruse some hotness that you won't hear anywhere else in Minneapolis.  It's time to get down with your hipster tonight!

BOMP! is official

If there were any doubts whether the inaugural BOMP! Vol. 0.0 last month had a fluke debut, they were answered last night with another packed crowd.  And what a crowd!  It was a beautifully diverse group of Minneap party-rockers enjoying the music and the deejays.

Founders Wes Winship and Shannon Blowtorch hit the tables early on, followed up by heavy-hitter and Cryphy King, Jimmy 2 Times.  The headliner of the night was a DJ that I was previously not familiar with: Dirty Finger.  Dude hails from BK and holds it down on stages with the likes of Jazzy Jeff, Juiceboxxx, Ninjasonik, and Spank Rock.  And he definitely held it down last night.  It was great to get a New York native's take on the new dance scene.  He brought some usual B'more jams (thank goodness, because I've invested a lot of vinyl into the genre).  But he definitely had some nutso remixes of white-boy-party-rock, some seriously cheesy old-school melodies from the 'jock jam' era that actually worked, and my favorite was some unknown indie rock that caught the crowd a little off guard initially.  They warmed right up to it, though.

I loved his mixing style.  He doesn't quickly transition tracks within 8-bars by fading in and then fading out (the standard style).  Instead, he brings in the next track as a certified layer to the current one and lets it ride for maybe a full verse.  This definitely takes a great ear and understanding of the music.  I've never seen or heard that style.  Very cool.

The evening in pictures (many got chopped - click to view full image):