http://www.blogger.com/template-edit.g?blogID=5698442&saved=true <i>Other Music from a...</i> Different Kitchen <$BlogRSDUrl$>

Sunday, October 26, 2003

Happy Birthday wishes, Mark Ronson's debut album appraised and something for the soccer fan in your life the  

My sister and I just gave this DVD box set to our Dad as a gift for his 70th birthday which is today. This acclaimed, and seemingly comprehensive, documenatry series was originally shown on PBS I believe and has footage of super-rare early soocer games including the first known film footage of a professional soocer match from like 1897 and every goal scored in a wold Cup final. If you know someone into "The Beautiful Game," you need to get them this set.

Not to get all personal and mushy today but props also have to go to my Mom for throwing a fantastic birthday party for my Dad on Friday: the whole house was decorated in a festive halloween style, a great buffet dinner with a million deserts plus a surprise live steel pan performance to boot. My mom is known for throwing good parties but she definitely topped herself this time. And it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy: Happy Birthday again, Dad, hope you have a good one.

np: Mark Ronson's Here Come the Fuzz. For those who don't know him, Mark is a big club DJ in NYC known for spinning an eclectic mix of commerical hip hop, R&B/funk classics and rock n roll for the young, rich, beautiful and famous at various parties and events mere mortals like you and me have no hope of ever getting into.

What most people, who may have a passing awareness of Mark's DJ career, don't know though is that he's also a pretty talented producer and musician. I got put up on him by my man Max Nichols when he did a cool remix for De La Soul 's "Dinninit" (from the Stakes is High album) using a sample from Lowrell's "Mellow, Mellow (Right On)." Until now though his best-known production work was on Nikka Costa's underappreciated soul-rock album Everyboy's Got their Something.

Here Comes the Fuzz is a natural progression on from his work on that album. It's uneven and, as a whole, little crunchier and more organic-sounding than his big room, party-rockin' DJ style but it offers it's own pleasures for those who were expecting his DJ-sound on wax. The Saigon/Nate Dogg/Ghostface disco-laced hip hop club-rocker "Ooh Wee" has been criminally ignored in NYC (c'mon it mixes lovely with Mobb Deep's "Double Shots") and there are some other joints by Nappy Roots, Sean Paul & Tweet, a 60's-eque fuzz pop jawn with Rivers Cuomo from Weezer on vocals, as well as a cool rock-rap collabo featuring Mos Def and MOP worth checking out too. More for the bohemians than the hip hop puritans, peep this out if you can borrow it or find it cheap.

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