Whether you knew him as Jay Dee, Jay Dilla, or simply James Dewitt Yancey, when the Detroit native, super-producer/MC died from from the rare blood disorder TTP,  he had already managed to make an incredible impact during his mere 32 years (February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006).  Among his family and friends, Dilla left behind an allegiance of fans, admiring colleagues, and an irreplaceable gap in the music industry.  He also left behind endless new fans, imitators who were forced to discover their own sound, and a posthumously ominous swan song entitled DONUTS, which he perfected on his death bed.

On Feb. 13, STUSSY paid tribute to Dilla through collaborations with Yancey‘s estate and Stones Throw records.  Stage one involved the clothing company’s release of a limited edition T-shirt, featuring a classic image of the producer take from Raph Rashid‘s photography book “Behind the Beat: Hip Hop Home Studios“.  From there, Stones Throw embarked on multi-city in-store release parties for this shirt.  The main project that was birthed through this collaboration, however, was a 3-part documentary, offering insight into Jay Dee‘s character and time on this planet.  Each piece has been being released one at a time and, now that the final installment has finally arrived, we’re pleased to provide the documentary to you now with it’s pieces back to back and in it’s entirety.

Enjoy
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Created and run by Gio Tonineli from Pondpatrol.com, GI JOE FEST has provided a forum for enthusiasts of both stop motion animation and the classic Hasbro action figures, since 2007.  What the festival entails is fairly simple: each year open-submissions are accepted for anyone (internationally) who has created a stop-motion film, which includes at least one character represented by a GI JOE action figure.  The submissions close around July, when a pre-selection screening for the festival takes place.  In October, the films are judged and screened at the infamous, Alamo Draft House in Austin, TX.  Beginning early the following year, the final selection of films begin their limited city tour as a festival.

Tonight (Feb. 10, 2010) marks the kick off of the 3rd annual GI JOE Stop-Motion Film Festival, (more…)

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First Ever Live Show – TONIGHT 2/19!

Broken Bells has confirmed the details of its first ever live date. The band will perform TONIGHT (February 19) at the Fold In Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles located at 2220 Beverly Boulevard just west of Alvarado (Across the street from Brooklyn Bagel).

Doors are at 8 pm. Free parking available on Roselake Ave. directly behind The Praise Christian Church. A LIMITED number of tickets are available now via http://www.inticketing.com/evlist.php?events=search&v=6117

2 ticket limit.

For anyone who is unaware of the project, Broken Bells is the new collaborative effort between DJ/super-producer, Brian “Dangermouse“ Burton and James Mercer of The Shins.  If you live in the Los Angeles area and act fast, tonight could be your opportunity to see if it it lives up to all of the hype. (more…)

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Sam Flores

We at Monster Fresh love The Upper Playground and the crew of incredibly talented artists that regularly collaborate with them.  After the tragedy in Haiti last month, UP stepped up with a 50% Off sale to benefit the disaster victims.  The sale applied to everything, even the fine art prints were 1/2 off, and for every shirt purchased, another shirt was also donated for the cause.  As if that wasn’t enough, now the the folks at UP have teamed up with the likes of Quentin Tarantino, SA Studios Global, and The Weinstein Company in an effort to raise even more money for the Nation in turmoil.  Using Tarantino‘s latest Oscar-nominated film, Inglourious Basterds, as their muse, 13 of today’s biggest artists contributed their own rendition of poster art from the film.  Included among the artists are such talents as Munk One, David Choe, Alex Pardee, and Jeremy Fish; each of which brings their own trademark styles and unique approach to their pieces.  However, while some artists’ works are more instantly recognizable, like N8 Van Dyke‘s, others display a completely different aspect to their work, (see: Sam Flores‘ print, pictured above).  Each of the 13 prints will run in an extremely limited series only 6 each.  Each print will also be signed by Tarantino himself and will go on sale tonight (Feb. 18)  from 6-9 at the Upper Playground location in Los Angeles.  All profits will be donated to the American Red Cross to aid in the Haiti Earthquake relief effort.  Here’s a great opportunity to contribute to a noble cause, while investing in something that is guaranteed to multiply in value, almost immediately.

Complete details and images of each print, after video: (more…)

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(To read Part 1, featuring the project backstory and MP3 links, click here)

{David Lynch. Untitled [Grim Augury #1], 2009. Digital print mounted on aluminum.
Edition 1 of 7. Courtesy Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles.}

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

Premiere collaboration between groundbreaking music
artist Danger Mouse and luminary filmmaker David Lynch
On view at the Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles
May 30–July 11, 2009

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(To read Part 2, featuring the Gallery exhibit/Book images, click here)

For those that have been following the construction, breakdown, and pseudo-resurrection of the Dark Night of the Soul collaboration between DJ Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse (Mark Linkous) and filmmaker David Lynch, we hope to provide some additional information about this chaotic project.  We’re even gonna throw a few links and tips your way about acquiring the tracks from the album and peeping out the original artwork.  For those that aren’t up on the craziness that DNOTS has become, we’re gonna start out by breaking it down for you like an X1 model Hyundai Excel.

Producer/artist Brian Joseph Burton (aka: Danger Mouse) hit the scene pretty tough when he dropped The Grey Album, back in 2004.  The album was comprised of mash-ups between tracks from Jay-Z’s The Black Album and The Beatles‘ White Album and EMI, copyright holder of The Beatles material used, lost their shit.  The EMI Group‘s attempts to halt the distribution actually helped to increase the project’s notoriety and demand, as well as that of the artist.  The Dark Night of the Soul project has entered into a similar realm, with Danger Mouse and EMI bumping heads yet again, but we’ll go into that later. (more…)

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