Dante’s Hifi – Miami – April 20 Rub And Tug At Sway – New York, NY 12/20/10
Monday, December 20th
Roxy Cottontail Presents
Rub And Tug
Featuring
DJ Equal
Cosmo Baker
& Musa
@ Sway – 305 Spring St. – New York, NY
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45s Of Fury
So tomorrow – this Friday night – me and my man Rich Medina are going to lay waste to Philly. I mean straight come through like Godzilla and Mothra and just wreck shop, straight up and down. We’ve been talking about this since forever and now we’re fully focused, together, and motivated. Really psyched about this cause this type of shit is really my favorite. So. Much. Fun. That. I. Cannot. Express. It. Enough. So anyone who knows the history knows that me and Rich been partners in this Remedy 215 thing of ours since the mid 90s. Plus we’re doing it at Fluid which is where it all started for us. So it’s kind of a no brainer. Expect nothing but heat all night, from all angles.
Now not for nothing, with all humility I will say that we’re both pretty fucking good when it comes to slanging these little records. So to get you all in the mood here’s a few clips of some of the guys that I think are the absolute best in the business when it comes to playing 45s. They are the one and only 45 King and DJ Rockin’ Rob. You all know 45 King obviously (if you don’t then what the hell are you even doing here on my site?) Rob isn’t as well known outside the NY area but for my money he’s one of the best DJs around, something that I got into a conversation with Chairman Mao a few weeks back about. I have to roll up to the parks one of these days and check homie when he’s rocking. Anyway, enjoy the clips and hope to see you all out tomorrow night!
Soul Sanging
I love me some R&B and I love to sing and I’m feeling pretty good today. Okay I’m gonna leave it right here and lamp out, return later on with some joints.
Breakbeat Tuesday – Special guest Nick Catchdubs
Good morning everyone, and what a glorious morning it is. Welcome back to Philadelphia, Mr. Lee! Seriously, that completely blindsided me, but I’m damn happy for it. So anyway, today is Tuesday and so obviously it’s time to do the damn thing with Breakbeat Tuesday.
One of the best things about this column is that I’ve been able to bring friends in to share with the world some hot jams, and bring in their unique perspective. So with that being the case, I’m happy to bring to the world my main man Nick Catchdubs! I met Nick back in the early 2000s back when I first moved up to New York and he’s one of the funniest, smartest, most on point dudes that I know. Plus when it comes to musical tastes we definitely share many commonalities (he’s the only dude I know who would be psyched when I send him a photo of a Soul Coughing song loaded into my Serato.) Plus, he’s got this little record label called Fool’s Gold which is pretty okay, I guess. Of course I had to mention that, but at least I didn’t refer to him as a “honcho.” Okay, with that said, let’s get to this week’s Breakbeat Tuesday as Catchdubs brings it to you 90s style!
“Imani Coppola’s “Legend Of A Cowgirl” is pure Catchdini catnip, a dwarf star in the alternapop galaxy but a personal favorite and go-to DJ record. For a minute it was much more – a 1997 MTV staple I can vividly remember watching at my friend Mabel’s house in the post-Kennedy, pre-Carson Daly era.
Producer Michael Mangini (whose resume is an incredible Google rabbit hole teaching me not only what mics and compressors to use when recording David Byrne’s vocals, but also that dude produced Digables “Cool Like Dat” AND “Who Let The Dogs Out”!??!?!?) hooked up a tasty loop of Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman” with Prince Paul-worthy aplomb – not surprisingly, the Dew Dew Man has a remix of his own on the 12-inch. Yet as much as his hippy go-go drums make the tune, the secret ingredient is sass.
Imani swags the fuck out on this, turning what could have been a Lilith Fair coffeehouse ramble into an honest to goodness torch song. “Pecos Bill couldn’t hang for long with a female legend with a song” – that’s some shit right there! Unfortunately, the rest of her debut Chupacabra LP didn’t live up to the promise of the single (or it’s own awesome album title) and she’s remained relatively quiet for the decade plus since, popping up occassionally on Mike Patton albums and VH1 reality shows – her group Little Jackie wrote the theme song to one of Flavor Flav’s dating show contestant spinoffs. While we’re getting random, this is as good a time as any to mention that “Cowgirl” was in Bowfinger. CHUBBY RAIN.
As far as one-hit-wonders go, “Legend Of A Cowgirl” still has real character. Newer pop-leaning grrrl power artists like Janelle Monae still struggle to come up with anything half as catchy (in my humble opinion). I regularly catch myself rescuing “Cowgirl” from dollar bins – in both Columbia white label and cut-out pic sleeve form – for no particular reason. To this day it still plays nice in a mini set with other ladybreaks from the late 90s / early 00s like Cut Chemist’s mix of Jem’s “They,” the Santigold-penned “Golden Boys” by Res, and Fiona Apple’s “Fast As You Can” (pitched down some). Ooh, then throw in Beck “Devil’s Haircut” and that Chemical Brothers jawn that sounds like “Tomorrow Never Knows”… exit mindgarden, Catchcrest OUT!”
Imani Coppola “Legend Of A Cowgirl” (Prince Paul Mix) (Columbia, 1997)