It’s Philly Tech Week, and this Sunday, you have the opportunity to attend an interesting free event at Underground Arts. The evening will kick off with an hour-long Q&A with ?uestlove, which will be hosted by XPN’s Bruce Warren. There will be performances by Lushlife, Man Man’s Pow Pow (a.k.a. Christopher Sean Powell), and Khari Mateen as well as tunes being spun by DJs Dave P and PHSH. Come out and learn a few things while shakin’ your ass to some dope sounds! Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill St., 5pm, Free All Ages - H.M. Kauffman
Other things to get you out and about this weekend…
Johnny Brenda’s (1201 N. Frankford Ave.) FRI Lantern, SAT Denison Witmer, Soporus
Kung Fu Necktie (1250 N. Front St.) FRI Belgrade Record Release Show, SAT (Upstairs) The Repellers, (Downstairs) The Fantastic Imagination, Hurry, SUN Buried Beds, Auctioneer
Underground Arts (1200 Callowhill St.) FRI Ginger Coyle, Katie Barbato, Echo Victory, SAT Super Galactic Expansive, SUN Lushlife, Pow Pow, Questlove, Dave Pianka, DJ PHSH Khari Mateen
PhilaMOCA (531 N. 12th St. Philadelphia) SAT Cheap Dinosaurs
North Star Bar (2639 Poplar St.) FRI Great Big House, The Real Feel, SAT The LBG Project and Overlook, SUN Spirit & Dust
The Fire (412 W. Girard Ave.) FRI Anjuli Josephine, Ella Dars, Swedeland, Sun Flights, SAT (All Ages) Brothers & Sisters, The Dingleheads, (Late) The Badlees, John & Brittany, Jacob Kulick, SUN Bubblegum Octopus, Death Leopards, 185668232, Storm Blooper
MilkBoy Philly (1100 Chestnut St.) SAT El Malito, Mo Lowda
Ortlieb’s Lounge (847 N. 3rd St.) FRI Sheriff Ariff & The Walli Sanga, SAT Welter, The Moms, Nark
M Room (15 W. Girard Ave.) FRI Color Kingdom, Mystery Circle
Tin Angel (20 S. 2nd St.) FRI Matt Dike, Matt Santry, SAT (Early) Sue Bailey, (Late) No Good Sister
Fergie’s (1214 Sansom St.) FRI The Late Ancients, SAT The Keystone Mountain Boys, SUN Rusty Cadillac
World Café Live (3025 Walnut St.) FRI Ruder Than You, Fink's Constant
The Legendary Dobbs (304 South St.) FRI Montoj, The Bartleby Jones, Cocktail Party Phenominon, SAT Firm Taqtics, Sound Barrier Experience, Five Times Famous, Drew Nielson Experience, Venice Sunlgiht, Beth Goldwater, Halfro, Aaron Coile, SUN (Downstairs) Supreem and The New Experience, Paulette Branson & Mixed People, Supreem Da Rezarekta, (Upstairs) Lanice London
The Grape Room (105 Grape St.) FRI Sonoma Sound, Stealing Fame, Sonogram, The Mighty O.V., Xerohour, Justin DePaola, SAT Looseleaf Trio, East of The West, Grip of The Gods, Astorian Stigmata
Vox Populi (319 N. 11th St., #3) SAT gender EDGE w/Sgt.Sass, EX. By V., Ruby L.L. Voyager, DJ Nasty Sinatra
Year in review for Lushlife (a.k.a. Raj Haldar): skilled, innovative and making waves. In 2012, this “bedroom composer” made some serious moves with his adventuresome beats and cerebral content. Lushlife was featured on YouTube’s music page for the debut session of The Deli Philly & HotBox Studio’s Choice/Cuts. Plateau Vision was released via Western Vinyl (which became our May Album of the Month). He is certainly on the radar of a number of big-name publications and critics, ranging from Pitchfork to The New York Times, and has collaborated and received the remix treatment from hip-hop stars like Das Racist’s Heems, Styles P and Shabazz Palaces. Basically, it’s not stopping in 2012 for the wildly creative yet extremely humble Deli fave. Lushlife is already on board for the Roots Picnic this summer, and we happen to know that he has a release in the works with a rad mysterious electronic outfit (which really can’t come soon enough for us). This past year was simply a coming out party for Lush, and we look forward to seeing the rest of the world getting exposed to him! - Brandi Lukas
Check out the new remix from Lushlife of his track “Teenage Dreams” off his most excellent 2011 mixtape No More Golden Days! “Instead of a Katy Perry flip, the new instrumental uses individual notes meticulously sampled from a vintage autoharp.” You can take a listen to and download it for free HERE. Enjoy!
Underground Arts presents a dope but somewhat oddly-matched showcase tonight with local emcee/producer Lushlife opening up the festivities. With an appreciation and ear whose net captures a wide range of musicology, Lushlife creates intricate, multi-faceted beats from his compact, road-ready stage setup. Smoothly incorporating a free-and-easy rhyming style over an ever-evolving, textured musical canvas, Lush has an old-school classic emcee delivery with a new-age, all-hands-on-deck sonic sensibility that easily demonstrates why he has received so much press this past year. He will be supporting Brooklyn art-punk duo Japanther, while west coast hip-hop veterans The Coup headline this evening’s bill. Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill St., 9pm, $13, 21+ - Michael Colavita
Lushlife (a.k.a. Raj Haldar) remixed Styles P and AraabMuzik’s collaboration “Araab Styles” (from the album The World’s Most Hardest MC Project). However, Raj has put his own dope spin on it (of course) and renamed the track “Lush Styles,” which premiered today via Stereogum and you can check it out below. Enjoy!
By now, we hope that you’ve had a chance to check out Lushlife’s new music video for the track “Magnolia,” which was brilliantly directed by LAMAR+NIK. Do you think that it is as dope as we do? Well, if you want a chance to win one of those rad handmade cardboard words, then please go HERE for instructions about the contest giveaway from Rap Genius and see how that can be possible, or you can also snatch up a signed Lushlife CD and poster prize package. Good luck!
Do you find lyric videos annoying? Well, we think the crafty new music video (below) for Lushlife’s “Magnolia” will help you feel quite differently about them while still highlighting the wordsmith’s most excellent lines. It premiered earlier today via NPR Music, and was directed by duo LAMAR+NIK. Enjoy!
Tonight the focus of the 215 Festival will shine on its strongest music showcase of the weekend at Underground Arts. Lushlife, a.k.a. Raj Haldar, brings a unique approach to hip-hop as both an emcee and producer, combining a wide array of sonic sampling warping listeners through various stages of musicology. Capable of taking a simple snare-beat and owning the mic with sweet-spot lyrical precision, Lush pays tribute to his “golden days” predecessors. However, while his lyrical narratives are influenced by emcees like Nas and Black Thought, it’s just a tool at Lushlife’s disposal. Integrating powerful lyrics with multi-genre-fused beats creating music that honors the past while sounding like the future. Light Heat, the latest venture for Quentin Stoltzfus (formerly of Mazarin), takes the concept of classic pop-rock production and pushes at its seams by using the layered instrumentation approach in strategically building songs that are both complex in structure yet accessible. Also joining the bill is Dave Quicks (formerly of the BurnDown All-Stars) with his trio and NYC’s Lily & The Parlor Tricks. Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill St., 8pm, $5 (Light Heat Photo by Kyle Costill) - Michael Colavita
Here's a dope new Lushlife-produced track below for Das Racist’s Heems called “Soup Boys (Pretty Drones).” Lush will be performing live this Saturday at Underground Arts for the Bibliodiscotheque Dance Party & 215 Fest Music Showcase.
Here's a dub remix that you can download for free by Lushlife of local homies Les Professionnel's "Move!", which was originally a fist-pumper that found its way on this season's premiere of MTV's Jersey Shore. The remix is part of Potholes in My Lawn's Robot Soup, the fourth compilation in their producer showcase series. Lush is performing live tonight for free at The Delancey (Upstairs) for The Deli CMJ Electronic showcase.
