Schematic Records Dukes Of The Stratosfear Tour Revisited

A quick example of what you probably missed:



Schematic rules! Hit their site and support! Much love to Rom, Joe and the whole Schema fam!

Schematic Records On Tour!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Schematic Records are on tour right now! Ay from Ken Rei, Joe Lentini and my man Rom aka Takeshi Muto are going to be performing live starting tomorrow through the 24th. Here is a list of tour dates:

Schematic Records Summer Tour
Dukes of the Stratosfear

July 13th Knoxville, TN - The Pilot Light
July 14th Cincinnati, OH - Mayday
July 15th Chicago, IL - Co-Prosperity Sphere
July 16th Detroit, MI - The Old Miami
July 18th Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
July 19th Columbus, OH - Skylab
July 20th Pittsburgh, PA - Garfield Artworks
July 21st Buffalo, NY - Soundlab
July 23rd Boston, MA - Asteroid M House
July 24th Brooklyn, NY - Public Assembly Loft

I was really hoping to go to the Grog Shop show but I don't know if it's gonna happen, but hopefully I'll still be able to hang out with Rom and company maybe on Saturday. Regardless, I believe Ay, Joe and Rom will be spinning sets at each tour date and they're gonna be excellent so make sure you get yourself down there! You can find more information about the shows here and here, Schematic in general here, and Ay and Ken Rei here and here. GET THERE!!!!!

Joe Lentini

I seem to get a lot of e-mails from very friendly folks trying to hype their new releases, and while I appreciate their intent, my site is generally not about "new" music. That's not to say that I won't talk about new music when it's important or gets my interest, but writing me about your "slammin'" new hip-hop jam and how you're giving me an exclusive leak won't normally get my attention, at least not unless you're Dr. Dre or the zombie version of Easy-E. Sorry, not to be harsh, but it's the truth. That said, when I do hear something new that I really like I wanna scream about it from the highest mountains, and in this case I've been telling a lot of my friends about a fellow named Joe Lentini who has two EPs out on one of my favorite labels, Schematic. My buddy Rom was nice enough to let me check both EPs out in their entirety and I was rather pleasantly taken with Mr. Lentini's angle on club jams. Joe isn't making your stereotypical club jams, he's adding the glitches and flipping rhythms and keeping things interesting, but he'll get you to dancing too. Me, I don't get dancing very often, but when something makes me wanna drive REAL FAST, that to me is a great sign!

Below you'll find a little sampler of tracks from Joe's EPs, one track from each. The first track, Hanky Tank, from the Pink Pussy Popsicle EP makes me think of an evil Devo groove, something that makes you wanna boogie but also leaves you feeling a little spooked, taking an occasional look over your shoulder. The second is 347 from the 512 Max Health EP, and Joe gets a bit glitchier on this one while he weirds-out some vocal samples. Very funky stuff.

If you're feeling these tracks and want to grab the EPs, head on over to the official Schematic site where you can purchase them and check out additional samples. On top of that, Joe and Rom will be doing some shows throughout the summer and I'll share more info about those shows as soon as I have more details. For those unfamiliar with my man Rom, he is better known to many as Takeshi Muto, one half of the amazing Phoenecia who are also on Schematic and whose new album, Echelon Mall, can also be purchased via the official Schematic site. hint hint!

Anyway, check out these two tracks, hit the Schematic site for more samples, and support independent artists if you like what they're doing! Enjoy!


Joe Lentini - Sampler

01 Hanky Tank
02 347

a little mixtape

So I was planning on doing a WaxTrax! retrospective this week, but something REALLY BIG has popped up and I have to turn my attention towards it, as it could prove to be of life-changing proportions. That said, I'm not going to be around for the rest of the week but everything will return to normal next week, starting with the WaxTrax! retrospective. For now though, here is a little mixtape I put together mostly from things I recently purchased on vinyl, although there are a few exceptions.


a little mixtape

01 Nirvana - Tourette's (Shitkicker Re-Edit)
This is a "remix/re-edit" I created a while ago for the hell of it. I'm not sure what I think of it, but I figured I'd share it with you all. If you hate it, just skip it, but I'd love to know your honest opinion of what you think about it.

02 69 - Ladies & Gentlemen (Original Version)
I got this from a friend, so it's not my rip, but the quality is quite good. This is longer than the version re-issued in the 69 box set, The Legendary Adventures Of A Filter King, and in my opinion, the extended portion should never have been deleted.

03 Joe Lentini - Mooonmen Jam #2
Joe is an up-and-comer who has a record, Pink Pussy Popsicle, coming out on Schematic next month. Really good, funky, clubby electronic stuff with some attitude! I'll be sharing some more info on Joe in the near future, but he's a really cool guy and the record is definitely worth grabbing!

04 Malcolm McLaren - Duck Rock Cheer
This is on the A-Side of a promotional 12" I recently purchased, with an edit and a track from another McLaren project on the B-Side. This doesn't really have anything to do with the Duck Rock album, rather it's from the Swamp Thing album. Trevor Horn gets the writing credit and a co-production credit alongside Stephen Hague, leading me to wonder if Malcolm really had anything to do with the track. Not that it should surprise anyone if he didn't.

05 Jean-Luc Ponty - Twenty Small Cigars
From Ponty's amazing King Kong album, which features five Zappa compositions as well as Zappa on guitar, George Duke on keys and Ian Underwood on whatever he's playing whenever he's playing. Incredibly slept-on classic of a jazz album!

06 Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump (Latch Bros. Remix)
The Latch Bros. were another Beastie side-project, but I may do a post about them eventually so I'll leave it at that. This is actually taken from the Beastie Boys Video Anthology DVD set.

07 Meat Beat Manifesto - Re-Animator (Part 1)
Probably my favorite track from Storm The Studio, this is from an original US WaxTrax! vinyl copy of the album I recently found in Pittsburgh. Crank it!

08 Maggie's Dream - It's A Sin (11th Avenue Mix)
This is a really odd discovery. Maggie's Dream was a band led by Dräco Rosa, an ex-member of Menudo and a very popular star of the Latin Alternative Music scene. Their sole album was released in 1990 on Capitol Records and a single for It's A Sin was released. The track on it's own is pretty good, but what makes the remixes stand out is they were created by the Dust Brothers! The mixes sound like left-overs from Paul's Boutique, albeit a little more subdued and featuring soulful singing in place of raps. I may post some additional mixes eventually, but none of them are all that different from each other. Still though, really great track!

09 The Marvelettes - Don't Mess With Bill
From an oddball red vinyl pressing of a Motown singles compilation from, I believe, Japan. The packaging is pretty horrid as the cover is made from something resembling construction paper and the vinyl is a bit beat up, but it was so strange I couldn't pass it up.

10 Chris de Luca - One
Not my rip, but a great track from de Luca's Unknown EP. Worth hunting down if you can find it, and as it's no longer in print as far as I know you probably won't. I might have to post the full EP here eventually.

11 Aretha Franklin - 96 Tears
From another assumed Japanese red vinyl record, this one a copy of Aretha Arrives. Never knew she'd recorded a cover of 96 Tears.


Again, sorry for the little break guys. I'll tell you a little more about it next week when I'm back. Enjoy the tracks!