To their credit, Pitchfork compiled a more-or-less well done 25 worst album covers of the year list, but they're remiss in not recognizing the power of a well done album cover. Rather than complain, we're taking matters into our own hands and making a list of our own. If RIAA doomsayers are to be believed, the great sun of the era of the tangible album is being eclipsed by filesharing, iTunes, and the menacing iPod. Art should be more important today than ever, if for no other reason than to giv
DJ House Shoes and Brian Gillespie at Detroit Bar. Photo by DJ Edouble
First thing I heard as I approached Detroit Bar was Seals & Crofts’ 1973 hit “Diamond Girl.” At Abstract Workshop, one of OC’s preeminent hip-hop nights? I didn’t think baby-boomer nostalgia was part of its equation, but when I actually slipped inside the venue, I could hear some wicked J Dilla beats splattering over the Lite FM chestnut. Dude responsible for the killer juxtaposition was DJ House Shoes, a Detroit
A 25-track disc comprised of beats made by the late J Dilla is "dropping" (that's hip-hop for "being released") June 2 on Nature Sounds. Dilla was a much-heralded producer who gained fame in the late '80s with the group Slum Village. Many credit him for helping to place Detroit on the hip-hop map, but it was role in the production team The Ummah (with Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammed) that made him a hip-hop household name. Dilla's time with The Ummah saw him work on A Tribe Called Quest's two fin
