Find it here.
And here:
From left: Tyler the Creator and Frank Ocean’s mom.
(Via MTV)
Bulletin E-Edition:
Monday, February 11th, 2013
Monday, January 21st, 2013
Kanye West
Rapper, producer, Renaissance man and potential Kardashian Kanye West will be in Bend Saturday night to judge a rap battle at the Domino Room, according to the Power 94 radio station and the owners of two companies sponsoring the show.
The Underground Rap Event is scheduled to happen at 7 p.m. Saturday, with “select underground local and (non-local) unsigned artists … performing for a chance to win a single deal with Rare Individuals Ent.,” according to the poster, followed by performances by Soulja Boy, Young Sam, YG and HBK Gang.
Power 94′s page for the event promises a “VERY Special surprise guest.” On Thursday, the radio station teased further on Facebook, boasting that it would be bringing “the biggest hip hop star in the world – to BEND OREGON!”
That’s what got my attention, so I started poking around and found a comment on this Facebook thread by Valerie Goodew, owner of show sponsor ROYLT King&QueenPin Clothing, after she was asked who would be there: “Soulja Boy, YG, Young Sam, Kanye West and IamSu from HBK Gang”.
I like how Kanye is just tucked into the middle of this list, no big deal.
Two days later, Power 94 started hinting on the air at who the special guest would be. I heard hints on Friday afternoon; I don’t remember what they were, but they were obviously about Kanye West, and were followed by the Big Sean/Jay-Z/Kanye song “Clique”.
On Saturday, I wrote Goodew, Rare Individuals CEO Trip McClam and Kanye’s longtime publicist to try to confirm that West would be making the trip to Bend. McClam replied affirmatively. I haven’t heard back from the publicist. Goodew wrote back and said West, Souja Boy and the other artists will be there.
“My company and I wanted to put on something epic for our home town,” she said.
Last month, West performed at Madison Square Garden alongside the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and The Who as part of the 121212 Concert to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy. In the past couple of days, he has been in Paris for Fashion Week, according to, well, my Googling ability.
So next weekend he’s hanging out in Bend, Oregon? I wrote back to Goodew:
“… please understand that this is not a mistrust of you, but simply a result of the mind-boggling prospect that Kanye is coming to Bend to judge a rap battle. I’d love to hear just a bit more about how this came to pass. Because it’s really hard for me to believe that it’s as simple as: ‘Hi Kanye, here is your ungodly fee, please come judge a rap battle in Bend, Oregon after you perform at Madison Square Garden and attend Paris Fashion Week.’”
Goodew replied that West is a “close friend” of the L.A. rapper Young Sam, and that it was that friendship that made this happen. Young Sam is managed by McClam, and Rare Individuals is helping to put on the show. Somewhere within all those connections, West ended up on the judging panel, along with McClam.
“Getting Kanye to come wasn’t difficult at all, I just happen to know all the right people,” Goodew said. “But the biggest struggle (has been) to actually get people to believe us is what we are dealing with. So yes we are putting on this event just to give love to the people here because living here my whole life, I personally know that there is nothing for my genre of people to be entertained by.”
Goodew is working on the list of rappers who’ll be competing for the deal with Rare Individuals, she said.
Three ticket packages are available at www.queenpinclothing.com: general admission for $30, general admission + backstage pass for $60, and general admission + meet-and-greet + free merch and drinks for $100. Click here to purchase. Limited tickets will also be sold at Ranch Records, Goodew said.
Now, it seems to me that getting Kanye West to Bend is the bulk of the battle. If he is at the Domino Room Saturday night, who out there thinks they can talk him into jumping onstage and doing a song or three? Can you even imagine?
Saturday, December 22nd, 2012
10 years ago today. Damn.
It’s folly to say so, but I have always been a bit more drawn to his work with the Mescaleros than The Clash (though admittedly I am not an expert on either). So here’s a full set by the former performing songs by both bands, with occasional clips of an interview with Joe. This thing looks and sounds terrific, so … yeah, just click that “play” button.
Friday, August 17th, 2012
My review of Norah Jones’ concert Wednesday at Bend’s Les Schwab Amphitheater is in today’s GO! Magazine. And below, check out a bunch of great photos of the night, taken by The Bulletin’s Rob Kerr.
Opening act Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons
Monday, November 7th, 2011
I get more requests for album reviews, I think, than anything else.
I’d love to do them. I’d love to do a ton of them, both in print and here on Frequency. I’ve been wanting to do them since I took this job.
There have been a few different obstacles over the years, but right now, the main one is time. To review albums properly would take some time, and extra time is not something that I have available to me.
I say this to point out the “Frequent spins” section of the sidebar over there on the right. I just switched out the album covers this weekend, so it really reflects what I’m listening to a lot right now. Consider that an endorsement and go check ‘em out. (I am also going to try to keep that section more up to date going forward, FYI.)
All six of the covers over there are 2011 releases, and that’s because I’m deep into my process for determining my favorite albums of the year, so that’s about all I’m listening to. To that end, I’ll have actual thoughts and words on each of those albums in my “best of 2011″ coverage that’ll run in GO! Magazine at some point in the next several weeks. So keep an eye out for that. I’m tentatively planning something similar to previous years, which means the best albums of the year, best shows of the year, and a compilation of the year’s best songs available for free download on this here blog, dog.
I will say one thing, though: The biggest surprise of 2011, for me, is “Soul Punk,” the new solo album from former Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump. If you’re familiar with his previous band, put that stuff completely out of your head. There is no mall-punk emo to be found on this thing. Instead, it’s highly potent, punchy club-pop music that’s just exuberant and dynamic and lots of fun. Think Michael Jackson if he’d remained as awesome as he was in the early 1980s, but stuck around until 2011 and modernized a bit. That’s very high praise, and maybe it’s a tiny bit of an overstatement, but seriously, the MJ influence is strong here, and I can’t stop spinning this record. It’s terrific and will finish high on my 2011 list.
I don’t know how long this link will work, but for now, you can stream all of “Soul Punk” by clicking here.
Last but not least: I do tend to talk more about nationally released, non-local albums on Facebook and Twitter, so if you’re not already snuggling up to Frequency in the social media sphere, you should be.
Saturday, September 24th, 2011
Nirvana released “Nevermind” 20 years ago today.
Sept. 24, 1991. I was 15.
For some large percentage of the world’s population, this anniversary doesn’t mean much. And for some smaller, more cynical group of people, it means another chance to roll their eyes whenever someone begins to wax poetic about the album and what it meant/means in the context of punk rock/popular music/pop culture/fashion/the Northwest music scene/hero worship/conformity/nonconformity/whatever.
I understand that. Just as one might scoff at the notion that “Nevermind” changed a lot of lives (besides Kurt Cobain’s, Krist Novoselic’s and Dave Grohl’s), I will probably scoff one day when some young whippersnapper claims their life was changed by, say, Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” or Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs.” (No slag intended. Both are fine albums; see #11 and #25 here.)
It’s the circle of life, or at least the circle of thinking your formative music is the most important music ever and subconsciously diminishing that which came before or after. Y’know … that circle.
But I’m here to tell you: “Nevermind” changed lives. It changed mine. I went from listening to Bobby Brown in 6th grade to Def Leppard and INXS in 8th grade to Nirvana in 10th grade to discovering the Pixies and Pavement and Teenage Fanclub and my weird local college radio station and on and on. From there, it was a deep, dark rabbit hole of music super-nerd-dom that I tumbled into, and that I still haven’t climbed out of. Thank goodness.
Friday, February 25th, 2011
That subject line is what we call “click bait” folks!
Per the Silver Moon Brewing website:
Besides the involvement of the guitarist for one of the world’s biggest rock bands, it should be noted that The Baseball Project, The Minus 5 and Steve Wynn are all terrific artists in their own right.
Kudos to Gabe Johnson, booking dude at Silver Moon (and his own company, Parallel 44 Presents), on a “home run!” (Gah. That was terrible. Sorry.)
Saturday, February 6th, 2010
My sister, Emily, and brother-in-law, Ryan, live in Lexington, Kentucky with their new puppy, which they’ve named Chesney. Yes, that Chesney. So they’re pretty big fans of country music.
They’re also, like most Kentuckians, lifelong fans of the University of Kentucky basketball team, which is currently 21-1 and ranked No. 3 or 4 in the country, depending on which poll you read. Just sayin’.
Anyway, on Jan. 21, they got to combine those two interests by taking in country superstar Brad Paisley’s “American Saturday Night” tour at UK’s home court, Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington. (Miranda Lambert opened the night, but is sadly absent from this review.)
As Frequency readers know, I believe Paisley and Lambert are the cream of the country crop right now, so I asked Emily and/or Ryan to write a short review of the show for me. Ryan came through; he was even nice enough to write a headline and sprinkle in several Dick Vitale-isms (they’re in quotes). Click below to see what he had to say, plus some video from the show:
Monday, February 1st, 2010
I’ll have one in Friday’s GO! Magazine.
Sneak preview: This was the best moment of the night. Actually, this is pretty much all you need to know:
But come back on Friday and read my recap anyway.
(Thanks, goldenfiddle.)
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