URB » documentary

Red Bull Music Academy presents H∆SHTAG$ #01 Mini-Documentary Series

Phil Nacionales — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 05:41:06 +0000

Red Bull Music Academy has launched a weekly mini-documentary series entitled, H∆SHTAG$. The first episode in the series, entitled ‘Don’t Call It #Alt-R&B’, features interviews with Miguel, How To Dress Well (formerly one half of The Weeknd), Jeremy ‘Zodiac’ Rose, Rochelle Jordan, and BadBadNotGood.

The series looks at the ‘current renaissance of contemporary R&B’ in light of the current ‘always-on’ age and asks the questions — ‘what happens when the Internet comes of age’ and what happens to the generation of musicians and artists that have grown up with it. H∆SHTAG$ engages the viewer into a conversation that takes its topics from URL to IRL and all points around and in between.

Red Bull Music Academy as a whole has helped to shed light to some of the best music content in the world, and this series debut is definitely in line with that tradition. Check the video after the break and come back in one week for Episode 2.

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Red Bull Music Academy - H∆SHTAG$

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“Lookin4Galt” Documentary on Legendary Composer Galt MacDermot

hurryupnbuy — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:54:32 +0000

LOOKIN4GALT by Gasface

A documentary look at legendary composer Galt MacDermot of “Hair” and the man sampled into hip-hop lore over the last two decades.

“Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton (This Is Stones Throw Records)” Documentary w/ Trailer – Kickstarter Campaign

hurryupnbuy — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:29:06 +0000

Stones Throw is proud to announce the production of an independent documentary “Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton (This Is Stones Throw Records)” by filmmaker, Jeff Broadway of Gatling Pictures. Drawing on live concert footage, never-before-seen archival material and in-depth interviews “Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton” will follow label founder and DJ/Producer, Peanut Butter Wolf and explore the various left-of-center artists, history, culture and global following.

There is a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the production of the documentary with some limited edition goodies as thank you gifts in return for one’s support. The goal is $35,000 which will cover production trips, shoots and edits of the film. The duration of the campaign is 45 days and will conclude at the end of November.

You can donate and make this documentary a reality via the Kickstarter page.

LCD Soundsystem: Shut Up And Play The Review

dangentile — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:25:37 +0000

The LCD Soundsystem documentary opens with the quote, “If it’s a funeral, let’s have the best funeral ever.”

While it’s a great metaphor for their final show at Madison Square Garden, don’t go into the film expecting a procession of nostalgia. Anchored around live footage and supplemented by a heady Chuck Klosterman interview, brief windows into Murphy’s daily routine, and behind-the-scenes set-up/tear-down of the Garden, the most poignant feature of SUAPTH is that it refuses to dwell on the past.

Murphy speaks of obsession with temporality and specific perspectives (“from this position… from this position…”). He wants his songs to be “of a moment” and in that sense Shut Up And Play The Hits is the last great LCD Soundsystem song, encapsulating the climax of an era and the entry into the everyday, which from the looks of it is mostly coffee-making and dog-walking. Murphy admits it feels “disturbingly normal”.

Despite the film’s aversion to nostalgia, it does conjure some images of a younger James. Reading Gravity’s Rainbow, idolizing Bowie, fearing the internet’s democratization of taste and demolition of historical perspective. He reminisces about how the band originally wanted to play only house parties and to leave a stain that was “half music and half culture”. But the strength of the film is that it doesn’t ever hover in the band’s history, it always returns to the present, using past positions to inform the reader as to why they’re calling it quits.

Any doubts Murphy has about retirement are totally justified by the band’s performance. From the opening anticipatory build of Dance Yrself Clean, the musicians looks and sounds like they’re on fire. Everyone’s playing with big-stage swagger and the cinematographers capture just how much fun the band is having, including guests like a chorus of Arcade Fire members on “North American Scum” and Reggie Watts’ baritone on part two of 45:33. Making due on it’s promise of the hits, featured songs include “Losing My Edge”, “Time To Get Away”, “When Someone Great Is Gone”, and “All My Friends”. They’re the tracks you’d want and expect. The show closes on a celebratory “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down”, with Murphy showcasing his role as conductor, holding out a fermata long enough for him to quip that it’s his “last endless pause”.

The day after the show Murphy returns briefly to MSG to take a last look at the band’s gear, which will be sold off. While eyeing the impressive “funeral pyre” of guitars and modular synth racks, he silently tears up, as if finally realizing the position he’s walking away from.

Kosha Dillz creates documentary, continues Give Me Five Tour to SXSW for Tipitinas Foundation

ramievenesh — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 23:17:09 +0000

If you have been keeping up with the Dillz, things are beginning to heat up on his tour, where he teamed up with “The New York Love Song,” an upcoming independent film company to begin the filming of his documentary that peers into the life of a D.I.Y. artist that self books tours, sleeps on floors, rocks SXSW, and earns a video game character in NBA 2k11 to worldwide voyages with Matisyahu, Snoop Dogg and Rza of the Wu Tang Clan. Although that could be the focal point , the documentary’s main point is to show his triumph from the prior life of Kosha Dillz, who was has dealt with drugs, jails, parole, and addiction to Division I athletics and high school wrestling stardom all before his career .

WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY TRAILER HERE ON KOSHA DILLZ’ SITE.

The “Give me Five Tour” has hit shows so far with everyone from Shinobi Ninja and The Movement to Lollapalooza indie superstars Tennis, and will take on Colorado this week for a slew of shows with Del The Funky Homosapien, Evidence, and Fashawn. For each person who attends a show, signs the email list, attends a facebook event, gives a “high five” to Kosha Dillz or buys a piece of merchandise, a nickel will be given to the Tiptinas Foundation. Also every social media hashtag of #givemefive #givemefivetour will add a nickel, along with a “like” to the Kosha Dillz fan page.

By donating to the Tiptinas Foundation fans will be supporting Louisiana and New Orleans’ music community, much of which is still suffering from Hurricane Katrina. People are also encourage to donate on their own accord, and the hope is to create enough awareness of the “give me five tour” and raise $5,000 for the foundation.

Give Me Five Tour dates

feb 21st Colorado University-boulder Boulder, CO

feb 22 Fox Theatre w/ Del the funky Homosapien, Evidence, Ugly Duckling Boulder, CO

feb 23 Cervantes w/ Evidence, Fashawn, Ra The Rugged Man, Ugly Duckling Denver, CO

feb 24 Hodi’s Half Note w/ Del the Funky Homosapien Fort Collins, CO

Feb 26th/27th Jewlicious Festival w/ Matisyahu Long Beach, CA

Feb 27th 72 North Pasadena, CA

March 1st UC- Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA

March 2nd Uprok Records w/ MC Pig Pen/Burnell Washburn/ Pat Maine Salt Lake City, UT

@koshadillz

listn.to/koshadillz

Happy Birthday James Yancey

Scotty Pippen — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 04:31:02 +0000

It’s the magical time of year again you guys. Not just Black History Month, or time of the annual grammies, NBA all star game in LA, it’s Dilla’s birthday. In honor of what is undoubtedly the best hip hop producer of all time, here’s “J.Dilla : Still Shining” the documentary for the fans that know him best told by the people who love him.

“J.Dilla: Still Shining” from B.Kyle on Vimeo.

House Shoes is throwing a can’t miss function at Little Temple out in LA, if your around. Ta’Raach, Mayer Hawthorne, Dj Rhettmatic, Dj Babu, Dj Jedi, Mona Lisa, Mr.Choc, CMINUS, Plan.B, InkaONE life changing. I’m actually in thailand and just realized it’s tomorrow already but it’s going to start in 30 minutes or so, if your can’t make it to see Rhett close out the night, then at least download his new mixtape masterpiece “Whatupdoe vol 1.5“

Beef & Beats :: A Tribe Called Quest Doc Trailer

Joshua Glazer — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:37:45 +0000

When the recent Wu-Tang documentary trailer came out, everyone was hella excitement about the kitchen arguments between the band members. So folks are gonna get really stoked on the trailer for Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest , actor Michael Rapaport’s new documentary about ATCQ, which gets deep into the personal issues between Phife Dawg and Q-Tip. Or, it could just be a brief segment in a film that otherwise spends its time praising the legendary crew—via interviews with ?uestlove, De La Soul, Nas and others. It’s kinda hard to tell via a five minute promo clip. Still, you know you’re gonna love it.

Hope YouTube fixes the audio-synch by the time you watch this. It’s pretty annoying otherwise.

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Control Creativo + Primmo: Guatemala

Dan Vidal — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:03:15 +0000

Creative Control heads to Guatemala to introduce it’s newly-formed Latin American branch. Very nice visuals to go along with the smooth Spanish-guitar of Primmo‘s “Mi Guatemaya.”

Speaking In Code: Interview with Director Amy Grill

Mitch Strashnov — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:18:38 +0000

Documentaries that involve electronic music are usually hit or miss; either the film misses the point of the original usage of the music or it goes on a different direction altogether. However, with Speaking In Code, there’s depth in each dimension of the film; from the characters of the artists featured, their bosses, their families, and the world around them. The filmmakers themselves also become centralized figures in the film, as a natural plot progresses that struggles passionately between the journey of pure techno love and love amongst themselves. A film worth watching more than once, Speaking In Code is nothing short of an extraordinary documentation of fandom, freedom and everything in between. URB had a chance to speak to the director, Amy Grill about the starting point, her exposure to techno and the bits that happened in between.

URB: When did you decide to embark on the journey that was documenting this experience?

AMY GRILL: Phillip Sherburne, David Day and myself were at the 2005 Winter Music Conference. We were on a sweaty dancefloor in some Miami club and we were discussing the scene, how much we loved techno during that time and all the characters that made us feel passionate about it. What I realized was that there were no techno documentaries that captured the essence of the producers and DJs, the characters of the techno world. While this is all happening, Diddy comes out of a megatrailer while Felix Da Housecat was spinning. Bizarre but true.

URB: What was your first techno exposure and what drew you to it?

AG: In the mid-to-late ’90s at the University of Kansas, I was into music in general, but more towards indie rock. But later, I got into Doctor Octagon and DJ Shadow. DJ Shadow was my first emotive exposure to electronic music, and because of the care he put into his sample-picking it was the perfect bridge to electronic music. I got into big-beats, and some minimal. In the early 2000s, the label of Kompakt gave me my proper “oh my God” moment into techno.

URB: The cast of characters is so deep from the Wighnomy Bros to Modeselektor and Monolake; how did you consider your ‘cast’ qualifications?

AG: We researched a lot, watched a lot of electronic music documentaries. We went impromptu to some festivals and interviewed artists unknowingly as a test for “casting.” The biggest questions we faced: “Who is the most interesting person to watch?”, “Who do you want to watch when they do nothing but make funny faces?”, “Who has a life that’s different from the techno world?” Monolake is the quirky mad-scientist but also he’s the creator of Ableton LIVE, which is significant to electronic culture. The Wighnomy Brothers had a very human element to their music and it showed in the film, and Modeselektor were just musicians working hard time and time again. Now look at them!

URB: The hype for the Wighnomy Bros were big in this film (they have recently disbanded), but Modeselektor were the titans in the end, blowing up exponentially. Did you expect any of the outcomes present to happen?

AG: With Modeselektor, there was a huge feeling they would blow up, and I couldn’t be more prouder of them. As for The Wighnomy Bros. I did not expect them to fall apart, but I expected something to happen I knew they would somehwat struggle with the fame but I would never think the outcome would end up the way it did.

URB: What was the wear-and-tear like for yourself and everyone involved during the years of putting this film together?

AG: There were definitely a lot of huge ups & downs that you see a lot of lighter stuff on camera. The years I put into making this film were both the best and worst years of my life. We were pretty honest about our struggles in the film and we didn’t hide it. I had a full-time job and juggled traveling internationally on the weekends, David was working for Forced Exposure and bringing Boston to techno glory. Nothing was easy and that’s in the film for everyone to see. This film was introspective towards techno and our love for it. Everything in between is just part of life, something anyone who watches can hopefully relate to.

Enjoy this extra interview with Bryan Kasenic (aka Spinoza/creator of The Bunker weekly in Brooklyn) discussing Minimalism in NYC.

Bryan Kasenic Promotes Minimalism in New York City from sQuare productions on Vimeo.

Special thanks to David Day, Jacki Morisi and Amy Grill for the time and the patience. Speaking In Code is available for purchase now, go get it HERE!

Bad Brains Documentary Trailer

Sam C. — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:00:38 +0000

Punk rock isn’t my bag. But the history behind Bad Brains has intrigued me since I learned about them a few years back. They garnered adulation from legends within the genre and are revered as one of the best bands it had to offer. Bad Brains also shattered expectations as an all black crew that transitioned into the scene and helped usher in its golden age. This documentary doesn’t have a title or a release date yet but don’t fret. Things are wrapping up behind the scenes so keep a lookout for it.

[Via Hypebeast]