Not Drugs – Art, Graffiti, Music and Culture for the Almost Grown-Up

Germans. Americans. SEX EVERYWHERE!

Actually there wasn’t that much sex in Inglorious Basterds.  I mean, given the high-tension espionage scenes, blood-thirsty Nazi-killers, drop-dead-doable French goddess Mélanie Laurent………..

Oh my good god--dess.

…you’d think there’d be more sex thrown into the mix. Maybe some Brad Pitt ass for the ladies?

I saw the movie last week and I was definitely hoping for a little more sex. Maybe a boobie? No? Ok, well then we’ll just have to settle for wonderfully graphic Nazi scalpings with dull blades, a shit load of guns, and Brad Pitt (Lt. Aldo Raine) perfecting a special kind of body-mod artistry.

On the topic of Brad Pitt–he has redeemed himself in the mind’s of those of us that would have rather ripped out our hair strand-by-strand upon the two-and-a-half hour mark into Benjamin Button and taken our hand out of our mouth on which we had been gnawing on our thumb bone out of pained boredom for the past hour in order to check our watches only to realize that there was still another half-an-hour to go! (The same sort of redemption Johnny Depp now owes his fans after Public Enemy committed the crime of “why is this movie not over yet?”).

Back to Inglorious Basterds:

As far as wads of phlegm go, Christoph Waltz (Col. Hans Landa) is as funny as a Nazi-slime-monster can be.

Christoph Waltz plays one great piece of shit.

If you’ve nerded-out and read the script before catching the flick, you’ll find that it’s a little different.  The interracial intimacy in the Nazi-occupied France is implied between Jacky Ido (Marcel the handy man, man–hand–y quiero mis manos cerca de Mélanie Laurent ahora!) and Melanie Laurent (Shoshanna Dreyfus)………

…..sssaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh….Mélanie Laurent…..

I don't care what had to die for her dress, it was worth it.

Anyway, here’s the thing: Inglorious Basterds kicks ass! I’m serious. If it has ever been your dream to use Hitler’s body like my dog uses a dead bird’s corpse…

A damn good dog.

…then check out this film; the best feel-good movie that Quentin Tarantino could conjure up in the dark, vengeful, bottomless pit of human body parts and intriguing conversation that composes QT’s twisted mass of gilded tissue; what doctors hesitate to call a human brain.

Here’s the trailer:

If you do not see Inglorious Basterds, you’re just as bad as Hitler. And for that: shame on you.

And now it’s like a cheap joke.  A fad reminiscent of an unintentional movement.  I remember when you saw somebody rocking a flat brim hat, they were either a thug or…well, that was it, wasn’t it?  Now, in my twenty-second year, I see little preteen girls rocking Yankee flats or Dodger flats everywhere I go in Los Angeles.  It’s no longer a cool style to have.  It’s a common thing…a regular.  And this is both good and bad.

Good because not everyone that wants to look hip is, in fact, a thug.

Bad because there’s just no room for originality anymore.  I rock a Boston Red Sox hat.  I did when I was 3.  I will when I’m 50.  However, everywhere I go, somebody’s has a flat that’s much fresher, flyer, and off the wall than mine.  Picking a hat out is a hassle these days.

So, I’ve narrowed it down to some options.  Any help with these would be much appreciated:

Green? Maybe.

Black. Deadly.

Blue & Red. Classic & Hood.

ALSO, dig on some cuts I’ve been meaing to bump on the site for a while now, courtesy of Not Drugs’s new favorite site, Songza.

This is going to be short because the video pretty much speaks for itself. There’s some sort of end coming, tomorrow, July 25th, 2009. After tomorrow, who knows what’s in store for us, you, and we, as a people.

But the video below is also a beginning. It’s as close to a definition for what we, Not Drugs, is about.

So come celebrate the end of an era, tomorrow, if you are around the Ithaca area.

212 Giles, Apartment 8, is where everything collides.

But don’t worry. Not Drugs is just starting to blast off.

Enjoy.

Not Drugs presents Summer Madness from notdrugs on Vimeo.

This is me almost at the peak of Algonquin, the second highest peak in the Adirondack mountain range in upstate New York.

This is where I contemplated for 2 days on what to do with me and NotDrugs.com, and how I could contribute.

One of the things I decided to do, which I will do now, is to inform you of ill tracks that I come across in hopes that you, then, can tell your friends about these catchy little diddies you heard on NotDrugs.com, and then they can tell their friends, and so on and so on.

That’s how hype builds. NotDrugs hype. And I’m the Hypeman.

This track is a new one from Reflection Eternal. Yes, they’re back and sick as always; Talib Kweli on the mic and Hi-Tek bringing the beats. The song is called “Back Again”, because, well, they’re back…again.

Check it:

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Reflection Eternal, Back Again

And you all know how I love music videos

Radio Show will be posted here soon; pinky swear.

DWB

Reasons Beck Kicks Ass #875 & 876:

#875: Beck has recently revamped his website to include a project called Record Club.  Record Club is a collective of musicians led by Beck to cover and record an entire album in a single day.  For those of you with no musical background or knowledge, this is incredibly hard to do.  Beck, however, has an innate ability to make the difficult seem effortless.

Below you’ll find some of the first releases of Record Club, in which Beck and a few other musicians and actors(including long-time Radiohead producer Nigel Goodrich) got together to cover The Velvet Underground’s “The Velvet Undergound & Nico“.

#876: Beck has recently started releasing acoustic cuts of his songs from his last album, 2008’s “Modern Guilt“.  Check those out below, as well.

Besides these, check out more at Beck’s website.

Stay Up.

Record Club(Beck/various musicians) Covers:

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico ‘Sunday Morning’ from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico ‘Waiting for My Man’ from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico “Femme Fatale” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Beck’s Acoustic Tracks From “Modern Guilt”

Modern Guilt Acoustic “Gamma Ray” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

This is huge. It’s like when I found out about Pandora. Seriously, everybody go to Songza.com. Don’t even finish this post, just go.

It’s a completely searchable (and playable) database of every song ever.

Aside from having the cleanest, easiest access to every song that is stuck in my head, and from playing the top video related to the song, wanna know the best part of this?

Yea, it gets better.

You know that Google search box you’ve got in that upper right corner of Firefox that 56% (I’m on to you.) of you guys use? Yup, you can search for any song from the toolbar in your browser.

There’s a Firefox extension for Songza.

Your life just got a little bit better.

When I first decided I wanted to attempt to master the art of video production, I believed that music videos would be the apex of my creative output. Music mixed with fast paced video editing, short form storylines, and colors, colors, colors.

As you can see now, by the ways of MTV and VH1, and even Fuse, MTV2, MTVU, and all other MTV affiliates, music videos aren’t the apex of anything anymore. Even when I went to the City of Angels and tried my best to get internships with a self-described “music video and commercial production company”, they told me during my interview that music videos were out the window and are worthless to production companies.

Worthless? I think Not.

Exhibit A – This music video, directed by Nabil, almost gave me the impression that Kanye’s “808s and Heartbreaks” could have actually been a good album and that I was just missing something. I went back and listened to the album two or three more times before I realized the music video was just that amazing and made me hesitate about my initial true beliefs.

(The video is purposely over-pixeled, don’t adjust your screens)

But an artist by the name of P.O.S. is really raising himself into a different class because of his music videos.

This former anti-hip hop, pro-punk musician from Minneapolis, now founding member of the hip hop group Doomtree, and label mate of Slug (of Atmosphere) on his Rhymesayers Entertainment, P.O.S., just released his third full length album, “Never Better“, and with it, two visually elite videos.

The first, “Optimist (We Are Not for Them)”, starts with an absurd beat using plastic cups and clapping, and then it takes you for a pretty sick ride. Check it:

And, just recently, P.O.S. released his second video off of “Never Better” for “Purexed”. It includes some ill stop motion and depth tricks. Go! Go! Go! :

So I don’t know what this woman was saying when she stated to me that music videos were worthless. These two, actually three videos, are, to me, worth more than most people give them credit for.

I say we, as a people, bring back the Music Video as an accredited art form and not just as a stupid marketing tool used by rappers solely to sell, sell, sell.

And just for kicks, here’s a video I even had the pelasure of seeing back in late 2007 even before it debuted on the interweb in early 2008 (I’m just that damn cool).

P.S. This is a plug, for me, but will benefit the life of anyone who listens to it. My radio show on WICB, this past Saturday Night. I’ll have it for you on this site very soon. Keep checking for it in the next couple of days. I promise, no regrets.

DWB.

Before I get into a small history lesson, I’d just like to push this interesting piece a college friend of mine did about an “abortion party” he went to from alternet.org.  His name’s Byard Duncan and this is really C-O-O-L.

Come on, guys.

This is The Roots.  The Legendary Foundation…if you will.

They are one of the most ground-breaking and influential bands of my generation.  They hail from South Philadelphia, one of the rougher parts of Philly.  While the line-up has altered over time, The Roots crew’s core consist of Black Thought, their MC, and ?uestlove, their drummer.

Now, in case you’re not in the know, and I don’t think Jimmy Fallon is, Black Thought is arugably one of the most underrated lyricist of the past two decades.  It’s hard to rap.  It harder to rap with a live band.  Yet, he continually makes it seem effortless.

?uestlove, on the other hand, is not underrated.  ?uestlove is one of the premier drummers and muscians of the 2oth and 21st century.  To work with ?uest is to work with greatness, whether you know who he is or not.  He has played with, worked with, helped or influenced what I would refer to as monsters: Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, D’Angelo, Music Soulchild, Cody Chesnutt, Christian McBride.  He is considered a musical genius and top dog in his field.

So, why do they work with this guy?

This guy? Really?

It truly makes me very upset to watch them on the show sometimes.  I don’t really have anything against Jimmy Fallon.  I don’t really have anything for him either.  However, I am kind of offended when I see them on there.  The Roots should not be the house band for Jimmy Fallon.  Jimmy Fallon should be…how do I put this…nowhere near The Roots.  It’s like having The Rolling Stones be the house band for Jimmy Kimmel: S-T-U-P-I-D.

Or is that just me?

WATCH MCA ANNOUNCE IT HERE.

Have you heard this?  I mean…22…ok I’m not THAT old, but I have felt like I’ve been getting out of touch with stuff lately.

However, isn’t this a sign that you’re getting there…when you’re boyhood heros start getting sick and old and your heart jumps when you think they might be in trouble? Adrock, MCA, and Mike D have been making my head nod since birth….I honestly can’t imagine the world without the Beastie Boys.

Luckily, he’s gonna’ be ok…but it’s scary for any artists…especially after MJ.

Enjoy your days. One.

The Men

I’d like to introduce you to Gregg Luskin aka The Milkman.

He makes mashups. They’re layered interestingly, inventively (tempo flip ups; throwbacks; wide sample selection) and dynamic as all hell.

Is his stuff like other mashers? I don’t think so. They tend to be single tracks mashups, as opposed to whole album flowing pieces.

Does he just like, take the beat from some hip hop jam and the vocals from an angry chick song, and make an almost OK mix? Not at all.

Milkman’s mashes are like ancient masonry, where oblong snippets fit together in an unexpected but sound, strong and catchy manner.

Tell me about him: fine.

He’s a junior at UC Santa Barbara studying computer science. He works on a MacBook Pro.

Where can I download his stuff? On his site: MilkmanMusic.net.

Does he charge for it? Yes. (the new stuff at least)

Wait, what? Yes. He charges for mashups. I don’t get it either.

Is he going to be around for a while? Probably, the guy seems to have his head on his shoulders. And is business savvy, having spoken about building a production company.

So can I check him out? Of course!

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Dreams

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And If…

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Trial & Error