Monday, February 05, 2007
"an engagingly surreal stage presence who carries the audience along with his misguided enthusiasm"
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glisten
Reggie Watts and Yungchen Lhamo - 'Pieces'
I've seen performance artist/vocal acrobat/Andy Kaufman award-winning stand-up comedian Reggie Watts perform live three times now and each show has been completely different and completely engaging. Watts' stuff is groundbreaking and non-sequitur filled; his stage persona is random and simultaneously ren-fair emo geeky and spine chillingly soulful.
Today's selection is a more restrained look for Reggie: a duet with talented Tibetan songstress Yungchen Lhamo. 'World In Transition' hails from the recently released album Antibabel, a four-track EP of vocal worldbeat jazz. The music is crafted more for instrument than for voice; Yungchen sings something close to an erhu's part and Reggie beatboxes drums and sings bass and auxilliary strings.
It's been a lovely and enjoyable album for me to relax with for the past week, though it's hardly indicative of Reggie's broader body of work.... so, since I've already got your attention, let's take a closer look at this up-and-coming performer.
Reggie's diverse schtick blends obtuse comedy, beatbox, singing, electronic sampling and improv in a way that's more difficult to explain than it is to show, so why not just explore this video collection of essential Watt-ages before you read further? I can pretty much guarantee you'll be blown away.
- 'Out of Control' - Five minutes of awesome freestyle multi-tracking.
- 'I'm Scrotor' - The best song about a tiny genital-tugging robot you'll hear today.
- Freestyle with Curt Weiss - Riffing on 'War Pigs'
- Live at The Jazz Cafe in London - A nine minute best-of compilation guaranteed to tickle and confuse; featuring the family favorite 'What About Blowjobs'
Buy Antibabel from Poptech.
Fifteen bucks puts it on your stereo. You can even count it as a charitable deduction; the entire purchase price of the album is donated to Machik Inc. "a non-governmental, non-profit organization whose mission is to support innovative strategies that promote the sustainable development and strengthening of local communities in the Himalayan region and neighboring areas".
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Visit Reggie Watts online or at his myspace.
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Reggie's very pro-taping which leads to him linking to an extensive collection of downloadable material both through his own site and on archive.org, which offers solo shows and full-length concerts with his sometime collaborators Soulive and rock/rnb project Maktub... lots of great stuff to explore!
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My New York peeps can see Reggie live next Sunday, February 11 at Comix.
Reggie's recently relocated to NYC and this is his second gig at Comix; he's definitely deserving of an obsessive fan following. Get on the bandwagon early and you get lollipops!
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Visit Yungchen Lhamo's official page, realworld records site and her myspace.
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Read this interview with Yungchen.
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Check out some Yungchen Youtube.
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If you want more beatbox in your life, you should also seek and find Rahzel and Kenny Muhammad; if you're digging the multi-track human orchestra thang, go scope Dokaka and Kid Beyond.
clicky
George Washington's Rules of Civility clearly state "Let your Recreations be Manfull not Sinfull" so I'm going to skip telling you how much I enjoyed Puppy Bowl III and just note instead that while I do love the black man and I do have love for Peyton, I still think Addai shoulda got MVP.
Props also to Prince's spectacular halftime; easily the best since Elvis Presto.
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Becky's Broccoli and Banana Label Collection is very... extensive.
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Looking for new and quality audioblog linkage to explore?
Hut recommendations go to Spabelo-Hi for random oddness and interesting weirdity and Country Universe for a selection of C-Pop WMAs.
On the myspace tip, give a peek to mashup dj emancipator, one-armed Spanish guitarist Andres Godoy and boobie-immortalizer Walt C.
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I love Katamari and I love kids drawing comics, so both together is a no-brainer.
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For a little while, I was seriously considering getting into World of Warcraft, but my girlfriend put her foot down.
While that may mark me as whipped, at least it's stopped me from ever writing anything like this: "I was completely justified in letting your girlfriend know you were flirting with Menah. You think I ruined your life? Well as my idol Obi-Wan Kenobi put it in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, "You have done that yourself." I can't stand !!@@*#%s like you who think you can run around seducing all of the fair skinned Night Elven maidens after you get home from kissing your Mormon girlfriend on the park bench. Somebody has to stand up for the little woman. Unluckily for you, that someone turned out to be me."
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"Squirrel Melts. You MUST try them."
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Running From Camera guy is an international man of mystery.
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I got a letter asking me to astroturf for Melvin Van Peebles and I bit hard on that watermelon. Nice MP3s!
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Mark Leung's Complete College Saga is forty minutes long and (if the image of Aeris dying breaks your widdle heart) undoubtedly worth every second.
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Almost twelve thousand youtube music videos and no Sam Cooke?
They do list Vitalic's Poney though, so I guess all's forgiven.
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Oh so touched to discover flying toaster screensaver lives; I missed it so.
For PC and Mac!
