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Slim Dixon, a.k.a. Cincinnati Slim, a self-described "hillbilly with the blues", comes from Washington C.H., a small town in southern Ohio, between Cincinnati and Columbus.
"My life is a celebration of American music- blues, appalachian country, R&B, folk rock, jazz- and more importantly, a celebration of the soul and the freedom found in love and peace. My life's goal is to bring people together using music, dancing and poetry. These are the sacred languages of the angels, and as the spirits whisper in my ears, I will share their songs with you, for as long as the wind fills my lungs."
Thurs June 26 at 6:30pm
Far from predictable, Apollo Heights flips hip hop programming on its head to make use of the guitar driven feed-back, adding a down south flavor all its own. Influences range from Curtis Mayfield to The Cocteau Twins, Jimi Hendrix to Massive Attack, and pretty much all in between. Apollo Heights have appeared on stage with Oasis, The Pixies, The Cocteau Twins, The Manic Street Preachers, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and most recently completed a U.S. tour with TV on the Radio. After a short tour of Europe the group have still been honing their song craft with guitarist Robin Guthrie of The Cocteau Twins in France. Look for the debute CD/LP on Manimal Vinyl Records this October 2007 titled "White Music for Black People". It will be distributed worldwide through Red Eye USA.
A.O.K! Collective is a collective of emcees, dj's, producers, singers and graphic artists. It is the brainchild of emcee/graphic illustrator "Fresh Daily" who wanted to bring together what he felt was the very best of his peers on the indie scene. Quality control, image branding and brand marketing meets artistic creativity, commercial viability and talent were the ideals that went into the creation of A.O.K Collective. Expect to see high energy performances and a cult-like following of fans at live shows.
(A.O.K STANDS FOR ALL OUT KINGS)
Thurs June 26 at 8:00pm
Watch your candy.Care Bears on Fire are Sophie (guitar/vocals), Izzy (drums), and Lulu (bass). Friends since kindergarten, Sophie and Izzy started playing together with some friends in the 4th grade, covering tunes by bands like The Ramones and The Clash. In 5th grade, they started writing their own songs, getting gigs and calling themselves Care Bears on Fire. In October of 2007, Care Bears on Fire, who've been described as "the love children of Joan Jett and Richard Hell (Metromix)," and "the wiseass kid siblings of Bad Brains (The Miami New Times)" released their first full-length album, I Stole Your Animal. Since that time CBOF has played at SXSW, CMJ, NAMM, has appeared on the Cartoon Network, NPR, Fearless TV and has been featured on the front page of USA Today. The San Francisco Chronicle describes their early American punk sound as "CBGB circa 1975." It is punk meets garage straight out of a Brooklyn basement. And, as Converse says, "…Care Bears on Fire create blistering, rebellious anthems that would make the forefathers of punk proud."
“Shilpa Ray—let's call her what she is, New York City's best frontperson—has added theremin to her harmonium playing, and her vocals remain a killing weapon, a portal to generations of blues singers howling from beyond the grave. -- Time Out NY
Sat June 28 at 4:15pm
In 2003, Brooklyn resident Von Pea teamed up with Cincinnati's Donwill and Ilyas to form Tanya Morgan. Three years later, the group's Moonlighting LP took the rap world by storm, receiving a 3.5 mic rating from The Source and high praise in XXL's Chairman's Choice column. Donwill describes the group's uniqueness and appeal: "Instead of jam-packing our releases with different producers and guest emcees for attention, we carefully choose who we work with because we make it a priority to cultivate our own sound and identity. We look to groups like Eric B and Rakim, who honed their own sound and rarely collaborated with other artists." After a brief hiatus from center stage, the crew is back in 2008 seeking the hip-hop triple crown: the release of a mixtape, EP, and LP, all in the same year. Tanya Morgan has performed with Ghostface Killah and has had videos featured on multiple MTV channels. The Bridge EP is available now on via Bay Area label Interdependent Media.
http://www.myspace.com/tanyamorgan
Sat June 28 at 5:00pm
Solar One and Citysol are proud to present the world premiere of So Percussion’s 16 Words, a contemporary classical work inspired by the 16 words added to the Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary in 2007, on Saturday. In 16 Words, composer Jason Treuting has rendered the words as musical phrases that can be played in a manner that evokes the talking drum traditions of Africa, Indonesia and Cuba, as well as the early American jazz and blues drum styles that were influenced by these older traditions.
The 16 words are: agritourism, aquascape, avian influenza, big-box, biodiesel, gastric bypass, labelmate, manga, mouse potato, polyamory, qigong, ringtone, sandwich generation, spyware, unibrow, and wave pool.
Merriam-Webster’s inclusion of biodiesel in its 2007 inventory underscores our culture’s growing awareness of the importance of renewable energy. It has a serendipitous connection with Solar One’s mission: to promote the use of renewable power and other sustainable practices in the culturally dense urban context of New York City. Jason Treuting’s project for So Percussion resonates deeply with our vision for Citysol, which celebrates cultural innovation and the essential role it is playing in the movement for environmental sustainability.
The world premiere of 16 Words at Citysol is made possible by a grant from the Greenwall Foundation.
About So Percussion:
So is: Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Lawson White. With an audience comprised of "both kinds of blue hair... elderly matron here, arty punk there" (as the Boston Globe described it), So Percussion makes a rare and wonderful breed of music that both compels instantly and offers vast rewards for engaged listening. Edgy (at least in the sense that little other music sounds like this) and ancient (in that people have been hitting objects for eons), perhaps it doesn’t need to be called anything at all.
http://www.myspace.com/theacorn
Sat June 28 at 6:45pm
Burkina Electric is the first electronica band from Burkina Faso, in the deep interior of West Africa. With its main base in the music scene of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital, it is, at the same time, an international band, with members living in New York, U.S.A. and Düsseldorf, Germany, as well as in Ouaga. In Burkina Electric's music, the traditions and rhythms of Burkina Faso meet and mingle with contemporary electronic dance culture, making it a trailblazer in electronic world music. Before starting Burkina Electric in 2004, band members Maï Lingani, Wende K. Blass, Pyrolator, and Lukas Ligeti had become close friends as members of Beta Foly, a group that emerged from a workshop led by Lukas and Pyrolator in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, which, among other experiments, created some of the earliest fusions of techno/trip-hop with African traditional music. The core band consists of four musicians and two dancers, often augmented by guests. Rupert Huber, of the well-known Austrian electronica duo Tosca, collaborates and performs with the group on selected occasions. All songs are composed and choreographed collaboratively by all group members, and the music is directed toward an audience apprecthe songs are built upon ancient rhythms of the Sahel such as the Mossi peoples' Waraba and Ouennenga, little-known even in Africa outside of Burkina. The dancers, whose choreographies meld elements of the traditional and the modern, invite you to discover that these exotic rhythms groove at least as powerfully as disco, house or drum&bass!
Sat June 28 at 7:30pm
The seed of rebellion has taken root. On the frontline stands Blitz the Ambassador. This multi-talented lyricist/producer/film director was born and raised n Ghana. His very first encounter with the emerging sounds of Hip-Hop came with KRS-One’s “The Bridge Is Over”. This early exposure set the tone for what was to become a childhood full of talent shows, MC battles, local radio appearances and homegrown popularity that could only come with the emergence of a young star. Fast forward to Brooklyn, NY: Immersed in the sounds and sights of Hip-Hop’s home, Blitz honed his skills lyrically as an MC. Sick of the mundane “assembly-line” nature of Hip-Hop, Blitz crafted a unique sound, taking cues from such artists as Miles Davis, Fela Kuti, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Common- his unique sound bridges the gap between the soulful sounds of the streets and the ill-nature of politics.
http://www.brassland.org
http://www.cantaloupemusic.com
http://www.digiwaxx.com