February - from me (someone else really) to you...

Emailer: "Yo Mike, where've u been?"

Me: "Maintainin..."

In your face to be the bottleneck & filter that I am...I'm like the Joel McHale of this progressive hip-hop, electronic, indie, other music sh*!...I do it all for yoU!!

Anyway, wanted to showcase some of the fantastic music I've been cranking ("Rotations") and some of the intriguing bits I've come across on the web ("Props Over Here") in these past weeks.

Rotations (February 2010)La Roux - Bulletproof (Eccy remix) (via Laurent @ Rhythm Incursions)
X.O. - Hands Up (via DJ Eurok @ Upset the Setup)
Goapele - Milk & Honey (AYBEE's Gorilla Trunk Slap mix) (via Goapele)

Props Over Here (February 2010)"A Little Discography Lesson..." (via Kev Brown)
"Big Pun Dedication" (via Dirty Waters)
"Mixtape: Bounce for Relief Vol. 2" (via Noz @ Blunt Rapps)

Indeed...

A couple few years ago (it was Thanksgiving time...so just a little over 2 years ago actually) my homie Gavin asked me to put together a mix for his show on XM where we were both working at the time...me hosting Pitch Control and he hosting In-DEED. Good times for sure.

Anyway, since I was digging deep for music all the time for my weekly show, I definitely had some tricks up my sleeve and I opted to put together a live mini-mix to demonstrate a little bit of what my show was all about, but as well, to put my own personal DJing touch on it since my role on Pitch Control was moreso selector than actual DJing DJ. Soooo, with my recently-purchased Serato setup, I pressed record and set it off like this...



Wondermike - In-DEED mix
1. Netik - Synthesiz
2. GB - The Black Monolith feat. Ricci Rucker
3. Lorn - Another Mistake
4. Justin Timberlake
5. 2tall & Lamont
6. DJ Alibi - Guns of Kabul

It took me a few times thru to record it straight live, but I like the way it turned out. And who else is rocking Lorn next to Justin Timberlake like that too by the way?!?!? But let me know what you think...maybe I'm a little high on myself.

Do check out some of these cats' respective catalogs. I picked each of these tunes for a reason...Netik is a sick DJ...GB has a beautiful sound...Lorn is crazy with his (though I haven't heard anything lately from him?)...2tall is certainly a favorite of longstanding...and my dude Alibi is yet another talent from north of the border who is if nothing else consistent (but I'll add, also a great talent.)

P.S. one of the staple programs of satellite radio, and some friends of mine, Subsoniq were just recently pulled from the airwaves after 7-8 years of running things in terms of progressive and dope Hip-Hop music. Check them out and speak up to the powers that be...the world needs radio like Subsoniq!!

Cut Chemist on Pitch Control

I had a lot of fun hosting Pitch Control on XM for the few years or so that I got to do it, and one of the best things about the whole deal was getting to meet some of my favorite DJs, producers, etc. It's been more than a year since I stopped hosting the show, but I wanted to share some of the highlights from the archives since this stuff is fairly timeless (at least, in my opinion!) One experience that was real dope was when Cut Chemist came thru town on tour to support his debut solo record 'The Audience's Listening' a couple years back. Going into our meeting, most of what I knew of Cut was through his work with J5, but as a DJ, I was up to speed on some of the other stuff he's done as well. All that aside, I can't begin to say how cool of a cat he is and how enjoyable it was to speak with a dude who loves music as much as he does. We spoke for more than an hour, but for broadcast I had to trim it down a bit, and below is what resulted...



Pitch Control with Cut Chemist (from 01-27-08)
"Intro / Timbaland on dust…the dopest duo ever…"
Cut Chemist - Storm feat. Lif and Edan
"Virtuoso in rhythm instruments…everything's extreme, the bad and the good…"
Cut Chemist - The Garden
"I hated it, anything but that…so organic but mathematical at the same time"
Ozomatli - Eva
"Big ups to B+ man…"
Keepintime - Live suite
"Still some of the most talented people I've worked with..."
Jurassic 5 - Jayou
"He was equally influenced by Lesson 6…"
Cut Chemist - Spat
Kid Koala - Stompin' at le Sevoi
"An exhilarating feeling…Private Press was so him, and this is good too"
DJ Shadow - This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)
DJ Shadow - Building Steam with A Grain of Salt
"I haven't felt this positive about music I don't think since the 80's"
Gorillaz - Dirty Harry
"Outro / It only gets weirder from here…"

(more setlists and Pitch Control ish at www.myspace.com/pitchcontrol)

Shout out to the homie Cut Chemist for being such a great guest, not to mention such an inspiration and amazing talent. Peace man!

Also, gotta shout out the dude Nocturnal Ron, whose instrumental albums I always used to raid for music beds for Pitch Control!!! Whattup Ron!

Dear Santa...

All I want for Christmas